in this area to the same fate. You can see
the trapped moisture rising up the bark. If
you dig in the deep piles of wood chips,
you will fi nd bugs and mold.
Volcano mulching will stress and kill
trees; roots suffocate and rot. Excess
trapped moisture invites disease, molds,
parasites and other pests. Piling wood
mulch right against the trunk creates such
constant wet conditions that the tree cannot
survive. Was the city parks department
involved in this? Do they have an arborist
who can resolve the mismanagement and
save our trees? I’m surprised the talented
group of gardeners who manage this
garden have not addressed this sooner.
Tiffany Stewart
Eugene
BEHEADING MICKEY
Can we start taking responsibility for
our own lives? I mean no disrespect to
Sarah or Trinity [Letters, 1/22], but it is not
the job of the EW to babysit other people’s
children. Most of the people in this area
know that the EW is a newspaper that
looks at all sorts things from war, politics,
LGBT issues, Slug Queens and a lot of
more risqué issues — but we draw the line
at beheaded Mickey?
For as long as I have occasionally read
EW, not once has it appeared to me as a
newspaper whose target demo was that of
the 18-month to 4-year-old crowd. With all
due respect: Where were you when the kid
was looking at the paper? If they aren’t the
types to shield their kids from the world,
then they have to realize that there are
things out there that aren’t meant for kids.
Do your own parenting.
James Ready
Springfi eld
HEALTH CARE RALLY
KEEP PRETENDING
The (French) Enlightenment promised
an Age of Enlightenment, a world without
religious superstition or intolerance. What
happened in Paris is one more reminder of
the falsity of that claim for the future.
The other Enlightenment projection
was that science and technology would
usher a brave new world of progress. But
the Machine now imperils the biosphere
itself, as everyone knows by now, as
well as providing an ever more fl attened,
homogenized, globalized life-world.
The murderous fundamentalists now at
work on every continent are not enemies
of civilization. They are its product. The
ruinous emptiness of mass techno-culture
is removing any authentic community
and terrorism — including our family
slaughters and school shootings — is the
result.
But, hey, let’s keep on voting and
otherwise pretending.
John Zerzan
Eugene
ROLLING KARMA
To the inbred junkie loser who stole
my bike from my backyard on 52nd
Street in Springfi eld: My crystal-waving,
Birkenstock-wearing pacifi st friends tell
me karma is a wheel. I hope that’s true. I
hope you’re riding my bike when you get
run over by the wheels of the bus I am now
forced to ride because you stole my bike.
D.S. Hall
Springfi eld
EFFECTIVE ACTIVISM
Thank you for the Jan. 15 Viewpoint
by Justin Workman regarding the effects
of herbicide spraying. A link to the article
has been posted on the Earth Liberation
Front website. I am 74 years old now and
it makes me very sad to realize that the
spraying has actually increased since my
group formed 37 years ago. I’m glad that
Justin and S.T.O.P. aren’t going off the
deep end like I and so many others have
done over the decades. Working within
the system to effect meaningful change is
the only way to go. Thanks for passing the
word.
John Hanna
Coquille
DISMAL CONTEST
It was a narrow escape. Oregon football
was about to dip down to the level of
a football factory before Ohio State
ended those pretensions. I’ve been there
before when I was on the athletics staff
at Northwestern University. A dynasty
was forming there, of all places, when
it won successive games on the road in
Ohio Stadium against Woody Hayes-
coached teams that were superior to the
Buckeyes who beat Oregon in a dismal
“championship” game.
Ara Parseghian, probably the greatest
of all football coaches, transformed the
Wildcats from doormats to No. 1 national
ranking. He also led them to four straight
victories over the dominant football team
of that era, Notre Dame. So Notre Dame
hired him away to be its coach. There
ended Northwestern’s frightening move
toward becoming a football factory.
The UO will be best served by shifting
its focus to become more of an educational
institution like Northwestern than a
football embarrassment like Ohio State.
George Beres
Eugene
POPE MARCUS?
Let’s hope this adoration of Marcus
Mariota ends soon. The way people
are carrying on you’d think he was the
incarnation of the baby Jesus. Will we
see Autzen Stadium renamed Marcus
Mariota Stadium? The University of
Oregon renamed the University of Marcus
Mariota?
C’mon, after all, he did lose the biggest
football game of the year.
Mike Quigley
Junction City
DANCE COVERAGE
Thank you for your column “The Spin.”
I really appreciate dance being covered
as a local art and it helps me to fi nd
performances to attend! I’ll be going to the
UO Dance Africa performance because of
this — without it I would have missed it.
Joshua Dallman
Eugene
VOLCANO MULCHING
If you visit our lovely [Owen Memorial]
Rose Garden soon, you will fi nd a large
tree that has broken at its base and fallen
toward the river. While I’m no arborist,
upon closer inspection of the tree, it seems
to be healthy enough. What concerns me
is the excessively thick “volcano” cone
of mulch they have piled right around the
base of the now dead tree.
When you look around this particular
park, most of the trees have been
improperly mulched in the same manner,
and this is a great way to lose ALL the trees
On Feb. 11, Health Care for All-Oregon
is having a massive rally in Salem to make
sure we acquire our right, an expanded
Medicare for all in our state.
The rally starts at 11 am at the Capitol
and buses will be leaving Shopko on
Coburg Road at 9 am. This will also be
an opportunity to lobby our respective
legislators so that one of the inherent
insecurities of living is no longer an issue.
When illnesses or accidents arise,
those affected directly are in no condition
to negotiate fi nancial matters related to
life-or-death circumstances. People often
make choices that are the cause of their
fi nancial ruin. Medical emergencies are
the number one cause of bankruptcies
in the U.S. Business is hindered because
employers and employees are held back
by an antiquated way of doing things,
which gives a third or more of the money
available to insurance and pharmaceutical
companies. Because consumers as a whole
are denied the right to negotiate the price
paid for drugs, medications often cost
hundreds of times more than possible.
Single-payer as we are demanding would
still give us choice of private doctors,
but the number of middle people in the
way would be reduced to one payer: the
government. The proceeds would be from
progressive (not fl at) taxes and in essence
would not be more than the vast majority
of the “pool” now pays.
We need your involvement! To come
along, contact patbitner@gmail.com.
David Ivan Piccioni
Eugene
ABUSE EXPOSED
The Dec. 24 EW had a news brief called
“Local Wildlife Documentary Gets Big
Praise.” I fi nally got around to watching
the 30-minute video. WOW, everyone
needs to see this.
Exposed can be viewed on the Predator
Defense website at predatordefense.org/
exposed and is well worth passing around.
Thank you, EW, for writing this story.
Rouanna Garden
Eugene
WE WELCOME LETTERS ON ALL TOPICS AND WILL PRINT AS MANY AS SPACE ALLOWS, WITH PRIORITY GIVEN TO TIMELY LOCAL ISSUES.
PLEASE LIMIT LENGTH TO 200 WORDS AND INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER FOR OUR FILES.
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EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • JANUARY 29, 2015
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