 
|
|
|
|
NEWS
BRIEFS : Reed Prevails
| Bouncing Ducks | County
Seeks Delay | Their Final Act | Corrections/Clarifications
Commentary:
No Justice, No Peace The castles have already been erected.
Happening
People: Arbrella Luvert
REED
PREVAILS
UO geology Prof. Mark Reed won a victory
for free speech Friday, Nov. 22, when the Oregon State Board of Geologist
Examiners in an emergency session dropped charges against him and
repealed the administrative rule upon which the charges were based.
After Reed testified against a gravel pit proposed
by Eugene Sand & Gravel, the company filed 49 complaints against
him with the OSBGE charging that he testified illegally because he
is not a registered geologist. Reed, who lives near the proposed gravel
pit, testified as a concerned citizen and did not claim that he was
a registered geologist. His testimony helped persuade the Lane County
Commission to vote against the gravel pit. Eugene Sand has appealed
that decision.
If found guilty by the administrative board, Reed
could have been jailed up to 49 years or fined $49,000. He was given
the option of paying a registration fee and agreeing not to testify
in land use cases. Represented by Art Johnson and Marilyn Heiken of
Johnson, Clifton, Larson and Corson, and Garrett Epps, a UO law professor,
he decided instead to file a legal action asking for an injunction
and declaratory judgment against the state because his constitutional
rights of free speech and assembly under the Oregon and federal constitutions
were being violated. Two days after that action was filed in Lane
County Circuit Court, the OSBGE dropped its charges and repealed the
rule.
|
SLANT
This week's issue, as in years past, pulls
us in different directions. We're publishing our annual
Gift Guide along with our usual rants against materialism and
excess consumption. On top of that, Friday is worldwide Buy
Nothing Day and we'll be joining the folks down at Out of the
Fog/Morning Glory on lower Willamette as they celebrate with
free food and music. So how do we reconcile all the contradictions?
Everyone has to find his or her own balance, but many of us
here at EW will be shopping for our holiday gifts downtown
and at Holiday Market, looking for unique, durable, creative,
hand-made and eco-friendly gifts, along with music, artwork,
food, tickets to performing arts and educational toys. We'll
be making gifts with our own hands and wits, and making donations
to non-profits to help those among us who have no bounty to
share this holiday season. And, as always, the greatest gifts
are those of our time and attention.
Looks like no city resolution will be going
to the White House regarding the impending war against Iraq.
Instead there will be several letters espousing mixed messages
that will probably be lost in the presidential mail heap. A
resolution would have had much more impact, and might have inspired
other cities and counties to follow suit. A similar resolution
before the council regarding the USA PATRIOT Act this week surprised
us by passing unanimously. An estimated 200 citizens showed
up Nov. 25 with compelling arguments to sway skeptical council
members. The Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee did
an excellent job of educating and organizing against this assault
on our civil liberties.
Coming up on the City Council agenda
Dec. 9 is a discussion on how to fund repairs to our rapidly
crumbling city streets. This will be a tough one because it
involves the dreaded word: taxes. Do we charge households and
businesses "fees" based on road trip statistics? Trouble is,
one house might have five cars and trucks in the driveway, and
the house next door might have two bicycles. Do they pay the
same? Should banks and drive-through fast food eateries pay
thousands more than homes? Will EWEB land the unenviable task
of collecting the new fees? Expect a lively debate and no easy
solutions to a growing problem.
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
|
BOUNCING
DUCKS
As the UO's football budget mushroomed with
massive promotions in recent years, gridiron stories on the business
pages began to compete with those in the sports section. But not until
this year has the classified ad section become so important to followers
of the Ducks.
The new venue has not pleased Ducks marketing staffers,
who had been ballyhooing the record-setting level of sales in a season
when Autzen Stadium has been at near capacity level every home game.
The classified section of Eugene's daily newspaper showed a trend
in the other direction the week of what traditionally has been the
big game of every season, against the Washington Huskies, Nov. 16.
