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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2004)
TO THE EDITOR BRIGHT SPOT I found a bright spot in EW with Lisa- Marie DiVincent’s letter “Really Listening” (6/3). She calls for a little more compassion, caring about diversity and different points of view. It does seem like EW editorials and articles have recently sold out to creating more con- flict, divisive and polarized opinions rather than promoting dialogue and discussions aimed toward meeting each other’s needs. Are we really listening to everyone’s needs? How about for our children and grandchildren and for many different people yet to come? Could it be that EW, like the rest of us, has needs for some new rays and ways of looking at what we have here? The natural beauty around us is so much grander than our strug- gles. Can we appreciate and play in that? Meet me beyond our limited history. Let us imagine a kind, strong, healthy, caring and joyful Eugene-Springfield-Lane County community. We want to start somewhere. Will you and I be there too? Charlie Larson Eugene THREE-BUCK RON Perhaps it would be appropriate to put Reagan’s likeness on the $3 bill. I remember him as the first U.S. president to reach office by means of treason (offering, while a pri- vate citizen, to sell arms to Iranian terrorists, if they would keep Americans as hostages until Reagan was inaugurated). Treason is the main thing that George II and Reagan have in common. I hope Kerry, after he’s elected, uses the so-called PATRI- OT Act to put the entire Bush cabinet in Guantanamo, forever. Maybe a few foreign objects forced into a few orifices would make them understand what torture is really about. Wayne Ford Eugene YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE A message to those of you who steal pot- ted plants, so lovingly cultivated, off front porches: 1) Thou shall not steal. 2) The eyes of God see all. 3) Instant Karma is gonna get you. 4) What goes around comes around. Think about it! Quinn Harrington Eugene VOTING FOR EVIL I am feeling very frustrated with the lack of choices in the presidential election. I do not want Shrub in office again, yet I feel if I vote for Kerry I am voting for a corrupt sys- tem. Kerry is bought and paid for by corpo- rations that also buy Shrub. BY SCOTT THIEMANN It’s the Berries Gabbing about our lives. M y name is Scott Thiemann, and I live outside a small community on the Oregon Coast. We intentionally moved here about eight years ago in order to escape the urban madness. We have established our home with the intent to be here for the rest of our lives. For work, I do landscape gardening, helping people clean up and organize their yards. Several years ago, Bob called me to help him with some weeding, rototilling, and general clean-up work at his place. He was a friend- ly, gregarious guy who coached me as I weeded my way through rows of blueber- ries, strawberries and other plants. Because of having his knees operated on, he couldn’t get in the crouched position anymore required to pull weeds from the constricted areas of his garden. While working with clients, I’ll commonly share niceties and gab about general- ities; gradually we’ll end up talking more personally about our lives. Besides learn- ing the details of Bob’s knee surgery, I was also educated about being a Shriner. Invariably, Bob wanted to know more about me. He began his inquiry by offering my wife and me a container of last year’s bounty from his sizeable blueberry bushes. When I indicated that I wasn’t married, with a coy smile he pressed on, “Well, I bet your girlfriend will appreciate these.” I was faced with a typical dilemma. Not being skilled at breaking such news, I think the last thing Bob expected to hear were my next words: “She’s a he.” If you haven’t figured out by now, “we” in the first paragraph was referring to my part- ner, a man. Anyhow, Bob disappeared. I continued weeding. There was no sign of the man who had blithely informed me that his name was spelled the same forward and backward. Forty-five minutes later, after I knocked on the door, I collected my check and was sheepishly presented with an old Cool- Whip container of blueberries. Somewhat surprised to still be getting the blueberries, I assured Bob they would be much appreciated. Had Bob known that my partner didn’t care for blue- berries, I wonder if he’d been as generous with his fruity tip. Perhaps he found out, because I’ve never seen Bob again. It’s a shame — he seemed like a really nice guy. Scott Thiemann’s column has been running for several months in the Port Orford News, but was recently canceled, reportedly due to advertiser pressure. His columns and commentaries have also run in the Brownsville Times and the Brookings Pilot. 4 JUNE 24, 2004 I worked on the last two Nader cam- paigns and agreed with Ralph when he said “the lesser of two evils is still evil.” I wrote Ralph when he was doing a survey on run- ning this time and said; “the lesser of two evils is still the lesser of two evils, so don’t run this time around.” But now I am think- ing, I can’t vote for evil. I know that is a strong word. But it is not an exaggeration. Our country is run by multi-national corpo- rations that control the politicians and these corporations are destroying the web of life all over the planet. So what to do? Peaceful revolution comes to mind. Violence will only get us thrown in prison. We need to unite, buy local, boycott corpora- tions that are heartless, grow our own food as much as possible and demand change! This revolution has to come from a spirit of love, not fear. Can Kerry go back to his roots? Don’t count on it. He’s a puppet for the corporate master. A vote for him is a vote for our coun- try to continue down the dark destructive path it’s been on for many years. Vote for Nader? Maybe. We need to think this through carefully, I’m convinced our sur- vival depends on it. Pam Driscoll Springfield WHICH CARBON? From the EW “Meltdown” article (6/10): “carbon levels are expected to double from pre-industrial level by 2050.” First let’s be clear that we’re talking about carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere. “Carbon” is of course included in CO2, but it’s also in soot, charcoal, graphite, diamonds, all living things, and especially in fossil fuels. We won’t double the carbon in the general envi- ronment, but rather the CO2 in the atmos- phere, mainly by burning fossil fuels. Do such predictions take into account the increased CO2 from more and hotter forest fires, and from less CO2 staying dissolved in the oceans, both of which will also result from higher temperatures? Do temperature predictions also include that less ice around the poles causes greater absorption of sun- light, and that increased water vapor is also a greenhouse gas? How about methane hydrate deposits on the ocean floor, which may break down to methane (a much worse “greenhouse gas”) as ocean temperatures rise, and eventually to CO2? All these fac- tors, and probably many unknowns, multiply with each other to produce unpredictable temperature rise. I wonder if we aren’t hearing the simpler analyses, leading to near-best-case scenarios. Dan Robinson Eugene ONLY PART BIODIESEL Your recent article on climate change (“Meltdown,” 6/10) states that the city of Eugene has “switched to biodiesel,” which is not altogether accurate. Diesel engine vehi- cles in the city fleet are fueled with a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petro- leum diesel, known as “B20.” While this blend produces a significant reduction in unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulates, it reduces carbon dioxide and sulfur emissions by only 20 percent. While the city fleet managers are to be commended for their forward-thinking deci- sion to run their vehicles on a more environ- mentally friendly fuel, Lane County has yet to invest in even small percentages of cleaner- burning fuels. Lane Transit District annually consumes in excess of 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel, all of it petroleum-based. LTD recently purchased five cleaner-burning buses which are rather too large to be practical on the majority of urban bus routes. Running the existing fleet of buses on a biodiesel blend would go a long way towards improving the quality of the air in our valley without neces- sitating any investment in new vehicles. If you are concerned about air quality, greenhouse gasses, and sustainable, renew- able fuels, contact the fleet managers for the city and thank them for their participation in renewable fuels and ask them to consider using a higher percentage blend of biodiesel in their vehicles. If city vehicles are deliver- ing satisfactory performance with biodiesel blends, there’s no defendable reason the LTD and county fleet vehicles shouldn’t be using it as well. R. Sparks Scott Eugene
