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Insider
Baseball: Fuming & Fumigating: Same stuff,
different day.
Viewpoint:
California Dreamin': Same stuff, different day.
Natural
Resistance: Ignoring the Evidence: Science gets
skewed in the debate over gravel vs. family farms. Part I.
Living Out: Minding Our Beeswax: Holiday house-warming.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Fuming
& Fumigating
Same
stuff, different day.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I went to the nation's
Capitol the second week of December for the National Conference of
State Legislatures, appointed to a federal committee on education
and labor. Oregon was the focus of much of the conference because
of our precipitous decline in employment. We're #1 in the nation in
unemployment and we're expected to be #50 in economic recovery because
of our dependency on high-tech, our dependency on income tax to fund
schools and state services, and our lack of any contingency fund to
bail us out of this economic downturn.
Washington was so weird this time -- soldiers,
National Guard, cops and security guards everywhere with bomb-sniffing
dogs and mirrors looking under any rig that approached the federal
buildings: It felt like a third-world police state. They were still
fumigating the Hart Senate Building. In a word, depressing.
While there I lobbied our Oregon congressional delegation
on two issues. I talked to Darlene Hooley and to David Wu's office
about the "fast track" trade authority for Dubya: a bad idea. Oregon
Rep. Diane Rosenbaum and I had to wait forever to see Hooley --
she was having her arm twisted by Secretary of Commerce Evans --
because the White House incorrectly assumed they could convince her
to switch her vote. Hooley and Wu both voted correctly, but we still
lost 215-214, because Bush threw in some pork for a few Texas democrats.
I didn't have to lobby DeFazio, but I did watch him
give one hell of a floor speech opposing fast track. He said more
in three minutes than the other side did in 30 minutes. You never
have to lobby Peter -- he's a great progressive -- so I
took him and a few of his staffers to dinner instead.
The next day I lobbied Sen. Gordon Smith on the Republican's
so-called "economic stimulus package": another bad idea. Same old
Reagan trickle-down tax breaks for the wealthy -- even the conservative
Washington Post blasted Bush and the House Republicans for
proposing such a candy store of corporate tax breaks -- including
an alternative minimum tax break retroactive to 1986! $75 billion
in corporate giveaways: Yowsah! Even Gordon saw the need to help the
unemployed, although he winced at helping with health care benefits
for Oregon workers who lost their jobs.
Now Dubya's in Oregon this weekend preaching the same
bullpucky -- except now he's calling it an "economic security
package." I gotta say, Bush might run a hell of a war, but his economic
strategies are just as disastrous as his daddy's. From the Savings
& Loan bailout to Enron's trashing of their own workers' pensions;
the more things change, the more they look the same.
SALEM: As depressing as D.C. was, the state Capitol was an absolute
morgue when I returned. The $300 million state deficit has grown to
almost $900 million.
A group of 14 legislators -- equal numbers of
Republicans and Democrats -- are meeting with the governor to
try to come up with a compromise package of cuts and additional revenue
to mitigate the shortfall for a February special session. I had to
laugh when the Republican leadership proposed equal numbers for the
work group. Yeah sure, now that eight years of Republican legislative
leadership through the greatest economic ride Oregon's ever seen leaves
us with absolutely nuthin' -- no rainy-day fund, schools in disarray,
huge unemployment, nothing but tax breaks and kickers and Measure
88 -- all of a sudden we Democrats are invited to the table!
Thank you so much! Can I get you a hemlock on the rocks?
The Republicans are really between a rock and a hard
place. They've won the legislative majority since 1995 by preaching
a mantra of no new taxes and tax breaks for the wealthy. Sound familiar,
Dubya? In fact the Republican Party of Oregon recently sent out a
memo to all Republican incumbents: If you support any tax increase,
the RPO will recruit candidates to run against you in the primary.
These same Republican leaders were out on the steps of the Capitol
nine months ago saying they wouldn't support any cuts to K-12, higher
ed, senior and disabled programs, Project Independence, public safety
-- you name it, they supported it. Uh Oh. I think they need a
consultant; and I'm here to serve.
Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove represents portions
of Lane and Douglas counties in the newly formed Senate District 4,
which now includes the UO area. He can be reached at corcoran.sen@state.or.us
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California
Dreamin'
San Francisco's
glow dims a few watts.
Well, folks, here's good news for the New Year: Eugene
is in good shape.
San Francisco? Bad, bad shape. Believing that Eugene
would be a sad place to spend Christmas, I headed south to San Francisco.
