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Natural
Resistance: Crossing Divides: It is a time to love beyond borders.
Editorial:
Study History: Crisis and continuance.
Viewpoint:
The Snubbed Class: Mauling the rights of young citizens downtown.
Living Out: One World: Even during mourning we can celebrate
our community and our connection.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Crossing Divides:
It is a time
to love beyond borders.
Sept. 10, 4 am, Idaho. A wolf howled as Orion lay glittering on his enormous
side in the black sky, above the meadow's black spruce border. This had been a lifetime
dream of mine: to hear a wolf call in its own, wild lands.
The wolf was almost certainly a member of the so-called Chamberlain
Pack that works, plays, and raises young in the wild Chamberlain Basin of northern
Idaho. But only recently. After wolves were entered onto the list of U.S. endangered
species, the Idaho Legislature forbade Idaho Department of Fish and Game from reintroducing
wolves to Idaho. The Nez Perce Tribe stepped into Idaho's Euro-American void, saying
they would accept responsibility for wolf reintroduction, because they felt connections
with the wolf. The response of wolves has been joyful.
Sept. 11, 6 am, Idaho. People were dying in New York, Washington,
D.C., and Pennsylvania as I was making my way down to the Salmon River through dawn
and grasses of a 1,000-foot slope. I didn't hear these 6,000 people dying. I didn't
hear them phoning. But they did make a connection with all of us.
Sept. 24, Boston. A chemicals policy strategy meeting has
brought toxics reform activists from around the country. These activists are not
mentioning other species. When I question this, they say the people among whom they
organize care about humans. The cover of one organization's pamphlet features American
children's hands. The organizer says she wants to distance her campaign from people
advocating for endangered species, because some people don't like that.
A memory appears in my mind from five years earlier: A large black-and-white
photo of a newly-hatched shorebird, standing to face the water's edge. I had been
watching and liking the photo, when I suddenly noticed that the little shorebird
had no eyes. It had been born, an American child, among California's Central Valley
farming toxics. There are many ways to not see.
Sept. 25, Washington, D.C. On an airport TV, a man is talking
about the brother he lost while I was hiking down that Idaho slope. Photos of his
smiling, happy brother are being displayed. I think, what would happen to war if
people from a country we were bombing could talk with us each night on TV, about
the brother, the child, the girlfriend they had just lost? They would show us photos
of their loved ones on their birthday, standing by a lake, smiling.
What would happen to our toxics campaigns if we acknowledged that
wolves and shorebirds are our brothers?
There are things we must draw upon in our country right now:
A differentiated imagination. Author-therapist James Hillman
refers to this as polytheism, the imagination of many gods. Imagining from the other
side of divides. Watching ourselves from an Afghan desert, an Idaho forest basin,
a Central Valley wetland. Knowing there are multiple kinds of evil, and there are
many ways to be terrorists.
Our gut knowledge that everyone is connected. We are connected
to the feelings of people in an Afghan desert and a shorebird who cannot see. We
are connected to giant buildings and wolves. We are connected to poverty that devours
hope and consumption that devours life. We are connected to the disappearance, the
extinction of every being. We are connected to the ways we love, and to those we
have forgotten to love.
A will to speak out and act on the basis of history and
ecology. The history of America as written by an Idaho wolf, a Palestinian youth,
a child who lost a parent Sept. 11. The ecology of hope and violence. The ecology
of world trade and wetlands. The history of being composed of both stardust and microorganisms.
The history and ecology of how all these are connected.
It is not a time to forget history and ecology. It is not a time
to fail to hear those who live across any divide, because they are calling. It is
a time to love beyond borders.
One world, indivisible, for all: wolves, shorebirds, Arabic people,
Native Americans, Euro-Americans, and spruce.
Mary O'Brien has worked as a public interest scientist for the
past 20 years. Her new book, Making Better Environmental Decisions: An Alternative
to Risk Assessment, has been published by The MIT Press. She can be reached at mob@efn.org
Back to Top
Study History
This week we are devoting nearly twice as much space as
usual to our letters to the editor section. We want to show how many ways there are
of looking at peace, war, patriotism and anger at this time of crisis. No one has
all the answers, but in open dialogue we can educate ourselves and demand of our
leaders that they make rational decisions, keeping in mind the best interests of
all the people of the planet.
War has been unleashed on Afghanistan, a country the size of Texas
and already suffering horribly from hunger, disease, homelessness and internal terrorism.
Will we be successful in overthrowing the Taliban, restoring a benevolent government,
and rebuilding the Afghanistan economy? Only if we can put together a coalition of
nations in support of long-term reconstruction and development.
