LET TERS
businesses is a lousy way to grow the
economy?
In short, Clark is right on. Employees
need to make a decent living. So do
employers. Really, we’re on the same side.
Let’s have solutions that work for all of us.
Personally, I’d change the tax code.
Michael Sussman
Eugene
IT’S TRUE
I agree with Ben Ricker; it is much
easier to find a group to get drunk within
Eugene than Springfield. They even have
an area dedicated to the inebriated called
the Fermentation District. A great place to
get soused but who wants to live there?
Norman Bellitt
Springfield
POT OIL DANGERS
Marijuana
(cannabis)
is
a
medicine. Edibles, tinctures, creams and
oils are potent medicines and should
be recommended by a physician who
understands their properties and side
effects. Allowing people to get anything
they want at a dispensary is the same as
allowing them to go to a pharmacy and
get medicine without seeing a doctor or a
pharmacist.
Our bodies, just like the cannabis plant,
make cannabinoids (major ingredients)
and we have receptors for them
everywhere including the brain, blood
system, liver, lungs, ovaries, kidneys, etc.
The cannabinoids in marijuana are very
therapeutic.
Getting high is a side effect of cannabis.
Historically it was used by the plant to
protect itself from animals that liked to
eat its leaves but would go to sleep when
intoxicated. Most of my patients do not
like to get high and have learned to adjust
the dose so that the psychoactive effects
are minimal. They use marijuana because
of its remarkable medicinal properties
(pain, nausea, appetite, seizures, anxiety,
depression, Alzheimer’s, neuropathies,
PTSD, cancer).
Like all medicines, marijuana can be
dangerous for patients who have not been
educated in its appropriate use and have not
seen a physician. The risks are particularly
high for seniors and mid-lifers: heart
attack (tachycardia or rapid heart rate);
stroke (increased blood pressure); losing
consciousness (lowered blood pressure);
fractures secondary to falls (poor motor
control); bleeding internally (may interfere
with blood thinners); psychotic episodes
(predisposed or using large amount of
oil); children becoming intoxicated with
edibles (concentration unreliable).
You have a moral and legal obligation to
protect the citizens of Oregon. Please use
your God-given privilege of serving others
to promote what is right and honorable.
Keep medical marijuana as a separate
entity and do not legalize the purchase of
edibles, tinctures, creams and oils without
a doctor’s recommendation. Do not cater
to those who think that money is more
important than human lives. Also please
save our small farmers.
Dr. Judy Emanuel D.O.
Ashland
6
A pril 7, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
CALORIE COUNTING
Some recent letters regarding “fat
shaming” all seem to have the same
original source, that being the Feb. 11
EW story “Big Love.” And, though
several subjects have been covered, none
have hit the center.
The laws of physics and biology are
simple: If a person consumes more energy
(measured in calories) than he burns, he
will gain weight. It doesn’t matter if the
food is paleo or Mediterranean; some will
have it easy and some will have it difficult,
but the equation is still the same.
And if a person wishes to consume
more than they burn, I do not care. It’s
their life — until they are in my health
insurance pool, in which case I would
prefer they were not because the medical
issues surrounding obesity are numerous,
unavoidable and expensive. Therefore, in
the same way that ObamaCare handles
smokers, why not the same with obesity?
Grant Roberts
Corvallis
BLOODY CLINTON
Is that blood dripping from the
American flag wrapped around Hillary
Clinton on the cover of your March 24
edition? If not, it should be.
I wonder if any of Hillary Clinton’s
supporters has ever taken the time to
figure out the death count in Libya since
NATO — Hillary and the West’s military
Leviathan — destroyed that country and
murdered Gaddafi. Hillary’s deep political
analysis after the fact? “We came, we saw,
he died. Yuk, Yuk, Yuk.” And what about
the shenanigans at the U.S. Embassy in
Benghazi when Hillary was secretary
of state? Let me give you a hint: There
neither is nor ever was a U.S. Embassy in
Benghazi. But don’t tell Hillary. It might
mess up her narrative.
Over one million dead in Iraq as a result
of the greatest terrorist attack (by the U.S.
military) in history. Yep, Hillary supported
that war. She supported the illegal military
coup in Honduras in 2009 and is now all
for sending (with due process, of course)
the Honduran refugees fleeing that violent
military establishment back to their
miserable fates in their native country.
