Eugene weekly., February 13, 2014, Image 6

LET TERS
Lastly, ensuring that the Lane County
Strategic Plan: Building a Prosperous
Community’s “pay no less than 150 percent
of the median wage” promise is kept is
important.
Jose Ortal
Blue River
SYSTEMIC MALFEASANCE
The emperor actually has no clothes.
The Pentagon press secretary said so on
Feb. 5 when he revealed that Defense
Secretary Hagel fears the military has a
systematic problem with malfeasance,
which is long standing and getting worse.
Recent examples include: Navy
nuclear trainers and Air Force nuclear
launch members accused of cheating on
competence tests and extensive fraud in the
Army National Guard when recruiters and
civilians got bonuses for recommending
recruits who had already signed up. The
military itself estimates that an average of
71 rapes and sexual assaults occur each day.
How is the military planning to fi x this?
By training. Vows by leadership to stop
sexual assault by training for years have
not worked.
The military promotes an image to the
public — especially to prospective youth
VIEWPOINT
recruits — of service to country, glory, grit
and integrity. That image is in stark contrast
to recent revelations. Because the military
spends so much money on managing their
public image and their recruiting messages,
too many high school students who dream
of giving back to the country see the military
as the only such avenue.
We all know military veterans who
served with integrity, though many were
so changed by life in the military that
they returned to civilian life a changed
person. The rot lies in leadership failures,
Congress throwing money at the military,
congressional failure to require effective
oversight and too much public reverence
for the military. Time to see that the
emperor has no clothes.
Carol Van Houten
Coordinator, Truth In Recruiting
Community Alliance of Lane County
EXIT STRATEGY
RUBBERS ALL AROUND
It’s high time people who don’t believe
in contraception get out of the way of men
and women’s reproductive rights.
The miracle of birth can become a
problem for society, for the parents and,
not least, for the children born. It’s a little
hard talking young people into abstinence.
Having been a teenager myself, I believe
In Craig Childs’ Apocalyptic Planet he
lays out two specifi c likely scenarios for the
future of the biosphere: A major ice age or
a desert-ruled planet. In conclusion, Childs
makes it clear that there is hope — though
not necessarily for the continuation of the
human species — in the not-too-distant
future. He states that the best we can do as
individuals and as a species is to attempt
to save what we can of current Holocene-
epoch ecosystems before we exit.
With that ideal, ecosystem defenders
across this bioregion are attempting to
stop an all-out attack being launched upon
Oregon’s last ancient forests on public
lands by the Democratic Party. It seems
foregone that concerned Oregonians must
battle with Sens. Wyden and Merkley,
Reps. DeFazio and Schrader, Gov.
Kitzhaber and any other Democrats or
Republicans who are supporting this attack
on ancient ecosystems.
Wyden has two logging bills in the U.S.
Senate, one targeting about 10 million
acres of Eastern Oregon’s National Forests
and the other targeting BLM O&C lands.
Kitzhaber has launched two executive
initiatives, one to privatize the Elliott
State Forest and another to “modernize”
environmental laws applied on National
Forest lands. Both seek to prop up “too big
to fail” mega-tree-fi ber operations and an
untaxed raw-log fi ber-export industry. A
few of the wealthiest families in Oregon
will benefi t greatly, while all Oregonians
will inherit silt-laden rivers and sterile,
dying tree farms if the Democratic Party
succeeds in their reckless endeavors.
Shannon Wilson
Eugene
BY M A RK ROBINOWIT Z
Grading on
a Curve
ENVIRO ‘CHAMPS’ IGNORING THE BIGGEST ISSUES
O
n Nov. 27, EW’s Slant profi led the “Environmental Scorecard” of the
Oregon League of Conservation Voters. EW drew attention to “the
relatively high scores racked up by state reps and senators in our part
of the valley.” Unfortunately, OLCV was grading on a curve to make
Democrats in Salem look better than they are.
One of the most important votes of the 2013 session, not included in OLCV’s
scorecard, was to appropriate $450 million toward the Columbia River Crossing
(CRC), a $3 billion to $4 billion dollar boondoggle that would widen I-5 to 16 lanes
north of the bridge. The Oregon House voted 45-11 in favor and the Senate voted
18-11 in favor. Only two Democrats in the House and one in the Senate voted “no.”
