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.
Oregon Humanities Center
Or
2015–16 Tzedek Lecture in the Humanities
2015–
WE KNOW WHO WE ARE
BUT NOT WHO WE MAY BE
-
t e n
g l u
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
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JANUARY 14, 2016 • EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
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