Eugene weekly., November 01, 2012, Page 6, Image 6

VIEWPOINT
LET TERS
BY SCOTT BARTLETT
A
Eugene
Treasure
What you might not know about Betty Taylor
T
hey broke the mold when Betty was born — she’s one of a kind!
Deciding to support Betty Taylor’s re-election to the Eugene City
Council Ward 2 is fairly simple: Not only is she a home-town hero,
respected across Oregon and in Washington, D.C., she’s really the
only qualifi ed candidate in the race, by far. Her civic resume goes
back decades and is unmatched, probably unprecedented in both
quality and breadth in the current or any council in Eugene’s modern history.
Taylor currently serves on the prestigious Board of the National League
of Cities (NLC), a body which represents each U.S. city — well over 200
million citizens. The League of Oregon Cities mounted a successful campaign
last year to elevate Taylor to that post, which puts her on the cutting edge of
national urban policy representing Eugene and Oregon.
Taylor’s list of local leadership roles is a mile long: president of the City
Council, chair of Lane Regional Air Pollution Agency, Police Commission,
McKenzie Watershed Council, chair of the Human Services Commission,
Workforce Partnership Board, Lord Leebrick Theatre’s fi rst board, etc.
Mayor Kitty Piercy has endorsed her and says “Betty has tirelessly
represented her ward with great integrity.” Taylor has won the backing of
all leading conservation groups. She has strong union support and deep ties
to the UO community. County Commissioner Pete Sorenson calls her “the
conscience of the council,” and former congressman Jim Weaver calls her “the
most valuable member of the Eugene City Council.”
Taylor is known for being the council’s leader for education and human
rights and for standing up to unchecked ugly sprawl, against automatic
tax giveaways to out-of-state developers and for her persistent efforts to
preserve the Amazon headwaters. Her sympathy for homeless citizens and
for abandoned and injured companion animals is unsurpassed on the council.
What few citizens know, however, is her fascinating and compelling life
story. Her life path through the Great Depression is a story of great hardship in
a close-knit family facing starvation and homelessness. It is the stuff of a John
Steinbeck novel and a profi le of overcoming great odds.
Her early years were spent in rural Tennessee, Kentucky and southern
Illinois. One day her father lost a fi nger, and his job, loading concrete on
a river barge. Faced with destitution, the family was saved by grandparents
sending a sack of fl our and a bag of unripened green apples. The family moved
to where jobs — stripping tobacco, picking strawberries — could be found.
At one point, the family lived in the attic of relatives before fi nally moving to
southern Illinois, where her father found steady employment in the depth of
the Depression.
Throughout these hardships was an abiding deep family bond, and a love
for reading had Betty trying to devour every book in her small town’s library.
Her mother dreamed that one day Betty would earn a bachelor’s degree,
a rarity at that time. Betty went on to earn a Ph.D. in English, becoming a
noted scholar and having a long career teaching English at the high school,
community college and university levels.
Her civic leadership dates back to the mid-1950s and the McCarthy era
when she started a citywide civil rights discussion group and TV program in
Illinois, enlisting local ministers and lawyers. She spearheaded the Sangamon
Conservation Council in the 1960s, fi ghting to protect open spaces and riparian
resources. Since then she has supported the Sierra Club, ACLU, NAACP,
Audubon Society, NOW, League of Women Voters and dozens of local and
national candidates. She came to Eugene in 1979, falling in love with the
city’s artistic, political and tolerant social community.
Taylor is being challenged by developer and resource extraction forces
who have poured money into the campaign of Ward 2 newcomer Juan Carlos
Valle, whose supporters read like a Who’s Who of Republican big donors.
Valle has a thin civic resume, having recently resigned as chair of the Police
Commission in the face of reported impending demands for his resignation
from members dissatisfi ed with his leadership style. Taylor has shown grace
in not exploiting Valle’s embarrassing diffi culties, preferring to press her
issues instead.
Development and real estate forces want to remove the often 4-4
progressive-conservative Council split. Taylor is incredibly vital, regularly
climbing Mount Pisgah with her retriever Lucy and attending dozens of
meetings each month, attending her Unitarian Church, bringing city staff for
fi eld inspections when neighbors voice alarm and taking leadership roles on
the NLC.
We can’t afford to lose this remarkable, decent and innovative leader from
the Eugene City Council. ■
Scott Bartlett is a long-time civic activist and volunteer who served on the Lane County Budget Committee
for 17 years and was elected twice to the Electoral College of the U.S.
6
November 1, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com
mirrors attempt to distract voters from
the facts and true issues facing the future
EPUD Board. Voters should look past the
negative and unfounded personal attacks
and research the issues at hand and the true
track records of those running.
