|
NEWS
BRIEFS : Change of Voice
| Schooling the SOA | The
Time is Now | Backward Drive | Reed
Sues the State | Break the Chains
News:
Democratic Smackdown DeFazio says Democrats should go populist.
Sports:
A Senior Moment Ducks create a memory hopefully soon forgotten.
Happening
People: Candy Walker
CHANGE
OF VOICE
UO President Dave Frohnmayer may believe
he has squelched the campus — and now communitywide —
KUGN debate, but new efforts are gearing up to pressure KUGN into
dropping its slogan "The Voice of the Ducks."
KUGN came under fire recently from UO students and
faculty because it airs talk radio shows, specifically one by Michael
Savage, that are rife with denigrating and racist comments against
women and minorities. Students and faculty say those comments are
at odds with the UO's mission of diversity, and absolutely do not
represent the "voice of the Ducks."
Frohnmayer believes the issue of free speech outweighs
the students' concerns. In a letter to student body President Rachel
Pilliod, Frohnmayer wrote the university "cannot engage in any form
of attempted censorship on this or any other issue."
But students have not asked that the shows be canceled,
just that KUGN, which has exclusive rights to air all Duck football
and basketball games and is locked into a contract with the UO through
next September, simply drop the "Voice of the Ducks" slogan.
Frohnmayer added in his letter, "I am not convinced
that anyone believes the university has any connection with KUGN programming
or that of any station beyond the broadcasts of our athletic events."
But if Frohnmayer believes his letter washed his hands
of the controversy, he is mistaken. This week, a group of UO faculty
members who share the students' concerns met to begin working on a
proposal that, according to UO philosophy Prof. Cheyney Ryan, would
"respect the freedom of speech concerns but also try to distance the
university from any associations from objectionable comments."
The faculty is scheduled to meet with the administration
next week and will discuss, among other issues that are not being
made public, the possibility of reworking the KUGN contract to drop
the "Voice of the Ducks" slogan.
"I think that every possible step needs to be taken
to disassociate the university from the kinds of things being said
on KUGN," says Ryan, adding, "I would appreciate it if members of
the administration would begin speaking for themselves and not the
university, and would come out and condemn what's being said." —
Aria Seligmann
| SLANT
Oregon's Department of Land Conservation
and Development (DLCD) turned a firehose on Springfield's and
PeaceHealth's rezoning and other land use plans this week, and
we'll be watching to see what's standing when the water recedes.
In a 19-page letter from Mark Radabaugh of DLCD, the department
says PeaceHealth plans are a "major revision" with metropolitan
area implications for transportation, housing and employment.
Among other things, the document calls for a new level of master
planning and citizen involvement "appropriate to the scale of
the planning effort," which is good news for folks who only
get three minutes to voice their concerns at Springfield council
meetings. The document also raises issues of riparian habitat,
air quality, building a hospital in a 500-year floodplain, and
the "financially constrained" TransPlan. The letter has no demands,
only suggestions and recommendations. But we suspect this document
would grow teeth in litigation if Springfield ignores it.
A revised resolution in opposition to the
USA Patriot Act is coming before the Eugene City Council
Monday, Nov. 25, and we expect conservatives on the council
to give it the same treatment as last week's resolution against
the White House Iraq offensive. The Patriot Act resolution will
likely become just a letter signed by a few council members,
but these two issues are among the most important of our decade
and deserve our serious attention. We're not talking here about
resolutions supporting National Dairy Month. We're talking about
basic American rights, the lives of hundreds of thousands of
people, and economy-busting military spending. It's time to
stand up and be counted, as individuals and as a city.
It's often painful to watch local commercial
TV news, particularly when reporters attempt to take on
the big issues of the day. Despite good intentions, KMTR NewsSource
16's four-part series on land use does not do justice to the
topic. The final part in the series airs Monday night, Nov.
