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News
Briefs: Activist Dies | Options
Unlimited | Journo-Terrorism | Short
Changed | Correction
News:
WEP Whipped -- Planning Commission rejects wetland highway and developers
get testy.
News:
Unlock the Files -- Steven Greer demands UFO disclosure.
News:
Palestine & Israel -- Undercovered #20: More tales of families in crisis.
Happening
People: Sue Moe.
ACTIVIST
DIES
Many forest activists say they are willing to put their
lives on the line to protect ancient trees. Now another one has.
At 7 pm Friday April 12, 22-year-old Beth O'Brien fell more than
100 feet out of a tree at the Eagle Creek timber sale near Portland. She died later
that evening.
O'Brien, known to activists as Horehound, had spent time at the
ongoing treesit in the Clark timber sale near Eugene.
"Treesitting is dangerous," says activist Kim Marks,
who cut her teeth fighting timber sales near Eugene. "Take a moment to recognize
the risks these people take trying to protect our public lands."
Tim Ream, also a veteran of local forest fights who now lives in
Portland, says O'Brien chose not to use a safety line when she climbed up a rope
ladder and fell on Friday night.
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Slant
-- The alternative newspaper biz is a peculiar enterprise, full
of surprises and twists. U.S. history buffs will recognize the name of last week's
Viewpoint author, Leon Czolgosz, as the deranged anarchist who assassinated President
McKinley in 1900. Occasionally fake names get by us, which is embarrassing, but more
significantly the deception reflects poorly on the author and his message. It's hard
to take seriously people who don't have the courage to stand behind their beliefs.
Meanwhile, one of our managers caught a purple-haired fellow downtown last week stuffing
anti-genocide fliers in stacks of EWs. Also, it turns out Peg Morton was mistaken
when in our April 4 issue she said Marshall Kirkpatrick invited and then uninvited
her to be a panel member at the PIELC. It was actually Spruce Houser, the catalyst
for what is probably the best local debate in years on violence. Despite the bickering,
it's great that Eugeneans are attempting an intellectual discussion of violence
a phenomenon of nature that humanity has adopted as a political and social tool.
Hopefully, someday, we shall evolve beyond brutality in all its forms.
-- Kudos to the R-G's Karen McCowan for standing up for
proper words in her April 15 article, "Vagina is Not a Dirty Word&."
A couple of years ago, Carol Horne first brought The Vagina Monologues to
Eugene through the V-Day Initiative, a campaign to end sexual violence against women
that brought together hundreds of colleges throughout the world to simultaneously
stage The Vagina Monologues on Valentine's Day. The play's title was shocking
then to mainstream readers, so shocking the R-G barely ran a mention of the
show in its calendar.
We've come a long way, baby. Now, The Vagina Monologues
is being staged April 30 at the mainstream Hult Center, and in response to the crap
heaped on the Hult for advertising the show and therefore, "that word,"
McCowan ran an article in the R-G where she went so far as to encourage her
readers to sing a little ditty about vaginas. Good for her.
-- The energy in the Oregon enviro movement rocked the ballroom
of the Portland Hilton April 12 at the annual dinner for the environment put on by
the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. More than 700 true believers paid $100
each to shmooze, prod 75 office-holders and candidates, and hear author David James
Duncan fire away at forces of darkness. Even Kitzhaber had difficulty quieting the
crowd to give the speakers a chance.
Jonathan Poisner, OLCV executive director, put out the most promising
numbers for the Oregon environment in the May and November 2002 elections. He predicted
that 1,300 volunteers would make more than 100,000 phone calls for the right candidates.
He also is expecting to spend close to $300,000 this year in direct candidate work.
That's double the amount spent in 2000..
Some of that phoning and fund-raising will be done by the OLCV
chapter in Lane county. Other chapters work in Clackamas, Lincoln, Marion, Multnomah,
and Washington counties. Two new chapters have been added this year in Jackson and
Deschutes counties.
This year OLCV is celebrating its 30th year as an organization,
as Poisner put it, "marking three decades of using the political process to
protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the future our children deserve."
