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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR one to question the priorities of a police force that chooses to molest the citizens who rely on it for security. We call this “biting the hand that feeds.” Will INET follow the path of its prede- cessor, LINT? That team was dropped like a bad habit once their corruption started stinkin’ up the place. Or is this the shape of things to come? Chris Hallett Eugene WHITE-NECKS Sorry, but Bobbie Willis’ cover story (4/3) only superficially dealt with racism in Eugene. But when I re-read it, and she said, “It was the first time I’d ever felt that the color of my skin could be a problem,” that really made me laugh. Where has she been living all of her life? Granted, the opinions of Jones, Mays, Gary, and Cook expressed some everyday occurrences that happen to black and minorities in Eugene, but there are deeper grounds that hatred stands on in this community, and I don’t say it is so-called red-necks from Springfield, but liberal white- necks right here in the Emerald city. Jerry Harris Eugene FLAWED SYSTEM The divisive, unoriginal, and utterly boring “Nader vs. Gore” argument that Michael Lane rehashes (4/3) becomes completely irrelevant when you consider that, quite simply, if we had preferential voting, then Bush would not be in office right now. The Democrats can cry me a river, because they don’t support instant run-off, as do all the other left-of-Republican parties that haven’t cynically abandoned our corrupt election system in the first place. Obviously, this is because if we did rank our candidates, the Democrats would lose a lot of power to the Greens. And in that light, I hold all those stymieing effective elec- toral reforms such as this to be almost as culpa- ble for the current state of the presidency as I do the sorry souls who actually voted for His Royal Madness. Oh, how I long for the days when the majority of “liberals” don’t vote, lobby, and wring their hands pining for the “really, really bad” over the “truly horrific!” Scott Michael Perey Eugene CURIOUS Just wondering: Is it possible that those flag-burners and self-styled anarchists are re- ally right wing agents provacateurs hiding their identities behind masks and black clothes, while they try to discredit the peace move- ment? Has anybody seen a rush to the recruiting offices by any of those young, healthy pro-war demonstrators — or are they just content to let others fight George II’s oil war, while they stand on the sidelines and cheer? Jim Estes Deadwood ASHAMED OF U.S. I’m embarrassed. Embarrassed to live here in this great country of ours, embarrassed to con- sider even visiting anywhere else. I’m ashamed because I so strongly believe in freedom of ex- pression, equal opportunity for all — the very precious rights for which our nation stands. And, while we Americans hold these truths to be self-evident, they are disappearing from our reach at an alarming rate, piece by piece, day by day as our government legislates PA- TRIOT Acts, Homeland Security and military spending into ever higher national debt with total disregard for its own people. People, even veterans, in need of health care, food, homes, education and more are being neglected, never mind those sent off to war to give their lives or at the very least to sacrifice physical and mental health, peace and well-being. All of us are the expendable ones, linked to expendable broth- ers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else the muscle of American politic should flex next. We are the losers in fear and conflict, for we are all inextricably bound together. Each bomb that’s dropped, radioactive or not, each shot, each weapon raised, each fire, breaks a heart and destroys a part of the world that we all share – water, earth and air. I’m embarrassed that our government just doesn’t care. Jennifer Gusset Eugene BOMB IRAQ I suggest that the U.S. government immedi- ately begin bombarding Iraq with millions of packages of food, clothing, medical supplies, water purification equipment, etc., using the U.S. government’s military delivery system al- ready in place. Helen Woodford Eugene RIGHT TO BE OFFENDED Let me see if I understand correctly. Your publication is hounded by complaints about ads in the publication that some people consider too offensive because of the pictures. This is the same group of people that usually blames the conservatives for controlling or censoring the media. Then in EW 3/6, pg. 5, you run an ad that says “F—k war” and you did not publish a single complaint the following week. The hypocrisy of this is too obvious to expound upon. Free speech is one of the foundations of this country. That means we have the right to be of- fended. I support your publication’s decision to run both kinds of ads. For all of the people that write to complain about the ads, I ask them to refer to three facts. First, they can purchase enough ads to make it unnecessary to run the ads that offend them. Second, they can pay the sub- scription price of your publication and get enough friends to purchase a subscription to make it un- necessary to run ads. Third, they can quit using the services that they find offensive, as advertis- ers only continue to pay for ads that bring results. Albert Massaro Eugene CLEAN UP RIVERS I think the mayor or anybody else who is in charge should not let people dump things in rivers. It doesn’t only affect fish and other crea- tures down there. It also affects human. The poisonous things that people put into rivers get into the fish’s body. The fisherman catch the fish, go home, cook it and then share it with their family. This is how the poisons from things that are dumped into rivers get into our bodies. If they catch the polluted fish, people can get sick — and it’s not their fault. It doesn’t just affect fish and humans; it also affects animals that come to take a drink. They get sick. So, I don’t think we should sit around and do nothing. I think we should do something about polluting rivers. I think we should make the world more healthy by fixing this problem. Rivers aren’t the only things that affect hu- mans and other animals. Factories also put bad APRIL 24, 2003 5
