letters
TO THE EDITOR
vote. In truth, voting for a corporate tool
who will not challenge his Puppetmasters
is wasting your vote. We cannot afford
continuing to accept Democratic half-
solutions to problems that continue to get
worse. Perhaps if a few of them lose their
jobs, they won’t take the rank and fi le for
granted. That is why I left the party after
34 years.
The only way to take back America for
the people is to reject party labels and vote
for anyone who is willing to introduce a
Constitutional amendment abolishing
corporate personhood and challenging
other senators up for reelection to declare
whether they support democracy or
corporate domination of government,
which some might describe as fascism.
Rick Staggenborg, MD
Coos Bay
TAKE ACTION
As a mother to two elementary school
children and the wife of a 4J teacher, I
recognize I am more directly affected
by the continued budget slashing that is
happening in our district, but you fool
yourself if you think these cuts don’t
affect each and every Eugene citizen.
My husband received a letter from the
district this week warning him that he and
basically every other fi rst and second year
teacher in 4J might very well be laid off as
of Dec. 17. Happy Holidays!
With 4J’s teacher force reduced by 10
percent, classroom sizes will grow (yet
again), schools will close, teachers will
suffer increased stress levels, students will
receive even less individualized help, test
scores will drop, students will drop out,
our population of downtown daytime teens
with nothing to do will expand, families
with investments in their children’s
education will move to communities with
better schools, good young fresh teachers
will move elsewhere, businesses will
suffer. The entire community of Eugene
will bear the scars as we repeatedly slash
at our school budget.
Ask yourself if my long list of threats
seem likely and if you want them to
happen. If not, then do something! Write
some letters, support taxes for schools,
send the union and the district your ideas
for cost reduction and funding. Take
action, Eugene! This is our town. Don’t
drive us out of it.
Mari Livie
Eugene
EDITOR’S NOTE: See our cover story Sept. 16 on how
Eugene could pass an income tax on wealthy individuals
to support public schools, similar to Oregon’s Measure 66
which Eugene voters favored by 73 percent.
REIN IN THE GREED
Our democracy is threatened by
destructive corporate interests. Whatever
their political beliefs, Americans are
outraged when they learn that anonymous
corporate attack ads are now legal
according to the recent Supreme Court’s
“Citizen United” decision. They correctly
see the ads as an affront to even the
barest standards of fairness. In fact,
Republican leaders have long argued
that so long as people knew who was
paying for campaign ads, there was no
need to regulate them through campaign
fi nance reform. Yet since “Citizen United”
opened the fl oodgates for monied interests
to drown out the rest of our voices,
Republican senators have prevented
requiring corporate interests to at least put
their names on their ads. Consequently we
are bombarded with thousands of dollars
worth of such untraceable advertising on
local broadcast media outlets.
Frustrated as voters are with the
state of America, including with the
Democrats’ own frequent capitulation to
corporate interests, most still don’t want
our government to become the wholly
owned property of BP and all the other
corporations (including foreign ones)
who can now buy our elections without
people even knowing they’re involved.
It would be a big mistake to sit out this
election to teach them a lesson. We need
to get past our broken hearts to help elect
the best possible candidates. If we work
well enough at explaining why the money
matters, it could tip race after close race
and help us begin to rein in the power of
unaccountable greed.
David Zupan
Eugene
Tarra Hartlauer transforms old jeans
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with plenty of whimsical attitude.
Then when she’s done with her
sewing machine, she picks up her
router and creates more whimsey
with her cheerful garden signs.
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DYI MUSIC CRITICS
The way I see it, the authors (“EW
Doesn’t know Shinola,” 10/7) have two
choices. First, since they are so certain
that EW is lamer than their parents, it is
obvious there is missing from the Eugene
music scene a music critic. Therefore they
can fi ll that void by becoming the voice
in the Eugene music scene. They do that
by starting their own website. This can be
done for $5 a month. They can marry their
journalistic skills with their technical and
marketing skills to create the ultimate
media experience for the discerning
Eugene audiophile.
I can see now an article (video?)
describing the shows, along with video
clips, art, etc. And because everyone
fi nds the information so important to their
lives, advertisers fl ock to them and beg
them to take money for a few pixels on the
site. They are so good that the audiences
in Portland plead with them to review
all of the shows there. Their careers are
launched, using Seattle as springboard:
New York, London, Paris! They will have
to fi ll in just a couple holes with their own
creativity. (Dose of reality: It might be that
the Eugene music scene can’t support even
one music critic, let alone a half dozen.)
Second, go back down by the river and
smoke a couple dubes. The fact that I don’t
give a rat’s ass about the Eugene music
scene doesn’t mean the authors couldn’t do
something really positive for themselves
and their community. Just forgoing a joint
a month, they could make an awesome
site by turning their passion and creativity
into something that will be a benefi t. Don’t
whine about it. Do something better!
Gregg Ferry
Corvallis
RUST HAS INTEGRITY
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If you live in the district for the West
Lane County commissioner, you probably
received the mailing from Keizer, Ore.,
which purports to be an unbiased survey
of who you plan to vote for, with business
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EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 21, 2010 5