Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2004)
TO THE EDITOR HARASSING MUSLIMS Recent news articles raise concerns about the treatment of American Muslim communi- ties. Since 9/11, Portland’s Muslim commu- nity has been targeted for profiling and spe- cial attention. Brandon Mayfield’s harass- ment is only the most recent example. In Idaho, a Muslim webmaster for fundamental- ist Islamic websites is being prosecuted as a terrorist for exercising his freedom of speech. This past week we were warned of im- pending terrorist action, serious enough to warrant additional intrusion into Muslim communities, but not serious enough to stop Americans from spending money on summer vacations and tourist opportunities. We sing about ourselves as the land of the brave and the home of the free. We lost sight of that when we imprisoned Japanese- Americans during World War II, and we may be losing sight of it yet again. Christian ter- rorists bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building, yet our government allows web- sites to promote neo-Nazi propaganda and preach right-wing rebellion, and allows fun- damentalist Christians to terrorize abortion providers. However, Muslims are being sup- pressed for far fewer overt reasons. Are we brave enough to allow freedom of expression to those who have different religions and cul- tures? Or only to those who fundamentally agree with us? Having failed to find WMD or prior links to al-Qaeda in Iraq, our government is now looking closer to home where it has greater control of the evidence and publicity. The American people are bigger than their gov- ernment. I urge you to call your senator or congressman to stop the harassment of our Muslim friends and neighbors. Michael Williams Eugene LOST LEGACY I am writing in response to a short news brief in your May 27 issue, “Logging Fuels Fire, Doesn’t Prevent Them.” Since I moved to Eugene three months ago, I’ve been regu- larly astounded at the widespread conception that logging is necessary to prevent wildfires. In the brief, Duke University Forestry scholar Norman Christensen correctly notes that the debris exposed by logging causes fires to es- calate and spread. This summer, the Bush administration plans to remove the Roadless Conservation Rule, which protects the 1.9 million acres of Oregon’s last remaining unspoiled National Forests. He will be giving this power to the governor, who will then have the opportunity to lift the Roadless Area conservation rule, or stand by it. The reason these ancient trees still exist is the vigilant protections that we have in place, yet now logging and road building threaten them. However, last week Gov. Kulongoski stood up to the president’s shortsighted jabs at Oregon’s heritage, saying he was against logging in roadless areas. The Governor needs the support of the public if he’s going to stand his ground, and last week we finally went one step in the right direction. Many area residents are torn between sav- ing these areas for future Oregonians, and logging them in the hope that it will stop fires and save timber jobs. In truth, it will do nei- ther. The timber industry is already logging 16 million acres of our national forests. Why do they need to go into the last 1.9 million acres? How much more of Oregon’s legacy will we lose to misconception? Erin Betters Eugene BE GOOD JOLIE On Wednesday, May 26 I learned that Jolie Holland, former member of Be Good Tanyas, was performing that night at Sam Bond’s Garage. I was excited and decided to go listen to and support this wonderful musi- cian from the great Northwest. Upon entering Sam Bond’s, my friends and I were treated to an amazing opening act, Gloria Deluxe. The band hails from Brooklyn and is led by Cynthia Hopkins. Their per- formance was the highlight that night, espe- cially considering what happened when they left the stage. Jolie took the stage next and started play- ing, then stopped and asked for the sound to BY DAN CAROL Capture The Flag Let’s win one from the Gipper. L ast week was textbook politics — by the other side. A week of pa- triotic imagery, revisionist history and deft electoral positioning, all executed at taxpayers’ expense. No moaning or grousing from me, however. As a political professional I was just flat out impressed with how the Reagan crowd took their “moment” and really made it count. Give Michael Deaver & Company their due — those folks know how to tug at heart- strings. And progressives? Well, we sure know how to whine and complain about the rules of the game — as it is being played. Let me be blunt: I really, really don’t like that. As a “coach” for the progressive movement, I was sorely disappointed by how our side han- dled the whole show last week. No one was more sickened by the Reagan gush-a-thon than me; trust me on that. But whining about how the media swooned over Reagan only fueled … more swoon- ing. It made us seem small and Gipper’s legacy bigger. Not good. So people, gather under the chalk board and listen up Knute Rockne, Notre Dame style: This cannot happen again. I am therefore treating last week as a useful training exercise in what not to do when the Bush team produces Osama bin Laden this October and the media goes nuts. When they do, your job is to simply be happy that there is one less terrorist running loose, while following these handy guidelines for dealing with pa- triotic moments — so that another global danger, George Bush, is removed from the game come Nov. 2. Easy enough? It can be. So let’s review the playbook and the game films from Reagan week one more time: First rule people, get a grip on the big picture: Before letting Republicans ring your Pavlovian bell on any issue involving patriotism, take a deep breath first and think a little, for goodness sake. With Reagan, it would have been wise to remember that the last president who died was none other than Richard Nixon. Nixon the crook — not ex- actly a tough act to follow, eh! So not only was Reagan a lucky guy as president (he hap- pened to be on duty when the bi-partisan work of six previous presidents brought down communism, he took office after Jimmy Carter and gas lines, he and Ollie North got off 4 JUNE 17, 2004 easy because hasty congressional investigators screwed up legal immu- nity on the Iran-Contra investigation), the Gipper lucked into some kind of cosmic, pent-up presidential hero worship for his final exit. What are ya gonna do — a big presidential send-off was inevitable. No reason to block and tackle something we can’t stop. No reason at all. Let the Republicans overreach and get cocky: Does anyone remem- ber the Houston Astrodome game from 1992 when the Republicans had their convention and let Pat Buchanan and a bunch of their kooks say what they really thought? They hung themselves with their own rope while we pulled the old Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope. We could have tried that with Reagan last week, but we didn’t. But you can bet there will be another chance in this campaign, with Osama getting caught or something else the GOP tries to trumpet. I say: Let them crow. Let the media machine crank out overloaded hype. Have a little faith. The average American will figure this out and will get grossed out on their own — they will, I tell ya. Don’t forget Newt Gingrich and the government shutdown of 1995. So let’s not get in the way of the old Republican overreach. The only way we can screw it up is by whining rather than saving energy when it counts. Keep them out of the red zone of optimism: There’s only one thing dangerous about last week. It’s that the Republicans made some penetration into the zone of Hope. Give old Reagan his due — he aligned himself with American optimism, there’s no deny- ing it. That’s Kennedy and FDR turf, our turf dammit, and the Gipper tried to take it back. That Texas boy Bush has been selling fear after 9/11, and we need to keep him in that squeeze. We’d better well not let him get into sweet spot. John Kerry is the guy we’ll need to carry the ball on this hope thing, and the key game will be this summer at the Democratic convention. Capture the flag: But Kerry can’t do this alone; here’s where you come in, people. I know a lot of you players are down on the team right now, and you’re not feeling so proud of wearing the colors — red, white, or blue. But this is a patriotic country and it’s part of the game and we need to fight for our flag when right wingers are trying to hi- jack it for their purposes. So I expect to see a flag planted in the ground right next to every single Kerry yard sign. Starting July 4 and straight through to Nov. 2. Don’t let the team down on this one, or expect extra laps, I assure you! We can win this one, peo- ple, in spite of the Gipper. Now get out there and do it! Dan Carol is a Democratic political strategist and a founding partner of CTSG (www.ctsg.com), a progressive consulting firm based in Eugene and Washington, D.C.
