LET TERS
CIVILIZED SOLUTIONS
America: 350 million guns, 47,000
psychiatrists. We have a constitutional right
to bear arms. We have no constitutional
right to health care.
America is the most heavily armed
nation in the world. America also leads
the world in mental illness. Half of all
Americans develop at least one mental
illness. Half of all cases begin during
childhood.
Nearly half of all Americans have at
least one gun at home. The human brain
controls the gun. People will fi nd ways to
end their pain.
A civilized society offers civilized
solutions. A violent society offers violent
solutions. It’s easier to get a gun than see
a psychiatrist. It’s cheaper to buy a gun
than see a psychiatrist. Ammunition costs
less than medication. Bullets are just a few
cents each.
God bless America.
Pamela Wible, M.D.
Eugene
SMALL SACRIFICES
Tom Giesen’s essay on global warming
[12/27] nailed it. The level of denial in the
U.S. is beyond frustrating. Recently I went
to San Francisco for a Climate Reality
Leadership training. There were 1,000
attendees from 58 different countries.
They had to schedule a separate meeting
for those in other nations to strategize,
because they do not have global warming
denial.
Every academy of science in the world
agrees this is happening and is urging
VIEWPOINT
action. If we make some relatively small
sacrifi ces now, we could make a difference.
If the speed limit were reduced to 55 mph
we would save burning one billion gallons
of gasoline a year here in the U.S. alone,
and if we parked our vehicles and walked or
biked, even better. Deforestation is second
only to fossil fuel burning in contributing
to global warming. We need to demand an
end to clearcuts and old-growth logging on
private, state and federal forestland.
A global tax on pollution is essential.
That way clean energy, selectively
harvested wood and other sustainable
options would be competitively priced and
industry would be on a level playing fi eld.
It’s past time to take responsibility.
Pam Driscoll
Dexter
DON’T GIVE UP ON CLIMATE
In his Dec. 27 article on global warming,
Tom Giesen says that “international
negotiations to agree to a treaty to reduce
emissions have so far proved useless, as the
process is long on rhetoric and intention,
and bereft of action.”
However, a new international treaty
is essential, because no country can deal
with the global warming crisis alone. I’m
not ready to give up. The world’s poorer
countries agreed in December 2011 that,
unlike under the Kyoto Accord, they would
be willing to have their emissions limited
by legally binding targets. But President
Obama seems to believe that the U.S.
should not sign a treaty that the Senate will
not ratify.
The Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), an
BY CAROL VAN HOUTEN
organization with over 60 local chapters, has
been building the political will for Congress
to put a price on carbon. Grassroots activity
can convince President Obama that his
hands are not tied in the negotiations.
People can participate in one-hour
informational conference calls introducing
them to CCL on Wednesdays at 5 pm Pacifi c
time, (866) 642-1665 (toll-free), pass code
440699#.
Milton Takei
Eugene
WHERE RAPE IS AN OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
T
4
January 10, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
The city of Eugene South Willamette
Street Improvement Plan states its goal
as helping south Willamette become a
“vibrant urban corridor accessible by
bicycle, foot, car and bus now, and in the
future.” Currently South Willamette Street
is frighteningly unsafe for all forms of
travel. Reconfi guring it to our needs as a
community in touch with its time means a
design that puts more emphasis on walking,
taking the bus, auto sharing and bicycling.
SHELLEY CORTEVILLE
Epidemic of Abuse
he U.S. military has a well-kept and
shameful secret. It is called military sexual
trauma, and it is of epic proportions,
with over 3,000 reported rapes or sexual
assaults occurring each year. Because of
under-reporting, it is estimated that the actual number
of incidents is closer to 19,000 per year or an average
of 52 per day.
Despite previous public exposure of widespread
sexual assault and despite the military stating that it
has “zero tolerance” for sexual assault, this epidemic
continues. In fact, the military allows for, and even
encourages, military sexual trauma. The military is a
command structure organization and this means the
victim must report rape or sexual assault through the
chain of command. Frequently that means reporting
either directly to the perpetrator or to a friend of the
perpetrator.
The commanding offi cer is not a trained criminal
investigator. There is no separate system of police,
investigator and litigators who represent the interests
and well-being of the victim. This is completely
different from civilian life, where survivors do not
UNSAFE FOR ALL
report to their rapist nor look to him or her for justice!
Most of all, for a commanding offi cer, an allegation
of sexual assault in his or her unit will refl ect badly on
his or her leadership and hence any future promotion
possibilities. Consequently, in the few instances when
victims report the assault, the frequent outcome is that
she is penalized and the perpetrator is absolved or even
promoted.
Victims who report generally experience two
traumas: the initial sexual assault and then the assault
by the command system punishing the reporting victim.
All the incentives in such a command structure are to
stop the reporting, not to stop the assaults. Perpetrators
get a clear message that they can get away, even get
rewarded for raping and assaulting.
Congress has repeatedly failed to take signifi cant
action to require the military to change. The court has
even declared that rape is an occupational hazard of
enlistment in the military, hard as that is to imagine in
this day and age.
Around the country there is a small, but growing,
voice for real change so that victims have competent,
independent legal help. Seemingly in response to this
movement, the military has recently made two changes.
They changed Department of Defense personnel in
charge of SAPRO (Sexual Assault Prevention and
Response Offi ce) and they plan to move reporting
from the immediate superior to the next higher offi cer.
Those are not solutions; they are tinkering around the
edges. The only solution is to institute a system similar
to what civilian victims have, independent police,
investigators and litigators who represent the interests
of the victim, not the interests of the military.
Our goal is changing the military so that assault
victims will get justice. This dirty little secret must
be exposed and the system that sustains it must be
changed.
To achieve this goal, both locally and nationally,
many concerned groups and individuals are showing
the fi lm, The Invisible War. The fi lm, using veterans’
stories, exposes the pain of the assaults on both male
and female military members and the inaction of
Congress and the military.
Help achieve that goal by attending local showings
of the fi lm, The Invisible War, at 7 pm Friday, Jan.
11, at the Wildish Theater in Springfi eld; at 2:30 pm
Saturday, Jan. 12, at the Siuslaw Public Library in
Florence, and at 6:30 pm Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the
Community Center, 600 E Gibbs St., Cottage Grove.
Carol Van Houten is coordinator of Truth In Recruiting, a program of
Community Alliance of Lane County. Shelley Corteville works with Veter-
ans for Peace, Chapter 159 and is an Army veteran.