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Viewpoint:
An Evolved System -- What can we learn from the democratic
socialists?
Natural
Resistance : Room to Walk -- Wandering by foot
leads to surprise discoveries.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
An
Evolved System
What
can we learn from the democratic socialists?
So Sweden is overtaxed? IŠve read that
a few times in this column and it really disturbs me. It disturbs
me because itŠs just so important for all of us here to be clear on
whether or not the European social system is better than the one we
have. If it is, then we Americans have a great model for ourselves.
If it isnŠt, then we can continue on our merry and somewhat unique
path toward a better society.
So letŠs look at those taxes. My wife,
a nurse, has worked in that field in both countries. She figures her
taxes were roughly equal in both places, especially when you factor
in health insurance costs. IŠm self employed and when I add in my
self-employment tax, I also pay about the same in both countries.
There are hidden taxes that a person could add up and make a case
that the tax burden is high (such as on gasoline), but I think a clearer
picture emerges when you ask what a taxpayer gets for his money.
Here we get roads, other infrastructure
and government, things like that. They get those, too. (Plus twice
the number of bike paths in a Eugene-sized town.) They also get complete
high quality medical care for life, including eyeglasses for kids
up to 21 and dental care including braces. They get five weeks paid
vacation, minimum! When they have a child, they get nearly a year
off with 80 percent pay to start the baby off right. All the time
the child is growing up they get about $100 a month per child just
in case itŠs needed.
Also the society is arranged so that
almost anyone can develop their talents or interests. The small city
near us installed a complete film studio with thousand of dollars
worth of equipment that could be borrowed by anyone, as we would a
library book. Friends of ours started a theater group and they were
granted money for hiring people to build sets, to hire a hall and
given the time of a professional director. Ever wonder why a country
as small as Sweden (nine million) has so many world-class sports figures
and scientists? Access É everyone has it. University, by the way,
is free.
Two things they are low on:
poor folks and billionaires. Our son used to tell his high school
friends that their system is like ours, but with both ends, the poor
and the ultra-rich, trimmed off.
And itŠs not only Sweden É itŠs all
of Europe. From Norway to Portugal every country has a similar setup.
A coincidence? Hardly. ItŠs an evolved system.
Europe in the last century has been
a unique and perfect spot in which to conduct social experiments.
All these countries packed into a relatively small area, many having
had their former systems swept away by major wars and each one trying
different social approaches under the interested eyes of the others.
What has now developed and spread through Europe is democratic socialism
É a very democratic system that thinks more of the †we˙ than the †me.˙
TheyŠve basically decided that the good of the many is more important
than the right of an individual to own half a country. They still
have wealthy folks, just not mega-wealthy. The system has enough attractions
that a form of it has also caught on in Canada, Australia and New
Zealand. People in these countries seem to agree that these days,
you canŠt really claim to be a modern nation if your system allows
the existence of poverty, especially for children, in the midst of
wealth.
And Europe, as you may know, is also
basically responsible for another system that has spread pretty widely
over the planet. It evolved originally under the same set of conditions
that have now come up with democratic socialism and most of the world
today seems to think itŠs a pretty good thing. ItŠs called technology.
So check out the European system. ThereŠs
plenty of information if you look, and probably you know at least
one person from over there. Ask them.
And about Sweden? ItŠs true, there
are a lot of taxes. But overtaxed? Make up your own mind.
Joe
Valasek is a Eugene sculptor/carver who has lived six years in Sweden
and in Germany, Greece, Denmark and seven years in the Caribbean.
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Room
to Walk
Wandering
by foot leads to surprise discoveries.
What do you imagine you would see on
an hourŠs walk in downtown Reno?
I walked at dawn there recently, my
first break after two days of meetings. The path was next to the Truckee
River. Two quail jumped and slid off a boulder next to the riverbed,
disappearing silently into the brush. A robin gathered muddy, nest-perfect
moss in its beak. Mid-river, a cormorant stood on a boulder in the
morningŠs yellow light, shaking its stretched-out, glistening black
wings.
