LET TERS
STABILITY FIRST
Donating $400,000 to help unhoused
people in the Eugene area is a very positive
step in a humane direction, but so much
more needs to happen. For example, Utah
has moved 2,000 people off the streets
and reduced chronic homelessness by 78
percent in the last eight years by simply
providing people with apartments.
Many other cities throughout the U.S. use
the “housing fi rst” approach for at least some
of their chronically homeless. A National
Coalition for the Homeless publication puts
it this way: “Substance abuse is both a cause
and a result of homelessness, often arising
after people lose their housing.”
Housing fi rst gives the chronically
homeless a stable place to work on
their substance abuse and mental health
problems.
I strongly urge the mayor and city
councilors, plus all the organizations
affected and involved with unhoused
people, to come together to seriously
consider the “housing fi rst” approach and
decide what practices to embrace for the
community.
Planet Glassberg
Fort Collins, Colo.
CHEMICAL VIOLATIONS
If agents acting in their own self-interest
spread a toxic substance, designed to kill,
over a community with no regard for the
health of the community’s inhabitants,
what would you call it? A terrorist attack?
An act of war? In Oregon, apparently, it is
called timber business as usual.
When aerial pesticide applicator
Pacifi c Air Research’s helicopter sprayed
an Anarchist Cookbook-style mix of
chemicals designed to kill biological
matter over the community of Cedar
Valley in October, it was just the latest
in a series of state-sanctioned and timber
industry-implemented attacks on the
health and security of men, women
and children in Oregon. As in the aerial
sprayings at Triangle Lake where 2,4-
D and atrazine were found in residents’
urine, and a number of other less
publicized but equally horrifi c incidents
of chemical trespass, Oregon’s timber
industry continues to manage their tree
farms at the expense of public health
and our government allows and even
encourages them to do so.
We need to stop the aerial spraying of
pesticides in Oregon immediately. Contact
Gov. John Kitzhaber, (503) 373-1027, and
demand that he honor the public good and
his Hippocratic Oath and issue an executive
order banning aerial spraying. Tell your
state senators and representatives to pass
a law banning aerial pesticide application
for good. It is unconscionable that in 2014
we continue to allow our children, families
and the environment to be violated. While
Oregon couldn’t fi gure out how to create a
functional health care exchange, here is a
simple health care policy we can implement
immediately: Stop poisoning our citizens!
Marshall Gause
Cottage Grove
BOZIEVICH’S RECORD
In my opinion, there are two types
of human behaviors not conducive to
good public service: political ideology
and/or dishonesty. Politicians from both
political spectra appear to be progressively
succumbing to these bad behaviors.
One candidate for West Lane County
commissioner has distinguished himself as
both a political ideologue and dishonest.
His primary objective is to use his political
offi ce to protect special interests. One
example of his political ideology was the
unnecessary gerrymandering of county
districts resulting in a grossly unfair
advantage for his cronies and their partisan
views and fi nancial profi ts. Regrettably,
this behavior is being played out nationally,
and this commissioner is just another
partisan cog attempting to subvert our
democratic system.
Additional to being a politically
driven ideologue, this commissioner has
a sordid track record of disingenuously
attempting to steal credit for other
people’s hard work and accomplishments.
Recently a campaign fl ier listed a variety
of his purported accomplishments —
taking credit for bringing jobs, reducing
regulations, advocating for forest reform,
etc. In reality, all of his accomplishment
claims were either already in the works,
were due to circumstances completely
out of his control or were achieved by the
hundreds of dedicated public employees
and other reputable leaders. The worst
example of his dishonest behavior has
been evidenced by his misconduct and
denials regarding the Liane Richardson
compensation scandal and cover-up.
I know some may perceive this letter as
hypocritical, but I believe what’s good for
the goose is good for the gander.
Bill Fleenor
Former West Lane
County Commissioner
PURE TEA PARTY
At a recent county commissioner
candidate forum sponsored by the UO
College Republicans, Jay Bozievich
displayed his true colors — Tea Party —
the very same party that shut down the
government last year at enormous cost to
us taxpayers. When asked to respond to
the question of a carbon tax as a way of
addressing climate change, Bozievich fi rst
asked for a show of hands of how many
people had taken an economics class. He
then announced that we must all know
then that any tax represses the economy.
He further added that climate change has
always been occurring otherwise we would
still be in the Ice Age. This is pure Tea Party.
Bozievich’s “repressing the economy”
comment raises the question of how we,
the people, the government, raise money
to build our roads, schools, infrastructure
and safety net. Is Bozievich, co-founder of
the Tea Party’s Americans for Prosperity
Chapter here in Lane County, in the
political arena so that he can whittle it
down — the small government and anti-
tax position being sugar-coated as the
Asian American Voices: A Collins Literary Forum
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May 1, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com