LET TERS
FRIENDLY SOCCER
Thank you for making serendipitous
soccer games your cover story June 11.
My husband moved here from Bolivia 14
years ago and we quickly found a network
of local and international friends while
playing pick-up soccer. I have also played
for many years and enjoyed meeting players
and connecting with families from all over
the world. Likewise, we always invite
newcomers to Eugene to come play pick-up
soccer. It’s an open international community
that welcomes all ages, all languages and
all abilities. These pick-up games happen
all year and rotate around local parks and
schools. In summer, Saturday mornings at
Maurie Jacobs Park and school fi elds on
weeknights vary (Kelly or ATA).
I have long felt that these friendly soccer
games deserved a spotlight in the local
media, or at least a mention in the Weekly's
“What’s Happening” calendar. Thank you
again for highlighting the soccer scene in
Eugene on your front cover.
Karen Rengifo
Eugene
“restore” riparian and side channel habitat
(next to the river) the McKenzie Watershed
Council and McKenzie River Trust must
use toxic chemicals such as Roundup as
“standard operating procedure”?
This is happening on approximately
18 acres at the publicly owned Berggren
Watershed Conservation Area despite an
established [McKenzie Watershed] council
policy that chemicals will be used only as
a “last resort.”
We might wonder whether real
restoration can be accomplished in this
way. Do we know how Roundup, et al,
affects living river ecosystems? Can we
come up with alternatives that better
protect water quality? Both of these
organizations represent water quality as a
guiding principle.
Carol Ach, member
McKenzie Watershed Council
EDITOR'S NOTE: The issue is a complex one. According
to Joe Moll from the McKenzie River Trust, the watershed
council and trust staff agreed to look again at the site with
Carol Ach and other council members, to consider why
herbicides are used in habitat restoration efforts, and to
discuss at a later council meeting.
TOXIC RESTORATION
DENYING INFORMATION
Dear drinkers of McKenzie River water
(Eugene): Are you aware that in order to
The 4J School Board and the Gates
Foundation-funded Stand for Children
HOT AIR SOCIETY
are teaming up to petition Gov. Kate
Brown to “kill” the Parental Right to Opt
Out bill that our state legislators passed
overwhelmingly. The bill requires districts
to provide parents with information
regarding their rights to opt their children
out of state testing. I wonder why the
Eugene School Board and Stand for
Children are so adamant about denying
parents information about their rights.
Parents opt out for many reasons. Some
are concerned about the impact that low
scores have on the self-esteem of children.
Some believe the tests waste instructional
time. Some know child psychologists are
concerned that the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) are not developmentally
appropriate. Some believe that Common
Core/Smarter Balanced Assessment are
designed to remove education from local
control. All these concerns are valid.
There was no democratic consent
to allow CCSS into our schools. These
measures represent a shift in control
from local responsiveness toward federal
oversight. Parents are rightly concerned
and have few options available. One of
those options is to exert our rights through
the democratic process. We have done that
work. Our elected representatives listened.
IT APPEARS THE JESUITS ACTUALLY LIKE SCIENCE
’m a little nervous here, a little distracted. But
don’t worry, I’ll cover the slug-like inactivity of
the Oregon Legislature in a moment.
Frankly, a bigger issue looms at the moment. We
may be headed for a global theological/scientifi c
Mongolian clusterfl uck — not to be confused with climate
change or global warming or the Sixth Great Extinction.
This is much seriouser! I can see the donnybrook coming.
Apparently this Jesuit Pope Francis guy, who refused
to live in the Vatican because it was too lavish for gosh
sakes, issued one of them papal encyclicals thingeys.
Without warning or consultation with any members of the
Flat Earth Society, Frankie just called out Art Robinson
and the climate change deniers as unfreakinscientifi c!
There was some tough rhetoric, some hard-ass trash-
talking! Dear reader, do you grock how truly ironic it is
that, in 2015, a Jesuit leader of the international Catholic
community would start rope-a-doping corporations with a
challenge to consumerism and capitalism using science as
a rationale? RUFKM? Really? Remember 1611? Galileo
and the Inquisition? What’s 400 years among friends?
Now, apparently, the Jesuits like science. Who’da thunk?