I stayed with my best friend who lives in Mountain View and pays $3,000
a month for a two-bedroom apartment. "Hey, Richard," I said, "In Eugene
you could rent a mansion for that price."
His last kid is finishing up at Stanford, and that
costs him a pretty penny. "Shit," I say. "Man, you could have sent
him through the UO 10 times for that kind of dough." His son wants
to be a poet (Dad doesn't know it), but I'm thinking that UO and Eugene
would be a perfect place for a budding poet. The savings would definitely
help Dad with the California rent.
After Christmas, I take off to San Francisco. This
American mecca is for the rich, of course, not the poor. The rich
in Eugene are silent; in San Francisco they're classic F. Scott Fitzgerald
-- J. Gatsby and all of that junk. San Francisco's poor? They're
not like us in Eugene -- there, they are all suicidal. A panhandler
in Eugene might ask, "Brother can you spare some change?" At the home
of the San Francisco Giants, they'll slay you if you don't give up
the cash.
On Market street, a 10-year-old black kid says, "Want
to buy some dope?" Off of Market street, a once-beautiful blonde is
dying of dope. Eugene has its drug problems, but nothing of this magnitude.
I lived in this city once upon a good time, but these are bad times
for San Francisco. Eugene has never been a city of dot-comers. San
Francisco is a city of dot-goners.
Two thousand lost jobs in Eugene -- nothing
compared to The City of Lights.
The joblessness in San Francisco is astonishing. Those
who can get out are catching the Greyhound and heading -- not
east or south, but north, maybe to Oregon. "Hey man, how is it up
there in Ore-gone?" asked a former paper millionaire. "Not
bad, my man, not bad," I said.
Our mayor, Little Jim Torrey, doesn't ride around
town in a Lamborghini like Big Willie Brown -- another slick
Willie who has pulled the wool over peoples' eyes. We don't have that
kind of corruption in Eugene. Financed by the super rich of San Francisco,
this brother, Mayor Brown, should know better. But what the hell,
black people can be just as corrupt as white people. They are just
a little more stylish. Check out his fedora and Armani suits. In Eugene,
slick Willie Brown might be looked at as a hustler.
Even the gays and lesbians are different from our community. In
Eugene, they seem to be afraid of parading it -- but not in San
Francisco. I sat in a gay bar in Castro Valley and they were the most
open people I met in the Gay City. Here? They seem like Mormons.
As an artist, I checked out the local art scene.
There wasn't much to talk about. We might lack an art scene in Eugene,
but we are not pretentious. In the Big Peach, I saw no creativity.
Hell, I wouldn't spend a dime on the work that I viewed at the chic
art galleries on Gary, Sutter and Bush streets -- pure commercial
bullshit.
There are some good restaurants in Eugene, but San Francisco has
some of the best. Even on a poor man's budget, or San Francisco on
$10 a day (not bad for a poor dude), I was able to eat a good dinner
in North Beach. They wouldn't even accept a tip. They know an artist
when they see one. In Eugene, everyone is an artist -- aren't
they?
On the Muni, I asked a sister if I had missed my stop.
"Where you goin' honey?" " I'm trying to get to the Greyhound station,"
I said. "Oh, you should have gotten off at 1st Street, but it's only
three blocks away." I was in luck; I didn't miss my bus. It's a long
trip; I drop two sleeping pills. These pills, so says my doctor, can
either give me good dreams or bad ones. I slept all the way to Eugene,
and the only bad dream I had was of San Francisco.
Jerry Harris is a Eugene sculptor and writer.
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Ignoring
the Evidence
Science
gets skewed in the debate over gravel vs. family farms. Part I.
It can be tempting to throw up your hands and walk away when
documents pile up on opposing sides of an issue. Too complicated,
too technical, too many contradictory claims. But often a simple question
lies at the heart, and documents pile up because someone is wanting
to avoid the clear answers.
Here's an example: Eugene Sand & Gravel (ES&G)
wants to destroy prime farm land to operate a gravel mine and crusher,
and manufacture asphalt amid River Road family farms. Before they
can do this, however, Oregon law requires them to show that there
is a gravel layer thick enough, and of quality high enough to justify
destroying that farm land.
Specifically, Oregon law requires ESG to demonstrate,
by means of "a representative set of samples," that there is a gravel
layer averaging at least 60 feet thick beneath the soil "overburden."
Also, the gravel must undergo a series of tests showing the gravel
meets Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) specifications for
road-building.