25. In the second segment Nov. 11, reporter Zetty McKay informed
us incorrectly that Eugene is in violation of state land use
laws regarding inventory of buildable land, and the only solution
is Musumeci-style massive development outside our urban growth
boundary. Local experts on land use planning were not interviewed
and state land use policy was not even presented as an argument
against the Chamber of Commerce propaganda. The third segment
Nov. 18 was a primer on the value of wetlands, but didn't even
mention the huge wetlands controversies and lawsuits surrounding
Hyundai/Hynix, the West Eugene Parkway, mitigation studies,
etc. The upcoming final segment on nodal development is "already
in the can," we hear, but not a single local expert on nodal
development was queried. What's disturbing is that so many people
today are choosing not to read newspapers, but rather get their
news from commercial television — a domain known, unfortunately,
for superficial and haphazard attention to political life.
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
|
SCHOOLIN'
THE SOA
Four Eugene residents were among 10,000
activists protesting the School of the Americas (SOA), Nov. 15-17
in Ft. Benning, Ga. Peg Morton, Sister John Backenstos, Donna Frazier
and Shauna Farabaugh participated in the SOA Watch demonstration demanding
the school's closure.
The SOA, recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute
for Security Cooperation, serves as a military training ground for
Latin American soldiers, training over 60,000 of them in counter-insurgency
techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military
intelligence and interrogation tactics. These soldiers have gone on
to wage war against their own people to such an extent that the school
has been dubbed "School of the Assassins."
SOA Watch began in response to the Nov. 1989 massacre
in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their female co-worker and her
daughter by individuals trained through SOA. Every year since, to
commemorate those massacred, protesters have gathered at the gates
of Ft. Benning to insist on its closure. This year, 96 protesters
were arrested; 43 of them remain in custody. For the first time in
SOA Watch's 13-year history, protesters were held on $5,000 bond (adding
up to a total of $440,000). According to Peg Morton, the Eugene protesters
were able to finish the demonstration without being arrested.
Sister John says, "I was inspired by all the people
in the crowd — no one was a stranger." — Bobbie Willis
THE
TIME IS NOW
Barb Biedrzycki, a second-year graduate
student in UO's Planning, Public Policy and Management Department
working on a certificate in nonprofit management, was surprised when
she moved to Eugene a couple of years ago and found out there was
no local chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Biedrzycki, who was the membership coordinator for
the Corvallis NOW chapter before moving here, has been meaning to
do something about that. Since the Republican sweep in the recent
elections, she's decided now's the time for NOW.
"Anything that focuses on grassroots organizing is
a positive way to respond to a lot of depressed voters out there,"
she says. "It is important that people realize that they still do
have power, it just isn't as easy as sending in a ballot anymore."
NOW focuses on issues pertaining to reproductive rights,
lesbian/gay equal rights, ending racism, the Equal Rights Amendment,
equal representation of women, economic parity, and ending violence
against women.
Locally, Biedrzycki sees much to be done.
"With the loss of All Women's Health Services, domestic
partnership struggles, hate crimes, loss of representation in the
Supreme Court, and the economic parity issues that face Eugene residents,
we have a lot to work on," she says.
"I am hoping to gather feminist, progressive individuals,
men included, to work toward making positive changes in our community."
NOW's first organizational meeting will be held from
6 to 8 pm Sunday, Nov. 24 at First Congregational Church.
— Aria Seligmann
BACKWARD
DRIVE
Insecurity about the future of oil in the U.S.
drives news ranging from the imminent war in Iraq to drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But it isn't driving conservation
efforts, either by Congress or U.S. automakers.
According to an Oct. 29 report released by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and a subsequent analysis by the Associated
Press, the new batch of cars coming out for the 2003 model year on
average will offer even worse gas mileage than in 2002. Fuel efficiency
peaked in 1988, when U.S. cars averaged 22.4 miles to the gallon.
According to the EPA, average fuel economy for 2002 model cars was
20.4 mpg. This year's number is expected to come in between 20 and
21 mpg when the agency releases its annual Fuel Economy Trends Report
later this year.