Feeling grateful to be walking, memories
of other walks and walkers began floating in, each one leading to
the next.
I remembered how, from age 5, I daily
walked the mile to and from my elementary school alone, though a school
bus was available. I donŠt know why I chose to walk rather than ride.
I liked school and my classmates, but on those walks, I looked around
and thought, by myself.
This reminded me of a journalist my
husband, OŠB, and I knew while living in Serbia in 1972. Milo had
spent one year in the U.S., where he acquired the habit of taking
after-supper walks alone. Continuing this when he returned to Belgrade,
Milo was considered at least odd, if not addled. †In every corn field,
thereŠs a bad ear,˙ his neighbors would observe, †and in every community,
thereŠs someone who doesnŠt like people.˙
I remembered how OŠB and I would often
spend Saturdays in Belgrade that year: We would take a bus into the
city in the morning, and start walking some direction we had never
walked before. No map, no idea where we were headed. After five or
six hours of walking, we would catch a couple of buses back from whatever
rural area we had reached. Each Saturday brought new surprises.
Surprises. I thought of the citizen
who recently found the bones of Chandra Levy in Rock Creek Park, near
Washington, D.C. ChandraŠs disappearance had triggered a massive,
but unsuccessful, police sweep of her neighborhoodŠs park. This man
was walking slowly, looking for turtles.
Another citizen, Linda Swisher, likes
to walk in West EugeneŠs wetlands parks. Out there in April, she noticed
timwort (Cicendia quadrangularis), one of six plants
locally listed as rare in these wetlands. Timwort is a four-petaled,
bright yellow flower in the gentian family. Growing in a bathtub ring
around ephemeral wetland pools that dry up by late spring, timwort
is found (though always uncommonly) in three separate areas: the upper
Willamette region of Oregon, a county in northern California, and
Peru. Bureau of Land Management, city and county staff had not noticed
timwort where Swisher found it: directly in the path of the proposed
West Eugene Parkway. Timwort is two inches tall. You wouldnŠt notice
it while driving a car É or heavy construction equipment.
One of eight small quotes taped onto
the frame around my computer screen is copied from a poem, though
I donŠt remember the authorŠs name.
To the listener who
listening in the snow,
hears nothing that is not there,
and the nothing that is.
IŠm not a whiz at understanding poetry,
but I believe this one describes what happens when people walk out
into the world: they see nothing that isnŠt there, and they see what
others have missed, or maybe not wanted to acknowledge.
A city or nation that leaves room for
its citizens to walk is leaving room for wisdom. When a society invites
its people to walk, it is inviting its people to be informed. Because
walking is slow enough for seeing and hearing. Walkers notice. They
reflect. What really matters? What do I truly love? What is beautiful
around me? What is wrong around me? How am I connected to both?
Utah resident and author Terry Tempest
Williams, commenting on the meager amount of wilderness her Mormon-based
Congressional delegation was once proposing, asked this: †If Jesus
came back to Utah, would he have enough wilderness in which to wander
for 40 days?˙
Then again (and Terry would second
this question), are humans the only ones who need room to walk? What
does land use planning for all walkers É human and more-than-human
É look like?
Mary
OŠBrien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist for the
past 20 years. She can be reached at mob@efn.org
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Spectacular
Erection
The new federal court building is amazing! Finally,
those who inhabit the new edifice will receive the recognition they
deserve. Most deserving of attention, of course, is the Honorable
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, whose undaunting effort was almost
singularly responsible for gaining approval of the project. His honor
was being too modest when he said at the public unveiling of the model
of the $70 million building É †This isnŠt just about me.˙ The honorable
judge expressed his view that this building was about collaboration
and cooperation.
But, his honor truly deserves the credit.
As has been pointed out, the architecture incorporates some of his
own design ideas. And left to their own devices, the citizens of Eugene
really havenŠt done much to deserve such a spectacular erection.