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled
by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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There have been no accidents at the two ongoing treesits at Clark
and North Winberry near Eugene.
"With all that's happened -- four years at Fall Creek (Clark)
and three years at North Winberry and now someone has died -- there are still people
willing to go out in the rain and the snow and climb up into trees and risk their
lives."
Germ is one such person. Talking on a cell phone from 130 feet
up a North Winberry cedar tree named Life, he joined others in calling O'Brien's
death "tragic." He said he wasn't personally afraid because he takes safety
very seriously.
The biggest tragedy is that the battle to save Eagle Creek from
the saw was almost won. Sen. Ron Wyden's office announced early last week that the
sale would be canceled; activists remained in the trees until they could see the
final paperwork, which was signed on Monday.
Veteran forest activist Mick Garvin of Eugene called the timing
"one of those sick little coincidences that fate throws at you."
"My take on Beth's death is that it was a great place to die,
a great way to go, and she was doing good work when it happened." --Orna
Izakson
OPTIONS
UNLIMITED
Hammer like a girl? Want to weld iron? Ever thought that
nursing and secretary jobs might not ring your girlish chimes?
In today's world girls can be anything when they grow up, we are
told, but not all girls are getting the message. Middle school girls still show diminished
skills in math and too many don't look outside the box when it comes to dreaming
a future for themselves.
LCC is dedicating Saturday, April 20, to showing about 300 local
girls the multitude of non-traditional options open to them in future employment.
Options Unlimited, a one-day conference for middle and high school
girls, allows them to literally try their hands at different trades, technical and
environmental skills. This is the third year of the free conference, but the first
one held since 1999.
More than 28 hands-on workshops will give girls an opportunity
to have fun and learn while creating tile mosaics, developing web pages, producing
a radio news program, wiring electrical circuits, building tool boxes and welding
candle holders, to name just a few. Women professionals in these jobs will guide
girls and share experiences.
"I wish it were true that we have reached equity," says
organizer Donna LaRosa, herself a lifelong carpenter and woodworker. "Women
in the trades, which includes many apprenticeship programs, are still very underrepresented
in terms of gender."
Equal pay for equal work and equal access to jobs are such old
ideas as to be surely a done deal by this year of 2002. Au contraire, says LaRosa.
Local institutions and businesses are still being successfully sued on gender discrimination
charges, and women are still struggling to get out of the pink job ghetto.
Studies indicate that the sooner girls are introduced to possibilities,
the more likely they are to consider different options.
"We feel that the skills we are offering the girls also will
help them with life-empowering skills that enhance their self esteem and contribute
to their potential to be self-sufficient adults. The demystifying of these non-traditional
skills is very empowering."
Jeanne Staton, president and owner of the construction company
named after her, will be one of the main speakers along with KPNW radio personality
Nancy Steele.
The Encore Theater and University of Oregon women's basketball
players will entertain. Sessions are planned for parents, teachers and counselors
on supporting girls' choices in non-traditional careers.
Options will be held at the main LCC campus Saturday from 8:30
am to 3:30 pm Registration is required in advance. Lunch is included, and door prizes
will be given out. Spanish interpreters will be provided upon request.
More information is available from LaRosa, 463-5722, rosed@lanecc.edu,
or at the LCC Women's Program, 453-5353. -- Jule Wind
JOURNO-TERRORISM
Since 1977, one political group has perpetrated more than
59,000 acts of violence in the U.S. including seven murders, 17 attempted murders,
41 bombings, 165 arsons, three kidnappings, 122 assaults, 343 death threats and most
recently, 480 anthrax threats.
Since 1991, another political group has vandalized or destroyed
property 69 times without killing or injuring anyone.
Which group is the greatest domestic terrorist threat in the U.S.?
If you answered the first group, you're wrong according to the FBI and The New
York Times.
The first group is anti-abortionists and the second is "eco-terrorists."
The crime statistics are reported by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)
and by The Oregonian. In the eyes of the FBI and the mainstream media,
whether your political violence is right-wing or left-wing appears to make all the
difference.
