Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2009)
slant NEWS BRIEFS Supriano, who interviewed and political and economical Pilgrim for her web-based issue to a practical life issue for radio series at www.suesu- people,” which he attributes to priano.com changing economic and politi- cal climates. “Agnes is an ambassador Looking ahead, Botti says, for our Mother Earth. She is “We are adding more shorter a spiritual elder of the term programs for developing Confederated Tribes of skills further,” enabling those Siletz and granddaughter of who may not have the time to Chief George Harney, the Grandma Aggie commit to longer courses to still first elected chief of the learn about permaculture and sus- Confederated Tribes of Siletz,” tainable living. “There is a place for people says Supriano. “She is a world-renowned to come and learn.” — Sam Marx spiritual leader, elder mentor to the Native American Student Union of Southern Oregon University, and keeper of the Sacred Salmon Ceremony.” Pilgrim is also chair of the International Council of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, and she is expected to make an announce- • Author and NPR foreign correspondent ment at the Sunday event regarding an Reese Erlich will be speaking about Cuba upcoming visit to Oregon this summer by and the Middle East beginning at 1 pm the global organization. Thursday, April 23, at LCC Building 17, “We grandmothers are speaking out, Room 309. That evening at 7 he speaks at singing out, praying out to enact and teach Harris Hall, 8th and Oak. He speaks in right relationship with our sacred and pre- Corvallis at noon Friday in OSU’s Waldo cious river water,” she says on her website, Hall, Room 201. He’s back at the UO at www.agnesbakerpilgrim.org — Ted Taylor 2:30 pm Saturday, April 25, in the EMU River Room at the Environmental Justice Conference. That evening at 7 he will be at the Siuslaw Public Library. At noon Sunday, April 26, he will be at the Newport Public Library. For more information, email dzu- pan@msn.com This year marks the 20-year anniversary • The 14th annual Coalition Against for Lost Valley Education Center, a Dexter Environmental Racism’s Environmental community dedicated to teaching permacul- Justice Conference begins at 9:30 am ture and living in a sustainable environment. Saturday, April 25 at the UO EMU River “Lost Valley has been teaching people about Room. See www.uoregon.edu/~caer for the sustainable living basically since the begin- schedule. Speakers, panelists and perform- ning of its time,” says James Cunningham, ers include Ben Duncan, Louise Benally, the volunteer development coordinator. members of Huerto de la Familia, Reese “The first permaculture course in Oregon Erlich and Ariel Luckey. Evening keynoter was held in Lost Valley in 1990,” he says. at 7 is Dr. Benjamin Chavis Muhammed. Since then, Lost Valley has seen nearly The event continues with Sunday morning 2,500 people participate in the residential volunteering at a local community garden. programs that tackle both ethical and practi- cal issues regarding permaculture and sus- • Sen. Floyd Prozanski and Rep. tainability. “There is that need as we move Bruce Hanna will host a town hall at the forward to bring our relationships back to a Cottage Grove City Hall at 1:30 pm Saturday, human-based level,” says Cunningham. April 25. They will be joined by Rep. Paul Holvey and will be available to answer ques- The anniversary celebration will take tions and will provide updates about the on- place during three event weekends beginning going 2009 legislative session. on May 1, July 31, and Sept. 18. “We wanted to have a number of opportunities for people to come,” Cunningham explained. The week- end in May will be focused on celebrating the past students and interns who worked at the education center, and the July/August Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq weekend will honor people who have lived at began on March 20, 2003 Lost Valley. The final weekend is a birthday (last week’s numbers in parentheses): party and founder’s day. • 4,274 U.S. troops killed* (4,273) Cunningham emphasized that the theme • 31,193 U.S. troops injured* (31,169) of all the anniversary celebrations will be, “Come back, enjoy, and if you haven’t been • 177 U.S. military suicides* (176) there, come out, enjoy.” He says Lost Valley • 1,123 U.S. contractors killed is planning both education and fun, with an (accurate updates NA) emphasis on tying community to the land. • 99,861 to 1.2 million civilians killed*** “Lane County is really one of the hot beds (99,774) of sustainability education,” says John Botti, • $661.7 billion cost of war the executive director of Lost Valley. “We’re ($613.1 billion) going to need practical ways of coping with • $188.2 million cost to Eugene changes and continuing to maintain some taxpayers ($174.4 million) sort of quality of life during the hard times.” Lost Valley, its proponents say, is a viable * through April 20, 2009; source: