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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2004)
TO THE EDITOR SQUEEZE TIME Why haven’t we taken to the streets? Now is the time to channel our pre-election opti- mism and our post-election despair into dis- sent-filled activism. This administration’s “Plan for a New American Century” is in their grasp. Very soon I fear we will all feel the squeeze. Rigged election or not, four more years of war and crumbling human rights is a reality. We are skyrocketing to- wards an energy crisis and there is a potential draft in our midst. Now is the time for alternatives and con- scientious objection. We must break this apa- thetic mold of “business as usual.” With a deep sense of urgency, I call upon you to val- idate your grief and hopelessness, and then redirect it. We need to ask questions, share in- formation, demand accountability, and pres- sure the media. Please, Eugene, when you see my friends and me on the street corner with our thought- provoking signs, know that we wholly appre- ciate your honks of approval and the peace fingers (we like the other types of fingers too — hence the thought-provoking). Consider parking the car and coming to join us. It feels really good! To the amazing organizations and individ- uals already dedicated to political activism, civil rights, or social justice — what if we combined forces? We need the power of numbers and the strength of solidarity. Those who continue to oppress and kill in our name using our loved ones as both killers and pawns must be stopped. This is our window. We have to be the timely revolution. Chiara Inhat Eugene WILD HONEY Hooray for Honey Vizer and her litany of libidinal pleasures to be had at the Eugene Public Library (11/11)! The Library should reward her as a featured performer in one of the concerts in its sexy rotunda, and let us all have a taste of that wild Honey! David Landazuri Knight Library, UO RAUNCHY CABLE I am greatly alarmed by the programming on some of the so-called basic cable net- works. A new special report by the Parents’ Television Council shows just how licentious and depraved some of the programming is on basic cable. I urge you to read the report, which can be found at www.ParentsTV.org The PTC’s report shows that basic cable is rife with some of the most obscene themes and content imaginable, including pornogra- phy, masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, three- somes, statutory rape, incest and bestiality. Why should I be forced to bring this sewage into my home in order to watch the Food Network or the Disney Channel? Why should parents have to subsidize channels that un- dermine their core values and beliefs? I ask you to consider families like mine when you decide on cable choice. By offering me the ability to choose the channels I want, and to pay only for those channels, you put power back in the hands of the consumer and BYJEFF LONG Welcome Back Wild wolves are returning to Oregon. B ack in October, when America was still up for grabs in the presidential race, Bush and Co. ran political ads using wolves to symbolize terrorists. That was not the first time wolves had been used for political gain. Believe it or not, dead wolves played a large part in establishing Oregon’s government. In 1913, the Oregon State and Game Commission began offering a $20 wolf bounty in addition to the regular $5 paid by the state, and early civil government organizers were able to draw significant numbers of settlers to town hall meetings by advertising them as wolf eradication meet- ings. The last wild wolf in Oregon was killed for bounty in 1963, as government officials praised the success of the wolf removal strategy. Wolves managed to hang on in the wilds of Canada and have recently been given room to live in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana under a federal re-introduction program. The wolf population in Idaho has been successful, so much so that a few wolves have re- cently made the trip across the Snake River into Eastern Oregon. The first wolf, a female affectionately named B-45, was tracked by her radio collar and quickly deported back to Idaho in 1999. Since her return, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has been creating a plan to recover this critter as outlined by the state and federal Endangered Species Act. The draft Oregon Wolf Conservation and Management Plan is currently out for public comment. The plan is the brainchild of 14 different stakeholders representing a wide range of in- terests, from conservation groups to the cattle industry. It took more than a year and half of monthly board meetings to reach a final draft, and many of those meetings were fo- cused on compromise, neither side getting exactly what they wanted. The plan includes a compensation program to help ranchers recoup losses from predation, and also encour- ages wolf distribution throughout the state by managing for healthy populations both east and west of the Cascades. T he simple truth is wolves are coming, regardless of our management plans, and we can either embrace them or repeat our past mistakes. There is strong scien- tific evidence that illustrates the benefits of a healthy predatory population, both economically and environmentally. Wolves reduce rampant coyote populations, which may be the real threat to livestock, increase the overall health of prey populations through natural selection and can even promote healthy riparian vegetation by lessening 4 DECEMBER 2, 2004 elk herd “loitering” near streams. One of the most important benefits of wolves may be their “existence value,” just knowing wolves are alive and well in Oregon. Wolves may soon be howling in our forests, a sound few of us have heard in the wild and a legacy we can leave for future genera- tions. Oregonians have the chance to be pioneers once again since other states will un- doubtedly be looking at our plan, both its successes and failures, as wolves begin to re- claim their historic territory throughout the West. We have the unusual opportunity to reconcile our past and prove that co-existence rather than extinction can define our relationship with the wolf. The ODFW will decide to adopt, re-write or reject the Wolf Conservation Plan on Feb. 6. I encourage everyone to write a letter to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission immediately (3406 Cherry Ave., Salem 97303, fax: (503) 947-6009, e-mail: ODFW.comments@state.or.us) and let them know how important wolves are to all Oregonians and ask the commission to not allow legal “lethal takes” of wolves or to weaken the plan in any way. Farley Mowat, author of Never Cry Wolf, sums up our history with the wolf when he says: “We have doomed the wolf not for what it is but for what we deliberately and mis- takenly perceive it to be: the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, not more than the reflected image of ourselves.” Second chances are ex- tremely rare, make your voice heard and help us welcome the return of the gray wolf. Jeff Long is the outreach coordinator for the Cascadia Wildlands Project, a Eugene-based non-profit organization dedicated to protecting Oregon’s natural ecosystems. For more information on wolf recovery or conservation work in general, contact CWP at 434-1463, or visit www.cascwild.org