Will we be successful in preventing future attacks on U.S. soil
and on U.S. interests abroad? The best we can hope for is that we are able to minimize
the retaliation we face. The worst-case scenario is beyond comprehension.
This is an excellent time to study U.S. and world history in order
that we avoid, as much as possible, repeating the mistakes of the past, and we've
made plenty -- misplacing priorities, arming and financing the wrong people, bombing
the wrong buildings, burying land mines that kill and maim civilians for generations,
poisoning the environment by bombing chemical plants, relying on sloppy intelligence,
abandoning our friends, satanizing our enemies and exaggerating our successes. Oversimplifying
complex issues. Quashing truth and civil rights under the guise of national security.
We're in for a long and painful period as our destiny unfolds.
Let's keep our eyes wide open, question everything, and pray for peace and justice.
* * *
Meanwhile, let's not get distracted from the vital issues
that surround us here in Eugene. The battle over the siting of the new Sacred Heart
Medical Center is not over. Regardless of where the hospital builds, huge land use
and transportation issues remain unresolved and deserve our close attention. A key
vote is coming up Nov. 6 on whether to proceed with the West Eugene Parkway, a decision
with broad implications for local development and transportation. Cell phone towers
are popping up like weeds all over our valley with potential serious health risks
for people nearby. Coburg Power is positioning itself to build a giant generating
plant north of Eugene that would affect our air quality and water resources. The
new federal building will likely bring big changes to downtown Eugene and our relationship
to the Willamette River. And Eugene faces economic uncertainties that should make
us re-examine where we direct our limited resources.
* * *
This issue includes our second Annual Manual, EW's
magazine that takes our ever-popular "Best of Eugene" issue to new heights.
We believe this magazine represents, like no other publication, the character of
Eugene -- the art, intellect, social conscience, politics and taste of this unique
and multi-faceted community.
Our thanks go to all of you who took the time to fill out our ballots
during June and July, choosing your favorite restaurants, bookstore, bike path, music
club, bodyworker, school principal, artist, and dozens of others in more than 90
categories.
The Annual Manual also lists thousands of items of useful
information gathered from hundreds of sources, along with web sites and e-mail addresses
that cannot be found anywhere else. Keep it by your phone book and computer. As the
year goes by and information changes, we will update our on-line version of the Annual
Manual at eugeneweekly.com
An extra 9,000 magazines were printed this year for distribution
year-round to motels, hotels, restaurants, UO, Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, real
estate agents and visitor centers up and down the coast and as far north as Portland.
Let's promote Eugene, not as a place to build polluting factories, but as a center
for education, arts, free expression, sports, new ideas and sustainable enterprise.
-- TJT
Back to Top
The Snubbed Class
Mauling the rights of
young citizens downtown.
Something smells on the downtown mall, and it is not the kids --
mall rats, as they are called by some locals. Maybe the city fathers (mothers), business
people, and the police think of them this way. Jesus! What an odious name to give
someone. I know my rats, having been brought up with them on the East Coast as a
kid, and believe me, these kids are not rats; they are full members of Eugene society.
Some of the aforementioned "old heads" seem to be mauling the freedom and
the rights of these young people to assemble on the mall. This constitutional right
is the cornerstone of our society.
The malaise that these young people exhibit is troubling, and yet
they are beautiful kids. Even the baby boomers, some who were called hippies, ought
to be in favor of these young people's rights. "Eugene sucks," says Tim,
19, while another says, "Hey man, Oregon is beautiful." They both laugh.
An older mall person approaches us. "Anybody want to buy some glass pipes?"
"They're only $4, and the stores charge $12." Boy, you can't beat American
capitalism, even in the young. The salesman moves on, thinking that I am The Man.
More kids pass by me. Some have on dirty clothes, others sport
today's new rags -- $150 Nikes, pants from The Gap, and shirts from Banana
Republic -- all corporations that should have stores located in downtown Eugene instead
of Valley River Center. What does a small town like Eugene need with a suburban mall
in the first place? The most hideous thing I've seen since returning to America from
Europe has been these malls. Malls have killed the downtown areas of many cities
across the U.S. The Grateful Dead city fathers should rethink their plans in the
future.
