letters
TO THE EDITOR
VACUOUS REPUTATION
KEEP THE BOUNDARIES
How threadbare is the sham of Eugene’s
progressive reputation? The idea that we
live in a supposedly liberal community is
an increasingly absurd notion. Articles like
Alan Pittman’s “Wet Beds” Sept. 29 just
add further evidence as to the emptiness
of Eugene’s reputed commitment to
progressive politics.
We have no problem dropping $2
million on City Hall blueprints that never
get used, but we defi nitely cannot afford to
keep our neighbors from freezing to death
on our streets.
Someplace I once heard that the mark
of a virtuous society is found in how it
treats members of its lowest ranks. Let’s
not play pretend that there exists within
this allegedly liberal town anything
but the most empty rhetoric regarding
homelessness. We are far more concerned
with remaining “Track Town USA” than
we could ever be about saving bums from
exposure.
Our priorities are completely in order.
Actually important funding priorities include
enforcing our constitutionally bankrupt
Downtown Exclusion Zone, or making sure
our cops are free to Taser anyone they please,
or making sure our police are out there making
us all super-fucking safe by harassing the
homeless for dangerous camping infractions,
or god forbid, panhandling on the wrong
street corner.
Drew Furor
Eugene
Among the foundations of our
representative democracy is the notion
of equality: Each person gets one vote to
determine who will represent his or her
interests in policymaking.
The two most fundamental threats to our
democracy undermine this principle. One is
the legal fi ction that corporations are persons,
with the right of free “speech” including
unlimited, anonymous contributions to
political campaigns. That effectively gives
some people more than one vote.
The other is gerrymandering, the
practice of drawing electoral boundaries
to favor one political perspective over
another. That deprives some citizens of
having a vote that matters.
A public hearing was held Oct.
5 on whether to maintain or change
the boundaries of the commissioner
districts for Lane County. But it’s not
too late to express your views by email,
phone or in person (details at http://
wkly.ws/14k). Democracy is therefore
generally best served by changing electoral
districts as little as possible, to avoid
gerrymandering by those currently — and
temporarily — in power.
I understand that in the last 10 years
population growth was even, within 1
percent, across all commissioner district
boundaries. If that’s correct, then there
would seem to be no good reason to change
them; and it’s hard to see how any major
changes to the current boundaries could be
other than politically motivated.
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A decent respect for democracy
therefore appears to require that the current
commissioners leave the existing Lane
County districts intact.
Robert Roth
Eugene
HOST THE HOMELESS
If you’re a big fan of the homeless
prove it: Invite them over to your place
and enjoy their company. Your invitation
should be nice and early, say 6 am. First
you can let them root around your lawn
for anything not nailed down or locked up,
because spare change only goes so far.
After scrounging up enough money
from that, it should be about 9 am; a perfect
time to go get some malt liquor with your
new friends! After that highly important
errand let them hunker down on your front
lawn and enjoy the sweet sounds of violent
confrontation between two people who had
been drinking buddies only minutes prior.
Once everyone becomes too drunk to buy
more camo have them toss their empties in
your lawn and let out a self-satisfi ed sigh
while watching them fall into a peaceful
slumber wherever they may lie (the lucky
ones get your front steps).
I feel far too selfi sh keeping these
wonderful people all to myself a few days
a week, so give EPD a call and ask them
when they plan on harassing street people
with such oppressive tactics as: asking
them to move along, citing them for public
intoxication, or generally just trying to
make taxpayers actually feel comfortable
in their own neighborhoods; and let them
know that you have a safe, secure place for
these poor people to get drunk at.
Oh wait, I forgot that Eugene doesn’t
support drunk, belligerent litterers. Or is
that only the case when they’re paying for
an education? Man, this town is confusing.
Drew Mohr
Eugene
OBVIOUS PLOYS
I like to stick to the issues and avoid
ascribing self-serving intentions or hidden
agendas to someone’s actions. Still I
am at a loss to account otherwise for
the astonishing behavior of one county
commissioner at the county redistricting
hearing Oct. 5.
A crowd of well-informed citizens,
having studied all seven redistricting
proposals before the board that day,
turned out (even at the inconvenient early
afternoon hour) for the public hearing
portion. Several dozen regular folks gave
impassioned testimony as to why the
current plan — in force for the last 12
years — still works fi ne. There was an
overwhelming consensus of 99 percent
that “it ain’t broke, so don’t fi x it!”
Several of the proposals were obvious
attempts at gerrymandering; that is,
stacking districts in such a way that the
next elections would unseat one of our two
remaining liberal commissioners. Adding
insult to the entire process, Commissioner
Jay Bozievich waited until after the
public hearing process was over before
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EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 20, 2011
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