letters
TO THE EDITOR
KLCC’S QUANDARY
The letter Oct. 27 from David Kennedy
about KLCC was way off the mark. As a
public radio DJ, I do agree that NPR is
overtaking the station with shows that are
excellent in small doses and elitist and
soul-sucking in large doses. Fresh Tracks
and several of the specialty music shows
have provided community-building and
culturally enriching programming, and are
indeed in danger of disappearing.
The
problem
with
Kennedy’s
assessment is he blames the changes of
the program director when it is the public
that demands talk rather than music. Public
radio listeners have shorter and shorter
attention spans, and they are increasingly
lured by the mirage of “intelligent” talk
rather than spiritual or artistic fulfi llment.
Based on feedback and trends, KLCC
has no choice but to respond accordingly.
They and KRVM still have great music
that lingers while many city public stations
have eliminated music completely.
Mike Meyer
Eugene
CRAVING WEALTH
While walking to the Oct. 15 Occupy
Eugene march with my sign, a homeless
man asked me what I had against rich
people, said someday he was going to
be rich and he wanted everything they
currently have. John Steinbeck said:
“Socialism never took root in America
because the poor see themselves not as
an exploited proletariat but as temporarily
embarrassed millionaires.”
At another Occupy protest, some
obviously not-rich people yelled at us.
Do these people identify with the rich
and are willing to do what it takes to be
a billionaire, by exploiting people and
destroying the environment?
Then there are the fence sitters who are
waiting until the movement grows or are
down by the riverside
so scared they’re willing to cling to the
current shitstem.
This movement cannot be just about
economic justice BUT must include
environmental justice. What is the worth
of more jobs, if it’s at the expense of the
planetary life support system?
Humanity is on the edge of collapse
due to climate chaos. This movement is
a critical opportunity. Any fence-sitting
parents who are not helping this movement
should be charged with child abuse for
having them and then denying their kids a
future.
Scott Fife
Eugene
DEFENDING THE RICH?
Another way in which the game is
clearly rigged for the rich is that blue
collar workers have been exposed to “free
trade” competition and are losing their
jobs to people from China and India who
work for a lot less. Meanwhile, doctors,
lawyers, journalists and many other well
paid professionals are protected from this
kind of competition by trade pacts. So
“free trade” competition is only applicable
to lower paid people and not higher paid
professionals.
I wonder why Don Richey (letters,
10/13) is shamelessly promoting the
plight of “the evil rich”? Assuming that he
doesn’t belong to the richest 1 percent, he
is promoting against his own best interest.
I wonder how high his IQ is?
Arjen Hoekstra
Eugene
DEFUNKED ANARCHISM
I’m grateful for your coverage of the
Occupy Wall Street march in Eugene.
Warren Weisman (letters, 10/20) and
I agree that the Occupy Wall Street
movement is a great and important step
for American democracy. I do not agree,
The ethics of slavery continue today
ccupying my mind, rising like Tenochtitlan, Cahokia or
Cheops, is what used to pass for economic justice before
there was an America. Suffusing the atmosphere like
smog, infusing the water like aspartame, putting a price tag on
water falling from the sky, all the products just doing business as
usual in the land of the free built on the ethics of slavery. That is,
profi t at any cost even if that means screwing someone and selling your
family. What was once done to us because of race, is now being done to you for
the money. If everybody is being treated like “niggers” have been treated, how
do you achieve justice?
I took in Occupy Eugene with the kids. The granddaughter’s fi rst demo, we
made funny faces at each other while her mom and dad spit rhymes via the
people’s microphone. Little Zeely is named for the earliest African ancestor on
grandpa’s side, and like her namesake is a fi end for literacy, even at 17 months.
Grandpa is a fi end for historic irony.
Here is a leaderless movement without specifi c demands, camping for
economic justice, using a decision model born from people who lived together
for tens of millennia under economic justice. They voluntarily move their tent
city to a park (protecting economic interests) — a park where American citizens
were once forced to live, because while they had money, their “excellent suntans”
barred them, like their ancestral “kinsmen” were barred from coming to Oregon
4
NOVEMBER 3, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
MEDICAL NECESSITY
I am in the process of transitioning from
female to male. I have been wanting to do
this for about 30 years. I have realized
that this is an expensive process, as many
have in the past. I recently checked with
my insurance to see if they would cover
me to have gender reassignment surgery,
in my case female to male top surgery. I
found out that there is an exclusion to the
policy which does not cover anything to
do with transitioning even with the proper
documentation of my disorder.
