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Living
Out : Thanks Giving The right bus will take
us home.
Viewpoint
: It's Not All Bad Let's put the election in
a broader perspective.
Viewpoint
: Raining Profits Corporations drool over our
most basic resource.
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Thanks
Giving
The
right bus will take us home.
I like to wake up and feel grateful. To say
thank you for the sheer privilege of being here. But it's not
that easy. Most mornings I struggle to snatch my mind back from the
worry raptors. They swoop down and pinch their talons around my tender
waking thoughts, whisk them away and drop them into the canyons of
despair wherein dwell myriad anxieties such as deadlines and to-do
lists and election results.
But thankfulness is always an option. I can choose
to focus on what I appreciate. It's like I am at a big mass transit
station and it's up to me to pick the bus of gratitude. Other buses
queue up and lure me aboard. The "Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?" coach
snags me and careens around the bend of Hillary's vast right wing
conspiracy theory, which rings true but can't get any air time. I
hop right off.
I'd rather appreciate the awesomeness of waking to
a new day, to sunlight streaming in the window and a drawer full of
freshly laundered underwear. I am just settling into a nice contented
mood when I am scooped up by a crazy, scary bus swerving toward the
worry pit. Up bubble the swastika-etched rocks those youth threw at
our synagogue windows while we were inside praying for peace and welcoming
our new members. "Welcome!" Thwap-thwap-thwap.
That bus jostles me into connecting swastikas with
the murders of Hattie Mae Cohen and Brian Mock, the lesbian and gay
man who were firebombed in their apartment by racist skinheads a reminder
to every gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer person that
something just as gruesome could happen to any of us at any time.
Before I can elbow my way off this nasty bus I find
myself gripping a free transfer to City Council chambers where opposition
to our local human rights ordinance hinges on sharing public bathrooms
with transgendered people. Oh, come on! How are you going to know?
Peep under the stall wall? Glue mirrors onto your shoes? Make everyone
pass through some kind of schmeckie scanner? I dive for the stop cord
and bolt off that bus ASAP.
I leap aboard the good bus. The one that transports
me to thankfulness for waking up alive, which is tricky to appreciate
without imagining all the potential disasters that have been escaped
for another day. But I do my best. I am thankful to be in a warm bed
under soft flannel sheets snuggled up with the woman I love. I am
thankful for my cuddly cat who, thank goodness, has not indulged her
bulimia this morning. Even so, I am careful when I step out of bed.
I am thankful for so much today. Like both my nostrils
breathing after the nasty cold that hit everyone around here but nobody
is saying could be the work of biological warfare. Don't people realize
that the contents of Iraq's germ stores will be loosed on the entire
world if our cowboy president sends in his posse? Are they going to
call it "collateral damage" when U.S. bombs hit the microbe silos?
Hey, wrong bus! Help! Let me off! I kick my way out
the emergency exit. I lunge for the gratitude express and haul myself
up its steps. I am glad to be here. I am thankful for the dawning
of yet another glorious fall day. I am thankful for brilliant maples,
sumacs and sweet gums shimmering against the autumn sky. I offer up
my thanks for the ocean and the mountains and for the Democrat winning
the governor's race.
The gratitude bus carries me along the peace route.
I relax and enjoy the ride, all the while giving thanks for whole
wheat toast and real organic butter and sweet good-bye kisses before
work. Safely aboard with my cheek pressed to the cool glass I watch
out the window where the worry raptors fly away empty-taloned.
Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community
since 1972 and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy troupe. Her column,
which began at EW in 1999, also runs in several other newspapers and
magazines around the country and Down Under.
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It's
Not All Bad
Let's
put the election in a broader perspective.
I get asked all the time about politics and government.
That's a good thing that people are interested —
at least the 3 to 5 percent of us who've had a conversation about
government in the last six months. Besides, it's my perspective from
working in Congress, or being a state senator or being on the scene
here in Eugene as a Lane County commissioner that people usually ask
about.
