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Viewpoint:
Essential Services -- Fire bond measure on the ballot would
solve problems.
Natural
Resistance: Takers & Leavers -- Which exceptions
to the rule will bring extinction?
Living
Out: Getting There: No longer half the fun.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Essential Services
Fire bond measure on the ballot would solve problems.
It has been my privilege to serve Eugene as your fire
chief for the past two-and-a-half years. In this month's primary election,
Eugene voters are being asked to make a decision that concerns the
department. The question is whether to fund, through general obligation
bonds, construction of a new downtown fire station and a live fire
training building. I am writing to provide information pertinent to
that question.
Eugene City Hall, which houses the Downtown Fire Station,
was built in 1964. It was not constructed to today's higher standards
for effective seismic resistance of an "essential services" facility,
and examinations of the structure over the years have revealed that
it could not withstand even a moderate temblor.
The fact that emergency response personnel work in
the building means that the implications of this go beyond employee
safety, extending to the possibility of actually reducing the department's
ability to respond to those in need during a natural or other disaster.
The Eugene City Council, in approving the bond measure
for the ballot, recognized that a new downtown fire station would
increase the department's emergency response capability and, at the
same time, address these other issues:
-- It would reduce response times to under-served portions
of Eugene because it would be located more strategically in relation
to the fire stations in surrounding areas, and because it would be
designed with drive-through apparatus bays, reducing maneuvering time.
-- It would provide accommodations more appropriate
to the 24-hour habitation of the dual-gender work force now employed
in the local fire service.
-- It would provide the space for the special team
and emergency medical services functions now performed by the department.
-- It would allow adequate space, and improved public
accessibility, for Eugene's Fire Marshal's Office, which has responsibility
for fire code enforcement, special assembly and display permits, building
plan reviews, and fire investigation, among other duties.
The measure before voters in this election asks whether the city
should issue $8.68 million in bonds. Of this figure, the new Downtown
Fire Station would cost approximately $7.69 million. The remaining
$990,000 would be used to augment the department's training facilities
with a state-of-the-art live fire training structure -- what
firefighters call a "burn building."
Repayment of these general obligation bonds would
cost $16 per year for the owner of an average house in Eugene (valued
at $143,000).
All firefighters, no matter where they are assigned,
or what phase of their career they are in, need to have the opportunity
to regularly experience real fire conditions. The live fire training
structure would provide these types of conditions safely, in a controlled
setting. Having a dedicated burn building would mean that fires could
be ignited repeatedly within the structure to simulate various types
of drills, and its interior configuration could be altered so that
the floor plan and scenario would not become repetitive.
The live fire training structure is expensive because
of the very strict construction and safety standards that must be
applied to a structure of this type. However, because of the tightly
regulated construction requirements, the structure is expected to
have a useful life span of 40 to 50 years. Having this facility in
Eugene would relieve the community of the expense of sending firefighters
elsewhere for live fire training, and would allow the department to
schedule these drills as local needs dictate.
The burn building also would offer an environmental
improvement over the current practice of burning old houses for training
purposes. This practice, known as "burn to learn," has come under
increasing criticism because the residues are washed into the storm
sewer system and ultimately -- unfiltered -- into natural
waterways. The new facility would allow the department to discontinue
its reliance on burn-to-learn exercises.
The outcome of this vote notwithstanding, I give you
my personal assurance that Eugene's Fire & EMS Department will
continue to spare no effort in providing quality service to this community.
Thank you for the trust you have placed in us.
Tom Tallon is fire chief of the Eugene Fire &
EMS Department.
Back to Top
Takers
& Leavers
Which
exception to the rule will bring extinction?
BARREL SPRINGS, CALIF. -- It's a poignant
setting in which to catch up on reading about
the Endangered Species Act (ESA). I've brought three papers with me,
chronicling how the act has been written and amended by Congress;
attached and defended for four decades; and applied by the two agencies
charged with enforcing it: the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
and national Marine Fisheries Service.
I'm reading these papers while backpacking 23 days
on the Pacific Crest Trail, a walking path stretching 2,500 miles
from Mexico to Canada. My husband and I started walking near the Mexican
border and will leave the trail at a pass 200 miles further north.
So far: mountains cloaked with impenetrable chaparral,
forests of Jeffrey pine and all manner of oaks -- black, coast
live, scrub, canyon. Desert slopes of agave, yucca, a dozen kinds
of cacti and flowers smaller than half an ant.