But averages only tell part of the story. How many
cars get better than 30 mpg? In the current model year, 5.5 percent
of cars go farther than 30 miles on a gallon of gas. In 2002, however,
that number is expected to drop to 3.5 percent. Eugene's ubiquitous
Volvo and Subaru wagons all are rated below 30 mpg. According to the
Sierra Club, if fuel-efficiency standards went up, owners of those
cars could save between $4,000 and $6,000 per year on gas, and save
everyone as much as 70,512 pounds of noxious gasses — per car
— each year.
The EPA lists the top green cars as the hybrid gas
sippers by Honda (Insight and Civic) and Toyota (Prius), which drive
between 46 miles (Civic automatic in the city) and 68 miles (Insight
manual highway) on a gallon. Others on the fuel-efficient list include
VW's diesel Jettas, new Beetles and Golfs, along with the manual Toyota
Echo.
The worst guzzlers aren't seen much in Eugene, including
Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Aston Martins. The worst of
the bunch is the Enzo Ferrari, which gets just 8 mpg in the city and
12 mpg on the open road. Tied for 10th place among these offenders,
however, are the Dodge Ram 1500 pickup, the Ford F150 two-wheel drive
pickup and the Land Rover Discovery Series II. Each gets 12 mpg city
and 16 on the highway.
— Orna Izakson
REED
SUES STATE
Mark Reed, a UO geology professor, filed
a legal action Wednesday, Nov. 20, in Lane County Circuit Court which
would bar the state of Oregon from prosecuting him for practicing
geology without a license on the ground that the state's action would
violate his state and federal constitutional rights. He asked for
an injunction and a declaratory judgment against the state..
Reed testified against Eugene Sand & Gravel's
application for a zone change permitting an industrial gravel mine
and asphalt plant on farm land in the River Road area. He and his
wife live near the proposed gravel operation. The Lane County commissioners
turned down the gravel company's request , but that decision is on
appeal.
After the hearings, Eugene Sand & Gravel filed
complaints with the state licensing board for geologists charging
that Reed violated state law by testifying as a geologist although
he is not registered in this state. Reed announced at the hearings
that he is not registered and that he was not paid for his testimony,
that he was speaking as a resident of the area in question and as
an individual..
Co-counsel for Reed are Garrett Epps, UO law professor,
and Art Johnson of Johnson, Clifton, Larson and Corson.
BREAK
THE CHAINS
Nationally known activists Rod Coronado
and Derrick Jensen will be speaking at a forum at 7 pm Monday, Nov.
25 at 100 Willamette on the UO campus.
Coronado is a former Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
member who spent four years in prison for his role in "Operation Bite
Back," an ALF campaign against mink farming that led to the closure
of OSU's Experimental Fur Farm in 1991.
Over the last 17 years Coronado has worked with Sea
Shepherd Conservation Society, Earth First!, Hunt Saboteurs and other
grassroots direct action groups on nonviolent campaigns to defend
the Earth and our animal relations.
Jensen is a longtime environmental activist who has
worked with the Maori people of New Zealand to protect their land
from industrial exploitation, and has worked to protect salmon and
end illegal logging on public lands here in the Northwest.
Back to Top
Democratic
Smackdown
DeFazio
says Democrats should go populist.
BY
ALAN PITTMAN
After the Democrats got walloped in midterm elections
this month, the party was left dazed. Who am I? What am I doing here?
Lie down? Go left? Go right?
For post match, blow-by-blow analysis, we called on
local populist pugilist Peter Defazio, a congressional ringer now
entering his eighth term.
Q: So, what happened?
A: Republican light doesn't work. Some of my colleagues
and [Democratic] leaders thought it might be a way to overcome Bush's
popularity. I've never felt that not providing a real alternative
was going to motivate people, and obviously it didn't. People stayed
home in droves.
One of the [Democratic] pollsters I think really got
it right. She said in terms of the Democratic base, it's starting
to look a lot like 1994 when Clinton pushed NAFTA through and Democrats
stayed home in large numbers and the Republicans took over.
You got a popular Republican president and Democrats
not providing a viable vocal alternative. When [Senate Democratic
leader Tom] Daschle and [House Democratic leader Dick] Gephardt, particularly
Gephardt, became a cheerleader for the blank check for the war, a
lot of people said what's this about? That hurt a good deal.