One of the more disturbing conversations I've had
recently was with a friend who started the conversation with, "Wasn't
that election terrible?" Instead of agreeing, I decided to immediately
challenge the assumption: "Yes, there were some bad things: Tom Delay
would continue as a Republican House leader in the Congress, Trent
Lott — the former cheerleader at Mississippi State — would
be Senate majority leader, and the Republican conservatives would
control Oregon's House." Then I said, "but let's look on the bright
side …" Before I could get another word out, she said, "I just
want to give up."
My premise is simple: A lot of bad things
did happen in the election, but there were many good things as well.
As a person who's worked in politics and elective government since
1974 (when I got my first paid job as a press secretary on Jim Weaver's
first winning congressional campaign), I get tired of simplistic perspectives.
So, here goes:
First and foremost, I am proud to live in a community,
and represent people in elective office, where public education was
provided more public funds. Eugene's city voters did something about
a problem that all of the talking heads from D.C. to Salem have not
done: taken money out of their own pockets and put it into public
classrooms. Portland and Ashland are other communities out there in
Oregon who did the same thing.
Second, Oregon's voters increased the state's minimum
wage and made it relatively permanent by tying it to the consumer
price index. While it's true that many money measures failed (including
the Lane County effort to fund a new public health building or make
county parks more wheelchair accessible) I think it was because of
a recognition that tax reform is necessary and that working poor people
need higher wages.
Third, even though slightly more than half of Oregon's
voters voted for the combined team of Kevin Mannix, the very conservative
Republican, and the Libertarian Tom Cox (called "losertarian by hate
radio hosts in Portland, by the way), Oregon did elect Ted Kulongoski
governor. Even though he faces a huge set of problems, the new governor
will likely (I hope) appoint far fewer conservatives to public office.
I was on the Oregon State Senate Appointments Committee and discovered
that a governor's power to make appointments to the zillions of state
boards and commissions (not to mention judges to trial and appellate
bench) is big. These appointments affect us all.
Fourth, even though there was heavy (two-to-one or
more) spending against Vicki Walker for state Senate and our U.S.
Rep. Peter Defazio, both of these progressive Democrats emerged as
winners. Good people like Bill Morrisette, Tony Corcoran, Phil Barnhart,
Terry Beyer, Bob Ackerman and Floyd Prozanski all won their seats
in the state Legislature.
Fifth, Oregon's voters closed the loophole that allowed
Bill Sizemore and others to pay signature gatherers by the signature.
The voters have now banned "piecework" because of the perverse incentive
it provided to forge signatures.
Sixth, the defeats of Bill Bradbury, the food labeling
initiative and the Health Care for All initiative all can be seen
in a positive light: Big money buys elections, and the more the public
knows and understands this simple truth, the more they will support
getting big money out of elections.
So there you have it: Don't succumb to the cynical
and ignorant view that "it doesn't matter." It does matter and we
should all go out and fight for what's right, I mean, progressive.
Lane County Commissioner Peter Sorenson can be reached
at peter.sorenson@co.lane.or.us
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Raining
Profits
Corporations
drool over our most basic resource.
All around America, a new kind of protest is springing
up. Long believed to be a characteristic of First World exploitation
of the Third World, water privatization is coming on strong and is
already being resisted in a variety of ways. U.S. Senate Bill 1961,
"The Water Investment Act of 2002" would require all local water providers
to "consider" selling off their infrastructure and water rights to
private corporations — or else lose vital federal funds for
maintenance (EWEB is "publicly" owned). The bill is being actively
pushed by powerful Florida Democrat Bob Graham and Oregon's own Sen.
Gordon Smith. It's bipartisan and the president likes it, too. What
more could we ask for?
Internationally admired scientist-activist Vandana
Shiva spoke at OSU on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Shiva's newest book is titled
Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit (South End
Press, Cambridge, Mass.). In it she points out that privatization
of water supplies around the world has consistently lead to dramatic
increases in price rates, service shut-offs, unemployment and disease.
It's also incredibly profitable.
