LET TERS
KICKED DOWN THE ROAD
I have camped and built shelters in
the wetlands of the Pocono Mountains
of Pennsylvania, my place of birth,
since I was a child, and I have camped
all across the U.S. in some of the most
beautiful national parks. I have camped
in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Grand
Canyon, Yellowstone, Montana and
Yosemite, not to mention (because I have
forgotten) many other tourist, hiking trails
and scenic places in California, Colorado,
Utah and Arizona.
If folks here cannot trust me to camp
responsibly, clean and quiet (just ask the
ODOT guys) then I do not know what to
say except excuse me for living! At least
no one has to call in a HazMat or sheriff’s
jail crew to clean up my mess. I cook with
propane and do not smoke. Risk of fi re:
none.
I am not on a recreation binge here,
people! I am doing this by necessity — I
am homeless! But none of that matters.
When the city fi nds me I will get kicked
down the road again — except this time the
city will be forced to face the fact that there
are no more places to camp and people are
going to rise up and say enough is enough!
We live here, have lived here, and you are
not going to push us any farther away!
Danielle Smith
Eugene
JUST A FAIRY TALE
Once upon a time there was a beautiful
kingdom known as Oregon. In this kingdom,
MIC CHECK!
there was a town called Eugene. There were
many who lived there who were wealthy
and lived quite well. But there were also
many who were poor and lived quite poorly.
The poorest of the lot were the fairies. They
had no jobs or homes so they were forced
to live way out at the edge of town. They
camped out and lived there as best they
could. Then one day, the owners of the land
they camped on grew angry with them. The
owners were unhappy with the mess that the
fairies had made there.
When the Eugene City Council learned
of this, they decided to do something about
it right away. They sent out city trucks and
workers to pick up the trash. Other trucks
brought Porta-Potties and solar heated
showers. FOOD for Lane County pitched in
and sent them food. The fairies got medical
help from CAHOOTS, Occupy Eugene and
the White Bird Clinic. St. Vincent de Paul,
the Salvation Army and Goodwill provided
clothing, tents and sleeping bags.
The fairies were very happy and grateful
for all of the help they received. They made
sure that they kept their campground clean.
The fairies lived there happily ever after.
This, of course, is just a fairy tale.
Randy Stenersen
Eugene
PERVASIVE DISORDER
If former commissioner Rob Handy’s
alleged indiscretions warranted an outside
review, so do the actions of Lane County
Administrator Liane Richardson and the
four county commissioners who support
SMART METERS SPEAK OUT
Places like EWEB usually get what
they want — so we can expect to get and
pay for “smart meters.” But when we do
I hope we can get the latest models being
beta tested in California. I was visiting a
friend there and the new meters have a
speaker and announce things so you do not
have to look it up on your computer.
When we were sitting in the living
room one very hot July day — about 102
degrees — the meter announced:
Hello Dave, I have an effi ciency
message for you. Turn the air conditioner
off. I suggest a fan. As you know I will be
reporting your usage for this hour, and with
time of day pricing, you cannot afford this.
We ignored that but after a bit it came
on again and said:
Dave, can you hear me? Please
respond. If you do not I am reporting your
usage at this time, and turning the air
conditioner off.
Then the air conditioner was turned
off. It was uncomfortable soon, but the
effi ciency the utility promises is there.
Money was saved. It seemed like a bit of
loss of privacy, but we are all getting used
to that these days.
So let’s be sure we get the new IM-
HAD/VOX. model. At least we have
choice in the model type, I think.
Michael Lee
Eugene
HISTORY MATTERS
I always look forward to Brett
Campbell’s music columns in EW because
his writing is generally well informed and
a pleasure to read. Yet his July 18 piece
BY FERGUS MCLEAN
Seeds of
Destruction
HOW CAPITALISM SOWS THE SEEDS OF ITS DEMISE
T
he Occupy Wall Street meme went viral in September 2011. People all over
America assembled to oppose the astonishing Wall Street bailouts, which
continued after emergency assistance to Main Street dried up. Street drama
was electrifying. Looking back, history will show that Occupy was the
beginning of a paradigm — shifting people’s reaction to the third structural
crisis of American capitalism (after the depressions of 1893 and the 1930s). Both of these
previous crises resulted in fundamental rewrites of the operating code of the American
political operating system. The emergence of the Occupy movement marks the beginning
of a rewrite of our political operating system.
