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News: News: The Hult Centers' newest residency company, Willamette Repertory Theatre, is under fire from local actor Bary Shaw for not honoring a payment contract. Shaw, who had the leading role of ethical lawyer Atticus in the Rep's critically and most financially successful show, To Kill a Mockingbird, a play about social justice, can't understand why WRT is refusing to honor a signed contract, which states that he would be paid by Feb. 21, 2003, the end of the show's run. Kirk Boyd, WRT artistic director, says the theater company, like many arts organizations locally and nationally, is currently having some financial troubles because the depressed economy has resulted in fewer grants being offered this year. It hopes to do well enough with its upcoming production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) to satisfy back debts. During its short history, WRT has relied on box office receipts of one show to pay debts incurred from the last. But Shaw isn't satisfied with that answer. He points to a letter to cast members from the WRT board dated Feb. 27 that lists five reasons WRT hadn't yet paid the actors. Shaw points out that "all of those reasons were known at the time of the signing of the contract," which makes him believe the contract was signed in bad faith. Boyd says that although there is a written, dated contract, WRT had a "verbal understanding" with all of the actors going into the show that they might have to wait for their money. He admits that including a date of payment on the contract was not a wise decision. "We shouldn't have done that," he says. Meanwhile, another letter to the cast from the board dated April 11 states that WRT has "made some changes" and that includes not delineating a particular date of payment in the future. Meanwhile, Mockingbird's Equity (actors union) cast members have already been paid. Boyd says he must pay those actors "in order to continue our relationship with the union" and that also, Equity demands that actors receive the majority of pay up front, with the remaining compensation doled out during the length of the contract. The upcoming production of Complete Works employs three actors, two of whom are Equity. That means those two actors might receive the majority of their compensation for that show before most of the Mockingbird cast members have been paid. So far, the only non-Equity actors to have received any pay for Mockingbird are those who have "asked for a payment plan," says Boyd, and Shaw was not one of those actors. Boyd says he called Shaw after Shaw wrote a letter of complaint to the board, but Shaw never returned his call. Shaw agrees Boyd called him to "have a chat" but he didn't respond. "For a theater company that calls itself 'professional,' I don't believe they're behaving professionally," says Shaw. "We're not trying to hide anything or screw anybody," says Boyd, adding that he and the WRT board "are working on this on a daily basis." According to WRT Board President Jonathan Brandt, ticket sales for Complete Works are going well and WRT is also awaiting word on whether or not it will receive a grant from the Silva Trust, which would pay the salaries of Equity actors for next season's Moon for the Misbegotten. The company has also begun a $500,000 capital campaign, for which $80,000 has already been pledged. "There are so many things that are positive for us," says Brandt, "and we're absolutely committed to paying actors and raising the funds to do so." The Rep was formed in 1999 and touted as "Eugene's only professional theater company." Boyd meant to employ a large number of Equity actors to meet this claim and to raise the bar of performance. After the first season, however, he determined that not only were local, non-Equity actors cheaper, they were often just as talented. Boyd also learned that local actors had box office draw, bringing in family, friends and local fans. Meanwhile, other area theaters, who employ the same non-Equity actors hired by WRT, have also begun to pay, although on a smaller scale. And although many local actors are willing to appear in plays around town without pay, some won't perform unless they're paid. Shaw, who has years of experience acting in Eugene, says he wouldn't have taken this role without compensation, as he invested hundreds of hours preparing, rehearsing and performing, and used up 40 hours of his vacation time. Brandt says he "feels bad we haven't been able to pay people," and Boyd points out, that despite the delay, "The important thing to remember is that everybody has always been paid, eventually." — Aria Seligmann
David Eisenberg believes that using traditional techniques and modern innovations may repair some of the negative impacts of mainstream construction. Eisenberg will visit Eugene to share his ideas on construction and ways that designers, builders and local officials can merge the goals of safe buildings with sustainable human activities. A nationally known expert on sustainable construction, Eisenberg will speak 7 pm Friday May 9 at the EWEB Training Room, 500 E. 4th Ave. The presentation is free and open to the public. "We are very lucky to have a person of Mr. Eisenberg's stature in Eugene," says Bruce Sullivan, president of the Eugene Chapter of the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild. "His ideas will inform our discussion about construction and development in a way that can help us move forward." This presentation is a great opportunity to hear from someone who makes technical information understandable and the concept of sustainability practical and tangible, according to Keli Osborn, with the City of Eugene's Planning & Development Department. "Green building can be another tool for us — designers, contractors, homeowners, business people and others — to build healthy, vibrant communities together," Osborn said. Eisenberg has been active at the national level to promote better acceptance of sustainable building practices within model building codes, which serve as the basis for codes in Oregon.
