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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2005)
TO THE EDITOR UNACCEPTABLE The Board of Directors of Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) would like to express our concern about the current situ- ation at the UO College of Education (COE). Students of color, as well as LGBTQ students and students with disabilities, find the learn- ing environment at the COE to be hostile and believe it is risky to bring forward their obser- vations and complaints. The staff and curriculum at the COE are failing to prepare teachers, counselors and administrators to teach and work with in- creasingly diverse populations in our public schools. Multicultural education is extremely limited, and an overwhelmingly mono-cul- tural faculty is not equipped to prepare cultur- ally competent future educators. This situa- tion continues despite a COE policy which calls for the infusion of culturally diverse per- spectives in all the courses offered. The COE currently has a number of fac- ulty openings. This is an opportunity for the college to make a significant transition to- wards cultural inclusiveness. We hope that the COE will hold these positions open until qualified candidates of diverse cultural back- grounds can be hired. We particularly support the idea of “cluster” hires, so that a change in the learning environment at the COE can occur. Until the supply of new teachers includes more educators of color, and until new teach- ers of all backgrounds are culturally compe- tent, our local districts are greatly hampered in their efforts to close the achievement gap and otherwise provide an equitable and cul- turally relevant education to all their students. Carol Van Houten Chair, CALC Board of Directors MEDITATE ON THIS I would like to respond to the letter by Kelly Hinrichs (5/5) who was appalled that ODOT and EW would run an ad mocking and demeaning the Buddhist religion. If there is one thing I cannot tolerate, it is when some- one disrespects another religion, no matter what that might be. I dug through my recycling at home to find this bad ad, and was surprised to find a man in a business suit sitting in the lotus position, possibly meditating, with the headline, “Get Enlightened.” Below that it reads, “Realization is the aban- donment of ignorance” and fur- ther down it offers, “Achieve inner peace and heal anxiety, depression and anger,” and offers commuting options other than driving to work. Sounds good to me. Where is the injustice here that spurred your rage? All those things sound reasonable to me. First of all, do not assume, just because someone sits like this or meditates, that they are Buddhist. Secondly, don’t rush to judgement. What makes you think that EW created this ad or feels it contains the same message that you do? And lastly, if you really need something to feel outraged about, just look around you. There’s the war, the state of the economy, the environment, and the list goes on and on. I think, Kelly, you should have sat and meditated on this, instead of firing off your reactionary, angry letter. Have some compas- sion for the poor ODOT marketing person who thought up this ad campaign. Oh, and by 4 MAY 19, 2005 the way, how did you travel to work today? Bhoddi Dharma Eugene END DISCRIMINATION As an organization that cares about discrim- ination in our community, Lane Gender Task Force is very concerned about what is happen- ing at the UO College of Education (COE). We are further concerned that very few people are aware of what has been occurring. For the last 20 years there has been large scale discrimination at the COE. In the last two years alone there have been more than 40 documented incidents of discrimination. Many more cases are going unreported be- cause of fear of retaliation. This includes dis- crimination based on race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality and ability. The COE fails to provide a safe learning environment. There is retaliation against stu- dents who bring up diversity issues, as well as students being shouted down in class and fol- lowed to the bathroom. This is wrong. All students need a safe learning environ- ment. In addition, this is a problem that af- fects our communities as a large number of COE students become educators in our schools. Not only are students leaving the COE incompetent to deal with the diverse populations that they will be serving, but they are being taught in a discriminatory environ- ment that makes the silencing of diverse voices normal and acceptable. This is a com- munity issue. A large coalition of student and commu- nity organizations working on this issue have put forth an eight-step plan of specific changes to address these problems. Join us and many other community groups in work- ing to end discrimination at the COE. Lane Gender Task Force Risa Bear, Maceo Persson Joe Humphreys, Toby Hill-Meyer HERE I SIT … Answering a letter to the editor in EW is like entering into a correspon- dence with that strange person who scrawls weird remarks in toilet stalls, but a lie-stuffed, political letter by Dennis Shine (5/5) requires rebuttal as much as Shine requires rebuke. I am a member of the Safety and Respect Committee of the Springfield School District and have attended every meeting for the duration of every meeting. Mr. Shine is not a member of the committee and, though I have heard him quoted extensively on events which have occurred at the meetings, I have never seen him attend one. Wade Richardson, a moderate parent, productive citizen of Springfield, and valuable member of the committee, also has attended every meeting and is known for his sincerity, searching questions, and attempts to get to the truth, in- stead of bobbing his head in ignorant agree- ment, as do, unfortunately, a number of the other committee members. Mr. Richardson has always insisted on in- cluding all persons attending the Springfield Schools as being entitled to the full protection of the law as set forth in the 14th Amendment. Given the diversity of our country (yes, there are people in this community and elsewhere who are not homosexuals, minorities, illegal aliens, or suffer from diseases physical and psychical, but are, in fact, normal, healthy, na- tive-born Americans), and these persons de- serve protection under the law also. In contrast with Shine’s false and politi- cally motivated allegation that Richardson opposed celebrating Martin L. King Jr.’s birthday, Richardson has never made that statement, but has indicated a desire to dis- tribute the district’s sparse allocation of social studies time to the discussion of a number and variety of American historical figures, no doubt including George Washington Carver, W.E.B. DuBois, and our current secretary of state, Dr. Rice, not to the exclusion of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and, per- haps, Roosevelt. Finally, Richardson is not a candidate for the religious right as Shine claims, but is the father of a number of children he would like to see get at least a half-way decent public school education. Unlike Shines’s favorites, Richardson has accepted contributions only from individual neighbors and friends and will finish the campaign not indebted to or owned by any group or organization. Shine should be ashamed of himself for repeating lies and EW for printing them, but the two do seem remarkably compatible — a lot like the scrawler and the toilet stall — and such decency is not their forte. Reis R. Kash Springfield NO NOBLE CAUSE In response to Josiah Sanders’ letter (4/21): While I can certainly respect you and your comrades for your courage, I cannot “support” you or respect you for what you have done. You are not making your country safer, you are not protecting the U.S., you are not performing some great, noble purpose. You are a patsy for a corrupt government, you are complicit in the deaths of thousands of human beings, you are a tool that is used and discarded. Those little magnets are a constant, sick- ening reminder of what was done in the name of our citizens. They do not “support” you or your comrades, they support the people that manufactured them. These magnets provide nothing but a false justification and frail peace of mind for an illegal and totally un- warranted military action. You say that you have “responded to the call of duty that not all good Americans are willing to do.” My duty is to my family, friends, and community, not to a corrupt regime that steals my money and turns it into weapons of mass destruction. My duty is to ensure that I have as low an impact on the world around me as possible, not to fire de- pleted uranium rounds into the environment or drop cluster munitions into the playground of my neighbor. My duty is to attempt to live in peace, harmony, and understanding with those around me, not to kill the enemies of a morally defunct ideal. I support our troops by calling for imme- diate and unconditional withdrawal from our failed little brush wars around the globe. I support our troops by asking that they only risk themselves in the defense of our nation. Justin Bengtson Eugene TAKES ALL KINDS There aren’t many things sillier than peo- ple who feel they have to complain about things they don’t have to read in a weekly paper they don’t have to pay for. (Well, OK, we all know that’s not true — TV, Washington, D.C., and every state house in the country are awash in sillier things.) Me, I enjoy Date Girl, as I enjoy— even if I dis- agree with — just about any other writer who is willing to speak his or her mind and is not willing to pander to the myriad offensensitiv- ities of every layabout who has nothing better to do than complain. (If they want pablum, let them read the R-G.) We need to realize just how dishwater-dull life would be if every- thing in it were tailored just for our individual limited palates, and be grateful that it does in- deed take all kinds to make a world. Michael E. Stamm Eugene WHAT A DRAG The Playboyz wish to send out an apology to those of you who came out to Sam’s Place see our Drag King Show on Saturday, May 7 merely to find that we were not performing after all. Due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding Sam’s Place involving incidents
