LET TERS
4J’S DOUBLE STANDARD
The recent news about 4J’s
superintendent leaving his post early and
the ongoing negotiations between teachers
and the district have brought in focus
issues that have undermined the morale of
Eugene teachers in recent years.
The failure of the school board to
hold the superintendent accountable for
his performance last year and next year
is in sharp contrast with the push for
accountability for teachers. This glaring
double standard is especially troubling
since both the teachers and many in the
community have loudly complained
about Sheldon Berman’s performance.
While teachers are being evaluated
regularly, “things got really busy” this
year for the school board to evaluate the
superintendent, and now, according to the
Board Chair Mary Walston, evaluating
Berman would be a “moot” point.
The contrast in the way the district
values and deals with its administrators
and its teachers is clearly illustrated in the
recent negotiations between the teachers
and the district. Since the 2008-09 school
year, the district has cut 19 percent of
licensed teachers and specialists but only
7 percent of administrators. Teachers have
been taking pay cuts and subsidizing the
Eugene schools for several years. Berman,
on the other hand, the highest paid school
superintendent in the state, received a
5 percent pay increase this past year
and another 5 percent next year. All this
without evaluation of his performance. In
current negotiations the district is offering
no increase in base pay for teachers next
year, .5 percent second year and 1 percent
in the third year. Why?
Pete Mandrapa
Eugene
FARR CARES DEEPLY?
I wasn’t surprised that Lane County
Commissioners Jay Bozievich and Sid
Leiken oppose Eugene’s paid sick days
proposal. Both have a long history of being
against the needs and interests of working
people. But I expect more from Pat Farr,
the commissioner elected to represent
me and other North Eugene residents. He
should do what he can to promote and
protect economic stability — especially for
his lower-wage constituents. They work
hard to provide and care for their families
— often for employers whose workplace
policies make that diffi cult.
Farr has claimed publicly many times
to care deeply about children in poverty,
and I have believed him. How does he
reconcile this stance with his opposition
to Eugene’s moderate paid sick time
proposal, an important step toward the
kind of successful community we want
where families are economically stable?
We all get sick sometimes. When
employees are able to stay home from
work to recover or see a doctor or care
for an ill child, we all do better. Parents
don’t lose needed income (or their jobs).
Kids don’t go to school sick, spread illness
and recover slower, and older kids aren’t
forced to miss school to care for a sick
younger sibling.
This kind of common-sense proposal
ought to be championed, not criticized, by
4
July 3, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
of our public forests as we speak. Three
parcels of the Elliott State Forest east of
Coos Bay were just sold to the timber
industry, and two more are scheduled for
this fall, totaling nearly 3,000 acres. More
acres could be on the way. Our state’s
natural resources should not be the coffers
for our state’s schoo ls and to manage them
as such is as archaic as killing whales for
oil.
Our legislators in Salem and our State
Land Board must fi nd an alternative
to selling off the Elliott State Forest to
fund our schools. Our clean water, wild
salmon and our children’s futures are too
important.
Rory Isbell
Eugene
SHARED-USE SYSTEMS
Farr, who claims to care about his youngest
constituents living in poverty.
Stefan Ostrach
State committee member,
Oregon Working Families Party
FIX THE MEN FIRST
Disgraced senator Bob Packwood,
decades ago: “I just didn’t get it.”
Having considered the advice proffered
by Annie Kayner in last week’s letters
(“Aggressive Males”), I am now wondering
if I’ve had it wrong all along. As a man
who has already lived what Kayner terms
those “sex-soaked years” of ages 15 to 40,
I just don’t remember fearsome impulses
that automatically caused my helpless
organism to commit selfi sh and violent
sexual assault on females — because I
didn’t.
Of course I agree that roided-up,
alcohol-fueled reservoirs of testosterone
— in combination with a cultivated sense
of bulletproof athletic privilege — is a
potentially explosive scenario best avoided
by any sensible person. So, good advice.
But casting the responsibility of avoidance
onto the would-be assaultee is bullshit!