Acorn woodpeckers have pounded thousands of acorns
into Jeffrey pine trunks, so they can later dine on insects that bore
inside. Black-throated swifts zoom downslope, the only sound the wind
whistling through their wings. Snakes streak across the path, lizards
leap between rocks and mule deer bound upslope. Cactus wrens sing
into the face of drought, heat and silence, These are public lands,
left by people who thought, cared and acted for future generations.
The history of our nation's Endangered Species Act
is one of great debates. Some Congress members, scientists and environmentalists
have said we don't know what we're doing to the fabric of life when
we rip out one species after another. Some have noted that much of
the world is run by the smallest species; and that we should err on
the side of protection and recovery for species we have driven to
the edge.
Other Congress members' industry and business representatives,
ranchers, and some state agencies have sought to limit and weaken
the Act. Some have referred to certain species as "useless;" or asked
for exemptions, e.g., for a dam. Others have said that when an endangered
species is in the way of development, it should be moved elsewhere,
that extinction is "natural;" or that states should decide the fate
of the species. They have said we should err on the side of human
industry whenever scientists can't prove it will make a particular
endangered species go extinct.
Then there is the history of the USFWS and the NMFS;
how they refuse to ask for money needed to list the thousand-plus
candidate species nearing extinction; how they have largely retreated
from recovering endangered species, instead focusing on permitting
activities that will kill ("take") more individuals of an endangered
species. After all, listing more species means more conflicts with
developers; recovery requires some humans and industries to change
habits; and who can prove that one more "take" permit will be the
straw that breaks the endangered species' back?
Dusk is arriving. A hawkmoth, seeking nectar,
is hovering near our camping gear. It reminds me of Fender's blue
butterfly, hovering near extinction back home. I think of how the
USFWS states that only half a dozen populations of these small butterflies
still exist on public lands; all of these sites are threatened by
small size and invasive weeds (which threaten Kincaid's lupine, the
plant to which Fender's blue butterfly entrusts its larvae); and an
"unquantifiable" number of these butterflies will be killed by vehicles
if the West Eugene Parkway is built through its wetlands -- even
so, says the USFWS, here's another "take" permit for your highway.
This is one reason I'm reading these three papers
while backpacking: I want to learn why the USFWS hands out "take"
permits like candy and when the courts have called them on it. I want
to read what "leavers" have said -- those Congress members, citizens,
judges and scientists who have worked to elevate this nation above
the dead end of taking, taking, taking.
Far from the fray for a few short weeks and surrounded
by rooted, hovering and four-legged relations, my heart, gratitude
and admiration go to my nations' and community's "leavers."
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
PRIDE
A
Day to Remember.
Pop Quiz: Of a.) Michael Jackson, b.) Stonewall Jackson,
or c.) The Stonewall Rebellion, which is celebrated around the world
by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, intersexed,
queer, and questioning people and our allies every year?
If you picked "c" congratulations.
On June 29, 1969 in New York City, during a routine
raid on a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn, the patrons, fed up with
constant police harassment, kicked, screamed and refused to get into
the paddy wagons. They ripped up parking meters, threw Molotov cocktails
and otherwise blew the minds of the police, who never expected mild-mannered
dykes and sissies to go so berserk. Gay people and allies from all
over Greenwich Village joined the melee and rioted in the streets
for four days while the world watched on TV. The Stonewall Rebellion
brought attention to gay people's struggle for equality and justice
under the law (which, 33 years later, in case you're keeping tabs,
we still don't have.)
But everyone already knows all that, right? Don't
students learn about Stonewall in grade school where their teachers
hand out little rainbow-striped Gay Pride flag outlines to color in?
Don't news commentators review the Stonewall Rebellion every year
and discuss its profound significance? Don't rabbis and ministers
give special sermons on Gay Pride Day to remind their flocks to love
your neighbor, regardless of sexual orientation? No? Wait. Let me
sit down. I am shocked. You mean to tell me that every year I traipse
around a grassy park all day without enough sun screen on, listening
to music, eating chocolate dipped ice cream, and running into old
lovers and friends whose names I suddenly realize I no longer remember,
all in celebration of a holiday you didn't even know about?
