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News
Briefs: APPEALING WEP
| WEAVER IN 2004? | PLAN
DISBANDS | LABOR NOTES | HOLIDAY
CLOSURE
News:
Unprovoked: Protester describes encounter with Portland police.
News:
More Dirty Air: Weyerhaeuser proposal will go to public hearing.
Happening
People: Gail Campbell
APPEALING
WEP
1000 Friends of Oregon announced Aug. 22
that it will appeal various planning decisions related to the West
Eugene Parkway (WEP), the first of many anticipated legal challenges
to the highway.
1000 Friends and community members have long held
that the WEP violates various local, state and federal land use, transportation
and environmental laws. According to Lauri Segel, the organization's
Lane County advocate, the appeal filed is "the first step toward a
better future for west Eugene and for our region — a livable
future with clean air, choices for transportation, housing and employment,
and comfortably compact neighborhoods."
1000 Friends gave notice that it is appealing land
use decisions by the cities of Eugene and Springfield, Lane County,
and the Lane Transit District. Those decisions change various planning
documents and lay the groundwork for the WEP. The appeal headed to
the Land Use Board of Appeals will be based on noncompliance with
Oregon's statewide planning goals.
According to Mike Collmeyer, the 1000 Friends attorney
who filed the appeal, the organization felt it had no choice. "Our
legal and policy concerns about the West Eugene Parkway, while shared
by the Eugene Planning Commission, fell on deaf ears when the region's
elected officials finally made their decision to move forward with
the highway in August," he says.
According to Collmeyer, the organization wants to
partner with local governments and the Oregon Transportation Commission
to find a lasting — and legal — solution to west Eugene's
numerous land use and transportation woes.
"Sometimes, you have to say 'no' to a flawed proposal
to help find a solution you can say 'yes' to," said Collmeyer.
1000 Friends staff remained optimistic that a creative
solution could be found that will meet the region's needs without
breaking the law. "Regional governments have to comply with the law,
just like everyone else," said 1000 Friends transportation advocate
Jacob Brostoff. "The challenge is to find an innovative, sensible
and cost-effective solution."
To that end, 1000 Friends and local community activists
have enlisted the help of Crandall Arambula PC, a professional planning
and urban design firm, to help develop legal, livable and innovative
alternatives to the massive highway project.
George Crandall, one of the firm's principals, is
confident that a better answer can be found, saying "West Eugene has
so many wonderful assets — beautiful wetlands, biodiversity,
and many great opportunities for compact, livable neighborhoods with
choices in housing, travel and employment. It would be a shame not
to take up this challenge and help the community find its own better
future." Crandall Arambula PC plans to release an outline of alternatives
to the WEP by Sept. 9.
WEAVER
IN 2004?
Former 4th District Congressman Jim Weaver
has not ruled out running for the U.S. Senate in 2004. "It depends
on what this new era will bring," he told members of the Pacific Green
Party at their Aug. 17 convention in Yachats. "If it becomes fascist,
then we liberals must fight. Remember, this era is about to end."
Weaver announced at the convention that he would not
seek the Green Party's nomination for governor in November.
"I'd have been proud to be your candidate," Weaver
said. "And we would have done well. But Kevin Mannix, the Republican
nominee for governor, is a very, very dangerous man. He would throw
half the people in Oregon in jail, as far as I can see. I did not
want to take a single vote away from the Democrats that might contribute
to the possibility of Mannix winning."
PLAN
DISBANDS
Lack of time and money has caused the Progressive
Lane Activist Network (PLAN) to disband this summer. Organizers say
they've struggled with recent resignations of board members with pressing
demands on their time, as well as a lack of funding sources for grants.
In its two years of existence PLAN undertook a number
of projects aimed at bringing together activists and ideas from a
variety of progressive perspectives, encouraging networking, and working
toward progressive change in the community.
Through the generosity of board member Cary Thompson,
five local groups received small grants to further their projects.
Periodically, PLAN sponsored gatherings featuring local speakers or
panels discussing progressive issues.
A Directory of Progressive Organizations with up-to-date
data on almost 200 local groups and the PLAN Calendar, listing events
of interest to the progressive community, remains under the name "The
Lane Current" at www.planweb.org
LABOR
NOTES
United Food and Commercial Workers (FCW)
local 555 is planning a strike authorization vote this week (Wednesday,
Aug. 28) at meeting locations around the valley. The vote is for grocery
and meat workers only. Other members will be voting later.
