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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2005)
TO THE EDITOR newly hired state and local government workers. Please support future generations, my grandchildren, and keep our Social Security System whole. Contact Sen. Smith and urge him to not privatize Social Security but rather make helpful and fair adjustments. Ruth Duemler Eugene SLAVERY I fail to see the logic in Mr. Stutzman’s “animal logic” letter (3/17) where he states that human slaughter of farmed animals is natural and no different morally than a moun- tain lion murdering a deer. If he is so con- cerned that we not confuse natural codes for moral ones, he ought to realize he is suggest- ing that it is natural for animals to breed other species en masse, raise them in cages, and then systematically slaughter them on a dis- assembly line. I haven’t seen that on a nature show. Animal agriculture is slavery. It isn’t natu- ral. While mountain lions are naturally carni- vores, we primates are naturally herbivorous. Lions do not have a choice whether or not to kill other wildlife (and at least the wildlife has a fair chance to escape death, unlike our do- mesticated animal prisoners).When we make a choice to enslave and kill other animals for food/profit, we are not showing the kind of morality that Stutzman says is a gift of our species. Gandhi said “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” As long as some people choose to eat other animals instead of vegetable protein, it hinders us all from pro- gressing morally as a society. See www.whyvegan.com Carrie Packwood Freeman Eugene TROOP SUPPORT The true “conservatives,” honest and civil and fiscally responsible, have been marginal- ized by regressive Republicans who want our nation to regress to the days when we did not look after our elderly, when abortions were performed in back alleys, and when social justice was the dream of a black reverend. If we are to now call ourselves “progres- sives” rather than “liberals,” in every political conversation, in every letter to the editor or e- mail to a friend, in every sign held up at a protest, I propose we start calling our political opponents “regressives” rather than “conser- vatives.” Let’s start calling it like it is. Todd Huffman, M.D. Eugene “liberal,” like Jesus who exemplified it, has been crucified. Only we must not expect its resurrection in our lifetimes. Time is overdue to turn the tables. There is nothing “conservative” about launching wars of choice. There is nothing “conservative” about running record federal deficits and bur- dening our children with what amounts to a birth tax. There is nothing “conservative” about a largely Republican corporate culture that is polluting our earth and the minds of our children while paying little taxes and sending our jobs overseas. There is nothing “conservative” about selling out our nation’s future in hopes that God will someday sort things out. I need some help understanding what the Support Our Troops stickers mean on vehi- cles. How should we support them? Monetarily? What should the support look like? Would supporting them mean bringing them home? And one last question: Why can you only have them on an SUV and what is it about putting the sticker on your SUV that automatically makes you drive poorly? Any help would be appreciated. Jared Wolfsen Eugene REGRESSIVE POLITICS In modern political parlance, the word 5 * 1 1 5 ' 9 + & / ' 4 * ' ( ' 9 ' + < ' 0 STIGMA REMAINS Society’s stale standards continue to bear down on the children, adolescents, and adults living life with a mental illness. As wise to discrimination and as watchful as we are to our political correctness, there still hides a mean tendril of stigma in our public collec- tive that silently damages, restricts, and cor- rupts those who dare to free themselves of shame. The uneducated treatment many people still impose upon those they feel are “unsta- ble” or “less than professional” does not end in the special education classes back in high school. As a 34 –year-old professional social worker and youth counselor, I am facing the 11th month of my university’s imposed edu- cation rights/discriminatory gulag. It has been an eye-opening shock that the institutions that teach our future educators continue to keep themselves unaware con- cerning mental health and the factual reality that people with depression or other illnesses are viable, worthwhile human beings. As the last bastion of discrimination in ed- ucation, colleges and universities will soon face a dramatic awakening. I am glad I have stood up for my rights, as a graduate student in a program intended to prepare me to edu- cate others. I am glad that I have spoken against unjust actions without shame. To be silent would have been, I believe, ir- rational and “insane.” Jon Young Veneta WIDMERCOM APRIL 7, 2005 5