It’s just one more example of the victim-
blaming/shaming culture that we need to
address as primary.
Men can keep it in their pants if they
prioritize this as right and ethical behavior. I
know this because I and all the other decent
men I have known have always managed to
do such. It’s not that hard even if it’s hard,
contrary to stupid myths like “blue balls”
and “need for release.” I frankly don’t care
how “available” anyone (appears to) make
themselves seem: Those basketball players
made a choice, and exercised authority
and pressure to carry out that choice. The
decision was outrageously harmful and it’s
called assault.
Lecturing women to curtail themselves
in public, lest something bad happen, is
actually an argument for the disgusting
fact that we live in a society that oppresses
women. I was the only boy in a family
of girls, and went on to full involvement
in raising two daughters. Since age 18 I
have seen that our culture is basically a
paternalistic macho battlefi eld, when it
comes to gender dynamics and everything
else. Any time a woman is courageous
enough to come forward with an account
of sexual assault, I will take it seriously
because I have seen how it works. We are
confronted with an epidemic of sexual and
gun violence, and we obviously need to fi x
the men fi rst.
Vip Short
Eugene
BEE DEATH DETAILS
A couple of things I think are being
overlooked in the bee death spraying at the
apartment complex in north Eugene.
1) I think this is supported county
housing. Why did the county IVM
(integrated pest management) coordinator
not direct this work, if so?
2) Linden trees, to my knowledge, are
not subject to the type of aphid infestations
that are the reason behind the spraying.
If the trees that had the aphids were not
lindens, then the spraying of the insecticide
on the linden trees is not only a violation of
the labeled instructions on the insecticide,
but also a careless and willful misuse of the
product.
Anyone who hires a licensed pesticide
applicator expects them to take great care
to minimize unintended harm. It is clear as
glass that Glass Tree Care takes no such
cautions.
Mike Koivula
Springfi eld
SELLING OFF THE ELLIOTT
Imagine a future where old-growth
forests on state public lands in Oregon
are disposed of to the highest bidder,
and suddenly slopes across the Coast
Range that once housed stately storybook
rainforest lay clearcut and barren behind
locked gates. Imagine next that upon the
frequent landslides, extinction of wild
salmon and pesticide-fi lled waterways, we
suddenly realize our grave mistake.
This may be our future sooner than we
know it as the state of Oregon is disposing
Jeff Warren’s June 19 “Bike Path
Obstacles” letter makes a good point.
Eugene-Springfi eld has a good system of
shared-use paths but no bike paths. There
are also a much-admired series of bike
lanes where human-powered bicycle-
vehicles can go as fast as the petroleum
or electric-powered car-vehicles. Both
systems are expanding all the time.
When we share our off-street path
systems we must all be conscious of other
users. Be that keeping a short leash on your
dog or walking no more than two abreast
or simply paying attention to other types of
users on this shared-use system.
A few bikers make it unpleasant for
many others by simply going too fast. I’m
not sure what the exact speed equivalent is
when a 250-pound bike and rider crashes
into a 3-mph pedestrian but in the car-
pedestrian world, when a car is going 40
mph, a pedestrian is killed 70 percent of
the time, yet when a car is going 30 mph,
80 percent of the pedestrians survive. My
guess is that serious injury occurs when a
bike is going 15 mph and much less serious
injuries occur or are avoided altogether
when going 10 mph.
Bikes are vehicles. If you want to go
faster than 10 mph, get out on the streets
with the other vehicles. If you want to ride
among walkers, skaters and people with
families or dogs, simply slow down and
make yourself known when you pass.
We can all get along this summer.
Tom Schneider
Former member, Eugene Bike
Pedestrian Advisory Committee,
Safe Passages Project founder
HEART OF THE PROBLEM
I would like to congratulate James
Ready for his ability to think for himself
and reason about the problem of guns
[Letters, 6/19]. He gets right to the heart of
the problem when he says, “deal with the
causes.” Wow! Way to go Mr. Ready.
Lisa Tyler
Springfi eld
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