TO THE EDITOR
BY SALLY SHEKLOW
Electile Dysfunction
The struggle for justice will go on,
regardless.
I
am so ready for this election to be over.
The constant hype is getting to me. I’ve be-
come crabby and intolerant, which if I could
make a commercial, I’d say is a sign the terrorists are
winning. And by terrorists I mean the fear-mongering,
xenophobic, boogey men running our country.
My nerves are frayed. Yesterday the phone rang and,
mistaking the call for yet another automated get-out-the-
vote appeal, I nearly hung up on my own wife. Talk about a threat
to the sanctity of marriage.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the voter registration drives are so vigorous, really I
am. I’m counting on all the newly registered voters to turn the tide and get us out of
this crazy right-wing quagmire. But I’ve had it with the campaigning and the bickering
and the constant smear. I can’t take any more.
No, I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for regime change, for keeping marriage discrim-
ination out of the state Constitution, or for facilitating procurement of medical mari-
juana. You know we need it.
Neither have I put away my lawn signs/door signs/window signs/bumper stick-
ers/campaign pins — even though they haven’t done much to repel the steady stream
of over-earnest, door-to-door canvassers. And yes, I’ve voted (yes on 31, 32, 33, & 34;
no on 35, 36, 37 & 38) and hand-delivered my ballot to a county elections drop box.
But this fever pitch is getting old and tired and so am I. Let’s face it, come Nov. 3
the campaigning will be over. We’ll wake up to the election results, cheer our victories,
mourn our losses, and put away our lawn signs/door signs/window signs/bumper
stickers/campaign pins. We’ll dust ourselves off and get on with life. Regardless of the
outcome, we’ll still be who we are and doing what we do.
It’s not like politics ends on election day. I hope to God(dess) we will have a new
president. And I will be seriously bummed if the Constitution is changed to say I can’t
marry my own wife. But the struggle for justice will go on. If Kerry wins I’ll be pressing
him to do the right thing. If, curse the thought, Bush wins (or re-steals) the election,
I’ll join the uprising. Luckily (and thanks in no small part to Michael Moore) we’re al-
ready mobilized, informed, and pissed off enough to keep the momentum going.
N
aturally, I’d rather be celebrating. I hope to be cheering on all the good
things a Kerry administration will do with the taxes they wrest from the
greedy grip of tax-evading corporate outsourcers and collect from that fa-
mous fraction of Americans earning over $200,000 a year.
I’ll be thrilled to enter a prosperous era of jobs, health care, education, and peace.
And oh, how I will dance in the streets if our Pablum first lady is replaced by the pow-
erful, smart, and worldly (not to mention kick-ass feminist) Theresa Heinz Kerry.
Unabashed woman muscle in the White House — bring it on!
Give me a Kerry cabinet filled with the likes of Wesley Clark, Dennis Kucinich, and
Carol Mosely Braun. I’ll certainly be singing Hallelujah if the retiring Supremes are re-
placed by Kerry appointees who pass the litmus test, i.e. upholding our Constitution
and all our inalienable rights. (Radical!)
It will be major party time when national justice is restored, á la convictions
against the real criminals who’ve committed treason, war crimes and crimes against
humanity — the biggest liars and cheats who are still getting away with it. Come on
America (or international court), bring Bush, Cheney, Rummie, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz.
Rice and Rove to justice. I’m ready for front page news of those goons behind bars
(and Martha free!).
I’m keeping hope alive. My sanity depends on it. I know the wheels turn slowly, but
I’m looking forward to victory, and may it come soon. I’m ready for democracy to be
restored and the light at the end of the tunnel turned back on.
Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community since 1972 and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy
troupe. Her column, which began at EW in 1999, also runs in several other newspapers and magazines around the
country and Down Under.
priority for his administration. We all remem-
ber the “smoke ’em out” remark, but it seems
the only smoke we’ve seen is the one associ-
ated with mirrors.
It turns out that, according to the New
York Times report, “Three years after the
Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the
Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency
has fewer experienced case officers assigned
to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama
bin Laden than it did at the time of the at-
tacks.” It also appears that the unit involved
in this investigation is stretched so thin that it
cannot do any meaningful work.
This president must be held accountable
in this election for the blatant misdirecting of
our intelligence and military resources to an
ill-planned war in Iraq and the deceitful mis-
leading of the public and Congress on the ra-
tionale for a preemptive strike on a country
that was not directly threatening us! His arro-
gance has not only sent our brave soldiers to
an unnecessary war with no exit strategy in
sight, but has also made us more unsafe by
alienating us from the international commu-
nity with which we need their cooperation to
combat terrorism.
