Uev. Hults Editorial' Now & Then There are many ways to lake a giant step outside your mind; our favorite is ot Zen. Your Beloved Editor is, in tact, the only Minister in the “Rastified Church of the Cow boy Buddha” w hich is an extremely small Zen sect. The Cowbov Buddha believes that we can cither add to or reduce the chaos, by buying into 01 bailing out of “the system’. The choice and it’s timing arc important. This being said, here are our reccomendations for the November ballot measure initiatives. There at 23 measures up for a v ote. 15 amend the Constitution of Oregon. We think 2 ol them should be voted for, one for reasons serious and the other amusing. Measure 28 corrects a problem with Veterans eligibility, and it scctns to make sense to pass it. Measure 39 on the other hand is the one that allows alternativ e health services to be covered under the Oregon Health plan. This is a sneaky ploy on the part of the tobacco industry to spend $750,000 and split the resources of the medical industry , so they won t be able to overcome the media blitz to defeat Measure 44, a thirty cent tax on cigarettes. We think it would be nice to let the tobacco industry win one, and we can get any kind ot health care w e w ant, and we think we should let them lose one so we can pay for it. Cool, huh? Yes, your beloved editor is a smoker and any smoker would be a fool not to be willing to spend thirty cents a pack to make sure there is a health care system in place when, not it, they need it. We recommend only 8 yes votes over all. O u r c h o ic e s are 2 8 , 3 2 , 36, 37, 3 8 , 3 9 , 43 & 44. ( 32, is Light Rail, yes, it will be worth the money. 36, is raising the Minimum wage to $6.50 in three years, yes, it will too be good for small business. 37 & 38 are the bottle bill and the clean streams initiatives, yes, they will be good for Oregon’s environment and reputation. 43, is to allow collective bargaining for public employees in essential sen ices like police and fire. These people protect our lives, yes, they can be trusted to bargain in good faith. ) The rest seem either to be just plain dumb, mean, or overkill. We are again forced to deal with Bill Sizemore and Don Mclntrey, and their concept of micro- management by mass manipulation. These guys and the one trick dog and pony shows have reached their zenith, hopefully. Voters have realized that a quick fix is often the beginmg ol a slow and on going problem. Yes, representational government is not efficient, but the alternative is wild guesses at what might or might not work, made-up out ot whole cloth by folks who have not been elected by the people to do the job. No, we don t want to discourage citizens who are willing to participate in the process, but we do think it is a good idea to check out the history of an issue, and what the ramifications of your ideas might be. The painful example is Bill Sizemore’s Measure 11 from the last cycle. This was the three strikes, mandatory sentencing, and minors tried as adults measure that will be forcing the taxpayers of Oregon to join California and several other states in spending more on prisons than they do on schools. Which Molly Ivens correctly defines as a sign of a doomed civ ilization. Mr. Sizemore wrote that measure without consulting the legal or political minds in the state, and has earned their everlasting mistrust. Not to mention costing the taxpayers more than can be calculated without a degree in accounting. As we ponder Volume 1 of the Voters Phamphlet, we feel your pain as a voter. There is a lot of crap there. We took page after page ot notes until we could get a rough idea what was going on. But it wasn’t without it's giggles. The neat thing about the voters’ pamphlet is that any nut with $500 bucks can say what they want, so we get some weird reading material every election. We have scattered some of the more interesting quotes throughout this issue. Also scattered hither and yon are some lovely drawings that the humble Ms. Lackaff drew lor June's Garden. My, wouldn t it be nice to have a tidy and presentable little volume of June’s columns with some lovely drawings by young S ally? Just a thought. 1001 C onnecticut A venue NW S uite 1010 W as h in g to n , DC 20036 UffER LOT EDGE WOVE«MR M In volume 2, T h e C a n d id a te s, is not nearly as weird. We hope our readers in Oregon will join us in supporting Tom Bruggere for the US Senate, he is the Democratic millionaire. He seems like a funny guy, and we especially like his line about government protecting us from “erection to resurrection” and his recent reply to Gordon Smith’s charge of extremism, for accepting the endorsement of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, (after Smith had accepted the endorsement of the Oregon Citizens Alliance in the last go round) was nicely stated; ”1 would rather be endorsed by people who love trees, than people who hate people. We did attend the Furse/Witt debate at the Coaster Theater here in Cannon Beach, and were our typically obnoxious self. We asked Mr. Witt if he had managed to settle the little fine (:$40 grand?) that he was allegedly levied, for turning back the counters on copiers he had sold to schools and churches, but he