TO THE EDITOR
NOTE TO JESUS
Is it good to know that there is an occupant in
the White House who says his hero is Jesus
Christ, who says he was personally asked by the
Christian God to become the occupant of the
White House, who proudly states he is a born-
again Christian, who has a majority of the media
and Christian leaders remind us he is a born-
again Christian?
The rub comes when you wake up and real-
ize, by God, the man in the White House lies,
cheats, steals, destroys, and brutally kills for a
living. Note to Jesus: I think I found the Anti-
Christ!
Jack Myreng Jr.
Eugene
UNITE & DISMANTLE
March 15th: Once again violence came from
the police — shooting point-blank beanbags and
arresting people who were sitting on the street in
front of the Federal Building after the same in-
tersection (7th and Pearl) had already been
blocked for hours. Once again many people have
repeated the rhetoric of the media, which mis-
represented the events.
In any case, these are the signs of the end of
freedom. Repression and media control are the
pillars of authoritarian regimes. I know that be-
cause I grew up under the Pinochet regime. I also
experienced the horrendous consequences of U.S.
government intervention abroad (CIA involve-
ment in the military coup in Chile was confirmed
when the files were opened four years ago).
I hope that the American people understand
that they are living under an authoritarian regime
whose tactics of control resemble a dynasty
more than a democracy. I also hope that people
in this country do not let themselves become di-
vided over petty things such as defining whose
tactics are more effective. To create a strong
movement of resistance, people need to be inclu-
sive and open-minded. Every action to fight the
irrational and cruel war that dominant rulers
want to carry out to increase their finances
should be welcomed. People should unite to dis-
mantle this illegitimate and authoritarian
regime, and to stop mass murder and the devas-
tation of nature. Maybe that would be more ef-
fective than spending energy discrediting others
who are willing to risk their own security for a
noble cause.
Jesús Sepúlveda
Eugene
SCHOOL LEARNIN’
Nanci McChesney-Henry, an Anatomy
teacher at Sheldon High School in Eugene, re-
cently focused on the link between the environ-
ment and the human body. A student question re-
garding the environmental effects of oil trig-
gered a more political, open, 15-minute discus-
sion. About half of the 32 students offered com-
ments or questions.
“My class,” says the teacher, “is about a free
exchange of ideas.” For thousands of years this
has been the classic definition of education in a
free society, education that W.B Yeats calls “not
the filling of a pail, but the lighting of the fire.”
However Shawn Haggard, 17, (a self-de-
scribed conservative who favors war against
Iraq) contacted Lars Larson, the Portland-based
talk-show host, and also appeared on KEZI news
to complain about the teacher. According to
other students in class, including Bush supporter
Kristina Turner, Haggard almost completely
misrepresented what happened in class.
Principal Bob Bolden has been fielding angry
calls and e-mails from around the state and be-
yond ever since.
Instead of being publicly vilified,
McChesney-Henry should be praised and hon-
ored. Anyone aware of the vicious, relentless,
extremist assault on public education led by the
fundamentalist and evangelical Christian wing
of Bush’s Republican Party, however, knows
that these know-nothings consider true educa-
tion dangerous, subversive, un-American. They
much prefer rote memory, religious monopoly,
and unquestioning, lock-step state indoctrination
posing as patriotism. Through intimidation they
wish to smother the free interchange of ideas.
We cannot allow teachers on any level to be
threatened in this way by American Taliban or
anyone else.
Jerome Garger
Eugene
FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Has anyone else noticed that whenever we
try to exercise the right to dissent, there’s always
some logic-challenged patriot telling us, “Men
fought and died for you to have those freedoms.
How dare you disgrace their memories by actu-
ally exercising your rights!” Come again?
Even if I bought the lie that my freedoms are
rooted in war rather than social justice move-
ments, does it make sense to claim that veterans
have discretion over when and how you utilize
the freedoms they “fought so hard for”?
One vet I know recently told me he was glad
BY TONY CORCORAN
Crock Fighting
Salem: Some days are diamonds,
some days quotidian.