The union, representing workers at Fred Meyer, Albertsons
and Safeway, is deadlocked in negotiations with NW Food Employers
association. The union's final offer to the trade group Aug. 13 was
rejected.
Union President Gene Pronovost says the employers
have been "lobbying members very hard to vote against strike authorization.
Why? They are hoping that members will not rally together in a showing
of solid solidarity, thus increasing the employer's power when we
return to the bargaining table."
HOLIDAY
CLOSURE
EW's offices will be closed Monday,
Sept. 2 for the Labor Day holiday. Have a great weekend and please
join us in doing as little work as possible — unless of course
you're the one person who keeps the world spinning.
Back to Top
Unprovoked
Protester
describes encounter with Portland police.
BY HOPE MARSTON
I went to Portland for the Bush protest Thursday,
Aug. 22. It was enormous — there were thousands of people. Hundreds
of us began at Waterfront Park, marched up to Burnside and Park where
we met thousands more activists from a wide range of groups. We took
the streets, stopping traffic as we marched to the Hilton, where Bush
was to speak to a $25,000 per person event. Suddenly, the crowd behind
me stopped. We were split into two or more groups. Although we didn't
know it then, the crowd behind us was stopped for Bush's motorcade.
We marched to the police barricade between 5th and
6th Avenues on Taylor Street. I squeezed up to the front, proudly
draping my corporate flag over the barricade. I had decorated the
red and white stripes with plastic lettering, "Denying liberty and
justice for all." The corporate flag looks like an ordinary flag,
except, instead of stars, white logos of U.S. corporations stand in
the field of blue, representing selling democracy to the highest bidders.
After chanting and drumming for a half hour, most
of the crowd marched to another location. I stayed. We were a small
group, maybe 50. Some people verbally challenged police as "mercenaries."
Others tried to educate them about why we were there. I was amazed
how protected they were with helmets and bulletproof clothing, padded
with polycarbonate, and Kevlar. They were dressed as if we were terrorists.
I yelled, "We're citizens. We're peacefully protesting.
We are not terrorists. The terrorist landed on Air Force One, and
is speaking in the Hilton." On the sidewalk nearby, the fashionable
and the suited walked through police lines to attend the Bush gala.
We were at least half a city block from the Hilton's outskirts.
Hundreds of people who'd protested at Sen. Gordon
Smith's office joined us, and we stood arm-to-arm, wall-to-wall, up
against the barricades. We continued to chant, holler and drum. We
noticed snipers on the Hilton's roof.
The police line facing us rotated about every 15 minutes.
The original group was replaced by a bicycle unit, and later Darth
Vader-looking riot police with kneepads and plexi-glass shields in
front of their faces lined up. As their name implies, they were dressed
for a riot, not peaceful protest.
Suddenly, a cop with a microphone yelled, "I'm declaring
an emergency. If you don't clear the area, you'll be arrested!" Before
he could finish his sentence, the crowd roared, drowning out his words.
Most of the people behind me never heard the warning.
As I learned later, people listening to police scanners
said they heard police say the crowd was too large, and after being
pepper sprayed, people would leave and find help at local hospitals.
Police intent was to break us up and shut us up. They were coached
by Secret Service agents, who walked through police lines with cell
phones attached to their little pink ears. They are probably the ones
demanding the area be cleared.
I did not move at first. We chanted "Peaceful protest!
Peaceful protest!" to let the cops know we were not threatening them.
We were exercising our freedom of speech — letting the government
know our dissent with Bush's fascist policies. Policies like rattling
his saber about warring on Iraq, trashing our Bill of Rights with
the USA Patriot Act. Policies like military tribunals, holding prisoners
of war at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely by calling them enemy combatants.
Someone in the crowd distributed "Enemy Combatant" bumper stickers,
which many stuck to their shirts.
Police told us they would arrest us — instead
they shot pepper spray directly into a woman named Sarah's face, and
at her partner, Pat. They pepper sprayed citizen activist Lloyd Marbet
and others who stayed in the front row linking arms to resist oppression.
