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Commentary: Long Leash Eugene Police bite alternative media. Happening People: Lorane Elementary teachers and staff PAY
FOR PISGAH With Sorensen and Morrison opposing the fee, and Dwyer and Green favoring it, Lininger was left to cast the deciding vote. The difficulty of that decision was compounded by the majority of commissioners — Morrison, Green and Dwyer — insisting that if the fee was not passed, they would deny Lane County Parks Department the additional $150,000 to $200,000 in future funding needed to fulfill the department's basic mission. According to Lininger, voting against the fee would have meant a devastating blow to Lane County Parks, so he was forced to vote in favor of a fee he did not support. In their discussion, the board established a $20 annual pass for frequent users, as well as a "Golden Pass" for senior citizens. There will also be free admission for those willing to volunteer about 15 hours of work at the park. — Bobbie Willis
WAR
& DIVERSITY The workshop session will concentrate on media depictions and other representations of American and international people of color within the post-9/11 climate. Workshop participants will include Debra Merskin, UO professor of journalism; Steven Bender, UO law professor; Nerissa Balce, CODAC postdoctoral fellow and Ethnic Studies visiting professor; and Dr. Tim McMahon, of UO Academic Learning Services. John Shuford of CODAC says, "The 'war on terror' has, in all circles, raised questions about where America is heading, what sort of society we want to be, and what the world will come to look like in the shorter and longer term. Diversity issues, both local and global, and diverse perspectives are particularly relevant to consider when addressing these questions, even when we try to deal only with small portions." This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Shuford at 346-3212 or codac@uoregon.edu
CANOPY
YEARS In 1998, with a lone tree-sitter named Happy, the occupation of the 96-acre, low-elevation old-growth Clark timber sale began. In a short time, one tree-sit grew into a tree-village with up to seven trees occupied over time by hundreds of rotating activists. The activists took to the trees and blockaded roads when Zip-O-Log Mills of Eugene began logging and building new roads into the timber sale units in early 1998. The treehouses are perched 150' to 200' high in the forest canopy among 700-year-old trees. Activists have endured five years of rain, cold, harassment by federal officers, threats, sieges, closures, raids and arrests. The highly controversial timber sale has been challenged legally numerous times and has been reduced in size from 96 to 29 acres following a citizen survey locating endangered tree vole nests. The Forest Service has offered to cancel the contract, but Zip-O is still undecided. For more information, contact Cascadia Forest Defenders at forestdefenders@tao.ca or visit www.forestdefenders.org
STELLAR
BUILDINGS Eisenberg's organization, the Development Center for Appropriate Technology (www.dcat.orgor www.dcat.org)is "arguably doing more than anyone in the world to bring about the profound changes in our building codes the world needs," says Robert Bolman, proprietor of Maitreya EcoVillage and green building designer. "In the field of green and natural building," says Bolman, "David Eisenberg is absolutely stellar."
CALL
SURGE To accommodate the recent surge in calls to the Governor's Advocacy Office (GAO), the Legislature recently approved five additional staff positions and two additional phone lines. The office will stay open until 7 pm. Callers may still leave phone messages after the office closes or e-mail dhs.info@state.or.us. In addition to the increase in phone calls, the office is receiving more than double the amount of e-mail messages as last year. In the first six weeks of the year, office staff managed 21 percent of the total number of cases (4,099) they worked in all of 2002. If this volume continues, workers will manage 7,460 cases by the end of 2003 for an overall increase of 182 percent. GAO contact Gin Denison says the majority of calls coming in are regarding health issues, including loss of prescription drug benefits. "I have never heard so much pain, so much helplessness," she says. "The loss of hope is what is most frightening." Despite the high volume of callers, Denison says she is concerned that certain populations — seniors and people with mental illness, for example — are not contacting the office. "I would encourage family members to take the initiative and make the call for their loved ones," she says. "We have a collective, ethical responsibility to look out for each other, starting with our own families." The GAO can be reached by calling (800) 442-5238, or e-mailing dhs.info@state.or.us.