The NYT Magazine proclaimed in a headline on its cover last
week, "The Color of Domestic Terrorism is Green." The Earth Liberation
Front "remains one of the nation's most active and destructive domestic terrorist
organizations," the magazine reported, describing potential environmental "bomb
throwers and assassins."
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WebSitings
Plan a Vacation
The state Tourism Commission lists suggested itineraries
for 2-4 day road trips throughout the state.
Conspiracy
Theories
The Conspiracy Theory Research List offers badly written
essays, FAQs about conspiracy theories in general, and research resources for those
so inclined.
More Links:
WebSitings
Archive
WebSitings is a list of useful and sometimes quirky web sites.
Care to contribute to the list? Send suggested sites and a short description to editor@eugeneweekly.com
|
Last week, The Oregonian also focused on "eco-terrorists"
with a long front page article. The Oregonian reported on a Congressional
hearing held by anti-environmental House Republicans, some of whom "drew no
distinction between the extremists behind the Sept. 11 attacks that killed thousands
and the homegrown saboteurs who have burned down and occasionally bombed buildings."
The FBI's domestic terrorism chief testified that eco-terror groups "had become
the nation's most destructive domestic extremist groups," The Oregonian
reported.
"Eco-terrorism is a threat that directly affects the lives
of millions of Americans who live in our communities, work in local businesses, attend
universities, and enjoy our public lands," Republican Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.)
said in a press release.
The media and right-wing hype has already lead to a harsh crackdown
by law enforcement. The NYT and Oregonian reported on the Eugene cases
of Jeff Luers and Craig Marshall. Marshall plead guilty to torching two SUVs at the
Romania dealership and got six years in prison. Luers, convicted of the same SUV
arson and of trying to torch an empty fuel tanker, got 22 years in prison. By comparison,
the national average sentence for murderers convicted in federal court is 20 years;
armed robbers average six years and assaulters two years.
The NYT reported that "eco-terrorists" are on
a "crime spree" since Sept. 11th, citing several incidents in which no
one was hurt. Ironically, The Oregonian reported that incidents have
"subsided since last summer, perhaps due to law enforcement crackdowns."
"Serious cases of eco-terrorism took a precipitous plunge
after July 16, when the Earth Liberation Front set fire to an oil company building
in suburban Detroit. Since then, eco-terrorists have been tied to just six major
crimes, compared to 21 during the same period last year. The last major act of eco-terrorism
in the United States occurred more than two months ago," The Oregonian
reported. -- Alan Pittman
SHORT CHANGED
The U.S. military got only 5 percent of the federal budget
in Eugene's annual War Tax Resistance Penny Poll on April 15. About 250 people participated
in this year's poll, conducted at the Free Speech area, Saturday Market, and at the
Downtown Post Office.
Each participant was given 10 pennies to distribute in jars as
they see fit, says Sue Barnhart of the War Tax Resisters group. Five federal budget
categories were available for the polling. General Government got 203 pennies for
9 percent; National Debt got 283 pennies for 11 percent; Human Resources got 1331
pennies for 53 percent; Physical Resources got 564 pennies for 22 percent, and Military
got 127 pennies for 5 percent.
CORRECTION
The Great Peace OM In was incorrectly listed in last week's
paper as occurring on Saturday, May 12, but it should have read Sunday, May 12.
Back to Top
WEP
Whipped
Planning Commission
rejects wetland
highway and developers get testy.
By Alan
Pittman
The battle over the West Eugene Parkway (WEP) is getting hot again
after the Eugene Planning Commission slammed the wetland highway and lawyers for
angry developers fired off a letter threatening to sue individual city councilors
if they vote against the WEP and reduce the profits they hope to gain from land speculation.
"It just really shows how desperate they are," says Citizens
for Public Accountability member Jan Spencer, referring to the developers' letter.
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Planning Commissioners
Art Farley (left) and Marlene Colbath.
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The letter from Portland lawyers for "Greg Demers, Frontier Resources
and other affected landowners" warns that "if the city of Eugene kills
the parkway project, it is exposing itself to significant liability." The developers
argue that if the highway isn't built, "many landowners in the vicinity of the
parkway will be deprived of their reasonable investment-backed expectations"
and may sue councilors for damages "on a personal basis."