EW highlighted Rep. John Lively’s 94 percent OLCV rating, but did not mention
his vote for the CRC nor his previous promotion of bigger roads while working for
ODOT.
OLCV’s website cites 10 state reps as environmental champions, but only one
of those 10 voted against the CRC. Designating highway expansion supporters as
“environmental leaders” suggests political partisanship has become more important
than environmental protection.
The only legislator representing Lane County who was against CRC was Rep.
Bruce Hanna of Roseburg, a Republican. Some Republicans expressed dislike of
the token transit component. Republicans were freer than Democrats to oppose Gov.
Kitzhaber’s campaign for CRC.
CRC is now bogged down in fi nancial chaos since Washington state legislators
did not appropriate anything for it. However, the project is legally approved and an
Obama administration priority.
In November 2008, Gov. Kulongoski’s Transportation Vision Committee released
a report that called for $18 billion in new and expanded state highways, including over
$1 billion in Eugene and Springfi eld. 1000 Friends of Oregon, Oregon Environmental
Council and Environment Oregon were part of this committee, but they were window
dressing to show that all points of view were supposedly considered. If these groups
had a minority report to dissent from the highway promotion, they kept it very quiet.
6
that for healthy and well-adjusted youth,
this idea is all but impossible.
I think the solution is to subsidize
condoms and contraceptive pills and
thorough education on how to use them
safely. This includes pregnancy and STDs.
I would rather pay for the whole world
(not just the U.S.) to have free, unobstructed
access to these preventative gifts than to
have babies born into immature families,
maybe addicted to hard drugs or living a
life of misery when people aren’t ready.
If the girl or her boyfriend are too young
mentally or are physically not ready — perhaps
they are still in school — or if their fi nancial
situation is not secure, I believe the ultimate
measure, abortion, should be considered and
remain the couple’s best choice.
David Ivan Piccioni
Eugene
February 13, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
In 2013, ODOT started building two new highways: the Newberg Dundee Bypass
(through farmland) and the Sunrise Freeway in Clackamas County. Both projects
only have part of their funding, so ODOT is building segments and hoping for the
rest of the money in the future. I attended public hearings for both of these bypasses
and did not see any environmental groups at either event.
Also in 2013, ODOT approved a new freeway in Medford, the Route 62 bypass.
I didn’t attend the hearing. The only environmental group that sent comments was
Rogue Valley Audubon Society, which complained construction would harm birds.
Federal aid highways such as CRC have to plan for traffi c two decades in the
future, not current congestion. Our transportation plans ignore the fact that traffi c
levels peaked in Oregon in 2003 and Oregon’s main fuel source, the Alaska Pipeline,
peaked in 1988 and has dropped three quarters since then. It’s anyone’s guess how
much energy will be available for traffi c in the 2030s, but it will be much less than
the current fl ow, especially if the Alaska Pipeline closes due to “low fl ow.” Current
levels are just above the minimum threshold needed for the pipeline to operate in the
Arctic winter.
Here in Eugene from 1999 through 2007, I was the “road scholar” for a proposed
lawsuit that prevented the West Eugene Porkway, a bypass of West 11th through the
West Eugene Wetlands. WETLANDS vs. Federal Highway Administration was not
fi led because the feds withdrew the project and selected “no build.” Details are at
SustainEugene.org.
The lawsuit focused on legal precedents, including Section 4(f), which prohibits
federal aid highways through parks. But it also would have tried to have set a new
precedent combining the facts of peak oil and peak traffi c as reasons the 20-year
planning rule no longer justifi es highway expansions.
Since then, I have looked for other freeway fi ghts around the country that could
use this legal strategy to create a precedent. A state-by-state list of plans for $1
trillion of highway expansions across the country is at PeakTraffi c.org.
The most energetic environmental efforts against new roads are often in places
where liberal Democrats are surrounded by conservative Republicans (Bloomington,
Ind., and Louisville, Ky., are examples). The professional environmentalists in these
places know the state government is not their ally (nor their funder).
While trains and transit could play important roles for post-peak transportation,
recognizing we’re passing the limits to growth and relocalizing food production are
probably the most important responses to peaked traffi c and peaked energy.
Mark Robinowitz of Eugene is author of “Peak Traffi c and Transportation Triage: a Legal Strategy to Cancel Tril-
lion Dollar Highway Plans and Prepare for Post Peak Travel,” at PeakTraffi c.org.