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Insider
Baseball: Meet Senator Duck! Redistricting creates a unique
'community of interest'.
Viewpoint: My Harley: An old bicyclist's confession on Eugene
Commute Challenge Week.
Living Out: No Labels: We don't have any ladies in this house.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Meet Senator Duck!
Redistricting creates
a unique 'community of interest'.
I last talked to you on sine die, the final day of the 71st Assembly.
I was groggy, it was 5:30 am on July 5th, and I took a couple of days off to complete
Jeannie's brutal honey-do list at home -- "OK, now move dirt pile A to my garden;
move potting soil pile B over to the previous pile A" -- you get the picture.
Then back to work at OPEU where we faced two state worker strikes. Fortunately both
settled, but strike preparation is a hassle.
Obviously much has happened since the close of session: Sept. 11th.
It's interesting that the Bill Sizemores of the world, the anti-government crowd,
went into hiding. After all, it wasn't anti-tax activists who went into the Twin
Towers, it was firefighters and cops. If anything good came out of this disaster,
it's that that citizens now understand more clearly what public service is, and why
governments exist. Not to say that Sizemore has disappeared completely, he's out
there with several nasty anti-public employee initiative petitions; so beware what
you sign. And he may run for governor again.
Redistricting. I'm now officially Sen. Duck! Senate District --
runs from Glide on the North Umpqua to Franklin Boulevard in Eugene. How's that for
a "community of interest"? Vicki Walker and Bob Ackerman ended up in the
same House district, but that got worked out because Vicki's gonna run for the Senate
because Susan Castillo's gonna run for state superintendent of education. Susan will
be an excellent replacement for Stan "I forgot to pay my property taxes"
Bunn. Al King and Phil Barnhart also ended up in the same district and they're trying
to decide whether to run against each other, or against Bill Morrisette, who took
Lee Beyer's place in the Senate. Morrisette was replaced by Terri Beyer. Did you
get all that? Also, Rep. Jeff Kruse, who thinks "progressive" is a form
of bingo, now represents UO, and guess what: Cedric Hayden moved again! He now represents
northern Idaho.
Term limits. The arguments will be heard by the Oregon Supreme
Court this week and we'll probably get an answer by the end of December, or maybe
the end of this millennium.
The Oregon economy. State economists predicted in May that we were
going into a slowdown, instead we went into a shutdown exacerbated by Sept. 11th.
We currently have a $300 million hole and that might double by the next forecast
on Nov. 30. Either the governor or the legislative leadership should call for a special
session, but there's a stupid political game going on instead. The Republican legislative
leaders don't quite see the need for a special session; they think the governor should
make the cuts on his own. They don't want to get blamed for the past eight years
of bad tax policy now that the rainy day has finally come to the Oregon economy.
Now the greatest peacetime economic expansion in history has come to an end and we're
hurtin'. Our economy didn't diversify, it simply switched from natural resources
to hi-tech; now both are in recession.
I've been appointed by Kate Brown, our Senate leader, to form a
Democratic House and Senate workgroup to develop special session recommendations;
here's what we've come up with so far:
-- No Democratic votes for any cuts without discussion with Republican
Leadership about revenue replacement.
-- No reductions in services to our most vulnerable, underserved
Oregonians, e.g., seniors, children, minorities, the working poor.
-- Examine/rescind targeted tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations
over the last four biennia.
-- Income surtax targeted for K-12 education. Vic Atiyeh signed
a 2 percent income surtax in the early '80s. It will be difficult this time given
the current lack of Republican leadership. Target higher income taxpayers.
-- Delay/phase-in implementation of Ballot Measure 88, another
tax break for the rich.
Finally, I have a new job, as a consultant. I've left my organizer
job at OPEU to do political consulting for them. But don't tell my mom, she still
thinks I have an honorable job -- as a piano player in a whorehouse.
Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove is minority whip in the Senate and
represents portions of Lane and Douglas counties in Senate District 4. His e-mail
address is corcoran.sen@state.or.us
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My Harley
An old bicyclist's confession
on Eugene Commute Challenge Week.
