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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2014)
LET TERS WORSE THAN PRISON any more extensions of UGB into valuable farmland. I can’t believe the beautiful farmland on the way to Mount Pisgah may be destroyed for another polluting industrial park! Ruth Duemler Eugene We must demand that our government take good care of all children in America. They are failing to do so now! Videos of how the children escaping Latin American injustices are warehoused by the U.S. are without conscience. Of the 57,000 kids in custody, groups of hundreds of kids are sleeping together on cement fl oors. We don’t allow our too many adult prisons to be run like this. This kind of custody is Nazi-like, not compassionate. It must be replaced by humane treatment. Who the hell is our government these days? Our government is now ignoring 1.6 million American children who are homeless to live in even worse conditions of neglect. Monstrous! Jerry Smith, MSW Eugene You are what you eat: UOPD offi cers forced to eat their own words. Even though I agree with eight out of the 13 on the police blog published by The Register-Guard, if you bundle cyclists with fraternities, it is disconcerting that a major portion of the campus population is on the hate list. Their problem stems from presentation; if the hook line were “eat a bowl of soap” they would have avoided the whole controversy. Since the shift commander is now the director of professional standards he should get in touch with the English department and put a wordsmith on his staff before endeavoring on any future literary endeavors. P.S. Avoid “cake,” lest history repeat itself. Vince Loving Eugene the ground was disturbing, but to see bees foraging in the fl owers of the linden trees unknowingly poisoning themselves broke my heart. Some of the trees that had “tree maintenance” or had been poisoned were city trees. In spraying these trees they violated city, state and federal law. When I fi rst heard the news of the bee kill I was worried for my bees. My bees were farther than three miles away, and I was relieved for them but concerned for the beekeepers who had bees closer to the kill site. They should not have to worry whether their bees will live or die from this pesticide exposure. From what I saw, though, I doubt many made it back to their hives at all. This stuff really kills bees. I wonder how many other trees have they been spraying with these pesticides. Many of my fellow beekeepers’ bees died last year, and with the use of these poisons it’s no surprise. It’s legal for people to poison our landscape and kill our bees but legal doesn’t make it right. It’s time to stop your support of companies that poison our landscape and stop the use of pesticides immediately to save the bees. Doug Hornaday Eugene DESIGNED TO KILL TAXING POT In light of the recent bee kill at the Jacobs apartments, it has become evidently clear of the harms of pesticides and how effective neonicotinoids are at killing bees. It’s as if these poisons were designed to kill bees. To witness the dying bees on Cannabis. Weed. Pot. Marijuana. Call it what you like, and think what you will of its users. It seems to me that even the most cynical or moralistic Oregonian is forced to recognize the context in which we are asked to pass Measure 53, the DICKS ON PARADE STOP UGB GROWTH Unbelievable! I just returned from the grocery store with empty pockets. It looks like every item has doubled in price. I guess when friends say farmland with water is worth gold they really mean it and the escalating price of food and food scarcity is beginning. We are so fortunate to live in Oregon where we have wonderful farmers markets and the ability for our farms to fl ourish, but the national loss of farmland will escalate the cost everywhere. It’s time for me to start planting vegetables in my front yard. It is also time for Oregon to put a stop of ! # """ 6 July 24, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com latest measure forwarded to voters about whether to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana sales and consumption: 1) folks smoke it in defi ance of the law and will continue to do so if the measure fails, 2) this is the direction the country is heading, 3) the measure borrows largely from the framework established by the Oregon Legislature, including a stipulation that 40 percent of taxes will be put directly toward K-12 education and 4) we need the tax revenue desperately to keep those programs most essential to a decent, functioning state and society. I do not use marijuana, but I am excited at the prospect of securing stable funding for our kids’ education to the Quality Education Model’s mandated level — simply by allowing Oregonians to do what they’re already doing: buying and selling marijuana for personal use. I am also excited about the possibility of establishing workers’ associations among trimmers, growers and cashiers to fi ght for fair wages and safe working conditions. In short: We either allow marijuana users to step into the sunshine and help pay for programs that are currently starving for revenue or we remain in a state of denial that continues to starve vital state programs. Steve Coatsworth Eugene