(After all, it’s all “For the Children.”)
Dead teenagers with crushed skulls
and stab wounds in Mena, Arkansas, back
in the day when the Clintons occupied
the governor’s mansion and the CIA
was running drugs through the Mena
airport; Whitewater and The Arkansas
Development and Finance Authority,
the Rose Law Firm and Tyson Foods;
Travelgate; “The Strange Case of Vincent
Foster” (go ahead — read the book);
strong-arming the female victim’s of Bill’s
“imbroglios”; unequivocally supporting
Israel while the Israeli state slaughters
Palestinian women and children; the
current email scandal; the list goes on and
on and on (see arkancide.com).
I suppose, given the above, Hillary
Clinton does deserve to be the chief
executive of what is rapidly becoming the
bizarre goat rodeo people call the United
States of America. Some of us, however,
have a better idea: Hillary for prison 2016.
Steve Johnston
Creswell
Ted’s Great Adventure
FINAL OBSERVATIONS FROM A LONGTIME EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
T
his issue begins a new era in Eugene Weekly newsroom management as I turn
over the editor’s desk to my able colleague Camilla Mortensen. It should be a
smooth transition. Camilla has been on staff since March 2007 and knows the
community and region well. She has been invaluable as reporter, news editor
and associate editor while writing award-winning investigative stories that
have made EW one of the leading environmental voices in the Northwest. She has unique
qualifications — a Ph.D. in comparative literature and folklore, an inquiring mind, strength
of character, organizational chops, a sharp sense of humor — qualities that will help carry
this paper on to the next level.
I arrived at EW in 1998 after 15 years of editing daily and weekly newspapers around
Oregon. My wife Julia and I were living and working in the Ashland area and needing to
move closer to my aging parents in Yachats. The Weekly was looking for a new editor. I’m
an old Duck (1967) and my brother and his wife live in Eugene so it seemed like a good fit.
The EW owners took a chance on me and I’m grateful. I’ve been engaged in a nearly 18-year
conversation with our community, shedding light on the evolving issues that affect our
lives. Quite an adventure!
The conventional newspapers I once edited have all shriveled. But EW since 1998
has gone from printing 30,000 papers a week to 42,500. Revenues have also grown at
a similar rate. Our unusual success is due to a collaborative effort by the owners and
staff to hire, train and support the most dynamic people we can find in writing, editing,
design, photography, website development, sales, financial management, distribution
and customer service. The talent pool in this valley is stunning. People who have joined us
have, in turn, taught us a lot. Our internship program has expanded our diversity and given
dozens of young writers and photographers a big step up in their career paths.
We appreciate The Register-Guard and other local media, but so much content and
readership has been lost over the years, and much of the remaining content, with some
exceptions, seems superficial and predictable. Our mission has been to fill in the gaps,
go deeper on the issues and provide a much-needed progressive voice — and make it all
available for free!
Not everything we print is award-worthy, of course. We suffer from the usual human
failings. But year after year we have published courageous, relevant, insightful and
sometimes outrageous content (such as last week’s satire issue), information that our
readers can’t find anywhere else. And our content has been enriched immeasurably by
thousands of letters to the editor, commentaries and personal conversations with our
readers.
We admit our biases and that is rare in journalism today. It’s OK to advocate for
environmental sanity, visionary urban planning, transparency in government, public
engagement, more funding for education, better policing, unfettered artistic expression,
housing the homeless and seeking justice for the oppressed. And it’s OK to poke and
ridicule the absurdities and hypocrisies that surround us.
I will miss a lot in addition to being surrounded by remarkable people at work and in
the community. I will miss knowing about how our content comes to be. Everything you
see or read in the Weekly goes through a fascinating process from conception to print.
Every photo has a hidden context, every news story or feature has a story behind it. Even
the Weekly’s ads and red box locations have back-stories. Sometimes the elements of our
paper come together smoothly, other times awkwardly or painfully, and occasionally this
work has been downright hilarious.
As the late Molly Ivins once said, Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but
don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be courageous,
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. — Ted Taylor