Poster for last
year’s PIELC
the homes of 8,000 indigenous Guatemalan
families.
The grant is sponsored by Southtowne
Rotary, and each donation gets multiplied
eight fold. A $100 donation gets doubled by
the District 5110 Rotary Club, which gets
doubled by Rotary International. That
money, once in Guatemala, gets matched by
Shell Oil. So, a $100 donation grows to
$800 which would provide eight families
with new stoves.
To help Hughes with her quest, you can
send your contributions to: The Duffy
Hughes Memorial Stove Grant, c/o Eugene
Southtowne Rotary Foundation, PO Box
5158, Eugene 97405 — E. Anderson Cael
THE REAL
HISTORY
The Pilgrims certainly weren’t the first
people to invent giving thanks in the fall.
Harvest festivals have been celebrated ever
since there have been harvests. However,
the settlers in the New World had plenty to
be thankful for. If the local Wampanoag
Indians hadn’t shown the newcomers (or is
that interlopers?) how to hunt game, dig for
plants and tubers and catch fish, the settle-
ment would have starved (in fact, over half
the settlement did perish during their first
winter).
In any case, they cel-
ebrated their good for-
tune with a big feast of
Thanksgiving, which
would have occurred
sometime between Sept.
21 and Nov. 9. It lasted
three days and they actu-
ally did invite the local
Indians who had saved
their skins. The big party
was a one-off, though,
and it wasn’t until 1789
that George Washington proclaimed Nov.
26 as the “official” holiday. Even then, the
date was contentious, and many of the orig-
inal colonies were opposed to the idea of
celebrating the deliverance of a dinky little
hamlet with a national holiday.
It was through the efforts of a woman in
the 1800s that we can thank for our present
Thanksgiving. Sarah Josepha Hale, a writer
(“Mary Had a Little Lamb”) and editor of
Boston Ladies’ Magazine, devoted 40 years
of her life to getting recognition for a day of
thanks. the indomitable Ms Hale finally
persuaded Abraham Lincoln to set the
fourth Thursday of November as the real
and true Thanksgiving day.
So how come it isn’t always held on that
day? Yet another president, Franklin
Roosevelt, moved the day back one week in
order to provide businesses with another
seven days of Christmas shoppers.
The day isn’t thankful for turkeys, of
course. Almost 30 million turkeys are
raised each year for their part in the ultimate
Thanksgiving sacrifice, except for one
lucky turkey that is ceremoniously sent to
the White House, where it is given an offi-
cial presidential pardon, and is sent off to
live out its days in peace on a farm. It has
yet to be seen if any inspection teams have
ever been sent to a turkey retirement farm to
check on the treatment of the fowl resi-
dents. — Laird Goodman
WHY KIDS
PEE IN BUSHES
The city of Eugene has a policy “to
avoid placement of restrooms in neighbor-
hood parks due to the illegal activities they
seem to attract,” according to a memo to the
City Council this past summer.
“While everyone would agree that hav-
ing a restroom close by when you need one
is a desirable conve-
nience, unfortunately
several less positive
circumstances often
seem to accompany re-
strooms in parks,”
parks manager Johnny
Medlin wrote the coun-
cil. “Restrooms by ne-
cessity require provid-
ing users an environ-
ment with a degree of
privacy. Unfortunately,
we find this provision
of privacy or seclusion is also a major factor
that facilitates illegal park uses such as drug
use and sales, prostitution and camping.”
To minimize problematic privacy in re-
strooms, Medlin writes that the city is “min-
imizing the use of internal doors” especially
lockable ones, in restrooms.
Besides the crime concerns, there’s also
the problem of cost, according to the memo.
The city spends more on a multiple stall re-
stroom than most people would spend on a
nice house— $150,000 to build, plus
$30,000 a year to maintain. — Alan Pittman
PIELC RETURNS
TO UO IN MARCH
Ohio — as well as other close states such as
New Mexico, Iowa and Nevada. … I was
surprised on the morning after the election.
I was legal analyst with CBS News for the
election and we did not go off the air until 6
am. At that time, due to the reports and my
conversation with Kerry attorneys, I ex-
pected a challenge.
“Kerry’s statement the day after the
election that there were not enough provi-
sional ballots to have any chance to alter
the result of the election may have been
true, but it was a bit misleading since provi-
sional ballots are only part of the story.
There were also absentee ballots, there
were reports of substantial pockets of elec-
tion problems, and allegations of over-vot-
ing and machine malfunction. In addition,
over 70 percent of Ohio’s votes were done
with punch cards. We know that when you
do a challenge to those, they tend to turn
over. So there is room to challenge Ohio
and other states. This is not to say that a re-
count is likely to change the result of the
election, but it is not an impossibility.”
Dates have been set for the 23rd annual
Public Interest Environmental Law
Conference (PIELC), an event that draws
about 4,000 attorneys, activists, students and
concerned citizens to Eugene from more
than 50 countries. The conference will be
held at the UO School of Law March 3-6.
The event is organized by volunteers
from Land Air Water, a student environ-
mental law society. Every year LAW plans
for about 125 panels, workshops and multi-
media presentations addressing a broad
spectrum of issues with environmental im-
plications. Keynoters in recent years have
included Ralph Nader, Vandana Shiva, Paul
Hawken, Julia Butterfly Hill, David Brower
and Terry Tempest Williams. No word yet
on this year’s likely keynoters.
Information about the conference is reg-
ularly updated at www.pielc.org
QUOTABLES
Jonathan Turley, professor of constitu-
tional law at George Washington
University, is quoted by the Institute for
Public Accuracy (www.accuracy.org) say-
ing Nov. 15:
“Electors are certified on Dec. 7. They
actually vote on Dec. 13. But those votes
are not opened by Congress until Jan. 6. So
there is still time to challenge the results in
W I L LA M E TTE
CORRECTIONS/
CLARIFICATIONS
The website that was listed at the bottom
of our story last week on “Election Wrongs”
has been replaced. A better website for citi-
zen involvement is www.truthinvoting.org
and the e-mail address is info@truthinvot-
ing.org
W
UNIVERSITY
Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series presents
Yefim Bronfman, pianist
Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004
8:00 p.m.
Jerry E. Hudson Hall
Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center
900 State Street
Willamette University, Salem, Ore.
“… a marvel … warmly romantic sentiment and jaw-dropping bravura …” –Chicago Tribune
Program Schumann: Arabeske in C Major, Op. 18, Humoreske in B-flat Major, Op. 20
and Prokofiev: Sonata No. 6 in A Major, Op. 82
Master Class Monday, Nov. 29, 7-9 p.m., Hudson Hall stage, free admission
Ticket prices: Adults $20, Students/Seniors $12. Tickets available at all Safeway TicketsWest
outlets, service charge added, 1-800-992-8499, or at the door.
NOVEMBER 24, 2004 9