Eugene weekly., March 17, 2016, Image 5

The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
AN EYE FOR NEGATIVES
What were you looking for in your one-
time “trek” east to Springfield March 10?
Did you choose to visit the Willamalane
Adult Center when it is hosting any of
a multitude of age-range programs for
the community? Did you choose to visit
Springfield on a Second Friday Art Walk
when the downtown is full of a bustling
crowd of art aficionados and shoppers? Did
you choose to visit Springfield to notice that
the city library programs and services are
reaching a cross section of multi-cultural
and educational offerings all year long?
Did you choose to visit Springfield and
its thriving Sprout! Farmers Market? Did
you choose to visit Plank Town Brewing
Company, a cornerstone restaurant, one of
the best in the region? Did you choose to
visit Springfield when the community hosts
a block party to celebrate the additions to
its downtown art program? I could go on
and on.
You have brought to mind an adage I
was taught a long time ago — if you seek
with a positive outlook, you will find the
positives; if you seek the negatives, you
will find them, too.
And just who considered your one
night escapade newsworthy? What were
you really looking for? Instead, look what
I found when I moved here 19 years ago:
“a community of people who can work
and live and play together and enjoy being
neighbors — a community that is striving
together for the best Springfield can be.”
It’s all in how you seek and what you seek.
Marilee Woodrow
Springfield
TALK ABOUT REVOLUTION
Poor Mindy Stone in the March 10 letters
had a bad case of discourse interruptus at
the recent Ani DiFranco concert and was
tossed from the venue, ostensibly, for her
shouting little “somethings” related to
voting and calling for “revolution.”
Now, I don’t attend paid concerts, as I
consider them a waste of hard-earned cash,
but if I did and someone started yelling
political outbursts at the performer, I might
be a tad annoyed. Be that as it may, the idea
that a likely economically comfortable
“liberal” who can casually plunk down
$30 for a couple of hours of entertainment
feels she’s accomplishing something
profound by calling for revolution is
amusing, if pathetic. The fact that she was
upset, not at missing out on the concert
(and forfeiting her 30 bucks), but at being
unable to exercise her “right” to interrupt
the concert, shows how privileged some of
us believe we are.
Here’s an idea, Mindy: Get one of Ani’s
CDs, drop it into your home player and
shout to your hearts content; it will have
as much positive impact as your concert
outburst did, and nobody will eject you
from your living room.
And for Ms. Stone’s edification,
revolutions quite often entail a whole lot of
blood-letting and other bad gotchas, quite
often giving rise to dictatorships to quell
them. Be careful what you wish for.
Karl Stout
Eugene
WHY DIVEST
$3.4 trillion — more than 500
institutions have already collectively
divested this amount from fossil fuel
extraction companies. Why? The math is
pretty simple: We know that if fossil fuel
companies are allowed to extract and burn
the remaining carbon stored in their reserves,
we will put too much carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere and exceed global warming
past the scientifically agreed upon “safe”
level of 2 degrees Celsius. Warming past
this point will result in irreversible changes
to Earth’s climate and ecosystems, not to
mention suffering across the globe.
We must not allow these fossil fuels to
be extracted and burned, and in order to
do that, we must weaken the corporations
that intend to profit from every last drop
of oil. By divesting from these companies,
we can effectively delegitimize them.
eugeneweekly.com • March 17, 2016
5