HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERRY SALE!
TO THE EDITOR
of community. Which made it all the harsher
returning to my everyday existence and the
real life bum trip that is global deforestation,
mass species extinction, scarcity of clean
drinking water and the climate crisis.
My initial reaction was to push all that
heavy stuff under the rug and wait for next
year’s fair, where I can — at least for a little
while — live in a world that truly reflects the
hopes, dreams and potential of humanity. But
meanwhile, 362 days’ worth of reality get in
the way.
I have decided that instead of just three
days of living in a world of my choosing at
the fair, I intend to continue to actively work
to make genuine and lasting change in my
daily life and in my community.
I beseech all of you fellow fairgoers to
take the lessons from the fair and apply them
to the communities in which we all live. One
of the most important things we can do is to
advocate for the preservation of the planet
that sustains our very being and fills us with
such a great impulse for revelry and delight.
That way, we will be able to grant years of
bliss and cause for celebration to future gen-
erations to come.
Michelle D’Amico
Eugene
KITTY RED TAPE
I wasn’t thinking about getting another
cat, so I want to congratulate PetsMart for
opening their cattery to LCARA, where quite
by accident on Sunday, I ran into a kitten that
said, “Take me home.” Now, I feel compelled
to say, “Shame on LCARA,” for making it so
difficult to adopt a cat. Since LCARA eutha-
nizes up to 75 percent of its cats, one would
think they would be delighted when a respon-
sible pet owner chooses to adopt one of their
animals. Instead I was blindsided by The
Rules and by hostility.
After I completed the LCARA paper-
work, I was told I couldn’t adopt the cat until
my dog’s registration was “verified.” Nor
could the kitten I wanted to adopt be held for
me pending my “approval” by LCARA — if
someone showed up who was not a dog
owner, they could have the kitten on the spot.
There were other rules that I found equally
surprising but would have complied with to
have the kitten.
Had this little kitten not called to me, I
would have given up on the spot.
Why make it so difficult and be so nasty to
potential pet owners? It is just counterintu-
itive. I did not go through this third-degree
grilling when I adopted from the Humane
Society. This is bureaucracy run amok. Sad …
Mindy Mitchell
Eugene
MARINE BRAINWASHING
I am responding to Cpl. Grant E. Monge’s
“Bloody Hell” viewpoint (7/5) and his
“Flabbergasted” letter (7/12). We Americans
come with a great variety of viewpoints, oc-
cupations and beliefs, so it is predictable that
we also have conflicted responses to war and
peace and other dichotomies.
“Bloody Hell” is informative and heart-
wrenching and humane and realistic about
the slaughterhouse created by the Bushies’ il-
legal war (which Monge can’t recognize as il-
legal).
“Flabbergasted,” on the other hand, re-
veals the deep brainwashing Cheney’s
Marine Corps uses to paint a false picture of
the Iraq war so that Marines will continue to
fight, die and be injured even if the war is
going badly and is doomed to failure because
of the greedy motives of its Cheneyized crim-
inalities.
There may be some American wars that
are necessary and legal, but it is clear from
the army of whistleblowers that the Iraq war
doesn’t comply with international norms be-
cause of the lies used to justify it and the mas-
sive bombing of innocent civilians used to
“win” it. An illegal invasion and occupation
coupled with an out-of-control massive
bombing campaign has created such hatred in
the hearts of most Iraqis that it has doomed
the whole war to being an American failure.
Monge says that he loves his country, God
and Corps. He can love them all he wants, but
that in no way justifies the current war which is
marred by American war crimes from begin-
ning to the now soonish end. I do not hate
Marines. I do hate the prime criminal here,
Cheney, for it is quite all right to hate mass
murderers. I agree with Monge in his love of
freedom of speech, and my prime fear is that
Cheney will take that freedom away. It is
Cheney who should be taken away in shackles.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
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TEDDY AND ME
In the spirit of Michael Moore’s premiere
effort (Roger and Me), I chose this heading
for this letter. A generation ago, millions of
Americans were horrified by stories of eld-
erly, impoverished Americans eating dog
food. These unfortunate people had discov-
ered that dog food (I believe Alpo was the
dog-people food of choice), when spread on
toast or mixed with rice, did indeed fill the
human belly. Now, a generation later, I am re-
porting that many of us, as I’m sure I am not
alone, have discovered that medicines, phar-
maceuticals, etc. prescribed to animals work
just fine, thank you, on people. Oh, the names
might be a little different, and they sure are
cheaper, but they are in many cases the same
and do work, or we hope they do!
This is what it has come too in the richest
country the world has ever seen. Teddy, by
the way, is my golden retriever. Teddy has,
over the years, received excellent medical
care. As evidence of this, he is now in his 16th
High Country Expeditions
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888-461-7238 • 541-822- 8288
JULY 26, 2007 7