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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR EXPLOSIVE EVIDENCE Did anyone notice this week that Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey completed his visit to all the communities in Oregon? He finally ar- rived back in Eugene and submitted a report to our governor and legislators containing ex- plosive evidence of what everyone in the state already knew except for Mayor Torrey and his cohorts in the Republican party: Our public schools are underfunded! It took Torrey almost four months and thousands of miles of driving to come to this conclusion, and all he really needed to do was drive to Salem once and look at how poorly his party’s leaders in the Legislature had funded education over the last several years. Since taking over as the party in power in the House, it has been Torrey’s own party that has systematically gone about the process of placing our children’s education on the back burner while giving away tax incentives and tax cuts to the rich and powerful in Oregon. The mayor’s highly publicized trip across the state was nothing more than a political ploy to promote the mayor’s star in the Republican party. This is the mayor who presided over Sacred Heart’s exit from Eugene, multi-tax breaks for big companies who are now or have already laid off thou- sands of Eugene residents, and then his ad- ministration’s failure to attract “living wage” jobs to the city. Isn’t it time that we as citizens hold Torrey accountable for his actions? The city is far worse off then it was when Torrey took of- fice. The Democrats in the Legislature have been crying out for the Republicans to do something about education funding only to be silenced by the speaker’s gavel. In comes Torrey on his white horse and all of a sudden the Republicans are going to talk about edu- cation? Sounds like a set up to me. Let’s get real education reform in Oregon this year and adopt the right plan, which is the Democrat’s plan. Rich Cunningham Eugene PRESIDENTIAL STAINS President Bill Clinton had sex with an in- tern, lied about it and was impeached. President George W. Bush willfully lied to the American people and took us into a war that cost the lives of over 170 American sol- diers and thousands of Iraqis. Where is the outrage? Where is the screaming? Where are the investigative reporters who have the moral responsibility to protect our freedoms? The Bush White House has admitted that it exaggerated and even fabricated some of the evidence presented to the American peo- ple and the United Nations. What more evi- dence do we need? Where are our congres- sional representatives? Where is their com- mitment to the Constitution they vowed to uphold? I don’t get it. Is the death of 170 American soldiers less important than a stained blue dress? Carol Horne Eugene WORKS: COMPLETE A friend of mine heartily recommended Willamette Rep’s production of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged), saying it was laugh-out-loud fun. Fortunately, I bought my tickets before I read Brian Boone’s review. After seeing the show myself on Saturday night, I wondered what show Boone had seen. The one I saw was hilarious, brilliant, well-acted and captured the essence of Shakespeare’s works. Boone saw the audi- BY TONY CORCORAN Honey, I Shrunk the Students! W hen you think of intellectuals influencing the course of human af- fairs, you think of physics or economics or baseball. You don’t think of po- litical theory, because you don’t think of political theory as having an in- tellectual underpinning. For example, most Oregonians think the Legislature stinks: putrescent partisan pinheads flailing incompetently while Salem sinks. Hah! We out- smarted ya’ll this week. While all the adults out there are worried about school budgets and social services, we’ve decided on a unique strategy. First, we passed a House bill that restricts Certificate of Initial Mastery subjects to math, English and science. We eliminated art, and more importantly, social studies, as core courses for a CIM. Students won’t have to study government or civics anymore! Great. Next, we passed another brilliant brainfart — HB 2894, the Legislature’s answer to the school funding crisis. Talk about bringing the mountain to Mohammed! Under current law, if a district operates for less than 175 days — 34 had to this year — those schools fall out of compliance with state standards and risk losing money. This bill simply allows Oregon schools and school districts to operate with shortened school years without penalty in perpetuity. Golly, why didn’t we try this earlier? Finally, to save money on the Oregon Health Plan, a work group suggested that we could resume coverage for the 100,000 Oregonians we threw out of the plan by just eliminating hospitalization coverage. Brilliant! That way the cost for the most severely ill can be shifted to everyone else who has health insurance. Tell me we’re not doing our job. The next thing you know, our leaders will tell us all to go home while they figure out the budget. What? Randy Miller and Kate Brown already sug- gested that? They said they can think better with everyone gone; and besides, the devil’s hands make idle workstations — or something like that. What will we think of next? I know: Let’s pass a law requiring that any cattle sold at an auction have to be actually ambulatory. Oops, sorry, we actually did that last week. 4 JUNE 5, 2003 ence participation bit in Hamlet as tiresome. For me, it was a graphic experience of Ophelia’s madness. As for the present-day references, perhaps the reviewer doesn’t real- ize that what makes a work classic is its con- tinued relevance through time. Rather than an “aching desire to please,” as Boone says, the modern references in the production I saw were not only appropriate, but right on. I thor- oughly enjoyed the evening. MaryJo Comins Eugene NEW MEDIA APPROACH The only people more uneducated than our schoolchildren lately seem to be our law- makers and our media. As Eugene continues to be a national leader in research into educa- tional and social welfare issues, the findings are being ignored. We have growing evidence that raising class sizes, closing schools and eliminating social service needs are costly and damaging to a society. Where are these studies in our media and policymaking? As our institutions instead focus on un- Now you know why it’s important not to teach civics or history to the next gen- eration of Oregonians. S e pa r at io n of P o we rs We have few opportunities in the Legislature to visit with our Oregon Supreme Court justices — sightings are rare. We had an in- teresting hearing in Senate Rules Committee a while back — SJR29 — a refer- ral to amend the Oregon Constitution to elect Supreme Court judges from seven geographic districts instead of statewide. Judges are a favorite target of conservatives. The sponsor, Sen. Ted Ferrioli, was raised and educated in Portland and Eugene, moved to Creswell, and then to John Day in 1994. Ferrioli has become, for better or worse, the poster child for Oregon’s east/west debate: namely, that valley folks ignore the rest of the state, or try to impose their political will on easterners and southerners through land use laws and environmen- tal regulation. One grumpy supreme, the Hon. Mick Gillette, shows up for the hear- ing. He doesn’t like the resolution, having been raised in Milton-Freewater and edu- cated in the Willamette Valley. A consummate wordsmith with a steel-trap mind, Mick gives a scathing analysis of the flaws in the resolution. He exposes the first two sentences as non-sequitors, and says a third sentence misrepresents the his- tory of Supreme Court districts in our 1857 Constitution. Mick explains how the original judges were circuit riders on horseback, and when they met together in Salem, they were the Supreme Court; times changed. Most of us on the committee knew that Ferrioli and Gillette had both crossed the Cascades during their lives, going in opposite directions. Gillette argues that while the Legislature is regionally diverse, the language they come up with is a compro- mise. The supremes then simply read the language and interpret the intent; noth- ing more, nothing less. Ferrioli argues that we need the change because of a Willamette Valley political bias and “judicial activism.” When asked for an example of such “judicial activism” on the part of the Supreme Court, Teddy was at a loss; but the Crime Victims United lobbyist insists that the Armada decision was a clear illustration. I ask Hizzoner if he can defend himself against that allegation. Mick replies: “Mr. Doell has a right to his opinion, no matter how wrong it is.” Court ad- journed. Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove represents portions of Lane and Douglas counties in Senate District 4, which includes the UO area. He can be reached at sen.tonycorcoran@state.or.us
