TO THE EDITOR
THE REAL COSTS
paigning now to gut the Brady Bill and let the
Assault Weapons Ban expire.
These are moderate laws that pass the com-
mon sense test. The Brady Bill requires that
gun sellers keep records on gun sales for 90
days. The Assault Weapons Ban outlaws guns
designed for soldiers to mow down enemy
troops.
I hope Congress puts safety first and de-
fends these laws.
Julie Mathey
Eugene
Regarding the flurry of letters about hu-
manely raised animal farms like Laughing
Stock Farm vs. vegetarianism and veganism, I
think the debate needs to refocus around sus-
tainability and local production rather than an-
imal suffering alone. When you look at the true
costs of a vegan diet that relies on the privi-
leges of a first-world food transportation/agri-
culture/packaging system that ships protein
from the soy producing areas of the country at
great petroleum expense, you find a large
amount of animal suffering. How many go-
phers, snakes, field mice, birds, moles were
killed in the combine of that organic soybean
harvester? How many deer, coyotes, raccoons,
antelope, skunks, squirrels were killed by the
semi that delivered those organic soybeans
from the Midwest to make your vegan tofu?
If the reason for not eating meat is to lessen
the suffering of living beings, then a true look at
the pain of a death involved in that choice is
necessary. Just because the costs of industrially
transported vegan protein are hidden does not
make them any less costly. It is clearly more hu-
mane to grow a modest garden and buy local
produce, care for a small flock of egg-laying
chickens, buy milk from the neighbor who has
a few dairy goats, eat the chickens who turn out
to be roosters, and buy meat occasionally from
local, humanely raised farms.
The real food revolution is the fight of the
bioregional local economy against the agribusi-
ness behemoth, and meat-eaters and vegetari-
ans need to join forces if we are going to win.
Brian Thomas
Cottage Grove
Does anyone else feel “One Voice: Media
United Against Drugs” is a bit hypocritical?
The “media,” in this case, seem to be television
media; dollar for dollar, television commer-
cials are the biggest drug pushers in America
today.
They push Viagra, Lipitor, Procrit, Caltrate,
Imitrex, Wellbutrin, Plavix, not to mention all
the sugar and beer commercials. After watch-
ing football and drinking beer for years it fi-
nally dawned on me — I don’t like beer.
And these are not just poor street kids push-
ing drugs. These are highly educated, highly
paid drug pushers. These pushers have been
taught advanced psychology at prestigious
universities to trick you and your children into
buying their drugs.
Now I realize the local media are trying to
do a public service with their “Media United
Against Drugs” but to paraphrase Pogo: “You
have met the enemy and the enemy is you.”
Chris Pender
Eugene
COMMON SENSE
UNINSURED CATASTROPHE
Violent crime is down in America. Of
course, none of us knows exactly why it’s
down, but logical people would agree that ra-
tional gun control laws could be part of the rea-
son.
That’s why I am amazed that the gun lobby,
led by the National Rifle Association, is cam-
As the president delivers his State of the
Union Address I’m reminded of the 44 million
Americans, 15 percent of the population, in-
cluding 8.5 million children, who don’t have
health insurance. But do those figures accu-
rately cover the situation? Shouldn’t the mil-
lions of Americans who have only catastrophic
JUST SAY WHAT?
health insurance be added to the list of the
uninsured? Essentially, they have no present
coverage, either.
A catastrophic plan typically covers only
major hospital and medical expenses above a
certain deductible; and that deductible, in the
case of surgery, can be in the thousands of dol-
lars — essentially making the patient pay for a
large percentage of the hospital bill. A plan
such as this also leaves the insured paying out-
of-pocket expenses for almost everything else,
including routine doctor visits and prescription
drugs. Not being able to afford to see a doctor
today or to pay for the drugs one needs is, of
course, a catastrophic situation in the making.
Bob Berman
Elmira
SPRINGFIELD STATUS
The more things change, the more they
stay the same. Take as an example the claim-
jumping activities of the current Springfield
City Council and a few high-placed fire
badges. They are attempting to outright steal
ownership of millions of dollars of fire truck
rolling stock, equipment, buildings, levied
tax dollars and paid-for hours of training with
housing support supplies. There is also the
possibility money will be diverted from run-
ning the city.
But what is a “city”?
This is an important definition because it
sets standards that apply when any city entity
submits for any federal grants, which in this
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