Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 22, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR My request to you has two parts: My first choice: that you no longer use objectifying photos of women who are the subject of columns or articles (such as Dar Williams, who is lying in a prone position with a blank expression, in a “sexy” low cut spaghetti strap dress), and that you no longer accept any ads for phone sex, peep shows, escort services that use sex to advertise, topless clubs, strip dancers, etc. My second choice: that you no longer use objectifying photos for articles and columns, as above, and that, if you are not willing to stop taking sex-industry advertisements, to only run their advertisements with no photos or with discreet photos of women with real expressions on their faces, like they have their own feelings and thoughts and are not just there on display as someone else’s toy! I think you’ll agree that sex is fine, nor- mal, and healthy, as long as it’s consensual and aware, and not made into an industry. That’s where it tends to go wonky, aye? Greta Loeffelbein Corvallis PULL OUT ALL STOPS Although EW seems to portray Terry Tempest Williams as a kind of guru (“Coffee Talk,” 5/8), I wasn’t particularly impressed. She is simply repeating what everyone is al- ready saying. She says of America, “This is a democracy in the fullest sense.” No, it defi- nitely isn’t. The Bush administration is not just hap- less, misguided or mean, they are deliber- ately creating this chaos. They use words like “democracy,” but every chance they get they destroy the English language. They have the utmost contempt for democracy. No matter what they say, if you want to know what their true policies are, follow the results. In the end, the rationales will be forgotten while we endure the reality. Sitting at the dinner table talking about the issues, as Williams enthusiastically suggests, won’t help much; those in power have planned this and are already 10 steps ahead. We simply must take power back, we must destroy their authority and we must reject their legitimacy, utterly. People are hoping the 2004 election could do the trick. After Florida, Bush and Co. have allotted billions of dollars on making the voting process com- puterized, private and corporate. The will of the voters will not be accurately counted. It wasn’t before, and it’s sadly naive to hope it will be next time. It’s not just this country and its citizenry that are under direct attack — it’s the whole world. Time to start thinking 10 steps ahead. There is nothing less than the survival of the human species at stake. Time to pull out all the stops. Forget about being polite. David Caruso Eugene NO DEEPER CUTS It’s no secret that Oregon’s schools are in crisis. Many of us in the education commu- nity support reductions in tax breaks as a way to recover revenue for schools and social services. By reducing tax credits by just 25 percent, it is possible to recover $1.7 billion. MAY 22, 2003 5
