letters
TO THE EDITOR
been renamed the 1st Avenue Shelter.
I began volunteering at LCAS as a
dog walker last year, and have continued
to volunteer several days a week through
the Greenhill transition. LCAS volunteer
retention through the transition has been
low and Greenhill volunteers have not
come to 1st Avenue in the hoped-for
numbers.
This letter is an open call — a desperate
plea, really — for former LCAS volunteers
to return to, and Greenhill volunteers to
come to, 1st Avenue. I also encourage
anyone who cares about companion
animals to volunteer.
The situation is most desperate for the
1st Avenue dogs that are often confi ned
to kennels for 17-plus hour stretches,
depending on availability of staff and
volunteers. For older/house-trained dogs,
this is particularly troubling, as a lack of
regular potty breaks can cause physical
and psychological problems including
urinary tract infections, house-training
reversal and anxiety.
Volunteer dog walkers make a real
difference in shelter dogs’ lives, all the
while reaping their own health benefi ts of
fresh air, exercise and fun!
Readers should also know that 1st
Avenue is still a great place to adopt an
animal, and that there are many beautiful,
friendly and personable dogs and cats just
waiting for their forever homes. I hope to
see you there!
Misha Dunlap English
Eugene
4J FANTASY PLAN
Mark Gillem [cover story, 7/19]
provided an excellent analysis of the 4J
facilities fantasy plan. But he left a few
key points out.
It seems that neither the district
leadership, the board, nor the consultant
can do simple addition. Last year, there
were 328 students at Edison and 416 at
Camas Ridge, so a merger of these two
schools would result in 744 students.
The Edison building really does have
major defi ciencies and it is unlikely that it
can be successfully remodeled to support
the more ideal number of students: 400 to
450. But this challenge has been known
for a very long time. It was insanely stupid
to have closed Parker last year — which
added so many students to Camas Ridge.
The other insanely stupid idea in
4J’s facilities fantasy plan is to move
Yugin Gakeun from the North region to
Jefferson. This would cause horrifi c loss
in the Kelly/North region. If the district is
really truly interested in supporting equity,
then the very obvious choice would be to
move Charlemagne to Jefferson, with this
program continuing on at Churchill.
Nancy Willard
Eugene
SELF-DEFENSE DRONES
Whereas Camilla Mortensen’s cover
story on drone warfare [7/5] concerned
itself primarily with the U.S. tactics in
Afghanistan, it was quickly twisted around
[in Letters, 7/12] to attack Israel’s Gaza
politics, rather skewed, considering the last
bombing tragedy in Bulgaria.
Even the movie Death in Gaza, which
deals with Israel’s use of drones as a matter
of self-defense, opens on the following
text insert: “Israeli Citizens have been
subjected to wave after wave of deadly
terror attacks by Palestinian militants.”
Anyone looking at a map and realizing
the tiny area Israel covers in the face of
the vast amounts of land of its mostly
hostile neighbors, would concern itself
for its survival. In addition, one should
not forget that anti-Israel Islamic hatred
is often fueled by extremist politicos, not
necessarily the general Arabic public.
Lioba Multer, Ph.D.
Yachats
DISC GOLF QUANDARY
In 2007 the city of Eugene issued an
RFP to operate Laurelwood Golf Course
with a preference for an operator willing
to include disc golf. The current operators
SANDAL SALE
agreed to do so and for several weeks in the
dead of winter disc golf was very popular
there. Contract in hand and lip service
paid, they then removed the city-funded
disc golf baskets. Today, those operators
haven’t even paid the $5,000 annual rent,
and the cash-strapped city of Eugene has
paid $60,000 of their water bills. Disc golf
fees would have paid that rent many times
over.
There are dozens of disc golf courses
in the U.S. that play alongside ball golf
courses, bringing needed revenue in a time
when ball golf is not as popular. The disc
golf baskets are in city storage somewhere.
The city can pay exorbitant water
bills for ball golf at Laurelwood, but it
has “limited resources” and cannot even
issue an RFP to operate the proposed pay-
to-play disc golf course at Alton Baker
11 months after fi nal approval. Disc golf
courses require no watering, no fertilizers,
no herbicides and they only need to be
mowed a few times a year. It is the real
blue-collar golf and the eco-friendliest of
sports.
Last month Charlotte, N.C., hosted
more than 1,000 disc golfers competing
on its 12 disc golf courses in the World
Championships, with estimated revenue of
over $1 million to the community. Why are
we teeing up to throw more of our money
down holes at Laurelwood instead of
putting up baskets to throw discs in? Bring
the baskets back to Laurelwood and issue
the RFP for Alton Baker!
Matt Benotsch
Eugene
A RIGHT TO HOUSING?
Lynn Porter [Letters, 8/2] asserts that
“Housing is a human right and Eugene
must provide it to the homeless.”
Would Porter be so kind as to point out
where in the U.S. Constitution, the Code
of Federal Regulations, Oregon Revised
Statutes or Eugene City Code these decrees
appear?
Jerry Ritter
Springfi eld
HUGE MISTAKE
Laura Israel’s important new fi lm
Windfall is now available on DVD. Israel
visits the scenic town of Meredith, New
York, and documents how government-
subsidized wind power corporations used
unscrupulous tactics to turn that peaceful
rural area into a nightmare. The windmills
are over 400 feet tall, Godzilla-sized and
can be seen from 3 miles away. They emit
health-damaging low frequency noise,
which one resident compared to trying
to sleep with a loud vacuum cleaner next
to his bed. The blades destroy television
reception and create a horrifi c stroboscopic
fl ickering effect when the sun gets behind
them. Wind turbines also create pressure
zones that instantly kill birds and bats,
turning vast areas of America into kill
zones.
Israel used graphics to explain that
wind power can never be more than costly
energy policy window dressing because
of its inherently intermittent nature. Wind
power has not reduced greenhouse gas
release because of the natural gas power
plants required to back them up when
the wind stops blowing and because
of the large amounts of CO2 released
in manufacturing the monster-sized
windmills themselves, which are mainly
constructed from imported parts.
We spend huge amounts of taxpayer
money subsidizing wind power, yet it
satisfi es less than 3 percent of our national
electricity needs. Wind power schemes
have made Americans poorer and have
not reduced our dependence on fossil
fuels. Even famous windmill entrepreneur
T. Boone Pickens now admits that his
investment in wind energy was a huge
mistake.
Christopher Calder
Eugene
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics
and will print as many as space allows, with priority
given to timely local issues. Please limit length to 200
words, keep submissions to once a month, and include
your address and phone number for our files. Email to
letters@eugeneweekly.com fax to 484-4044, or mail to
1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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Dr. James J. Knackstedt
EUGENE WEEKLY AUGUST 16, 2012
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