TO THE EDITOR
WE OWN THE ROAD
Uh oh, the thinking people seem to be get-
ting bugged by the “Support Our Troops”
stickers on vehicles. Jared Wolfsen (4/7) asks
the sticker users several questions. As a per-
son who proudly displays a sticker I would
like to answer them.
How should we support our troops? By
keeping them in our thoughts and prayers and
being thankful that we have these brave men
and women to protect our freedom and to
help others be free as well.
What does that support look like? It looks
like citizens demanding that their elected of-
ficials give our troops the tools they need
along with good pay and benefits. It looks
like funding modern technology to reduce the
exposure of our troops to harm. It looks like
many things to show our care and apprecia-
tion. Would supporting them mean bringing
them home? Yes, when their job is done.
Why can you only have them (stickers) on
an SUV? You may place the sticker on any
vehicle. I see them on all types of vehicles.
We have one on our SUV and one on our
1988 Volvo.
What is it about putting the sticker on
your SUV that automatically makes you
drive poorly? It is just a coincidence. We
SUV drivers think that we own the road and
our driving reflects that. It has nothing to do
with the stickers.
Randy Kolb
Eugene
LRAPA APPS
Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority is
seeking a new director and last week went
over the qualifications needed by applicants.
I would like to extend some suggestions just
in case the new director wants to keep his job.
First, realize that you must not defend the
citizens who complain of asthma, brown
skies, problems breathing, polluted water
from air emissions or dangerous toxins.
Listen carefully to instructions from pollut-
ing industry and make sure permits are few
and never challenged by LRAPA. Ignore all
those rules and regulations produced in the
state south of us. They would never pass here.
Allow pollution to increase in our valley, ap-
prove every new industry or polluter who
wants to build here and then assure the public
that everything is safe and under control.
Job security is always part of the picture.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
THE PEPSI FACTOR
The Eugene 4J School District has con-
tracts with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola bot-
tlers that allow them to place six soda ma-
chines apiece in each of the four high schools.
The district keeps a 25 percent commis-
sion on all sales, but the dollars gained by the
district for plying our children with high-
sugar drinks are not worth it when weighed
against the negative, long-term health conse-
quences to our children when they consume
soft drinks on a regular basis in our schools.
A study recently released by the nonprofit
Community Health Partnership urges parents
and school officials to take another look at the
value of soft drink contracts. The Eugene 4J
School Board should heed this advice and
buy out the soft drink contracts, which run for
several more years.
School board member Eric Forrest, who
works for Pepsi-Cola, enthusiastically sup-
ports keeping Coke and Pepsi vending ma-
chines in the schools. Aria Seligmann, who’s
running against Mr. Forrest in the upcoming
school board election, is calling for the re-
moval of the soda machines.
Seligmann has an 8-year-old son in the
public school system. Aria feels strongly that
our schools must provide her son and other
children appropriate nutrition and that un-
healthy beverages and snacks do not belong
in schools.
The ballots for the Eugene 4J School
Board election will be mailed out on April 29.
Please remember to vote and mark your bal-
lot for Aria Seligmann. She’ll serve us well.
Michael Carrigan
Eugene
IGNORING EVIDENCE
Insanity has been defined as doing the
same thing over and over, expecting differ-
ent results.
Dan Carol’s latest faux-populist, pseudo-
gonzo rant (“Gluing the Pieces: A memo to
the millionaires,” 4/14) is Exhibit A on why
the D’s became the minority party.
The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections
were hacked with voting machines and racist
disenfranchisements of voters. The
Democrats’ narrow focus on how they can
“win” next time while ignoring vote fraud
guarantees their permanent minority status.
For the next election, the groups that
Carol works for will crank up their fund-rais-
ing and send out armies of idealistic students
to register voters so that maybe this time the
forces of good will succeed.
Carol cites a “great group” called
“Wellstone Action,” named after the liberal
Senator who stood up to the Bush regime.