All around the world, a handful of giant corporations
from France, Spain and the U.S. are taking advantage of governments
in debt and their friendly relations with the institutions of globalization,
like the IMF and the World Bank. While the elite in any country can
afford water (even for lawns and swimming pools), the poor everywhere
struggle to pay for privatized water or resort to drinking outdoor
sources often severely polluted by many of the same corporations.
As the world goes deeper into a global clean water shortage crisis,
this issue grows increasingly important.
Shiva goes to great lengths to discuss privatization
as just the next step in a devastating continuum that includes industrial
agriculture and giant water diversion projects like dams. All three
endeavors destroy vital ecosystems, displace local people, and increase
the power held by the elite over every one else's lives. Imagine having
to stay on Monsanto's good side in order to get water to drink! It's
hard enough to keep EWEB happy.
In response to this looming attack on our health,
ecosystems and self-determination, activists around the United
States are protesting water privatization. This summer, for example,
a group called The Sweetwater Alliance blockaded the facilities of
a Nestle Waters North America bottling plant in Michigan. Nestle has
been awarded a huge tax break to pump 200 million gallons per year
out of the Great Lakes for sale as bottled water. The Sweetwater Alliance
continues to organize across Michigan and has an extensive web site
at www.waterissweet.org
Last month in San Francisco, activists blockaded the
headquarters of the world's largest engineering corporation, Bechtel,
to protest the company's continued effort to privatize the water supply
of the South American nation of Bolivia. The company won an IMF mandated
contract for exclusive water rights there two years ago. The Bolivian
government even made it illegal to catch rainwater without a permit.
In response, workers, teachers, students, farmers and others from
around the country shut down all major commerce by blockading the
nation's major highways for three weeks. At least five people were
killed by police and soldiers trying to clear the streets of people,
some of whom threw rocks and molotov cocktails. Government buildings
were set on fire. After three weeks of uprisings, water privatization
was called off and still has not been resumed.
Suprisingly, perhaps, Shiva's otherwise exhaustive
book spends less than a page discussing Bolivia. It's the most successful
example of fighting water privatization in the world; but it was a
fight, and dogmatic advocates of non-violence look very dishonest
when they call it anything else. The words of writers like Shiva,
Canada's Maude Barlow and others carry a lot of weight in the minds
of people putting their bodies between U.S. water and privatization.
You can hear it in their rhetoric, often straight out of books like
Water Wars or Blue Gold.
When those authors don't tell us the truth about struggles
against exploitation in the Global South, we can't learn from those
struggles to fight the same treatment here in the Global North. The
U.S. Senate will discuss water privatization sometime very soon, and
writing them letters isn't going to do a damn thing to stop it. Let's
combine the holistic analysis of root causes offered by writers like
Shiva with an honest, thorough discussion of our options for resistance.
Marshall Kirkpatrick is a member of Eugene's Cascadia
Media Collective. He can be reached via www.cascadiamedia.org
GOD'S
OPEN-MINDED
Here's a quick note to all of those citizens
concerned about God coming down on Eugene for allowing transgendered
individuals to legally use "facilities at variance to their anatomy."
First, physical gender and subjective gender identity, like everything
else, result of complex epigenetic processes capable of yielding a
range of results. Most of us are born with either a penis or a vagina,
along with a corresponding sense of gender identity.
Some of us are not. The dogmatic notion that "God
doesn't make mistakes," so far as gender is concerned, is easily disproved
by the existence of biological hermaphrodites, who posses to some
extent the genitalia of both sexes. Starting from this indisputable
fact, you might explore the reality that gender is potentially ambiguous.
Second, the concern that the proposed ordinance would
be used by pedophiles and rapists is absurd. The area within restrooms,
believe it or not, is still subject to all of the laws applicable
to Eugene at large. Any potential pedophile or rapist bent on violating
someone in a restroom would hardly be concerned with having violated
the law prohibiting them from being in that restroom in the first
place.