Rob Zako of Friends of Eugene described the developers threat as
"uncivil and outrageous" and "flimsy" legally. "Morally,
I think it's really offensive."
Spencer says threatening councilors could be a "major backfire"
for developers. "When people start being threatened, they raise their hackles."
Mary Kyle McCurdy, a staff attorney with 1000 Friends of Oregon,
says the threat to sue lacks legal merit. "This is fairly extreme," she
says. "I've never seen a letter saying if you don't build a particular road
project, we're going to sue." Public officials aren't required to guarantee
profits for land speculators, she says. "It's like investing in the stock market."
Rather than warn of any real legal threat, McCurdy says the developers
are "attempting to intimidate the City Council."
Councilor Betty Taylor says she isn't intimidated by the "threat"
from developers and plans to vote against the WEP. "It's just an attempt to
coerce people."
Councilor Scott Meisner, a swing vote on WEP in the past, did not
return a call requesting comment.
Frontier Resources and its President Greg Demers stand to make
huge profits on land speculation if the WEP is built. Frontier owns at least 214
acres of land near the highway's western end that could be developed into shopping
malls, housing tracts, and commercial and industrial buildings with easy highway
access.
Frontier/Demers was the largest single contributor ($12,500) to
the successful campaign to pass a WEP advisory vote last November. Developer, speculator,
construction and other pro-sprawl interests spent a record $120,000 on their campaign,
three times more than opponents. The $6.70 per vote bought a narrow, 1 percent victory.
Many of those same developers and sprawl lobbyists showed up April
15 to watch the Planning Commission vote unanimously to reject wetlands plan changes
and state planning goal exceptions needed to build the WEP. The commission also voted
five to one to reject proposed revisions to the regional transportation plan (TransPlan)
needed for WEP.
The City Council will consider the advice of the commission when
it decides whether or not to approve planning changes for the WEP next month.
Councilor Taylor says she's never heard of the City Council rejecting
a unanimous recommendation from the Planning Commission. "I don't think it's
ever happened."
Planning commissioners expressed frustration that the proposal
to amend TransPlan to include WEP disregarded a decade-long planning process for
the regional transportation plan.
TransPlan was "carefully balanced" between competing
needs for cars and alternative modes, says Commissioner Charles Rusch. "I hear
no work trying to balance this new system" with the WEP.
Commissioner Art Farley says he finds it "confusing and frustrating"
that the commission is now asked to include the WEP in TransPlan. During the elaborate
TransPlan process of prioritizing road projects, Farley says, "it was clear
the parkway was not a top priority."
Commissioner Anne Marie Levis, who once ran for the City Council
with backing from the Chamber of Commerce, agrees. "We went through this whole
process and now we have to throw it away with the WEP," she says. "Its
annoying."
Rusch says instead of prioritizing projects, "here we are
saying we're throwing darts or we're letting the feds tell us what we're going to
do. I think it's just crazy," he says. "I think we have a good process
here and we ought to stay with it."
Commission President John Belcher says building the WEP will increase
the number of people who drive alone and the distance people drive, contrary to state
transportation goals. "It's very frustrating to me."
Commissioner Marlene Colbath, a former municipal finance officer,
says she found it "incredibly frustrating" that the explanations of how
exactly the city will pay for the WEP using limited funding keep changing. "The
dart board keeps moving."
Farley says revising the West Eugene Wetlands Plan to allow the
destruction of 50 acres of wetlands is inappropriate. The wetlands were already planned
for protection in the plan, he says. "This policy clearly says you're too late,
find another place."
Farley says reducing traffic congestion on West 11th could be accomplished
without building the western end of the project through rare wetlands. "We can
meet the needs without going that far."
Belcher says the WEP threatens the city's multi-million dollar
investment in protecting west Eugene wetlands. "Building a highway through the
wetlands is going to have a significant impact on the wetlands we spent so much money
to create."
As for the proposed mitigation for destroying the wetlands "we
don't even know if it's going to work," says Commissioner Adell McMillan. It
would be "inappropriate" to vote to destroy the wetlands before knowing
the quality of and location of any mitigation, she says.
