Dev.
Hults
Editorial
Now & Then
Well, that guy who is living in the White House is once
again making your beloved editor cranky. Not only is he
doing his best to sell our children’s future to the highest
bidder, but he seems to be making a fool of himsell and us in
front of the rest of the world. Some people are saying, “Get
over it. He’s president and nothing can be done until the next
election.” Well, we humbly disagree, and we are not alone.
We mentioned last month that the Oregon Democratic party is
calling for the impeachment of five Supreme Court Justices,
we suggested an investigation into the election and called for
the impeachment of Governor Bush. This dog won’t hunt.
We, the folks that voted against him, 52% must demand that
the proper steps be taken to make sure this man is removed
from office. This means writing to your representatives in
Congress and to your local newspaper. This means protesting
the usurping of democracy. This means doing something most
Americans haven’t done in years, get involved in politics.
Yes, we hear the collective groan. Yes, we know politics is
considered an evil and ugly thing by most people. Yes, it is the
last refuge of a scoundrel. But we also know its root word is
people, and in a Democracy the people are the sovereign. The
people decide who is going to lead us. The people decide
what they will buy and not buy. The people decide what they
will read or listen to or watch, lately those decision have been
made by large corporations. They have merged and reduced
our options and democracy is about options. They have
merged and reduced our sources of information and
democracy is about information. They have merged and
bought our leaders and changed our laws and democracy is all
about laws. No one can stop them but the people. You are
the people. You are politics. If you know nothing and do
nothing you will get nothing. If you think it doesn’t effect
you look around. The reason we have to change printers is
that a multi-national bought the Oregonian and the Oregonian
bought the Hillsboro Argus and TYP and decided they weren’t
‘cost effective’ and we can't do anything about it. Well, we
can do something about i t We can vote, yes, but we can also
get involved in changing things. We have a modest proposal
that we have suggested before and repeat it in hope that the
current conditions will be enough to encourage people to take
it seriously. We propose that a ballot measure be written that
calls for the forfeiture of the corporate charter of any
corporation that is convicted of breaking the laws of Oregon
three times or more. It is a simple matter of taking the
Supreme Court at its word, that 'a corporation is a person’,
with all the rights of a citizen, and following that logic must
have the same responsibilities as a citizen. Thus, under
Oregon law a citizen who has been convicted of breaking our
laws three times must pay the penalty o f serving time in jail.
And since putting CEO’s or even managers or workers in jail
is impractical our logical option is to forbid the corporate
‘citizen’ from doing business in our state. This is no small
matter. And if we passed such a ballot measure every
corporate lawyer in the world will be busy the next day. The
Supreme court will have to rule on the constitutionality of
such a law, in that it would certainly impede interstate
commerce, hell, it will impede global commence. But no
more than a law that stops smugglers or a law that prevents
you from carrying a loaded gun on an airplane. Corporations
here in Oregon and around the world break the laws they can’t
change by bribing our representatives and are given token
fines. Even when they are fined substantially they write it off
as the cost of doing business. Thus they have once again
polluted the Willamette River that we citizens clean up in the
1970’s and now we have to clean it up again and pay them not
to pollute. This isn’t working. This is encouraging crime.
These corporations break our laws and open up for business
the next day. If a small business, say a tavern, break the liquor
laws of the state three times, sometimes just once, they are
shut down, they lose their liquor license and are not allowed to
do business in our state. Yet corporations break our
environmental laws and are fined hundreds of times and open
for business the next day. Are our environmental laws less
important than our liquor laws? Our world is changing and
someone has to decide how it will change. In Oregon we have
the ballot measure that can be voted on by the people so they
can decide. So, I suggest you get involved in politics and
address the root of a lot of our problems on this planet. One
simple vote could change the way corporations effect our
lives. One vote could change the way we elect our leaders.
One vote could change the world. This little paper can
exercise its first amendment nghts and call for a new law, but
you the people and you the various environmental groups, and
you the labor unions and you the small businesses must get
involved. Y es, all is chaos under heaven and the situations are
excellent, if you accept your responsibility as a citizen, and
require no less from any other citizen. Dammit!!!
Okay, some people may be asking themselves, “What’s
with the pig on the front page?” Well, it’s a long story. We
have several interesting traditions in this village. There is the
unique and we think totally wonderful event that happens
every fall when the elementary students finish their last day in
school and march down Hemlock and the whole village lines
the streets and cheers for them. We can’ t watch that event
without feeling tears of joy and pnde well up in our eyes.
Our other major parade is on the 4* o f July and though we are
as patriotic as the next editor, and more than most in our
humble opinion, we tend to shake our head occasionally as
weapons of war roll down our streets. The aforementioned
pig participated in this years 4 “* of July Parade on the back of a
flatbed and accompanied by a lovely Pig Princess and her
faithful servants as pictured above. The truck was colorfully
decorated with graffiti and slogans that caused varying
responses from the crowd. The reason the pig was on the
truck is another tradition in the village. We hesitate to breach
the subject while our “guests” are still around, bu, this quaint
little village wasn’t always a destination resort. There are
among those who live here people who do not sell t-shirts,
pizza or ice cream nor depend on the tourist trade in any way.
In the old days on the last day of the “tourist season” locals
would fire a cannon down Hemlock at 5pm on the final day
and declare the town closed for the winter. Then they would
go to the beach, build a big bonfire and eat and drink the sun
down and show no mercy to a tourist who over stayed his
welcome and got too close. Of course as time passed and more
tourists came and the season got longer and longer it became
necessary to move the “Town Party”, as it used to be called,
off the beach and somewhere that wouldn’t bring the curious
tourists and the cranky locals into contact. Thus the Pig Party,
thus the pig, and you can figure it out from there.