Third, rest assured that God doesn't share your small-minded
bigotries, and will not rain down judgment upon Eugene for the blasphemy
of a penis legally relieving itself in a women's room. A God as ridiculously
concerned with the segregation of genders could never have created
this universe.
In sum, the effect of this ordinance, were it to pass,
would be an increase in safety for a small and generally unrepresented
segment of our society. It is a danger only to irrational prejudice.
Tim Shaw
Eugene
LOW
PROFILE
I would like to thank those who are standing
in solidarity with us, Muslims/Arabs, who are going through the hardest
time of our life.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, persecution of Muslim/Arab Americans
has been worse than ever before. While there have been some efforts
to increase tolerance of Muslim/Arab Americans, there has been little
effort to understand their role in American society.
Many Muslims are trying to keep a low profile post
9/11, the local "terrorist" arrests, the D.C. sniper, etc.
I would like to ask the citizens of Lane County to
sign the petition on the Bill of Rights Patriot Act. I also would
like to invite you to join us at 7:30 pm Monday, Nov. 25, in the City
Council Chambers to give your support for passing a resolution opposing
the USA Patriot Act.
Hardy Myers, attorney general of Oregon; Andrea R.
Meyer, Legislative Director of the ACLU of Oregon, Charles Hinkle,
cooperating attorney for the ACLU; David N. Shomloo, immigration attorney;
are supportive of a resolution against the USA Patriot Act. We need
to gain and maintain our security, freedom and justice.
Nadia Sindi
Eugene
KEEP
23 ALIVE
Measure 23 volunteers were terrific, breaking
signature gathering records and educating their friends. As the medical
crisis becomes more evident, voters will recognize their missed opportunity.
More than $20 billion will be spent in 2005 for health care in Oregon,
and 25 to 40 percent will go to corporate insurance-related charges.
The same amount of money under Measure 23 would have paid for every
Oregonian's medically necessary health care. I do anguish for the
millions without coverage or not enough coverage, especially seniors
with no dental, prescription or long term care.
Premiums in 2005 are predicted to be 50 percent higher
and fewer and fewer citizens will afford insurance. Measure 23 would
have been cheaper to everyone except for the richest 10 percent.
Hundreds of rural communities today have no health
care and by 2005 there will also be fewer medical centers. There will
be an increase in bankruptcies — 45 percent are related to health
costs. More Oregon companies will become self-insured for their healthy
working population and the rest of us will pay for the sick, disabled
and the elderly.
Everyone must become better informed about health
care, work for campaign finance reform and contact their elected officials
about the importance of having a single payer plan for Oregon.
And how can we ever thank the media that admirably
covered our campaign such as Eugene Weekly, Community Access
television and Grassroots along with the national media such as the
Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Los Angeles
Times, Chicago Tribune? We look forward to their continuing
support.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
ETHICS
& PERCEPTION
I read with interest the item in the 11/14
Slant about the public forums concerning the UO's association with
KUGN-AM radio. The piece stated "the UO can't and shouldn't dictate
KUGN's programming content, but it can and should choose to align
itself with organizations that further the UO's mandate to educate
and enlighten," and further that "the issues here are not politics
and free speech, but rather ethics and public perception."
Funny — that immediately brings to mind the
debate over the EW's publication of advertisements for businesses
that exploit women and encourage such exploitation. One could say
"the EW can't and shouldn't dictate these businesses' rights
to exist, or what they sell, but can and should choose to align itself
with businesses that further its mandate to inform, educate and (hopefully)
enlighten."
Haven't opponents of these ads been arguing precisely
that the key issue is not "free speech, but ethics and public perception"?
I can't say I know which course of action is best,
but the irony is appallingly palpable.
Don Titus
Eugene
CREEPY
POLITICIANS
I never thought I would be praising Libertarian
voters but I now thank them profusely for helping keep the Mannix
creep out of the governor's chair. If the U.S. electoral system could
grow into a four-party system (Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians)
a lot more creeps could be kept out of political office and U.S. foreign
policy could evolve from dominion, aggression and war to power-sharing
among real democracies. But this good stuff can't happen until electoral
control is taken out of corporate hands and hired thugs' hands and
put in the hands of all of the people (a real democracy). Then more
people would feel like voting and voter turnout would rise spectacularly.