Anyway, I understand that Art and his son Matt are
considering a recall effort against the pope because Art
happens to disagree with most rational people and he is,
after all, a scientist, sorta. Worked with Linus Pauling,
Nobel Prize winner, sorta. Art loves background radiation
and has totally denied everything the pope just cited
regarding human consumerism and its damaging effect
4
JUNE 25, 2015 • EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
EDITOR'S NOTE: Gov. Brown signed this bill June 20.
CAP EMISSIONS
Let’s
limit
greenhouse
gas
emissions! House Bill 3470, the Climate
Stability and Justice Act, which is
currently under consideration by the
Oregon Legislature, would set a cap on
greenhouse gas emissions for Oregon.
It would set that cap based on the best
available science, with truth checks, every
fi ve years, mandating further reductions if
needed. California has adopted a similar
approach, designed to be joined by other
states, so Oregon can easily join in.
Readers, please contact your state
legislators, both your representative and
your senator, and tell them you want
the Legislature to put a cap or limit on
greenhouse gas emissions this session! There
is no time to lose. Ask them specifi cally to
support HB 3470, the Climate Stability and
Justice Act of Oregon. Here’s how you can
reach them: bit.ly/OregonLegislators.
Megan Kemple
Eugene
BY TON Y CORCOR A N
Art Robinson
Recalls Pope
I
For Gov. Brown to veto this bill denies
parents their only legitimate avenue.
Geoffrey Barrett
Eugene
on the planet and most importantly, its disproportionate
effect on the planet’s poor. Apparently Art has his own
backchannels to a god (not sure which one).
I have to say, I’m likin’ Pope Frankie. I’m 66,
a secular humanist raised Catholic, and I’ve been
through a few (seven) popes. My favorite was John
the 23rd (1958-1963). He issued the encyclical Pacem
in terris in 1963 on peace and nuclear disarmament.
But the current Frankie is impressive. I have a statue
of his namesake in my garden, St. Francis of Assisi,
the Christian pantheist icon, the guy who could talk to
animals. I’m actually worried that our current Frankie
is so progressive that he’ll be taken out. After all, he’s
taken on his own curia, the church’s ruling body, over
alleged graft. But I’m not a conspiracy theorist.
All right, enough theosophy. Let’s switch from the
sublime to the ridiculous — Salem and the Legislature.
Watching these folks is like rooting for the U.S. soccer
team in a 0-0 overtime game. Just when you thought our
Public Employee Retirement System argument was settled,
the Dems have now added a second PERS — the Private
Employee Retirement System. They passed HB 2960,
which requires private sector employers without retirement
plans to create an automatic paycheck deduction to be
placed in a fund managed by the state treasurer.
Employers wouldn’t be required to contribute, and
workers could opt out if they desired; it simply creates
a mechanism for workers to create a retirement plan
if they wish. Next thing you know, those dadgum
labor-lovin’ legislators will require paid sick leave by
employers. Oh, excuse me, they already did that.
What the Legislature hasn’t done is create a
transportation/infrastructure plan. Republicans want to
address the carbon emissions bill again, but Democrats
so far are refusing to go there. Meanwhile, the July
11 adjournment date gets closer and closer. And even
though there has been some recent discussion of a
compromise minimum wage increase, ramping it up
over several years to $12 or $13 an hour, it’s pretty late
in the game to move such a bill.
Democrats seem content to let the signature
gathering begin on a popular minimum wage ballot
measure for 2016. Republicans seem strangely
unthreatened by such a move, unwilling to negotiate
anything, even if their business allies would rather see
a compromise.
For her part, Gov. Kate Brown could really use a
transportation or infrastructure deal to help her 2016
gubernatorial bid. The odd timing of this out-of-cycle
governor’s race, complete
te with a February
2016 legislative session,
n, which will put
the kibosh on any campaigning
paigning for
a month or so, may be infl
nfl uencing
the Republican legislative
ve strategy
of stall tactics — after all,
l, we don’t
even have a clue at this s point who
their candidate for governor
rnor will be.
And there are legislators
ors from
both parties considering
g runs
at other open seats, including
ding
the secretary of state. And,
nd,
did I mention that it’s s
only 16 months until
that election? Stay
tuned. ■
Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove
is a former state senator and re- -
cently retired state employee.