I kept reading all these stories in the press saying
no Democrats are standing against Bush's tax cuts. Well, actually
there are quite a few of us who have been saying that [they should
be canceled], but according to the press no Democrats, because no
Democrats means Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle.
Q: What will be the consequences?
A: Let's just dial back to the first four or five
months of Bush. We had Enron manipulating the energy markets in the
Western United States, screwing tens of millions of people and the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC], under the leadership
of Pat Wood from Texas appointed by George Bush, saying this is the
market. I sat in a meeting with [Vice President] Dick Cheney saying,
oh, we have to build a power plant every five days for the next 20
years, it's going to be like this until we do that, we have to open
up the ANWR [Alaska National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling]. They
just went on and on and the conventional press just ate it up. We
couldn't get much traction on, hey wait a minute, we think this is
actually bullshit that this is an artificial crisis created by this
company from Texas that is trying to screw people and get rich by
manipulating markets.
FERC was denying any of that was going on until one
week after the Democrats took control of the Senate. As soon as they
announced they were going to schedule hearings, the FERC said, whoops,
we think maybe there is a problem here and we better take a look at
it.
It's the sound of one hand clapping now. No Democrat
will be able to schedule a hearing on anything in the entire United
States Congress. It's winner take all. The Republicans set the hearing
schedule. They set the schedule on what bills come to the floor. In
the House they can even set the schedule on amendments. It's going
to be even harder to articulate alternatives. This could be forever,
or maybe they'll just overreach and screw up so badly, like Gingrich
did in 1994, that this will turn things around. It's hard to predict
right now.
Q: What do you think the strategy for the Democratic
party should be right now?
A: Well, we've started with new leadership. I supported
Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] when she ran against Steny Hoyer [D-Md.] for
[House Minority] Whip. I think she's very articulate, she's tough,
she listens, she's willing to make decisions, she's willing to stake
out controversial positions. She's on the so-called Intelligence Committee
and yet she's leading the Democrats against the blank check for Bush
on the war while Gephardt is out there cheerleading and showing up
in press spots with Bush. So that's already going to be a big difference.
Hopefully we're going to have more of a voice for
the progressives. The argument within the caucus has been we will
be more like Republicans. But I think I can argue [otherwise].
Compare my district to [Democrat] Darlene Hooley's
[Salem-area House] district. It's very instructive. Darlene ran against
a guy who was out of the country during the elections, didn't campaign,
didn't spend much money. She [Darlene] spent about three times as
much money as I did. I ran against a nine-term state representative
and [my opponent] spent a hundred some thousand dollars and was very
organized at the grass roots level. I got nine points better than
Darlene.
I think it's because I take outspoken positions on
things. Democrats who take outspoken positions on things can attract
people across the political spectrum and they can motivate people
to vote for them. She [Darlene] represents more of the [centrist]
Democratic Leadership Council [DLC] and I represent the progressives.
I think right here in Oregon you see a difference, let alone nationally.
They [voters] like the fact that I take positions,
that I stick with them and explain why I'm doing it, and seem to believe
in things, whether or not they agree with me. People are ready for
that. They're tired of fence-sitters no matter what their voting orientation
is.
Q: You won by a pretty good margin in a lot of
counties like Coos, Curry and Douglas. They voted for Republican Kevin
Mannix for governor by a pretty good margin, but they also voted for
you by a good margin. How do you explain that?
A: It's been going on for six or eight years. Wyden
lost to Smith in my district. Gore lost to Bush in my district. People
just haven't noticed. Those are areas where the economy is depressed.
People are angry. A lot of them are or were Democrats, blue-collar
Democrats, formerly mill workers, woods workers. They're looking for
someone who articulates some of their anger about what's going on.
I think my outspoken stand against energy deregulation when all the
conventional wisdom and everybody in the world was supporting it;
my vocal opposition to so-called free trade as a system that's screwing
American workers, the environment and labor; my outspokenness against
tax cuts for the wealthy. I think all of those things attract votes
from those people. Kevin Mannix ran sort of a populist campaign and
Teddy [Kulongoski] ran a sit-on-your-lead centrist campaign and he
almost blew it.
