LET TERS
HAIL TO THE QUEEN
Like many things in life and art, what
one person fi nds boring, many others fi nd
fun and interesting. I completely enjoyed
the Professor Doctor’s talent show portion
in the SLUG Queen Coronation, and the
people around me seemed to as well.
Last year, she and her minions did a
wonderful bit about optics and how different
fl uids bend light, and this year, they had
two separate experiments happening side
by side around fi re and ice. The engaging
show focused on young women having fun
with science, to a danceable soundtrack, all
within the 3-minute time limit imposed by
the judges.
I salute our new queen and her efforts
to make science enjoyable and accessible
and am proud to live in a city that fi nds
that worthy of recognition and celebration.
And while song parodies and lip syncing/
fl ash mobs are also entertaining, after
attending the last 13 coronations, I loved
this new take on showmanship for the
event. Maybe if more people found science
(and math, engineering and technology!)
exciting, we wouldn’t be facing a national
shortage of people entering those fi elds of
study — especially girls/women and other
underrepresented groups.
I say rock on, Professor Doctor, and keep
bringing us more science awesomeness for
the year of your rain and beyond! Keep it
SPICEy!
All hail the queen!
Jennifer Wyld
Eugene
LIVING OUT
RESPONSIVE FELLOW
HUMANS
Thank you, Brenton Gicker, for your
enlightenment on the attitude of White
Bird Clinic and CAHOOTS toward the
behavior of your most recalcitrant clients
[Viewpoint, 8/15]. It is too easy to dismiss
and deny some of those with the most
unfortunate backgrounds in life, to resort
to the utmost dismissive catchphrase,
“They’ve made their own bed; let them lie
in it.” I’ve long abhorred that attitude yet
cannot boast I’ve never turned to it when
put to the test.
Having relied solely on bus
transportation in Los Angeles for many
years, I had to fend off the well-meaning
who insisted on picking me up in their cars
so I wouldn’t have to (ugh!) ride those
smelly buses with all the crazies. Yes, there
were seemingly demented passengers,
often seated next to me, and I could not
help wondering, why are they mumbling
or telling me about nighttime evil ones
killing horses at the racetrack under a full
moon? It was something of a surprise to
discover that if, instead of ignoring them, I
replied respectfully, before long they began
to talk rationally and with unexpected
intelligence, clearly longing for just a few
moments with a responsive fellow human.
Mr. Gicker reminds me what I should
not forget.
Jim Wood
Eugene
LOL!
Beverley Mowery
Eugene
TRANSFORMATIVE
POTENTIAL
I admire the radical concept of kindness
offered by Brenton Gicker in his Viewpoint
[8/15] “Rooting for the Underdog.” His
perspective on the lives of the “problem
clients” he encounters in working with
the CAHOOTS program displays unusual
insight. I believe that, while judgment
without understanding is a dead end,
compassion applied skillfully, even
sometimes fi ercely, has transformative
potential for the giver, the receiver and
the rest of us. I appreciate his bravery and
tenacity on behalf of our community.
Mia Coltrane
Eugene
EXPOSING THE TRUTH
Eugene Weekly and Camilla Mortensen:
You rock!
Last Saturday I was driving south on
Highway 99 after dropping my daughter
off in Monmouth. As I neared the Eugene
airport, I was struck with an intense smell
of bleach/chlorine! Very strange! Now I
understand, per your article “Train Wreck”
[8/15] — it was in all likelihood chlorine
leakage from a train car!
I’ve taken CREDO’s “Pledge of
Resistance” (nokxl.org) to protect our
beloved and beautiful West Coast natural
resources. Let’s not become the latest
fossil fuel corridor where profi ts trump
public health and safety. We can stop this
if we know what big energy has planned
and we all pull together!
Thanks for exposing the truth!
Deb McGee
Eugene
A SINGLE OBJECTIVE
Thanks for the “Small Farms vs.
