letters
TO THE EDITOR
MUPTE MAKES SENSE
Alan Pittman’s article (6/23) about
Oregon’s Multiple Unit Property Tax
Exemption Law (MUPTE) creates the
misleading impression that this program
is an irresponsible, controversial tax
giveaway. If it is so controversial, why did
the 2011 Oregon Legislature vote 87 to 2 in
favor of extending MUPTE for 10 years?
Our legislature has slashed countless
tax loopholes and incentives in this
session, but not MUPTE. Democrats and
Republicans alike understand that without
MUPTE, many desirable construction
projects will never get built. Simply put,
MUPTE is among the most effective
tools available to stimulate economic
development in Oregon.
Pittman’s claim that MUPTE is a
tax giveaway is dead wrong. When City
Council grants a MUPTE petition, by
defi nition, Council is satisfi ed that the
project cannot be built without MUPTE
support. In most instances, tax revenues
generated by the new construction are
fully recaptured within two years after
the expiration of the exemption. After
that, taxes are collected at a rate that is
generally 100 to 150 percent higher than
in the pre-exemption period. In other
words, the MUPTE program dramatically
increases property tax revenue in the long
term.
viewpoint
It is widely recognized that the
councilors who withhold support for
MUPTE applications in our community
— generally the councilors serving the
south Eugene area — do so to satisfy
those vocal constituents who object to
growth within our community, or at least
within their part of our community.
The Paradigm on Pearl will be
among the fi rst LEED certifi ed midrise
buildings west of the Mississippi. Gold
or Platinum certifi cation is expected for
this environmentally sensitive project.
We are grateful to Mayor Kitty Piercy
and the majority of the City Council
for supporting the MUPTE application
for The Paradigm on Pearl. None of the
councilors who supported this application
felt that it represented a tax giveway. On
the contrary, they felt strongly that this
project will benefi t our community.
Dan Neal
Eugene
BRING DOUGHNUTS
This was on Fox News’ website on
June 28: “It vindicates all of us who say
our Judeo-Christian heritage is under
attack … sometimes it’s in the courts,
sometimes it’s elected offi cials and
sometimes it’s the media.” That was
attributed to Jordan Sekulow, director of
policy and international operations for
GUN-CLINGER’S WORDS
In the fi rst sentence of the Viewpoint
in the May 26 issue, the writer (Gordon
Lafer) states, “I’m going to shoot
someone.” Needless to say, I was too
outraged to read further. However, I did
glance at the photograph of the author,
obviously some bitter gun-clinger from
Springtucky. Come on! I can read the R-G
if I want this kind of crap.
Fortunately my twittering nerves were
somewhat allayed when I read about the
healing arts practitioner (Eliel Fionn) who
specializes in past-life interpretations.
Especially her work with the dog who
suffers from battle trauma incurred during
the Civil War when he had been a horse. As
for myself I was a rat in Antwerp during
the Black Death. Do you think she could
help me from chipping any more teeth?
Tom Tracey
Eugene
WHAT IF?
The Oregon Country Fair is thought to
be a legacy of the 1960s. But what would
the legacy of the 1960s be if initiatives
to end the Cold War in 1963 had been
allowed to continue?
On Sept. 20, 1963, the day before I was
born, President Kennedy gave a speech
to the U.N. calling off the nuclear arms
race and converting the “moon race” to a
cooperative venture with the Soviet Union.
You can read and listen to the speech at
www.oilempire.us/moonrace.html
In October 1963, JFK ordered a troop
withdrawal from Vietnam and started an
effort to resume diplomatic relations with
Cuba. What would “The Sixties” have
been if the war on Vietnam had ended in
1965 and the military industrial complex
had been converted to peaceful purposes?
JFK’s change on the moon race was
part of a broader effort to turn off the
Cold War, the reason JFK was removed
from offi ce. JFK called for scattering the
CIA into a thousand pieces and the CIA
BY SAMUEL C. PORTER
A Moral Ecology
Bridging today’s issues with our rich heritage
I
n 1961, I was eight years old living in Washington, D.C., as a middle class white
boy sheltered from much of the world’s harshness.
Although often forces of good, I still fi nd baffl ing how major religious and
secular institutions, including the press and government, were complicit in the
racism and brutality of only a half-century ago. Such memories break in
from our past and shine a harsh light on the present. They threaten our
complacency; but they are, above all, the things we have to remember.