Men batter more than 132,000 Oregon women a year. In 80 percent of cases, victims don't initially seek services designed to help battered spouses. But they often do tell their friends and family members. If someone comes to you, how can you help? Sacred Heart is sponsoring a free educational session to provide the answer from 7-9 pm Tuesday, May 13 in the auditorium at 13th and Hilyard. Margo Schaefer of Womenspace will give the presentation. Call 485-8232 for information and 984-4245 to register. — Alan Pittman
Should Eugene merge its fire department with Springfield and area rural districts to save money and increase safety? Eugene appears to be moving away from the idea. The city recently whithdrew from an agreement to cooperate in ambulance billing and FireMed memberships. But Eugene Fire Chief Tom Tallon wrote to the city council last month that he remains open to merger ideas. "This does not mean that we are unwilling in general to work in partnership with Springfield or that there is some type of a 'feud.'" Tallon said many of the rural districts in the metro area value their autonomy and would be unlikely to support a merger. "I know of no local jurisdiction other than Springfield that has reached the conclusion that formation of a fire district would be in the best interests of its constituency." One big unresolved question would be money. Eugene has a far larger and richer tax base than Springfield and nearby rural areas. Will Eugene taxes go to subsidize fire services in Springfield and rural Lane County? "I do not believe it would be wise for Eugene or any other neighboring fire district to respond in haste to suggestions" about a merger, Tallon said. — AP
Local watchdog group Citizens for Public Accountability (CPA) will hold its 7th annual membership meeting from 7 to 9 pm Wednesday, May 14 at the Eugene library's Bascom Room. LandWatch Lane County is planning its annual meeting the same time, same night at the EWEB Training Room, 500 E. 4th. Both meetings are free and open to the public. CPA Members will review last year's events and accomplishments and discuss this year's priorities. A new steering committee and officers will be elected. Alan Siporin and Kitty Piercy will be guest speakers beginning about 8 pm. Siporin is expected to talk about Eugene's "unique culture"; Piercy will talk about reaching consensus on a "healthy direction for Eugene." For more information, call Jan Spencer at 686 6761. The LandWatch meeting will include presentations by Robert Emmons, Lauri Segel and Lane County Commissioner Tom Lininger. For more information, call 741-3625.
President George Bush wants to spend $1.7 billion to rebuild Iraq. But local Congressman Peter DeFazio asks, "Where's the plan to rebuild America?" "Forty-five million Americans have no health insurance. Oregon has a $4 billion problem with crumbling bridges. We can't afford to fund an entire school year," says DeFazio. To help people here, DeFazio and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) last month introduced the "American Parity Act," a bill to match Bush's Iraq money with funding for health care, education and infrastructure here at home. — AP
In our "Raid Brings Lawsuit" story last week, some information was incorrect. The official complaint to the Eugene Police Department was not just planned but actually filed April 30 by the Whiteaker Community Council. The impending lawsuit will be filed on behalf of only the four victims of the police raid last October. Also, a statement about the incident attributed to the WCC was actually from attorney Lauren Regan. For information on the case and related neighborhood organizing visit WCC's new website www.whiteaker.us A quotation near the end of our cover story on Latinos last week was missing a word. It should have read, "It's easier to criticize somebody you know a little about."