Gay Pride Day has happened every year since Stonewall,
but it is NOT pre-printed in my Day Runner date book like other important
occasions: "June Bank Holiday - Ireland" for example. (And I mean
no offense to Irish bankers.) But we're a strong people and we're
not going to let a little thing like being left out of the calendar
keep us from asserting our right to tromp through the grass risking
sunburn and forgetting old friends' names. Every year hundreds of
thousands of us bravely come out of the closet (or the boardroom or
the PTA or wherever) and participate in Gay Pride Day celebrations.
We gather in communities around the world to celebrate human diversity,
lobby for equality and drip melting chocolate on our T-shirts.
It might be a little tricky to find out about Gay
Pride events where you live, especially if your town doesn't have
its own gay newspaper. You could try looking it up on the Internet,
but beware. If you type in "gay" or "lesbian" you'll get some tacky
porn site run by seedy little men exercising what they call their
"freedom of speech" and you'll end up with a kazillion e-mail spams
inviting you to ENLARGE YOUR PENIS!!!! I get these messages every
day and I sure wish I knew whom to call to say that we don't even
have any penises in our house. But it's just as hard (excuse the expression)
to stop the EARN $6,000 A WEEK WORKING FROM HOME!!!! messages that
fill my email in-box. I have yet to get a message that says "ACHIEVE
EQUAL RIGHTS!"
That's the message you'll get at Gay Pride Day. Once
you find out where it is, come on out, so to speak. Everybody's welcome.
Only when we stand together as allies can we stop the gay bashing
and discrimination that hurts us all. I would love to see you there.
Come join the festivities in the park and groove on the music, listen
to speakers, sign a petition, buy a rainbow bumper sticker, and meet
some new people. Heck, I'll even introduce you to my friends, if I
can remember their names.
The Eugene/Springfield, and Greater Lane County11th
Annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender PRIDE Day Celebration
will be from 11 am to 8 pm Saturday, June 22, at Alton Baker Park, $5
donation. Call 342-1490 or visit www.theequalityproject.org
for more details.
Back to Top
BEING
MANIPULATED
Voters in Eugene are being
asked to approve bond measures for School Distrct 4J, new library
services, and a new fire station. Half the members of the City Council
and the mayor voted to grant Hynix three more years of property tax
exemptions, costing the city $800,000 each year. The council then
voted to ask citizens to pay increased property taxes to finance additional
library and public safety needs. At the time the exemption was granted,
Hynix had already filed a property tax appeal with the assessor, a
fact known to city employees but concealed from the City Council during
their discussion of the tax exemption. Now the city will lose tax
revenue both from devaluation of the Hynix plant and from granting
the tax exemption. I feel like I am being manipulated.
If all three bond measures are approved, property
taxes for Eugeneans living within the 4J district will increase by
12 percent from what they would be if these measures were not approved.
Each measure only contributes a small amount per thousand assessed
valuation, but together will cost the owner of an "average" home approximately
$230. I believe that an increase of this magnitude is unwarranted.
Inflation is low, the economy of the region is suffering and needed
tax revenue was relinquished for corporate welfare. Although I have
never voted against school district or library measures,I know of
no other effective way to communicate that it is not all right with
me to ask voters to approve high tax increases on citizens with fixed
incomes while decreasing taxes on corporations such as Hynix.
Howard Bonnet
Eugene
DESTROYING
FREEDOM
Regarding "Marijuana March"
(5/2): Your federal government must really hate its citizens. Ashcroft,
Bush et al now preside over the largest prison population since Nazi
Germany. With 700 of every 100,000 citizens in jail compared to 115
in Canada and 50 in Europe it appears to me that in spite of all the
rhetoric about freedom in the U.S. your government is busy destroying
it completely.
If you folks ever get fed up you are welcome back
any time.
Chuck Beyer
Victoria, B.C.
EVERY
VOTE COUNTS
As we look ahead to the primary
election in under two weeks, we see the Democratic race for governor
in a statistical dead heat. In addition, the polls indicate that the
vote in Lane County will probably decide the outcome of the entire
primary. Now more than ever, every vote counts.
The people of this county must make a decision that
will affect our state for years to come. With the highest unemployment
in the nation, Oregon needs a Governor who will create jobs and stimulate
the economy. Bev Stein is the only candidate who has created a full,
detailed plan about how she intends to get Oregon working again.