It's a sunny September day. We're sitting outside Taco Time, where
they are open "any time," so say their ads for this American cuisine. Some
of the kids appear to be homeless, but most of them don't have anything to do --
no jobs and no education. What's up? City Councilman David Kelly says to me, "For
the better part, these are good kids. It is only a minority that does bad things,
but the perception of people who seldom come to the mall is negative." Across
the street is an empty square that could be used for afternoon entertainment, concessionaires,
and an artist or two, making interactive sculptures for the public. Jobs and businesses
have to be created for the downtown mall. This is the job of the politicians, not
the kids.
When they have these jobs and education, maybe these young people
can enjoy some cambazola fondue, or red pepper hummus down the mall at Adam's Place
(the fat cats only enter at 3 pm). A bicycle policeman stops in front of us, and
stares. Just looking at us is intimidating. No one needs to be told to move on. "Man,
I don't know why the police bother these kids," says a wheelchair-bound black
man who is a panhandler. He is dressed neatly and has on a pineapple hat. He's an
old head, 65 years old by white people's perception, but probably 80 by black people's
knowledge.
He is a traveler and has somehow come to the end of the road, here
in Eugene. Like many elderly black men, he is a philosopher. Today he is thinking
about the economy. "Man, they've taken another $35 from my SSI check. You see
what happens when the Republicans get elected?" A member of the guilty rich
stuffs a dollar bill in his paper cup. At the Broadway Market, I'm wishing for the
pate' maison burgundy, the quiche, and the Genoa salami. I'm just as broke
as the kids. The illusion of a classless society is just that, as I look at a young
affluent man sitting outdoors at Cafe Paradiso reading James Elroy's The
Big Nowhere. Let's hope that these kids are going somewhere.
Jerry Harris is a Eugene sculptor and writer. His work can be seen
at the UO's EMU, McMillan Gallery through Oct.11.
Back to Top
One World
Even during mourning
we can celebrate
our community and our connection.
We interrupt this column to bring you a special report. Anybody
wondering if there's a unique lesbian take on the events of Sept. 11 will be pleased
to know that, in fact, lesbians are to blame. Yep, according to the dubiously-reverend
Jerry Falwell himself, it's our fault. No need to smoke out terrorist enclaves and
training grounds across the globe, it all happened right here. Lesbians made God
mad at the United States.
I really believe that pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists,
and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle,
the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize
America -- I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen,"
says Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson on "The 700 Club," Sept. 13.
Bad enough communities are splitting between cries for swift military retaliation
and pleas for peace. Along with the hawks and the doves, the dodo birds have now
taken to the skies.
How brilliant do you have to be to recognize terrorism as a hate
crime? As a lesbian and a Jew I know what terrorism feels like. I've been personally
targeted with hate letters and death threats. But, as our Palestinian friend said
in the wake of last week's disaster, "I don't feel personal fear. I feel collective
fear." That's what terrorism does. When people are hated for who they are, everyone
in that group feels vulnerable and is terrified of what else is in store.
When lesbians are shot point blank in their tent, you never want
to go camping again and you look over your shoulder before you take your lover's
hand in public. When a disco in Israel is blown up, Jews around the world feel threatened.
With the huge tragedy on the East Coast, the whole country feels attacked and fears
what might happen next. It's all based on hate.
The way I cope is to connect with people. Thank goodness I had my writers group
that morning so we could share our raw, instinctual responses to watching the planes
crash into the World Trade Center. And how I appreciated having my Jewish study group
that evening to sort out our reactions to the day's unfolding. I am so thankful that
my being a lesbian is not an issue in either of those settings. I am out and accepted
for who I am and don't have to worry about letting my guard down.
That's why Wifey and I went to the Eugene Celebration. We go every
year and it felt important to get out and see people. We unfolded our chairs next
to our friends' colorful blankets along the parade route. We were in a sea of lesbian
families, some old neighbors and lots of people I hadn't met before.
Little kids swarmed around us. Humanity. What a relief to get away
from the TV for a while, to stop staring at rubble and tragedy and white male newscasters
with bad hair.
A 5-year-old friend sat on my lap for the whole parade, her two
moms and her sister on the curb in front of us. We waved our rainbow streamers at
the marching band and the Slug Queen and all the silly, playful groups that give
our town its character. We cheered for P-Flag's "Rainbow of Love" and for
all the "Peace," "One Planet," and "One World" signs.
We gave an ovation to the international flags.
My little pal shouted "Lookit! There's a dragon! And another
one! And another one!" Her innocent happiness and excitement reminded me of
how important it is for us all to be here for the kids, doing something fun together,
celebrating life. Even during these days of mourning and heavy hearts we can celebrate
our community and our connection to each other. We remind each other of our connection
to the whole world. Dodo birds and all.
Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community since 1972
and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy troupe. Her column, which began at EW, also
runs in several other newspapers around the country.
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Affluent
Addictions
The question I find myself asking about the carefully coordinated suicide strikes
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is: "What have we done to invoke
such a determined attack on our financial, military and political power?" Answering
this question is crucial to removing the weeds of reprisal that we cultivate through
our political, military, monetary, intelligence and trade policies.
Our collective shock and surprise at these recent violent events
seems proportional to our unwillingness to see how addictive choices we make daily
create our policies and project our power around the planet. If the only thing we
will change is increased airport security, then we can expect different shocks and
surprises to appear in a fearfully violent, less harmonious future.
No amount of "war on terrorism" spending on intelligence,
security, military responses, political or financial retaliations can accomplish
what we can with a deeper change in our attitudes, thinking and lifestyle. We must
create trends toward smaller houses, smaller cars, smaller businesses, less consumption,
greater cultural/religious understanding, less fear of "them" while moving
away from our affluent addictions, quick solutions, "corporatocracy" and
need for a revenge fix.
Enough of wars on terrorism or anything else! Together let's try
doing something creative and different, some deep thinking and changing in our spending
and voting choices. We must courageously change what we can, realistically accept
what we can't change and pray for the wisdom to know the difference.
Ethen Perkins
Eugene
Daily Suffering
The tragic loss of life and wanton destruction caused by
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 has raised my consciousness of other global tragedies.
Every day, 24,000 people worldwide die of hunger for lack of grains
and legumes that are fed to animals raised for food. Another 18,000 die of chronic
diseases linked conclusively with the consumption of these animals.
Every day, 125 million innocent, sentient animals are butchered,
frequently still conscious, after a lifetime of caging, crowding, and deprivation
in the world's factory farms. For every human being who dies of warfare, crime or
terrorism, 10,000 animals die a violent death.
This is why, on Oct. 2 (Ghandi's birthday), I observed World Farm
Animals Day, launched 18 years ago to expose and memorialize the daily human and
animal suffering wrought by the relentless international network of animal agriculture.
I asked my friends and neighbors to help alleviate this suffering by reducing their
consumption of animal products.
Edward Wilson
Eugene
Testing
Times
I am writing this letter in sadness and fear. I wish to
start by sending my love to those survivors of lost loved ones. I am thinking and
praying for you and all of us.
I understand the desire to come together as a nation. We most certainly
should stand as one in mourning and muster our strength in helping those in need.
But to forcibly say we better come together to retaliate in revenge upon innocent
peoples is very, very wrong.
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Letter From Vietnam
To friends and relatives in Eugene Sept. 25: Funny
how nothing that happened before Sept. 11 now seems at all newsworthy. I had been
planning a long letter catching you all up on our summer travels and latest adventures
since returning to Hanoi, and now it all seems so trivial.
My brother John and his wife, Nancy, have just been evacuated from
Pakistan. They have been teaching at the American School in Lahore for the past two
years, but after a week of nervous assessment of the emerging situation, the school
decided to pull out all of its American teachers, at least for a month. There was
never any threat against the school or the teachers, but it was obviously a prudent
call. I myself watched a CNN piece shot in Lahore interviewing the man on the street,
and there was zero sympathy for the American position.
We've been more or less glued to CNN since watching the bombings
-- that's how I think about them -- live on TV two weeks ago. Those images -- the
planes slicing into the buildings and then the buildings disintegrating -- are surely
burned into memory forever. What live televised moments are there in recent history
to rival them? I can only recall a few -- Kennedy's assassination, Jack Ruby shooting
Lee Harvey Oswald, Neil Armstrong taking the first step on the moon, atrocities from
the Vietnam war -- napalm victims, a burning monk, the on-camera execution of a suspected
Viet Cong.
What has moved me most in the last two weeks? Imagining the sheer
terror felt by those in the airplanes and the tall buildings who knew they were going
down. The pictures of tiny people clinging to windows in the uppermost stories of
the Towers and of bodies raining down like rag dolls. The memorial service in St.
Paul's Cathedral in London, angelic choir boys and thousands of Englishmen singing
American hymns. Neil Young singing John Lennon's Imagine and Paul Simon singing
Bridge Over Troubled Waters on last weekend's memorial concert.
I have been heartened to see the outpouring of calls to peace balancing
those of calls to war. Yes, poignant shades of the '60s to us aging hippies.
The reaction from Vietnam to the Sept. 11 tragedy has been a muted
one. There were initial expressions of sympathy from colleagues and officials as
high as the president. But official Vietnam right now is seething with anger over
a bill that is now pending in the U.S. Congress -- the Vietnam Human Rights Act.
