TO THE EDITOR
CULTIVATE LOVE
Hold on to hope. As we witness chaos, in-
surmountable pain, destruction and suffering
erupt within us and around us, we must hold
fast to hope and loving peacefulness. We ex-
pand what we focus upon. Yesterday’s hurt is
today’s understanding rewoven into tomor-
row’s love — and out of chaos evolves the
dance of balance.
Cultivate love within yourselves and
bring it forward. If anything will carry us for-
ward in these times, it will be this. And re-
member the wisdom of Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of thought-
ful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Onward in peace,
Tiersa Turner
Eugene
TWO-ACRE ISLAND
When I read Nancy Nichols letter (12/9) re-
sponding to the 11/24 Viewpoint, “Gathering
Space,” I felt compelled to respond. For 28
years my family has lived two blocks from
Madison Meadow (not within the very limited
area of homes which might gain in property
value if this space is protected). We along with
many other neighbors have enjoyed countless
hours in this special place, watching seasons
change and children grow up.
We do have city parks nearby, which offer
destination ballfields, playgrounds, Frisbee
golf, basketball and tennis courts. These are
all valuable recreation assets but not the same
as an unmown meadow where a child can
wade through tall wildflowers and spot a little
snake or a butterfly.
It may be hard for a Deadwood resident to
grasp how precious this two-acre island of
green has become to the hundreds of families
who support saving Madison Meadow. A
very few homeowners may see an increase in
property value when the Meadow is pro-
tected, but if our community balked at acquir-
ing open space because of some incidental
benefit to adjacent homes, then our public
parkland would be sparse indeed.
There is a reason that so many people
have donated to save this hidden gem, and it’s
not property values, but a community sense
that we must hang on to at least a little of the
last open land, for children and other small
creatures. The Meadow provides many envi-
ronmental benefits, including habitat for
nearly 100 species of birds and other animals,
improvement of air and water quality, and the
potential for nature educational outreach.
Our city is getting denser every year in
our effort to maintain the urban growth
boundary. At some point we need to realize
that this growth requires a balance of green-
space as well. I would like to invite EW read-
ers to visit the Meadow at 22nd and Madison
and see what we hope to save. There are so
many worthy causes, social, political, and en-
vironmental, that deserve our support, and
Madison Meadow is one of them.
Susan Jerde
Eugene
NO LOONY LIBERAL
Please Christians, read the New
Testament again, and stop trying so hard to
interpret it. It is as clear as a bell. Jesus was
not a loony liberal. He said do what I do and
they will know you are Christian. When Jesus
fed the poor, drove the moneychangers from
the temple, walked with lepers, defended the
harlot, and healed the sick, he was not prac-
ticing wanton immoral liberalism. He did not
mislead anyone into believing. He was just
himself, honest and loving, take it or leave it.
He was showing us how to live our lives
as he did, honestly and lovingly. He exempli-
fied the moral values which he lived and died
for, yup, Christian values. Let’s keep an eye
on these values during the next four years and
see how many poor people are helped, how
many sick people are able to get healthcare,
how many hungry people are able to feed
their families. You know, let’s look for and in-
sist on that compassion as advertised. Take up
thy cross and follow. Amen.
Kathleen Rosa
Eugene
NO VOTE FOR JESUS
I feel compelled to write in regard to the
“Jesusland” map printed in the slant (11/11).
Jesus did not stand for the political ideas of
George W. Bush. Jesus was a revolutionary.
He lived his beliefs of love, non-violence,
faith, honesty, non-attachment, and accept-
ance of all people despite military, govern-
mental and public opposition. If we want to
relate Bush to a biblical figure, he would be
well represented by one of the money chang-
ers having his table overthrown by Jesus in
the temple of Jerusalem. He is a man shame-
lessly selling violence, dishonesty, discrimi-
nation, and environmental destruction in the
guise of Christianity. All this in exchange for
power, prestige and profit. A vote for Bush
was not a vote for Jesus, but against him.
Heather Ladd
Eugene
VOTING FOR WAR
I’m 64 and I remember the Vietnam War
very well. I was active in the antiwar move-
ment of the late ’60s. The present war with
Iraq is a bad time for us all, probably the
worst since 1968.
It won’t get any better, however, until we
all stop lying to ourselves about what hap-
pened in the recent election. John Kerry is a
worthless war pig. He voted for the war; he
said later that he would have voted for it even
if he had known there were no weapons of
mass destruction, and he said during the de-
bates that he was determined to “win” the war.
If Kerry had won the election we would still be
in the same position as far as Iraq goes.
The only power you have to stop a war,
unless you’re willing to go to jail, is your
vote. Most of you voted for Kerry, which
means you also voted for the war. So now
those in power have your permission to do
whatever they want. What you could have
done was withheld your vote from Kerry and
sent a message that it is not acceptable for a
Democrat to support this, or any other, war.
You could have also supported Ralph Nader,
who was the only serious peace candidate.
There will be another election in two
years. You need to be sending a message to all
politicians that they will not have your vote in
2006 unless they vote against any more ap-
propriations for the war, publicly oppose it,
and introduce legislation to end it.
Lynn Porter
Eugene
PERCEIVED ENEMY
Many thanks to EW for the thoughtful ar-
ticle, “Vietnam to Iraq” (11/24). I am looking
forward to the sequels on the subject of anti-
war activism.
A suggestion for those who find it difficult
to muster up the energy to join in creating real
4 DECEMBER 23, 2004
activism against the war on Iraq: Choose a
quiet spot and while sitting still for several
minutes, visualize an American soldier creep-
ing around the corner of, let’s say, the ruins of
a small house on an eerily quiet, dark lane in
Fallujah. Suddenly the perceived enemy is
upon him. He fires his rifle, killing the young
man before him, or the girl, the woman, a
child. Then imagine yourself, in turn, as sol-
dier, young man, girl, woman, child — and
WAKE UP!
Kathleen Epstein
Eugene
SILVER LINING
There are two great benefits to the
Democrats from losing the presidential elec-
tion. First, the war in Iraq is now solely on the
backs of the Republicans — if pro-war
Democrats like Kerry, Edwards, Liebermann
and Gephardt can manage to keep their big
fat mouths shut.
Second, the Democrats now have a badly
needed opportunity to look in the mirror and
see what they’re doing wrong. In an article in
Socialist Worker Online (socialistworker.org),
Lance Selfa uses exit poll data to debunk the
theory that Kerry lost because of “values.”
“If you compare the composition of voters
between this year and 2000, you find that the
percentage of evangelical Christians re-
mained the same; the percentage of people
opposed to abortion remained the same; and
the percentage of people who say they pray
every day didn’t change either. Slightly more
evangelicals voted for Bush in 2004 than in
2000, but there wasn’t a great surge of the re-
ligious right to the polls — at least on a na-
tionwide level.”
Nor did Bush win because of a rural vs.
urban split: “According to those [exit] polls,
Bush actually lost a little ground in rural
areas, compared to the 2000 election. But he
polled a full 10 percentage points better in
urban areas.”
Kerry lost because he offered nothing real to
his base and failed to energize it, while Bush
fired up his base. The Democrats’main problem
is that they’re owned by the rich people who fi-
nance their campaigns. Their corporate spon-
sors want a cheap labor policy in the U.S., with