Wellstone’s plane went down Oct. 25, 2002,
BY SALLY SHEKLOW
Gotcha Covered
Cutesy bows insult my no-nonsense behind.
A
lert, alert. Last pair of underwear.
My oldest pair of underpants signals from the back of the top drawer:
laundry time!
These vintage undies — red, 1980s no-fly men’s hip-huggers — are my last ditch
option before I absolutely have to do a load of wash. I can still fit into these old
back-ups, even though I’ve rounded out below the belt and long ago graduated to
big women’s cotton high-tops. Undaunted by my rotundity, these supple, well-used
standbys will tide me over whenever I’m in need. And you can rest assured the
elastic will never give out on these babies — they were made for men. They’re the
Humvee of undergarments.
Clothing from the women’s department tends to be weaker, flimsier, more likely
to fall apart. You know, feminine. The lace, ruffles, and cutesy bows insult my no-
nonsense behind. I’d had it with the sexist underwear double standard.
As a rough and tumble kind of college gal, I was frustrated with the fragile and
delicate undergarments allotted to women. Then I got wise. Men’s stuff was better.
More functional, more durable, more empowering. If women could become astro-
nauts, surely we could move beyond the ladies’ intimates department.
One inspired day 20 years ago, I mustered my shopping gumption and infil-
trated the men’s clothing section of Montgomery Ward. I felt the entire women’s
liberation movement surge forward as I boldly went where no woman had gone be-
fore. I was conquering another frontier, another bastion of male-only space.
Walking into menswear I crossed a monumental threshold. Like in fourth grade
when the girls dared me to run into the boys’ bathroom. Not one girl in our school
had ever set foot beyond the ominous BOYS sign. I’d braved the haunted house at
Susie Weisman’s Halloween party, how bad could a bathroom be? I set my jaw,
threw open the door, and marched inside. OK, the urinals were bizarre. And it
4 APRIL 28, 2005
smelled of mothballs and stale pee. But I lived to tell about
all I saw in there (no actual boys, phew!), and I was not, as
predicted, infected with incurable cooties. Surviving the
boys’ bathroom set me on a lifelong course of challenging
the no girls allowed rule. Everyone should have equal ac-
cess to everything.
The men’s department carried that same charge of defiance
and trepidation. I was now entering the forbidden zone. Across the border (no
Minutemen militia, thank goodness), I found racks of hardy overalls, sweatpants,
jackets — all built tough and made to last. Out of the dainty into the durable.
Nothing cute. Everything hefty. What a thrill. My aorta throbbed. And nobody could
keep me from shopping there. Ha ha!
When my pulse stopped pounding, I checked out the boxer shorts, alien gar-
ments foreign to my girl-on-girl world. They were baggy and had that vulnerable
opening. My crotch prefers a snug, protective undergarment, making men’s cotton
low-riders a more suitable choice. I liked the ones that came three-to-a-pack in rea-
sonable, non-pastel colors — black, navy, and red. I could get all three for the price
of one pair of girlie fancy pants. I felt like a total revolutionary buying them, even
though the cashier made no fuss at all over my one-woman rebellion.
But my singular act combined with rebellious acts of women all over the coun-
try who began to protest being limited to flimsy panties until it became a move-
ment and the movement created change. Now underwear companies make Jockey
for Her and Hains Her Way and Fruit of the Loom’s Just My Size — well-built
women’s drawers. We can buy our sturdy knickers in the women’s department,
thanks to each person who’s had the nerve to take a risk, defy the norm, and assert
their rights.
My faded pair of red undies remind me that the strong survive. I took a risk, ven-
tured beyond a world that didn’t honor my basic needs and I’m glad I did. Once I
stepped out I’ve never looked back — except on laundry day.
Writer Sally Sheklow does her wash in Eugene. To enroll in Sally’s “Ignite Your Courageous Spirit” playshop April 23,
e-mail her at sally@wymprov.com