LET TERS
HOMELESS ANSWERS
Seldom does anyone get up in the
morning and say, “I think I am going to sleep
on the sidewalk, lose all my possessions
over and over again, beg for money and
listen to people shout obscene things at me.”
Here are some answers given to me
when I interviewed some of our homeless
population. With the exception of the few
mentally ill homeless I talked with, all
that would talk with me have had past or
current drug and alcohol problems.
“My wife and I separated, and I drank
a lot. Now I am clean and sober and even
though I quit being a productive part of
society for a couple of years the child
support payments didn’t stop. So if I go to
work, my paycheck will be garnished.”
“I have moved so many times, have a
record, have no identifi cation and if I started
the process of getting ID, someone will fi nd
me, and I will have to resolve the warrants
for my arrest and have more fi nes and fees.”
“I found an apartment but when they did
a background check they refused to rent to
me because of my unpaid fi nes and fees.”
“I found an apartment but when they
did a background check they refused to
rent to me because I was evicted from my
last apartment.”
“I found an apartment and the
management Googled me and saw I was
arrested two years ago for a drug charge. It
was a misdemeanor but they didn’t care.”
VIEWPOINT
One of the boroughs of New York City
is now addressing this problem. When
someone makes a mistake and is arrested,
we could benefi t from helping them get back
on their feet, not with handouts but with
case management. Almost every person
I interviewed expressed the degradation
they felt even though they covered this up
with an entitlement bravado.
Let’s work together. This is not going
to go away.
Carolyn Shawgo, M.S.
Eugene
SLAPPING THE CLASSICS
This pertains to your recent article
[“Locavore Music” by Brett Campbell,
4/10] on classical music and its mention of
an upcoming Eugene Symphony concert
featuring three 19th century “Euro classics.”
It takes a slap at magnifi cent music that has
endured over the centuries and will likely
forever touch people’s hearts and souls.
Contemporary American composers
should, of course, also be given the stage, but I
wonder how many fans will be fi lling concert
halls in 200 to 300 years with their music? I
would love to see what happens. Instead, I
will be attending the Sibelius, Schumann,
Mendelssohn concert at the Hult April 17 and
reveling in the magnifi cence that these “dead
Europeans” created. It is timeless.
I will also keep an ear out for modern
music that might fi ll me with joy. Marin
GLENWOOD CALLING
The news from the last month or so has
been so inspiring that I’ve come up with a
solution for homelessness.
The Whos of Whoville should move
on — let’s say to a piece of land out in
Glenwood. They should name their new
encampment the Whoville Luxury Hotel.
Instead of asking for extravagant handouts
like stones for pillows, they should ask for
a subsidy of several million. How could
local offi cials turn down a subsidy for
luxury? After all, luxurious folks are the
ones who create jobs for us little people.
In their new positions as the rich and
subsidy entitled, the Whos could meet
the best families in Lane County: the
Chambers, the Giustinas, maybe even the
Bakers. Working with these self-made
tycoons who never inherited anything
more than some real estate, some media
assets and a few million dollars, the Whos
could make a movie and get it shown over
at Valley River Center. Maybe it would
even be written up big in the local paper.
After six or eight years of running the
hotel into the ground, the Whos can retire
and take up painting. By then, the art-
loving media will have run out of fulsome
words for that grand body of work by the
self-made painter George Bush. The world
will be ready for painting by Whos.
And so, by dint of their own hard work,
the Whos will solve homelessness. They
will become rich by choice.
John Blonigen
Eugene
BOZIEVICH’S SLOGAN
County Commissioner Jay Bozievich
has planted campaign signs all over the
district with the slogan “Solving Problems
Together.” My single interaction with him
was exactly the opposite. In September
2012, Bozievich was given a completely
false allegation about my professional
work by a constituent whose identity he has
kept secret. He treated that unsubstantiated
rumor as a fact without doing any checking
of any kind. He then passed on that rumor
to one of my clients, alleging that I was
associated with a “cult” that has “been
carrying out a campaign of intimidation.”
I sent a message to Bozievich strongly
objecting to what he had done, pointing
out that he had damaged my reputation and
risked my employment with his reckless act
of gossip. He responded that he now trusted
my client’s assertion that I was ethical and
BY BOB WA RREN
Two Old Memos
IS TIME RUNNING SHORT FOR TIMBER COMPROMISE?
