4 Ju s t mat » January 17.2003
out
Jew el A . Robinson
B ’Z illio n $ $ $ P ro d u c e r
Bringing up the rear
To th e E ditor :
VOICE MAIL (503) 3 0 1 -4 2 8 3
e - mail Je w e l2U @ te le p o rt.c o m
V isit me now at:
http://www.jewelrobinson.com
ara
1730 N.E. 10th Avenue
â ü Portland, OR 97212
Do
oes it ever occur to a harehacker to think of
anyone hut himself? If he wants to make
his own sexual choices, fine. But what about my
choice not to pay for his selfish arrogance?
What the harehacking article failed to
point out is the real cost that all of us pay for
this type of behavior (“Risky Business,”
Jan. 3]. We pay with higher insurance premi
ums, overextended use of limited H1V/AIDS
funds and negative press, which creates apa
thy in those who have tried to advance the
rights of the gay community.
And these costs are just the beginning. If
barehackers really want to be left alone, I suggest
they cancel their health insurance and decline
financial or emotional support as they dwindle
down to death.
Grow up. Get some therapy. Face the fact
that you never are going to be alone in this. Our
individual actions do affect the whole.
Love and respect yourself and your commu
nity enough to behave in a conscious and
mature manner. Anyone acting out of love and
awareness never would put themselves or their
community in such a pathetic and dangerous
; position.
D
o f f ic e (503) 2 8 1 -4 0 4 0
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To th e E ditor :
hank you very much for running the article
on the practice of barebacking.
I especially appreciated that you allowed the
“street” language. It makes for a more under
standable read, instead of clinical language.
Personally, I am vehemently opposed to this
very unsafe practice in our community and
would support any efforts to head it off. It’s stu
pid for those who engage in it.
T
D ave D ishman
Portland
Net w orth
To th e E ditor :
’m amazed Marty Davis can ask with a
straight— er, lesbian— face if the Internet has
made life better (“Year In, Year Out,” Jan. 3].
If only I’d had the Internet available when I
was coming out. I did have CompuServe, but
not until I was in college, and the only people I
could talk to were far away.
At that point, I never knowingly had met a
real-life gay person. And that’s just the first of
many advantages it brings. Like all tixils, it has
gixxJ uses and bad uses, but don’t throw the baby
out with the bathwater.
I
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Use your im agination
To th e E ditor .-
’m writing regarding Marty Davis’ recent
commentary on the new year and the moral
crisis we are undergoing as a nation with regard
to economic leadership.
Let’s assume for purposes of argument that
everyone wants to do the right thing. We still
would have a crisis in economic leadership
because of our poverty of analysis and lack of
imagination regarding solutioas to our econom
ic problems.
In other words, if the problems in economic
leadership were primarily moral, we would want
to replace the capitalistic system itself with
I
something that is more moral, less selfish. But if
the capitalistic system is correct in assuming the
validity of individual and group selfishness as a
necessary motivating factor in economic
progress, through the free market mechanism,
then we might want to consider a program such
as minimum incomes, floated back in the ’60s by
both parties, so that the poor would be given the
means to choose what services are best for them
and the marketplace would provide the means
by which such services are delivered an eco
nomical and effective way.
Tix) had such a program is seen by most opin
ion makers as somewhat to the left of Marx
when it actually has nothing to do with such
19th century intellectual constructs. I say, if we
are bent on capitalism, then give it a try.
A lan W ood
Portland
The co st of savin gs
To th e E ditor :
regon voters will face a difficult decision
Jan. 28: temporarily raise income taxes, or
allow schools and social services to he drastical
ly defunded. As an organization of crime sur
vivors dedicated to reducing future victimiza
tion, Survivors Advocating for an Effective Sys
tem is gravely concerned about the potential
creation of thousands of new victims as a result
of slashing funding to siKial services.
It is unrealistic to think that gutting social
programs equates with a solution to the state’s
budget w(x?s. And it’s patently ridiculous to
assume such misplaced priorities engender com
passionate, humanistic and effective fiscal policy.
The newly homeless, the thousands of addicts
denied treatment, the jobless and the hopeless
could well find themselves swept up into the last
stop on the desperation express: the corrections
system. While the amount of money allocated to
keeping people healthy, safe, educated and out of
jail continues to dwindle, we note with dismay
that the corrections budget remains quite sub
stantial (the primary cuts to which arc, ironical
ly, to programs and treatment).
As criminal justice reform advcx:ates, we are
frustrated by a system that continues to cut serv
ices to people living in poverty and people of
color— the people who make up the majority of
crime survivors. These cuts, coupled with cuts in
programs aimed at reducing crime, provide a
recipe for disaster.
It is a long-established fact that people with
lower incomes are more likely to be victimized
by crime. As a state, do we wish to actively cre
ate more victimization by creating more pover
ty? Cutting services to the people who need
them most will generate precisely that result.
Consider, too, the cost of cuts to outpatient
alcohol and drug treatment. Legislators might
feel gixxJ that they’ve saved about $350,000
until they realize that, according to the Oregon
Department of Human Services, every dollar cut
from treatment will result in as much as $7 spent
on a variety of other publicly funded s<x:iai serv
ices. Lack of access to treatment means addicts
will continue with the progress of their disease
and very likely will end up in medical clinics,
the court system, corrections, hospitals, detox
centers or child welfare agencies.
So the $350,000 legislators saved this year
actually translates into a cost of about $2.5
milium to taxpayers down the road. Is the alter
native— that is, keeping programs funded at
their current levels and Kxiking for progressive
ways to sustain that funding— really that costly?
W hen one considers the very real potential for
creating thousands of new crime victims, the
answer is quite evident.
Titanic as the current crisis is, it is not unfix-
able. But the answer is not found in political
O