They should have arrested us. If they planned to pepper
spray, they should have warned us. How would Henry David Thoreau or
Mohandas Gandhi practice civil disobedience with pepper spray in their
faces? We have a right to practice civil disobedience. Not one protester
in that crowd of more than 3,000 was armed with a weapon. We were
ordinary citizens in T-shirts and tennis shoes. The riot police, dressed
for combat, attacked a peaceful unarmed crowd. After that, people
were angry. Those who hadn't heard the police announcement were bewildered
to see protesters moving toward them, with riot police and pepper
spray right behind.
The police attacked first — and everything after
that was a response to what police did to break the peace. If you
heard reports of protesters jumping on cars — think about it.
The cars charged into a crowd of peaceful citizens.
I read an AP story with this quote from Assistant
Police Chief Greg Clark, "When we're dealing with a presidential visit,
we have to draw very definite lines and if people cross them, we have
to react." He's lying. Not a single protester crossed police lines.
Of rubber bullets, Clark said, "It was an officer
rescue. Those were not used for crowd dispersal." Which is more vulnerable
— people with no weapons, or a police car loaded with armed
cops driving through a crowd? Those in the car were under no threat.
People stood in front of police cars to stop the cars from hurting
unprotected pedestrians.
As I backed away from the pepper spray and rubber
bullets, I saw people hurt by the pepper spray attack. They washed
their eyes, their faces, their necks, chests, and legs. They cried;
they were in anguish. Sarah told me it hurt like hell for about 45
minutes. Hours later, when she took a shower, she forgot her hair
had been pepper sprayed, so she relived the sensation as peppered
water flowed down her body.
Police call pepper spray and rubber bullets non-lethal
weapons, as if it's OK to use them against innocent citizens dissenting
government policy. Pepper spray is the moral equivalent of the high-powered
waterhoses the racist cops in the South used against people marching
to be treated as human beings. There is no excuse for pepper spraying
unarmed citizens.
What happened in Portland was class warfare. The rich
got in, ordinary people were kept out. Money bought the unelected
president's ear, lack of money brought a face full of pepper spray.
Police were protected with thousands of dollars worth of boots, Kevlar
jackets and face shields; people who pay their salaries were hit with
rubber bullets.
An unelected president joked about protesters being
killed, and thousands of protesters whose message he needed to hear
were shoved aside with nightsticks. Kevin Mannix fretted about the
time he spent among the masses trying to reach the safety of his wealthy
friends, while infants were pepper sprayed so severely that witnesses
said the babies seemed to stop breathing.
"This is not what democracy looks like!" I yelled
over and over, as the police cars shoved pedestrians aside. Earlier,
we had chanted, "This is what democracy looks like!" as thousands
asserted our democratic rights of dissent. When I saw my friends pepper
sprayed, and heard the rubber bullets, I knew I was not watching democracy.
For police to perceive peaceful citizens as a threat and attack them
with chemical weapons shows they have no clue what democracy looks
like.
I learned later police attacked the crowd at 6:30
pm, because people in the hotel wanted to get out on the streets.
I can't confirm this, because I wasn't there. By 6 pm, I left Portland.
My entire body ached from the tension in that unprovoked confrontation
with police.
Before marching, many of us heard Marbet speak. He
talked about responsibilities of citizenship — in order to govern
ourselves, we must work for democracy. Not only march in protest,
but petition the government for change, run for office, and work on
campaigns for third-party candidates to shake up the corporate status
quo. He is right. I hope this protest invigorates people to get involved,
opens their eyes to see the sham of our democracy, and propels them
toward taking back our freedoms. For some, Portland was a start, a
turning of the tide. For others, it is a continuation of our many
years' struggle — a struggle that must endure until we liberate
ourselves, and win human rights for the rest of our indivisible planet.
Eugene peace activists are organizing a public meeting
to discuss the Portland protest, from 7 to 9 pm Tuesday at Harris Hall.
For more information call 689-0085.
Back to Top
More
Dirty Air
Weyerhaeuser
proposal will go to public hearing.
BY
JUDY YABLONSKI
A recent Weyerhaeuser ad in The Oregonian reads:
"The only way we can grow as a company is with the support of the
community around us." Many Lane County residents and environmental
activists are putting pressure on the timber giant to walk their talk.
