TO THE EDITOR
ILLOGICAL SITE
FAMILIAR SCENE
McKenzie-Willamette/Triad hospital
has made a bad choice in the highly con-
gested, floodplain/wetland Delta site.
Initially, McKenzie-Willamette
came to town and made a dirt
cheap offer to buy the prime
riverfront property of EWEB,
which was not for sale. Besides
its difficult isolated location,
and being in a floodplain, it
would have cost EWEB utility
ratepayers millions of dollars.
M-W later demanded the
city produce a core downtown
location within 30 days. M-W is tarnishing
its own reputation by these hostile ap-
proaches, and it feels like they owe the city
of Eugene an apology. Early arguments for
choosing the EWEB site were that they
needed to be near where doctors are already
located.
What then, is the logic, in the Delta site?
If you build it near a remote golf course,
they will come?
Memo
to
McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital: Please listen to the common sense
input and majority opinion of Eugene resi-
dents and government: We need a hospital
in a more centrally located area ( beyond the
unavailable downtown core) that is not in a
floodplain, on land that is currently avail-
able, to the west of the Willamette River.
Please include ample parking, which was a
serious ongoing problem for Sacred Heart
hospital.
Of course M-W can ignore public input,
but the public can ignore their ill-chosen site
— and drive right on by to Sacred Heart’s
new RiverBend location. McKenzie-
Willamette, you can do better than the re-
mote Delta flood plain site. Please! A green
pastoral (flood-prone) scenic site is not as
important as being able to actually get to the
hospital in a timely way in an emergency.
Go to the Delta/Beltline area during rush
hour on any given day and tell us (without
laughing) that this is in fact a good idea for a
hospital location.
Fran Gillespie
Eugene
Let’s see, do we call it strong-arm tactics,
blackmail, or is it more like the Mafia trying to
force the city councilors to back down on their
courageous stand against the west
Eugene freeway? I’ve lived in
Mafia-controlled areas of our coun-
try and it looks very similar.
This $200 million freeway
boondoggle that would ruin our
$20 million investment in our na-
tionally recognized West Eugene
Wetlands has been pushed to gain
dollars for a small number of devel-
opers. It would not solve any traf-
fic problem in west Eugene, but it would add
up to a lot of cement and new housing on
poor soil.
After recent published accounts of the
wetland otters, and we already know about
the beavers and foxes, how could we want
to do away with their habitat? This is in ad-
dition to endangered species of plant life
and butterflies found only in this wetland.
Also, how can we talk of doing away
with the flood protection for Eugene pro-
vided by the absorption power of our wet-
lands? Didn’t we see what happened to New
Orleans? Don’t we understand that our wet-
lands are unique and important for a multi-
tude of reasons?
Thank you, Kitty Piercy, Bonny
Bettman, David Kelly, Betty Taylor and
Andrea Ortiz.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
NO POLICE RESOURCES
At what point do the Eugene police have
the resources to pursue a crime? We had two
bicycles stolen from our garage Nov. 8, one
worth $800, the other worth $600. Although
the police responded in person, I was told
they don’t dust for prints in bicycle theft
cases, and don’t have the resources to pur-
sue the thieves.
Last night, Nov. 16, our car was ran-
sacked. Some items were stolen, everything
else was tossed throughout the car. When I
called to report the incident, I was told the
police don’t have the resources to dust for
prints in car vandalism cases. No one would
be sent out, but someone would call back in
24 to 48 hours.
This evening I received a phone call
from a neighbor who also had her car ran-
sacked. The thief not only ransacked her car,
but bled all over its interior. I saw the blood
spattered over the car door and pooled onto
the contents of the car. When she called the
police, she too was told they would not
come out, would not take fingerprints, or
test the blood left behind. But they would
call back in 24 to 48 hours.
Thanks to Eugene’s “lack of resources,” the
drug addicts and thieves are having a wonder-
ful time. Law enforcement looks the other way,
and the law-abiding citizen is left to replace
their stolen cars, electronics, bicycles, kayaks,
fishing equipment, etc. Oh yes, and to wipe
down the blood left behind in their vehicles.
Colette Jonopulos
Eugene
METH DISASTER
To reply to Chris Pender’s letter (11/12):
We do not have an epidemic of metham-
phetamine. What we have is incredibly
wide-ranging, long-lasting devastation
caused by people who sell meth and the
people who use meth. I am a lawyer in the
Juvenile Court and meth families are pretty
much all we see these days. Meth and sex
abuse, meth and domestic violence, meth
and burglary, and so forth.
For babies born addicted to meth, of
whom there are hundreds and hundreds in
this county alone, it is not uncommon to be
unable to bear the touch of another person,
noise, even parental love songs to the child.
Their nervous systems are scrambled. Many
of my older meth children do not seem to
put together cause and effect, which often
continues them in delinquent or criminal be-
havior. On my caseload, most of the meth-
using adults cannot ever completely escape
BY J.K. LARKIN
The Explosion Index
Give us our daily BM.
N
owadays, newspapers are cluttered with too much information about things
blowing up. To make room for topics I like, such as Lance Sparks’ wine column
or Sally Sheklow on lesbian culture, I suggest the development of the explosion
index, or simply BOOM Index (BM Index). I must admit however I prefer pinot noir and
sushi to business.
Business news junkies can’t handle the minute-to-minute developments of the hun-
dreds of companies in the NASDAQ, nor even the 30 companies of the DJIA. How can
the rest of us keep all the things exploding straight in our heads? We can’t, that’s why
we need the daily BM Index.
I spend too much time trying to figure out if the 45 people that got blown apart in
Iraq yesterday are the same ones that are being talked about today. With the time differ-
ence I could keep it straight initially, but daylight savings time threw me off.
With a running BM Index, there could be a total number of explosions and the daily
change. Of course, the overall BM Index would only increase in number. It could not go
down, but the decrease in the increase of BM would be noted daily.
Cars exploding in France with no deaths would rate a lower number (unless they are
BMWs). Truly devastating and senseless killings at a wedding party in Jordan would be
weighted higher than the number killed, as innocents were murdered. The suicide
bombers themselves need to be counted, but in some fraction way to the right of the
4 DECEMBER 1, 2005
decimal point. Trains blowing up in Spain and the Tube
exploding in London rate higher than a Hummer with a
Guardsman, but the number of soldiers dead and muti-
lated make the BM Index go through the roof.
Let me give you an example. Start counting about
Thanksgiving Day. There is no NASDAQ reported that
day, so it would be a natural day to start. The BM Index
today is 104.7-14/1.703-3. This means of 104 explosions
there were seven deaths and 14 maimed. One terrorist in Iraq
exploded, 703 Fiats burned in Paris and three mopeds died in
Belgium. The next day more numbers are added, so by next year the number is like a zil-
lion, give or take some punctuation.
Still, it would save space and time to report the explosions using the BM Index. It
could be removed from the news entirely and reported under the Powerball numbers on
all those billboards along the interstate. More importantly, with time, fewer things would
explode. People who blow up things probably read about other things blowing up, and
with their active fantasy lives have nocturnal explosions. How many virgins exist in para-
dise for these guys anyway? I bet if they were examined closely these thousands of ex-
plosive freaks are sharing the same 70 women. They’d be better off, in my opinion, con-
centrating on getting laid once on this planet before deciding to explode at a wedding
party in Jordan.
J.K. Larkin is a Eugene physician who specializes in geriatrics and Alzheimer’s disease.