Commissioners voted unanimously to pass a resolution expressing
concern with the lack of information and analysis to support the WEP. "I'm really
uncomfortable with making recommendations to the council with the lack of information
we have," Belcher says.
Belcher says the WEP is "diametrically opposed" to the
state planning goal of limiting urban sprawl. "Constructing this road is going
to encourage development outside the Urban Growth Boundary."
Terry Connolly, lobbyist for the Eugene Chamber of Commerce, called
the planning commission vote "very disappointing." He says, "We would
expect the City Council to give a lot more attention to the [November] public vote."
But Zako of FoE says the council should respect the expertise and
time the Planning Commission devoted to studying the WEP issue. If the council ignores
the commission, "it raises the question of why we have a Planning Commission,"
he says.
Back to Top
Unlock
the Files
Steven Greer demands
UFO disclosure.
By George
Beres
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Steven Greer
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Aliens and Unidentified Flying Objects -- subjects of skepticism and
derision for much of the past half century -- take on a more serious coloring in
Eugene April 25. That's when the individual most responsible for sustaining serious
investigation into the phenomena will speak about The Disclosure Project.
Dr. Steven Greer, who left a thriving medical career to explore
the extraterrestrial question, speaks at 7 pm in the Hilton Conference Center. He
founded The Disclosure Project, an independent research organization that has interviewed
and catalogued testimony from more than 450 government, military, and intelligence
service witnesses willing to document their experiences with UFOs.
That willingness is important because early history of such documentation
often has been the butt of jokes and ridicule. Greer, head of the project, explains
that such reactions also were based on mass denial, a public unwillingness to address
what he feels would be the most significant development of human history.
His view is based on testimony of credible witnesses about UFOs
visiting Earth. Greer has documentation from military and government witnesses he
believes is incontrovertible. The project's claim is that extraterrestrial craft
have been recovered from crash sites and kept secret by the government while it explores
them with what is called reverse engineering. A legal concern is raised when the
secrecy of such study subverts the constitutionally mandated powers of elected officials.
"One reason why it is important to make such activities public,"
said Greer, "is their potential for giving us solutions to global environmental
challenges and dangers. The amazing energy and propulsion technologies uncovered
in these studies could be capable of replacing Earth's needs for fossil fuel and
nuclear energies."
He says if these studies are declassified and put to peaceful uses,
they could give humanity the power to create a civilization without want, poverty
or environmental damage. Even for doubters, the implications of this testimony demand
congressional hearings to get to the truth of the matter. As Greer says, "The
future of humanity could be in the balance."
Additional witnesses gained courage to contact the Project after
the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., invited Greer and some of his original
witnesses to appear at its May 9 press conference last year.
Last winter, 50 Eugeneans met at a private home to view videotapes
of the news conference and related evidence. Among them were two city councilors
and a county commissioner. A measure of uncertainty -- if not skepticism -- remained
in some by the close of the evening. But they were unanimous in urging that Greer
be brought to Eugene so they could pursue questions in greater detail.
One of its most demanding challenges is to convince the public
that instead of philosophical fantasy, evidence of visits to earth by extraterrestrials
is a practical reality.
"Even evidence we are being visited by non-human advanced
life forms," says Greer, "seems to many to be irrelevant in a world of
global warming, crushing poverty and the threat of war. In the face of these visible
challenges to human future, their view is the question of UFOs and secret government
projects is a mere sideshow. Based on what we have found, that attitude could be
a catastrophic mistake."
Among the surprises in the project's discoveries is that other
countries also have UFO evidence that they keep classified, and that the space visitor
reality has been known -- with downed space vehicles retrieved -- since as early
as the 1930s.
Greer speaks of recovered spacecraft revealing energy generation
and anti-gravity propulsion systems capable of completely and permanently replacing
all forms of our energy generation and transportation systems. So-called zero point
production of energy could eliminate pollution related to oil, coal and gas sources.
Oil spills, global warming, illnesses from air pollution and acid rain could be avoided.