Nevertheless, Eugene and its citizens
will surely now attract the national spotlight and the building itself
is certain to attract new residents and visitors. The daring, fortress-like
design of the building lays down the gauntlet and sends the message
to one and all: †DonŠt even think about it.˙ The impenetrable looking
structure, placed conspicuously in the middle of historic, low-rise
buildings and near the banks of our beautiful Willamette, announces
to any would-be terrorist or evil-doer that the federal General Services
Administration has won!
In response to its critics and as a
measure of its equanimity and fairness, the GSA made a point of inviting
those who oppose the buildingŠs design to express their concerns even
though, they point out, it wonŠt change anything. The building is
meant to glorify. And who among us doubts that, in such an opulent
environment the ideals of †one nation, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all,˙ and the glory of those sworn to preserve them, will
be better served? I, for one, am certainly looking forward to the
new, improved judgment.
T. Wendell Lincoln
Springfield
Trees
Matter
Trees are a wonderful example of a community investment
that literally grows in value over time. The larger their canopies,
the more work they do to make Eugene a safer and healthier place to
live. To that end, our cityŠs land use code requires that trees be
planted and cared for along all new streets and in all new commercial
development.
Unfortunately, when redevelopment occurs,
such as at the Safeway site at 18th and Oak, trees sometimes get left
out. This bleak block is about to become even bleaker, as no new landscaping
is required and one of the three languishing sweetgums already growing
on the site has been removed to make way for the new building.
There are, however, several small areas
within the new parking lot where trees could be planted. And there
are long, six-foot-wide, publicly owned park strips (between curb
and sidewalk) that surround the site on three sides. These areas are
currently covered with concrete, but could be uncovered, backfilled
with soil, and planted with trees. Safeway could pay for the concrete
removal and the city could purchase the trees.
When the AlbertsonŠs store at 30th
and Hilyard was updated two years ago, no trees were required there
either, but at the request of customers and neighbors, AlbertsonŠs
decided to plant more than a dozen trees around the siteŠs perimeter.
We are hopeful that Safeway, too, will recognize the importance of
trees to its customers and to our community, and will make an effort
to incorporate them as part of site redevelopment.
Whitey Lueck
Tree Planting Coordinator
Eugene Tree Foundation
Get
a Fish Lift
In response to Bob SaxtonŠs letter (5/16), a much cheaper
and already proven method would be to install lifts in front of the
dams to lift the fish over the dams. This method has been used for
years in other parts of the U.S..
Frank Skipton
Veneta
Dead
End Street
At one time there was an expression, †DonŠt Californicate
Oregon.˙ Now there is a plan afoot to do just that and it is called
the West Eugene Parkway (WEP).
The WEP is a bad idea. It would poke
a hole in our urban boundaries, paving the way for subdivisions and
more strip malls. The WEP has many deficiencies:
ő It is financially lacking. There
are some who would say that it can be paid for, but finding the funding
would be notably difficult. The money is simply not there.
ő The WEP is an environmental disaster.
This highway would destroy unique and protected wetlands that provide
critical habitat for endangered plants and animals.
ő The WEP raises legal questions as
the West Eugene Wetlands are designated as parkland and according
to federal law should not be paved over. These lands have had about
$20 million spent on their acquisition and restoration. They were
secured through the land, water and conservation fund and as such
are protected from being turned over to the State Transportation Department.
The WEP leads nowhere. It is a dead
end street!
Richard J. Suter
Eugene
Straight
Facts
An article in your May 16 issue made my eyebrows go
up. In †Under Siege: LandWatch fights to preserve shrinking resource
lands˙ there are a lot of statements shored up with emotion but not
supported by fact. After a week went by I picked up your May 23 edition,
hoping author (and LandWatch president) Robert Emmons would be back
to correct his errors. He did not return, even after having had a
conversation with a key player in his tale, who told him sheŠd been
badly misrepresented.
For close to 20 years, IŠve lived only
a short walk away from Camp Yale on the Old McKenzie Highway. The
campŠs appearance has changed since its purchase by Norm McDougal.
Plans to recreationally develop the property have been carried forward
over several decades É now by its third owner. It still remains private
property.
