NEWS BRIEFS
CITIZENS TO
REPORT ON
STATE OF CITY
The Eugene Mayor’s State of the City
address was held this week (1/7). But it’s
followed by the Citizens State of the City
and County (CSCC) report at noon Monday,
Jan. 12, at Harris Hall, 8th and Oak. Local
activists will talk about “the critical issues
of our time,” says environmental educator
and activist Jan Spencer.
Spencer says the annual CSCC is an
effort to “draw attention to the critical fail-
ures by the media, governments, business,
educational institutions and nongovernmen-
tal organizations to address the fundamental
causes of the ecological, energy and eco-
nomic crises.”
Key issues will include regional food
security, transportation, land use and restor-
ative forestry. Detailed information on the
CSCC will be posted after Jan. 12 at www.
sustaineugene.org
Aleta Miller will discuss how the city
and county can cooperate to strengthen food
security through relocalizing food produc-
tion and developing infrastructure for pro-
cessing, storage and distribution. The CSCC
report includes a proposal to
use the Lane County
Fairgrounds as a hub for a
new initiative to help make
our region’s food supply
more self sufficient.
Blogger and activist
Mark Robinowitz will talk
about why federal, state,
county and city govern-
ments want massive increas-
es in highway funding to
stimulate the economy,
despite peak oil and peak
traffic. He says our priori-
ties should shift to road and bridge
repair, upgrading regional rail service and
preventing planned cuts in LTD bus ser-
vice.
Robert Emmons, president of LandWatch
Lane County, will describe the consequenc-
es of weak regulation, lack of enforcement
and the state’s “Big Look” land use task
force for city and county planning efforts
Samantha Chirillo of Cascadia’s
Ecosystem Advocates will highlight how
clearcutting, large-scale native public forest
thinning and forest biomass extraction for
electricity and liquid fuel would destabilize
our climate and economy.
Spencer will present a “letter from the
future” that describes a 2025 scenario great-
ly benefited by timely region-wide policy
changes in 2010.
PEOPLE’S
AGENDA FOR
REAL CHANGE
The 2008 elections energized and mobi-
lized millions of Americans to political
action, but will most people now just sit
back and wait for the Obama White House
to “fix” our nation’s problems? Activists in
slant
Lane County have a better idea.
Community Alliance of Lane County
(CALC) is hosting a series of public forums
“to help build popular momentum behind
the progressive goals of President-elect
Obama’s campaign,” according to Dan
Goldrich of CALC’s Progressive Responses
program.
“Now that the election is over, it will
take continued outreach, organizing and
popular involvement — including pressure
on Congress — to enact the progressive
changes that brought Americans to
the polls to elect Barack Obama,” says
Goldrich.
The first forum will be at 7 pm Thursday,
Jan. 15, at Harris Hall, 8th and Oak in
Eugene. The topic is “Afghanistan/Pakistan/
India: Time for a New U.S. Peace Strategy.”
Speakers will be Goldrich and Stan Taylor.
LCC instructor Nadia Raza will be the mod-
erator.
Following programs will be on global-
ization and immigration Jan. 24, “Removing
the Nuclear Option” Feb. 4, and Guantanamo
and torture Feb. 18. The series is expected
to continue in March with presentations on
climate change and other major issues.
See more details in next week’s EW or
check the calendar at www.calclane.org
WILL THE
OBAMA
ADMIN KILL
FEWER
ANIMALS?
Barack Obama isn’t in office yet, but the
enviros are already lobbying his cabinet
choices in an effort to undo some of the
effects the Bush administration has had on
lands and wildlife. On Jan. 2, a coalition of
115 groups, ranging from humane societies
to environmental groups, faxed a letter to
the President-elect’s appointee to be the
secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack asking
that he put an end to the government
slaughter of wild animals.
The secretary of agriculture heads the
USDA, which develops and executes policy
for farms, ranches and stockyards as well as
some public lands. The USDA oversees a
little known agency called Wildlife Services,
also known as Wildlife Damage
Management. According to the letter,
Wildlife Services kills millions of animals a
year “primarily on behalf of agribusiness.”