Q: U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Bill Bradbury
lost in Lane county where you had a huge majority ...
A: Well, when you're outspent seven to one, it's kind
of hard. I just don't think Bill was able to get his word out. But
then again, he is a DLC centrist Democrat. He's a free-trade, tax-cut
kind of Democrat, or at least his background is that. In this campaign
he seemed more progressive, but he was the founder of the DLC in Oregon
as I recall. That's why Clinton came here to campaign for him.
Q: Do you think the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) spent enough on Bradbury?
A: I don't know that they spent hardly anything. All
the Democrats in the delegation were trying to contact [DNC leader]
Terry McAuliffe. The call never quite happened, but he knew what we
were calling about. They had promised him [Bradbury] some substantial
additional funds but never came through. They spent it somewhere else.
I don't know to what effect. He got very little support.
That's another one of the many reasons [I didn't run
for Senate]. The characters at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee (DSCC) and the DNC, I didn't trust those people two feet
to help me run the campaign. I even warned Bill [Bradbury] about it
when he called me. At that point Patty Murray was still trying to
encourage me [to run]. My deal was OK, if you guys agree to raise
me a bunch of money, then I'll do it, but I'm not going to spend all
my time raising money. But in the middle of that discussion and deliberation,
the DSCC staff, the dweebs there that have now gone to Kerry's campaign,
decided to recruit Bradbury and not wait for Patty Murray and I to
finish our discussion. They said they had the best candidate they
could have, and they were going to help him out. I said Bill, be careful
of these people, they lie. And they did, they didn't help him.
Q: Should Terry McAuliffe be moving on?
A: He was Clinton's hand-picked choice. I would like
to choose somebody else, a fresh face. Maybe even choose someone who
isn't as good at fund-raising but is better at motivating Democrats
and getting people to vote in the next election.
Q: Have you thought any more about running for
Senate?
A: This [election] is instructive as to why I have
little interest. Seven million bucks for [Republican Senator Gordon]
Smith [in campaign donations]. Bill [Bradbury] had a million, I probably
could have had two or three. Could I have been outspent seven to three
and won? I don't know. It's hard to say.
The system is obscene. Roll Call, the newspaper
on Capitol Hill, said over a third of the new members are multi-millionaires.
I think it's more than half the Senate now. We're basically headed
toward a time when only very wealthy people or people who are capable
of selling out to the special interests are going to be in Congress,
and that's going to be disastrous to the nation. We need a much bigger
dose of campaign finance reform. If we had it, I would think of running
for anything.
Q: Is it kind of difficult given the Supreme Court's
position?
A: I think they are wrong. We pushed to try and pass
limits again and test their decision. Their decision said that since
there was no impropriety nor appearance of impropriety, they weren't
going to limit expenditures. I don't know how anybody could look at
what's going on today and say there isn't a great appearance of impropriety,
if not actual.
Q: Do you think your district is moving to the
right?
A: According to the analysis, it's definitely
moving to the right. It's dropping 1 or 2 percent a year in Democratic
performance. When they factor in Bradbury and Kulongoski, it will
probably show that my district has dropped to about even or below
in terms of Democratic performance, except for me.
Q: Are you worried that if someone like Jim Torrey,
the Republican mayor of Eugene, entered a race against you that it
would be tough?
A: Liz VanLeeuwen was sort of a little test for Republicans
[this year]. She spent a decent amount of money. She was elected nine
times as a state representative from my second largest county, population-wise.
She didn't do too well and I even beat her in her home county. That
pretty much precludes national support for an opponent.
I think my performance is such that it would be tough
[to beat me]. With someone like the mayor running, he would have trouble
getting the votes in some of these rural areas that these other people
are getting.
Q: Is the whole state moving to the right?
A: Basically, except for Multnomah County and Lane
County and maybe a few other little pockets, Ashland, parts of Washington,
Clackamas counties. Yeah, it's definitely. I don't know it's to the
right. It's that the sort of centrist Democratic message doesn't work.
