letters
TO THE EDITOR
such as requiring employers to use the
highly effective federal E-Verify program
or requiring proof of residency to receive
non-federally mandated public benefi ts.
The cowardice extends to our two
senators in Washington. Jeff Merkley made
a huge deal of Gordon Smith’s alleged non-
use of E-Verify and then voted twice to kill
the program. Ron Wyden’s voting record
has shown that he is more interested in
protecting illegals than protecting American
workers.
Yeah, I know I’ll be branded a racist,
xenophobe and worse for raising the issue.
But this has nothing to do with race: it’s
about numbers — unsustainable numbers
that are going to overwhelm us if our
“leaders” don’t grow backbones and soon.
Otherwise, that hallowed mantra of the left,
“sustainability,” will never be realized.
Jerry Ritter
Springfi eld
SAVE YOUR VIRGIN EARS
I liked Greg Hume's Aug. 6 “pubic”
letter about the Oregon Country Fair. I don't
go to fairs of any kind because I can't stand
the loud ear-busting "music" and wall-to-
wall people, many doing goofy things.
The best thing about fairs is that they
are so optional — go if you like, stay home
if you don't like, and shit is all in the eyes
and ears and mouths of individual taste. But
viewpoint/opinion
beware, for you will catch deafness in fairs
or at home when the volume is cranked up
too high. Save your virgin ears.
Bob Saxton
Eugene
MINDFUL ABOUT MINING
Firstly, I would like to congratulate
you on featuring Roy Keene's article on
gold mining (7/23) as a way to earn money
while living simply. I'm guessing that the
sidebar article by Camilla Mortensen was
your effort to keep your activist credibility
intact. But one interview and a Google
search is no way to write anything but a
misrepresentation of the facts.
In the fi rst place, suction dredgers do not
"often" run into mercury. When they do, 98
percent or more of it is taken OUT of the
water by the dredge; what little bit that goes
through will sink back to the bottom since
mercury is so much heavier than water. This
mercury, along with the arsenic and cyanide
referenced, is already in the water, whether
from natural deposits or from mining done
a century ago. No new chemicals are put
in the water. Water quality from sediment
resuspension is only affected for a short
distance below the dredge, and then it
dissipates to background levels.
And there is plenty of compliance
monitoring of mining — each miner must
submit an operating plan and post a bond to
Walls within walls inside the county jail
he Chair, for all the hype, really was not so imposing. A simple
metal chair with several straps tucked into a corner of the Lane
County Jail serves as the last resort in suicide prevention.
As he led me on a tour of the jail, Capt. Doug Hooley explained that
several hundred inmates attempt suicide every year. If a person scores high
for suicide risk when entering the jail, he or she is put on suicide watch, in a small
room off the yellow cinderblock hallway of the segregation area Two or more staff
may stand watch constantly to intervene. If necessary, the staff will take everything
away, even the person’s jail-issued clothes.
“One guy pried an old screw out of something, and used it,” the captain
demonstrated how, rubbing his clasped index fi nger and thumb against his wrist.
“Another guy managed to break free even with three people trying to stop him. He
ran down this hall and threw himself, headfi rst, into that far wall. So when we have
taken away everything, and they are naked and still trying, we strap them into The
Chair until they calm down. We have a lot of safety rules — consulting medical staff,
mental health staff, moving extremities. They usually give up soon — they don’t like
being in The Chair.”
Continuing the tour, we approached an elevator bank. Holding up two fi ngers,
Captain Hooley said, “I’m not fl ashing the peace sign, here; it’s how the security
offi cers know to send the elevator down and take me to the second Floor.”
Already on the elevator I asked, “Are they always so prompt?”
“They always do a great job, but when the captain is in the jail, they tend to be
on their toes,” he said. What must it be like to lead an organization where having
power and control over people is the point? He seemed humble. One of the staff
even called him “Doug.”
In one of the main housing areas, dozens of men milled around behind a clear
window in a large open room, metal bunks lining the far wall. “All these men can be
supervised by a couple of staff?”
“Actually, we could supervise even more inmates per deputy if we had built this
jail with a more open layout. We have walls in the way that we have to look around
— I’d show you but you probably don’t want to see someone naked.”
I already had one near miss when men returning from court were readmitted
and strip searched as I was passing through with the captain. “Naked guy!” a deputy
had shouted. Then Hooley had said, “Try to stay close to me — just in case …” I
6 AUGUST 13, 2009 EUGENE WEEKLY
PEAK MONEY
The writer Ed Abbey said, “Sentiment
without action is the ruin of the soul.”