This was a bill that passed the House the same day a few weeks ago as the one approving
the new Vietnam trade agreement. Calling for reduced U.S. economic assistance to
Vietnam unless it improves its human rights record, it was intended to give anti-Communist
conservatives a cover for voting for the trade agreement.
It has never been expected to pass the Senate, but that fact has
been lost on the Vietnamese and the bill has inflamed the Vietnamese government.
You can imagine why. It includes the following:
"The government of Vietnam denies the people of Vietnam the
right to change their government and prohibits independent political, social, and
labor organizations ... consistently pursues a policy of harassment, discrimination,
and intimidation, and sometimes of imprisonment and other forms of detention, against
those who peacefully express dissent ..."
That's not exactly music to the ears of the Politburo. So they
have been striking back, with a massive orchestrated public relations campaign. Here's
just one sample from the daily outpouring of protest in the media:
From Senior Lt. Gen. Tran Van Quang, president of the Vietnam War
Veterans Association, says:
"We strongly condemn the so-called Vietnam Human Rights Act
by the U.S. House of Representatives for its perversity, unfriendliness, and brutal
violation of Vietnam's sovereignty by unwanted interference in its internal affairs.
It reminds people of the ugly image of the war against Vietnam ... The U.S. imperialists
sent more than half a million soldiers to invade Vietnam, used different kinds of
weapons, including chemical weapons, killed millions of Vietnamese people hoping
to crush the aspirations for independence, and forced the Vietnamese people to be
their slaves. These are the imperialists who committed genocidal crimes in My Lai
... dropped bombs on densely populated residential areas including Kham Thien Street
in Hanoi ... sprayed millions of kg of dioxin injuring tens of thousands of people
and affecting many later generations. More than 25 years after the war, millions
of people and war veterans are still suffering from their after-effects. Such imperialists
have no status to speak about freedom, democracy, and human rights in Vietnam."
That gives you the general flavor of the external context we're
working in right now; the Vietnamese are not in a very cooperative mood. Around the
Embassy, Sept. 11 has meant a new round of security briefings and crisis management
exercises.
Despite the stress and anxiety of the past two weeks, Elliot and
Chloe are settling back into school, and Laurel is plunged into an information technology
project. Life would seem quite good, if only the rest of the world didn't seem to
be unraveling around us.
Mark Rasmuson
& Laurel Elmer
Hanoi
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In times of deepest sorrow and despair comes the test of our beliefs
and morals. This is truly a test for the U.S. to be leaders of freedom, democracy
and justice for all. We cannot condone killing even one innocent person. If we do,
in my opinion we have sunk to the level of our attackers. When one of our own citizens
(Timothy McVeigh) committed his horrendous deed did we call for the killing of his
entire neighborhood or state? Please do not blindly follow the loud call for vengeance.
I beg of you my neighbors, please "speak your truth even if your voice shakes!"
Let your love speak as loudly as your anger.
"You are not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that
you cannot face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it."
-- Malcom X, 1965
Timothy Boyden
Eugene
So Don't
Ride
Lezlie Frye stated that she is "outraged" that
LTD displays our flag in a public place. A bus. Two words: Don't ride!
Is she afraid that non-Americans will be offended while riding?
Obviously she is and it's her choice. Ms. Frye states that the flags are 'highly
politically charged imagery." Sound's like the writer is the "highly politically
charged" one. Then mentions LTD did not exercise "critical analysis"
before displaying the flag. What the hell does that mean? Yet another in-depth study
with bean-counters and Ph.D. discussing the subject for months. "Let's see,
if we put a green flag 4 no, wait 4 that could be mistaken for a Christmas tree 4
I mean a holiday tree." My word, get a life.
Thinkers like Ms. Frye are partially responsible for the complacent
attitudes that led to the attack on Sept. 11th. This would not have happened if the
country wasn't so damned afraid of offending Americans and non-Americans, of all
cultures.
I was in Southeast Asia from 1961 to 1963. I did not see our flag
as a political icon. Not until I came back home and saw it dragged through the dirt.
Ms. Frye is obviously exercising her right to voice her political view, because
of the flag that offends her. As I am about to. Pacifists will always have their
freedom from war because they allow others to do their fighting for them.
Colin Campbell
Eugene
Peace and
Conflict
Everything retains the possibility of opposition, and the
contrary to peace most certainly lies in the dominion of conflict. There are certain
conditions that are necessary to create a tangible state of peace.