W
ednesday, March 19 — From the rough seas of anger and angst to the
disconsolate beach of remorse and submission, I arrive at the end of the day.
(I think I’ll submit this for one of those bad-beginning-sentence-of-novels
competitions.)
7:30 am — Arrive at Capitol, toast and coffee, 37 e-mails.
8-9:15 — Senate Ag and Natural Resources Committee, painful debate on disposing
of farm animal syringes.
9:15 — Review and finalize press release excoriating Betsy Close.
9:30 — House Labor Committee. Present press release to Chair Betsy Close — part
of the notorious Secret Plan Gang — who has bottled up a bill to extend unemployment
insurance to 22,000 Oregon workers whose benefits have run out; SB2 passed unani-
mously over from the Senate on March 6. But Betsy says she’s too busy hearing House
bills to be able to get to SB2 right away. Instead, she’s holding an “invited testimony”
only hearing on a perennial bill to dismantle the minimum wage — a bill that everyone
knows will surely die either in the Senate or the governor’s office. Labor had a half
hour to testify and the AFL-CIO graciously gave me two minutes to speak. I wondered
aloud how the committee could be wasting its time on a dead bill when 22,000 work-
ers were twisting in the wind. It’s not like there are jobs out there and these folks are
just too lazy to go get them — there are no jobs! Anyway, I was pissed and let the com-
mittee know it.
10 am — a few minutes with some opponents of the bill that bans cockfighting. I
have to tell them I’m in favor of the bill.
10:30 — Meeting with League of Cities lobbyists on PERS. Not much to say.
11 — On the floor for one vote. Stu Adler, a retired psychologist and tennis-playing
buddy of mine, comes up for the day from Eugene. Stu listens to a somewhat lively
debate on SB10, which grants in-state college tuition rates to children of legal and ille-
4 MARCH 27, 2003
gal non-residents, if the kids have attended high school in Oregon for three
years and graduated. Courtney carries the bill with his usual decorous ebul-
lience. Ramon Ramirez, the head of the Oregon farmworkers union, PCUN, lis-
tens from the gallery.
Noon — Labor Caucus. All the various public and private sector labor organiza-
tions meet for a brown bag lunch on Wednesdays to catch up on issues. PERS is obvi-
ously the big one for the public sector. Margaret Hallock, a labor hero in my book, is
there as the governor’s labor advisor. She takes me aside to tell me that she will prob-
ably show the four labor negotiators a compromise PERS successor plan on Friday.
The minimum wage attack in Close’s committee, an ugly anti-farmworker bill, ODOT
privatization, Jobs in the Woods, a terrorism/marshal law bill that would outlaw con-
certed union activity, and independent contractor statutes — all discussed in rapid fire.
1 pm — Revenue. I pissed off my chair, Ryan Deckert, by changing my vote on a local
option school-funding bill. I felt bad.
3 — General Government Committee. I set up my own “invitation only” hearing on a
PERS bill, HB2004, to engage Greg Hartmann, the union attorney, and my vice-chair,
John Minnis, in a dialogue on how these legislated issues might play out in the courts.
It is horribly complex, we may even set up a special magistrate to bring all the PERS
lawsuits, including the Lipscomb appeal, at the same time before the Oregon Supreme
Court to expedite the challenges.
3:30 – I’m called out of committee by Sens. Margaret Carter and Kate Brown. In an
odd mixture of sexual harassment and logic, I’m ordered to go apologize to Betsy
Close. I’m told if I do that, then maybe we can get the unemployment bill heard and
moved to the governor’s desk.
4:30 — After committee I go over to Close’s office, she’s in a meeting, so I leave a
note of apology. It was the right thing to do: I was wrong, I should have been more
respectful. I was told once, after one of my pull-no-punches horse-pucky diatribes, that
I was “unsenately.” I was in this instance.
6-7:30 — Drive home to Cottage Grove; listen to NPR; Bush II declares Jihad II. I
switch over to baroque.
It’s never been nicer to get home to Jeannie.
Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove represents portions of Lane and Douglas counties in Senate District 4, which
includes the UO area. He can be reached at sen.tonycorcoran@state.or.us