Democratic politicians from the city of
Eugene to Washington, D.C., shed crocodile
tears over climate change yet push plans for
highway expansion. Rep. Peter DeFazio’s
highway committee is shepherding a half
trillion-dollar transportation bill, mostly
dedicated to road construction. Gov.
Kulongoski is pushing a long-term goal of
$18 billion for highway expansion. Eugene,
Springfi eld and Lane County want about a
billion dollars for bigger roads.
DeFazio and Mayor Kitty Piercy feign
interest in mitigating climate change while
supporting burning trees for electricity.
Oregon’s Democratic Party establishment
supports clearcutting our state forests and
allowing corporate timber barons to clearcut
and spray herbicides.
Greenwash is more dangerous than
denying environmental problems since it
lulls people to sleep thinking the crises are
being addressed when they are not.
Proposals for “cap and trade” are
scientifi cally illiterate. A great parody is at
www.CheatNeutral.com
Both political parties are subservient
to Wall Street and the monetary system’s
requirement for continued endless growth.
Money is made the old fashioned way — it is
loaned into existence based on the promise
of future economic expansion. Now that
we are passing peak oil, the economy will
be smaller in the future, not bigger. The
pretense that we are merely in a cyclical
recession is dangerous disinformation that
obscures root causes.
James Howard Kunstler, author of The
Long Emergency, states, "This is not so
much fi nancial bad weather as fi nancial
climate change."
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene
SURLY SERVICE
In response to Rigel Ross' (7/30) letter
offering tips on how customers can help
keep their favorite restaurants going during
tough times: As someone who likes to eat
out, it struck an odd chord in me. Eugene
has many restaurants with great food and
BY ROSE WILDE
The Chair
T
ensure cleanup, and the Forest Service and
Bureau of Land Management keep a close
eye on claims. The 1872 mining law only
gives the right to people to mine on public
land. Subsequent laws have mandated
environmental controls.
Finally, the 1872 law says nothing about
having to be 18 years old to fi le a mining
claim. Try not to rely on Wikipedia as a
source.
Brian Alexander
Eugene
stuck close and chattered nervously, hoping he would not hold a
grudge about the delay in re-opening the jail beds this May.
In the women’s dormitory, a plump African-American woman
wrenched a comb through a young white woman’s long blond
hair. The recipient of these ministrations reminded me of one
of the girls in my Baltimore elementary school — her eyes
slanty from the tight braid, and stony against the pain. Unlike
the men, the other dozen women clustered around the action at
the table, talking softly in the vast common area.
“Modern jails don’t even have these clear walls separating the
jail staff from the inmates in the main dormitory,” he said.
“Wouldn’t that be more dangerous for the staff?” I gestured
at two not particularly tough looking deputies sat in the control area, observing the
inmates behind the window.
“Actually, no. By taking down the walls, we have more mixing with the inmates,
and more opportunity for role modeling and developing relationships.” Few people
change without a relationship with someone who supports them. But in a jail?
“Of course, if you asked one of the guys who worked in this kind of jail for 20
years, they’d be pretty against it. Having those walls between them make you think
you need them,” he added.
Through the tour, Hooley gently made his case for the recently funded 84
jail beds, what services they could offer with funding for another 72 beds: more
medical staff to assist the diabetics; a nurse practitioner; dentists to pull teeth;
more mental health specialists to help disturbed inmates get stable and ready to
consider change, not to mention more safety for everyone. Maybe fewer suicide
attempts?
I would do a lot to avoid spending one minute in the jail as an inmate, yet dozens
of people check in every day. Many looked fairly comfortable, as though some time
inside a concrete cage was routine. Something in their social environment has to
explain this.
I was a little afraid for the staff, too. Even with training, how could one survive,
with basic values intact, a lifetime of having to control others, even to the point of
strapping them to a chair to force them to continue living?
A week later, a station wagon stopped in front of me at Beltline and Roosevelt
with the usual Eugene bumper stickers and Country Fair parking passes decorating
their rear. A quote by Frederick Douglass caught my eye: “It is easier to build strong
children than repair broken men.”
This is the fi rst in an occasional series about Lane County government, as experienced by Lane County
Budget Committee member Rose Wilde. She speaks only for herself.
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