I
’m looking at two memos that I wrote in July of 1991 when I worked for
Congressman Peter DeFazio as a natural resource policy advisor. The memos
were written on two consecutive days to refl ect two meetings, one with the
timber industry and the other with the environmental community. Earlier
that year, all timber harvests on federal forests were halted by a federal
court injunction. Thousands of jobs were at risk and the economies for many rural
communities were in limbo. The two meetings were to determine if any form of
compromise legislation was possible and what level of support we could expect from
either side in the controversy.
As I read the old memos, a comparison with the current controversy over
DeFazio’s O&C forest bill is unavoidable. The memos show the vitriolic rhetoric
thrown at DeFazio for his current O&C forest compromise is nothing new. Back then,
just like today, DeFazio was trying to create compromise legislation to provide relief
for rural communities and workers while also providing signifi cant environmental
protections and safeguards.
The memos also clearly indicate that neither side was willing to support any
compromise at all. Both sides were ready and willing to live with zero harvest, but
for very different reasons, regardless of the impact on communities and workers.
The meeting with the environmental community went as expected. They were
opposed to DeFazio’s bill and they would oppose any bill that included any timber
harvest at all. With zero harvest as the current reality, any compromise was seen
as a step back for them. I concluded that, unless a bill had everything they wanted,
they would not support it, or even consider it. And, while I was not surprised
by their lack of support for the bill, I was baffl ed by their anger, suspicion and
disrespect. I had hoped they would look at the big picture and try to maintain a better
working relationship with a congressman who clearly cared about protecting forest
ecosystems.
The timber industry meeting produced very different reasons for why they would
not support a compromise bill. The industry representatives told me their members
4
Alsop was a big fan of American music and
would often include a contemporary piece
in her more classic programs. I think this is
an excellent way to get more people to hear
such music. If the music is deserving, the
recognition and appreciation will follow.
Jane Dods
Springfi eld
A pril 24, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
wanted them to get tougher and stop trying to cut a deal. And that “it’s better to
go down fi ghting than to give in to the total unreasonable demands of the forest
activists.” They believed the environmentalists had overplayed their hand, and in a
strategic blunder of epic proportions, they indicated they would get a better deal if
they waited for a public backlash to develop — a backlash that never materialized.
The industry was slow to recognize its new reality. The economic and political
tides were not moving in its favor. The Oregon economy had diversifi ed steadily
since the mid 1980s and by 1991 the handwriting was on the wall. While timber
would still be an important part of the Oregon economy, its days as “the big dog”
were over. Meanwhile, politics were not going the industry's way either. Barbara
Roberts was elected governor in 1990, and George H.W. Bush would lose to Bill
Clinton in 1992.
While the industry waited for that public backlash to develop, the forest activists
had reason to believe they could get it all if they held out. Or at least, the longer they
held out, the better the deal. My memos show that both sides would stand fi rmly
behind their own bills and strongly oppose all others; there would be no compromise
for Mother Timber or Mother Earth.
Now, in a strange turn of events, it appears the forest activists may be making a
similar strategic blunder of their own. While the industry appears to have learned
from the past, and has been willing to embrace compromise, the forest activists
continue to oppose any compromise at all. They continue to hold out for zero harvest
while they berate and demonize progressive Democrats like DeFazio and Ron
Wyden. I wonder how they believe they can get a better deal without a working
relationship with our congressional delegation? And then there are those pesky mid-
term elections right around the corner that could change the balance of power in the
Congress. Even without alienating DeFazio and Wyden, can they continue to assume
they will get a better deal the longer they wait?
A good friend of mine once told me the problem with the timber industry was that
it was always ready to accept the previous deal, the one that was no longer on the
table. That could be about to change. The shoe may now be on the other foot. With
several Oregon counties on the brink of fi nancial collapse, and with the balance of
power in Congress up for grabs, the tides may be changing. And the forest activists?
They might soon fi nd themselves wishing they could accept the previous deal. You
know, the one that is no longer on the table.
Robert Warren has been a Eugene resident since 1984. He retired in 2012 as regional business development offi cer
for the Oregon Business Development Department for Lane, Benton and Linn Counties and had a long career in
economic and community development, forest policy and natural resources consulting.