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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2009)
news briefs going to athletics. Teachers objected to the hit on the struggling state budget, but the sports subsidy passed the Legislature over- whelmingly. — Alan Pittman CLIMATE POLITICS Dale Jamieson was recently part of a panel at the UO discussing the question, “What do we do if politics fail us?” He turned that question around. “I think we can fail politics,” he said. “If I have a single reaction to being in Oregon, it’s how much anti-government feeling there is.” Jamieson is in residence at the UO this fall as the 2009-2010 Wayne Morse Chair at the University of Oregon. He will give a public address titled “The Moral and Political Challenges of Climate happening people slant Change” at 7 pm Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 110 Knight Law Center, 15th and Agate. Jamieson is director of the environmen- tal studies program, professor of environ- mental studies and philosophy and an affiliated professor of law at NYU. An internationally acclaimed scholar on cli- mate change, he doesn’t flinch from what he sees to be the hard truth about the world we live in. In order to effect change, people need to be actively involved in politics, getting down to the “grubby work” of environ- mental and social activism, Jamieson said. “People typically think of climate change as a scientific, social issue, but it’s a moral and political issue,” he said in an interview with EW. His various essays, papers and talks are a plea for activism that interacts as much as it acts. “My hope is that people will come • The hypocrisy and lack of openness and integrity of the Eugene City Council majority in ousting a municipal judge serving as chairman of the Civilian Review Board is stunning. Citizens should long remember the votes of Andrea Ortiz, Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor and George Poling to oust Richard Brissenden for doing his job well in independently review- ing police conduct. Not one logical argument was presented for this decision. Credible independent oversight of police review in Eugene now appears dead. Resurrecting oversight could take citizen action in recalling officials who oppose police review or defeating them at reelection, citizen ballot initiatives, intense public pressure on city government, and lawsuits. We also join conservatives on The Register-Guard editorial board in calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of Tasers by Eugene police until the department ends its secrecy and develops a meaningful policy that actually restricts this dangerous, excruciating weapon. Indiscriminate Taser use is a human rights issue, a public relations catastro- phe for EPD, and a serious financial liability for the city. So far, no one in Eugene has died as the result of being Tasered, but Google “Taser lawsuits” to see the hugely expensive personal injury litigation other cities are facing. • Speaking of Tasers, Bonny Bettman’s “Tase Me,” sung to the tune of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” was one of the highlights of the Oct. 24 Best of Eugene Awards Show, and the former city councilor dressed in a hazmat suit even got heckled. Was that police union president Willy Edewaard uncomfortable and grumbling in the front row? We heard he was there to see his musician kid perform. What he also endured was Bettman singing, Tase me/ As long and as much as you want to/ Tase me/ Then make up a ludicrous excuse/ You know/ The chief will always support you/ and then/ the mayor and council will approve … So Tase me/ for jay-walking/ and Tase me/ for talking/ and Tase me/ for not being like you. BY PAUL NEEVEL DIVINIA JELEN “Garage sales are my summer job,” says Divinia Jelen of Cottage Grove, who bought nail polish for four years before t ra n s fo r m i n g the faded hood of her 1988 Escort into a nail-polish mural depicting western Oregon. “The central figure is Mother Earth with a water goddess superimposed. Her legs become rivers full of fish.” Jelen worked four hours a day from early September until mid-October on the painting. “It’s my first work of art,” she admits. “My artist friend Bedo drew the basic design on the hood.” An avid garage-sale art collector, Jelen cov- ers her walls with paintings. “I take pride in rescuing them,” she says. “I use feng shui to arrange them.” Self-reliant since a neglected childhood in the north woods of Wisconsin, Jelen split for California at 13, worked as a book- keeper and a CPA. She became a social activist and manager of the radical newspaper The Seed in Chicago (“the CIA confiscated our last paper”) and manager of a food-co-op directory in Albuquerque (“a knock at the door: ‘We want you to leave town’”). Since coming to Eugene in 1980, she has been a founding member of the East Blair Co-op, got a bachelor’s degree in geography, worked in merchandising, then retired to Cottage Grove to favor her asthma. Safety First! Leaf Tips •Be safe, keep bike lanes clear. •Don’t put leaves out early. Wait until the weekend before scheduled pickups. •Need more leaves? Request a leaf delivery. • Our Best of Eugene Awards Show filled nearly every seat at the McDonald Theatre Saturday. Thanks to everyone who turned out to celebrate the winners tabulated from a record number of paper and online ballots. It was Eugene’s Oscars night, only with fetish chains and spanking, silly dancing and prancing, wild costumes, plenty of politics, bad jokes and miscues, and a lot of fresh new music from the top contenders in our Next Big Thing music contest. Congrats to the winning band John Giovanni. In all, it was a memorable night, the kind of funky, homegrown production that our late, great art director, Kevin Dougherty, would have loved. We showed photos and talked about Kevin at the beginning of Saturday night’s event and his good friend Norma Sax described his deep involvement with the Oregon Country Fair. See our story on him this week on page 11. We hope everyone who knew Kevin or appreciated his work will join us, his family and the Country Fair Family at a free community celebration of his life beginning at 7 pm this Thursday, Oct. 29, at the WOW Hall (see our Calendar for more info). • It’s only a matter of time. Some unfortunate soul will suffer a wrenching death due to the irresponsible actions of a group of politicians. That’s right, as a result of a political decision to fund the jail instead of the county Extension Service, a botulinum in a miscanned tomato will kill. If only those judges, jail deputies and conservative special interests hadn’t successfully lobbied to divert extension funding to the jail, a life could have been saved. As a their penalty, they should have to eat it. • Hooray for the city of Eugene for getting the gold in cycling! The promotion of the city from silver to gold in cycling friendliness from the League of American Bicyclists is great news. Cycling offers big hope in reducing the city’s carbon footprint and increasing local livability. It’s also a lot of fun and creates sustainable jobs in bike building, bike shops and tourism. We’re on the right track. Now it’s time for the city to catch up to Portland and set its sights on the platinum award. Pumping a new bike master plan up with real commitments to funding and building miles and miles of new bike lanes and separated bikeways should put us over the top. Eugene’s Leaf Program... First Round of Leaf Pickup West/Central November 2-11 North November 9-30 Southeast November 30-December 18 Southwest December 14-24 For more information call the leaf hotline at 541-682-5383 or visit www.eugene-or.gov/leaf WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 29, 2009 9
