LET TERS
VIOLATION OF POLICY
As anyone following my campaign for
West Lane County commissioner knows, I am
deeply concerned about lack of transparency
at the county. It was a central tenet of my
campaign, and one of the main reasons I
spent nearly a year and a half working for
change on the board. However, I take issue
with Commissioner Pete Sorenson’s focus in
the last EW on the county’s handling of the
“challenged ballot” process. While indeed
the decision to open the Elections Offi ce on
Saturday to give Commissioner Jay Bozievich
access to the challenged ballot list could give
the “perception” of a problem, I do believe
the administrator’s assurances that this access
would have been extended to my campaign,
had the roles been reversed. We should
remember that this was the fi rst time the
county was dealing with a new process, the
county’s handling of that new process may not
have been exactly graceful, but here’s what is
more important — the way it was handled did
not affect the outcome in any way.
What did, however, presents a serious
breach of Lane County policy (and possibly
represents a statutory violation) and did
impact potentially many, many actual
votes was the misuse of the county logo
and county-issued equipment to promote
my opponent. I am referring specifi cally
to Sheriff Tom Turner’s appearances in
uniform on Bozievich’s paid direct mail
and television advertisements. While it
is Turner’s right to endorse candidates, it
is my understanding that publicly funded
equipment including logos and uniforms
are not available for promotion of a
political candidate. In contrast, when the
Lane Professional Firefi ghters Association
IAFF Local 851 endorsed me, they were
careful and ethical to ensure that no fi re
engine or any uniforms were visible in any
photos they took with me.
In any election, I expect better from the
sheriff and the county commissioners. The
use of publicly funded county property to
promote the incumbent was a breach of ethics,
a violation of the public trust and may indeed
have been a violation of the law. In an election
won by 74 votes, with a runoff avoided by
only 19 votes, voters have a right to wonder
whether the outcome would have been
different if Bozievich had actually complied
with county policy in his campaign.
Sorenson is correct to raise questions
about ethics, but his focus with these
questions seems signifi cantly misplaced.
To my knowledge, neither he nor any
of the other sitting commissioners have
expressed objections to this clear violation
of county policy by two high-level county
elected offi cials.
Dawn Lesley
Eugene
THE FINAL MATCH
To Killian Doherty: What a
remarkable article you wrote this week
[Whutsupworldcup, 7/10] in EW. I’m from
Argentina, and I moved a few years ago to
Oregon because my family is here and you
know how we are about family.
Your point of view about my culture and
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July 17, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
how other cultures are seeing Argentina made
a great impression on me. I always knew all
that but to have the chance to read it is a plus.
I completely agree with you, and as you
wrote, “Messi is the greatest soccer player
of my generation,” certainly he is.
Sunday I will be transpirando la
camiseta as a #12 player, and even we don’t
have the biggest reward at the World Cup,
I’ll be so, so proud of my team because I
know for a fact they’ll do everything and
more in that fi nal match.
Thank you so much for your article, you
made me feel not that foreign in your country.
Andrea Lara
Lake Oswego & Eugene
NOT ALL ARE EVOLVED
In the ongoing discussion about
sexual assault on college campuses (and
elsewhere), one thread has focused on
the importance of avoiding blaming the
victim. As a staunch feminist, I agree with
Kristin Teigen [Letters, 7/10] when she
writes that “women should not be asked
to change their lives to prevent men from
sexually assaulting them” — with one
signifi cant caveat. I believe that all young
people, especially young women, should be
educated in certain basic safety precautions
as they’re preparing to enter the adult world.
Among the guidelines I would pass
along to my nieces (I’m not a parent) and
others are the following: 1) Don’t get so
drunk that you lose touch with what’s
going on around you, especially in a large
group that includes a bunch of strangers.
2) At a party or a bar, don’t accept a drink,
alcoholic or otherwise, from someone you
don’t know. There’s a tiny chance it could
be spiked with a date-rape drug. Pour your
own beer from the keg. If a stranger offers
to buy you a drink and you want to accept,
accompany him to the bar to get it.
I am not coming from a mentality of
“boys will be boys,” nor from a place of fear.
I’m coming from the practical realization
that until we’ve all evolved to Buddhahood,
there are a very few dangerous folks out
there who will take advantage of someone
who’s under the infl uence of an intoxicant.
My advice is in line with don’t leave
valuables in your car, and lock your doors
when you go to bed at night.
Kelley Blewster
Springfi eld
BLAMING VS. REALITY
While the sexual assault awareness
project at the UO is great for those who are
really victims, it is really too late by college
age to change behavior patterns. The last
paragraph of Camilla Mortensen’s news
story [7/10] proves that. Such truisms such
as actions have consequences, nonverbal
language is more powerful than verbal,
and the Golden Rule are all taught by
example by parents starting when a child is
18 months, not 18 years. Men and women
both bear the responsibility to act civilly
toward each other.
Also, there is a big difference between
a victim — who is put upon physically or
emotionally without their consent, and a
player — who chooses to put themselves into