During the past year, UO geology Prof. Mark Reed has
volunteered his time preparing more than a dozen documents which show
that:
-- ESG has not sampled the gravels in a manner that
is "representative," according to either basic scientific methods
or national and professional highway engineering testing standards.
These standards require drilling in proposed mining areas, and testing
the gravel separately in strata that differ from each other. ES&G
hasn't done this. They've sampled drill holes in only one of the three
proposed mining areas, and mixed together distinctly different gravel
layers from top to bottom, before testing it.
-- The gravel layer beneath the "overburden" of
farm soil is 53, not 60 feet thick (see diagram). Underneath
these 53 feet of gravel lies a 10- to 14-foot clay layer, with even
older gravel beneath, which appears to be cemented together, like
bedrock. This stuff is likely to be economically infeasible to mine,
and would probably fail the ODOT tests. However, ES&G has never
tested this layer separately to show whether it meets ODOT specifications.
The reason Reed has been writing so many documents
is that ESG and Lane County planning staff have seemed intent on ignoring
scientific evidence. For example, ES&G and County planning staffer
Thom Lanfear have invented a bizarre definition of the term "overburden,"
which Oregon's Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD)
subsequently accepted without seeking or considering any professional
opinion. They define the 14 feet of clay lying beneath the 53 feet
of gravel as "overburden." Lanfear then recommended that the commissioners
simply add the gravel layer beneath the clay barrier (newly christened
as overburden) to the 53 feet of gravel above the clay bed to meet
state law requiring a layer (singular) of 60 feet of gravel beneath
overburden. However, calling the buried clay bed an overburden is
like calling the floorboards of a house part of its roof. Even ES&G's
hired geologist admits that professional geologists refer to overburden
as material that lies at the surface of the ground.
Though it's not clear what prompted DLCD to go along
with Lanfear's novel definition of overburden, Steven Pfeiffer was
at the time both chair of the commission that oversees DLCD, and ES&G's
company attorney. Pfeiffer has an obvious interest in whether buried
clay layers can be called "overburden."
In this gravel vs. family farms saga, Lanfear has
dismissed more than just Reed's scientific evidence. Other scientists
have studied ES&G's documents and have determined that the proposed
gravel mine would likely dewater neighboring farms during summer and
expose the farms to crop-reducing dusts and toxic asphalt-production
chemicals. Lanfear's memo refutes none of these scientists' evidence
and yet recommends that the Commissioners assume these problems won't
occur.
This all leads to an even bigger issue. When
judges and juries are faced with "dueling scientists," they have to
wade through the science to decide who is being most accurate. How
can we be assured that county staff and commissioners are paying attention
to scientific evidence which, like Reed's, provides uncomfortable
answers in controversial situations? Next time, I'll suggest a way
of doing this that has worked elsewhere, and could be adopted in Lane
County.
Mary O'Brien has worked as a public interest scientist
for the past 20 years. She can be reached at mob@efn.org
Back to Top
Minding
Our Beeswax
Holiday
house-warming.
Hanukkah is over. No need to wish me a happy one as
you bustle by with your red and green ear ornaments bobbing merrily.
We've lit our candles, spun our dreidles and eaten our potato latkes,
and now we're done, thank you very much.
That may come as a surprise to people who think of
Hanukkah as "The Jewish Christmas," but despite the dominant culture's
efforts to pump The Festival of Lights into a full-blown consumerfest,
it is still a minor holiday on the Hebrew calendar. Contrary to comments
by one well-meaning clueless person, the only difference between the
two holidays is not that "Christians believe that Jesus was born on
Christmas, and Jews believe He was born on Hanukkah." Sorry.
Truth be known, Hanukkah is the eight days during
which Jews attempt to set their houses on fire. We came close this
year, stopping just short of calling 911. There is something to be
said for sticking to tradition--this year we strayed from the
usual custom of buying our box of 44 Israeli paraffin candles for
$1.25 at the temple gift shop. With complete directions clipped from
a magazine, we rolled our own, very classy, beeswax Hanukkah candles.
Let's just say Martha Stewart owes us big time.
This Thanksgiving (call me testy, but yes, Jews do
celebrate Thanksgiving!) our otherwise very bright friend Judy set
up the craft project as a fun thing to do while we waited for our
feast to come out of the oven. Don't ask me what we were thinking.
