Eugene weekly., May 29, 2014, Page 4, Image 4

LET TERS
THE POWER OF SEXISM
The emergence of sexuality in the
teen and early adult years is confusing
for all of us. For women, the situation is
complicated by their position on the victim
end of sexism. Many young women, myself
included, enter this period with a belief that
men and women are equal, and that their
wishes regarding their own bodies will be
generally respected by others. It is a shock
to fi nd out that this is not true.
In my late teens, I slept over at the house
of a very close friend. In my innocence, I
thought nothing of sleeping with friends
— friends often have sleepovers. This
friend was male, and I believed that my
explicitly stated wish to remain platonic
would be respected. After all, four years of
friendship builds trust.
I awoke in the middle of a sexual act to
which I had not consented. When I told my
friends I was raped, they said that couldn’t be
true because he was a friend and I was sleeping
at his house. I must have “asked for it.”
Our society repeatedly confuses
innocence with agency in the case of rape
victims. Men confuse refusal with fl irting. All
young men need to be taught to ask explicitly
for what they want in a sexual encounter, and
wait for an obvious verbal or physical “yes.”
They have a responsibility to be aware of the
power sexism gives them over women.
My male friend had to learn the hard
way, by victimizing me. Since I spoke
up, he learned to be more respectful of
women’s boundaries. We remained friends.
To all victims of sexual assault everywhere:
ROLLER
Trust yourself. Only you know what you
wanted, how far you were willing to go, and
where your partner/ perpetrator crossed the
line into nonconsensual acts. Being unwilling
or unable to prosecute your attacker does not
change the accuracy of the label “rape.”
It is never your fault if you engage in
“risky behaviors” because you believe the
world is a safer place than it actually is.
Instead of “learning our place” as women in
this society (i.e., don’t get drunk at parties,
don’t wear revealing clothes, don’t go into
private spaces with men, etc.), we should
be expecting our boys/ men to learn how to
make this a safer world for everyone.
Kara Huntermoon
Eugene
REST HAVEN CELL-OUT
Rest Haven Memorial Park is currently
courting a new occupant for the park, a 115-
foot AT&T cell tower, disguised as a tree.
Last week, a sorrowing mother was
waiting at the canopy of burial to bury
her deceased son, not 300 feet from the
proposed cell tower site, yet had not been
informed about this plan in process. Is this
fraud? It certainly seems to be duplicity.
The neighbors on the other side of
Rest Haven and many homeowners within
300 feet of this noxious plan are being
marginalized as much as possible by Rest
Haven and the city planners.
Also, dear readers, do you know that we
already boast approximately 100 active cell
towers in Eugene, not to mention antennas,
powerful broadcasting towers and other
AT&T tower proposals in the works?
These towers are not harmless. EMR
(electro-magnetic radiation) emissions
promise us everything from sleepless
nights to our own premature burial —
perhaps even at Rest Haven! There are
recent studies out of Yale University to
confi rm these dangers.
There is no planning by our city
offi cials and there seems to be no limits set
for dangerous cell tower sitings in Eugene.
Communities used to agree, by law, that
these dangerous and unsightly cell towers
belonged on the periphery of our lives,
away from homes, schools and places of
human gathering. What has happened? And
how can we recall this reckless abandon?
Barbara Nugent, Margie Cambell,
Sat Hari Khalsa and 10 others
DISCONNECTED
The EW Outdoors issue May 22 is a
perfect illustration of the environmental
value/behavior disconnect within the
Eugene community. Most of us have
environmental values, but are then
ironically mindless about the ways in which
we fi nd adventure. Is driving many miles to
go on a walk in the woods a responsible
choice considering the challenges we
face with our already problematic carbon-
emitting habits? I would love to see the
Weekly showcase ways to get fresh air
within bus/ bike/ walking accessibility.
This sense of entitlement to do what we
want, when we want to is a cultural pattern
that needs to change if we truly want
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May 29, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
to have an equitable footprint as global
citizens. The UO Outdoor Program and the
Obsidians outdoor club are two examples
of groups that car/vanpool to destinations
inaccessible by city bus.
Robin Quirke
Eugene
DEFECTIVE STONEWORK
Regarding the news story “Problems in
Historic Stonework at Spencer Butte” May
8: There were 70 instances of defective
work performed by the contractor as defi ned
by the contract specifi cations. The article
referred to “70 design fl aws” instead.
The project cost taxpayers over
$25,000. Critical structural elements that
were specifi ed such as below-grade stone
foundation work, thickness of stone walls,
proper “keying in” or masonry bonding of
stones are non-existent or greatly lacking.
Face stones have already begun to
fall out of the structure. Premature costly
repairs are to be expected.
While he ignores addressing the bulk
of the defective work, [contract manager
Jesse] Cary-Hobbs says he let the contractor
not meet some required specifi cations
“because the contractor had encountered
some diffi culties with the stone.” So let me
get this correct: The city hired stonemasons
who couldn’t competently work the stone
that the stonemasons themselves provided
for the project as part of the contract.
A public works bid like this is
supposed to give a level playing fi eld to
all contractors qualifi ed to bid. We all bid