Coffee
Talk Environmental writer and poet Terry Tempest Williams sat at a table at the Excelsior Inn about 8 o'clock on a Friday morning a couple of weeks ago. In town to lecture and lead some writing workshops at the UO, she squeezed me into her busy schedule. Too early for me, I'd arrived at the restaurant several minutes prior just to get enough coffee down my gullet to be able to ask some questions. Williams, on the other hand, was already put together and naturally beautiful at that early hour, her unique combination of wisdom and grace readily apparent. A lifetime resident of Utah, Williams writes from her own experiences as a Mormon woman living in that state. She has authored six books, as well as a collection of essays, An Unspoken Hunger, and two children's books. Her work has been anthologized widely and reproduced in The New Yorker, The Nation, Outside, Audubon and Orion and she's best known for Refuge, a book that tells the parallel tales of the degradation of the environment and her mother's battle with cancer. She's been inducted into the Rachel Carson Honor Roll and has received the National Wildlife Federation's Conservation Award for Special Achievement. On Friday May 2, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Utah — a huge step for the university to make for that state's own "wayward" daughter.
The waitress arrives, and I'm ecstatic to hear Williams say, "Coffee — yes, please." So she's human. "I love Eugene: the water, the freedom of thought, and it's the first place I drank coffee," she reveals. But it's not the coffee, it's the Pacific Yew that first introduced her to the Emerald Valley. TTW: Shortly after my mother died, I received a call, then a letter about the Pacific Yew and its properties for healing cancer. I ignored the letter because it was too close, my grandmother had just been diagnosed with cancer as well. Then I received another letter, only this time it had a branch in it of Pacific Yew and I couldn't ignore that. I came here to walk in the woods, see the Pacific rainforest along the McKenzie and it really was life-changing. EW: What is the most pressing environmental concern we face? TTW: The Bush Administration. There are many forms of terrorism and environmental degradation is one of them. We're being hit on all counts. It's not enough that last month the Senate voted not to drill in the Arctic — it went back to the House floor and passed. Bush said he's going door to door himself. I believe our country is being run as a business, not as a democracy and they don't understand that this is a public process. Whether it's Bush/Cheney's energy policy behind closed doors or the desire to exploit everything they possibly can on every possible level — the environment, social issues or the economy — I think it's devastating. Now there's this atmosphere of war where we aren't allowed to criticize our president. To be called a traitor or a patriot — this is one of the darkest times we've faced in this country. EW: What light do you see that will get us out of this scenario, besides the 2004 elections? What do you think the individual can do? TTW: Speak. Shatter the silence. Question everything. Redefine. Reimagine patriotism. Reimagine hatred and take back the language. I think we can do this each in our own ways, each with our own gifts. I realize that since Sept. 11, I've been writing mostly for newspapers. Books are too slow and they don't get read. I've wanted to be part of the dialogue and this dialogue is taking place daily and on a national and local level; that's where we are having this public discourse. It's critical that we engage in this form of democracy; it literally is happening at our kitchen table. That's an exciting thing to see. We're struggling. I'm struggling. I don't know whom to believe I don't know what to believe. And everyday I hear myself saying over and over again 'I don't know.' We watch Saddam toppled and we're told this is in the same category as Stalin and Hitler and I think, 'Am I losing it?' But on the other hand, I believe it is an occupation. It's about American Imperialism and I do think they have their eyes on Syria, this fundamentalist government. On one hand they tell us they're liberating Iraq, and on the other hand we're watching the erosion of democracy in our own country. There's this paradox going on. I wonder how the PATRIOT act will go over in Iraq as the first document of democracy. EW: And here? TTW: I believe we are in this atmosphere of terror and that they are imposing and propogating and elevating fear to create compliance and complacency. It's all the more critical for us to be highly attentive and to really ground ourselves, to stay in the center in the thick of our lives and in the thread of our own communities. That's the only place I know where hope truly lives. And the only place we can have an impact is within our own community. I was arrested in Washington during the Code Pink rally. That's certainly not something we anticipated, planned, or expected. There was a wall of Washington, DC police saying 'You cannot come into Lafayette Park' and 'No, you cannot