Comparing the paper pushers (R-G and EW):
I see that the R-G showed its true colors by endorsing the
Smith creep and committing many other progressive boo-boos, while
the EW got it all right on the most important people and measures.
In Oregon and the rest of the U.S., the voters got
a lot of things wrong because they were so severely brainwashed by
big money's lying/weird political ads and speeches. Personally, I
am totally unmoved by political ads and calculated speeches because
I decide who or what to vote for purely on the basis of the voting
records of politicians, the records of who backed what measures and
common-sense movement toward real democracy and a better environment.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
COMPASSIONATE?
I have been wondering what the term "compassionate
conservative" meant ever since George W. Bush began calling himself
one. I now have a better understanding of what a "compassionate conservative"
is. A compassionate conservative is a person who never fought in Vietnam
because his father got him a place in the Texas Air National Guard,
from which he then went AWOL for over a year; who then campaigns against
a volunteer Vietnam war hero and veteran, Max Cleland, who lost both
legs and his right arm serving his country. A compassionate conservative
is a person who campaigns against a widow, Jean Carnahan, whose husband
and oldest son were tragically killed in a plane crash. A compassionate
conservative is a person who campaigns against a respected statesman
and former Vice President, Walter Mondale, who was picked to run for
the seat held by a visionary U.S. Senator, Paul Wellstone, who was
killed in a plane crash just a few days before an election. George
W. Bush singled out and vigorously attacked these sympathetic figures,
and, as a result, these were the only incumbent Democratic seats that
were lost in the Senate election.
That's compassion? Sounds pretty mean to me.
Kevin Franken
Eugene
PUCKETT'S
PIT
Nate Puckett's article, "The Pit and the
Partisans" (11/7) was brutally honest and a joy to read. I hope to
see more from him.
Harry Mallory
Corvallis
A
UNIFIED BODY
Upon first stepping foot at LCC, I met a
lot of new friends from every age, walk of life, gender, nationality,
religion, political style and ethnic group, and I've noticed a lot
of important student clubs meant to give everyone a forum for meeting
new friends and addressing their concerns and opinions. But I feel
like we have reached a new level in our scholastic evolution. We can
now show that ours is an understanding, educated, skilled, unprejudiced
and compassionate generation with real values.
I therefore propose a new unity club — a forum
in which everybody is welcome, where we can all better understand
our historical differences, communicate better with each other, and
focus on what we all have in common instead of what divides us. If
the rest of the world shared this opinion then wars and nuclear weapons
would be a thing of the past, peace would be with us and we could
responsibly prepare the way and set a wise example for future generations.
President Kennedy couldn't have said it better when he said "We all
breath the same air, we all cherish our children's future and we all
inhabit this beautiful planet." United we're strong, divided we're
weak! Please join me in this new challenge!
Tom Bush
Eugene
EVERY
VOTE COUNTS
A "Cheerleader in Chief" spent tens of millions
of our tax dollars flying around the country in a partisan display
of politics, building on the nation's fears, "You'd better vote Republican
if you want your children safe." He believes he has a mandate, and
soon the judiciary, to push for his pro-business, anti-family beliefs.
The Democratic Party will wring its hands. The leadership in the House
will decide between Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX) who wants to make the
party more conciliatory vs. a Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with real guts and
vision.
Only 39 million people voted out of 200 million who
are eligible or the 150 million registered. If the voters split 51/49
then this means about 20 million people voted for the Republicans,
which is only one out of 10 voting-aged adults.
If something woke non-voters up, they'd be in charge.
I've heard every tired excuse. For those who work three jobs, who
have young children, or even no home at all, it's hard to vote. But
if you doubled your turnout, we'd have a national living wage and
universal health care. Students should care about financial aid, support
for colleges and universities, decreased tuition. You don't vote so
no one listens. Of course, your parents vote.
