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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 2016)
LET TERS DEAR OREGON WHY HAVE MUPTE? A SHINING EXAMPLE Your air feels freer, your coffee tastes richer and you always sound like a Sunday afternoon. I must a steal line and declare, “Oregon, I have just met you, and I love you.” It has been so few days, and yet I already wish to rip off my license plate and replace it with yours and a matching collegiate bumper sticker. I have become interwoven in your world of plaid and peace. Along your rivers, everyone just calmly lives like they already are at their journey’s end. Long ago they headed north or chose to stay amongst your trees where I am certain God would yearn to retire. And yet, I worry. I have heard whispers that folly, fl aws and self-righteousness underlie your genuine character. Will these whispers eventually ring loud and true? And here in your late autumn I worry that even if you stay perfect to me, I will not ever be that same to you. For rush hour is in my DNA, Disney is on my resume; and I love you, peaceful Oregon, but I am a frantic Californian. So for you can I, will I, should I, change? Will you fi nd me bothersome if I don’t? Will my Hollywood heart become bored of you if I don’t? I do not know. But I do know today, Oregon, that you are beautiful. And in the moments before our fi rst winter I cherish this one last lovely thought: When today becomes yesterday, I will now always know what it was like to have fallen so immediately in love with you. Troy Campbell Eugene The prevailing logic underscoring Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) bribes is that if we don’t give developers big tax breaks, they won’t invest in our city and go somewhere else. But that is now clearly a fi ction, foisted on the unwary public. What is worse, the city government has not been carefully overseeing these needlessly subsidized projects from plan to completion, causing us to end up with shoddy eyesores like Capstone while making our city treasury millions of dollars poorer. Statistics now getting play in the national media tell us that Oregon leads the nation in population growth with people coming here from all over the country. It’s little wonder when you consider what has been going on in other parts of the country. California is dry, overcrowded and overpriced, while the weather extremes in the Midwest to the East have become worse than ever. Obviously Eugene has many attractions and doesn’t need to sweeten its attraction with bribes to developers. Why have a MUPTE policy at all? Russ DesAulnier Eugene Refl ecting upon the life and work of activist Peg Morton [cover story, Jan. 7], I am reminded that we can all work to practice goodwill in our everyday actions. Goodwill is the foundation of right human relations. Goodwill is the practical application of love, which itself is the foundational energy that connects us to all other people. True love is the fi xed determination to do what is best for the whole of humanity (all people) or for the group, and to do this at any personal cost and by means of the utmost sacrifi ce. If we can see things in the spirit of true love, then we can see the issues clearly and help to end the current rule of fear and hatred. The work of Peg Morton is a shining example of love, and we thank her for the gifts and blessings she has given us. And though she is gone from our lives in one respect, her work lives on in our hearts. Christopher Michaels Eugene EASY TARGET Capstone [see news story Jan. 7] got the scent of ignorant hillbillies and took full advantage. Duh? Marilyn Mantini Eugene are her three daughters, but only two by name. Did she have a husband? What did he do and why did they divorce? Did she ever get remarried? Did she write books, or go to conventions or run for public offi ce? In short, what happened prior to her life in Eugene, during the previous 72 years of her existence? May I suggest that next time EW writes an homage, perhaps your writers could consult one of the excellent eulogies written in The New York Times, or take a gander at Wikipedia, in order to have a sense of how to write an effective and informative biography. Remember the journalism basics: who, what, when, where and why (and sometimes, how come). Jeff Zekas Veneta EDITOR’S NOTE: A lengthy obit for Peg Morton was published in The Register-Guard Jan. 2. Our story focused on an interview with her before she died, as well as on her book. GRABBING THE COMMONS HOMAGE WAS LACKING Your eulogy of Peg Morton Jan. 7, whilst appropriately respectful, told us little to nothing about who this woman was. Where was Morton born? Where did she grow up? Was she a city girl or a country person? Did she have brothers and sisters? Where did she go to school? What were her parents like? Did she travel? Did she work? What was her career? Or was she independently wealthy and have no job? Briefl y mentioned The plan to develop Kesey Square represents a microcosm of the worldwide theft of the commons by private entities. The commons are defi ned as pertaining or belonging equally to an entire community, nation or culture: public. The developer’s proposal refl ects the pillage that’s happened across the globe, beginning with the rise of empire and whose fi nal result may be the very real possibility of extinction of all earthly fauna except those with exoskeletons. 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