letters
TO THE EDITOR
MISDIRECTED ANGER
notes from the riverside
BY MARK HARRIS
Waiting for Justice?
Making a way out of no way
hile I fervently wish that racism would take
a holiday, I haven’t noticed that it does.
I listen to my Tea Party critics when
they accuse me of “playing the race card”
every time I don’t get my way. It’s more
about making my own way out of no way.
It’s not like Black Santa is going to appear
in Kinte cloth on Kwanzaa-Umoja with a
reparations check, saying “thanks for all
you do, love Barack.”
I can give thanks that I have a home
when it’s 36 degrees, but that is tempered
by the revelation that I have a home where
it’s 36 degrees F, not 36 degrees C, with a
sea breeze. The climate is chilly in other ways.
In the “game” where race is a card, the rules
say that if I use race it’s a two of diamonds. If a
Caucasoid, or someone with most favored minority status
uses race, it’s an ace to prove me wrong. I don’t mind being proven wrong,
I just hate being right. Given that usual outcome, my actual experience is
that I can’t hope for any solution or resolution from you. That’s like waiting
for a pimp to free his hos, or a slaver giving his slaves 40 acres, a mule and
a free ride to Harvard, let alone Howard.
Look, even the dude who ripped off an African melody to write
“Amazing Grace” was a slaver, who after being delivered of the storm
(which was the inspiration for the song) still didn’t free his slaves on that
voyage and continued to make more slave voyages.
I don’t believe any institution rooted in slavery, or expect that a
state founded in racial injustice, like Oregon, would allow its institutions
to embody and embrace a larger humanity. Not at the expense of
white supremacist capitalist patriarchy more commonly known by its
kinder, gentler appellation: the Matrix of Domination. The Matrix is that
interlocking set of isms that can be known by the acronym CR 2 A 3 SH
(classism, racism, religion, addiction, ability, age, sexism, heterosexism).
Defi nitely, if you speak English and were taught and believed the
“Columbus discovered America” narrative, along with the Easter Bunny and
Santa Claus, you are in the Matrix. You know what agents of the system
look and sound like, and asking them for justice and freedom is like asking
the Mafi a to turn Vegas into a homeless vet rehabilitation community. Not
necessarily an idea that would occur to them.
All that remains is that you free yourself from your own bonds, be your
own Morpheus, Trinity and Neo, and never trust an agent of the System
to free you. So I don’t play the race card, because I don’t allow myself
to expect justice, where it has been long evicted. But I’m open to being
surprised when I see Justice on the street, begging for Change. Maybe
during those occasions I’ll raise a fi st with Justice and shout Harambee!
Let’s pull together. Till freedom comes, stay strong.
W
Mark Harris is an instructor and substance abuse prevention coordinator at LCC.
4
DECEMBER 29, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
For those who look at the Occupy
movement with disdain, look deeper. This
is a case of misdirected anger, with lots of
help from mainstream media. Eighty fi ve
percent of college graduates are moving
back in with their parents due to lack of
employment. People are losing their homes
because they can’t afford medical bills or
have lost their jobs. Yet government bailed
out the big banks which helped create many
of these problems. We subsidize the fossil
fuel industry which is making more profi ts
than any in history. Most legislators are in
the back pockets of the wealthy, afraid to
change this corrupt system.
Applaud the Occupiers, join them,
become one of them. We are at a crossroads
in history where the path we choose will
determine the fate of life on Earth. The
economy is intricately connected to the
natural environment. Wildlife habitats
are being destroyed, climate change is
accelerating and humans are consuming
resources at an increasingly unsustainable
rate. We need to occupy these truths in order
to change our course to one of sharing,
compassion and love for one another.
Pamela Driscoll
Dexter
PARKS FOR THE POOR
It’s gone but not going away. Lauren
Regan, Occupiers and no-choice homeless:
Thank you all for being a force for the
betterment of American Life.
Going back to the history of struggle in
the late 19th century is Jacob A. Riis, an
immigrant from Denmark who was homeless
for seven years. He is considered the father of
the small park movement. Parks were meant
for poor people.