Well, gentle readers once again we have managed to bring
you another issue of our little paper, and it wasn’t easy. A
careful reader will notice that for the first time in years the
back page of the Edge doesn’t cany the imprint on the
Tualatin-Yamhill Press. Our friends at the TYP called when
we got back from the Country Fair and said that the boys at
the Oregonian who bought them out a few years back were
discontinuing the printing of other papers as of August. They
also won’t be printing for our friends at Hipfish. We were
shocked and saddened by this turn of events. Wc have had a
wonderful relationship with the people who have printed our
paper for these many years and will miss them tremendously.
The good news is Oregon Litho in McMinnville has taken on
the task and this is our first issue together. The worse news is
that we got behind on our payment schedule and owe TYP for
two issues, yes that is more than a thousand dollars. Plus
since our server bailed out on us our web site has been down
and we need several hundred to get it back up. S o ....if you
ever thought of advertising in the Edge, or subscribing to the
Edge, or just supporting the Edge with a few bucks, now
would be a very good time. We are always operating on the
edge of poverty but lately the Edge has gotten closer to the
edge. To put it simply; HELP!!
Since we are in a begging mode, we might as well go all the
way and remind people that your beloved editor is still trying
to get out of the country for a walkabout in Europe. To date
we have received a total of $60 toward that goal., which will
possibly be enough to reach Gresham. We are serious here, if
you send money you will get a weekly update by e-mail prior
to the printed version of our adventures which will run in the
Edge while we are gone, assuming we get past Gresham.
Oregon State Public Interest Research Group
1536 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214 (503) 231-4181
w w w .o s p irg .o rg ospirg@ ospirg.org
WHERE TO GET AN EDGE
Cannon Beach; Jupiter’s Rare and Used Books.
Osburn's Grocery. The Cookie Co.. Coffee Cabaña.
Bill's Tavern. Cannon Beach Book Co.. Hane s
Bakerie. The Bistro. Midtown Café. Once Upon a
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S u rf
M anzanita; Mother Nature's J u k e Bar.
C assandra s. Manzanita News A Espresso. A
Nehalem Bay Video
Rockaway: Neptune's Used Books
T illam ook; Rainy Day Books A Tillamook Library
Bay City. Art Space
Yachats By the-Sea Books
Pacific City: The River House.
Oceanside: Ocean Side Espresso
L incoln City: Trillium Natural Foods. Driftwood
Library. A Lighthouse Brewpub
Newport: Oceana Natural Foods. Ocean Pulse Surf
Shop. Sylvia Beach Hotel. A Canyon Way Books
Eugene Book Mark. Café Navarra, Eugene Public
Library. Friendly St. Market. Happy Trails,
Keystone Café, Klva Foods. Lane C.C.. Light For
M usk. New Frontier Market. Nineteenth Street
Brew Pub. Oasts Market. Perry s. Red Bam Grocery.
Sundance Natural Foods. U Of O. A WOW Hall
Corvallis The Environmental Center. OSU
Salem ; Heliotrope. Salem Library. A The Peace
Store
A storia KMUN. Columbian Café, The Community
Store. The Wet Dog Cafe. Astoria Coffee Company,
Café Uniontown. A The River
Seaside: Buck's Book Bam. Universal Video, A
Café Espresso
Portland: Artichoke M usk. Laughing Horse
Bookstore, Act III, B arnes A Noble. Belmonts Inn.
Bibelot Art Gallery. Bijou Café, Borders, Bridgeport
Brew Pub. Capt'n Beans (two locations). Center for
the Healing Light. Coffee People (three locations).
Common G rounds Coffee. East Avenue Tavern,
Food Front. Goose Hollow Inn, Hot Lips Pizza. Java
Bay Café. Key Largo. La Pattlsserk, Lewis A Clark
College, Locals Only. Marco's Pizza. Marylhurst
College. Mt. Hood CC. M usk Millenium. Nature's
(two locations). NW Natural Gas, OHSU Medkal
School. Old Wives Tales. Ozone Records. Papa
Haydn, PCC (four locations). PSU (two locations).
Reed College. Third Eye. Multnoma Central
Library, and most branches A the YWCA.
Ashland: Garo's Java House, The Black Sheep,
Blue Mt. Café, A Rogue River Brewery
Cave Ju n ctio n : Coffee Heaven A Kerby Community
M arket
G rants Pass: The Book Shop
(Out of Oregon)
Vancouver, WA: The Den
Longview. WA: The Broadway Gallery
Naselle, WA Rainy Day Artistry
N ahcotta, WA Moby Dick Hotel
Duvall, WA Duvall Books
Bainbridge Island, WA Eagle Harbor Book Co.
S eattle, WA Elliot Bay Book Co.. Honey Bear
Bakery, New O rleans Restaurant. Still Life in
Fremont. Allegro Coffeehouse. The Last Exit Coffee
House. A Bulldog News
San F rancisco, CA: City Lights Bookstore
Denver, Co: Denver Folklore Cente
W ashington, D.C.» Hotel Tabard Inn
(Out of U.SA)
Paris. France: Shakespeare A Cle
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l \ I A D E R POLITICAL ACTION TOUR
One night only!
1
Democracy, like love, can survive any attack -
save neglect and indifference. Paul Sweeney
IN PERSON AT THE
* ROSE GARDEN
Saturday, August 4, 6:00 pm
iL L A M O O k
H
Corporations won the battle in November
But the People will win the war
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Daniel W ebster