Greer stresses that open disclosure of the existence of such space
vehicles and their study could enable us to avoid the environmental collapse that
looms. "If we do nothing, our civilization will collapse environmentally, economically,
geopolitically and socially," says Greer. "It is clear to scientists that
within 20 years, fossil fuel and oil demand will outstrip supply by a great margin.
Then look out for the `Mad Max' scenario where everyone is warring over the last
barrel of oil, with social disaster occurring even before the environmental catastrophe."
He believes extraterrestrials pose no threat to humanity, because
"any interstellar visitor could terminate our civilization in a nanosecond,
if it wanted."
Greer says he is on a mission against super-secret projects that
answer to no legally constituted body. The secret government that recently began
to be discussed in the U.S. is the kind of "rogue operation" Greer fears
may be at the root of the secrecy. He does not blame the CIA, Pentagon nor major
political figures, but believes they are among those victimized by the secrecy.
"If we allow the secret, shadowy side of our society to grow,
we lose our chance to solve the world's problems," says Greer. He subscribes
to the Chinese proverb, "Unless we change directions, we are likely to wind
up where we are going."
Back to Top
Palestine
& Israel
Undercovered #20:
More tales of families in crisis.
By Kate
Rogers Gessert
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Internationals escort
an ambulance through Bethlehem last week.
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-- Josina Manu, Will Doolittle's daughter, returned to the U.S. April
12 (see "Families in Bethlehem" cover story last week). Joe and Liv Gessert
have airplane tickets for April 19. Eugene resident Ibrahim Hamide's family remains
in Bethlehem, where residents have stayed inside for two weeks under army curfew.
Curfew has been lifted twice for two hours. Ibrahim's brother Mo waited in line to
buy bread, but without success, so now his wife bakes bread. The gas canisters she
cooks with are almost empty, with no more available. To save food, Mo's family embarked
on a one-week fast, eating after sunset, and now eat one to two meals a day (Ibrahim
Hamide.)
-- Internationals continued riding in Bethlehem ambulances to protect
drivers. When internationals attempted to deliver food to residents of the old city,
hungry Palestinians came outside and argued over the food, and Israeli soldiers shot
at everyone and blew up nearby cars (Joe Gessert.) International Red Cross made two
successful food deliveries (ICRC). Franciscan friars, nuns, and Palestinians inside
the Church of the Nativity, encircled for two weeks by Israeli tanks, finally ran
out of food and water (Independent.). Israelis placed loudspeakers around
the church and played recordings of sirens (Scotsman).
-- Jenin camp, a one-kilometer-square home to 15,000 refugees, half
of them children and elderly, is known to Israelis as the "cobra's head"
of Palestinian terrorism. Last week, Jenin gunmen fought Israeli soldiers with rifles
and explosives. Gunmen and civilians were shelled in the street, killed in their
houses by missiles from attack helicopters, buried or crushed as houses were bulldozed.
Or they bled to death of their wounds in the street. Twenty-two Israelis and hundreds
of Palestinians died. Israeli soldiers kept ambulances and journalists away as they
dug mass graves (Independent).
-- During two-and-a-half weeks of "Operation Defensive Shield,"
ambulances have been able to reach only 10 percent of patients (Red Crescent) and
Palestinians have died because soldiers obstructed ambulances (International Red
Cross, World Health Organization). In Bethlehem, Fahima Najara died when her cancer
medication ran out during curfew and soldiers stopped the ambulance. In Hebron, Basma
Qaissyah was shot in the back and died of her wounds three hours later, before soldiers
allowed an ambulance to reach her (www.btselem.org). Ambulances have been shot at
and destroyed by Israeli tanks, hospitals stormed by soldiers, doctors and medics
led away in handcuffs. Medical supplies oxygen, blood, antibiotics are dwindling
(Guardian).
-- "Ambulance drivers are heroes, they have to shut off their
fear. The ambulance driver we rode with has 10 family members and he doesn't know
where they are. He was driving in tears" (Beth Daoud, international in Nablus).
-- Palestinians have been shot dead when they stuck their heads
out of windows (Washington Post) or ventured outdoors during breaks in curfew.
