TO THE EDITOR
BIAS SHOWING
EW’s left bias is showing again: There
hasn’t been an issue go by in the past few
months where white cops were not accused
— either by your staff or your readers — of
misconduct against minorities. Well, I’m sure
if that’s really going on, it’s appropriate that
EW is flagging these alleged incidents. Few
things anger me as much as police miscon-
duct and/or abuse of their authority.
But I haven’t seen one word in EW about
the far more serious allegations and indict-
ments against two Hispanic (former) EPD
members, although your arch nemesis, The
Register-Guard, has provided significant and
regular coverage.
I’m sure the reason for the lack of cover-
age is that you don’t want to raise any ques-
tions about EPD’s “diversity” program —
which you actually commended in last
week’s issue. But here are two examples of
where the program apparently failed badly.
Misconduct by police of any race or eth-
nicity is dangerous to our freedoms, should
not be tolerated and should be condemned in
the strongest possible terms by a responsible
press.
Jerry Ritter
Springfield
EDITOR’S NOTE: We look to cover what the R-G and
broadcast media are either ignoring or don’t know about.
NO RESPECT
So, for more than 65 years, Essie
Washington-Williams never came forward
“out of respect” for Sen. Strom Thurmond to
say that she was his half-black daughter. How
could this woman respect a man who statuto-
rily raped her 16-year-old mother? He was a
man who was a symbol of the racist mentality
of the south that terrorized and killed black
people. During the years of her silence, this
bigot move up through the ranks of senate
seniority, spewing his hatred while blacks
were being lynched, bombed, and pistol-
whipped for exercising their democratic
rights. She could have stopped him in his
tracks, and maybe the civil rights movement
would have progressed much more rapidly. I
have no respect for the plantation mentality
of Miss Essie.
Jerry Harris
Eugene
TRUE CRIMES
Bring it on! Saddam Hussein will soon be
tried as a war criminal but it’s a mere begin-
ning. While we are on a roll, there are some
other high-profile individuals who should
also be tried for crimes against humanity, not
to mention treason.
Let’s start with George W. Bush, whose
administration illegally waged war and occu-
pied a country that did not attack the U.S.,
killing some 10,000 Iraqis and 300 American
soldiers to date. This preemptive war was
based on a litany of lies, such as the false
claim of WMDs, the fabrication of the case of
“imminent” threat to the U.S., in addition to
the false claim in the State of the Union
Address that Iraq was receiving enriched ura-
nium from Niger. In the context of commit-
ting a nation to war, these lies are acts of trea-
son.
Then there are the wrenching and an-
guished cries from newly converted humani-
tarians Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney
gnashing their teeth over the abuse of Iraqi
citizens under the reign of Saddam Hussein.
It all seems a bit odd considering the fact that
4 DECEMBER 31, 2003
Rumsfeld and Cheney supported Iraq in its
war with Iran, which killed one million peo-
ple. They also lobbied relentlessly to take
Iraq off the list of “terrorist states,” which
helped elevate it to “favored” trading status
just a few days after being told that Hussein
had nerve-gassed hundreds of Kurdish civil-
ians back in the 1980s. As a matter of fact,
these same chemical compounds were pro-
vided by U.S. companies and the U.S.
Pentagon. Rumsfeld, Cheney and others
should be tried for crimes against humanity,
but then again, Saddam was “our” boy then,
so who cares?
There’s more: The recent “outing” of a
CIA operative for petty and vindictive politi-
cal reasons in George Bush Sr.’s words is an
act of “treason.” Let’s get these trials going.
Gerry Rempel
Eugene
FIGHTING MONSTERS
There has been much lively debate over
our national policy of quelling terrorism by
invading other countries and eroding our own
civil rights in the pursuit of the illusion of se-
curity. The continuing attack upon our cher-
ished civil liberties through the so-called PA-
TRIOT Act and a multitude of other laws and
dictates is precisely what the terrorists hoped
for. Those liberties are what make America a
beacon of human freedom, but they are en-
dangered by the actions of the newest version
of the Three Stooges: Bush, Cheney and
Rumsfeld. Their chosen weapons of Ashcroft
and Ridge are the thin edge of the wedge that
divides democracy from tyranny.
I would remind all those who would be
patriots of Friedrich Nietzsche’s warning:
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it
that in the process he does not become a mon-
ster.”
Pete Giberson
Eugene
FOR LOVE OR MONEY?
I’ve responded several times to ads in the
personals. It seems that a lot of the people
who write in aren’t honest about what they
want. I’m a male, 65, alone. I live on my re-
tirement. I’m not rich in money but I have a
lot of love or care for someone who’s not
looking for a pot of gold.
