LET TERS
OUR FINE CITY HALL
Though unintentional, Jerry Diethelm’s
history of city governance’s relationship
with its constituents is misleading
[“Design Matters,” 3/6]. Twice, in May
1994 and then in November 1994, voters
rejected the new library measure. Did
City Hall give voters a chance for fi nal
approval? Similarly, Eugeneans twice
voted and twice voted down a new police
facility. Again, was it funded with voter
approval?
Also, Eugeneans have shown their
great support (in two votes) for external
police monitoring. How has this played
out in practice?
Now, we have a situation in which
civic leaders will not approach voters with
a City Hall measure for one crystal clear
reason: It would fail. I’d argue that Eugene
has, for a long time, had a dysfunctional
relationship between its city leaders and its
constituents. How else to view it?
Finally, I’m at a loss as to how anyone
in the architectural profession could support
the destruction of the present City Hall. It is
beautiful and unique; a perfect example of
period architecture (it won many prestigious
awards upon completion); human in scale;
and perfectly situated across from its sister,
the county facility.
Eugeneans commonly bewail the
wholesale leveling of the many beautiful
buildings that old downtown postcards so
well depict — yet here we are again, some
of us positively salivating at the prospect
of destroying the wonderful work of our
fathers.
Jayme Vasconcellos
Eugene
DISPATCHES FROM AFGHANISTAN
REAL SECURITY
I am delighted that our secretary of
defense is proposing to vastly reduce
our military spending. That money is
urgently needed to house our poor, educate
our young people, renovate our dying
infrastructure and much more.
However, I strongly disagree with the
specifi cs of his proposal. It would reduce our
military forces by thousands. I am glad that
those men and women may no longer die in
warfare or be trained to kill, and it would be
vastly better if they could serve their country
in civilian, living-wage jobs. For these
reasons, it is a good proposal. However, it
doesn’t seem to me that it would actually do
much to reduce the federal budget. Instead,
an obvious result would be that thousands of
veterans would return to civilian life seeking
jobs that are not available or education that
ATTITUDES ARE CHANGING, BUT NOT RESOURCES FOR VETS
W
4
March 13, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
REDWOODS IN DANGER
There are two redwood trees at 1550
High St. in Eugene that the city is proposing
BY JA K E K LONOSKI
A Break from War
alking up the jet bridge,
nervousness made every step
heavy. And not because I had
pushed through 200 anxious,
though exceedingly generous,
travelers to get off the last plane on the long transit
from Kabul to the West Coast. A request for airlines: If
you are going to thoughtfully honor servicemembers
by allowing them to disembark the plane fi rst, don’t
wait until everyone retrieves their overhead bags
to make the announcement, transforming returning
soldiers into a travel inconvenience.
My dark worry, six months after leaving behind my
1-year-old daughter Maddy, is which way she would
run when she saw me again.
The military’s policy of R&R leave from
Afghanistan, two weeks off for anyone deployed
longer than nine months, is invaluable, especially
compared to the unending separations of wars past.
During fi ve days traveling to the West Coast I had time
to dwell on my good fortune to serve in uniform today,
despite the dangers of this confl ict.
During an overnight layover at Bagram in central
Afghanistan, in a neglected Morale, Welfare and
Recreation library behind a pool table and a bank of
computers used for Skyping home, I found a frayed
copy of Jim Webb’s Fields of Fire, perhaps the fi nest
writing on the grunt’s experience in Vietnam, with all
its excitement, futility and intense alienation.
Webb, later a U.S. senator, remained skeptical about
the depth of concern for the fate of servicemembers
among those engaged in political fi ghts back home.
His response of authoring the 2008 post-9/11 GI Bill,
which paid for my housing and tuition in graduate
school, stands as the most remarkable demonstration
of support for military service of the last 60 years.
It will sharply separate the fate of this generation of
veterans from those of decades past.
The attitude of Americans at home demonstrates
a similar separation. After a day delivering overdue
hugs and kisses to my wife, Katie, blowing missed
raspberries on Maddy’s neglected belly and whispering
is not paid for. Unless our government is
willing to provide living-wage public service
jobs and pay for re-training these troops, our
streets will be fi lled with even more homeless
men and women.