Prisoners have been beaten, tortured, used as human shields, burned with cigarettes,
denied food, water, and permission to urinate, kept for days blindfolded and handcuffed
in their underwear, and given water mixed with urine to drink (www.btselem.org and Scotsman).
-- Many Palestinian homes, businesses, mosques, historical monuments,
water and sewage pipes, electrical systems and public buildings have been demolished,
including numerous public buildings funded by the European Union.
-- From March 30 to April 12, an estimated 200 to 500 Palestinians
have died, of which the Israeli military claims 15 as major fugitives; 28 Israeli
soldiers have died; suicide bombings claimed 32 deaths and scores wounded; 337 Palestinians
have been wounded and 149 Israeli soldiers; 4,185 Palestinians have been arrested,
including 28 Red Crescent paramedics. Thousands are still in custody (Guardian).
-- From September 2000 through April 13, 2002, Red Crescent medical
society has counted 1,421 Palestinian deaths, among them 234 Palestinian children,
and 18,958 injuries. Israeli deaths, including those from suicide bombings, number
approximately one-third of Palestinian deaths, and also include the deaths of children
(Palestine Red Crescent).
-- A Time/CNN Poll showed that most Americans believe the U.S.
should halt or reduce economic and military aid to Israel if Sharon does not immediately
withdraw troops from Palestinian areas (Reuters).
-- Protests against the Israeli invasion of Palestine flared around
the Arab world and the West. On April 13, 15,000 people marched in London and 10,000
throughout Germany. In Amsterdam a crowd of 10,000 turned violent. In Leicestershire,
England, protesters occupied a Caterpillar tractor plant April 11 and leafletted
workers, urging a slowdown. Caterpillar makes the armored bulldozers that crush Palestinian
houses (www.rapprochement.org). South African women chained themselves to Pretoria U.N. headquarters,
demanding a multinational protective force for Palestine (South African Women for
Palestine).
-- April 6, some 20,000 peace protesters marched in Tel Aviv. In
Galilee, Israeli activists stand beside the road with a sign, "Israel is in
danger. The occupation is killing us" (Avishai Pearlson). Women in Black, who
have held peace vigils each week for 15 years, were recently teargassed by soldiers
(AlterNet).
-- On April 13, the day after the last suicide bombing, 5,000 Jews
and Arabs from a dozen Israeli peace organizations loaded 31 trucks with food, water,
and supplies for Jenin and accompanied the trucks to the Jenin checkpoint. Soldiers
allowed the trucks through but then held them there. Under intense pressure from
lawyers and activists, the army allowed two U.N. trucks to reload and slowly deliver
the desperately needed supplies (Coalition of Women for a Just Peace).
-- The number of Israel Army reservists refusing to report for
duty on the West Bank or Gaza recently rose to 417, with 39 soldiers and officers
in military prisons for refusing to serve there. The letter which refuseniks are
signing reads in part, "We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders
in order to dominate, expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people" (www.seruv.org.il).
Back to Top
 Sue
Moe
North Eugene High School science teacher Sue Moe points
to a view of the Magellanic Clouds superimposed on the Andromeda Galaxy. Moe saw
the Magellanic Clouds (part of our own galaxy) on a tour of the Australian outback
in the early '70s. "I taught for two years in Adelaide," she notes. "I
enjoyed that. I climbed Ayers Rock twice." A Eugenean since age 6 and a UO grad,
Moe returned home and taught at several schools before landing at NEHS in 1983. In
19 years at North, she has always taught astronomy. "Sue offers the only astronomy
class in the 4J District," observes Barbara Shaw, president of the Eugene Astronomical
Society. Last month, the Murdock Charitable Trust announced a $14,000 grant to Moe
for two years of summer research at Lewis and Clark University. "I'll be looking
at eclipsing binary stars," she says. "I'll use a CCD camera to compare
brightness over time." This Saturday, April 20, NEHS will host the astronomical
society's Astronomy Day 2002, a free public event. Afternoon (1:30 t0 5) and evening
(7 to 10) sessions will feature many indoor exhibits and activities, plus outdoor
sunspot/star viewing if weather permits.
-- Photo by Paul Neevel
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