LandWatch is well within its rights
to question underlying land use issues. What I canŠt understand are
decisions to make abusive comments about public officials and individuals,
to rely mainly on emotional imagery, and to wrongly name others as
joining its appeal.
IŠm still anticipating reading another
article from Emmons containing corrections. The public deserves the
straight facts.
Ken Engelman
McKenzie Bridge
Not
So Simple
Sara Bangen and †Students for a Clean Willamette˙ (5/16)
want politicians to clamp down on industry in order to clean up the
Willamette River.
Her letter brings to mind the analogy
of a patient suffering from both advanced heart disease and a common
cold. Over which ailment will this personŠs physician be the more
concerned? Which should receive the greater attention?
Around 80 percent of the pollution
in the Willamette watershed comes from non-point (read that †non-industrial˙)
sources such as agricultural runoff and storm drainage. And if Ms.
Bangen thinks the situation is bad now, wait 20 years when weŠre told
thereŠll be another million people in the Willamette Valley.
Industry is already very heavily regulated
in Oregon and is today a comparatively minor contributor to the riverŠs
pollution. Ms. Bangen can check with her friendly ODEQ staff to confirm
this.
This is not to say there is no room
for improvement by industry. However, the suggestion that †holding
industry accountable˙ will clean up the Willamette is clearly not
based on an accurate assessment and understanding of the situation.
Jerry J. Ritter
Springfield
Glory
Days Ahead
Anarchists, the planetŠs perennial losers, have a voice
in EW. A recent letter (4/11) dismisses Gandhi and MLK and
advances violence to effect change. Naturally anarchists understand
violence. Only last century their losing tactics resulted in some
of the worldŠs great dictatorships. Lenin, Franco, Hitler and Mao
all wrested order from Bakunist anarchy and its sympathizers.
Anarchists and their ilk conveniently
forget their failings and find tyrannical fascism everywhere. They
never get enough votes so democracy must be dead. Freedom of speech
is an illusion as most do not listen to their message. Gandhi and
King were flops for life still isnŠt fair. If youŠre not willing to
strap on a bomb, youŠre elitist, weak or not truly impoverished. Power
isnŠt encountered in numbers or persuasion so the losers terrorize
until everyone loses.
Revolutionary intellectuals like Aristotle,
Hamilton and Madison address the city-state as the ultimate, inevitable
defender of life and property against anarchy. America, the globalized
worldŠs only city-state Leviathan, is a target as it battles the Saddams
and Slobos. Life could be better. WhatŠs a popular (anarchist) alternative?
Destruction of globalization and government. Simple! Easy to junk
the European Union, NAFTA, NATO, the Asian Alliance, the UN, USA etc.
Just arrest human progression. ThereŠs no time for deliberation. The
computer age must die. ThatŠs sure to scuttle the Slobos and Saddams
as well. Forget about peace prizes and international alliance. The
glory days of anarchy shall return and anarchy is its own just reward.
Steve Veit
Eugene
Selective
Concern
The Green Anarchy collective made it very clear
in their letters that theyŠre against the 9/11 attacks, which they
claim were horrific and authoritarian (see GA #7). They expressed
sadness over the loss of working class lives, including firemen (that
same issue of GA has an article supporting firemen who fought
the NYPD for the right to search the ruins of the WTC for bodies).
But GAŠs not concerned with the lives of police and CEOs É
the beneficiaries and defenders of capitalism.
All the accounts of 9/11 by anarchists
IŠve seen condemned the attacks. Anarchists É enemies of the most
violent institution on the face of the Earth (the state) É have always
condemned †collateral damage˙ as authoritarian. To my knowledge, this
tactic has been practiced by socialists and religious extremists,
but not anarchists. On the rare occasions throughout history where
anarchists have used violence, it was directed against tyrants, like
the fascist dictator Franco, President McKinley, and RussiaŠs czar.
Anarchists have a rich history of opposing
tyranny in all forms. Anarchists have also succeeded in creating free
communities, through a combination of non-violent and violent methods.
