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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 2011)
letters TO THE EDITOR Fukushima, fast reactors will not become our primary energy source until 2065. This means that over the next 50 years, there will be a permanent depression of austerity and joblessness. The era of economic growth and population growth is now offi cially over, and we must adjust our thinking to refl ect this new reality. “Conservation” by reversing growth is the only way out. Zachary Moitoza Eugene OTTO’S MONUMENT On a site more suited to puffi ns and cormorants, offering stunning vistas of coastline and cliffside from above and below, Eugene architect Otto Poticha intends to erect a monument to his ego (“Coastal House Controversy,” 10/6). As such it’s sure to be a sizable project. Because he’s obtained the necessary county approval, Poticha believes, or would have us believe, that this somehow validates his imposition of a dwelling in the Signifi cant Shoreline Combining Zone on a coastline already top-heavy and eyesore with vacation homes, resorts and motels. To the objection of LandWatch memorial Lane County — a nonprofi t with 16 years experience working with land-use laws emasculated by development interests and the planners and politicians serving as their enablers — Poticha ventured the petulant and insulting retort, “I guess one can say ‘Let’s not build anywhere.’” Actually, one can say that someone less burdened by hubris and arrogance than Poticha and possessed of even a modicum of humility and compassion would fi nd it unthinkable to wedge a structure into the ecologically signifi cant and aesthetically pleasing rock face on the west side of 101. Alas, like death and taxes, the Potichas will always be with us. The chief affl iction of the common good, though, comes not only from infl ated egos, but from the agencies that allow them to grow. To help save what’s left of Lane County’s beleaguered landscape, those occupying the Wayne Morse Free Speech Platform outside would do well to turn their attention inside the building to the corruption residing in the commissioners’ conference room and the offi ces of the Land Management Division. Robert Emmons Fall Creek WORTHY BRAINS Thanks for the multiple articles in the Oct. 6 issue about biking in Eugene. I was in Amsterdam last month, and you’re right on about the similarity. I do wish you had used pictures of riders with helmets on the front cover and for the article about getting around Eugene without car. The asphalt is a lot harder than one’s head. How valuable are our brains, anyhow? For all the UO students: If your brain is worthy of a college education, doesn’t it also rate a helmet to protect that gray matter? Marilyn Lowe Eugene SHAMEFUL CLOSURE The recent closure of the Boys and Girls Club due to lack of money is more than just shameful. As a positive, safe, and healthy place, the club has provided supervised programs and activities that not only keep kids engaged and out of trouble, but served as the only responsible option for many working parents. Those parents are now left with no choice but to leave their young kids with a house key and the hope that things will be okay until the adults get home from work. If this were a contentious political campaign, hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been raised for a cause or candidate. I hope that enough money can be raised to reopen the Boys and Girls Club. Surely Eugene wants to show other cities that it has its priorities straight. Les Weinstein Eugene IS IT TRUE? Too many questions! Why is a public utility having a secret contract? What is the cost to ratepayers for Seneca’s ineffi cient and dirty electricity production that we don’t need? Is it true that Seneca is already cutting down trees to make pulp for burning into electricity? Is it really more than 200,000 tons of CO2 annually that Seneca will produce that will increase climate change? When can we elect new EWEB directors? Ruth Duemler Eugene HERE AND GONE The suckability of the Bijou Cinema is that the best fi lms come and go very quickly. Their publicity is lame and the BY ANITA JOHNSON A Tribute to Derrick Bell Civil rights activist and scholar remembered T DAVID SHANKBONE he annual Derrick Bell lecture at New York University School of Law will begin at 6 pm Nov. 2. Ian F. Haney Lopez, the John H. Boalt professor of law at UC-Berkeley, will speak. The lecture is especially signifi cant this year because the memorial service for Derrick Bell will begin the next evening at 6 pm in Riverside Memorial Church at the other end of Manhattan. Born Nov. 6, 1930, son of a Pittsburgh garbage collector, Bell died Oct. 5. He was a famous civil rights advocate, legal scholar, author, speaker