Tickets for the interstate rivalry always have been
in demand. Whether the teams were winners or losers, tickets for the
grudge battle always were in rare supply, netting good profit for
illegal scalpers. So it was startling to see a full column of classified
ads offering tickets for sale, Nov. 12.
In all, 23 ads were bought by ticketholders trying
to get rid of their tickets. One even offered a premium location parking
pass with the ticket package. So what's going on, just one year after
the Ducks finished a season ranked No. 2 in the nation? Fan loyalty
took another hit when Oregon had to return 189 unsold tickets from
its limited allocation of 2,500 to the final game in Corvallis —
another for which tickets were gobbled up in past years.
A longtime ticket-holder — who clasps his tickets
tight to his heart — says the problem was with the "extra 12,000
seats sold this year because of expansion of Autzen Stadium." He says,
"They went to people who saw the game as a fad, and decided to get
in on the big event in town. When things went bad at mid-season, they
had no patience nor loyalty. I know the Athletics Department wants
them back next year. But if they don't have the attitude of a true
fan, I hope they never come back."
Ducks Coach Mike Bellotti, a longtime winner, looks
to next season as a chance for his team to prove it can bounce back
from a down year. The ticket manager is hoping the fans — especially
the 12,000 new ticketholders — will bounce back, too, and return.
If they don't, announced plans for a possible expansion
to boost Autzen capacity to more than 60,000 may have to go on the
backburner. — George Beres
COUNTY
SEEKS DELAY
The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted
4-1 on Nov. 13 to send a letter to the state Department of Geology
and Mineral Industries, asking for a delay in regulations for "debris
flow hazards."
Commissioner Pete Sorenson was the only "no" vote.
He points out that after logging caused a number of landslides, including
one linked to deaths in a Douglas County lawsuit, the Legislature
passed Senate Bill 12 to require the department and counties to regulate
landslide-prone areas.
"Given the threat to human health, why would the county
want to urge delay?" asks Sorenson. "Perhaps because of the possibility
of a moratorium on development in those areas," he speculates.
THEIR
FINAL ACT
Fall rains have raised water levels high
enough to bring salmon up the Siuslaw River to spawn and die. Hundreds
of salmon were reported sighted last weekend in spawning beds between
Eugene and the coast. Fewer live fish are expected to be seen this
weekend.
A popular spawning site to visit is Whittaker Creek
campground off Highway 126, about six miles past Walton. Look for
a sign for Wildcat Creek and Whittaker Creek and go left. After about
two miles, cross the bridge on the right and continue a short distance
to the campground. Cross the footbridge and turn left to walk along
the stream.
The salmon were born in these streams roughly five
years ago and made their way downstream to the Siuslaw River and the
ocean, where they lived for about three years. Now, they have returned
to their native streams, bruised and battered, for their final act.
Please do not disturb.
|
Websitings
Open
the Books Documents
President Bush's shady dealings with Harken Oil and seeks to
pressure the SEC to reopen the investigation into Harken.
Self
Esteem in Women & Girls Promoting "positive self
esteem in girls and women of all ages, sizes, races and backgrounds
through a spirited approach to media education, outreach and
activism."
Toxic
Computers, Dude Grassroots campaign to pressure Dell
Computer to clean up and recycle toxic computers sold to college
students and others.
Torture
Those Spammers Pick the kind of spam you like most and
vent some frustrations in a simple interactive game.
Websitings is a list of useful and sometimes
quirky web sites. Care to contribute to the list? Send suggested
sites and a short description to editor@eugeneweekly.com
|
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.
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS
Regarding our "Sneak Peak" cover story on
the new public library art and artists Nov. 14, we have since learned
that the new art will be veiled from view when the building opens
Dec. 26. The art will get its first public viewing at a gala grand
opening party and reception Jan. 11.
Back to Top
No
Justice, No Peace
The
castles have already been erected.
BY
THE REV. ROBERT L. JEFFREY SR.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Robert Jeffrey is
pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Seattle and gave this talk
at the Peace, Justice and Civil Liberties Conference at UO Nov. 17.
