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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2015)
paint community level decision-making to reject harms like GMOs, fracking, toxic pesticides or corporate water withdrawal, to name just a few, as recipes for doom and gloom because of the “patchwork of regulations” that will be created. The corporations feign chaos, but it’s centralized, corporate control of our own state governments that truly devastates our communities — not people at the local level exercising real democracy and asserting their right to self-government against corporate harms. "Patchwork of regulations" is corporate speak that really means: How dare communities say no to harmful corporate practices in order to embrace a more sustainable existence? It’s an offensive tactic used to prevent any weakening of corporate power. The corporations’ use of “intrastate preemption” against us is their way of exercising greater “rights” to destroy our communities than we have rights to protect them. For more information, go to oregoncommunityrights.org. Delaney Pearson Community Rights Lane County Eugene TRANS-PACIFIC HOCUS-POCUS When I was young, my parents warned me not to eat anything unless I knew where it came from. Sensible advice — so good that even Congress acted on it. In 2002 responding to public demand, lawmakers enacted a straightforward law called COOL (Country of Origin Labeling). For the last six years, in secrecy, corporationists have come up with the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership. Of the document’s 29 chapters, only fi ve address tariffs and actual trade. The other 24 consist of various ways to “free” corporations from any accountability and responsibility! TPP laws would void buy-local laws and could override other existing laws! Their extreme deregulation only helps global banks, big pharma and corporations themselves. The trade agreement includes a process called ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement), a bit of legalese hocus-pocus that elevates corporations to the status of corporate states equaling nation states. There are already pending cases of corporations claiming lost profi ts in ISDS cases including: suing Egypt for increasing its minimum wage, Phillip Morris challenging Australia and Uruguay anti- smoking laws, lost compensation from a moratorium on fracking in Quebec. The list goes on, and the cases would be tried by corporate lawyers, in secret. I can’t do much about this TPP, but a call to someone who could might help. Please call Sen. Ron Wyden and voice your concern. Bill Joosse Elmira REINSTATE JAMES FOX The UO administration needlessly created controversy that resulted in the termination of James Fox as head of Special Collections at the Knight Library. Newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, electronic media and words of mouth have, for several months, accumulated mostly in support of Fox. I wish to add my name to the growing number of artists who are spreading the word they are reconsidering donation of their own archives to the repository of Special Collections. In recent years the library has collected several of my photographic projects related to the history and culture of Oregon. During the past two years I had been in serious discussion with Fox whether Special Collections, upon my passing, might become the permanent home of 50 years work — visual records of my personal view of life in Oregon rural and urban landscapes. Under the leadership of Fox, Special Collections has been an increasingly important repository for our regional history. The newly appointed university president should follow The Register- Guard’s and EW’s recent editorials that suggest he reinstate Fox, who originally tried to warn the university to deal with potential problems with massive email records. Instead of consulting with him as an expert resource, the UO made him a scapegoat. John Bauguess Dexter TOWERS ENDANGER BIRDS After reading EW, where can a person easily go within the city to refresh one’s spirit in the spacious outdoors while walking silently beside trees? The opportunity to de-stress, surrounded by natural beauty and open sky space, with no reminder of corporate privatization of public resources, is offered by the trails along the Amazon Creek corridor. We taxpayers, along with donors from the Be- Noble Foundation, the Audubon Society and others, contributed generously to protect the corridor’s natural ecosystem and wildlife habitat. Citizens of Eugene, please claim stewardship of this unique area and its birds, especially. The U.S. Department of the Interior wrote to the Federal Trade Commission in February 2014, declaring that the non-ionizing electromagnetic radiations emitted by cellular towers “injure, cripple and kill birds in a variety of ways.” “Study results have documented nest and site abandonment, plumage deterioration, locomotion problems, reduced survivorship and death.” The FCC was charged with using outdated standards that don’t protect organisms from adverse effects of exposure to cell tower radiation (1.usa.gov/1jn3CZg). Birds in the Amazon Creek Corridor need readers to write nick.r.gioello@ ci.eugene.or.us to ask planners to deny the ATT CUP 14-003 75-foot cell tower proposed for 4060 W. Amazon Dr. Jane Katra Eugene FEAR AND DENIAL EW co-owner Anita Johnson writes that it was “unlikely” that Sen. Wayne Morse was correct that “John Kennedy, had he lived, would have ended the Vietnam War” (“Reckoning with the Past” story, April 30). On Nov. 12, 1963, Morse was the fi rst member of Congress to be told by President Kennedy that he had decided to pull out of Vietnam. JFK signed National Security Action Memorandum 263 to start the withdrawal, a month before he was removed from offi ce. A copy is archived at jfkmoon.org/vietnam.html. I also heard Professor Christian Appy, subject of Johnson’s book review, at a Morse Center event last year, but was less impressed. In most countries, when the military leadership and “intelligence” agencies assassinate the president and then reverse his policies, that is considered a coup d’etat. The biggest secret of the coup of Nov. 22, 1963, is the perpetrators knew they’d get away with it due to fear and denial. Two years ago, Robert Kennedy Jr. urged “all Americans” to read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters by James Douglass, the best introduction. George Orwell wrote in 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past.” Mark Robinowitz Eugene WHY MENTION RACE? I started to read “The Teaching Poor” cover story April 23 and became slightly puzzled. What century am I living in? The article opens with the statement that “Michael Copperman teaches composition to at-risk students of color.” What color am I? Pink? Which color is referred to here? I expected something different from a supposed liberal weekly. Or is that how the university labels this course? Still more puzzling. A supposed liberal university? No wonder Europeans sometimes are aghast when confronted with U.S. American reality. Lioba Multer, Ph.D. Reedsport OFFENSIVE TACTIC Corporations think local democracy is a patchwork of nonsense. It doesn’t matter what state you’re from, corporations love attacking democracy when local people act to protect their quality of life. One of their favorite strategies is to CHARGING AHEAD “If your tenants want to drive electric vehicles it’s your job to accommodate that.” Thus spaketh Rep. Phil Barnhart, presumably aiming the comment at landlords (“Bills on Capping Carbon, Charging Stations Still Alive in Salem” story, April 30). The promise of free stuff and services for which someone else is forced to pay trumps calls for personal responsibility and accountability in this deep-blue state. Barnhart will have his job for as long he wants it. Jerry Ritter Springfi eld OREGON LEADS THE WAY Recently I watched Oregon Experience on public TV recalling Gov. Tom McCall’s achievements of setting new standards for the rest of the nation with our Beach Bill, Bottle Bill and Land-Use Planning law. I believe that Oregon can also be and should be a leader in providing health care for everyone. The Affordable Care Act is a step in the right direction by covering more citizens. However, as Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners, has asked, “Will there still be those who are too poor to be healthy in America? How do we move from a mindset that views health care as merely a commodity and not a human right? These are the questions we should be asking.” As a longtime health professional, I believe that a single-payer system, expanded universal Medicare for everyone, is not only the right thing to do but will provide better health results for more folks for less money. HB 2828 will fund an important study to determine the best way for Oregon to actually provide health care for all. Now is the time for each of us as citizens to stand up and demand that our state legislators pass this bill. Let’s go, Oregon. We can again be a leader for our nation and at the same time join the rest of the countries of our developed world in providing health care for all. Shirley Kingsbury Eugene EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • MAY 7, 2015 7
