letters
TO THE EDITOR
EVERY DAY COUNTS
DISTILLED ISSUES
Last year 13,129 children in Oregon
spent at least one day in foster care. These
abused or neglected children depend on the
child welfare system and the community
to ensure that they live in safe, healthy and
permanent homes.
Although every month should be, May
was National Foster Care Month. The Citizen
Review Board (CRB) consists of community
members like us who give their time to review
cases of children in foster care to ensure that
every child has safe, loving and permanent
homes. We see how resilient foster children
can be. They have an extraordinary capacity
to overcome many challenges — but only if
they have the support of caring adults who
are willing to advocate for them. Without
permanent, nurturing relationships with
adults, foster children are far more likely
than their “non-foster” peers to experience
homelessness, poverty, compromised health,
unemployment, incarceration, and other
adversities after they leave foster care.
To all foster parents, Court Appointed
Special Advocates, CRBs, mentors, and
those who help in other ways, we’d like
to thank you. Your caring commitment is
critical for ending the cycles of neglect,
abuse, or other family crisis issues that often
prevent a child from reaching his or her full
potential. We appreciate your dedication and
hope you recognize, as we do, the valuable
role you play in building brighter futures for
America’s next generation. We challenge the
rest of you to fi nd out how you can become
involved. Every day counts in the life of a
foster child.
Ellen Hyman & board members:
Peggy Bellinger, J. Norton Cabell,
Nancy English, Nancy Johnson, DVM,
LouAnn Martin, Joy McDowell,
Dr. Daniel Phillips & Roz Slovic
Oh, thank you for Gordon Lafer’s
sassy, knowledgeable Viewpoint piece in
the May 26 EW. I hope you will invite him
to contribute regularly. I felt so satisfi ed
by the way he framed Jennifer Solomon’s
absurd claim to be “tapped out,” and I think
he distilled the issues nicely while avoiding
the (sorry) bland, proper intellectual style of
so many EW contributions.
Heidi Schultz Haider
Eugene
viewpoint
ORGANIC LEGACY
Three years ago May 31, David Minor
was killed in a most unfortunate bicycle-
automobile collision at the corner of
Willamette and 13th. A ghost bike memorial
still stands there in his memory, as a
reminder to all to keep eyes and awareness
open for bicyclists on the street.
The week that he died, David’s family
started a memorial fund with the Willamette
Farm and Food Coalition (WFFC) to honor
his passions for local food and social justice.
To date, $15,000 has been raised in David’s
memory. Awards have been made to local
projects and programs that increase access
to locally grown foods for families in need.
In addition to supporting WFFC
staff time in the Healthy Corner Stores
Initiative (a collaborative project of the
Lane Coalition for Healthy Active Youth
and DariMart), awards have been made to
Victory Gardens for All, FOOD for Lane
County Gardens Program, Huerto de la
Familia, and the That’s My Farmer Low-
Income Fund. A contribution from David’s
fund was also made to the UO’s Food
Justice Conference in February. This week
$1,000 will be given to the Courthouse
Garden Project, which teaches gardening
skills to individuals in transition within
GLENWOOD IS PRIME
Glenwood. Anyone driven through
there lately? Hasn’t changed in about 40
years. Jeff Simmons brought it up in his
letter to the editor in the June 2 issue in
relation to a new Fred Meyer. I’ve been
contemplating it since I started driving
through there daily for the last eight months.
It’s prime riverfront property that is
being underutilized, and is poorly developed
and unsightly. EMX already running there
successfully. It is accessible to the University,
Eugene and Springfi eld. It’s on a major
highway and has freeway access, and there’s
room for plenty of parking, too. So let’s
build the new up-scaled Fred Meyer store
there, the Veterans Administration clinic can
be central without disturbing downtown,
Oregon Research Institute can have their
waterfront site close to the University, the
YMCA can build there, too. We could even
move the Civic Stadium there and the city
could sell the current site for something
more in tune with that neighborhood. Hell,
I’d even go for moving the Matt Arena there
— it feels so crammed in where it is (why did
that ever happen, anyway?). And I believe
Planned Parenthood is already thinking of
developing an up-to-date site there — and
it doesn’t extend urban growth boundaries.
BY ELIZABETH GERRITY
An Unfair Stigma
Few with mental illness are violent
D
on’t feel badly about yourself if you don’t know better than
to think that homeless people are lazy, stupid and/or violent
people. Confusion is so easy. After all, understanding people
is diffi cult when a limitless number of possible factors contribute to
the mannerisms, behaviors and characteristics of people.
The error of widespread stigmas doesn’t help understanding.
For example, one stigma associated mental illness with violence.
However, it’s statistically proven that 90 percent of violent crimes are
committed by persons without a mental illness. Also, the percentage
of mentally ill persons who do commit violent crimes is truly very small,
considering the large number of persons who really have a mental illness.
I think that “coming out” as persons with mental illness will help to clarify
misunderstanding. Coming out isn’t simple, though. This might not be easy to
understand if a person hasn’t experienced the social banishment that many
persons with mental illness aren’t free from.
Persons with mental illnesses are usually very peaceful people who often don’t
know how to protect themselves from abuse. According to Wikipedia, mentally ill
persons are much more likely to be abused because of their own vulnerability than
they are to abuse other people. It’s sad that many people don’t know this.
On a similar note, it might not be easy to understand that persons who don’t
express compassion for vulnerable people are usually peaceful. People who appear
to be insensitive are often overly sensitive and have diffi culty resolving personal
issues like insecurity and a fear of powerlessness. These people need help.
4 JUNE 9, 2011
the criminal justice system, gives hands on
experience in running a community garden
to UO landscape architecture students, and
produces food for the community and the
Relief Nursery of Lane County.
To read more about David’s organic
legacy, or to contribute, see lanefood.org
Lynne Fessenden, Executive Director
Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
EUGENE WEEKLY
Homeless people might not understand insensitive people easily after
surviving social neglect/abuse even though they experienced the sufferings of an
often cold and always hard resting place, exposed to elements and the violence
of perpetrators, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These people need
help.
When people who have homes and stability understand the
tragedy of this, they often take action to help. People like this helped
me. Although social opposition is in many places, Eugene shelters
helped me regardless of my dissociative disorder which is a mental
illness, my traumatic brain injury that created diffi culties that
sometimes resembled a mental illness, and long-term experiences
of being abused that confused me. My relentless determination to be
safe made welfare services available to me.
Many homeless people avoid the few existing shelters because of
various factors, including prejudicial treatment. Better shelters can be
made.
Surviving trauma affords many people insight that can benefi t society when
allowed. Together, we can overcome social obstacles to benefi t everyone. May we
all receive the care we need.
Please help in any way you can to support a new, secular shelter to benefi t all
the homeless, including the 33 percent with mental illnesses, the 33 percent who
don’t make enough money to rent or purchase a residence, the 33 percent who
choose to be homeless, and the persons with substance abuse issues. We will all
benefi t from this.
Thanks for your assistance.
Elizabeth Kathleen Gerrity of Eugene was educated at three different colleges in Arizona, Hawaii, and
Oregon, studying two-dimensional art, culinary arts and graphic design, while she experienced multiple
disabilities. Find information on her Anutuk’s Homeless Shelter project a http://bit.ly/gzPNbP
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