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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2012)
‘TIS THE SEASON Like every year, I pause to ponder the signs going up around town. Ones like, “Put Christ back in Christmas’ and “Jesus, the Reason for the Season,” to name a couple. I fi nd them very interesting because Christ has never had anything to do with Christmas (check your Bible. I have yet to fi nd “Christmas” or an indication that He was born then. In fact scientists have proven He was born earlier, probably in September or October during the Biblical feast of Sukkot). Don’t take my word for it, check your Bible, and Google “origin of Christmas.” To participate in a festival is to give honor to that festival’s deity. I do not think the God of the Bible likes Christmas, a holiday steeped in pagan history. As for the “reason for the season’? I think the “Luanne” cartoon in The Register-Guard last week came closest to hitting the nail on the head. It depicted a drawing of Christmas lights on a house roof in the shape of a dollar sign. The character explains he simply followed his mother’s directions to portray the season’s meaning. He did not choose Christ. Google it. Research it. Think about it. Rich Peters Lowell SPYING ON PASSENGERS I read an article in Wired magazine (http://wkly.ws/1el) and I fi nd it completely unacceptable if LTD installs microphones to record the conversations of it’s passengers. If this happens, it may be the end of me taking the bus in Eugene. Up to now, I have often chosen to take the bus instead of car or bike, partly to support the local public transit system. If this happens, I will most likely chose car or bike instead. I will not support or take part in yet another move towards an increasingly hyper- surveillance and fear-based society. I will also do my part to make sure as many as possible in Eugene knows about this. Per Kielland-Lund Eugene SOAKED IN POISONS On 12/12/12 I walked to Beyond Toxics’ open house and at last found where I belong. Many human beings who are sick and tired of being poisoned with chemicals, on our food, in our water, along our highways and now even our own front yards i.e.: “A road to paradise soaked in poisons” Lisa Arkin in the Nov. 29 EW special insert. When are all people going to realize that we cannot eat perfectly manicured lawns, sprayed with Roundup and synthetic fertilizers (which have fumes that travel 400 meters)? How deeply saddened I have become to explain to my 2-year-old little girl why she can’t walk barefoot in the grass at our parks, why she must not eat the blackberries along the river and bike paths. Why is it not a law to have to post where sprays are administered? Get your noses out of your poisoned rose bushes and write your county and state reps, write to big business like Costco, Bi-Mart, Home Depot, etc. and demand that our general safety comes fi rst! Remove these chemicals, sprays, herbicides, pesticides from inside our stores where are food is stored. Roundup does not belong next to food storage bags! Would you eat fertilizer? This is up to us as a whole and our children’s future is in our hands! Stop dreaming of a world with out toxics, no one can change it but us. Please support Beyond Toxics and its mission to protect human and environmental health. Heide Kost Eugene WISE SUGGESTIONS Thank you, Ms. Breitenstein, for sharing the tragic story of “Little Black Cat” [Letters, 11/21]. Your compassion and your wise suggestions for preventing such suffering are restorative for everyone who read your letter. You demonstrate Albert Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life”; “We are life which wills to live in the midst of life which wills to live.” Your words remind me of those written by E.M. Forster: I believe in aristocracy ... not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and infl uence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate ... its members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. The “aristocracy” of humane people in our community thank you for reminding us we are not alone in our consciousness of animal suffering. I pray that our numbers will grow; that someday there will be, mercifully, no more “little black cats.” Kathryn Husted Mason, Ph.D. Eugene The Shedd Institute www.theshedd.org - 541-434-7000 Give Music Shedd Institute Gift Certificates for the holidays 541-434-7000 | www.theshedd.org/gift Jenny Scheinman with Bill Frisell & Brian Blade Friday 01.04 Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour TIME FOR FLASHLIGHTS Isn’t this the third rate raise EWEB has imposed in less than two years? They just raised the rates this last summer. I’m wondering if they got a ton of stimulus money to hand out new light bulbs and encourage conservation of energy. They are concerned with profi t, not going green. People don’t have the option to go elsewhere. EWEB has the monopoly. It’s extortion. Read your electric bill and be prepared to be shocked. Observe all the charges. I reduced my usage by two- thirds and it hardly made a dent on my bill. Raising fl at rates means paying more and getting less. It’s insane. This is where people on a limited income are forced to choose between food and heat. I dream of the day I’m off the grid entirely. We should all go out and turn off some of our breakers. Keep the refrigerator on, get some fl ashlights and use our camping equipment. People should be outraged. Linda Kelley 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. Dee Dee Bridgewater Christian McBride Benny Green Lewis Nash Chris Potter Ambrose Akinmusire Friday 01.11 Hult Center - Tickets: 541-682-5000 Coming up at The Shedd (see www.theshedd.org for full listing) 1.4 Jenny Scheinman - Blade & Frisell 1.11 Monterey Jazz on Tour 55 (Hult) 1.12 Robin Willaims (Hult) 1.16 Loudon Wainwright/Dar Williams 1.19 Moombah! Rumbles & the Wild Sky 1.24 Solas: Shamrock City Tour 2.01 Black Prairie 2.15 Victor Wooten 2.16 Afro-Cuban All Stars 2.20 Led Kaapana 2.21 Woideck: Jazz/Mancini 3.2 Ken Peplowski 3.6-17 Siri Vik. My Funny Valentine 3.8 Blues at the Crossroads II (Hult) 3.10 B. B. King (Hult) 4.12 Molly Ringwald 4.24 Taj Mahal-Shemekia Copeland (Hult) 4.25 John Pizzarelli Quartet 5.1 Hapa eugeneweekly.com • December 20, 2012 5