Terry Solini
Corvallis
DIVIDER & UNITER
President Bush’s role of “divider/uniter”
may painfully be what this country has
needed. He has divided our country with a
polarizing , black and white, “for us or
against us” thinking stance that has alienated
countries that, if not friendly, have at least
supported us. He has divided his own party to
the point where some members of the radical
right faction are actively encouraging moder-
ate Republicans to leave the party. (Bill
Moyers’ PBS interview 9/3). He has even in-
creased intolerance amongst, and within, dif-
ferent faiths.
Where he has been a uniter is in how the
policies and arrogance of his administration
have galvanized the Democratic Party, disap-
pointed and angered Republican moderates
to where their fear of four more years of Bush
has them working to elect John Kerry for
president in 2004; and moved apathetic and
cynical non-voters to register to vote.
I’d have preferred some other catalyst
than the failings over four years of the Bush
administration, like: the greatest loss of jobs
since the depression era, some 1.6 million; an
average rise of $3,000 in costs per family for
health care in Oregon; an overwhelming
budget deficit where there was surplus before
Bush took office; inadequate funding for
homeland security; and the instigation of a
poorly planned war based on unquestioned
and fabricated information, that has not made
us safer, has killed thousands, and it seems
has swelled the ranks of terrorists.
I am grateful for the kick in the butt many
of us have needed to pay attention, to get ac-
tive, rather than continuing to let this kind of
detrimental governance occur. Amazing that
I could wind up thanking the man, who is
hopefully, on his way out of office.
Marilyn Marcus
Eugene
WRONG DIRECTION
Measure 35 is a step in the wrong direc-
tion. When there is government controls on
8 OCTOBER 21, 2004
the price of medical care and medicine, then
and only then should there be government
controls on the liability of insurers and doc-
tors in malpractice suits.
Proponents of Measure 35 claim that caps
on settlements will keep the cost of medical
care in check. However, Measure 35 does not
provide caps on what doctors can charge pa-
tients, insurance companies can charge doc-
tors, nor guarantee that caps on settlements
will result in lower medical costs. The only
guarantee that is provided is that people can
receive less in settlements when the doctor
has been proved to be negligent.
The public is angry that there has been no
government controls to curb the cost of med-
ical services and medicine. Both state and
federal government have failed to put in place
any government controls to protect the
American consumer. For 20 years the cost of
medical care and medicine has risen dispro-
portionately to the inflation in other sectors.
Nothing, not a single thing, has been done!
And now, there’s a measure that will protect
negligent doctors from high malpractice in-
surance premiums, which does not guarantee
lower or even stabilized medical costs to the
consumer.
Measure 35 fails to cap health care premi-
ums, what doctors can charge patients, and
prices on medications. Measure 35 only pro-
vides protection from high insurance rates for
negligent doctors, and fails to provide little
else!
Don’t be fooled by measure 35. Vote no!
Len Goforth
Springfield
SOCIALISTS STAND
The Lane County Chapter of the Socialist
Party, USA, at its October meeting, declared
its prime target in the upcoming political
campaign to be the defeat of George W. Bush.
It is the contention of the chapter that the poli-
cies and initiatives undertaken by Bush are
clearly more oriented toward the doctrines of
Fascism as exemplified by the regimes of
Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and
Francisco France in the ’30s and ’40s.
Citing as examples of the fascistic under-
takings of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al., the
chapter points to the preemptive war in Iraq,
the denial of civil rights to “suspected” terror-
ists and their imprisonment without the right
to counsel or without specifying the charges
against them. The chapter also expressed its
outrage at the strip searching of male and fe-
male prisoners without specifying that
charges are being made against them.
Furthermore, the Lane Socialists object to
the practice by Secretary Ashcroft’s
Department of Justice of identifying books
checked out of local libraries without the
knowledge of the person who checked out the
book in question. The Socialist Party is also
concerned that those who are dissident about
Bush’s policies are being targeted as “unpa-
triotic” and are ridiculed for the exercise of
their rights to dissent.
Also targeting by the Socialists and by
other progressives is the Hyde Amendment
which excludes abortion from the compre-
hensive health care services provided to low-
income people by the federal government
through Medicaid, a further erosion of rights
of women under the doctrine of Roe v. Wade.
It is the opininon of the Lane County