icasualties.org; some figures only updated monthly model for sustainable living education. ** sources: icasualties.org, defenselink.mil *** highest estimate; source: iraqbodycount.org; based on Cunningham calls the center’s educa- confirmed media reports; other groups calculate civilian deaths tional programs personal and hands-on. as high as 655,000 (Lancet survey, 2006) to 1.1 million (Opinion Research Business survey, 2008) Over time, “It has moved from a theoretical ACTIVIST ALERT TWENTY YEARS AT LOST VALLEY WAR DEAD WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • The trial of Taser victim Ian Van Ornum is over, except of course for the sentencing Friday, a likely civil suit against the city and Eugene Police Department, and the now unfettered investigation by EPD Internal Affairs, the police auditor and Civilian Review Board. The Register-Guard’s report April 18 about jury members being shocked and disturbed by police behav- ior does not bode well for the police in the next couple of rounds. Taxpayers will also hold the police and district attorney accountable. Remember all the cries that the DA and cops couldn’t keep dangerous fel- ons off the street without massive tax increase? Well, they just spent count- less hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars prosecuting a mouthy jaywalker. We’re still amazed that the EPD and district attorney even allowed this case to go to trial. The charges should have been dropped. Were they so clueless as to not know what the public would get to see in the video recordings and hear in the damaging testimony? Once again we are remind- ed of how out of touch some of our police officers are with the people they are paid to protect and serve. This has been a wrenching experience (in more ways than one) for Van Ornum, but his courage and willingness to go to court have served the public interest. • Also serving the public interest was KVAL-TV’s work to get a video cam- era in the courtroom as a “pool” for all the local media to use. News anchor and reporter Denae D’Arcy did her research and discovered that Oregon law allows cameras in courtrooms unless judges “set forth substantial reasons for the denial.” Even when backed by state law and an Oregon Supreme Court decision favoring cameras in the courtroom, D’Arcy and the KVAL newsroom still endured a long, dragged-out struggle. ”In my experience of fighting this, they don’t want us there,” she told a gathering of media people during the trial. “I don’t think our battle is against each other. It’s against the courts.” The media meeting at KVAL April 16 was an attempt to hash out prob- lems EW and other media had in getting video from KVAL in a timely man- ner. Judge Jack Billings had agreed to the video camera access April 6 with a number of provisions, including “KVAL is expected to make the video available to any media which requests it.” Sounds simple enough, but it soon got complicated, and even the court staff got involved, finally asking the squabbling media to work it out among themselves. More meetings are planned to avoid technical and policy problems with future pool coverage. • Moving the police out of downtown to a suburban office building across from the Country Club in north Eugene is a very bad idea. The radical departure from previous city planning will defy the will of the voters who have thumbed down the police station three times and continue to oppose it in recent polls. It will blow at least $16 million of city reserves at a time the city is raising taxes and slashing services to deal with huge deficits in a recession bordering on depression. It will isolate police desperately in need of closer supervision and contact to reduce their us-vs.-them mentality. It will hurt the struggling downtown by moving employees and visitors to an inconvenient location across the river while reducing the police presence in the heart of the city. • Springfield is blowing millions of dollars of taxpayer money on a huge jail it can’t afford to run. We’ve seen this before: A decade ago, the county built a huge new kid jail across from Autzen but only has enough money to operate part of it. Meanwhile, struggling taxpayers are left holding the bag on the millions of dollars in bond payments, plus interest. The tough-on- crime crowd is big on bluster but small on the taxes to pay for it. Rather than locking up taxes, a better cheaper approach is youth programs and mental, drug and alcohol treatment. • Oregon now has the sec- ond highest unemployment rate in the nation. Why? Oregon has showered some of the largest tax breaks in the nation on big corpora- tions for more than a decade. This policy is a dem- onstrated failure. Our unem- ployment rate now couldn’t be much higher. Politicians who were quick to claim credit for corporate reloca- tions that would have hap- pened anyway should now step forward and take responsibility for the wasted taxpayer subsidies and job losses. EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 23, 2009 9