The first step in rebuilding the economy is improving
our schools. The Legislature has stripped away funding for education,
and in order to create jobs in our state, we first have to get our
funding back and get our people educated in both traditional schools
and vocational training.
Stein intends to do just that. She has identified
alternative sources of revenue that our state can use to prevent further
cuts in education, and she has committed to bringing our educational
system back to greatness.
Many people have the impression that one vote does
not matter, but I assure you it does. In this close election, even
a few votes can change the outcome. Let's make the right choice and
cast these votes for Stein.
Kari Isaacson
Eugene
FACTUAL
ERRORS
While I respect the right
of EW to endorse whomever the editors choose in elections,
your editorial as well as your article on the County Commissioner
Position 2 (Springfield/east Eugene) race contained a few factual
errors.
First, you state in your editorial that I have alienated
Democrats. The facts are that the genesis of my candidacy was grassroots
Democrats in Springfield approaching me and asking me to run after
the incumbent had alienated them. My campaign committee includes most
of the Democratic Precinct committee persons in the district. I am
endorsed by the Lane County Democratic Party and Rick Klaastad, the
Democratic Party's Springfield District Chair. In addition, I am pleased
to find that I have widespread support of Republican and Independent
voters in this non-partisan race.
My comments regarding the incumbent's use of county
tax dollars were made in response to the use of his discretionary
funds to run a newspaper ad at the beginning of the campaign where
his name was the predominate focus. If you support a politician's
use of tax dollars for campaigning, that is your choice. I don't and
I won't as county commissioner.
You stated in your news article that I support the
West Eugene Parkway. What I said in my e-mail response to your question
regarding the parkway is: "As a county commissioner, I would look
at the West Eugene Parkway as a decided issue and vote to support
the decision of the Eugene voters."
Tom Atkinson
Springfield
TEAM
TED
Ted Kulongoski has a record
of experience and accomplishment that makes him the most qualified
candidate for governor. Ted began his public service career in the
Marine Corps 40 years ago and has since become one of Oregon's best
known and respected political leaders. He is the only candidate for
governor who has served in the executive, legislative and judicial
branches.
Ted has deep convictions on the issues, but is willing
to reach out and compromise for the good of all Oregonians. One example:
He is a strong supporter of workers and their unions, and was the
author of the 1973 bill that allowed public employees to collectively
bargain. However, when Oregon's workers compensation costs were out
of control in the late '80s, Ted led the commission that brought the
costs down from one of the highest to one of the lowest in the nation.
Most unions opposed much of the plan, but Ted did what was best for
the overall economy of our state.
I agree with Governors John Kitzhaber, Barbara Roberts
and Neil Goldschmidt that Kulongoski is the best candidate running
for governor of Oregon.
Grant Schott
Corvallis
GREATER
CLARITY
As a devout Jew and former
member of TBI's Board no longer living in Eugene, I wish to applaud
Kate Gessert for her articles and more particularly her son Joe for
his witnessing mission. Until the American Jewish community is capable
of facing some difficult truths about Israeli settler policy, water
distribution in the occupied territories, and the false assertions
that the Wye accords gave the Palestinians 97 percent of what they
wanted (except for access to water, of course), then our "support"
of Israel is guaranteed to perpetuate the dilemmas we claim we wish
to resolve.
Kate's articles, by promoting a more honest assessment
of current Israeli policy than many Jews are capable of, serve the
community well. Insofar as they lead us to greater clarity about the
issues, thank you to EW for printing them.
Jeff Land
Raleigh, NC
DEMOCRATIC
ELATION
Because I will vote in the
Democratic primary, I am elated to see such a strong field of Democrats
running for Governor. I will have no trouble voting for any of the
three best candidates in the general election -- Kulongoski,
Hill or Stein -- whichever one wins the primary. I believe that
is an important statement, because I have been known to vote for Republicans.
My preference, however, and the one I will vote for
in the primary is Kulongoski. There is too little in the issues separating
the three Democrats to make the choice on that basis. I believe Kulongoski
leads the way because he brings the longest record of public service,
the widest range of experience, and a proven record of excellence
to the office of governor.
Wayne Miller
Springfield
HUB
OF THE WHEEL
"Agent provocateur --
a secret agent hired to penetrate some organization to incite trouble
designed to make the organization or its members incur punishment,"
American Heritage Dictionary.
