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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR would you rather keep your home, make dona- tions to legal organizations and voice your choices through your elected representatives and senators? Tom Hunnel Eugene GREEN WITH PRIDE During this counterproductive war against Iraq, the Democrats are demonstrating their petty mentality and the one reason I’ll never vote for them. The party of the donkey (or ass, as it were) seems compelled to attack the small percentage of citizens who voted for Nader/Duke, who voted against their sacrosanct two-party system or who voted with principle. Now the Dems berate Green voters, blame the war on us, and, in general, struggle to assuage their consciences (or lack thereof). Dem sycophants ig- nore the half of the eligible voters that didn’t even turn out. Yet the Green voters are blamed for Gore’s ineptitude to out-poll a half-wit? Democrats assume Gore wouldn’t have at- tacked Iraq — a big assumption, ignoring Gore’s support of Gulf War I, Star Wars, other ridiculous military programs and his support of sanctions, which killed (according to UNICEF) more than 500,000 Iraqi children from 1991 to 2000. Dems will not guilt the Green voters, that small percentage, into swallowing the Democrats’ swill next election. If Dems desper- ately need a scapegoat, blame the masses that didn’t vote at all. Wil D. Hormann Corvallis INDUSTRY UNION I was glad to see your article “SASS Unionizing” in your April 10 issue. I should point out, however, that it contains a fairly com- mon error: the IWW are not the International, but rather the Industrial, Workers of the World. Our name comes from our organizational model, seeking to unify workers throughout their industry rather than according to their oc- cupational specialty. For example, instead of having separate electricians’ and carpenters’ unions, we aim to bring construction workers together into a construction industry union, IWW Industrial Union 330. There is a helpful web page on this subject at www.iww.org/culture/official/international.shtml Patrick R. Wade Eugene JUST AIN’T SO To Sally Sheklow: Love the column, dah- ling (4/17), but let me set the record straight (no pun intended). You lambasted my home state of Florida as being gay-unfriendly, and I admit you have a point! People forget that most of the state is as deep-south-redneck as it gets! But a large percentage of the state thinks Anita Bryant can stick her politics where the sun don’t shine. I felt a little resentful that you implied the only democrats in Florida were Afro-American or Jewish, though I guess it worked for the humor in your column. But I’m here to tell you, it just ain’t so. Like anywhere else, the liberals and conservatives come in every flavor (yes, I’ve met a gay Republican, though I didn’t get it). As for me, I’m a lily-white PFLAG girl who spent most of the early ’90s working my way into clubs like the famous Paragon on South Beach where the men were pretty or really pretty (all tucked in, towering high heels and dresses to die for). The word from back home is the GLB scene is alive-and-kicking, so hopefully they’ll kick back hard for those retiring sisters. I’m happy to be in funky Eugene away from the pretension, but I owe a little loyalty to the town that made me the hip liberal I am. Miami, at least, is as gay-friendly as Eugene, trading Anita’s crusade for the OCA. But don’t discard your sisters and brothers down south who’ve fought hard and won their piece of paradise on Ocean Drive! Robyne Miles Eugene SERVE & PROTECT This is in response to T. Medlock Tejada’s letter (4/17). I too was at the protest at the fed- eral building to observe for myself if all the let- ters written in protest of police intervention were true. What I saw in fact was quite the op- posite. I saw police officers keeping a close eye on a situation in case of an incident. Granted the intention of the gathering was peaceful, but too many “peaceful” assemblies have gone sour lately for any police department to take lightly. Chicago, San Francisco, Portland and New York all had incidents rising from peaceful as- semblies, San Francisco being one of the worst, with arrests in the thousands. And you cannot deny that such assemblies in Eugene have never gotten out of hand. I am not saying all protestors are violent animals, but you cannot deny the ex- istence of idiots. You use a lot of religious rhetoric as a dra- matic way to put things, but let me remind you of a verse in the Bible itself: “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.” I, of course, am not saying all protestors are evil, just the idiots. Did you know that in the gatherings in Portland, several incidents oc- curred: One man threw acid at a police officer, several protestors laid down in the streets and blocked off emergency vehicles, and several places of business were destroyed or damaged. 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