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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 11, 2013)
LET TERS WORSE THAN COAL If a coal plant would locate in Lane County and drift heavy pollution on our citizens, would we object? Biomass or wood-burning incinerators produce less electricity and more pollution than coal. The American Lung Association speaks out against biomass pollution because of health effects. Next Wednesday, July 17, is your chance to speak up against relaxing rules for our Seneca Biomass plant that pollutes our valley with tons of CO2, nox (oxides of nitrogen), particulates, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, dioxin, benzene, mercury, lead, chromium, etc. The hearing will be 6:30 pm at Harris Hall. We need you! Ruth Duemler Eugene DOWNWINDERS SUFFER Regarding “Radioactive River” [column by Kayla Godowa-Tufti 6/13]: I was born in Walla Walla, Wash., in 1951 downwind from the Hanford Atomic Works in “the sacrifi ce zone.” (The area was exposed to radioactive emissions from 1944 to 1972.) Iodine-131, which concentrates in children’s developing thyroid glands, settled on the grass that the cows ate and was in the milk we drank. When farmers plowed the wheat and onion fi elds it raised radioactive iodine-131 dust that the kids playing outside inhaled. The secrecy of the releases and the lack of health information were major abuse, betrayal and abandonment by the government. Some people spent years trying to obtain classifi ed documents so that Hanford’s secrets could fi nally be revealed. Until I heard about the releases, I had no explanation for my thyroid disease. At least fi ve of my relatives have died of cancer. I feel fortunate at this time to have “only” hypothyroid disease. While downwinders die without so much as an apology or compensation, Hanford keeps aging and leaking radioactive water into the Columbia. If you eat the food grown and irrigated by this water, use the Columbia for recreation, eat the fi sh that comes from this water, won’t you be exposed, too? Diseases caused by exposure to radioactivity won’t be showing up in you or your family for decades. The government is not going to tell you this. Sharon Peters Junction City be the new targets of a crowd-induced, frenzied gang of kids, already sugar-dosed on cotton-candy and soda, set out on their purposeless mission. The Cottage Grove Riding Club, though, is anything but heartless. They are “requiring” the kids in the unfolding chaos to walk instead of run when approaching the chickens. The organizers made the change from rabbits to chickens very recently, days before the rodeo takes place, thereby making it almost impossible to formulate any viable protest effort on behalf of the chickens. The only recourse at this last date is to reset your GPS coordinates from Cottage Grove to Veneta for some animal- friendly good times this weekend. Bob Berman Cheshire REGISTRY IS NO FIX SWITCHING VICTIMS Like a scene from Lord of the Flies, each July a swarm of children is unleashed into the Cottage Grove Rodeo arena to chase defenseless and frightened rabbits until each and every one is caught. Thankfully, that won’t happen this year. It was welcoming news to hear that the rodeo, after much public outcry, has decided to discontinue using rabbits in their infamous animal scramble event. Unfortunately, the organizers have maddeningly decided to replace the rabbits with an even more vulnerable target: chickens. These gentle, loving creatures with their delicate bone structure will The July 27 Viewpoint by Gary Crum “A Starting Point: Let’s Do Something About Gun Control” is pure bull talking- point sh*t. Any registration site and especially those available to any public enforcement entity can be hacked, will be hacked and most times it’s the government that is hacking it. We do live in a kleptocracy. Everything that Crum desires to invent already exists in some form or other from property registration to your local police to insurance company listings for valuables. Criminals steal even from police departments. Guns and other weapons have value and will always be stolen, so considering all of the use of the above already in use systems there will be no change. Criminals don’t care. The “problem” as always remains with fi xing the criminal, not the law abiding. Nothing Crum proposes fi xes the criminal, but then nothing has ever fi xed Mr. Crum; he will be giving us other opines eventually like a thief stealing his guns again. Bet on it. Dan Moore Springfi eld ON OUR WAY DOWN Things are getting worse at an ever faster pace. We are seeing the end of privacy in a total surveillance world, the end of ever more species, indeed a shrinking life span for the biosphere itself, the disappearance of non-technifi ed social existence in the land of isolation and emptiness — add your favorites. And yet there’s a ban on addressing the foundations of this pan-disaster. Occupy went nowhere with its severe, liberal limitations; let’s vote for Hillary. Who cares that our kids inherit what is so obviously and rampantly developing? Think of the underlying institutions that grow the unthinkable future — and strive to dismantle them. John Zerzan Eugene OUR HALLOWED LAND Why can’t the Y compromise its hard stance and allow Civic to stand next door? SUNDAY JULY 18 7:00PM ON SALE NOW SILVA CONCERT HALL GET TICKETS AT HULT CENTER BOX OFFICE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON TICKET OFFICE HULTCENTER.ORG CHARGE-BY-PHONE: 541-682-5000 4 July 11, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