It seems to me all women want is to see
how much you have and not who you are as a
person. A lot of us may not be rich in money
but rich in how we treat people. Why can’t
they look at us for who we are and not what
we have. When they see what I drive and
where I live, that’s the end. I live in a nice
manufactured trailer. I try to do the best I can
on a disability income. When they hear the
word “disability,” they think we’re crippled;
I’m not. I do everything everyone else does.
I’ve had two open-heart surgeries and walk
with a cane. I love fishing, crabbing, beach
walking and driving in the hills. Too bad
ladies, I’m not rich.
Leslie Swafford
Junction City
PET PEEVE
I’m generally slow to anger, but after
reading the letter by John Fluent (12/4) on the
subject of putting a tax on pet food, it was all
I could do not to go outside and scream!
What bright light in a bureau somewhere
thought this one up and when did I vote it in?
Isn’t it bad enough that when I open my
phone bill the taxes put on without my con-
sent are more than the basic phone service?!
Does the phrase “taxation without represen-
tation” ring a bell? Saving feral cats and
scroungy ill-bred dogs should not be a prior-
ity in any community. I protest paying for the
ignorance of humans (who will mate with
anything that breathes) who do not act re-
sponsibly by getting their pets fixed or in
choosing not take on the job of having a pet in
the first place. Maybe if our local animal
shelters didn’t charge exorbitant prices for
their animals, more people would adopt them
and they wouldn’t have to be euthanized.
There are children in our community who
need food, clothing, and attention, and I think
humans are much more important than ani-
mals. Before I pay another unfair and un-
wanted tax to support the saving of mangy
animals that nobody really cares about, I will
have my purebred, papered, neutered dog put
down!
Annie Kayner
Eugene
ON THE AIR
I suggest to Erik Miller (12/11) that he
avail himself of the four FM radio stations on
the left side of the dial. All are local, noncom-
mercial and intelligent: KRVM (91.9), run by
local high school students, thanks its support-
ers without commercials; KLCC (89.7),
which runs NPR news on weekday mornings
and KWAX (91.1), the university’s classical
station, both list their sponsors tastefully.
And, my favorite, KWVA (88.1), the UO’s
“Willamette Valley Alternative,” on 24 hours
a day, offers a wide spectrum of music. Most
of the talk consists of public service an-
nouncements, upcoming concert events, and
DJs’ expressions about music. On weekdays
from 7 to 8 am, KWVA airs “Democracy
Now” with Amy Goodman, and weekday
evenings from 6 to 7 pm, Free Speech Radio
(Pacifica) airs news you won’t hear else-
where, followed by “The Nation Magazine.”
Then often our own local reporter, Amy
Merwin, provides us with local news and in-
terviews.
There’s no excuse to tolerate commercial
radio (or TV). Once weaned from the schlock
of commercial radio/TV, you’ll wonder why
you ever subjected yourself. Those times I
am forced to listen to these broadcasts, I’m
appalled by the junk people endure. Being
barraged with rude talk and the push to spend
money is insulting and abrasive. DJs talk
over the first minute of a song, their humor is
insulting, news is ultra-condensed and fascis-
tic, the commercials loud and urgent, and
often a promise of “three songs in a row” is
offered. Wow! Please support local stations
by tuning in.
Sherry Franzen
Eugene
TRENDSETTER
I didn’t watch ABC News (Corporate
Media Propaganda) last night and for many
nights before that because I have come to be-
lieve that reporters and journalists have been
replaced at ABC by Corporate Media
Stooges. Lately, when I tuned into any com-
mercial newscast, local or national, it was
mostly to confirm that which was not re-
ported.
For that reason, as time has passed, I have
been replacing corporate networks and sta-
tions with national and local publicly owned
news sources. This is because I want actual
news, not entertainment. Now I listen to
NPR, The Jefferson Exchange, Independent
Media, BBC, CBC, etc. Because ABC has
pulled their reporters for the Kucinich,
Braun, and Sharpton campaigns, I have per-
manently pulled ABC News from my TV. It is
not that I have selected a presidential candi-
date to vote for, it is that I am in the processes
of selecting new sources of information —
ABC did not make the cut.
One would think that Diane Sawyer’s
apology for telling the truth in an effort to
protect a corporate merger would have
caused me to stop watching what ABC calls
news. But for the past 40 years, I have been a
corporate media junkie. Now, corporate bias
is so outrageously blatant that I am forced to
make the change. Since I am of the age group
that makes up the largest block of audience
for news, it seems, perhaps, that I am an im-
portant loss, and possibly the start of a trend.
A. Max Opus
Cottage Grove