According to the book Economic Apartheid
in America, in 1999, "10 percent of the people owned 73 percent
of all the wealth in America, 90 percent of the American people own
the remaining 27 percent." In the last 21 years, the top 1 percent
doubled their share of the pie. The next 9 percent also gained. The
bottom 90 percent got squeezed.
This trend gets worse when you leave the U.S. The
U.N. Development Program reported in 2001 that 225 of the world's
richest people now have a combined wealth of $1 trillion. That's equal
to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people.
In addition, the wealth of the three most well-to-do individuals now
exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least-developed
countries. This is all taking place in an environment of increased
legal constraints on the poor and the underprivileged.
According to recent Urban League statistics, while
African Americans make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, they
make up 39 percent of those in prison. Because of recent laws initiated
to target the poor, African Americans are imprisoned at five times
the rate of their South African counterparts. Similar situations exist
in numerous places around the globe; such as East Timor, Tibet, and
Mexico, with the most notable example today being the plight of the
Palestinians. These are people who are presently experiencing an unemployment
rate approaching 90 percent, while their homes and businesses are
bulldozed daily without any opportunity for a legal defense.
Beyond
Protesting
|
'Like
King before us, we too must speak against this madness, so that
we too will not go quietly into that dark night.'
|
What we must do is as old as fighting fire with fire;
we must create a parallel world, a world controlled by the people
for the people. It is a world existing solely for the purpose of protecting
the people from the excesses of the dominant establishment. We as
African Americans along with the progressive community must stop our
insidious parade of redundancy, which relies exclusively on marching
and threats to bring about change. What we must realize is that the
castles have already been erected and the rich and powerful are not
threatened by a march, nor are they deterred by our threats. The only
thing they care about is their money and their ability to keep taking
money out of our pockets so that their coffers continue to expand.
The police and in many instances the military are simply pathetic
pawns in this system of economic oligarchy.
To attack the police or the military, without mentioning
those who lay in wait behind the corporate castle walls to strip-mine
and gentrify our global communities, is to make a calculated mistake.
We simply cannot continue to depend on the political infrastructure
of this country to solve our problems.
Martin Luther King wrote from the Birmingham Jail
the following words. "I had hoped that the white moderate would understand
that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice,
and that when they fail to do this they become dangerously-structured
dams that block the flow of social progress." He goes on to say, "We
must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability.
It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing
to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself
becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation."
Today we are plagued in America with the curse of
leadership by double standard, which is a fundamental component of
tyranny. For democracy demands as a part of its essence the absence
of double standards, which have served to sustain the rule of the
despots of this world. First of all, we have a president who was elected
by electoral graft, and political and judicial malfeasance, and who
now stands portraying himself as a trusted vanguard for justice and
democracy. Second, we have a government that purports to be in a war
against terrorism, while blatantly ignoring the genocidal effects
of poverty and political oppression on the world's poor. A case in
point is the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. An occupation
that locks up by curfew school-age children in homes swallowed up
by rubble. An occupation that kills the sick and disabled by restricting
their access to medical assistance, an occupation that practices political
and social assassinations on its untried citizens, and an occupation
whose apartheid structure detains without trial, and murders curfew
violators.
Contradictions
Abound
What we have in America is rule by
hypocrisy and double standards. This is a government whose justice
department rightly decries terrorist violence against Americans, while
ignoring the domestic escalation of racial profiling; and the wholesale
murder of African Americans and other people of color by the police.
In addition to turning a deaf ear to racial profiling and religious
targeting of American citizens by the justice department, this is
a government that seeks to save America from all foreign and domestic
terrorists, except those who personally profit from raiding and bankrupting
corporations, and illegally padding political campaigns while stealing
the jobs and the retirement security from millions of Americans. This
is all occurring in a world where half of the world's population of
6 billion live on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on
less than $1 per day. And the president wonders why the rest of the
world, with the exception of a few of our rich friends, is upset with
us.