As anyone who has studied the manual of Sado-Masochism Safety can
tell you -- after their gag has been removed -- beeswax
burns hotter than paraffin. A lot hotter. A drip of beeswax will raise
a blister; paraffin just stings. Not something you're likely to forget,
but we remembered too late.
Every year my beloved and I dust off our beautiful blue glass
menorah, given lovingly to us by our circle of Jewish lesbian friends
on the occasion of our nuptials, and observe the eight-night, candle-lighting
ritual. We give a prayer of thanks for our ancestors, exchange small
gifts, eat chocolate money and hold hands while we gaze into the flickering
candlelight. Only this year we had taped "The Ellen Show" and left
the candles burning while we turned our attention to the TV. That's
how we learned why watching TV is not a traditional Hanukkah activity.
It's amazing how much smoke can fill your house before
you notice it. It could have been a lot worse if my beloved hadn't
arisen from our reclining love seat to let the cat in. Who knew they
could make something that looks exactly like real glass out of plain
old, highly flammable resin? In a moment of religious insight, it
occurred to me that the bush Moses is reported to have seen burning
in the desert was neither a shrub nor the secret lesbian interpretation,
but actually a replica made of resin.
Perhaps we can take some solace in surmising that
the two of us are the true chosen people among all the other Jews
whose Hanukkah flames are limited to their piddly little candle wicks.
An entire menorah crackling in full blaze is an awesome sight. It
makes the word God just fly out of your mouth. That's what
it did to my brave and noble spouse who, it turns out, can run pretty
fast carrying a flaming glob of melting resin. God was invoked repeatedly.
No doubt it was Divine intervention that gave her the wherewithal
to grab our NOT-GLASS menorah by its still-cool base, rush it out
the door and leave it smoldering in the pouring rain on the front
steps.
So, if you notice some Jews being just a wee bit cranky
this time of year, please don't wish us a Happy Hanukkah, we already
had one.
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 two years ago, also runs in several other newspapers
around the country.
Back to Top
MAKING PEACE
There were 60 of us Friday night,
Dec. 28, members of the Eugene Middle East Peace Group, honoring the
14th anniversary of Jerusalem's Women in Black. Six pairs of hands
held our banner, "We refuse to be enemies."
Maybe a small group of Jews and Muslims, Christians
and Buddhists and Atheists standing at the foggy intersection of a
small city street doesn't make as much of an impact as a dust mote
in the bigger picture of war and peace, but together we create a world
of possibilities. The miracle of the Eugene Middle East Peace Group
is that it even exists.
Here in Eugene, Muslims and Jews and people of other
faiths break bread together, scoop up humus and casseroles. And do
the work of dialogue, for us and our loved ones across the oceans.
We want a home of safety and security for the people
of Israel and the people of Palestine. We want the brutal occupation
of Palestinian towns to end, the bombings and suicide murderers to
stop. We agree on these things.
Our nation has been shocked into living with violence,
something every child in Israel and Palestine understands.
This year, may the children of Palestine and Israel
receive wonder and hope in exchange for fear and despair. May we all
have the courage to speak for peace, to demand it, to honor it.
Peace, shalom and salaam for a good year to all.
Sabena Stark
Eugene Middle East Peace Group
BUILD TO LAST
Perhaps the largest reason behind
architectural ugliness in Eugene and elsewhere (cover story, 12/13)
is that our economy is based solely on short-term thinking. Developers,
banks and building codes are only concerned that our buildings last
about the length of a thirty year mortgage. But with what goes into
our buildings, it is a tragic squandering of energy, resources and
labor to not build with the intention that our buildings last several
hundred years.
It was especially aggravating early last year when
the city of Seattle demolished the King Dome. In its time, it was
the world's largest free-spanning steel and concrete dome. It was
24 years old. They're still paying for it. But they demolished it
-- presumably because it had grown tacky. For a society to build
200-year buildings and then destroy them after 24 years is not just
poor economics, it's stupid.
In his seminal architecture book, How Buildings
Learn, Stewart Brand argues for designing greater adaptability
and flexibility into our buildings so that in the future, instead
of being demolished, they'll be modified to suit future needs. The
same thing can be said of quality. To spend an extra 20 percent and
achieve a four-fold increase in a building's lifespan is simply good
business and you end up with a better looking building too.
From long-term economic and environmental points
of view, one of the best things we can do is build beautiful buildings.
If they're beautiful, people will love them, maintain them and make
them last for generations.
Robert Bolman
President, Eugene Chapter,
NW EcoBuilding Guild
CUSHION OF CAUTION
Cell phone towers are accused of
causing everything from memory loss to ruining your sex life due to
radio frequency (RF) emissions. People think the emissions cause cancer.