The richer and older you are the more likely you are
to vote, to feel enfranchised, and to be heard. I'm angry at the leaderless
sheep we have become as we lap up the pabulum of video games, Fox
TV and brutal movies. Time to wake up, "connect the dots," and vote.
Ryan Collay
Eugene
NEW
WORLD ORDER
After this mid-term election, I have one
question. How corrupt, vile and violent does an administration have
to be before the obviously benighted voters repudiate it? I guess
the pathetic Democrats just can't cope with the misguided or egregious
machinations of the Republican party.
There's a new world order about to dawn folks, and
you ain't gonna like it, or worse yet, maybe some of you will. Back
to the glorious 1950s, with updated neoMcCarthyism: anti-minority
and women's reproductive rights; anti-labor and environmentalism;
"compassion" based solely on our Puritanical background; and of course,
religious intolerance.
I'm basically a "conservative," but I'll be damned
if I'll call myself a Republican.
John DeLeau
Springfield
FOLLOW
DIRECTIONS
My wife and I, with our two teenage children
in tow, took James Johnston's (EW Outdoors, 10/17) advice to
hike the Salmon Creek Trail east of Oakridge.
On a beautiful Saturday (10/26) we parked our SUV
at the trailhead, snapped a few photos and embarked on the loop trip
of 7 miles. We experienced awesome fall colors against the bright
blue sky. Inhaled the purest air on Earth and put our hands in crystal
clear Salmon Creek waters.
Mr. Johnston's suggestions and directions were right
on, however, I altered the last 2 to 3 mile return trip to the car
and our 12-year-old daughter clearly stated: "We're lost!" Even though
Forest Service Road 24 was within a football field north of our location,
it did seem as if we were hiking aimlessly nowhere. For the first
time in my life I was experiencing Vacation starring Chevy
Chase.
As the sun was going down with the Duck football team,
we headed east back to the fish hatchery to seek motorized transportation
to our vehicle. A very nice lady named Renee offered a ride to our
car. My altered route put us 200 feet from our car, yet the old growth
stand prevented us from seeing the car. The walk back to the hatchery
lengthened our hike to 11 miles overall but a lifelong memory was
had by all. My advice: Follow directions and the trail and you'll
have tremendous family fun.
Shawn & Julie Waters
Eugene
PETRO
MAN COMETH
The fix is in. The deal's gone down. Russia,
China and France are our buddies now. They all had oil contracts with
Iraq (we didn't), and the so-called negotiations were merely quid
pro quo for divvying up the oil booty when America gets to Baghdad.
We'll install a new leader in Iraq who will be indistinguishable from
Saddam, except that he will be pro-U.S. Repressive governments keep
order, and we get the oil.
But, global oil production is peaking now, and will
go into decline by 2015, signaling the end of cheap oil, and perhaps
a sub-species of homo sapiens, petroleum man.
The mid-term elections were a cruel joke ... reported
irregularities with the new computerized voting systems, absentee
ballots burned, a decision for no exit polls at the last minute. The
same minority voters in Florida who were stricken from the rolls in
2000 by Jeb Bush and Kathryn Harris are still off the rolls.
The Democratic leaders who stepped down had the look of someone who's
had their life threatened by the Mafia ... nervous, pale and quiet.
And the Greens were silent.
The Department of Homeland Security seems a shoo-in
at this point. The rest of the world will think the American public
has given our regime a mandate to use force anywhere in the world,
which will inspire more acts of aggression against Americans, giving
the Homeland Security gorillas justification for repressing any dissent
here.
One year ago, the American people had some compassion
from the rest of the world, but the Bush Oil Boyz pretty much kicked
that into the toilet. Our fascist government is sending a message
to the world: "We don't care about innocent people dying, just give
us what you've got ... or else."
I am here to say to the world, at least for myself:
"Not in my name!"
Michael A. Anderson
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print as
many as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words, keep submissions
to once a month, and include your address and phone number. E-mail to
editor@eugeneweekly.com,
fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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