Among these preconditions are the respect for life, the environment
and an understanding of our vulnerability to conflict as it is manifested in the
presence of economic strife, cultural globalization and individualization. There
is a corporate belief that once a monoculture is established, peace will naturally
prevail.
Unfortunately, there is an increasing emphasis on the consumption
of the exhaustible resources within our ecological system and we are rapidly dismantling
other cultures in the spirit of the commodity of life. The cloning of our world is
being marketed under the disguise of "individuality" and is suppressing
our relationship to the earth and its people.
The concept of peace is not marketable; and therefore is not profitable
among our current standards. We are a country whose culture revolves around competition,
the backbone being a pervasive greedy nature.
Peace, by definition, is a state of mutual harmony. Its function
is to create equanimity, which interferes with the blanketing of our monopolizing
culture.
Conflict, on the other hand, salutes our American flag and marches
side by side with our competitive nation. Certainly peace and conflict are inextricably
linked, for both are exercised in the name of global, national and individual freedom,
but it is imperative that a reverence for all life is at the forefront of any endeavor.
Anna Greaney
Eugene
Thanks,
EC
I recently sent this message to the Eugene Celebration
folks: In the face of some of the criticism they had received, I just wanted to thank
them for going ahead with the Celebration after all and changing Friday night to
a memorial service. Too bad about the complainers. If they weren't in the mood, then
they could "censor themselves" by not going. Personally, I considered it
a wake. A typical wake starts with a memorial service and then is followed by a party
to celebrate the life of the deceased. I wasn't in the mood, but I went out of respect.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Parade turned out to contain some fitting
tributes to the fallen (sort of like what a Memorial Day Parade could have been).
And a crowd of people were able to get away from their TV sets and celebrate the
lives of those lost.
Eugene is a special place -- grinning in the face of adversity
is one of our best traits! How unfortunate that the firemen pulled out -- it could
have been even more of a tribute to the FDNY -- how sad there was only one person
present (perhaps that in itself was a message of loss). But at least it was something.
I think the mayor was mistaken about canceling. All I can say is
"spare me the piety." We need to support each other in weird times and
the Celebration helped do just that! We needed some cheering up.
I thanked the committee for holding their ground even though some
creepy people felt the need to be threatening to other citizens for doing what they
thought was the right thing. This is not the time for folks to be turning on each
other.
Donna Murray
Veneta
Reeking
of Dogma
Recent letters to EW and The Register-Guard
reek of patriotic dogmatism and ignorance. It seems as if many of citizens of Eugene
are appalled that some Americans are absolutely opposed to bombing Afghanistan in
retaliation for the recent terrorist attack on the World Trade Center building. Well,
I must say, it's not as if the thousands of Afghani people we will kill by bombing
their nation will be the same people who are responsible for the thousands of deaths
in New York. More innocent people will be killed, people who have done nothing to
us. That's what the state calls "collateral damage." The state uses the
same logic as the authoritarian Islamic fundamentalist terrorists to justify murdering
thousands of people.
Many American citizens are now turning their anger away from Islamic
terrorists and pointing their fingers at the imperialist states who have brought
this devastation on us by creating anti-American sentiment. Now the American people
are the recipients of a terrorist payback for hundreds of years of imperial oppression.
To those that say America is not imperialist, that we always bomb
people of other nations and exploit them in a way that is "gentle" and
"compassionate," you are ignorant. America defines imperialism. Whether
it be through raping and slaughtering villagers in the land of Mai Lai, killing thousands
of children with our sanctions in Iraq, or strip-mining indigenous lands to acquire
the necessary resources to feed the industrial monster 4 we're willing to do just
about anything to make a buck and maintain our dominion over people and nature.
Jen Farey
Eugene
The Sea
of Death
Violence propagates violence and peace propagates peace.
If we don't give peace with justice a chance then war and death become inevitable.
If we are in lockstep hate/anger against another religion, country or group then
Mr. Death rules on both sides. Since both sides in the current conflict have chosen
violence and war it is a clear indicator that the violence on both sides will escalate
and the sea of death will grow until both sides become so exhausted with grief that
a nightmare psuedopeace will be made by default as civilization shrinks into small
stinking blobs of barbaric fascism. If we cannot have One World Indivisible with
liberty and justice for all lifeforms then we will soon have a dead world.
The horrible truth is that anyone can snap and anyone can be brainwashed
so the best way to fight terrorism is for everyone to resolve not to kill anyone
for any reason: killing organizations create killing fields. Bush, bin Laden, Sharon
are the three musketeers of 21st century tribal warfare: They pretend to be really
moral people but what they are, really, is MADmen creating Mutually-Assured-Death.