The documentary Freedom Riders recently aired on PBS and
was shown at a UO symposium called “Stand Up for Freedom!” It
presents a vivid picture of the violence of state and local laws in
effect from 1876 to 1965 in places like Alabama and Mississippi.
The courage of the freedom riders helped to break Jim Crow’s iron
grip.
Still, in Portland we now have de facto segregation by class and
race. Using recent U.S. Census data, The Oregonian (May 1) shows
Portland is not only the whitest major city in the U.S.; it is getting
even whiter as gentrifi cation pushes blacks into the suburbs. Eugene is, I
suspect, even whiter.
Indeed, in Springfi eld we have City Councilor Dave Ralston bashing “illegal”
Latinos (Register-Guard, April 23) evoking memories of the hatred depicted
in the Freedom Riders documentary. Like Ralston’s rants, the accusation that
the freedom riders deliberately provoked the violence is an exasperating, jaw-
dropping evasion of responsibility.
My father, Charles O. Porter, served as the U.S. representative from Oregon’s
Fourth District from 1957 to 1961. In 1960, he, New York Congressman Adam
Clayton Powell and others picketed Glen Echo, an amusement park near
Washington, D.C.
Yet, a The Register-Guard editorial (Aug. 21, 1960) criticized my father for
picketing because, the editorial claimed, “many of his constituents would feel
better if he didn’t try to get in on every act.” For this reason “Mr. Porter’s
friends, even more than his detractors, have cause to say in anguish, ‘Charlie,
why do you do it?’”
In a letter to the editor, my mother, Priscilla Porter, replied (Aug. 23):
4 JULY 7, 2011
the American Center for Law and Justice,
and it was his reaction to the Eugene
City Council voting to say the Pledge of
Allegiance at four of the 24 meetings per
year, instead of before every meeting.
Councilor Mike Clark, whose proposal
was to have the Council recite
the
Pledge before every meeting, says he
meant to “unite the council.” It appears
that all he did was vindicate those
people who have made an industry out of
claiming our “Judeo-Christian heritage is
under attack.”
Hey Mike, next time you want to unite
the council, bring doughnuts.
Kevin O’Brien
Eugene
EUGENE WEEKLY
The time has long since passed when all men in positions of
leadership in this country should have stood and been counted on this
subject. If standing in a picket line or participating in a sit-down strike
will in some small measure help to bring the facts of this struggle to you
and others far from the scene, then it is to be commended, not derided …
Because of an attitude such as yours, the Negroes have yet a long
road to travel in order to gain meaningful citizenship in this country.
Is it not the duty of every citizen — be he congressman or not — to do
his part in advancing every cause that has true democracy and human
justice on its side?
My dad lost the 1960 election by 2 percentage points to his Republican
opponent, Edwin R. Durno, M.D., of Medford.
As the Freedom Riders documentary clearly shows, there was
vigorous disagreement within the civil rights movement. Yet, today,
instead of vigorous disagreement we have radical individualism.
It is an individualism that prevents blacks, women, labor activists,
homosexuals, Latinos, Jews, Native Americans, environmentalists,
and other progressive groups from coming together to form a
coherent social movement.
What brought and held the civil rights movement together long
enough to bring about dramatic social change? Martin Luther King Jr.
was embedded in a particular tradition. There would not have been a civil
rights movement were it not for the theological, moral and institutional resources
of the Black Church.
But what held the civil rights movement together had much to do with King’s
ability to draw on American civic and religious traditions in a way that spoke to a
broad spectrum of citizens across many lines of social difference.
Today, we need to identify, cultivate and articulate such moral sources in a way
that speaks to our present realities. The serious problems we face — economic,
social, political, environmental, and institutional — require a coherent, broad social
movement that crosses sex, class, race and religion.
The extraordinary courage of the freedom riders was based on common biblical
and civic languages, moral sources and institutions — rooted in American history.
King and the freedom riders, while accomplishing a lot, never fully succeeded in
getting to the Promised Land. But they left us an unquenched heritage of criticism
— a rich legacy we cannot ignore or take for granted if we are to sustain the moral
ecology of a free, democratic republic.
Samuel C. Porter, Ph.D., is a courtesy research associate in the UO’s Department of Sociology.
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