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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1978)
Independent misses on bid for guv By KEVIN HARDEN Of the Emerald It was discouraging, but after nearly 12 hours of waiting, Independent challenger for governor Qif Everett couldn’t get the 1,000 signatures necessary to put his name on the November ballot. Everett, 58, a political maverick who championed an ill-fated attempt to repeal Oregon’s land use laws two years ago, tried once again to enter the political arena as the independent candidate in this year’s gubernatorial election. His attempt fell far short of its goal with jnly about 500 signatures on the nominating petitions. At a nominating convention Sunday afternoon, Everett and his supporters failed to gather the needed signatures to put his name on the general election ballot Nov. 7. “I’m quite discouraged,” Everett said after the con vention. “I’ve been encouraged to try again, but I’ll have to think about it for a while.” Another nominating convention could be held later in Portland that, Everett said, would definitely put his name on the ballot. That convention has tentatively been scheduled for sometime in July. No newcomer to the state political scene, Everett fought land use laws with a petition and 400,000 votes in the 1976 general election. Since then Everett has been living on his 40-acre farm outside Dexter and waiting for the 1978 gubernatorial race. Why would a consulting geologist want to be governor? Because, Everett says, the people of Oregon have lead ers who seem to be stuck in neutral when it comes to leadership. While conservative republican Atiyeh purports a middle-of-the-road stance, Everett says that isn’t enough. A “balanced" leader is not what the state needs. Photo by Bab Murphy It could have been better, that’s the way Clif Everett, Independent challenger for governor, described the ill fated attempt to put his name on the November general election ballot. A nominating convention Sunday after noon failed to get the 1, OOO signatures needed to put him in the gubernatorial race. "I think if people looked at Atiyeh’s voting record they would see that he has consistently voted in the middle,” Everett says. “He votes whatever’s popular. I think he even boasts of being balanced. But that’s not what we need. We need someone who is willing to lead. “That’s the problem we have now — we’re stuck with habitual incumbents.” Of the nearly 2.5 million people in Oregon, Everett says almost anyone of them would make a better choice for governor than Straub or Atiyeh. It’s for those people that Everett is running, he says. As part of his campaign, Everett has published a 16-page booklet that outlines his platform and intentions if elected. “Justifiably we can blame our problems on our elected and appointed representatives,” the booklet says. “How ever, this would be a cop-out; the fault is really ours. We have been too busy and too lazy to perform our duty which is to watch and correct those who are supposed to speak for us.” Called “We Can Have Good Government,” the booklet outlines seven issues that Everett has taken a stand on for the campaign. From field burning to water exportation, Everett points out that only by returning to the state con stitution will Oregonians be able to have a good govern ment. "Sprayed on grass fields, highly toxic chemicals go up in the smoke," Everett says about field burning in the Willamette Valley. “Also, carbon particles in the smoke absorb thetoxic pulp mill gases; in combination, they may harm our health. We need to be told the truth.” On environmental issues, Everett says that ecology and economics are nearly the same thing. ‘Insignificant problems like backyard burning are exaggerated; big pol luters get permits. The causes and effects of all pollution should be publicized,” he says. Coordinator says support needed ‘Homemakers are pros’ By MARY FORAN Of the Emerald “Aging hits everybody," Laurie Shields, national coordinator for the National Alliance for Dis placed Homemakers, told a group of thirty women at an afternoon workshop during last weekend’s Oregon Women’s Conference at Lewis and Clark College in Port land. She wrinkled her gentle face even more with a mischievous smile. “We have to make people understand that being older is being better.” For Laurie Shields, a self described “late-blooming feminist” at 58, age discrimination is of primary concern. Coupled with sexism, Shields says that ageism effectively shuts out the middle-aged woman who has worked 20 to 30 years in the home, and who then tries to find employment outside it. Without the advantage of youth in our youth-oriented society, and with no record of paid employ ment, the middle-aged woman is one of the “most invisible of all discouraged workers," Shields says. “It is an ugly wasting of human resources,” she adds, referring to what she calls the victimization of older women and men by Social Security red tape, poor health care, and the “unreasonable dis crimination” of employers in their age-conscious hiring practices. Shields sees Oregon women as “doers and carers by reputation.” In reference to the recent passage of Proposition 13 in her home state she remarked, “We have a lot of faults in California ... there’s the San Andreas fault and now there's the Jarvis-Gann fault.” Oregon women are "doers and carers by repu tation,” Shields says. The Displaced Homemaker pro gram will continue under private , she says, but many ser vices to minorities and the elderly will have to be discontinued due to lack of funding. Age stereotypes and jokes about little old ladies in tennis shoes, which Shields wears to show the world that not all of them are “flakey,” must be eliminated along with ads for Geritol and wrinkle removers, which she de scribes as her “merit badges” for a lifetime of service. Homemaking should be raised to a professional status Shields said, adding that the gross na tional product and unemployment statistics will remain false as long as a woman’s child-bearing years and role as homemaker “count as zero’ in the national economy. Shields feels that support is needed for women who have cho sen not to go back to college after their children are grown, and wants “training programs to give women the re-entry skills they need.” “We’ve never faced the fact that we glorify the role of wife and mother, but when those days are over her life is pretty tragic,” said State Rep. Nancie Fadeley, D-Eugene, who sponsored recent legislation on behalf of the Dis placed Homemaker. Fadely attributes her legislative success on the issue to Laurie Shields’ “untiring campaign" for the working rights of the displaced homemaker. “Once they recognize the prob lems of the displaced homemaker, and that she can be helped, they want to,” Fadeley said of the Oregon Legislature. “That’s what Laurie Shields has done for us.” reliable service for your foreign car Volkswagen • Mercedes • BMW • Toyota • Datsun 2025 Franklin Blvd. 746-1207 overnight copies no minimum Open: Mon.-Fri. 8am-6pm Sat. 9am-5pm Sun. Noon-5pm 2nd Floor, the Atrium 485-1063 1125 Alder 344-7894 This month at Murphy’s Tues — 27th African Highlife Music rSouleman Rowgie [ Wed-Thurs — 28th & 29th Oregon Swing Slowbuck Fri-Sat — 30th & 31st Jazz/Blues Band Philip Walker Sun — July 1st Skyriver Food 11:00-6:00 pm TAVERN JUST OFF FRANKLIN ACROSS FROM OREGON HALL 1475 FRANKLIN BLVD. 485-9274