Have a good day now, for 21st century barbarism may soon destroy
the possibility of good days in the future. When Americans or others play God the
whole world suffers.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
American
Felons
This is why I am livid with several of your readers. They
(terrorist victims) deserved their fate, eh? And yes, I have a cousin who had just
moved his office from that section of the Pentagon. And yes, I served in the armed
forces. I have a friend who is still there.
I wish we could send all of you who want peace at any price to
wherever the terrorists hang out. I also wish we could capture bin Laden, put him
in our prisons, and see what happens. They will kill him. They may be felons, but
they are American felons.
Still Bush bashing? What would Gore have done? Sent in indiscriminate
cruise missiles, just like the last time. Where is Gore anyway? I have heard from
everyone but him. We have in place those needed to be where they are right now.
Jay VanOrman
Eugene
Endless
Numbers
One thing is clear: economically wealthy people really
like money 4 and can you blame them! With access to most of the planet and all it
has to offer, money becomes very appealing. Probably most people want to be able
to enjoy all that money can buy.
In the U.S., we act as if it's possible for endless numbers of
people to consume endless amounts of natural resources (with resulting pollution).
And if that isn't enough, we're trying to convince everyone else on the planet to
do the same! Where will all the natural resources come from to meet this never-ending
need when we're already stressing important resources such as water, fish, trees,
farmland, and many other species?
Shortsightedly, our capitalist economy is based upon never-ending
growth, unending natural resources, and cheep labor. It has worked very well for
a very small percentage of people, while most people and the environment are paying
an ever growing price. Five percent of the global population buys cheap goods because
most of the remaining population work and live in poverty to produce those goods.
We have two looming problems: Natural resources are already burdened
and won't meet growing human demands much longer, and all those people who provide
our cheap labor are going to want to get paid, and consume, as we do 4 resulting
in higher prices and less for us, and more competition for dwindling resources.
This is the stuff that human suffering and wars are made from.
Patrick Bronson
Eugene
Misguided
Ruling
The ruling of the state Court of Appeals last Wednesday
(10/3) restricting appeals in land use cases to parties clearly and directly affected
by the decision was misguided and would defeat the whole purpose of having courts.
The proper function of a court is to ascertain the facts in any dispute brought before
it, determine whether each side is inconsistent with current law, or, if this is
not the case, to render a decision least injurious to the public in the long run.
Land use decisions affect everyone. This is obvious in big cases,
less so in small ones. However the cumulative effect of many small cases is just
as important as the decision in a major case.
Land use cases are often complex, involving geological, biological,
social and economic factors difficult to evaluate. Persons and groups, such as scientists,
the League of Women voters, etc., who have been studying these problems for some
time often know far more about them than do the individuals who happen to be clearly
impacted by a particular decision. Cutting these groups and individuals out of the
process deprives the court of the very best sources of reliable information available
to them. Courts should welcome, or even solicit input from such sources rather than
exclude it. Restricting access to the courts in this way only gives a big advantage
to those persons or corporations wishing to make destructive uses of land. It diminishes
the quality of life for all of us.
Bayard H. McConnaughey
Eugene
Bush's War
100,000 Iraqi soldiers buried alive by U.S. tanks; 10 million
Iraqi children bombed or starved or dead from disease; thousands of U.S. soldiers
with Gulf War Syndrome; Timothy McVeigh; 400 people killed in the bombing of the
Oklamoma City Federal Building; four plane loads of airline passengers die when their
planes are crashed; thousands killed in the World Trade Center; a few dozen killed
at the Pentagon.
This is collateral damage from Bush's Gulf War. This is Bush's
collateral damage. He doesn't care any more than McVeigh. They both say, "It's
not my responsibility."
Now Bush, Jr. wants revenge. For what? He announces a war on "absolute
evil" on behalf of "absolute good." He should go shoot at the mirror.
Ann Tattersall
Eugene
Beyond Politics
I dreamt Afghanistan children were being tossed in dumpsters
half alive/by Americans half dead.
I woke to make coffee/and found no cream/the morning tasted bitter.
I find it difficult to rally/under stars and stripes/to pledge
allegiance to infinite justice/to sing out in retaliation/when war veterans continuously
ask me for spare change/and it's all the money I have.
The price of war is innocence/the realization/that we can fragment
the air we breathe/into ours and theirs/that we can practice Christianity/without
compassion/that human life isn't valued beyond/a political statement.
