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
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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
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