During the '70s the "establishment" fought the "liberal
pinkos" with agents provocateur who used inflammatory rhetoric to
urge personal violence and property damage as a way to turn public
opinion against progressive causes.
It was only through teaching enough people what agents
provocateur were and how they operate that the organizers of peace
demonstrations were able to identify them and neutralize their inflammatory
behavior enough to keep them from destroying the entire protest movement.
I believe that all advocates of violence are agents
provocateur, knowingly or not, and should be treated as such by members
of progressive movements. In the '70s peace demonstrators were known
to place them under citizens arrest for disturbing the peace, sometimes
handcuffing and gagging them. I don't know about current legalities
of such tactics but something needs to be done to keep them from discrediting
the moral causes they would destroy. To paraphrase Einstein, "One
cannot solve a problem on the same level it was created."
The hub of the wheel of social progress is nonviolence.
It is the only principal that can create enough resonance in the hearts
and minds of the public to produce the groundswell support necessary
to recapture our democracy from the wealthy few who seem to have taken
out a lease on it.
May the peace be with us.
Kenneth Cater
Marcola
FIRSTHAND
ACCOUNT
I'm a 32-year-old HIV-positive
male, and you ignorant people need to wake up! Let me start by what
I just read "Of Course Not," by Curtis Borloglou-Boyd (EW 4/25).
Sir, you have some good self righteous points and thank you for trying
to redistribute known facts.
First off, how does someone know a polyp or a small
tumor is going to cause cancer for sure? What happens? Well, they
are scared to death, they get it removed, they are scared for a year
or so unless the medical science miracle heals them. Two years later,
they're dead!
I'm living with this disease and have been since
1994. As per Mr. Borloglou-Boyd's point, if you take medication you
will be well: no. Rather, you are poisoning your body with unknown
toxins on a daily basis. Chemotherapy sucks and so do HIV meds. Some
days I can't get out of bed, too weak to take myself to the bathroom.
Just because of the known side effects of chemotherapy,
we on medication for HIV can't prove ours. Just because there are
medications to take for this drug now that people think will extend
your life doesn't mean anything. This disease is like no other it
attacks every person in a different way.
Please don't simply listen to educated doctors on
this subject, because believe me your just a guinea pig and they guess.
They have no answers for you.
When I was first diagnosed with HIV, my friend in
NYC took me to the first doctor who treated patients and had the longest
living diagnosed patient at that time. I stood in a room naked and
being poked, prodded and asked many questions. We took blood tests
and I was sent to the New York state's best internal medicine and
HIV study center. Mind you, I had no insurance.
Now I've moved back here and am treated like HIV was
10 years ago! I know more than my doctors here, let alone some writer
from a local free paper.
Jake Newport
Cottage Grove
COLLECTIVE
FAILURE
Many thanks to EW for
having the courage to continue to provide news about the conflict
in Palestine that is not easy to find elsewhere. It is a difficult
thing to do because we are sure that you must be hearing from many
pro-Israel writers about your "slanted" coverage. What seems patently
clear about the Israeli incursion into the Palestinian territories
is not that it is about making Israel a safer place, but about revenge.
It is not difficult to see that Sharon's policies
of making Israel a safer place have failed miserably. A column by
Molly Ivins in the R-G April 26 helps to make that patently
clear: "From September of '93 when the Oslo peace process started,
to September 2000, when Sharon visited the Temple Mount, 519 Palestinian
and 287 Israelis were killed in the conflict. From September 2000
to mid-April, 1,620 Palestinians and 440 Israelis were killed. Would
somebody tell me why that's good for the Jews?"
I would hope that the most ardent supporter of Israel
would not argue that the intentional destruction of huge proportions
of the Palestinian infrastructure, and the wanton disregard of the
lives of innocent Palestinian non-combatants is necessary for the
peace and security of the Israeli state. That is a slippery slope,
indeed. With every innocent life lost, or wounded, every house destroyed,
every daily humiliation inflicted, more future terrorists are created.
This in no way justifies suicide bombing, but might
serve to explain it. People without hope are driven to become suicide
bombers. That they are driven by such hatred, or see that act as the
only possible way to change the current situation, is a sad testament
to our collective failure to deal fairly with the Palestinian people.