The research states otherwise. Cancer can be caused by ionizing radiation,
but cell phone facilities emit non-ionizing radiation. There is no
confirmed research linking RF emissions to cancer. Additionally, the
FCC regulates radiation levels from telecommunications facilities
and has an extra cushion of caution in their standards. An individual
is exposed to more radiation from existing power lines and from talking
on a hand-held cell phone than standing near a cell phone tower.
RF energy can have biothermal effects, essentially
heating effects. Intense exposure can lead to heat exhaustion, skin
burns, cataracts, or other heat-related problems. To experience this
intensity of exposure, an individual would need to be within a few
feet of the actual antennae for a prolonged period of time. The antennae
are mounted high atop towers or rooftops. The public would never have
this kind of access to the antennas.
Would I want a tower in my backyard? No. Everyone
is entitled to, and most people have, the not-in-my-backyard mentality.
City officials know that and are keeping telecommunications facilities
out of residential areas. It's the not-near-my-place-of-business/school/shopping
center mentality that we need to let go of. The city code and FCC
regulations are looking out for us. They regulate everything from
height, to noise, to location, to RF emissions. If we want to have
the technology that is changing our way of life, we have to tolerate
some changes in the urban landscape as well. Our community will be
the better for it.
Elizabeth Werhane
Eugene
ESSENTIAL NEWS
At a time when the U.S. public is
denied essential information about what happens in Afghanistan, Kate
Rogers Gessert does a service with her reports in EW from alternative,
international sources.
First step to losing our democratic liberties comes
when the government puts a clamp on the public's access to information.
A docile mass media becomes complicit in this conspiracy when they
accept undemocratic limitations on them without complaint.
As a result, we buy the lie that this is a war. Despite
our excessive bombing, this is a police action, not a war. How can
it be war when our few casualties are more from "friendly fire" instead
of enemy weapons? Kate's efforts help us recognize the Bush administration
is pushing the idea of "war" for devious purposes. The war paranoia
it creates in a naive public results in our failure to speak out.
The presidency -- working against us more than for us --
is unhindered by a meek Congress, so it institutes illegal policies
with immunity.
We need to read Kate's essential news; and we need
to speak out.
George Beres
Eugene
JOIN THE DIE-HARDS
I write to express my extreme disappointment
with James Johnston's invitation to mountain bike in muddy conditions
on the Goodman Creek Trail (Outdoors, 12/20). Goodman Creek Trail
is a sensitive and beautiful trail -- a great ride or hike, but
only when it's dry, which is only a few months out of the year.
EW has, whether implicitly or explicitly, long
maintained an anti-mountain bike sentiment, which makes me think the
reason for publishing the article was to entice riders to thrash a
sensitive trail, justifying your crusade against mountain bikers.
But paranoia gets the best of me. More than likely,
it's just the case of a beginning mountain biker with no sense of
trail riding ethics, wanting to pocket 10 or 20 bucks for a story,
combined with an eggnog-induced, year-end editorial lapse in judgment.
The article itself, and the fact that you chose to run it, indicate
that no one on your staff mountain bikes on the local singletrack
(some of the best in the world, according to some international riders),
or Mr. Johnston's article would never have seen the light of day.
So, Mr. Johnston, EW staff and anyone else
who would like to learn about responsible mountain biking while riding
the local winter sweet spots, I invite you to ride with Eugene's own
die-hards, the Disciples of Dirt. Hook up with us via Paul's Bicycle
Way of Life in Oasis Plaza on Willakenzie.
Al Bennett
Creswell
FABULOUS TRAIL
I am writing in response to your
article about mountain biking on the Goodman Creek Trail. This is
a case of irresponsible journalism. When the National Forest trails
get wet and muddy they are no longer suitable for biking. Riding on
these trails in muddy conditions causes severe trail damage. The local
mountain bike club, The Disciples of Dirt, has worked with the land
managers to maintain these trails and educate bikers on proper usage.
We try to inform bikers about the damage that will occur when riding
in wet conditions and we try to point out alternative riding areas.
Your reporter contacted one of our members for information on the
GCT. Here is a piece of the response:
The GCT is a fabulous trail for hiking or biking.
Unfortunately it lies within a very wet valley and should be considered
off limits to bikes -- and probably hikers -- for much of
the year. In an average year, the trail generally does not dry out
enough to be usable until around early August. Between then and when
the rains return in October or November, it is a beautiful place to
be whether on a mountain bike or on foot.