I'm a 38-year-old male and motorcycles suddenly have my attention.
I haven't thought much about them since I was a kid, not until this summer, that
is. Now when I'm out bicycling (my primary means of transport), I stop to check out
any motorbike -- to learn the model, the make, tips on maintenance, and whatever
else the rider will tell me.
Some riders keep their cycles spotless. On these, I admire the
shiny engine casing, the sheen of the gas tank and the dark lustre of the leather.
That's how I'd keep my motorcycle, I'm sure. Other bikes are considered beaters,
they get ridden and ridden, without much care. I appreciate them, too. They're the
workhorses, the donkey that hauls baggage for years and years.
Early this year, I got myself a recumbent bicycle. It's a sweet,
short-wheelbase Vision R-40 with over-seat steering, for those that know 'em. It
rides great. It has no suspension and doesn't need it. Besides, I'm tougher than
that! It's the Harley of recumbents, a model that's been made for almost a decade.
Getting it was a dream-come-true. I'd really liked it in '92 at the International
Human Powered Vehicle Association races in Yreka, Calif. I waited a long time before
I could afford it (and would let myself spend that much on a bicycle).
 But this summer, there's a problem with it. It isn't
a motorcycle. That's what runs around in my head now. Those friends I choose to tell
are shocked, and I'm surprised, too. Years ago, as part of a spiritual practice,
I decided to use bicycle, foot, or public transport for short trips. My work commute
of three miles is an easy ride. Many are surprised to know I even own a car (yep,
my wife and I share one).
I'm just disgusted. Riding along every day, I have to look up about
2 feet to greet other cyclists. I'm seeing eye-to-eye with dogs and cats!
In May I dreamt I was heading off across the country on a Harley, enjoying the speed
and the wind on the open road. Instead, look at where I am.
Unfortunately, I'm too much a dyed-in-the-wool believer in the
bicycle as clean transportation to switch to a motorcycle. I'm also (currently) clear-headed
enough to know that I don't want to become some SUV's road-kill. So, if you see me
riding around town on my little blue bike, be easy on me. I'm crying inside. Motorcyclists,
please take other streets, or I'll be going through my list of questions with you,
and get swept up in my infatuation once again.
Steven Zorba "Harley" Frankel is editor of Worm Digest,
www.wormdigest.org. This week is Commute Challenge 2001 in Eugene, a week when people are
asked to use alternative forms of transportation to get to work.
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No Labels
We don't have any ladies
in this house.
Fasten the UPRIGHT (F) to the BACK (E). Fasten the TOP (C) to
the RIGHT END (A).
A color picture of our new, some-assembly-required computer
hutch is glued to the front of the giant cardboard box. I pull out the last board.
"Does this look like UPRIGHT (F)?" I lay it next to the rest of the pre-fab
slabs.
I shine the flashlight into the box to make sure we haven't missed
anything. At the bottom, a wad of round, lettered stickers cowers in the corner.
All of the labels, having melted from their posts en route from factory to our local
K-Mart, are useless to us now.
"No, that one has rounded corners. We need one that looks
like this drawing." Wifey smacks the 18-page direction booklet.
"I can't tell which is which."
One by one, we lift and rotate each wooden slab to the angle of
the picture in the instructions, and try to make a positive ID on UPRIGHT (F).
"See the slant of that edge? This is a ringer for the DESKTOP."
"Look at this long narrow one. I found the SHELF!"
"This might be it, see how the groove on the end matches?"
Wifey does her best Vanna.
"Yes, that's it! But the picture shows holes along this edge."
"We can fix that." Wifey stands Charlie's Angels-like,
electric drill poised while I balance what we're sure is UPRIGHT (F) on the tops
of my thighs.
While she's drilling the side of the board, our phone rings. Steadying
UPRIGHT (F) between my chin and one leg now, I scootch my free leg toward the phone.
My foot reaches the cord and pulls it to me.
"Hello?"
The rough edge of UPRIGHT (F) digs into my leg flesh. Wifey fingers
the screwdriver like a Groucho cigar and proceeds to fasten LOCKING CASTERS (L)
to the corners of BOTTOM (D).