The ad asserts that the company "gives back to the
communities where we live and work every day." Those in the midst
of challenging Weyerhaeuser's plans to increase its board feet production
at its sawmill in Coburg wonder exactly what Weyerhaeuser is giving
back to its community in Coburg. Is the answer more pollution?
Shortly after taking over Willamette Industries earlier
this year, Weyerhaeuser applied to the Lane Regional Air Pollution
Authority (LRAPA) for a modification of its operating permit for its
newly acquired sawmill and veneer manufacturing plant. The company's
proposal to increase its board-foot production requires LRAPA's approval
since the change will result in a four-ton increase in particulate
matter emissions (sawdust).
To the surprise of LRAPA, many residents have expressed
opposition to this permit modification. In response to a stream of
letters, LRAPA has announced that it will hold a public hearing on
the application. The hearing will take place at 6:30 pm Thursday,
Sept. 12 in the Coburg City Council Chamber.
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LRAPA
is legally
obligated to approve Weyerhaeuser's plans unless the public
comments reveal that the permit is out of compliance with
federal and local
air standards.
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"From what we deal with day to day as a permitting
agency, this is small potatoes," says Max Hueftle, LRAPA permit writer.
However, Josh Laughlin of the Cascadia Wildlands Project (CWP) told
LRAPA that he and CWP's members feel this is an issue to be discussed.
"I just want to make sure there is adequate input on this from the
community because the modification could potentially subject the environment
and the community to more toxic chemicals."
LRAPA public affairs manager Kim Metzler defends the
permit modification as having minimal environmental impacts. She explains
that the four-ton increase in sawdust that will result is balanced
by estimates of decreased future emissions of road dust. Therefore,
she concludes that there will actually be a net decrease in
emissions from this plant. However, Robert Coster, LRAPA operations
manager, says Weyerhaeuser has made no changes to its operations that
would result in less road dust. They merely estimated lower road dust
this year. He says road dust emissions are virtually impossible to
quantify; therefore while the decrease in road dust is speculative,
the increase in particulate matter is definite.
Regardless of the significance of this particular
permit, those active on this issue feel that there is a much larger
message to send LRAPA and Weyerhaeuser. "The issue is, why are we
allowing these industries to pollute as much as they do?" asks Debra
Higbee, political chair of the local chapter of the Sierra Club. She
and David Monk, executive director of the Oregon Toxics Alliance,
are concerned about the emissions of carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide,
arsenic, formaldehyde and other pollutants.
Monk plans to attend the hearing to urge Weyerhaeuser
to be a good neighbor by improving and adjusting its operations technology
so that the company goes above and beyond meeting the minimal federal
and local air quality standards. "LRAPA is not in a position to change
these laws," he says, "but the more they appreciate that perspective
the more they will advocate for it, and the more they will recognize
that we all share the same air."
Coster predicts that this permit will be approved
regardless of what happens at the hearing. He explains that community
opposition to the permit is insufficient grounds for LRAPA to deny
a permit modification and that LRAPA is legally obligated to approve
Weyerhaeuser's plans unless the public comments reveal that the permit
is out of compliance with federal and local air standards. Undaunted,
many residents are using this opportunity to examine the region's
air quality and to determine what improvements are possible.
Back
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Gail
Campbell
Fresh out of Michigan State University in
1968, San Fransisco native Gail Campbell found work as a house mother
at the Chemawa Indian School. "It was the last gasp of the Eisenhower
'break up the tribes, urbanize and assimilate' era," she says. After
a year, Campbell moved on to a career in personnel and employee relations.
"I ran a couple of federal manpower programs for the Department of
Labor," she notes. In 1979, she met a Native American man. "Charlie
had a boat — he introduced me to winter steelheading," she recalls.
Their marriage lasted only two years, but a fascination with fishing
and Campbell's friendships with Indian people have endured. "I've
spent a lot of time at Warm Springs. I had a long relationship with
Nettie Shawaway — a fabulous elder," she says. "For years I
took her around." Certified as a casting master by the Federation
of Fly Fishers, Campbell has taught free fly-fishing classes as a
volunteer with the ODFW since 1993 — she also offers private
lessons. She spent six months this year organizing ODFW's Fish 'n'
Fun exhibit for the Lane County Fair's Kid's Park. "The kids had a
blast," she reports. "I love turning people on to fishing." —
Paul Neevel
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