letters
TO THE EDITOR
Eugene a better place to live for families
and everyone else.
Asha Logan
Eugene
LANDLORD SIGNS
Kudos to Chuck Areford for checking
up on the West 11th businesses supposedly
opposing EmX. I already knew that
popular opposition to the West Eugene
EmX was a tiny fraction of what the “No
Build” loudmouths would have us believe,
but Mr. Areford confi rmed something that
I suspected: that only a few of the West
11th businesses sporting “No Build” signs
actually oppose the EmX project, since it
was the landlords, not the businesses, who
put up the signs.
This handful of opposing businesses
and property owners who have been
spending their money on frivolous
lawsuits and a breathtakingly extravagant
disinformation campaign have only one
thing on their minds: manipulating public
opinion and the democratic process so that
they get what they want, and the hell with
everybody else. Don’t fall for it.
Elizabeth Henning
Eugene
SO SMUG AND MEAN
As a frequent reader and admirer of
Dan Savage’s writing, and as a member
of no religious group, I was nevertheless
struck by the irony of the idiotic, smug and
mean-spirited April 28 cover illustration
depicting Savage in the classic image of
Jesus or maybe a Christian monk.
Giggle, giggle.
I know it feels clever — in a junior-high,
“we’re really gonna piss ‘em off with this”
way — to present a cover whose impact
relies wholly on its ability to offend and
hurt one group of people at the pleasure of
another group, but I long for the day when
the leadership at the Weekly is able to resist
this urge and rely more often on genuine
wit and cleverness.
Savage’s work succeeds largely
because he can be outraged, hilarious
and powerfully assertive without being
gratuitously mean. One of his core
messages seems to be “don’t hurt people
for fun, unless they’re into that sort of
thing, and even then be sure you have
a pre-arranged safety word.” In the
insightful and informative piece teased
by the cover illustration, writer Shannon
Finnell relies heavily on an endorsement
of Savage’s ethics by a Lutheran pastor.
Yet the honchos at the Weekly still felt it
necessary to rely on a particularly tired
and brutish illustration technique whose
only satirical “oomph” comes from its
ability to offend Christians and entertain
others who want to laugh at Christians.
Dan Savage deserves better. Shannon
Finnell deserves better. Although you
appear not to know it, you deserve better.
I know from a long career of writing and
editing for print that it’s much harder to be
truly witty and clever than it is to be dully
smug and mean, but I think it would be
worth your effort. If I knew what my pre-
arranged safety word was with the Weekly’s
leadership, I would be saying it now.
Kevin Miller
Eugene
HE DESERVES BETTER
I was shocked to fi nd in EW only a
casual mention of EPD offi cer Chris
Kilcullen’s death Friday, April 22, at the
hands of a motorist. I read through the
April 28 EW several times before fi nally
spotting a one-paragraph reference to the
shooting of Kilcullen on page 10 in the
“Slant.” Even this mention was on the
smarmy side. About Offi cer Kilcullen, a
12 year veteran of EPD who had received
over 85 commendations among many
other awards for distinguished service to
our community, EW said: “We hear from
many directions that Offi cer Kilcullen was
a thoughtful and compassionate public
servant with a high degree of personal
integrity.” Maybe I’m paranoid, but “we
hear” seems to reduce Kilcullen’s positive
character to nothing more than rumor.
Then, with characteristic opportunism,
EW uses Kilcullen’s death to promote gun
control and the Million Mom March.
Offi cer Chris Kilcullen deserves better
than a footnote. This should have been your
cover story, and, failing that, at least you
should have printed a full-length article
honoring him. I hope that in the next issue
of EW you will do the right thing.
Toni Hanner
Eugene
The public is invited to attend the
F.A. Gilfi llan
Memorial Award
Lecture
Oceans
of Life
Presented by Dr. Mark Hixon
2010 F.A. Gilfi llan Award Winner
Professor, Zoology
Thursday May 5, 2011
7:15-8:30 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center
Austin Auditorium
875 SW 26th
Corvallis
science.oregonstate.edu
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our mission as an alternative
newsweekly is to cover news and culture that the other
media are ignoring. We intend no disrespect to the
memory of Chris Kilcullen. His story is being well told.
SODOM & SANTORUM
The April 28 cover story demonstrated
that EW will publish its syndicated
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