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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2003)
TO THE EDITOR CHECK IT OUT KILLING US SOFTLY Balance is important in life. In all areas we should be balanced. I’m not putting any- one down for watching sports and television. Especially if you watch “NOW” with Bill Moyers Friday nights on PBS. But if your free time consists of watching television and little else, you are out of balance. I bring this up because I had the privilege and pleasure to attend the third annual Peace, Justice and Media conference Oct. 9-12 here in Eugene. It was a wonderfully inspiring and educational event with speakers, theater, music, workshops and films. I got the chance to meet other people who were involved in various organizations which are trying to make the world a more just and fair place. My dismay was the lack of atten- dance. I had a hard time finding parking because there was a sporting event going on which was very well attended. I often find myself thinking if only these people would go to one of these types of conferences for one week- end a year, then maybe they would possibly expand their consciousness just a little to un- derstand in depth some of the issues we are faced with today and what can be done to help. Jim Hightower, who kicked off the con- ference, had a full house for his speech. That was great, but part of his message was for people to get active. The first step is to edu- cate ourselves. The second step is to get in- volved in issues that concern us. This is a wonderful example to set for our children. Children notice and mimic what we do, not what we say. Please, next year, check out the Peace, Justice and Media Conference. It just might get you to turn off your TV and get out in the streets! Pamela Driscoll Eugene I had just walked out of the Peace, Justice and Media conference’s video called “Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women,” when I saw a copy of your 10/9 newspaper lying on a table in the EMU depicting a naked woman getting “The Best of Eugene” tat- tooed on her body with a person’s black gloved hands on her ass. I cannot tell you the sadness and despair I felt. A whole segment of the video was de- voted to the dehumanization of women. To dehumanize is to objectify, leading the way to use and abuse. One way to dehumanize women is using women’s bodies as an adver- tisement with examples that were less offen- sive than your cover page. One of the first things Jean Kilbourne said was that most people think they are not affected by advertis- ing and that that is simply not true — not for us or our children. This is my third letter to you — the other two were about the objectification of women in your sex ads. You didn’t print those letters. The letters to the editor you print are predom- inantly written by men (11 men to two women in that issue.) You said mine ex- ceeded the 250 word limit yet I see many that are in excess of that — the first two in that issue are 347 and 336 words (written by men). Since your cover has absolutely nothing to do with the “Best of Eugene,” I can only conclude that this is more than insensitivity. Please see that video and inform yourself be- fore you continue to contribute to our abuse. Jean Denis Fall Creek EDITOR’S NOTE: The tattoo artist on the cover is Best of Eugene winner Dr. Julien of The Parlor. As for letter length, 250 words is the target length, but it’s the editor’s discretion. The week before, the longest letter (“Field of Stumps,” 426 words) was by Camilla Mortensen. Occasionally we’ll run longer letters if they have news value, offer unique perspectives or advance arguments — and if space is available. IN DEAN’S DEFENSE Mark Rabinowitz made some mislead- ing statements regarding Howard Dean in his 10/9 letter. He claimed that Dean has mere tactical differences with Bush on for- eign policy. In fact, Howard Dean has con- sistently been against this war with Iraq in contrast to all of his congressional primary opponents (except Kucinich) who voted for the war resolution. Dean advocates control- ling increases in military spending, seeks support from the U.N. in Iraq, and he has spoken out ardently against Ashcroft and the parts of the PATRIOT Act that infringe on our civil liberties. Dean has a progressive health care plan, will roll back the Bush tax cuts and reinvest in our schools, increase jobs, stimulate the economy. His environmental agenda in- cludes protecting natural resources and in- vesting in alternatives to fossil fuel con- sumption. The Bush administration and their cronies claim he will be easy to beat in the general election. Could their mantra be because they fear his message, as well as his superb organizational skills and fund-rais- ing activities from hundreds of thousands of supporters? Those who advocate the continuing playing of the band while the Titanic is BY TONY CORCORAN The Final Out Three years of agitatin’ in the bull pen. D ear readers, this is my 75th and final Insider Baseball column. In my first yammer, three years ago, I told you about the upcoming 2001 legislative session and admonished you to pay attention locally to the Newspaper Guild members at The Register-Guard who were without a contract, and to boycott Bi-Mart because of their treatment of Teamster warehouse workers. A lot has happened since then. The R-G and its union settled their three-year dispute, and the Teamsters lost out at Bi-Mart. We’ve also had 9/11, an economic crash in Oregon, the U.S. and around the world. We’ve had two regular sessions of the legislature and six special sessions. But the news hasn’t been all bad: Arnold Schwartzenegger was elected California’s governor; and we here in Oregon can take some solace in the fact that 12,690 Californians voted for Gary Coleman and 4,864 voted for Gallagher. And, Eugene Weekly has donated $750 in the past three years to the Cottage Grove Relief Nursery as payment for this prodigiously poorly written claptrap column. In early September, I told you I was going back to work and very concerned about the hostile work environment that awaited me. Sure enough, it got ugly quickly; I was even forced into a disciplinary investigation regarding comments in my last Insider Baseball! Of course, the union claimed that none of this was retaliation for my work on PERS, it was simply business as usual. The boss said: “So, Corcoran, we told you in July that your consulting contract was canceled without warning, this homecare job is the only job available at the moment, and you get the supervisor that comes with the job, even if she did try to fire you two years ago. But this has nothing to do with PERS. Yes, we did cre- ate a bunch of new jobs over the past few years; yes, we have, in the past created special jobs for spouses of some of our union bosses. But darn, we just don’t have anything available right now.” As my good friend, Sen. Lenn Hannon, would say: “Excuse me while I dust myself off, I just fell off the turnip truck.” 4 OCTOBER 23, 2003 T o make a long story short: I resigned. I will begin my new job on Nov. 7. Since it’s an appointment to an executive position, as a member of the Employment Appeals Board, I am forced to resign my Senate seat. And just to set the record straight for Bill “Don’t-bother- me-with-the-facts” Smee and the other meatheads out there who think it’s a “cushy” job from “my PERS-gutting cohort, Gov. Ted Kulongoski,” the job pays less than my current OPEU/legislative salary and benefits. Now, I know I’m Irish and all, subjected to many moral and mental shortcomings, so to speak. But you must have ridden in on the same aforementioned turnip truck to think this was a finan- cial conspiracy on my part. If the Oregon Public Employees Union Executive Director Leslie Frane had a website it would be entitled: disingenuous.com. Her pathetic personal attack in The Oregonian Oct. 15 (“Sen. Corcoran was a victim of his own choices”) speaks volumes about the jam she’s in. I’m content to let the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries decide if she vio- lated ORS 171.120 by discriminating against me as a legislator for my work on PERS. I can honestly say I’ve never worked harder for an employer than I did in my 15 years at OPEU. I deeply respect the state and local government workers I represented; I ad- mire the member leaders and my co-workers at OPEU. But I’m seriously disappointed in union bosses, like Leslie Frane and Rich Peppers, who have transformed this union into something I don’t recognize anymore. The other night in Eugene, Jim Hightower said: “The opposite of courage is not cow- ardice, it’s complacency. Even a dead fish can go with the flow down river.” Leslie and Rich went with the flow, misled their members about the crisis in PERS, and then de- cided to scapegoat me for speaking the truth. Again, thank you, Anita Johnson and Ted Taylor, for allowing me to rant in EW, and for your generous contribution to the Relief Nursery. Readers, thank you for your sup- port. I will continue to offer my observations on state politics periodically as the situa- tion arises — if anyone cares. Keep agitatin’! Until November, 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