The surgery is about $6,000. This is a
huge step for me personally, and medically
necessary in my diagnosis of gender
identity disorder. I strongly believe that
this type of surgery/procedure should be
covered by insurance companies. To not
cover this is purely an act of discrimination.
Recently Seattle city employees voted
to take out their exclusionary policies based
on a letter sent to the health care committee.
This encouragement to consider removing
exclusions for city employees that were
transgendered resulted in a more fair and
equitable policy for all employees instead of
just a few. This is a huge step forward and
I would like all insurance companies to not
have such exclusions allowed in any policy.
Exclusions regarding gender identity
disorder are not fair and they don’t show
social justice. Anyone with a disorder has
a right to receive the appropriate medical
treatment needed. Gender reassignment is
not “experimental,” investigational, elective
cosmetic or optional in any meaningful
sense. It constitutes very effective and
appropriate treatment for transsexuals or
profound gender identity disorder.
Please join me in fi ghting for equal
rights for people who suffer with any
disorders. Exclusionary policies based on
this disorder are unfair and unjust.
Now is the time that employers are
re-enrolling for the new year of health
insurance. Let your voice be heard that you
want equal access to health care coverage
for all employees.
Max Burris
Eugene
CRY FOR CHANGE
I appreciate the efforts and sense of
justice offered by the people of Occupy
Eugene. This occupation represents a cry
for fundamental change towards balance
and fairness in our society. This occupation
is an example of people joined together out
of a common sense of community. This
occupation will require a sustained period
of growth and support in order to succeed. I
BY MARK HARRIS
Pre-Occupied
O
however, with anything else that Weisman
wrote.
Weisman refers to the 1920 bombing on
Wall Street as “propaganda through deed.”
Apparently the propaganda worked on him.
I’m pretty sure us normal people call that
bombing “terrorism.” He laments that this
terrorism didn’t kill more people. He asserts
that organized anarchism (ha!) ended nearly
a century ago, but that Occupy Wall Street
is a descendant of the anarchist movement.
He concludes that social movements that
don’t engage in the mass murder of innocent
citizens are “worthless.”
I hope that Occupy Wall Street main-
tains its focus on economic justice. I also
hope that the movement doesn’t listen to
anything that Weisman has to say, and re-
mains a nonviolent demonstration of what
democracy really looks like. By ignoring
Weisman’s advice, the Occupy Wall Street
movement may actually accomplish some
of the social goals that the defunct anarchist
movement aimed to achieve a century ago.
Finally, I hope that EW will try to
print fewer nonsensical, contradictory,
disgusting letters.
Gabriel Yospin
Eugene
for the same reason. A county commissioner named Christian ordered
the Ferry Street community (aka Tent City) bulldozed, without making
any provision to allow American citizens the right to live where they
could afford to, let alone choose to. Occupy Irony.
At one time, the ecology was the same as the economy, wisdom
and culture were currency, and the currency was seashells
patterned in a story of how to be in a working relationship with
all your relations: visible, invisible, past, present and future
generations. This wisdom informed all decisions, not just next
quarter’s profi ts. It was dishonorable to have poor people, it meant
you weren’t taking care of the most vulnerable. Elders were preserved
like libraries, not warehoused. Warriors contributed to building peace in
the society.
My Occupy demands are for economic justice and national security, starting
with citizens: Everybody housed, clothed, fed, educated to the level needed to
do excellent self-care, useful work including potent healing of others, and to
avoid becoming trapped by the unethical actions of corporations. Citizenship is
for anyone who makes a demonstrable positive contribution, even if you weren’t
born here, and not just whites only, or people that whites like. If corporate citizens
cause the injury, disability, or death of human beings, they suffer the same legal
consequences that human beings experience, including the death penalty. If
Wall Street had gotten funny with Mafi a money, do you think they’d get bonuses
comprised of 30 pieces of silver or 9mm lead?
Occupy demands, being mindful of past solutions, should look neither right,
nor left, but forward!
Mark Harris is an instructor and substance abuse prevention coordinator at LCC.
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