POWER
OF PLANTS Matoba first discovered the therapeutic qualities of gardening with her own father, through his last ailing years. He suffered a stroke, but, Matoba says, "He was just a totally different person in the garden …" To complete her training as a master gardener a year ago, Matoba began doing horticulture therapy with adolescent girls through Looking Glass counseling services. "These girls have no sense of permanency or confidence," Matoba says. "This has given them a chance to see something grow and to nurture it. They create it and can be proud of it." Matoba also does horticulture therapy with the elderly. "It gets them out of isolated situations, into more communal situations. They have a sense of ownership and pride, and this get them out and engaged in their surroundings." Matoba hopes to expand her work with the elderly, using horticulture therapy with Alzheimer's patients. "Gardening hits all sorts of things," she says. "It's physical, cognitive and social, but meditative. It puts people into a whole different space," which can lead to emotional healing and health. — BW
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS
Long
Leash "Am I legally bound to answer these questions?" I asked EPD Officer Casey B. Froehlich. I was a reporter for the Eugene Weekly, covering an April 10 anti-war protest march. I'd been observing, biking down the street when Froehlich stopped me.
My 20-square-inch press pass — laminated with a white background and signed as per the 2002 Eugene Police Commission specifications for media credentials designed to give better access to large-scale gatherings such as protests — was in my fingers and politely in the face of Officer Froehlich. He examined it. The protest — 33 (by my count) bullhorn-waving, fuck-war yelling, flag-burning, justice-then-peace-loving anarchists — had moved a few blocks away. "Yes," Froehlich said, threatening a "failure to comply with an officer" charge. "Name," he said. "I just want to write these things down." He smiled, as if my name wasn't on the press pass, and as if he hadn't just affirmed that he was holding me against my will. "Address," he said. "Phone." And then his next command, even though I already knew I was being harassed: "Social Security number." So I was forced to give Officer Froehlick, who never mentioned or intended to charge or arrest me with anything, who already knew I was with EW, my Social Security number. And he'd given me a message: STAY AWAY. For the past 20 minutes, near 11th and Van Buren, officers were giving the same message to Charles Overbeck, a reporter for Cascadia Alive! and videographer for Copwatch. Overbeck had been videotaping officers citing a male protester for "diagonal crossing." Officer Derel Schulz arrived, and though Overbeck showed his press pass, Schulz still temporarily confiscated Overbeck's camera. Overbeck was told he was involved in an unlawful march, and a semi-circle of officers surrounded him. They intentionally interrupted while Overbeck tried to answer the officers' questions, a common and confusing intimidation technique. Then Overbeck was photographed. "What file are you going to put that in?" Overbeck asked the EPD photographer. "Oh, he's just a real photo nut," answered another officer, implying sarcastically that the photo was for the officer's private use. What's happening to the Eugene police force? "What's happened to the Eugene Weekly in this case," said Tim Lewis, a reporter for Cascadia Alive!, who has been cited over a dozen times for not crossing at a 90 degree angle, "is a continuation of what's been going on in Eugene for the past seven years. No mainstream media has ever been cited or arrested. Cascadia Alive! and Copwatch reporters and videographers have been arrested, cited or had their tapes taken over 30 times. When officers once confiscated a KEZI tape and found out who they'd taken it from, they apologized and gave it back." As radical protest organizers continue to be unsatisfied with "passive" protests, the alternative media will continue to be caught in the middle. New "rules of engagement" need to be established and followed to reduce abuses of EPD power and hold police accountable. I spoke with EPD spokesperson Pam Olshanski. "Can you think of any instances where I would be legally bound to give an officer my Social Security number?" I asked. "I can't, off the top of my head," she said. Ben Fogelson is Calendar editor and staff writer at EW. A meeting with the Eugene Human Rights and Police Commissions is at 7 pm April 24 in the EWEB Training Center. To contact the Police Commission, call 682-5852. For more information on Cascadia Alive! and Copwatch, see www.cascadiamedia.organd www.eugenecopwatch.org
Lorane
Elementary teachers and staff Know anyone whose good work deserves attention in this space? Call the editor at 484-0519 or editor@eugeneweekly.com |
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