TO THE EDITOR
HALF-BAKED IDEAS
Just a quick response to the two guys (1/6,
Jim Johnson and Jerry Harris) who wrote
such weak and generic letters after reading
fashion
buy sell trade
bicycle’s metals were extracted, processed,
assembled and brought to the showroom?
Diesel fuel, that’s how. In short, all of your
activities are integrated with the petroleum
industry.
A small but growing community of peo-
ple all over the world are promoting and de-
veloping an alternative to petroleum fuels. As
much as you may hate cars, the use of a non-
toxic, low pollution, renewable fuel can
never be a bad thing. The use of biodiesel is
spreading from the private sector into fleets
and manufacturing, a reverse of the typical
path of new innovations.
Dunning fore-thinking individuals who
choose to participate in established patterns
of transport using an alternative fuel source is
as wrong as making fun of people who ride
around in the rain wearing bicycle pants.
Everyone does their part in the dance, and it’s
not up to you to call the steps.
As I have pointed out on this page before,
the problem isn’t too many cars, it’s too many
people.
Oh, and yes, my all-electric car is pow-
ered by solar panels, thank you. If you’ll keep
your attention on the bike lane, I’ll continue
to drive it proudly in a responsible
manner.
R. Sparks Scott
Eugene
Mark Harris’ article (12/23).
Both of your points are obviously devoid
of any real thought or reason. In a world with-
out racism, a person like Mark Harris would
still be devoting his life’s work and passion to
creating positive social change in other areas.
But racism does exist, and we do need diver-
sity trainers and educators like Mark, so what
are your points, exactly? That he should be
grateful for hate crimes and racial profiling
because it gives him something to talk about
or a job in the industry? Get real.
I think it’s foolish to call the “race indus-
try” Mark’s “livelihood” or imply that when
black people start dying in Eugene, then their
“self-segregated” community will have a real
reason to “cry” about racism.
Mark is an excellent teacher and passion-
ate speaker which obviously threatens some
people who can only express half-baked
ideas or who can only think of one thing to
say. I have many things to say about Mark
and his work, but it’s really simple: during
two years of attending school at LCC, he was
the only teacher to ever actually teach me
something real about myself and how my
choices affect my life and personality. In his
class I learned how to become a better person,
not about how white I am or how black
he is.
To say he can talk about race and nothing
beyond is a lame understatement. Do your-
selves a favor and go get educated.
Rachel Boyd
Eugene
that
pays to
be me
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