TO THE EDITOR
NADER AGAIN?
Ralph Nader is a highly principled man,
one of the reasons, I imagine, he ran for the
presidency in 2000, thereby diluting the voter
pool for Al Gore, the end result of which need
not be gone into in detail: the Bush adminis-
tration.
If Nader decides to run again in 2004, he
no longer could be considered a principled
man; he knows what he did, doing it again
would be purely selfish, putting his personal
political agenda ahead of the national politi-
cal agenda and the greater good of the coun-
try.
This is a dilemma facing members of the
Green Party. I urge you to seriously think
about the consequences of four more years
Oregon Family Dental, PC
under the Bush administration. Your political
agenda, while laudable, does not make Ralph
Nader electable.
Take into account the greater good of the
nation when voting in the next election and,
in the year ahead, I suggest you work with
Howard Dean’s campaign and vote for him in
November 2004.
Pauline Hutson
Eugene
John J. Park, DDS
“Providing quality care
with a gentle touch.”
344-7900 • 11th & Chambers • Eugene
LACK OF OUTRAGE
Kevin Mannix has a plan to restore a
small portion of hundreds of millions of dol-
lars of further cuts to Oregon’s human serv-
ices and education. Once voters are success-
fully lobbied to repeal the new taxes legisla-
tors agreed upon, Mr. Mannix dreams of re-
laxing state certification for teaching, slow-
ing teacher pay scale increases, and eliminat-
ing educator mastery programs while defund-
ing the institution. Clearly education is not a
priority to this legislator.
The lack of outrage over comments like
these proves Oregonians have resigned them-
selves to levels of apathy and ignorance that
are unprecedented. Education was not this
boldly attacked even during the great depres-
sion.
Legislators like Kevin Mannix may be
hoping for an uneducated and apathetic citi-
zenry to overlook their disservice to the state.
If so, their strategy is working. As this delib-
erate erosion of education and social services
takes hold in Oregon we will pay the costs ex-
ponentially in future generations. Record
higher education tuition increases and num-
bers of students in a classroom are not an ac-
cident. They are designed. We need to wake
up and defend what little education we have
left on all levels before class level sizes and
inexperienced teachers makes attending
school ineffective and eventually counterpro-
ductive.
Mike Meyer
Eugene
J
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Since Bush took office the federal govern-
ment has continuously conducted raids on
sick patients and care-providers in California.
The federal attack on medical marijuana pa-
tients recently spread to Oregon when the
DEA raided the home of Travis Paulson, a
medical marijuana patient in Lebanon.
Voters should know whether the candidates
will continue this harmful campaign against
patients, or whether they will take a more
compassionate approach. Here is what I’ve
found.
Kucinich has stated that as president he
would sign an executive order that would
permit the use of marijuana for medicinal
purposes. He is also a cosponsor of the Truth
in Trials Act, an act that would allow prose-
cuted patients to speak about their medical
use of marijuana at trial.
Kerry would stop the federal raids on
marijuana patients. He has also called on the
DEA to allow marijuana to be grown and
studied for its medical value in the state of
Massachusetts.
Gephardt supports states rights to medical
marijuana and would discontinue the raids.
Edwards has vowed to continue the raids.
Dean would direct the FDA to study med-
ical marijuana and make a recommendation
on its use within a year. As governor of
Vermont he vetoed a bill that would have al-
lowed the medical use of marijuana.
Kevin Feeney
Eugene
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NOVEMBER 20, 2003 7