Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2005)
TO THE EDITOR HIGH COUNRTY EXPEDITIONS Northwest Whitewater Trips and bought out Bread & Circus, our local nat- ural foods grocery. Bread & Circus always bought from local growers as much as possible. Whole Foods claimed they would continue that practice. Bread & Circus supported local community fund-raising. Again Whole Foods announced they would be similarly active locally. Many years have passed and our great local store has morphed into an incredibly over-priced, designer, yuppie, supposedly natural food emporium. This year the store was doubled in size, the majority of it de- voted to wine, cheese, chocolate and fancy coffees. Items in bulk seeds and grains were reduced, the bulk herb section practically eliminated and shoved into an awkward cor- ner. The dairy product area discontinued using all local suppliers for eggs, milk and butter. Throughout the store local cottage industry products were replaced with more expensive items shipped in from out of state. Instead there is now an elaborate makeup area in cosmetics and stacks of conventional magazines at the registers. Much of the fresh food deli items are now prepared offsite along with many of the baked goods. As for involvement in community fund- raising, Whole Foods is notorious among local school fund-raisers as being the only large grocery that has not participated in any programs over the past 10 years. Make no mistake, Whole Foods is big business, devoted to profits and governed from Texas — no matter what the public rela- tions people say. Kristine Sinicrope Amherst, Mass. THE BLACK VOID • Upper Mckenzie River - class 1-3 • Upper Klammath River - class 1-4 • Cal Salmon River - class 1-5 • Rogue River - class 1-4 • Trips daily • 1/2 to 3 day excursions • Student and group discounts • Locally owned and operated • Come see us at Belknap Hotsprings $ 5.00 off on all Mckenzie River Trips T rips Fun, exciting upper river adventures Excluding Holidays & Saturdays When the new library was opened in Eugene, I was very pleased to discover that it has a fairly large collection of movies, includ- ing even new releases which usually cost more than a few dollars to rent at places like Blockbuster. But then, what an unpleasant surprise it was to realize that I probably won’t be able to watch many of those new DVDs available at our city’s library! Why? Because the library for some strange reason buys most DVDs only in the so-called “widescreen” for- mat, which can be fully appreciated if viewed only on special new TVs. Widescreen TV sets still are quite expen- sive and are perhaps only affordable to a small portion of the library’s patrons. Moreover, I also think that if one has enough money to buy such an expensive TV, then it’s most likely no problem for them to simply buy the DVD itself, or at least rent it at a video rental store. On the other hand, the ma- jority of people who can’t afford to buy widescreen TVs prefer to borrow movies from the library. But this is where the prob- lem comes in. Almost all of the movies that the library has on DVDs are now in that widescreen format and thus are almost im- possible to watch on a regular TV set, be- cause the movie itself takes up only half of the screen, while the rest is just a black void. Why can’t the library buy, say, three copies of the movie in widescreen and one copy in normal full-screen mode? Gabriella Anelauskaite Eugene CHEM WARFARE I am very grateful to Ursula Evans- Heritage for her article, “Silent Summer” (6/16). Yet I must mention that she did not cover one of the main current and relevant is- sues about pesticides in Oregon. Since 2004, Lynn Bowers, founder of Forestland Dwellers No-Spray Group, has mapped more than 51,000 corporate timberland acres in Lane County just between the Coast Range, the Willamette River and south of Eugene that are repeatedly being aerially sprayed with herbicides, including 2,4-D. This chem- ical is one of the components of Agent Orange (a chemical warfare agent developed for use in defoliating the jungle and farms in Vietnam) and it leaves a persistent, known carcinogen dioxin in the environment for- ever. This practice is not limited to Lane County, but is repeated all over Oregon, wherever timber companies first clearcut, then plant Doug fir seedlings. Frequently they must replant the seedlings because the herbicides which are meant to kill competing vegetation can also kill them. Why are chemical warfare agents being used on Oregon forests, which in turn creates deadly health hazards for Oregonians? And why would corporate timber companies use these deadly chemicals unless they are at war with the forests and Oregonians, or are just they beholden to the petrochemical industry? If people would like more information about herbicide use in Oregon, Talking Points to Change Herbicide Use in Oregon is avail- able by calling 342-8332 or e-mailing: amy@informproductions.com. If people would like to know more about the environ- mental causes of cancer, please check out www.preventcancer.com Amy Pincus Merwin InForm Productions and Radio LAND OF THE FREE I agree with everything Charles Dalton said in his “Corrupt Strategy” (7/7) letter. The question is, what do we do now to correct Bush and Cheney’s numerous errors that have caused so much misery? It is immoral, illegal, a war crime and an impeachable of- *Not to be combined with other discounts, must be mentioned at time of booking WHO YOU GONNA BLAME? 10% off on Upper Klamath Rafting Oregon’s best whitewater experience!! Warm water, fun, long, thrilling rapids... EDITORIAL Editor Ted Taylor Associate Editor Melissa Bearns Executive/Arts Editor Lois Wadsworth Contributing Editor Anita Johnson Staff Writers Alan Pittman, Kera Abraham Calendar Editor Molly Templeton Contributing Writers Brett Campbell, Rachael Carnes, Rachel Foster, Kate Rogers Gessert, James Johnston, Sharleen Nelson, Mary O’Brien, Sylvie Pederson, Vanessa Salvia, Steven Sawada, Sally Sheklow, Lance Sparks, Martha Ulman West Interns Sara Brickner, David Constantin, Emily Freeman, Ursula Evans-Heritage ART DEPARTMENT *Not to be combined with other discounts, must be mentioned at time of booking Art Director/Production Manager Kevin Dougherty Graphic Artist/Webmaster James Bateman Graphic Artists Todd Cooper, Sandra Rossetter Contributing Photographers Kurt Jensen, Paul Neevel ADVERTISING www.highcountryexpeditions.com 888.461.7238 • 541.822.8288 “Let us guide you through your next outdoor adventure” 8 JULY 28, 2005 National Sales Manager Mark Frisbee Display Marketing Consultant Jennifer D’Angelo, Rob Weiss Advertising Traffic Coordinator Geneva Miller Classified Manager Jeffrey Stout Classified Marketing Consultant Danica Zapata BUSINESS Director of Sales and Marketing Bill Shreve Circulation Manager Garet Frana Controller Paula Hoemann Distributors Bob Becker, Alex Bibicoff, Roc Dosland, Kevin Greene, Tim Risch, Ethan Simpson, Pedalers Express Printing Signature Graphics HOW TO REACH US BY E-MAIL: (letters): editor@eugeneweekly.com (advertising): ads@eugeneweekly.com (classifieds): classy@eugeneweekly.com (personals): personals@eugeneweekly.com (calendar): cal@eugeneweekly.com (music/clubs/special shows): music@eugeneweekly.com (art/openings/galleries): visualarts@eugeneweekly.com (performance/theater): performance@eugeneweekly.com (literary arts/readings): books@eugeneweekly.com (movies/film screenings): movies@eugeneweekly.com (circulation): distribution@eugeneweekly.com Eugene Weekly • 1251 Lincoln Street • Eugene, OR 97401 • 541.484.0519 • fax 541-484-4044