and role model for young Americans of all colors. As a young lawyer, he supervised more than 300 school desegregation cases in the South and led the legal fi ght for James Meredith to enter the University of Mississippi. He was the fi rst tenured black professor at Harvard Law School, a huge accomplishment. In tribute, I want to offer some insight into his nearly fi ve years in Eugene (1980 to 1985) as dean of the UO School of Law. It was high adventure for Derrick and Jewel and their three sons, Derrick A. Bell III, Douglas Dubois Bell and Carter Robseson Bell, to move out west to Oregon. Because of contemporary children and other ties, our families became close friends. Soon after he was hired, a prominent law faculty wife raised the question at a social gathering: Why would the UO hire a civil rights scholar when civil rights was such a minor part of the law school curriculum? Not a good omen for the Bell deanship at Oregon; I thought maybe the school should focus more on civil rights considering the Klan history in the state and the prominence of the issues in contemporary America. Jewel was settled in a house on Lincoln Street only a short time before she marched into the offi ce of the South Eugene High School principal to fi rmly suggest that student “slave auctions” should end. In those days students raised money by auctioning off “slaves” to do the bidding of their “owners.” A wise man, the principal agreed with her, immediately ending that tradition. One autumn evening, Derrick and Jewel and my husband Art and I were leaving a fi ne little restaurant WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM on west 13th Avenue when an angry white passenger shouted at us from the cab of a passing pickup, “Go home ... niggers.” We were so ashamed. Another afternoon, Derrick, Jewel and I drove up the McKenzie to enjoy the river and dinner. A fan of fi ne cars, he was driving his Alfa Romeo. We stopped for gas, the only car waiting for service. The attendant was so slow that even I had time to pick up the body language: “How come a guy like you is driving a car like this?” Was I unfair to the attendant? I asked. But Derrick said it was a common reaction to the black guy and the Alfa. When we stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Blue River, the service was even slower, especially frustrating when we were the only diners in the room. My mood was to leave no tip, but Derrick and Jewel left double the usual, suggesting to me that the waitress might learn from their generosity and friendliness. These are only glimpses of one side of their lives in Eugene. All things considered, Jewel and the boys prospered, especially son Derrick who loved Duck athletics, returning here this summer for his 30th high school reunion. Calling this a “caring community,” Jewel dove into it by taking a job as a high-level administrator for minority affairs in the UO, chair of the Sponsors board, member of the Eugene Symphony board and more. Derrick’s introduction to his deanship at a western public law school took place before he even moved into his offi ce. The president’s staff invited him to Johnson Hall to meet with prominent members of the wood products industry who were demanding that the UO shut down the environmental law clinic. A compromise was crafted, and the clinic moved off campus, eventually growing into the Western Environmental Law Center, still fl ourishing in Oregon and beyond. One of his proudest accomplishments was beginning to build real alumni giving and support for the UO School of Law. That was before the powerful UO fundraising machine was in place. He liked well-tailored suits, always looking slightly uncomfortable in the yellow and green sweaters he thought appropriate for game days. He became a serious jogger in Eugene, worked on his fi ne photography and enjoyed cooking for the family. But he was restless by 1985. Other law schools and bigger ponds beckoned. When Dean Bell and some of the law faculty disagreed over the hiring of an Asian-American woman, he resigned, eventually returning to Harvard, which he left for the last time in 1990 over a similar minority hiring dispute. This time one of his supporters was a promising African-American student named Barack Obama. Jewel Hairston Bell died in Boston in 1990. Derrick moved to New York to become a visiting professor at NYU Law School, a position he enjoyed for 11 years. In 1992 he married Janet Dewart, another smart, wise, capable woman working for social justice. Two UO scholarship funds, one to honor Jewel through minority student services, and another in Derrick’s name in the law school, were set up years ago. Both are managed by the UO Development Offi ce. EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 27, 2011 5