"Is this the Sheklow residence?"
"Yes it is." No time to explain that everyone in our
household doesn't answer to that last name. I rely on the half truth, galled that
people still assume every household is inhabited by a married man and woman sharing
one name.
"Hello, Missus Sheklow?"
"No." Wrong label.
"Oh, then, is this MISS Sheklow?"
"No." I resist giving the women-as-chattel tirade.
"OK, may I speak to the lady of the house?"
Wifey hoists the contraption into position to attach SIDE PANEL
(M) to BACK (E). Sweating now, her glistening muscles ripple when she jostles
the hulking mass into a full nelson. Hardly a lady.
"We don't have any ladies in this house."
"Oh, I see, I'm terribly sorry. This must be MISTER Sheklow,
then?"
Having exhausted his repertoire of possible labels for women, this
guy is ready to take me for a man. How novel. Once, when I was newly out and had
shaved my head, I had to drive a hundred miles down the interstate in sweltering
heat. In defiance of the unfairness that men can go around with their shirts off
and women can't, I doffed mine and tooled on down the road bare-breasted. When I
stopped for gas the attendant asked, "What will it be, sir?" Even with
the contradictory evidence staring him right in the face, as it were, he saw a shirtless
driver with a buzz cut and labeled me man.
"My name is Sally -- not MISSUS, MISS, OR MISTER -- Sheklow."
I know this poor schmo is just trying to do his job. It's not his
fault nobody prepared him for people who don't adhere to assigned labels. The labels
he was trying to stick on us are as useless as the ones huddled in the bottom of
that empty box. But if Wifey and I can assemble an entire computer hutch without
its identifying labels, surely telemarketers can get through a sales pitch without
them.
Our new desk assembled, my darling mate cuts a handsome figure
standing there admiring her handiwork. Who needs the carpet cleaning, windshield
glass, family portrait, vinyl siding, long distance carrier, or whatever this guy
is selling? I recognize a teachable moment.
"Perhaps you'd like to speak to my wife?"
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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Vandals
Have Rights
Tom Chambliss (Letters, 10/25) is wrong if he thinks the
people writing "smut" and "sleaze" on EW drop boxes are
practicing censorship. They are practicing free speech. They are also practicing
vandalism -- but they are neither able to nor participating in keeping anyone from
reading what someone else has written or hearing what someone else had said.
I agree with them -- the last page of the Annual Manual
was tasteless. For EW to so prominently promote such a sexist business shows
how little EW values women as other than sex objects, and how much it values
money. That space could have been sold to a business that respects women, or it could
have been discounted for some community organization, so that the publication was
something any of us would want to have as reference material in our homes. As it
is, I have ripped off the back cover because it offends me to see that ad -- and
for young people in my household to see it. Call me a censor, but I do have that
right in my home. I also don't have a television because there's too much violence,
sexism and racism.
As for Ted Taylor's sanctimonious comments last week about "lightening
up" and "buying a dildo," all I have to say is -- he and other males
have a lot to learn about sexual gratification for women if a dildo is all they can
come up with -- which is one of the problems with those sex shops. They are chiefly
for men, they are sexist, and they are not respectful to women. I personally wouldn't
vandalize a EW drop box, but I honor the right of others to do so, because
that is free speech.
Hope Marston
Eugene
EDITOR'S NOTE: See response in Slant this week.
Bad (Hot) Dogs
The report on meat-borne pathogens in today's (10/18) New
England Journal of Medicine bears special significance against the background
of the current anthrax hysteria. Three independent studies found that up to half
of supermarket meat and poultry samples were contaminated with antibiotic-resistant
bacteria that each year kill thousands and sicken millions.
All this in spite of the implementation of the new, highly touted
USDA meat inspection program and without the workings of anyone wishing us ill. Now,
consider the opportunity that a slaughterhouse provides to a bio-terrorist.
U.S. slaughterhouses have a large turnover of undocumented aliens.