I really believe that a progressive populist Democrat, like someone
with politics like mine, could do much better running statewide than
the people who have been running statewide. My polling shows that.
When the unions were trying to push me into the governor's race, they
did a very large sample statewide poll and I was an embarrassingly
amount ahead of all the other candidates, Republican and Democrat.
That was before the campaign, but there is some appeal
to progressive populist politics that I think my party is missing
out on. Traditional liberal politics and centrist politics don't attract
the same sort of voters and, in Oregon these days, don't put together
a coalition. There's sort of a strong Libertarian-like vote that is
attracted by populism or anti-establishment politics that isn't voting
for traditional Democrats or others.
Q: So why didn't you run for governor?
A: It was a tough decision. It was before 9/11 and
at that point I figured Bush was toast and the Democrats were going
to take back the House. I thought I'd be chairing a committee where
I could have done much more for the Northwest.
Part of it was just kind of looking at the lay of
the land for the next governor. It's slightly better than I thought
because he's got an even split [state] Senate.
It [the race] would have been a real toss of the dice,
because I wouldn't have run a campaign where I would have said, oh,
I'm just going to cut things and we don't need to change things and
change the tax system. I would have run a very controversial, very
intense campaign. I probably would have had to leave Congress to run
the campaign. It was logistically difficult.
Q: What big issues do you see coming?
A: Hold on to your hat. This is going to embolden
them in their very wrongheaded potential war with Iraq. It will probably
embolden them and allow them to make permanent the tax cuts which
will basically head the U.S. towards bankruptcy after 2010. It will
cost $50 billion dollars a year to exempt all estates from taxes.
The Farm Bureau was unable to find one farm in the United States of
America, nor was the New York Times, that had been sold because
of the estate tax, not a one. Yet this myth has been created that
this was about small business and family farms. We could have exempted
the first $5 million of every estate, which takes care of every family
farm that I know of and every small business that I know of, and we
would still have 80 percent of the dollars falling in because less
than 1 percent of the estates pay 80 percent of the tax. It's unbelievable.
We're going to basically transfer the Social Security trust funds
to the wealthiest of the wealthy in this country with this permanent
appeal of the estate tax.
Some of these things that they are doing won't become
obvious for about a decade. They are long-term disastrous policies.
That's actually the worst, because trying to motivate the press to
cover it, trying to motivate the public to listen to the press and
understand it, and understand that you have people who are basically
planting a whole series of ticking time bombs and they're just going
to have fun for six more years. They will be two or four years gone
when they all explode and there's no more Social Security, Medicare
and the economy is in a tailspin and the IMF is dictating terms to
us because of our massive foreign debt. They don't get it. Sorry,
it's so depressing.
Back to Top
A
Senior Moment
Ducks
create a memory hopefully soon forgotten.
BY
NATE PUCKETT
Saturday, Nov. 16 was "Senior Day" at Autzen
Stadium: the last home football game of the season. Washington vs.
Oregon. Seattle vs. Eugene. Rainy-Urban vs. rainy-urban.
I, myself, am a senior at the UO. My neck may be thinner
than any arm on the UO defensive line, but I saw no reason to miss
Senior Day.
Hell, it's about time I got some recognition —
over the past four years, I've heckled big, big men from all over
the country. UCLA. Arizona State. Idaho. If they were playing the
Ducks (and I remembered to get a ticket, and I didn't oversleep, and
it wasn't raining too much, and I showed up early enough to get a
seat close to the field, and I was in the proper frame of mind), they
got an earful of the Puckett Treatment.
Poor suckers. They acted like it didn't rattle 'em,
but I always saw right through that.
This would be my last football game as a UO student,
as coach Mike Bellotti was doubtlessly reminding the team in the locker
room before the game. "All right, men," he was telling them as I rode
my bike across the Autzen footbridge, late as usual, drawing the ire
of every drunken straggler I flew by, "let's win one for the Heckler.
Bring it in."
Yes, it was glory time for us seniors, where an announced
crowd of 57,112 would witness a Husky whuppin' in Eugene's newly expanded
football shrine. Right before kickoff, the public address announcer
proclaimed, as he always does, that "It never rains at AUTZEN STADIUM!"
