Eugene weekly., November 20, 2014, Page 4, Image 4

LET TERS
billboards their supporters pay for.
Otherwise the “status” will remain “quo.”
Remember, too, that both the
Democratic Party and Republican Party
are controlled by the ruling plutocracy
(who funds their campaigns, then wants
favors in return). The Democratic and
Republican parties are, at bottom, just one
two-headed monster, differentiated only as
“good cops and bad cops.” I call them “the
Republicratic Party.”
Levelheaded minor parties like the
Greens deserve our full support.
Pete Benson
Fall Creek
GET THEIR ATTENTION
Shannon Wilson’s protest [WTF, 11/13]
pointed out that EW does not support
the environment by endorsing “Lapdog
Democrats.” Voting for the Green Party
candidates who would take votes away
from the Democrats that propose selling
off our ancient forests in O&C lands
(Rep. Peter DeFazio) and the Elliott State
Forest (Gov. John Kitzhaber) would get
the Democrats’ attention. As their margin
of victory decreases, their interest in real
forest reform should increase.
Ed Cooley
Elkton
READY TO STRIKE
TWO-HEADED MONSTER
In your Slant column of Nov. 13,
EW posted a “WTF” photo of Shannon
Wilson’s protest sign objecting to
EW supporting “Big Timber Lapdog
Democrats.” EW responded that most
Republican candidates are “rotten” about
the environment and other current issues.
EW also said that third-party candidates
“are still very much on the fringe.” Both
are certainly true statements.
Yes, as EW said, the way for a minor
party to progress is to start at the small,
local offi ces and work up. But there is
a major glass ceiling for minor parties
when they aren’t taken seriously and
endorsed by responsible media such as
EW. (Remember blacks and women trying
to be taken seriously for political offi ce in
earlier times.)
Media should endorse a candidate
(and people vote) because they’re the
best qualifi ed, not based on their chances
of winning or how many TV ads and
Graduate employees at the UO are
planning to strike due to a lack of medical
and parental leave and livable wages.
Many talk about students struggling to
pay bills while recovering from accidents,
or choices a parent makes when deciding
whether to bond with their newborn or
return to work.
As someone fortunate to have not faced
these situations, I’ll speak to my own
experience instead. My education suffers
when the diversity of my peers is limited
to the healthy, wealthy, male and childfree.
I rely on my peers to collaborate on
research, review my teaching, supervise my
clinical work and challenge my thinking.
When a sick student can’t to return
to school, I lose out on the perspective
of someone who could have helped me
understand the experiences of a client facing
a tough diagnosis. When potential parents go
elsewhere to study, I lose out on peers whose
experiences would have been invaluable in
designing our family intervention research.
When students without fi nancial means are
excluded from my fi eld, my own privilege
and class assumptions go unchecked, biasing
the work I do.
When we foster intellectual diversity,
everyone benefi ts. I hope our administration
can see this too.
Hillel Samlan, M.A.
UO doctoral student
FILTH ALONG THE RIVER
As one of the hundreds of volunteers who
participated in the annual RiverKeepers
Willamette cleanup last month, I, too, was
frustrated and annoyed at the huge amount
of trash and garbage along the Union
Pacifi c right-of-way. According to Matt
Roberts, senior director of community
relations at UO, Union Pacifi c spent many
thousands of dollars this spring in cleanup,
but hasn’t allocated staff to patrol and
maintain their trackside land. The UO is
trying to clean and rehabilitate its property,
yet it is a struggle to keep on top of the
fi lth that some homeless campers bring and
dispose along the river.
Word went out along the river that the
cleanup was coming and some campers
actually left full trash bags for us to
retrieve. Yet along the railroad riverbank
we could not possibly manage the removal
from small boats and could only shovel
garbage out of the river and back onto the
land. It was disgusting to see nice Coleman
tents surrounded by piles of junk and debris
often just tossed into the convenience of
the river.
Yes, we are all polluters in many ways,
but it takes a special ignorance to squat
in the river and let the rest of us drink the
water.
Mark Murphy
Creswell
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NOVEMBER 20, 2014 • EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
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