Ernie & Marietta O'Byrne
Eugene
TUNNEL
VISION
I have an idea for restoring native salmon runs through
the major Columbia River system dams/high-water areas (Grand Coulee,
etc.) without breaching most of them: Make a system of high-tech,
variable-pressure locks-within-tunnels or tubes; also elevated gravel
bars could be lowered into some areas where dams have made the water
too deep for spawning. This would require a lot of data-gathering,
experimentation, engineering and construction but isn't that what
scientists, engineers and other workers are for? A lot of genuine
habitat restoration is needed, also.
This would be expensive but two billion dollars or
so of successful restoration, tunnels, tubes, breaching and elevated
bars would be much more effective than the over $2 billion of failed
attempts at restoration to date. Breaching some dams combined with
tunneling, tubes, locks, elevated bars and real habitat restoration
would make an overall salmon-friendly system. Nothing would be better
than no dams but we could have hydropower and native fish both. At
some point in time some or all of this scheme will become feasible.
A light at the end of the tunnel? In any event, it sure beats the
total waste of the Bush Star Whores program.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
BEEN
BAMBOOZLED
I was pleased to see Gordon
Kaswell's rebuttal of the heavily sponsored HIV paradigm (4/11). Over
the last 20 years American taxpayers have shelled out tens of billions
to research this HIV/AIDS paradigm and to date no one of these whiz
kid recipients has nailed down a mechanism of pathogenicity. As far
as anyone can determine HIV doesn't do anything. It certainly doesn't
kill immune cells. Some theories about some mysterious effects on
particular precursor cells are currently keeping the money spigot
open.
I think there comes a time when a line needs to be
drawn. Currently I'm convinced by Peter Duesberg's "Inventing the
AIDS Virus." But I'm willing to change my view if anytime in the next
two or three years a researcher proves a mechanism of pathogenicity
for HIV. I think the American public needs to be alert to the absolute
lack of any return for their money with this HIV nonsense. And to
insist on concrete results for billions of bucks. And if we've been
bamboozled, let's get it out there so we can deal with it as we deem
appropriate.
We certainly know enough to sprinkle salt on the opinions
of entrenched interests.
David H. Tyson
Eugene
GO
DEMS
Nader booster Jim Carter in
his (5/2) column, "More Gore in '04," wonders why Democrats "didn't
stand up for Florida voters who were illegally denied the right to
vote in (the 2000 presidential) election." Visiting family in Miami
during that time, I learned a few things about who we can count on
to defend our most basic democratic rights.
When news broke that African Americans had been turned
away at roadblocks on their way to Liberty City polling stations,
I was outraged. Ralph Nader, who spent the campaign talking big about
defending democracy, was nowhere to be seen.
Democrat Jesse Jackson, on the other hand, clearly
realized the stakes and "spoke truth to power" from Tallahassee to
Hialeah. He united desperate communities, from the largely Jewish
West Palm Beach to predominately black precincts south of Miami. It
was the kind of coalition building of which Nader -- who rarely
strays from his WASPY college town comfort zone -- is utterly
incapable.
Twenty months later, we can ask the question: Was
Jesse Jackson, in Nader's words, just another "frightened liberal?"
Better yet, ask that question of African Americans living in Louisiana,
Mississippi, or Texas, where Bush recently tried to install Ku Klux
Klan supporter Charles Pickering on their district court.
Fortunately, the Democrats have a one vote majority
in the U.S. Senate -- and on the Senate's Judiciary Committee
-- and the Pickering nomination was defeated. Oregonians who
feel passionately about defending everybody's basic rights can help
"keep hope alive" by working to elect Democrat Bill Bradbury to the
Senate this November.
Tom Williams
Eugene
EWEB
OF DECEIT?
My reason for asking for your
help is that EWEB is not helping, but in fact is hurting the poor
citizens of Eugene.
I'll try to explain -- Electric meters that can
use a pre-paid card have been in existence for over 10 years. These
cards mean that people can use as much or as little power as they
want, with the knowledge that they won't have EWEB coming to cut off
their power. I will have my power cut off Wednesday and the simple
fact is -- I would not have this problem if I had a pre-paid
electric meter card that I could slide into my meter. These meters
have been in use worldwide for years, so why can't Eugene have them?
These electric meters would help the lower income citizens tremendously.
All I want are these meters to be made available.
EWEB told me that they are "having problems with the technical side,"
which I don't believe.