Riis fought for housing for homeless and
got it with the help of Theodore Roosevelt.
He also fought for pure water, schools and
against child labor and corruption. If we must
go backward, let’s go forward.
Riis’ parting words were “We can and
will right our wrongs in an orderly way or
the republic is a mockery.”
Steve Trimmell
Veneta
ERRONEOUS CLAIMS
Isn’t it ironic when you read a letter to
the editor from someone with a “research”
background who throws around a lot of
fi gures and analysis, but has failed to do the
basic research? This is the case with the Dec.
15 letter in EW from Michael Lee regarding
EWEB’s plans to upgrade technology and
install new digital meters, aka smart meters,
in 2013.
Let’s set the record straight. Contrary
to the erroneous claim that the project will
cost $50 million, past and updated estimates
have established a project cost range of $27
million to $32 million. Certainly not a small
fi gure, but still almost half what Lee claims.
Next, Lee claims the supposed $50
million project would cost every customer
$500. Not true. Basic math: $50 million
divided by 142,000 electric and water meters
equals $352. EWEB doesn’t plan to charge
a meter fee to customers and the project cost
is in the $27 million to $32 million range, so
Lee’s poor math is irrelevant.
Lee challenges whether EWEB’s 19
meter readers drive 100 miles a day to read
meters. That would mean each meter reader
drives only about 5 miles a day. EWEB reads
142,000 meters each month, spread out over
21 work days, in a geographic area that is
235 square miles in size, from Greenhill
Road to the west and Vida to the east, from
North Coburg Road to Spencer Butte.
EWEB knows how many miles each vehicle
is driven, each day. We’ve got the numbers.
Why anyone would speculate by grabbing
inaccurate numbers out of the air is puzzling.
Lastly, EWEB’s digital meter project
would replace all of the utility’s aging
mechanical meters. The cost of the project
would be offset by eliminating the expenses
associated with manually reading meters.
In other words, customers wouldn’t see any
noticeable impact on overall rates.
Lance Robertson
Public Affairs Manager
Eugene Water & Electric Board
YEAH, BUT
It seems like our New York and
Chicago delegates in recent letters both
agree with me that PRI and Pegasus are
overrated. They simply are old favorites
of UO alumni and current students alike.
As for the others, Sy’s kind of gets it but
the best kept secret in Eugene is the utterly
fantastic organic made-from-scratch pizza
found at World Cafe/ New Day Bakery in
the Whiteaker. This hard-to-please lifelong
Philadelphian (’til ’06) is verrry impressed!
Glenn Leonard
Eugene
WILDLIFE DISSERVICES
Thanks for publishing Debra Merskin’s
article (12/22) about the government Wildlife
Services Department and their mass killing
of nonhuman animals — both intentional and
unintentional. Please continue to interrogate
this destructive government agency that does
not provide a “service” to wildlife, but rather
to certain industries.
Carrie Packwood Freeman
Atlanta, Ga.
(formerly of Eugene)
GETTING TO THE POINT
I’d like to suggest a new EW convention
that each letter to the editor begin with a clear
and concise topic sentence.
The problem as I see it is that typically
EW letters ramble here and there without
ever getting to the point, leaving the
reader guessing to the end what their
purpose might be. They might talk about a
childhood pet or the neighbor who won’t
prune the fence roses, or perhaps complain
about the underhanded behavior of some
distant governmental functionaries, before
eventually settling on the real issue: the lack
of proper bike lanes downtown or the way
the sun gently brightens 10th Avenue in the
late afternoon. Or a beautiful bus stop face
seen in passing or the sofa-clawing thrill of
discovering a $2 micro-draft happy hour.
Everyday community events, in other words.
Which brings me to my point. I love
Eugene radio. We are blessed in this town
with three wonderful community stations,
KRVM, KWVA and KLCC. Wherever I go
at any time of day or (more often) night
I can generally count on fi nding excellent,
unpredictable music on at least one of
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