LET TERS
INHUMANE INDUSTRY
Diana Huntington’s May 29 letter “Blood
In The Water” is spot on. Anyone who claims
to be an environmentalist and/or “animal
lover” can no longer in good conscience
continue to support the single industry
responsible for such unspeakable levels
of animal cruelty and major contributions
toward the demise of the planet.
Cowspiracy, a new documentary slated
to be released this month, delves into the
destructive world of animal agriculture, an
industry that most environmental groups
have remarkably chosen to ignore despite
the fact it is, as Cowspiracy indicates, the
leading cause of global warming, water
depletion, deforestation, species extinction
and ocean dead zones.
The time to acknowledge the
inconvenient truth surrounding animal
agribusiness is now. No matter how
much greenwashing is attempted, it’s an
inhumane, unsustainable industry.
Fortunately, it’s easier than ever for each
of us to make positive changes by weaning
ourselves off of animal-based products.
Animal-free alternatives are plentiful, and
VIEWPOINT
more appear in the marketplace all the
time. It’s the wave of the future — it has
to be in order for the planet to survive —
and there’s no time like the present to jump
onto the bandwagon. To view a trailer of
Cowspiracy, see cowspiracy.com.
Barb Lomow
Eugene
EW SWIMSUIT ISSUE
Years ago, when asked about the acting
ability of football-great-turned-thespian
Jim Brown, Academy Award winner Lee
Marvin replied, “Well, he’s a better actor
than Laurence Olivier would be a fullback
for the Cleveland Browns.” By the same
token, I am pleased to note that EW does
covers for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit
issue (May 29) a lot better than SI would
do liberal rag political commentary. You
are to be commended.
Mike Kopf
Eugene
90 GUN DEATHS A DAY
I stand by Richard Martinez, the
father of a 20-year-old UC Santa Barbara
student who was one of six people killed
by a gunman in Isla Vista, Calif. He got it
exactly right. Americans are dying every
day because of the corporate gun lobby
and the politicians it has in its pocket.
Real solutions exist that are supported
by the overwhelming majority of
Americans — solutions that would prevent
many of the 90 gun deaths that happen in
our nation every day. And yet the gun lobby
relentlessly blocks progress toward every
commonsense solution. It gives substantial
sums of money to buy politicians to ignore
the will and well being of the American
people — by opposing expanded
background checks and calling research
into gun violence “unethical.” These
politicians don’t care who is buying guns
— convicted felons, domestic abusers,
rapists — just as long as the gun lobby is
happily making the biggest possible profi t.
It’s time for the American public to
know the truth about why people are dying
every day and, thanks to Americans like
Martinez, that truth is starting to be heard.
Tragically, it becomes more essential
every day that we Americans rise up
and show the courage and rage that Mr.
Martinez has, and call out the gun lobby
and the ‘craven’ politicians who do their
bidding. We must be committed to making
the voice of the American public heard and
preventing every act of gun violence until
we make this the safer nation we all want.
Ken Barnhart
Springfi eld
BIOLOGICAL DISASTER
I found Kara Huntermoon’s letter
(“The Power of Sexism,” 5/29) a great
example of why these sexual incidents
between adolescent young adults continue
generation after generation without
resolve.
Men and women are different animals.
The fi rst decade after puberty consists of very
different developments in boys and girls.
Two areas that belie these striking differences
are sexuality and communications. Boys
have a hormone spike in late adolescence
that amplifi es sexuality and aggression. Girls
have a more steady development, peaking in
the late 20s, with no equivalent testosterone-
driven aggression. While boys have earlier
BY CHRIS TOPHER EIDEMILL ER
Prowess vs. Integrity
RECRUITING PRACTICES DIMINISH OUR COMMUNITY
F
or almost 20 years now I have been participating in
a personal boycott of professional spectator sports,
electing to watch only amateur college sporting events,
particularly those that represent the school from which
I graduated. But recently, I have decided to refrain
from viewing some of the university-based athletic team sports that
represent even my own alma mater, specifi cally the sports that offer
multiple scholarships to out-of-state recruits in order to potentially
win championships rather than educate our local youth.
The UO is one of the few schools nationwide whose athletic
department is self-suffi cient due to sizeable contributions from
a regional benefactor that produces overpriced athletic shoes in
third-world countries for poverty-stricken urban youth, but I must
discontinue my support as a spectator of university athletic events if this behavior,
which takes scholarships from deserving students who have worked hard to prove
themselves in the prescribed academic formula, does not cease and desist immediately.
The recruitment of students based upon physical prowess rather than academic
integrity appears to be a good fi nancial investment on the surface considering the
popularity of college sports, as it apparently draws more students to the university
through national recognition. But on the other hand, recruitment generates a poor
return for the community that lends its support from all sides. The social impact of a
successful athletic department on a local community gives the impression of being a
positive infl uence on the surface, bringing pride to a small city like ours. But truthfully,
from a perspective founded in formal education and many years of classroom teaching
experience, the result of putting athletics before academics demonstrates not only the
deterioration of the intellectual objectives we have for our nation, but also our social
commitment to the advancement of civilization through education rather than combat.
The current formula for signing students to short-term “contracts” is a recurring
theme that nobody cares to acknowledge, although it has moved me to assert my
contradictory position in light of recent events involving three out-of-state university
basketball players allegedly sexually violating a female student. From my point of
view, in order to preserve the sanctity of the institution of formal academics, colleges
and universities must refrain from recruiting out-of-state athletes and reconsider to
whom they offer full-ride scholarships. Through this practice of recruiting players for
their god-given athletic talents rather than their proven capacity for contributing to the
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June 5, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
intellectuality of a community, university representatives and their
staff treat players as a commodity, initiating a pattern of superiority
that recruited out-of-state athletes ride into our healthy communities.
The student-athletes arrive having little to no attachment to the place,
other than the fact that they are covertly paid to play their respective
games with little objection to the atrocity by school supporters.
The 18- to 22-year-old transplants are far from home and live
like they are on vacation, and other than contributing to the success
of our sports teams, they invest very little into the communities they
are visiting. Oftentimes they accept scholarship money and leave
before graduating, taking scholarships away from more worthy
candidates. And rather than augmenting the wealth of a single
individual athlete from out-of-town who leaves school before
completing their supposed academic objectives by investing in local students who
are innately committed to the communities in which they live, institutions of formal
education can refocus their energies on enhancing the well-being of the very people
that support their cause.
Considering the unjust social disparity that neglects the impoverished yet self-
motivated student-athletes in the high school classroom where I teach, who complete
nearly every course with up to a 100 percent effi ciency rating, in exchange for signing
a future student-athlete who completes less than 60 percent of his passes, I make my
stand, though it pains me to do so. As a soon-to-be disenfranchised alum, I will be
forced to discontinue any further support of the commercialized sports at the college
level (beginning with men’s football and basketball), if the UO does not commit to the
true purpose of formal education as its primary concern, thus contributing to the social
well-being of the community it serves.
I must also insist that the UO requires that all student-athletes who are drafted by
professional sports teams and accept substantial professional sports contracts before
they graduate repay their scholarship monies in full, plus interest, in order to fund the
education of more viable students. In addition, the UO must curtail its out-of-state
recruitment of student-athletes who are obviously committed only to their own success
and unattached to our local community.
Christopher Eidemiller is a local public school educator and freelance writer focused on the ineffi cacy of public
education. He has a bachelor's degree from UO (1999) and a master’s in secondary education from Pacifi c
University (2001).