To end my 48 hours of relaxation, I
headed up to Skinner Butte with friends
and joined yet again another jubilant
community gathering of gazers waiting
for the rare eclipse of the decade. There
was even an awesome jug band playing
for free. Note to the city: Portable potties
would have been smart in this park for
this unique evening. I’ve got plenty to
bitch about as well regarding the struggles
of living in community, but this recent
weekend exemplifi ed for me what is so
great about Eugene.
Eva Kronen
Eugene
NRA COWARDS
The people who want to do something
about guns and gun control are usually not
in a position to do anything, and the people
who are in a position to do something
won’t.
The National Rifl e Association (NRA)
knows more about guns and gun ownership
in this country than any other agency. NRA
President Allan Cors and Executive Vice
President Wayne LaPierre, along with
other members of its executive staff, are in
a position to help do something about all
of the mass shootings in this country. They
have the knowledge, the resources and the
expertise to work with Congress to draw
up meaningful, sensible gun legislation.
But they are cowards. They are afraid of
losing a portion of their membership base,
which equates to losing income. However,
if they took a sensible approach and
worked with Congress, they might appeal
to a broader constituency. As it stands now,
and has for as long as I can remember, they
are a somewhat radical organization that
uses scare tactics to make their members
believe the government wants to take
everyone’s guns away.
On a related note, the FBI, the CIA and
the NSA all monitor the internet on a daily
basis to fi nd threats by terrorists against the
U.S. Why can’t they dedicate some man
hours to monitoring social media sites for
these shooters who like to post their hate-
fi lled manifestos and even telegraph their
plans? For that matter, why can’t all law
enforcement agencies dedicate some man
hours to looking at social media sites, even
obscure ones?
Chuck West
Eugene
New nonstop
EUG to San Jose
Connecting the Silicon Shire
to the Silicon Valley
CONVOLUTED FINANCES
I fully support funding for our libraries.
As others have pointed out, having a well-
run public library system helps us become
a better community. My concern is that
the city is more and more inclined to fund
basic city services like libraries and park
maintenance through ever-increasing fees,
taxes and special levies. The rationale for
doing so is, of course, a lack of suffi cient
revenue in the city’s general fund. This is
where our property tax dollars go and has
traditionally been the primary source of
revenue to fund city services. Given that
the city’s political leadership has taken it
upon itself to transfer signifi cant sums out
of the general fund to fi nance a variety of
questionable endeavors, is it any wonder
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EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • OCTOBER 8, 2015
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