stand in front of the White House and protest this war.' That was a week before it started. And we looked through their arms and saw pro-life protesters standing in front of the White House with ghastly images and that appeared not to be a problem. Again, the incredible irony and paradox. There is no room for diplomacy. EW: What can citizens do who want to change this administration's priorities and agenda? TTW: I don't know. We can vote. It seems really important that the 2004 election be held with as much integrity as possible. A great idea as given by Granny D at the Code Pink rally. She said, 'Vote absentee in your state and then become a swing state suffragette and go to the states that are close and help get the vote out.' I thought that was really smart. She also said — again, we listen to our elders, she's what, in her 90s — she said the Green Party needs to be patient with this next election and that yes, the greens can organize locally and build up state legislatures and start from the ground up but this next election we have to try to get a democratic candidate that can defeat George Bush. Otherwise, we have four more years. I thought that was a brave thing to say. And that may be controversial, but I agree. EW: Who would you support for the Democratic candidate? TTW: I'm waiting. It may even be a Republican candidate. I don't know. I'm looking for someone who has a vision and who dares to speak out against these corporate ideas of democracy. I still have great faith in democracy. I have great belief in the power of community. And I also have a strong belief in dinner parties. In people's homes, where you create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable speaking their minds and are literally nourished. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had them in our own homes where we are safe and we can have these dinner parties of real discussion among our friends and also invite people with different ideas so we can listen? If we can teach ourselves how to listen to the other viewpoint, what a great idea. If we can get democracy around our own dinner tables. I'm also thinking of the whole idea of shadow. Whether we like it or not, George Bush is our shadow: arrogance, impatience, entitlement, greed capitalism; we are all complicit in that. I'm interested in looking at what that shadow means. This is a time of reflection, contemplation, calming down and settling. As a writer, I'm trying to find places that test my own courage and comfort. We are a nation at war. Can we have the courage to stay in that place of darkness and not be undone by it, not be undone by despair? I have enormous faith in the capacity to transform. This is a powerful time in the evolution of the human psyche — like the Renaissance and the Reformation. Look at the global response of humans to this war. That is powerful. It's never happened before. EW: It's interesting to me that we started this conversation talking about the environment, but we couldn't help but talk about the war. TTW: These are core issues at the heart of the land. We can't separate them but we have separated them and that's the problem. So when we talk about the Earth, the animals as one consideration — when you talk about issues of water and politics, every being has a right to clean water, we incorporate conversations about democracy. We need to be able to treat each other well in order to treat the animals and plants well. It's a cycle, the embrace. We need to see our limitations as human beings. I don't think the Bush Administration sees any limitations. And how do you create democracy without humility? EW: This country was founded on the idea that anyone, well, white people, could come here and be equal. And be welcomed. And tame the land. TTW: We have to speak out now on behalf of our community and on behalf of the land and say they're the same thing and say 'No, we are not rolling over' and 'No, this is not a corporate enterprise. This is democracy in the fullest sense and we must have regard and reverence and those are the cornerstones of a just society.' EW: Terry, why aren't more people out on the streets striking, protesting, and refusing to pretend that life goes on as normal, at least for the duration of the war? TTW: Again, it's those words, I don't know. We have to ask ourselves, 'What do I have to give?' and then, 'How do I give it?' Whether it's as a writer, an organic gardener, as a teacher, a social worker, a mother or father, we can exercise that courage and insistence, resistance, and say there's another way of being, another way of seeing, and I do think that counts. And numbers count. In many ways it comes down to that. Livestock
with Fins High cholesterol, hormones and mental images of fattening pens and slaughterhouses make the prospect of eating meat a bit unappealing for many of us. Perhaps fresh salmon is a healthier alternative. And look, here it is on sale at Neighborhood Grocer for just $3.99 per pound. That price does seem awfully low, seeing as how salmon runs in the Northwest have decreased dramatically over the years and some species are endangered.