Please make Eugeneans aware of these meters!
Edward Margay
Eugene
RIVER
RUNNING
The gubernatorial candidates
need to adopt a clean Willamette River program. It is shameful that
Oregon, a state that is prided on its environmental consciousness,
is home of the most toxic river west of the Mississippi. Annually,
industries dump a total of four million pounds of toxic chemical waste
into the Willamette. Politicians need to hold these industries accountable
for their actions. Instead of simply saying that the river is dirty,
politicians need to begin making commitments. The gubernatorial candidates
must make specific plans, such as giving the DEQ sufficient funds
to restore the river that flows through so many of our neighborhoods.
Sara Bangen,
Students for a Clean Willamette, UO
HOLDING
COURT
Sad that our court system
is officiated by men and women whose outstanding characteristics include
arrogance, prejudice and childish behavior. They demand the highest
customs of honor while deserving it the least.
Such court officials make life altering decisions
with little concern or knowledge of the situations and no regard for
the lives they may ruin.
Questions are asked with obvious intent to manipulate
answers, not to arrive at an understanding of the truth, but to satisfy
a bias or serve the interests of the wealthy, those with influence
or what happens to be currently politically correct. Simply telling
both sides of a story, allowing all evidence to be weighed, is just
not allowed. Instead, questions are skillfully maneuvered to provide
slanted conclusions; judges routinely restrict and control answers
to insure limited and/or false concepts in accord with their bias.
We call them judges but the ability to judge is often
what they are least qualified to do. To address them as "your honor"
is hypercritically inappropriate. There is little chance, financial
advantage or professional skill to maneuver purposely complex and
ambiguous legal technicalities by the masters of deceit.
Just as an example of the character and mentality
of these officials of our court system, we have the recent statement
of Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist who stated that the execution of
an innocent man is acceptable so long as the proper channels of the
court system have been followed. How can it be that such inhumane
criminal minds are allowed to preside over our courts?
Stuart Banister
Eugene
JUDGE
THE JUDGE
Judge Cynthia Sinclair (justice
of the peace, central Lane County) hasn't missed a day of work (excluding
vacations) in six years on the bench. She donates about 500 hours
of overtime a year. She donates books, toys and films to people who
visit her court. She has made great efforts to make visits to her
court as fast and convenient as possible for both English and Spanish-speaking
people, including installing an ATM and taking Visa payments.
Sinclair is far more qualified than her opponents.
She has 30 years experience in justice administration, 13 in public
service. Experience and training in grant writing and budgeting, holds
nine certificates relating to her position, a bachelors degree in
police sciences and administration, trained in mediation in mental
health, civil, child abuse, substance abuse, domestic violence.
She has completed 26 educational courses relating
to her job in the past five years, speaks at schools, sporting events,
on the radio and at the UO Law School on animal welfare and traffic
safety. She's hoping to institute night court for taxpayer convenience.
She's recognized for service to Lane County by the
Board of Commissioners. Volunteers for five charities. Member of County
Task Forces on Juvenile Justice and Animal Regulation. Voluntarily
took on the animal abuse cases in Lane County. Endorsed by Mayor Jim
Torrey and Sen. Bill Morrisette.
Sinclair cares about people and animals. She
is the best person for the job, and she has performed it very well
for the past six years. She is a keeper.
Rita Castillo
Springfield
CAST
FOR CASTILLO
I was glad to see that the
R-G had the wisdom to endorse Susan Castillo as the most qualified
candidate for superintendent of public instruction. As their endorsement
pointed out, Susan is well-known and well-respected in this area because
of her past media experience and her past service in Salem representing
the people of this area.
Rob Kremer who is being supported by Bill Sizemore
is using a computerized phone message to falsely state that Susan
is a member of the extreme left. Susan is not an extreme anything!
As a person who has spent most of my working career
in the field of education and who presently represents Springtfield
on the LCC Board of Trustees, I know that Susan is a supporter of
public education and that Kremer is not. Our schools are all facing
the necessity of making major cuts due in large part to the efforts
of Bill Sizemore and his supporters.
To me the race represents a clear and stark choice.
If you want your schools to have their budgets cut further, then vote
for Kremer, the Sizemore clone. However, if you value education and
recognize the importance of public education to your children and
to the economy of the state of Oregon, then vote for Castillo.
Dennis Shine
Springfield
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