It would be child's play for a bio-terrorist to enter the country legally or otherwise,
join the slaughterhouse staff, and slip a powerful pathogen into a vat of ground
meat destined for hamburgers or hot dogs (frequently eaten uncooked.) The culprit
would be long out of the country before the contaminated product reaches supermarket
shelves and thousands of his victims begin dying.
Anyone really concerned with anthrax or other forms of bio-terrorism
would be well advised to lay off meat and poultry for a while.
Fred Arbenz
Eugene
Just an
Example
I'm writing to react to the letter in this week's (10/25)
EW titled "Eugene's Finest." In the letter the writer defends his
profession of telemarketing and explains what he is trained to do. I don't think
the writer got the point of Sally's column. What I read was Sally using telemarketers
as one example of how our society puts people in one of two gender boxes -- male
or female, Mrs. or Mr. -- when, in fact, gender is a lot more fluid. I saw that Sally
was using her few moments on the telephone as a teachable moment about gender expression.
I saw her talking about removing the labels, I saw her bringing this discussion into
a public forum and using one particular example to express her point.
I know that there are many other instances she could have called
up to express her point. Gender is very fluid, and it's a lesson that needs to be
taken into the greater society, beyond the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
community -- a community that grapples with gender issues everyday. I commend Sally
for doing it so well.
M. Brooke Robertshaw
Eugene
Spinning
Higher
When Brian Terrett resigned as the official apologist for
the Eugene Police Department and took a job as spokesman for PeaceHealth I misread
his career move. It was not until the true nefarious nature of PeaceHealth was revealed
that I realized that Terrett was indeed a master of obfuscation and that he had taken
on greater challenges. I would not be surprised to see him soon become the mouthpiece
for Osama bin Laden as he continues to ascend in the ranks of spin masters. It seems
to be a logical progression.
Eric McGuire
Eugene
Moral High
Ground
Last week's (11/1) EW featured a letter from Alison
Center of Cottage Grove. In her letter she rightfully stresses the point that violence
destroys. Unfortunately, she goes on to equate the actions of environmental extremists
with those of the Taliban, or whoever is behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
America. She uses the same sloppy logic the cops use to equate anarchists with white
supremacists.
When reading Alison's letter one must question who Alison is working
for. My guess would be that she is working for a government agency which is working
to demonize the radical environmental movement in order to successfully persecute
those people with anti-terrorist legislation.
No one in their right mind could possibly believe that the actions
of environmental extremists (which are often directed at industries which are responsible
for immense planetary destruction) with those of fundamentalist authoritarians who
target people, not property.
Alison claims the genetic research being pursued at Washington
State University which was destroyed as a result of an ELF action would have been
used to create alternatives to logging native forests. That's odd, this research
was being funded by Weyerhaeuser, hardly a compassionate, conservationist entity.
Jeffrey "Free" Luers was not lucky that no one was killed
as a result of his extreme action. I have followed his case closely and it is a fact
that he scouted out the Romania car dealership precisely to make sure that no one
was hurt.
Extremist environmentalists who target property have a moral high-ground
over state, corporate, and terrorist entities which devastate life.
Brenton Gicker
Eugene
No Jihad
I had a somewhat strange dream the other night in which
I found that Eugene had declared herself a Jihad Free Zone. Why not? We have been
a Nuclear Free Zone for years. Are we not allowed to choose for ourselves that we
wish to live a life of peace and love vs. hatred and terrorism? Let's all tell our
elected officials that we want Eugene to be declared a Jihad Free Zone. Barrage your
Oregon representatives with e-mails to have them declare Eugene a Jihad Free Zone.
Perhaps it will infect other cities in America like some sort of peace virus!
Charles Walker
Eugene
Good Story
Just a note to say I'm very impressed by Orna Isakson's
story (11/1) on the ecosystem of the Klamath Basin. It was detailed without being
inaccessible and very smartly written.
Patty Wentz
Portland
Something
Fishy
In discussions about why the United States has a military
presence in the Persian Gulf a popular misconception seems to be that our military
is there to protect our supply of oil from the region. I believe this is a bit of
a red herring. Our military is there primarily to protect money, not oil. An obvious
question to ask is, from whom are we protecting the oil supply? Perhaps Iraq? Hardly.