On the other hand, I have read that the
U.S. Navy plans to build 12 new ballistic
missile submarines costing $100 billion.
Do we really want to modernize our nuclear
weapons that are a threat to humanity and
the entire planet? Finally, will real security
for life on this planet come from drones,
missiles and threats?
When will we ever learn?
Peg Morton
Eugene
the grateful conversations of return, we headed for
a three-day reunion celebration at Disneyland, as
tradition demands.
In Anaheim, discounted park passes, a
complimentary room upgrade and recurrent thanks
for serving underlined the different attitude in the
U.S. today, even after a decade of war. Though it is a
wonderful experience, I would caution against using
all three days offered by the discounted military entry
pass in one visit, especially with a toddler who steers
from your shoulders using your ears and is more
impressed by the swinging lid of a garbage can than
by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and its 90 minute-
long line.
Beyond the Magic Kingdom, institutional changes
further highlight the improved attitude toward
veterans. The education benefi ts in the post-9/11 GI
Bill, increased attention to mental health care and a
criminal justice system beginning to direct attention to
the unique issues of returning from war make clear this
generation faces a much improved social landscape.
Still, unemployment among veterans of recent
wars is above 10 percent. Homelessness is too
common generally, but veterans make up an inordinate
number of those on the street. Several-month delays
in screening and treatment at Veteran Administration
clinics remain commonplace, both for those scarred
visibly and invisibly by our long wars.
Addressing these issues takes resources, and in
a world where former Joint Chiefs chairman Mike
Mullen identifi ed fi scal debt as the biggest threat to
national security, it is unclear how long leaders will
maintain tangible support for addressing social issues
affecting veterans, especially after the images of
soldiers returning home fade. Just two weeks ago, a
10-year funding bill providing resources for veterans
programs was voted down as unaffordable in the U.S.
Senate.
Military retrenchment in the face of fi scal reality
cannot be discounted. Along with ending the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department
has closed dozens of bases around the world. I have
assisted in shuttering a half-dozen bases from Kefl avik,
Iceland, to La Maddalena in the Mediterranean.
Policymakers are conducting a heated debate about
shrinking the military. As one who served on one of
14 submarines dedicated to Cold War-style, mutually
assured destruction, there are signifi cant savings to be
realized, despite some sounding another call to arms
over Crimea.
Hard discussions on retirement and health care
benefi ts await to prevent the military becoming, as
one retired general put it, “a benefi ts company that
occasionally kills a terrorist.”
At the same time, balancing the budget largely
on the backs of those who have carried the nation
through a decade of war seems unjust, just as reneging
on promises made during years of faithful service
seems distasteful, even as that has become normal in
other economic sectors. The confl ict in Afghanistan
is remarkable for many reasons, among them the fact
that the nation has never been directly asked to pay
for the confl ict or its effects. Not once have taxes
been raised for this war; instead, they have fallen by
trillions, despite public votes in Oregon, California
and elsewhere demonstrating a civic willingness to
reconsider fi nancial obligations.
This type of behavior seems unsustainable.
Arriving home for R&R it was painful to realize that
many of the same passengers offering applause while
I disembarked the plane have elected leaders who
are so unwilling to ask for shared sacrifi ce that the
daycare center on my wife’s base began closing to
many military families on Fridays because of funding
shortfalls. From Kabul, friends scrambled to fi nd child
care for children back home.
As a country, we have avoided hard decisions on
how to share the burdens of our nation. But today
one savings is certain. With the president ordering
preparation for a full withdrawal from Afghanistan by
the end of 2014, no replacement for my assignment
will experience the long walk up the jet bridge. Like
so many other positions here, when I leave in a few
months, no one will take my place.
And should Maddy (with a bit of encouragement —
thank you, Katie) again run my way when I re-deploy
home this summer, it will hopefully be the last time.
Insha’Allah.
Jake Klonoski is from Eugene and has been a U.S. Navy submarine of-
fi cer since 2002, serving in Italy, Bahrain, Japan, Kosovo, Afghanistan
and plenty of time at sea. He left active duty in 2010 and was mobilized
after graduating Stanford Law School in June 2013 for service in Kabul
assisting in economic development and stability operations.