Ron Davis is a long time resident of
Cottage Grove, a devoted husband, friend
and grandfather with years of successful
public service experience. He is a man
of integrity and honesty. Ron served on
the EPUD Board from 1981 to 1994. He
is well aware of the issues facing EPUD
and the problems that have plagued the
utility in recent years. In particular, a
lack of transparency and accountability
has undermined EPUD’s reputation as a
progressive public utility.
Ron will help the EPUD Board return
to the core values of innovation, effi ciency,
transparency and accountability. While we
have no wish to denigrate his opponents,
we are sure that Ron’s commitment to
excellence and integrity make him the best
choice for the EPUD Board.
Jay & Valerie Frasier
Creswell
WRITE IN MULIER
When the residents of Lane County cast
their ballots this year, they will be electing
a judge to Position 7 of the Circuit Court
District 2 through a write-in ballot. I would
urge them to write in the name Vincent
Mulier on their ballots.
Mulier is a defense attorney
currently serving the people of Eugene and
I have had the honor of being one of his
students at Portland State University where
he teaches philosophy. I’ve taken two of
the courses that he has taught, “Philosophy
of Sex and Love” and “Morality of
Punishment.” Through my conversations
with him, I have found him to be a man
of great principle with the highest of
respect for the rights and the dignity of
all persons and a thoughtful person who
has put great deliberation into his moral
stances. Consequently he is a strong friend
of marriage equality, the environment and
the rights of labor.
There are more staid fi gures in this race,
more conventional established ones, but
there is no one more thoughtful, no one of
greater integrity, and no one who represents
such a bold and principled alternative to
the judicial status quo as my good friend
and professor. I hope that when the good
people of Lane County cast their ballots
this year, they do so by writing in Vincent
Mulier as their choice for Circuit Court
Judge, District 2, Position 7. He would be
a tireless advocate for their rights and for
our beautiful Oregon.
Michael Patrick Wright
Portland
“xenophobic and offensive” comments
about Centro LatinoAmericano (“50
Shades of Betty,” 10/25). Then in the same
piece she asserts that “the demographics of
the Eugene City Council will be ugly” if
it ends up being mostly male or all-white.
I sometimes forget that such statements
and attitudes are not offensive to liberals,
those stalwart defenders of tolerance.
I’ve always felt that qualifi cations
matter most for those in public offi ce. I’ll
respectfully remind said liberals of what
happened not long ago when Eugene
hired two police offi cers primarily on the
basis of their ethnicity instead of their
qualifi cations.
Jerry Ritter
Springfi eld
REAL CHANGE NEEDED
Yeah, hooray, Pat Driscoll. You couldn’t
have said it better [Letters, 10/25]. Voting
for Obama is being an active participant
in the farce of our two party, so-called
democracy. Only when progressives
decide to vote for a third or a fourth or a
sixth party which truly represents them
will there be any hope for real change.
This time around, Jill Stein’s platform
deserves our votes, Barack Obama’s
doesn’t.
Georgette Silber
Springfi eld
WAKE UP, CHARLIE!
EW’s endorsements remind me of
Charlie Brown trying to kick the football
that Lucy is holding. Just like Charlie
Brown, EW swings ever-optimistically,
hoping the Democrats will be the
progressive liberal saviors of EW’s dreams.
Wake up, Charlie Brown! Lucy will pull
the football away at the very last moment
and you’ll be fl at on your back.
EW’s rote party-line endorsements are
no less predictable than the R-G’s and no
more inspiring. Voters who want to cast
their ballots for peace, sustainability and a
genuine democracy do have choices in this
election but you wouldn’t know it by either
the EW’s or the R-G’s endorsements.
I cannot vote for a presidential candidate
who supports expanding coal and oil
production and whose “foreign policy”
keeps winding up killing kids in Third
World countries. I’m voting for Green
Party presidential candidate and Harvard-
educated activist Jill Stein. And I’m voting
for Pacifi c Green Party candidate Seth
Woolley for secretary of state because
Oregon needs campaign fi nance reform
and a secretary of state who will use his
role on the State Land Board to properly
steward our state’s precious forests.
Blair Bobier
Corvallis
POT IS VALID MEDICINE
MISSING THE MUSIC
The U.S. government granted a patent
on cannabinoids as antioxidants and
neuroprotectants, Patent #6630507, on
Oct. 7, 2003. Cannabis is medicine that
helps brain-injured folks. It’s that simple.
Vote “yes” on Ballot Measure 80.
Joe Canfi eld
Eugene
A recent EW featured a grand total of
three musical event write-ups for the entire
week, and the limited genres covered are
predictable. I do not believe this refl ects
Eugene’s abundant and diverse music
scene, and it is a poor use of space. Over a
dozen events could have been highlighted
in this allotment of space with fewer, more
direct wording.
As a music producer and music fan, I
do not believe the entertainment features
live up to the Weekly’s otherwise stellar
MIXED-UP PRIORITIES
EW staff writer Shannon Finnell accuses
Springfi eld City Councilor of making