Eugene weekly., September 13, 2007, Page 6, Image 6

TO THE EDITOR
or holistic focus thereby congregate. This, to
Willard, is “segregation.”
Well, it’s not segregation, of course. The
word evokes a minority suffering at the hands
of a majority, and the regular schoolers are a
substantial majority. When a majority suffers
at the hands of a minority, that’s called “elit-
ism.” But is it elitism here?
Go find parents who prefers their neigh-
borhood school and ask them about it. They
care about grades, of course, but not more
than their child being able to walk to school.
They appreciate teaching a world conscious-
ness but not at the expense of a local con-
sciousness. College is cool, but it’s not the
end of the world if their kid doesn’t go.
They’re confident that their children will
grow up happy, healthy and at least as suc-
cessful as they are. And they’re right.
Will they end up working for the kids at-
tending alternative schools? Probably. Does
this mean that they’ll be less proud, have
more divorces or die sooner? You know it
6 SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
doesn’t.
This is neither segrega-
tion nor elitism. This is
choice.
When I told some
friends out of state recently that
there are people in Eugene
whose solution to some schools
getting higher grades is to do
away with those schools, they
laughed.
Maybe it wasn’t courage
that prompted you to print Nancy’s editorial,
but your sense of humor?
Steve Downey
Eugene
HIGH-OCTANE KOOL-AID
A C-130 military transport plane leaving
Baghdad airport Aug. 30, carrying Sens.
Martinez, Shelby and Inhofe and
Congressman Cramer, had to take evasive
maneuvers to avoid being shot down from
terrorist missiles and rocket fire.
Sen. James M. Inhofe says ter-
rorists’attempt to shoot down the C-
130 military transport plane car-
rying him and other lawmakers
demonstrated the progress of
the U.S. military campaign.
If Sen. Inhofe thinks this
is progress, they must be serving
some pretty high octane pro-surge
Kool-Aid over there.
Michael T. Hinojosa
Drain
A DECENT ALTERNATIVE
In response to William Porter’s letter
(“Biodiesel Kills,” 8/30), I believe the writer
to be somewhat misinformed. It sounds to me
like he might be getting bioethanol and
biodiesel confused as bioethanol is derived
primarily from corn, while biodiesel is de-
rived from vegetable oil. While it’s true some
ethanol or methanol is used during the con-
version process to turn vegetable oil into
biodiesel, the main component of biodiesel is
vegetable oil. The oil can be derived from
many sources, including used cooking oil,
but from what I understand the largest source
of oil for biodiesel is soy beans. According to
www.biodiesel.org biodiesel emissions com-
pared with conventional diesel have 67 per-
cent less unburned hydrocarbons, 48 percent
less carbon monoxide, 47 percent less partic-
ulate matter, 100 percent less sulfates and just
slightly higher NOx’s (10 percent).
I’d recommend Porter get his facts
straight before insisting on the ignorance of
others. To compare a VW TDI beetle that
probably gets 45 mpg running on biodiesel to
a Hummer running conventional gas and get-
ting, what, 10 mpg, is, needless to say, ridicu-
lous.
On a further note, biodiesel can be grown
and produced right here in Oregon.
I know people who make it in their garage
from grease collected at local restaurants that