WAR ON WOMEN
Women will decide the next election,
and if that scares you, we’re not tasking
for permission. The empowerment of girls
is a global fi ght that manifested itself in a
14-year-old girl named Malala Yousufzai
in Pakistan who was shot in the head by the
Taliban because she’s an activist for girls
getting an education. In America there
has been a 125 percent increase in crimes
against women and children. Where’s the
outrage?
The war on women in America is a
move to defund Planned Parenthood. Last
night I drove by their new building in
Glenwood and on the top fl oor was a room
full of men and women taking a class.
How can anyone who lives in this century
be against men and women getting family
planning and getting birth control? The
world has over seven billion people. One
party wants to reverse Roe v. Wade. One
in three women have made the choice to
end a pregnancy; we are your daughters,
your nieces, your aunts, mothers and
grandmothers. No matter how you feel
about it, our government has no business
taking a woman’s choice away.
Women still make 76 cents on the dollar
that men make. Where’s the outrage? Baby
boomer women started feminism; it’s time
to band together with younger women and
evolved men.
Think about the little girl in a hospital
bed with a hole in her head, all because
someone doesn’t want her to get an
education. Women and girls must stand up
against oppression.
Diane DeVillers
Eugene
BEYER FAVORS LIVELY
I read with great interest “GOP cash
infusion heats House Race” by Saul
Hubbard in the Sept. 29 issue of the R-G.
I live in this area, which is presently well-
served by Rep. Terry Beyer, who has been
a strong supporter of education, including
LCC, and of programs that benefi t seniors
and the disabled. She has chosen not to run
for another term and has endorsed John
Lively to replace her as our representative
in Salem.
Lively has served on the Springfi eld
City Council and as the mayor of
Springfi eld and a number of other posts.
(Visit JohnLively.com for a list of his work
for the benefi t of Springfi eld.)
Recently there have been a number
of criticisms of the Pishioneri campaign,
and the R-G has published a letter to the
editor from Betsy Schultz, his campaign
manager, denying that the campaign has
done anything unethical or illegal. I beg
to differ since this campaign has used
push polls which are designed to sound
as if an objective poll is being conducted.
In reality, the call is actually from his
campaign and is basically an anti-Lively
call. I consider this to be unethical. Also,
recently someone destroyed my Lively
campaign sign and placed some anti-
Lively campaign material in my mailbox.
The material was not mailed and did not
have a mailing address. Not only is this
unethical, but this is illegal, according to
the U.S. Postal Department.
I would, as a former elected person who
represented Springfi eld on the LCC Board,
like to endorse John Lively in his bid to
replace Rep. Beyer.
G. Dennis Shine
Springfi eld
ILLEGAL TO RECORD?
I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Lauren
Regan’s comment in “Busted” [Back to
Campus, 10/4] that “you are probably
being audio-recorded” when being
questioned by the police, but probably
just misinformation from your writer. I
was under the impression that Oregon law
(ORS 165.540) makes it illegal for any
person (including the police) to “obtain
or attempt to obtain the whole or any
part of a conversation by means of any
device, contrivance, machine or apparatus,
whether electrical, mechanical, manual
or otherwise, if not all participants in the
conversation are specifi cally informed
that their conversation is being obtained.”
Please ask Regan for clarifi cation.
John Tietjen
Corvallis
EDITOR’S NOTE: We checked our (legal!) recording of
the conversation, and that is an accurate quote. It gets
complicated in this age of ubiquitous smart phones and
pocket recorders. Court cases often examine whether the
person being recorded has an “expectation of privacy”
and whether clandestine recordings are permitted as
evidence in court. Recent cases have favored citizens’
rights to record police activities in public places.
TIME FOR TEACHERS
I applaud EW for deciding to dedicate a
column to education in Eugene [10/18]. I
also appreciate Anne Bridgman for giving
voice to educators whose voices have been
drowned out by shrill voices of public
education enemies and supporters of
corporate education “deform” movement.
It’s time for teachers to tell their stories
to the community in their own voice and
I hope that this column can be shared
with any educator willing to speak up.
As a public school teacher for over 33
years in 4J (classroom teacher and now a
substitute) I have witnessed huge changes
in our schools. It’s important to document
those changes for all to see.
I also hope that we can put 4J
experience into a larger national context.
Our experience is very similar to other
communities in Oregon and beyond.
Public education, the foundation of
our democracy, is systematically being
defunded and supporters of privatization
are creating a two-tiered system of
education, one for the haves and another
for the have-nots.