We can expect to see bike usage increase on this very
sensitive trail by people who think it is OK after reading your article.
I can only hope that this will not cause mountain bikers to lose access
to Goodman and other trails. Hopefully the land managers will be able
to identify the truly irresponsible people.
Wes Stephens
Eugene
LITTLE PROGRESS
Once again prevailing white culture
has successfully avoided vital and meaningful discussion of reconciliation
and reparations to Native Americans on their terms.
The Dec. 23rd KLCC airing of "Critical Mass" found
its host Alan Siporin and guests touching only lightly on the real
issues of reparations which as measured by Native Americans themselves
and most indigenous cultures throughout the world have to address
the determination of these first nation people to retain the principal
heritage of their culture. Their religion and the lands which they
hold sacred. The conversation that took place at various times echoed
Concurrent Resolution 108 of the 83rd Congress of the U.S. with no
discernable difference. In 1953 then commissioner of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs Glen Emmons said "Our nation should take a humane and
warmly sympathetic approach toward Native American matters remembering
that these people are human beings and must be treated with dignity
and respect."
The fact that it took a congressional resolution to
remind us that members of Native American tribes were also members
of the human race offers some insight as to how Native Americans were
regarded at the time. And as witnessed by the most recent terror suffered
by Klamath tribal members in Chiloquin at the hands of shotgun-wielding
"greedy ones." And the fact that we have to be reminded again and
again that even resolutions and treaties dealing with the most fundamental
human rights must be upheld and not basely deserted and the first
signal of inconvenience. It is painfully clear that we have made little
progress toward reconciliation.
Raymond Colby
Eugene
TIME FOR SOLIDARITY
When I first read Ann Tattersall's
Dec. 13 "Tough Love" letter, my primary response was "another excellent
letter from an excellent lady who I really admire." I had no idea
it was an "error," (unintended for publication). When the cruel dogs
of war howl loudly, heartfelt criticism of war's atrocities from every
rational quarter is greatly appreciated by all of us who believe in
peaceful resolution of conflicts. It doesn't matter what a person's
other religious/sectarian/national beliefs are, union in opposition
to torture, cruelty and manufactured death is appropriate and, indeed,
necessary if the primitive violence of war is ever to cease. The same
reasoning applies to the atrocities of environmental degradation.
Solidarity in the face of massive 21st century degradation
caused by war and environmental ignorance/carelessness/greed is vital
to the survival of decency. War not, pollute not, preserve constitutional
rights: survive!
Bob Saxton
Eugene
TERRORIST CAPITALISM
The country may be obsessed with
bin Laden and al-Qaeda, but let us not allow ourselves to forget or
ignore, through distraction, other outrages being perpetrated on our
soil against Americans. I am thinking foremost of the collapse of
Enron: Through lies and secret maneuvering, and what was probably
a criminal conspiracy, a few men took down this huge corporation,
while enriching themselves hundreds of millions of dollars. The destruction
they engineered left a pile of economic wreckage and thousands of
innocent human casualties -- employees who have lost their jobs
and their retirement savings -- many of whose lives are effectively
ruined.
This is the face of capitalism, the ugly terrorist
face, and we need protection against its evil-doing as much as against
that of any foreign enemy.
Douglas Leedy
Corvallis
WOMEN & DEMOCRACY
I have been a part of the growing movement for women's rights, grassroots
democracy and speaking up against violence against women. A part of
the "One Planet Indivisible" consciousness is for us as women to recognize
that the pain we feel from the injustices and violence is the same
pain our sisters feel in foreign lands.
More of us are becoming aware of the unspeakable
atrocities they suffer from repressive patriarchal, misogynist regimes.
These women face the whole palate of tortures from forced sexual slavery,
acid attacks, burnings, beatings and more. It is time that all shades
of oppression are relinquished from the slightest condescension of
our fellow women to the gravest torture. I appreciate all of us who
in these times have had the courage to critically examine U.S. foreign
policy. One Afghani woman (former secretary of state) told that these
women want to recover the democracy and voting rights they formerly
enjoyed.
We can sow the seeds of grassroots democracy here
in Oregon, seeds that I hope can spread worldwide. I am currently
petitioning for several statewide initiatives. One is for instant
runoff voting. Visit www.fairvote.org
to find how IRV can empower women and racial minorities.
Ceila (Starshine) Levine
Eugene
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