or FAIR made from organic quinoa in
France. Vodka is still the fi rst in spirit sales
in this country and helps many bars keep
their doors open. Shaming people for what
they drink rather than engaging and further
educating them is unprincipled and to
perpetuate this practice in front of younger
bartenders is in bad taste.
As for Hendricks being the best gin?
Aviation Gin from PDX and I will just have
to disagree with that.
Jake Bliven
Eugene
A BRILLIANT IDEA
Newspapers are a necessity, not a luxury,
the same as electricity and water. Perhaps it’s
time to make all local newspapers the same
as all other public utilities. Put the ownership
in a nonprofi t and have all citizens work at
the paper on a rotating basis with the bill for
the paper showing up on your utility bill.
Frank Skipton
Springfi eld
EUGENE’S GOOD SON
For those who have casually walked past
my son, sitting on the sidewalk in front of
the old Eugene City Hall; for those who
screamed “Get a f--ing job”; and for police
offi cers who fi nd it necessary to harass
him, I would like to introduce to you one of
Eugene’s heroes.
I may be prejudiced since I gave birth to
Conrad Kendal Barney, but he is Eugene’s
son, too, and he shouldn’t be thrown away
so easily. Conrad, at 13, wrote to every
daily newspaper in America asking for help
for children who lose parents to AIDS. He
didn’t so much worry for himself, even
though he lost his father when he was 9, then
suffered horrible bullying from his peers,
being beaten up and called a fag just because
it was his father who died from AIDS. No,
my son worried about other kids fi rst.
After many other heroic deeds my son
graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, went
on to Glide Job Corps where he acquired
many awards, then became a “hotshot”
fi refi ghter. He fought fi res in your forests to
protect you and your resources, but he also
went to the Southern states after Katrina and
helped there. When I had cancer twice he
gave up his life to come and help care for his
autistic little brother while I recovered.
Conrad has rallied with the Occupy
movement in a couple of states, but in
Eugene he noticed that policies have
changed regarding Eugene’s hungry and
homeless policies that hurt Eugene’s sons
and daughters who are less fortunate and
underrepresented. Once again my son has
chosen to give of himself and Dec. 17 was
his seventh day of not eating food, starting a
“Hunger Strike for Shelter.” At the old City
Hall he was accosted by a man who stole his
sign, then by police who made him move or
be arrested; so now he sits in front of the old
Federal Building in a hunger strike for better
treatment and shelter for people unable to
get shelter in Eugene.
Conrad was raised in a Native American
belief that no one in a commons should go
without, that everyone should be taken care
of, especially our elders and ill. Maybe if you
walk past him as he sits on the sidewalk in
front of the old Federal Building you might
thank him for being a good son to Eugene
instead of looking down your nose at him.
Valerie Goodness
Amherst, N.Y.
GETTING WED
STONED
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
It all makes sense now. Marijauana and
same-sex marriage, legalized on the same
day. Leviticus 20:13 states, “If a man lays
with another man he should be stoned.”
We were just interpreting it wrong.
David Perham
Eugene
GUN LOONIES
On the same day 20 innocents were
murdered by a “well-armed” lunatic in a
school in Connecticut, 22 school children
were slashed by a knife-wielding lunatic in
China. Those poor families in Connecticut
who lost a child will have a gaping hole
in their lives that can never be fi lled. The
families of those wounded in China still
have their beloveds and will be forever
thankful that the man who attacked their
children didn’t have a gun and are thanking
their lucky stars that they weren’t living in
the U.S.
Both attackers were mentally unstable
and despicable cowards, well worthy of
where they are going to spend eternity,
but their very irrationality makes their
behavior an aberration. Thus, they lack the
calculated heartlessness of the supposedly
“well-balanced” people who keep valuing
their guns above the lives of other people’s
children.
We all know that Fox and hate radio have
already started their all-too-familiar “Now is
not the time to talk about gun-control” rant
and that the real nut-jobs are shouting “Arm
the teachers!” But isn’t it time to for the rest
of us to fi nally stop the NRA loonies from
being the face of America?
Why don’t you gun loonies all move to a
place where your dreams of a gun in every
hand is a reality — perhaps Somalia or the
paradise of the eastern Congo. It’s a win-win
solution.
Jamie Selko
Eugene
Friday
01.04
Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
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 27, 2012
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