This is a government that promotes international law
and order at the barrel of a gun, but refuses to join the World Court;
it locks up by the thousands drug users while allowing the unrestricted
growth and distribution of poppies in Afghanistan. This a government
that denounces world-wide environmental agreements, and speaks disdain
for the United Nations, while ignoring the criminal behavior of Kenneth
Lay and his own Vice President Dick Cheney, right here in our own
backyard.
Money
Drives Change
The time has come for real change. This
is change that begins when we understand that money in a capitalist
culture is the thing that drives change, and if those with money refuse
to hear our demands then we must use our money to make them hear.
Today, of the world's 100 largest economies, 49 are nations —
and 51 are corporations. Their protectors are the police and the military,
and their enemies are those who are not a productive part of their
agenda to amass wealth for themselves. Police brutality and wanton
murder and unilateral militarism for them are simply the necessary
consequences of doing business.
We must build firewalls to protect the integrity and
safety of our communities and ultimately our country from the monopolistic
obsessions of transnational corporations. These firewalls must include,
but not be limited to, the capacity to boycott as a means of successfully
getting those in power to address our grievances. Second, we must
form multi-racial collectives that will practice defensive investment,
and third, we must transcend the trap of party affiliations and target
candidates who receive money from corporations but refuse to get involved
in domestic and global issues of human, environmental, and worker
rights.
Addicted
to Lifestyle
Finally, the fundamental question
before our civilization today is how do we escape a system in which
we are so totally invested. We have become addicted to the trappings
provided for us by this system that rewards our participation in ways
that we may never completely understand.
We are imprisoned by our lust for such things as McDonalds,
Burger King, television, radio, gasoline, automobiles, candy, chewing
gum, computers, software, shoes, socks, grocery stores, movies, newspapers,
paper, dentists, prescription medicine, drugstores, libraries, universities,
churches, mosques, temples, preachers, teachers, high schools, elementary
schools, race, parents, siblings, relatives, nationalities, inheritance,
prejudices, sexual phobias, and on and on.
We are victims of an evolutionary process hijacked
by people who now control everything that humanity needs from the
cradle to the grave. To revolt against these people is either suicidal,
or delusional. It is suicidal because it would mean the abdication
of all things that in any way would benefit the insatiable greed of
those who spend most of their time thinking up new and improved ways
to entice our addictions. It is delusional because whatever we need
simply to survive, or to fight, is gained only by feeding the 20 percent
of the world's population that receives 82.7 percent of the total
world's income. In other words, we are expendable. However, it is
the knowledge of the fact that we are the expendable 80 percent that
should motivate our passion for change.
The
Initiative is Ours
Martin Luther King put it this way
when speaking against the brutality of the war in Vietnam. He stated,
"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child
of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam, i.e., of Palestine.
I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are
being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the
poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at
home and death and corruption abroad. I speak as a citizen of the
world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken.
I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great
initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be
ours."
Like King before us, we too must speak against this
madness, so that we too "will not go quietly into that dark night."
Back to Top
 |
Arbrella
Luvert
Born and raised in Eagle Park, Ill.,
Arbrella Luvert grew up in a segregated society. "My parents were
activists for school integration," she recalls. "We've always believed
in speaking up." She met her husband, Henry, also a civil-rights activist,
when both were students preparing for teaching careers at Eastern
Illinois University. In 1975, the couple spent a summer on the road,
searching for a place to settle. "We both liked Oregon," she says.
"So beautiful and clean." The following year, the Luverts arrived
in Eugene. Arbrella taught business courses for 13 years at Churchill
High School, and later for six years at North Eugene, while raising
four daughters and a son. The family has been active in the local
NAACP, where Henry served as president, and at Bethel Temple, where
Arbrella directed the choir for years. In the mid-'90s, she returned
to school for an administrative license. After three years as vice-principal
at Sheldon High, she is currently in her third year as principal of
Adams Elementary and Hillside Alternative School. "I like working
with students, seeing progress and success," she says. "It happens
because people work together to make it better for all kids." —
Paul Neevel
Nominate A Happenin' Person
Table
of Contents
| News | Views | Arts &
Entertainment
Classifieds | Personals
|
EW
Archive
|