Amber Denise Coates
Eugene
On Retaliation
Pearl Harbor had an address, noted journalist Daniel Schor
in an NPR interview on the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The
talk implied there was no one upon on which to retaliate. In the nuclear age, retaliation
as a military response to attack must be thoughtfully reconsidered.
In the moment of pain, revenge is instinctual. But ask three questions.
Is it effective? Does it achieve the desired results? Can revenge undo harm, or right
a wrong?
Retaliation guarantees one thing: The killing of more innocent
people. An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind, said Gandhi.
The Japanese Kamikazes who flew suicidal missions in the name of
their god were also terrorist martyrs, willing to die for their cause. It's time
to look at the passionate hate against America, and to ask how to include angry youth
in peaceful conflict resolution and to ask how we are teaching them to solve conflicts.
After the smoke of grief, victimization and rage clears, can we
see through the haze and rubble, the lives and limbs lost daily in Israel, Palestine
and other war zones as related to U.S. arms and oil policies, as well as regional
religious hatred and land conflict? In the heat of retaliation, can we consider our
role as provocateur, weapons salesman and natural resource exploiter? The atrocity,
however unjustifiably evil and horrific, sends a message: U.S., feel our pain!
What if, instead of bombing the other guy, for once we acknowledged
that our appetite for oil and arms sales fuels global violence?
We need to teach and role model open dialogue and compromise, we
need to train the young to use words and not violence, we need to quit dominating
the world 4 so peace will have a chance.
Sharon Rose
Independence, Calif.
Running
Scared
While it is understandable for people to be concerned and
looking for assurance in regard to personal safety, it is not understandable to me
why they are so eager and willing to give up civil rights as a trade-off for these
assurances. Do they forget the millions of men and women who were killed, maimed,
and fought valiantly for our democracy? Many went willingly, many were drafted, but
they put their lives on the line for America. Now some Americans are whimpering and
running scared and are willing to make mockery of their sacrifices in order to save
themselves!
The most Un-American choice we can make today is to give in to
terrorism and abdicate those rights in lieu of doing what our armed forces have done
under horrific circumstances for years, given their very lives! Democracy is not
just living under the American flag, much as the sight of it promotes our patriotism.
Are you willing to give your life for our democratic rights as millions have done
to preserve your right to be free? While we civilians are not members of the Armed
Forces, we have a duty to our country to defend it with our lives. How about making
your pledge of allegiance a commitment?
Rita Ihly
Florence
Landscape
Blight
I am glad that Mayor Jim Torrey's Total Communications
(T-COM) company removed the advertisement for the Silver Dollar strip club from its
Garfield Street billboard. While I support the right of nude businesses to exist,
I don't want to be forced to look at their ads in the west Eugene skyline. Perhaps
the next mayor of Eugene will be willing to look at how other communities have removed
billboards, which are a blight on the landscape.
Regarding Spruce Houser's whining that the Green Party should collaborate
with the Democrats to ensure the phase out of nuclear power: Nice fantasy, but the
Democratic Party supports nuclear energy. This summer, after most of the rest of
the world signed the (admittedly weak) Kyoto Treaty, the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee held a hearing on the topic. Aaron Rappaport of the American
Lands Alliance reported that: "Democrats on the committee bashed President Bush
for blowing a chance to lobby for nuclear power by pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol.
Republicans,
on the other hand, praised the president for his leadership in
removing the U.S. from an agreement that would inevitably have excluded nukes."
A reason why the German Greens got promises to phase out nuclear
energy is that the country was hit by fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown. Germany
is installing massive wind power farms, supports energy efficiency, is starting to
put solar panels on skyscrapers (Eugene has better solar than Germany!) and has an
excellent inter-city train network.
I hope it won't take a Chernobyl in the U.S. to get the Democrats
and Republicans to shift their support from dangerous nuclear energy toward safe
renewable energy.
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene
It's Stein
Time
As the race for governor gets underway, I have one question:
Which candidate will do the most to hold down the price of prescription drugs? My
choice is Beverly Stein.
Stein has always made affordable and accessible healthcare a priority
issue. When she was a state representative, she was co-sponsor of legislation that
established the Oregon Health Plan. As Multnomah County Commission chair, she helped
increase the number of immunized 2 year olds at county well baby clinics from 50
percent to over 90 percent.
Stein has built a record for improving health care and holding
down costs. I believe she is the best choice for governor on this important issue.
Please join me and support Stein for governor.
Martin Henner
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print
as many as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words, keep submissions to once
a month, and include your address and phone number. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044, or mail
to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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