It's highly likely that's not wild, Pacific salmon you're buying, but rather farmed Atlantic salmon, the most popular fish variety in the world today. An invention of the past 15 years, farmed Atlantic salmon are bred and raised in open net cages in controlled offshore sites in northern Europe, South America and especially British Colombia, where Atlantic salmon account for 80 percent of all farmed fish. These cages are crowded to restrict and control movement. The fish are fattened and given antibiotics until ripe for sale. Not only is the Atlantic farmed salmon a steal, this fish comes with a little something extra for the money. Coloring agents are added to the fish's food to color the flesh pink in order to appear more like its wild Pacific cousin. Without it, Atlantic salmon are an unappetizing brownish-gray. Pigments used are astaxanthin and its synthetic, cheaper counterpart, canthaxanthin, a dye so caustic that the European Commission reduced the maximum amount allowed after studies indicated over-consumption caused eye damage in humans. Also added to the fish food are various antibiotics to fight off the rampant diseases caused by open net cages. A B.C. industry association website says the pigments used today are actually beneficial to consumers, and antibiotic use has been cut 90 percent in the past decade to the point where it is only administered when fish are sick, and not as a preventative measure. Atlantic salmon are fed steadily larger food pellets consisting of processed fishmeat, grains, minerals, vitamins and fish oil until they reach their market weight of 8 to 10 pounds, which takes about 30 months. The combination of movement-restricting quarters and a high-fat diet quickly grows meaty, marketable, cheap salmon — albeit with dioxins, saturated fat and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which only occur in minimal levels in wild salmon. Vancouver geneticist Michael Easton published a study last year that found eating farmed Atlantic salmon even once a week is hazardous because of high amounts of PCBs, which have been linked to immune system suppression and slowed childhood mental development. Similar efficiency increasing methods employed by livestock growers have been applied to fish. Much like chickens crammed into tiny spaces, farmed Atlantic salmon live in crowded net enclosures. Similar to beef cattle, farmed salmon are fed a diet that creates a fatty, juicy meat product. Like livestock farming, Atlantic salmon farming has environmental consequences. Farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped net cages to compete with wild salmon for food and habitat. Farmed Atlantic fish have been found in 78 rivers and streams in B.C. Ironically, nine million wild Atlantic salmon eggs and smolts were planted in these same rivers but didn't survive. Efforts to control escaping fish have seen results. Some 9,200 fish were reported escaped in B.C. in 2002, down from hundreds of thousands in years past. Sea lice remain a problem, a pest that thrives in the close quarter net cages. But perhaps the worse problem is salmon feces, which build up under the nets along with uneaten food. In response to this concern, many salmon farms have been moved from calm, shallow inlets to deeper areas with stronger currents to spread the feces over a wider area, eliminating buildup and subsequent damage to any one specific seabed. The fish farming industry is lucrative and creates jobs. In B.C., 85 percent of the 60,000 metric tons of farmed Atlantic salmon in 2002 were exported, resulting in $391 million in sales and 4,700 jobs. Wild salmon exports brought in a mere $129 million. Most Eugene-area grocery stores carry farmed Atlantic salmon but many specialty meat and fish sellers do not. Fisherman's Market on 7th Avenue does carry it. The two local Wild Oats stores do not, as they follow organic-oriented policies set forth by their corporate office in Bolder, Colo. Newman's Fish Company on Willamette also does not stock the fish, but instead offer a wild Chinook that costs a bit more. "The people who shop with us and appreciate the wild salmon make an effort to not only afford it but seek it out," said Newman's Courtney Dones.
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