PARTICIPATE FOR PEACE
Progressive Responses, an arm of CALC
that formed after 9-11, is sponsoring a peace
march and rally this Saturday, April 12.
Participants will gather at noon at Charnel-
Mulligan Park at 17th and Charnelton
Streets, then march to the Federal Building at
7th and Pearl Streets for a rally that begins at
1 pm.
CALC board member Carol Van Houten
says Progressive Responses decided just re-
cently to organize the event. “Many people
felt discouraged they hadn’t been able to stop
the war even with all the organizing they’d
done,” she says. “We didn’t stop the war, but
many believe we did have some impact on
the nature and timing of it. Now, we have to
stay organized, committed and energized for
the long haul.”
Organizers oppose the current administra-
tion’s point of view that the U.S. is “the po-
liceman of the world, that the U.S. has the
right to do things unilaterally and that the in-
terests of multinational corporations come
before local people,” Van Houten says. “Plus
there’s the disregard for civil liberties and
human rights.”
At the rally, war veterans will address the
crowd, to show that those who oppose the
war still support the troops, and “to empha-
size war’s horrible impact on our troops and
on civilians,” says Van Houten.
Other speakers and informational booths
will be at the rally. Van Houten adds, “People
should come out so they don’t feel so iso-
lated, depressed and discouraged, and so they
don’t slide back into the apathy they were in
prior to the anti-war movement.”
— Aria Seligmann
ROMANIA SUES TWO
After several delays, a trial in Joe
Romania Chevrolet Inc.’s civil suit against
two imprisoned environmental activists has
been scheduled for June 11 in Lane County
Circuit Court.
The company sued Jeffrey “Free” Luers
and Craig “Critter” Marshall for $28,213.40
each after they were convicted on charges
stemming from a fire at the dealership’s lot
on Franklin Boulevard. The June 2000 blaze,
set to protest gas-guzzling SUVs and similar
vehicles, destroyed one truck and damaged
two others.
The upcoming trial will involve only
BY PAUL NEEVEL
STACY BIERMA
When she was 17, Stacy Bierma
departed Des Moines to follow the
Grateful Dead. “I traveled all over the
U.S.,” she says. “I sold beadwork on
tour.”
Along the way, Bierma discovered
both Eugene, where she and friends
rented a house, and New York City’s
bead district, where she could buy
beads in quantity.
“I sold off the excess to
Deadheads,” she notes.
Bierma sold beadwork and beads
at the Banyan Tree in the mid-’80s,
then opened Harlequin Beads down-
town in 1988.
In 1996, a bicycle accident helped
her kick a longtime alcohol and drug
problem.
“It sobered me up,” she says.
Harlequin has prospered in
Bierma’s era of sobriety, growing from
one employee to 15. One third of sales
occur online. Since 2000, Bierma has
donated 10 percent of every Sunday’s
sales receipts to the Buckley Center, a
chronically underfunded sobering-up
and detox facility. She has also orga-
nized and sponsored two benefit concerts for Buckley at the McDonald.
“My life is so much better. I wanted to give something back,” she says. “The first year we had
200 people and raised $3000. This year it was twice that.”
6 APRIL 10, 2003
Marshall, who will be in prison for at least
another 18 months. Luers is appealing his 22-
year arson sentence. The dealership is pursu-
ing the case even though both men have al-
most no money.
“I had about $2 when I was arrested, and it
was a rare occasion that I had more than
that,” Marshall told EW. “The idiots are
spending more on this lawsuit than they’ll
ever get from me.”
Frank Bocci Jr., the attorney representing
Romania Chevrolet, said the activists should
be held civilly as well as criminally liable for
the fire. The dealership is simply covering its
financial bases with the lawsuit, he said.
“You never know when they’ll come into
money,” Bocci said. “If we don’t proceed to
get a judgment against them and they do
come into money, shame on us.”
The lawsuit was filed in February of last
year. Luers, who is serving his sentence in
Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, did not
respond to the lawsuit or attempt to arrange
transportation to the court hearings, accord-
ing to court documents. In September of last
year, the court found him in default and
awarded Romania the full amount, plus 9
percent annual interest until the debt is paid.
Marshall, however, has opposed the law-
suit vigorously, even though he’s locked up
on the other side of the state in the Snake
River Correctional Institute in Ontario. The
case was referred to arbitration at one point.
Marshall’s paperwork did not reach the arbi-
trator in time, and Romania won a judgment.
Marshall appealed, arguing that he shouldn’t
be punished because the prison mail system
is slow and unpredictable, and Lane County
Circuit Judge Kartsen Rasmussen agreed.
“The court finds … that Mr. Marshall at-
tempted to participate in the arbitration in this
matter but was not allowed to do so by the ar-
bitrator,” the judge wrote. Rasmussen set
aside the arbitrator’s decision. Marshall’s
case is now scheduled to go before a jury.
Bocci acknowledged that the lawsuit be-
comes costlier the longer it continues: “Any
time you have a delay in justice it’s more ex-
pensive,” he said.
That suits Marshall, who said he was glad
to be costing Romania more money while in
prison.
“They’re not going to get any money out
of us,” he said. “We didn’t burn their trucks to
give them money. We burned their trucks to
cost them money.” — Alan Choate
SASS UNIONIZING
In a March 26 board meeting, Sexual
Assault and Support Services (SASS) staff
announced to its board of directors that they
would be unionizing under the International
Workers of the World (IWW). In that meet-