Educators here and all over the country
are under attack, blamed for everything that
is wrong in the underfunded schools. They
are accused of selfi shness for bargaining
health care benefi ts, pensions, decent pay
and working conditions. Unions are accused
of sheltering poor teachers and standing in
the way of reform. The fact is that teachers
and their organizations are the strongest
advocates for children and public education.
It’s time to hear from teachers and all
the people who work with our children
every day.
Pete Mandrapa
Eugene
HOBOS AMONG US
In your Oct. 4 News Briefs, entomologist
Melissa Scherr (“No Worries About Giant
Brown Spiders”) is quoted as saying, “No
hobo spiders have been documented in
Oregon south of Corvallis.”
I’m not sure if she limits that claim
to this year, but during 2004 and ’05, I
removed over 20 of them from my house,
which is in Eugene. I took several to the
Lane County Extension Service for positive
ID and they were identifi ed as hobos. Upon
request of a staff member, I later brought in
a live one. Nobody there seemed surprised
that they came from south of Corvallis or
commented on their rarity. I don’t know
what records they have at the Extension
Service, but there were and probably still
are hobo spiders in Eugene.
Zig Engelmann
Eugene
THE LAST STRAW
Coal trains through Lane County
are emblematic of the nation’s decline.
Sen. Bernie Sanders told us that 55,000
manufacturing plants have closed in the
last decade, transferring jobs, machinery
and skills offshore. Only to benefi t the
1 percent. Then, next level jobs went
offshore: call centers, service facilities,
fi nancial services, research centers and
many other large volume employers. Some
corporate headquarters even left us.
Now we scrape the bottom of the barrel
to export basic raw materials. We export
our forests as logs, chips, pulp and even
biomass. There is clamor to export very
damaging fractured natural gas. The most
destructive coal mining ever conceived
now plans to export for short-term profi ts.
It is ironic that the largest number of
containers returning across the Pacifi c are
fi lled with baled paper waste.
Third-world nations are forced to export
their raw material. Is this to be our destiny
as well? And what does nature tell us? It is
fi nite. Please don’t consume it, laying it to
waste in a mad search for profi t.
A much wiser course for our nation
LETTERS POLICY
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1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
would be to apportion our raw materials,
over a very long time frame. Don’t future
generations of U.S. citizens deserve
their share? Why not 1,000 years?
Many resource scientists believe that
hydrocarbons should no longer be burned,
but used for manufactured products
that last a very long time. Hydrocarbon
molecules should be reused and recycled,
some almost indefi nitely. Energy currently
derived from the sun, in all its many forms,
must be our nation’s and the earth’s future.
So let’s not just worry about coal train
routing, but the very concept of exporting
it at all.
George R. Hermach
Eugene
SMOKER’S HERO
The big bad government is at it again!
First they banned smoking on airplanes,
then our workplaces, and now they’re
coming for our socialist parks!
The liberal health police somehow
think that we should keep toxic cigarette
smoke out of the places where our
families and children gather. Thankfully
we have incredible conservative leaders
like Commissioner Jay Bozievich, who
possess that special kind of courage it
takes to stand up for the right of smokers
to contaminate Lane County’s parks with
toxic smoke. And who doesn’t love those
lovely cigarette butts strewn everywhere?
Bravo Bozievich. Keep up the good work!
And with registered Democrats
outnumbering registered Republicans
nearly 2-1 in Lane County, we (particularly
smokers and plunderers) should feel very
fortunate to actually have a wonderful
right-wing dream team in control of the
Board of Commissioners. To all you
Democrats who haven’t been voting:
Thank you very much!
Joshua Welch
Eugene
A SCATTERING OF TOXINS
I am writing in response to the article
by Camilla Mortensen on July 12. “Coal
Battle Heating Up In Eugene” points
out numerous reasons to oppose these
environmental degrading coal hauling
machines to pass through our treasured
city of Eugene.
Many citizens of Eugene recognize the
potential harm to Eugene’s air and water
quality. We should all be concerned about
the likely damage to our beautiful parks
and open spaces.
In addition to the harm the coal trains
would levy on our community, people
should also be concerned about the traffi c
issues that would be aggravated by these
toxin-scattering machines. On one end of
town we will have to navigate our way
through the probable EmX expanded bus
route and at another part of town waiting
for the coal train to pass by.
As a current LCC student who plans on
graduating soon, I understand the importance
of producing jobs for Oregonians. I don’t
believe that creating 150 jobs in the North
Bend/Coos Bay area is validation for
allowing damage to the environment and
the beautiful city of Eugene.
Matt Keller
Euge ne
eugeneweekly.com • October 25, 2012
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