explained that w e w ere mistaken, and we of course took his word for it 11 did bother us a bit that during the debate he did seem to enjoy describing people as “pro­ abortion” and the graphic details ot the late term procedures. Bill, the women in the audience, and yes, some of the men, find that about as relevant to politics as the procedures for a circumcision. The final blow was when you spoke about a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, when the moderator Lars Larson was wearing a necktie that looked like an American Hag. Hell, Abbie Hoffman got busted for that, back when you were a kid. Yes, dear readers il you want values, and character, Ms. Furse has shown them tor decades, founding the Peace Institute in Portland, and serv ing the people of Oregon with dignity and tenacity in Congress. These are things you don’t slip on like a campaign tee-shirt these are For Oregonians these are the two most important votes we will cast this time. If we can keep Elisabeth Furse, and elect Tom Bruggere w e hav e a pretty good chance of making it onto that bridge to the twenty first century ‘ole slick Willie’ keeps talking about. I I I I I I I N o v ^ o rth c bad news. If you do in fact hold this issue in your hands it is because once again the magic worked, or someone had pity on this poor publication, and loaned us enough to print and distribute, thus putting your belov ed editor deeper in debt than he has ever been. This must stop We are tired of begging, we are sick ot the worry and pain. It costs $668 to print each ten page issue of the Edge, it costs another almost $400 to distribute it each month, not to mention various other costs. This, you might notice, doesn’t include any money for writers, artists, editors etc. As we write this the balance in our bank account is less than $500, and our accounts receivable are about the same, but there s no telling when or if they will come in. Our | ladvertisers are having a tough time too. It is winter again on the Upper Left Coast ol America. Well, the point is we will try to fulf ill our promise to publish for the full five years (March would be the last issue), but at this point the odds don’t look too good. Fair warning. Our plans ■ for publishing Uncle Mike s Real Guide to the ■ Oregon Coast are likewise suffering from lack ol ■ support, and it may not reach the stores until ■ spring. So, what will it take to stop this vvhining? We are trying to throw a bunch ol benefits lor the ■ Edge and the Left Coast Group, our non-profit group that will be publishing Uncle Mike’s Guide, as well as Ms. Sally’s Wildlife on the Edge, and you can too. Take the invitation below la n d fill in the blanks, send it to a bunch of | friends, and take donations for the Edge, and ■ orders for the books, ($20 each for autographed (lim ited editions), and send it in. Hell, it might work. If not, thanks for trying, and thanks for all your support over the years and the kind ■ words about our little paper, we love you all, ■ very much. — I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ~ Billy __________ « « UNCLE MIKE'S G U I D I « / / TOTHEREAL- «OREGON COAST a ; ./-■ • • - " ■ Speaking of the Commander in Chief, we noticed that the Big “O” got it wrong again, they arc for Smith & Witt, and they are against the bottle bill, and for Bill Clinton, for the second time in the last hundred years, they endorsed a Democrat. Granted a Corporate Democrat. We must remember that Bill, like Bob is a product of his time. But (or butt) so is Joe Camel. We seriously believe that it is in the best interest of our readers that we strongly suggest that they chose Ralph Nader, if he is on their ballot, as he is here in Oregon. No, of course he has no chance, and no if you vote for Nader you don’t have a chance in hell of getting Dole. What you have a chance to do, if Nader gets 5% of the vote, is doing what Perot did last time, get matching funds. Which establishes a base to build a party that is interested in corporate responsibility, environmental responsibility, and consumer’s rights. We obv iously have to reform the way we finance our elections, and the two party system is incapable of taking on the task. They are both beholding to “dance with them what brung 'e m ”, as Molly Ivens puts it. (Yes, we like that woman.) The amount of corporate influence on our political process is noticeable locally in the recent number of “news” stories about cougar sightings, and the “dangers” of air bags, prior the elections. We will be interested to see how much ink they get in December. Mo stuff, We arc delighted to be possibly the first to report that a local shingler of some talent was among the finishers in the misnamed “Iron Man’ competition on the Big Island of Hawaii. Laurie Beers finished the mere two mile plus swim, hundred mile plus bike ride, and twenty mile plus run, in fourteen hours and thirty two minutes. Reports arc that she sensibly walked a ways with one of the other contestants, and hopes to better her time at the next event. Think about it the next time your too tired to get up to change the channel. Or just get a remote. It’s your choice. MICHAEL BURGESS ,, '. w ilk (llahitbing illustrations by’ ,; . *.i STEVE MCEEOU. Y