For instance, during the Spanish Civil War, anarchists successfully
beat the fascists and seized the †means of production˙ and placed
land and industry under egalitarian control. .
Pacifists should remember that none
of the †revolutions˙ they hold with reverence (the decolonization
of India and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa) resulted
in peace or freedom. The pacifists threw out the old bosses and replaced
them. ItŠs also important to remember that for every Chavez, there
was a Zapata, for every MLK, there was a Malcom X, and for every pacifist,
thereŠs a thousand guerrillas with nothing to lose, ready to fight
for freedom.
Jen Farey
Eugene
Popping
the Balloon
One anarchist writing to EW rightly pointed
out that many progressive social movements are fueled by students,
professional activists, and privileged people who work for social
change but really benefit from current social arrangements. Other
writers have stressed that only radical political, economic and cultural
changes can effectively bring an end to ecological destruction and
social injustice.
Unfortunately, primitivism (ZerzanŠs
anarchism) offers few plausible explanations for how the world has
ended up the way it is, what social forces offer a way out of this
mess, and how a righteous global society might be achieved and maintained.
Regarding each of these points: Technology itself is not to blame;
EugeneŠs anarchist cliques do not constitute the vanguard of the global
justice movement; and if the U.S. implodes into a set of †autonomous
collectives˙ after industrial collapse, IŠd hate to imagine what kinds
of racist, patriarchal, backward communities those collectives would
be.
Political ideas are made up by people,
and itŠs our job to figure out which ideas are the best for advancing
democratic processes and social justice. The primitivist theory of
direct action seems to view industrial society as a giant balloon
that can be popped, and instantly replaced by a hunter-gatherer utopia
that retains groovy, humanistic ideas . Those who are tuned in to
their inner life force are part of the resistance, everyone else isnŠt
quite hip. Primitivism isnŠt a philosophy then, itŠs just the Truth
written in your soul. This isnŠt too believable, unless you prefer
fundamentalism to ongoing analysis and debate.
Most of the political work of feminists,
socialists, progressive environmentalists, peasants, students, gays
and lesbians, cultural critics, Marxists and anarchists isnŠt inspired
by liberalism or primitivism. There are many alternatives in the global
justice movement.
John Groves
Eugene
From
the Bottom
Eric Bair makes a valid point in †Selective Amnesia˙
(5/9): †Nonviolent people in the street with bad chants and dumb banners
have not, historically, enacted real change.˙
Can Blair, however, cite several historical
examples of violent protests enacting †real change?˙ The French Revolution?
American Revolution? The Black Panthers? The Bolsheviks?
Pacifism is not my ideal. Yet I also
duly note how insanely suicidal it is for a few activists with sticks
and rocks to attack the U.S. military technocracy.
IŠve no answer for the violence/nonviolence
debate, only another Ivory Tower perspective:
Change must come from the bottom. History
shows that neither violence or nonviolent protests can derail the
juggernaut of oppression and mechanization. Billions of people must
cease contributing to systemic violence É the globalization, militarization,
corporation, industrialization, computerization, homogenization, and
humanization of the world. The masses are currently enacting the exact
opposite.
Elite leaders É whether Lenin, Malcolm
X, Gandhi, MLK Jr., or Zerzan É can never truly bring real change.
Wil D. Hormann
Corvallis
Yuck
to Yucca
For the last two weeks I have learned a great deal
about nuclear waste in my eighth grade classes at Jefferson Middle
School. I believe the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain
in Nevada is a tremendously bad idea.
Trucking toxic radioactive waste on
our nationŠs highways is a potential disaster; sending it along our
rail lines is no better. Nuclear waste should be handled and stored
at the site where it is created; states that get the benefits of nuclear
energy should also be responsible for the clean up problems. LetŠs
not destroy a beautiful, isolated mountain. Keep nuclear waste where
it belongs É off our highways, out of the wilderness É and let those
who create it continue to be accountable for it!
Chris Zammarelli
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics
and will print as many as space allows. Please limit length to 250
words, and submissions to once a month. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com,
fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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