TO THE EDITOR
when they are sick. We tuck them in at
night and dream about them when we go to
bed. We rejoice when they find a “forever
home” even when saying goodbye is bitter-
sweet. We share our lives with them. They
are our lives. To imply that we would sit by
and watch as they were mistreated is
unthinkable. We are bound by the trust
these animals place in us. I would not vio-
late that trust for anything. No one at
Greenhill would.
I hold on to that knowledge even as I am
an active, willing participant in the decision
to euthanize some of these animals. As a
Certified Euthanasia Technician, I am also
called upon to perform euthanasia. I do this
with full confidence that it is the right deci-
sion. I have never euthanized an animal arbi-
trarily, nor has anyone else at Greenhill. We
are all in communication constantly about
the health and happiness of our dogs — it is
not unusual for the entire staff to meet to dis-
cuss an animal. We are a team. We are a fam-
ily. We work side by side to care for the ani-
mals that we have a calling to help.
Kelly Orleman
Kennel Lead
Greenhill Humane Society
HALF A TRILLION
It’s a hot day, but the facts are cold — the
Iraq casualty and cost facts. This fifth sum-
mer of our first major pre-emptive war, the
talk is of “bipartisan coalescence” around the
Baker report’s recommendations. You
remember the Baker report, don’t you? It
arrived DOA this January, cut down by
Bush’s surge. Now it’s being resurrected,
with a timeline to begin drawing down the
troops in a year or so, next July or September.
Well, while we were looking away the com-
bat deathrate has surpassed 100 a month.
These are the facts — the first thousand
U.S. war dead took 18 months, the second
14, the third a little more than 12. The four-
thousandth U.S. troop death is set to occur
11 months since the Baker report/Bush
surge, just in time for Thanksgiving or
Christmas. To get the Iraqi war dead num-
bers, simply multiply by 100. According to
this “end-the-war” plan (with a good
chance of passing Congress) by the time
our role shifts and troops begin drawing
down, somewhere between 4,700 and 4,800
American lives will have been squandered
in a criminal war, the cost of which has sur-
passed one half of one trillion dollars. Ain’t
democracy grand.
Paul Prensky
Eugene
TAX WASTE HAULERS
I am writing in regards to Mr. Pittman’s
article “Road Taxes” in the 7/5 issue. As a
member of the public that attended most of
the city council’s subcommittee on trans-
portation, I would like to shed some light
on the discussion.
First I would like to thank the coun-
cilors and staff who worked very hard to
find some solutions to the growing backlog
of street repairs in the city. The whole trans-
portation system was taken into account,
i.e. cars, trucks, bikes and pedestrians.
With regards to the heavy trucks that
Mr. Pittman was talking about, whereas Mr.
Lidz said it would be possible [to estimate
their impact], there were also many draw-
backs to this, and the majority of the com-
mittee felt that they were enough to take it
Oregon Festival of American Music 2007
off the table.
The trucks that we are talking about are
taxed through the weight mile tax through
the state, and the city gets approximately $2
million a year that is already being used for
road repairs. There was one recommenda-
tion from the subcommittee that the whole
council chose not to forward for more
research, a fee for waste haulers in the city.
On a 4-4 tie with the mayor voting no, they
cut a proposal that would have added a
small fee to everyone’s — residential and
commercial — garbage bill.
The true cost of picking up our garbage
has to also include the cost to the trans-
portation system and the damage that it
causes. In one of the waste haulers’ own
publications, they boast that their trucks are
on the roads 16 hours a day seven days a
week. They are also on the type of roads
that are not designed or built to handle the
type of weight that they carry.
It was estimated that a 50 cent fee on
home pick up and a larger one for larger
containers that commercial and business
use could generate $1 million each year. It
is my hope that we will do what we need to
do to make Eugene the best city it can be.
John Barofsky
Eugene
Rodgers & Hart’s 1937
BIG WATER BOMBS
Regarding the current massive wildfires
in at least nine states, I’m outraged at the
U.S. Forest Service refusing to use the
supertanker water bombing aircraft like the
DC-10 supertanker in Victorville, Calif.
(the only online 12,000 gallon supertanker
firefighting aircraft in our country); [search
for] DC-10 supertanker (on Internet). The
DC-10 unfortunately is down for mainte-
nance but should be back shortly.
I saw an interesting media report that is
a solution while the DC-10 supertanker is
being repaired. The Russians at water-
bomber.com or 1-804-240-4065 have a
fleet of six supertanker aircraft like the DC-
10 that have been successfully fighting fires
around the world for over 12 years and have
always offered to come in and stop our fires
on a cost-only basis. However they have
always been unjustly refused by our U.S.
Forest Service mismanaging our forests as
shown at www.JBS.org (search: wildfire).
As they can respond immediately and stop
massive fires that would otherwise burn for
weeks or months, it seems prudent to call
them in at this time to save homes and lives.
Meanwhile we should get the Evergreen
Aviation Boeing 747 supertanker, in
Oregon (24,000 gallon capacity), ready for
service as a back up tanker ([search for]
evergreen supertanker on Internet). We
need this quick action now as hundreds of
homes have been burned and lives
destroyed with obviously more to follow!
Only public outcry will force these super-
tankers to be used. Contact every public
official and demand these aircraft stop these
fires now and build more supertankers!
Larry Swanberg
Victorville, Calif.
GOD IS DEAD
Modern genetic engineering and DNA
research confirm what Darwin wrote years
ago. From a scientific perspective, based
upon DNA studies and fossil remains, sci-
entists can put together how different
species developed and evolved. Humans
August 4, 9 & 11
Hult Center
Tickets: 682-5000
Tickets are also available at
The Shedd: 434-7000
Oregon Festival of American Music 2007
South Pacifi c
August 3, 5, 8 & 10
Hult Center - Tickets: 541-682-5000
JULY 19, 2007 5