GMO and Canola” [8/15] story on the
Local Food System Ordinance of Lane
County. The article correctly states that
the Lane County Circuit Court is currently
reviewing the county clerk’s determination
that the initiative did not comply with
the single-subject requirement. However,
the four “subjects” or issues identifi ed
in the article are the grounds stated by
the clerk to support her determination of
noncompliance, and not the stated subject
of the initiative.
The initiative’s single subject is the
protection of our local food system. As
such, all of the four issues cited clearly
address the initiative’s single subject as
required by the Oregon Constitution.
First, healthy natural communities are
essential to a farmer’s ability to grow and
harvest nutritious food. They are defi ned
by the initiative as part of a local food
system, and therefore must be protected.
Second, the right of self-government is the
authority under which the Lane County
community can assert its right to pass this
initiative into law, and therefore is basic
BY SALLY SHEKLOW
My Lesbian
Résumé
LOVING OUR BODIES, AND EACH OTHER
E
very lesbian has a story. Not just the very few of us like Ellen and
Wanda who have risen to actual stardom, but every one of us regular
lesbos who has come out, bucked the patriarchy by being herself and
continued to thrive in this male-dominated, misogynist world. We are
so totally AWESOME!
In case anyone ever starts inducting us everyday dykes into some future Lesbian
Hall of Fame, I want to get my application in.
When I fi rst started calling myself a dyke in the early 1970s, I was in college and
women were rising. Feminism lifted us up, encouraged our autonomy and urged us
to love our bodies, ourselves and, as I understood it, each other. I cut my hair — with
my own Swiss Army knife scissors — dumped my birth control, joined a softball
team and fell in love with our coach.
As a campus lezzie, I did what I could to spread the good news. I spoke on
countless gay panels, talked to other students about liberation from gender stereotypes
and the importance of loving our bodies, ourselves and, naturally, each other. I took
assertiveness training, studied martial arts and fell in love with our kung fu teacher.
In the 1980s I subscribed to Lesbian Connection, ventured off to women’s music
and comedy festivals, celebrated solstices on womyn’s land, took my car to a lesbian
mechanic, surrendered my backaches to a lesbian chiropractor and shopped at a
feminist bookstore. I bought Meg Christian, Alix Dobkin and Ferron albums, tuned
in to the local Women’s Music radio show and fell in love with the DJ.
When the plague hit I took a job with the local AIDS Project, visited boyfriends
4
RE: IT’S A CRUDE WORLD
A ugust 29, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
in hospice and made panels for the Names Project Quilt. I learned all about condoms
and dental dams, took — and led — safe-sex workshops, explored the S&M scene
and saw my one attempt at writing porn published in On Our Backs. I wrote and
performed The Sound of Lesbians, a musical comedy parody (eventually banned
by Rogers and Hammerstein’s copyright attorneys) about the VonTramp Family
and their lesbian sex therapist. I contributed a monthly advice column to Eugene’s
Lavender Network newsmagazine called “Ask Big Sister,” promoting the myriad
ways to love our bodies, ourselves and each other.
During the 1990s, three other dykes, including aforementioned DJ, and I started
an improv troupe we dubbed WYMPROV!, and we continue performing and raising
both lesbian visibility and money for good works to this day. I canvassed, phone-
banked and fundraised to fi ght the homophobes and the anti-abortion terrorists. I
went to work for the Feminist Women’s Health Center, gave
presentations on women’s health options, reproductive
rights and self-exams, and promoted the freedom to
love our bodies, ourselves and each other.
In 1998 I married the Women’s Music DJ in a
nice Jewish wedding. We built a life based on
loving our bodies, ourselves and each other.
The next year I wrote my fi rst Living Out
column and was hired to teach in the women’s
studies department at Portland State University,
helping at least some of the next generation learn
about women’s and queer people’s struggles for the
freedom to love our bodies, ourselves and each
other. I’m still teaching women’s and queer
studies courses at PSU and still writing this
column.
And I’m still married to the DJ.
Award-winning Eugene writer Sally Sheklow has been tell-
ing her lesbian story in EW since 1999.