Iraq exported an average of 620,000 barrels of oil per day to the U.S. in the year
2000 and has been steadily exporting oil to the U.S. since 1996.
Are we protecting it from brutal, authoritarian regimes that might
disrupt a vital resource to our more democratic government? Again the answer is no.
Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Nigeria,
and Venezuela have all been cited by Amnesty International for engaging in torture,
holding political prisoners, or other human rights violations, yet these OPEC countries
still sold us crude oil in 2000 (www.amnesty-usa.org/annualreport).
In fact, it is safe to say that practically any government that
can export oil will do so. Any regime that controls Saudi Arabia, regardless of their
religious or political beliefs, would be compelled to sell oil since it accounts
for 90 percent of that country's exports and 75 percent of their government revenue.
On the other hand, it is not true that every regime will protect the investments
and profits of U.S. companies in the region.
The U.S. has traditionally allowed its foreign and military policy
to be dictated by commercial interests. I sincerely hope that the tragedy of Sept.
11 will cause people to examine the danger of this and, perhaps, insist on foreign
and military policy that pursues democracy and human rights.
Erik Knoder
Eugene
Smut is
Smut
The editor's response (10/18) to those who don't want Fantasyland
ads in EW -- "buy a dildo, have some fun" is simplistic and insulting.
Not only does the male-centered mass media's diss -- that feminists are uptight --
not hold up in real life, but it's a common attempt to discredit the messenger and
ignore the news. In case Ted doesn't know, pornography isn't usually about respectful,
consensual sex.
Fantasyland offers Coming of Age Magazine, barely legal
videos titled "Gag that Bitch," "Old British Bats," and a video
where men stalk a woman, gang rape and torture her. Male partners murdered five women
in Lane County in the last two months, the rape crisis lines are active 24 hours,
almost every woman I know has been raped (speaking of terrorism).
Did you know that during the Serbia/Croatia war the Serbs had snuff
film camps where they videotaped torturing women to death and sold the tapes around
the world to finance their war? Did you know? Who knows? Did the mass media tell
you? Where is the real discussion?
Kari Johnson
Eugene
More Pools!
What a triumph -- for the city of Eugene and the Aquatics
Program to have completed the $4.8 million renovation of Amazon Pool which resulted
in a state-of-the-art aquatics facility second to none!
What a thrill -- to see all the smiling faces of the multitudes
who shared the water for recreation and family swims, lap swims, swim classes, competitive
aquatics and water polo!
What a shame -- that the facility was closed after less than five
months of operations!
Why close Amazon Pool for more than half the year when this facility
is so wildly popular and this community is so aquatically underserved? Especially
why after spending $4.8 million to get it open?
Can't be the weather: Echo Hollow has an outdoor pool filled with
swimmers year-round. Can't be the money: Swimmers pay market-rate user fees. Can't
be the need: look at the block-long lines of folks waiting to get in.
Seems like a no-brainer. When Jefferson Pool was closed in the
early 1980s, it was never replaced. Since then, the city has grown by half. Fewer
pools, more people. Let's build some new pools! And until that can be accomplished,
let's keep the ones we have open!
Benton Elliott
Eugene
Crevice
Crap
This is to all my fellow dog owners: If we want our dogs
to be welcome in our parks and neighborhoods, we need to be responsible for picking
up their poop and disposing of it. All you need to do is carry some old produce or
bread bags in your pocket whenever you take your dog out. Put your hand inside the
bag, pick up the poop, turn the bag inside out, tie a knot in the top, and throw
it in the trash. No mess, no smell.
If my friend who is blind can do this with her guide dog, certainly
those of us who can see shouldn't be looking the other way and pretending we don't
know our dog is pooping. And in the dog parks there is no excuse for leaving poop;
even if you forget your bag there are scoopers and trash cans at every entrance.
Don't make someone else do your dirty work for you, or worse yet, have to clean it
out of all those little crevices on the bottom of their shoes!
Sharon Blick
Eugene
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