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
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EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 29, 2011
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