I was drawn to the transparency and democratic process of Occupy Eugene and to its
focus on the issue of corporate money in politics. I started attending general assemblies
and soon found my way onto the Occupy Eugene Foreclosure Committee.
Dozens of distressed homeowners with no one else to turn to came to us and reported
appalling fraud and predatory lending practices by their banks that had deceived and
double-crossed people who’d fallen behind on mortgage payments. We could do little to
actually resolve their problems, but we had some small victories, and we learned about
what the banks were doing in a way that few others could, witnessing the devastation
infl icted on homeowners through greed and often illegal practices.
People’s lives were falling apart, and the people destroying them were receiving
huge fi nancial payouts and apparent immunity before the law. We shouldn’t have been
surprised. What we were seeing was just American capitalism with its pants down.
The U.S. has evolved a political operating system that balances civic concerns of the
public sphere and the commons against the power of the self-organizing market economy
4
her. Outside review means “outside” and
“impartial,” not overseen by a friend and
colleague (County Counsel Stephen Dingle).
Who was the author of this really bad idea?
This latest fi asco is yet one more
example of the Board of Commissioners
refusing to pay attention to the obvious.
For the past year, numerous people have
brought to the commissioners’ (and city of
Eugene’s) attention, with documentation,
Greenhill’s withholding treatment from
some animals and other contract violations.
We have Greenhill’s own fi les and internal
emails that prove this. Commissioners
Bozievich, Farr, Leiken and Stewart have
refused to act and move forward on the
violations of state statute, and to actually
enforce the contract the county has with
Greenhill (see NoKillLaneCounty.org).
How many other contracts, paid for with
taxpayer dollars, are being similarly
mismanaged?
Things are so bad that whistleblowers
have to remain anonymous and get outside
legal help. Requests for public documents
are blatantly ignored. All these things
and more are symptoms of the same
pervasive disorder that permeates county
government. Only by removing all the bad
apples will we have back a county that we
can be proud of and can afford to live in.
Tamara Barnes
Eugene
A ugust 8, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
and private property. The basic operating code of the public sphere is outlined in our
founding documents: equality, self-government and human rights, including free speech,
the right to assembly and the right to trial by jury. These principles are ethically and
morally based restrictions on the powers of government, operating codes written into our
national operating system.
The prime code of the market, on the other hand, is profi t. There is no morality
associated with capitalism except that imposed on it by the state. Return on capital
investment and private control of the money supply in service to empire are the corporate-
sponsored operating codes behind our faltering, belligerent, unjust and environmentally
self-destructive political operating system.
Twice previously, structural collapse forced American capitalism to fundamentally
rewrite its operating code. We are in the midst of the third collapse.
Capitalism is about converting the commons into commodities, and it is almost
infi nitely fl exible; it can turn almost anything into a commodity — including air and
water. Mighty capitalism rules the world, but only in accordance with its internal
operating code. If we want to change our operating system, we have to rewrite its code.
The depression of 1893 was resolved by creating the American empire and by giving
control of the money supply to private bankers. Recovery from the Great Depression of the
1930s took direct government intervention in the economy through New Deal programs of
economic relief, Social Security, the minimum wage and the rights of workers to form labor
unions. Economic desperation has compelled us, after much suffering, confl ict and debate,
to rewrite our political operating code to include America as empire, a private debt-based
money system, Social Security and the rights of labor. A similar code rewrite lies ahead.
Will it be written secretly by corporations or will the voice of we the people be heard?
Advances in and misuses of computer technology triggered the present crisis.
Emboldened by supercomputer-driven, sophisticated fi nancial derivatives, bankers
demanded and got deregulation of the fi nancial industry. But capitalism, though
immensely powerful, is a stupid beast, which needs protection from itself. With no
internal conceptual limitations besides the drive to create profi t, capitalism lacks the
capacity to sustain the conditions that allow it to operate. Unregulated, it has once again
engineered its own collapse and created the conditions that birthed Occupy Wall Street
and Occupy Eugene.
Fergus McLean of Dexter is active in watershed issues, foreclosure reform and sustainable forest practices.
Occupy Eugene and Occupy BankBusters will present a benefi t showing of the new documentary Jekyll Island:
The truth behind the Federal Reserve in the EWEB Community Room, 500 E. 4th, 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 21. Call
937-3034 or see OccupyEugeneMedia.org.