Josh Laughlin of Eugene-based Cascadia
Wildlands Project, one of the signatories of
the letter, says, “It is long overdue that we
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• Letters to Obama are coming in for next week’s issue,
but there’s still room for more. Send to letters@eugene-
weekly.com by 5 pm Friday, Jan. 9. What would you like to
see, generally and/or specifically,
from the Obama administration in
the next few years? We will be bun-
dling up copies of next week’s issue
and mailing them to the White House
just in time for the inauguration Jan.
20.
• On a related note, we’re pleased to see a
growing interest by local people in working
with and supporting the Obama transition
team and administration. What a change from an
eight-year focus on fighting the Bush administra-
tion! The Obama administration also needs to be
held accountable, and one way to do that is for us
as individuals to become educated on the issues
and organize grassroots efforts for positive change.
A good example is the upcoming public forums planned by Progressive
Responses, a program of Community Alliance of Lane County. The first
forum is Jan. 15. See “People’s Agenda” in News Briefs for details.
• The Archimedes Movement is meeting in Salem this week as we go to
press, and on the agenda is trying to figure out how to get all the various
groups and factions to find common ground in solving our health care cri-
sis. Former Gov. John Kitzhaber is providing leadership in this effort, and
it’s a monumental task. Obama has a plan for universal health insurance,
Hillary Clinton has a plan, Sen. Ron Wyden has a plan, different state gov-
ernors have different plans — just about everybody and her dog, and her
dog’s vet, have a plan.
One key to creating cheap and equitable health care for the 21st century
is reining in the uber-powerful health insurance industry, but it’s a tricky
business. Even the federal government’s Medicare program is administered
in part by private insurance companies. Wyden wants to keep private insur-
ance and just regulate the hell out of it. Kitzhaber is thinking Oregonians
should have the Oregon Health Plan as an option to private insurance.
Many physicians’ groups and individuals are calling for a single-payer plan,
with private insurance still available for those who can afford it, or as a
supplemental plan.
The biggest problem with private health insurance is that it doesn’t just
skim off the top; it takes a ravenous bite. Ross Perot calculates that about
35 percent of health care expense goes to private insurance companies.
That’s higher than some other analyses, but all the estimates overshadow
by at least 20 points the single-digit overhead of Medicare, Medicaid and
the Oregon Health Plan. Our nation is spending about $2.3 trillion a year
on health care, and it’s getting worse. Can we really afford to continue the
waste, greed, corruption and injustice that pervades our current private
health care system?
The timing for change has never been better: reform-minded leadership
moving into the White House; a more willing and committed Congress; a
public outcry for substantive change; an economic crisis that demands
broad cost-cutting measures; and innovative work on health care reform at
the state and local level, demonstrating what can be done.
To participate in the process, visit www.wecandobetter.org or call the
Archimedes Movement offices at (503) 709-8574.
• Battle of the clinics? The independent upstart Eugene Urgent Care is
working to build up a nice and friendly clinic for walk-in medical care seven
days a week at 13th and Patterson, a response to PeaceHealth closing its
urgent care facilities at 12th and Willamette. PeaceHealth must be worried
about the competition because we’re now seeing big color ads in the R-G
for urgent care at RiverBend, a fine and large facility but inconveniently
located in north Springfield, far from Eugene’s population center. We can’t
help but cheer on the little guys.
• Makes us proud, and so sad, to read the cover review in the Jan. 4 New
York Times Sunday book section. It’s about The Mercy Papers, a memoir
by Robin Romm, who grew up in Eugene, went to South Eugene High
School, and clearly has launched a brilliant writing career with two books
and many short stories. Scribner published this “furious blaze of a book,”
to quote the reviewer who gently recounts Romm’s story of her last three
weeks with her mother, Jackie Romm, who lost her nine-year fight with
cancer at age 56. Jackie was a tough, respected and often feared Eugene
lawyer. This review suggests that her daughter is fiercely building
on Jackie Romm’s strengths, this time in letters rather than law.
-
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard
any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 8, 2009 9