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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2011)
letters TO THE EDITOR fi nes the county has assessed for their illegal mining. A hearing is scheduled for 2 pm Thursday, Jan. 5, in Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. Robert Emmons Fall Creek them. Most communities in the world do not have that luxury. That’s their problem, but it may become ours if a member of one of those outside communities rises up and claims power. Then we have a non-musical head of state, someone who will never appreciate a beautiful bus stop face seen in passing. Then suddenly it’s our problem. And that’s the problem as I see it. Belle Springs Eugene BLAMING VICTIMS ADD UP THE COSTS My comments are limited to the quote in your cover story on Oregon health care (12/8): “Rogers says that in the U.S. more than 30 percent of health care spending goes to administrative costs, not actual health care.” As an accountant with extensive experience in examining the records of doctors and health-care facilities, I see this 30 percent fi gure as way too low. The total administrative cost would easily exceed 130 percent. The only fair way of determining the total administrative cost of health care is to add up the administrative costs of everyone: all medical personnel, hospitals, patients, Medicare, insurance companies and everyone else involved, especially the patients and their families. Just the costs to patients and their families would be a substantial amount of time, effort and money. Medicare will tell you their administrative expenses are less than 10 percent and the insurance companies will tell you the same thing. I say to all of them: bullshit! Go to any medical facility and count the number of doctors, nurses, technicians and laboratory personnel. Then count everybody else — they will easily outnumber the medical personnel. And even then, the doctors, etc., will spend a lot of time protecting themselves against lawsuits, dealing with Medicare and insurance companies, etc. — more administration. The only long-term permanent solution is to get the insurance companies out, get all governments and politicians out, get the lawyers out. Put the entire health-care system in a single-payer nonprofi t organization with strong oversight and transparency, lots of public participation and volunteers, and dispute resolution by non-lawyers and non- medical people. Allow all medical personnel to “provide medical care,” not politics or bookkeeping. Frank Skipton Springfi eld HORRIFIED NEIGHBORS Named for one of Dexter’s early settlers, Parvin Butte has both historical and geographical signifi cance. It is one of the landscape features that distinguishes Dexter from, say, nearby Lowell or Creswell or Cottage Grove. And no doubt it’s borne the footprints of many locals, Indian and settler alike, attracted by the all-points view its top provides — and by the seclusion it offers for those seeking a closer view of their climbing companions. For Greg Demers and the McDougal Brothers, however, it’s no more than a pile of rock to be crushed and then transported to the coast for various construction projects. A new site on Greenhill Road for transfer of Parvin basalt to railcars, and other sites owned by their company or companies along the soon to be upgraded rail line from Eugene to Coos Bay, have the full support of Oregon State Sen. Floyd Prozanski. So weak is the law and so anemic its enforcement that, having already clear-cut the trees on it, Demers/McDougals are daily removing a local icon without a county site review or permit, within close view of horrifi ed and frustrated neighbors and beside Class 1 Lost Creek and its endangered Willamette spring Chinook. After the butte is fl attened, these scoffl aws intend to chop what remains into residential lots. For the McDougals and Demers, who own thousands of acres all over Lane County — and the McDougals, at least, own thousands more throughout the Western states region — landscape destruction is standard business practice, as are the public costs: clear-cut and eroded soils, polluted streams, devastated neighbors and wildlife and further global warming. Demers/McDougals are also partners in Willamette Water Company, a quasi-municipal water source seeking to supply and control the water going to Goshen, Creswell, Cottage Grove and vicinity, whether or not they want or need it. The butte owners have appealed the minor I camped with Occupy Eugene for 12 days until the city evicted us. Letting the homeless stay in nature is the opposite of corruption, so homeless camps are wholly compatible with the protest. The long-term homeless don’t pay rent by working for companies which aren’t free of corruption. Nature is the healthiest environment. More neurons grow in nature. Healthier people have less need to carelessly use drugs, some of which are natural trauma remedies when used wisely. Trauma or stress comes from unhealthy biorhythms. The city forced very unhealthy air pressure waves on occupiers by imposing very noisy generators to power fl oodlights. That noise blocked cries for help to prevent the fatal fi ght that closed the camp. Floodlights also attract stragglers at night. They make it look like a lit-up, inviting party. The people who imposed those safety hazards blamed their victims. That’s the height of corruption, which means going along with the prevailing group even when it can’t clearly discern what’s best for the whole. Giving people truly free choice enables the most harmonious nervous system functioning. Each occupier’s presence enabled the others to live there too. Such mutual appreciation is healthiest, as ECGs and EEGs can prove. The city didn’t care to measure the unhealthy effects of noisy generators. When vulnerable people yearn for protection, it’s a shocking betrayal to realize how ineffectively police and cities care. Poverty emerges when companies and governments take over people’s homes in nature. Nature freely gave food from plants and trees, and clean water in streams and dead wood for energy. People who work for such companies enable the corruption. That’s the real problem. Irene Cardenas Eugene T HANK YOU FOR VOTING US IN E UGENE W EEKLY ’ S B EST OF E UGENE 2008-2009 Mother’s Homemade Recipes Gluten-free Dishes Available Vegetarian Selections No MSG, No Dairy 2009-2010 2010-2011 T A R A R IN G IFT C ARDS Available at restaurant, come see us for details! Over 50 Selections of Beer & Wine See our complete menu online: www.TaRaRinThai.com O PEN S EVEN D AYS A W EEK K ! ~ W EEKDAY L UNCH S PECIALS ~ ~ D INE I N OR T AKE O UT ~ Mon-Fri: 11 am-3 pm Lunch 4:30 pm-10 pm Dinner Sat-Sun: 12 noon-10 pm Located in downtown Eugene at 1200 Oak St. Phone 541.343.1230 WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 29, 2011 5
