Eugene weekly., January 20, 2011, Page 6, Image 6

letters
Alice in
Wonderland
A BEAUTIFUL,
CRAZY
ADVENTURE!
The wild, madcap characters
from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice
in Wonderland” come alive
as Eugene Ballet Company
brings the strangest English
Tea Party in History to the
stage. The ‘Always Late’
White Rabbit, dancing Tea
Table, the court of the Queen
of Hearts, a crazy croquet
game and a lobster quadrille
XJUIUIF.PDL5VSUMFNBLFGPSB
SPMMJDLJOHHPPEUJNF
plus Jessica Lang’s
Solo in Nine Parts
and Toni Pimble’s
Red Pony
TO THE EDITOR
END THE RAMPAGES
My thoughts on the tragedy in
Tucson: The “prevention” of violence is
what we as a society should really focus
on. I don’t believe ordinary citizens need
guns for protection like the Wild West
days; however, guns aren’t the problem.
Take away the guns and you still have
angry, rageful people.
We need to begin listening to our
children on a daily basis from infancy
on, before they grow up violent. You
may say that is impossible. I say not
only would it benefi t us to know what
our children are feeling inside, but more
importantly the children would benefi t
from being heard by compassionate
people trained to listen to them.
My solution to violence begins with
the children. Please read my article at
http://dock.net/woodchip/endtoviolence.
htm you will fi nd my well thought-out
plan that could be implemented with
the support of everyone of us to end
rampages like the one by Jared Loughner
in Tucson.
Karen Fenton
Marcola
THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES
Whether she likes it or not, Sarah Palin
is now associated with mass murder.
Like a dog with cans tied to its tail, Palin
cannot go anywhere, anymore, without
the disruptive clank of her history behind
her. As such, she seems a microcosm
of that larger paradigm her party and
its cheering fans have created for all
of us: politics as veiled threats, fi nally
morphed into mass murder, regardless of
the muddled mindset of the shooter. It’s
pretty tough fi ghting propaganda when
the propagandists change the rules of
engagement. Tougher still when a rigged
political system welcomes propaganda
with opened, multi-tendriled arms, as
ours does since the Supreme Court’s
Citizens United ruling.
Our mammoth mass media feeds the
Palin mindset to all and sundry in its 24/7
news cycle. Palin maintained her website
gun-sighting of Rep. Giffords until after
Giffords had been gunned down. But
now she’s sorry. Sure. But I’ll wager she
checked her bank accounts before she felt
bad.
Republicans have predictably already
gone on the attack: Lamar Alexander
claiming foul for the audacity of
horrifi ed citizens to point the fi nger at the
presumptive provocateur. But Alexander
gives the lie to his sincerity when he
craftily omits mention of the evidence
Palin so swiftly removed.
It’s not often that one party enacts
what it fantasizes but rarely admits.
Bill Moyers, speaking of the Bush
administration, once said: “We are in
the fi ght of our lives.” Well, he hadn’t
envisioned that literally, had he?
If Republicans escape this round
of outrage, let us remember Jan. 8 as
America’s Kristallnacht, when one
party decided it had the right stuff to
start shooting.
Tom Erwin
Veneta
UNACCEPTABLE CUTS
No one wants new taxes but there is a
time when we must pay if Oregon is to
be a desirable place to live. An income
tax, we all know, is the fairest tax and
it is desperately needed now if we are to
educate our young people, including my
grandchildren.
Schools now have cuts in physical
education when we have increasing
obesity, cuts in school days, classes with
more than 40 children, teachers buying
school supplies, little counseling when
kids need help. This is today! Further
cuts! This is unacceptable!
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
BAD YEAR FOR MEAT
2010 was not a good year for the meat,
dairy, and egg industries. In January,
ABC News provided extensive coverage
of cow abuse by the dairy industry. The
BP oil spill in April called attention to
an even larger Gulf “dead zone” caused
by the massive amounts of animal waste
dumped every day by the Mississippi
River. A month later, a U.N. report urged
a global shift towards a vegan diet to
reduce world hunger and climate change.
In June, FDA asked factory farms to
stop routine use of antibiotics that lead
to drug-resistant bacterial infections in
humans. August witnessed the largest
ever recall of more than half billion eggs
harboring salmonella.
Finally, President Obama signed into
law the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act to
replace fatty animal products and other
junk foods in school lunches and vending
machines. According to the School
Nutrition Association, 65 percent of
U.S. schools now offer vegetarian lunch
options.
For a New Year’s resolution, we should
all consider following suit. I found a
great website at www.LiveVegan.org with
recipes and tons of other useful info.
Elijah Hennison
Eugene
GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Saturday, February 12 - 7:30 pm
Sunday, February 13 - 2:00 pm
Hult Center for the Performing Arts
541-682-5000, HultCenter.org
WITH MEA
Local Networking, Referrals and
Idea Sharing Since 1985
Mid-Oregon Executive Association now
has membership openings in specific
business categories
Meetings are at 7 am Wednesdays at Valley River Inn
>Ê­x{£®ÊnÓÎÇÓÊUÊ >ÊiiÀ>`ëiVÌÃJ}ÌÃÞ°V
`ÊÕÃÊÊ>ViLÊ>ÌÊ ÌÌ«\ÉÉÜÞ°ÜÃÉÊÀÊÜÜÜ°i>iÌÜÀ}°À}
6 JANUARY 20, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM