TO THE EDITOR
BY MARY O’BRIEN
now-infamous 180 on PERS. You
film he considers to
Hulk Good.
know, the one that has elicited from
be such a danger.
Hulk LOve Children.
I’ve always been
him an escalating gamut of emo-
tion — from being “hurt” at the
pretty sure that
accusations leveled against him
the underlying
intent of Stan
by his “friends” (EW, a couple of
Lee and Jack
months ago), to “insulted” (the
Kirby’s creation
latest issue of Local Focus, the
was to decry the
UO’s SEIU publication), and now
dangers of re-
to sarcasm, as suggested in his July
pressed emotion, and
10 EW column, wherein he states that
surely Ang Lee, a film-
he must be right because “splinters from
maker who has used swal-
both sides” are against him.
lowed passion as a motif in many of his
An interesting argument; ironically, it’s
similar to that which the R-G uses to defend
films, can point to the father-and-child rela-
tionships in his film as partial evidence that
its alleged “moderation.”
Well, Tony, if I may: You might not have
he, in fact, has some of the same concerns
that Mr. Ellis does.
been so widely reviled by public sector
labor had you been a little more straightfor-
Make no mistake; our society and its
media are far too violent. But I suggest that
ward and open, and given us some hint, at
least, about your planned “sellout vote”
one must do more than watch a Mountain
Dew commercial before attempting to lead
(what a “friend” would have done); instead,
we had to find out about it in, of all places,
the crusade against it.
Durden Kent
the R-G. Talk about “hurt” and “insulted.”
And keep this in mind, too: The unions
Eugene
that now question your integrity represent
hundreds of thousands of state, county and
SENATOR SELLOUT
municipal employees — hardly a “splinter.”
One has to marvel at the course Tony
And — we vote.
Corcoran’s political career has taken recently.
Bill Smee
It all seemed to start with the glowing full-
Eugene
page write-up the R-G did on him several
months ago. Imagine: a labor activist getting
positive treatment from this notoriously anti-
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics
and will print as many as space allows. Please limit
union rag!
length to 250 words, keep submissions to once a
But one can only wonder if it was a har-
month, and include your address and phone number
binger, for it was not long after that testimo-
for our files. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com
(please put “letters” in the subject line), fax to
nial saw print that the good senator did his
484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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H U G E SA LE
T HR E E D A YS ON L Y
Moral Bankruptcy
Economic priorities take their toll.
A
ll my life, I have pondered what it must be like to live
within a particular society that is undergoing a par-
ticular moral bankruptcy. As a child, I contemplated
what it was like for southern U.S. people of good will to try
to protest their communities’ brutality toward African-
American residents. I wondered what it had been like to be
a German who knew all people deserve kindness and watch
one’s community cheer the head of state and allow neighbors
to be taken away. I have often thought about aware women liv-
ing in a country that forces them to cloak their bodies and chokes
their civil participation.
And in each case, I have been moved to learn of the power and courage of particular
people who have refused to cooperate with such bankruptcy. A book I am reading, Lest
Innocent Blood be Shed, by Philip Hallie, tells of one French village, Chambon, which or-
ganized during the Nazi regime to save thousands of Jewish children and adults. Certain
Chambonnais, particularly a Protestant minister, Andre Trocmé and his wife, Magda
Trocmé, played key roles in encouraging their community to maintain a sea level of de-
cency. These two acted out of different perspectives — Andre moved particularly by his
church’s teachings, Magda simply believing that something is evil if it hurts people.
I have to recognize that my own society is undergoing an immense moral bankruptcy
regarding money. Private ownership, profit, and economic growth rather than collective
compassion, community health, or environmental reciprocity, are regarded as the filter
through which every public policy, every proposal, must run. Will it garner the support of
the “business community”? Will it provide new jobs? Will it avoid new taxes? Will it keep
company costs down? Will it allow “private” landowners to do as they wish? Will it insure
economic growth? More growth? More growth? If it won’t, it is pronounced dead on ar-
rival.
O
ne-third of U.S. meat packing workers are being maimed or killed every year amid
horrifying stench and inhumane conditions, but we get good deals on beef at
Safeway. The U.S. consumes 30 percent of the world’s resources (including oil),
but we have the allegedly blessed-by-God freedom to build and run SUVs everywhere we
want. Thirty thousand children starve to death every day worldwide, but we till under
crops to keep the market price down. Salmon, those ancient residents who once powered
throughout the Northwest, hang on by a thread, but by God, no urban developer should
be required to provide a buffer for them. Children’s school days are being pinched and
eliminated, but that just shows private schools can probably do better. Health care,
whether preventive or after-illness, is utterly lacking for millions of my country’s working
poor, but pooling our money for universal health care wouldn’t “work.” The oceans have
been stripped, aquifers drained, and species booted off Earth, but, hey, question eco-
nomic growth? Not on your life.
T
he Wildlife Society, a national association of wildlife professionals, recently re-
leased a technical review, called “The Relationship of Economic Growth to Wildlife
Conservation.” Its conclusion? “Our findings are that economic growth and
wildlife conservation are conflicting societal goals and that economic growth is a primary
goal in the United States.” In other words, you can’t simultaneously have wildlife in your
country and worship economic growth, which depends on either continuous population
growth or growth of per-person consumption of products. From a global perspective, the
report notes, “if everyone on Earth lived a typical North American lifestyle, three more
Earth-like planets would be needed to do so sustainably.” Is this a decent way to live?
My country’s particular moral bankruptcy is its elevation of money — whether on Iraqi
oil fields, in Mexican border factories, or within local politics — far, far above decency to
fellow residents (human and other species), others in the world, and future generations.
The villagers of Chambon operated on a different moral plane than their Vichy gov-
ernment and nearby division of the Nazi SS.
We can operate on a different moral plane than economic growth, with policies built
around a steady state economy. Three words might be its hallmarks: modesty, sharing,
and .... enough. For all.
Mary O’Brien has worked as a public interest scientist for the past 22 years. She can be reached at mob@efn.org
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