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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR BY TOM LININGER Hazzard County, Oregon What would Boss Hogg do? E very profession has its hero on television. Doctors have Marcus Welby. Lawyers have Perry Mason. Psychiatrists have Frazier Crane. Felons have Martha Stewart. When I became a county commissioner, I wasn’t sure if my profession was represented on the small screen, but I was pleased to learn that we do have our own TV icon: “Boss Hogg” (nee Jefferson Davis Hogg), the corrupt county commissioner in that 1970s TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard. Sure, Boss Hogg had his foibles. These included graft, cigars, white suits and occasional cross-dressing. He also ate raw liver for breakfast. But the Boss was always rock-solid on one issue: traffic safety. He would drop everything to pursue them no-good Duke boys when they flouted the traffic laws of Hazzard County. Boss Hogg chided Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane for lax enforcement of speed limits: “Roscoe, you couldn’t catch a three- legged horse in its own stall!” Asked when he would relent in his campaign for traffic safety, Boss Hogg responded, “I’ll lay off them Duke boys when pos- sums make love to hound dogs.” W e could use Boss Hogg in Lane County right now. Earlier this month statistics showed that our county ranks first among Oregon coun- ties in traffic fatalities per capita. Serious accidents are particularly prevalent on rural roads. Three deaths have occurred on Highway 58 already this year. Our rate of rural police patrols per thousand residents is far lower than the Western average. This number declined further when the Oregon State Police reduced its presence in Lane County a few months ago. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently made matters worse. In March, ODOT diverted big rigs from I-5 to rural roads such as Highway 58 and Highway 126, because our bridges on I-5 are structurally unsound. Then ODOT backed out of funding a left turn refuge on Highway 126, requiring the Lane County Board of Commissioners to pay for fixing a state road! The intersection in question had seen 15 accidents over a four-year span. What’s the best way to improve traffic safety in Lane County? There’s no substitute for police patrols. The Board of County Commissioners needs to enable the Sheriff’s Department to patrol some of the areas formerly patrolled by the OSP. Also, we should insist that the repairs of I-5 bridges take precedence over any other transportation project in Lane County, so we can take the big rigs off of rural roads. Our transportation dollars shouldn’t just chase growth; the highest priority must be preventing deaths. The theme song for the Dukes of Hazzard includes this encomium to the lawlessness of the Duke boys: “Straightening the curves/Flattening the hills/Someday the mountain might get them/But the law never will.” While these lyrics may be fitting for a TV show with three car chases per episode, they don’t set forth a sound policy for managing our rural road system. Tom Lininger is the county commissioner for the East Lane District. Lininger does not wear white suits, smoke cigars or eat raw liver for breakfast. Rumors that Lininger wears “Daisy Dukes” are greatly exaggerated. ADVERTISING Senior Marketing Consultant Bill Shreve National Sales Manager Mark Frisbee, Display Marketing Consultant Rob Weiss, Advertisng Traffic Coordinator Geneva Miller, Classified Manager Jennifer D’Angelo, Classified Marketing Consultants Jeffrey Stout 541.484.0519 • (fax) 541.484.4044 EDITORIAL Editor Ted Taylor, Executive/Arts Editor Lois Wadsworth, Associate Editor Aria Seligmann, Contributing Editor Anita Johnson, Staff Writers Alan Pittman, Bobbie Willis, Calendar Editor Ben Fogelson, Editorial Assistant Marina Taylor, Contributing Writers Brett Campbell, Rachel Foster, Kate Rogers Gessert, Jerry Harris, James Johnston, Sharleen Nelson, Mary O’Brien, Vanessa Salvia, Sally Sheklow, Glenn Shires, Lance Sparks, Martha Ulman West, Interns Brian Boone, Nika Carlson, Mariko Fukuyama Joohn Husby ART DEPARTMENT Art Director/Production Manager Kevin Dougherty, Graphic Artist/Webmaster James Bateman, Graphic Artists Katie Beckman, Todd Cooper Contributing Photographers Kurt Jensen, Paul Neevel, Linda Smogor 6 APRIL 24, 2003 BUSINESS General Manager John Herron, Circulation Manager Deena Miller, Bookkeeper Paula Hoemann, Customer Care Specialist Erin Lusk, Distributors Travis Dominguez, Jim Harris, Sue Hunnel, Terri Molitor, Will Thornton, Pedalers Express, Printing Signature Graphics HOW TO REACH US BY E-MAIL: (letters): editor@eugeneweekly.com (advertising): ads@eugeneweekly.com (classifieds): classy@eugeneweekly.com (personals): romance@eugeneweekly.com (calendar): cal@eugeneweekly.com (music/clubs/special shows): music@eugeneweekly.com (art/openings/galleries): visualarts@eugeneweekly.com (performance/theater): performance@eugeneweekly.com (literary arts/readings): books@eugeneweekly.com (movies/film screenings): movies@eugeneweekly.com toxins into our air. The air is shared by humans, trees and animals. In school we are taught to re- spect school property and other people’s proper- ties and selves. I think factories that make toxins should do the same thing — like respect citi- zens’ air, animals, trees, and rivers we all share. Russell Arkin Grade 4, Twin Oaks School UO’S PATTERN I understand that the $90 million Autzen Stadium project will hold a ribbon-cutting cer- emony this spring (Register-Guard, 2/19). Would it be appropriate to stuff both of Frohnmayer’s sky boxes with food for the hunger crisis like LTD’s “Stuff the Bus” cam- paign? Will Frohnmayer invite the Nike repre- sentatives who are part of the panel studying our state’s hunger crisis? Will Frohnmayer give a speech where he cancels the Mac Court II idea and redirects the funds to slow spiraling tuition costs or preserve the 105 homes the uni- versity owns and rents to diverse, low income families? I doubt it. I think they’ll continue their pattern of evicting families, bulldozing their homes and lying about it. Mac Court II at the fairgrounds is a proposal that shows just how arrogant and over-reaching university administrators and overly coopera- tive members of our City Council have become. Congratulations to the mindful faculty members who have chosen to rise up against the “arms race” in sports spending that threat- ens the university’s future. Zachary Vishanoff Eugene WAR’S LIMITS I was born in 1952 on Camp Pendleton, son of a full bird Marine colonel. In my life I have unfortunately learned a fair bit about weapons of mass destruction and a government willing to experiment on its people in the development of them. In 1951 my father was ordered to march through ground zero of a test site. This expo- sure took 50 years to kill him. At his 85th birth- day his proud son watched him open a birthday card from the White House while seated in his wheelchair. My father died after a neuropathy slowly destroyed his nervous system after his walk through ground zero. My father had earned the equivalent of an advanced degree in war after much time spent at the Naval War College. I grew up a wannabe warrior but now realize that historically war does not work. Perhaps the U.N. can. John A. Anderson Jr. Marcola HOORAY FOR WAR! War is good! When the economy fails, it is usually because surpluses have built up, forc- ing factory closings, unemployment, increased welfare rolls and recession. War, on the other hand, produces few tangible goods that people need. War does not produce materials that re- main on the shelves as surplus goods. Bullets are fired, multi-million dollar missiles are launched and blow away buildings and “collat- eral damage” and there is an endless variety of advanced weaponry that goes “boom!” in the night. War replaces unemployment with a large military force. It takes young men and women off across the seas and not only cuts off popula- tion of the unemployed— if they don’t live to reproduce it further cuts our future potential for too many people in this great nation. The weapons of war are used-up and can be re-supplied by the military industrial complex and do not burden our citizenry with such use- less niceties as improved schools, health care for all, enhanced infrastructure and an equi- table tax system. I say, “War is good”, and God bless George Bush and everything he stands for. Let’s roll! Manuel M. Joffe Leaburg MAKES ME CRY I tell you folks, I’m a grown man, but I’ve shed my share of tears for the kids in Iraq in the past eight days. But when I read the cartoon about the little kid channeling an Iraqi child begging his momma to make it stop I had to leave my desk at work and bawl my eyes out for about 30 minutes. Thank you for reminding us of these innocents who are being killed by our government. I hope to God, one person can have their eyes opened by this cartoon. God, this truth hurts like hell. Aaron O’Connell Eugene PRO-TROOP, ANTI-WAR Open Letter to Tom Daschle, Ron Wyden, Nancy Pelosi, Peter DeFazio: I seek your leadership on this question: how do we support the troops and still oppose the war in Iraq? Some ways seem obvious: Write letters. Send packages. Guarantee that their families have what they need, especially health care. Pledge never to vilify them for actions they com- mit while following the orders of those whose or- ders we vehemently disagree with. Provide them with medical care should they come home, like the first Gulf War vets, with crippling nerve dis-