Then, unfortunately, the game started.
And the rain.
When I was a freshman in the dorms, an entire floor
devoted their windows to a crucial message in big, purple letters.
"HUCK THE FUSKIES," it said, one letter per window. Not even Oregon
State drew that kind of effort.
The reason is simple: UO football fans, on the whole,
reserve a specific sort of loathing for Washington. It is a brand
of animosity that transcends competitive desire, that lodges in the
stomach rather than the cerebrum.
Mix the defensive/derisive reflex smaller-town folk
reserve for city slickers, add a tradition of playing (and, more often
than not, losing to) a rival school for generations in a hyper-masculine
contest of Organized Violence, and throw in Rick Neuheisel, the Washington
coach who was hated by the UO faithful even before he coached
UW. Simmer for most of a football season, then bring to a boil in
front of a crowd that has watched the Ducks lose three of their last
four games.
Yes, Huck the Fuskies.
As a member of the press, I eschewed the damp and
dreary student section for the media box, or whatever they call the
tip-top of the stadium. It's a setup that makes you feel like some
Roman Empire VIP watching the lions get fed; the urge to give the
Thumbs Down is overwhelming at times.
There is also free cake.
Many, many sports-oriented types watched from the
Roman Balcony, and after a while I got the sense that most within
earshot were embarrassed for me. My journalistic objectivity was conspicuously
lacking. I cheered like a banshee when Oregon went up 14-0 on a spectacular
catch by fellow senior Jason Willis, high-fiving fellow senior Lucas
Willett, who accompanied me to the balcony (and is to heckling what
Mr. Rogers is to children's TV). I bitched and moaned whenever the
Ducks gave up a big play, which happened more and more often as the
game went on.
Eventually, I ended up leaning over the edge of the
press box, screaming down at the Husky fans below. Many of them were
drinking freely by then; Autzen was mostly empty except for one solid
section of purple, a boorish contingent that was cackling and reveling
and pissing me off. This was Senior Day, dammit! They and their
big fast men had ruined my party — and cake, paradoxically,
was not enough to offset this horrific turn of events.
"You're a bunch of wee men!" I shouted down from above
in a terrible Scottish accent, which somehow seemed right for the
occasion. "Wee men in purple!" One more chance to heckle …
but none of them seemed to care. Washington was up 42-14 by then,
which would end up being the final score.
Later, outside the UO locker room, coach Bellotti
and a few players had to face the press, to answer all the second-guessing
questions and the post-mortem that accompanies such a whompin' defeat.
Meanwhile, Washington's players were dancing in the big yellow O at
midfield.
The last home game of the year, of my college career,
and the Ducks went out with a whimper. No joy in Rainville. No triumphant
Senior Farewell. Just the growing darkness, and the drizzle, and gulls
fighting for the leftover bleacher garbage, making more noise than
the Duck fans did in the entire fourth quarter.
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Candy
Walker
In 1991, Candy Walker lost her 51-year-old
mother to AIDS. "It was devastating to watch her suffer," says Walker,
a hairdresser at Rapunzel Salon. "I wanted to do something to remember
her and to make a difference." On Mothers' Day last year, she consulted
her brother, who related his experience in the annual California AIDSRide
sponsored by Pallotta. "I didn't know anything about road biking,"
she says. "I collected all the info I needed and started putting in
hours of training." Formerly captain of the swim team at Hollywood
High, Walker was already in reasonable physical shape, but she also
needed to raise $2,700 in pledges to qualify for the ride. "My brother
told me, 'It's like magic — it will happen.' And it did," she
notes. "I see a lot of clients, and I wasn't afraid to ask." Last
June, after a year of training, she and three other Eugeneans were
among the 700 who rode 575 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles
in seven days. She wore a photograph of her mother on her back to
raise awareness that AIDS also afflicts women. "I felt strong —
I rode every mile," says Walker, who finished a triathlon later in
the summer. "Next year I'll do the Paradise Ride in Hawaii with my
brother and sister."
— Paul Neevel
Nominate A Happenin' Person
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