LET TERS
Since Mr. Rooke-Ley has failed to
mention the N-word, the nuclear reality
that separates Israel as a unique criminal
enterprise, his opinion is revealing.
He appears to endorse cheating as a
fundamental value.
If Mr. Rooke-Ley wasn’t so busy
playing games, it’s possible his sponsors
could be taken seriously. The Vatican has
shown this to be an effective strategy.
If it’s just a game, who cares?
Jim Guthrie
Eugene
coast. Jordan Cove will be powered by the
South Dunes Power Plant, slated to become
the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the
state of Oregon if built. Jordan Cove will
be dependent on fracked gas from Canada.
Val Hoyle doesn’t represent Democratic
Party environmental ideals and is willing to
sacrifice our children’s future as well as her
own kids’ by supporting Jordan Cove. She
lacks integrity and is not the kind of leader
we need and is definitely not someone who
can be trusted with Oregon’s future!
Stacey McLaughlin
Myrtle Creek
LACKS INTEGRITY
Val Hoyle is running as a Democrat for
secretary of state; she lists herself as the
mother of two children and a proven leader
in getting results for clean fuels to combat
climate change.
One of the most important Democratic
planks for 2016 states: “We oppose the
development of Oregon Coastal regions
for the export of fossil fuels.” Remember
the Children’s Climate Trust lawsuit
originating in Eugene? It speaks to the
heart of our obligation to this planet for
future generations.
Val Hoyle accepted a $5,000 campaign
donation from the Jordan Cove, LLC PAC
in December 2015. Jordan Cove is the
proposed LNG liquefaction and export
facility planned for the Coos County
VIEWPOINT
FALSE REFORM
With regards to your “Slant” article and
the “Take Back The Night” event on April
28:
It’s an incredibly sad irony that the very
peer group that you’d think would’ve been
Laura Hanson’s advocates, the women in
and of her sorority, decided that image
and “social capital” on the University of
Oregon campus were more important than
Hanson’s life. Add to this the university’s
lack of integrity and concern after her rape,
and Ms. Hanson was victimized again.
In Brenda Tracy’s rape case at Oregon
State University, she may have received
an apology, yet the university “partnered
with her to improve how it handles those
cases.” Does partnering mean giving Ms.
Tracy the “opportunity” to speak to faculty
and students about her experience, yet
not demanding that the four rapists do the
same?! Three were OSU football players,
and all four men “gang-raped, robbed,
sodomized and then re-victimized” her,
according to her account.
This kind of backhanded, insincere
attempt to mitigate and “reform” only
entrenches the very patriarchy that offers
what’s passed off as an apology.
The late author Jose Saramago once
stated correctly that unless men start
speaking out against women’s rape and
abuse, hence in their defense, then change
will be very unlikely.
Sean S. Doyle
Corvallis
CORPORATE POWER
On May 9, Judge Charles Carlson of the
Lane County Circuit Court will hear a case
that threatens the people’s initiative power
in Lane County and, ultimately, in Oregon
at large.
Corporate interests seek to dramatically
restrict
the
people’s
law-making
authority guaranteed by the Oregon
and U.S. constitutions. Lane County
residents want to put an initiative before
the voters to recognize our right to local
community self-government, free from
corporate interference.
BY JA K E K LONOSKI
The Oregon Way
BERNIE: FROM HAMLET TO THE OREGON TRAIL
“T
o Bern, or not to Bern?” asked
Matthew Keating, a Sanders
campaign organizer, eloquently
introducing Sen. Sanders before
an adoring crowd of thousands in
Springfield on Thursday, April 28. “To vote, to Bern. To
Bern, perchance to dream. Ay, there is the rub.”
Sanders praised Keating, remarking that in all his
campaigning, Keating’s was the first Shakespearean
introduction he had heard.
Ballots have now been mailed out for Oregon voters and
must be returned by May 17. Given Oregon’s proclivities,
its racial breakdown and its idealistic nature, Sanders
will likely do well in the state, despite being effectively
precluded from becoming the 2016 Democratic nominee
for president.
Keating’s impassioned introduction, inspired by
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, points to a valuable lesson on
which Oregon voters should reflect. The play, an epic
tragedy, involves a protagonist so driven by (justified)
rage and hallucinations that he ends up not only destroying
the target of his rage but also his closest friends, his love
and himself, and in the process wipes out his country’s
leadership such that an impulsive and hot-headed invader
snatches control of the nation.
Moreover, Hamlet contains just two female characters,
each largely stripped of agency and mere vehicles for the
desires, jealousies and tragedies of the male characters.
The destruction of Hamlet’s on-again, off-again partner
Ophelia following Hamlet’s much-regretted condemnation
of her, is allegory for the silencing of strong women by an
6
Before signatures could even be
collected, corporate interests filed to
prevent voters from having a say about
the people’s right to make decisions in our
own community.
To
stop
the
people’s
effort
to limit corporate power, those corporate
interests claim there should be greater
barriers to the people’s exercise of our
initiative process. However, advocates
of the Community Rights Movement will
argue that the courts have no power to
interfere with the people’s right to pass
local laws until after the laws have passed.
To do otherwise would significantly
weaken the people’s initiative power.
Carlson will make a decision that affects
our constitutional right to write and pass
laws that will protect residents from
corporate harms. We must not sit idly by as
the last vestige of our so-called democracy
is scrapped at the request of corporate
interests.
Join us May 9 at 1:30 pm in Courtroom
303, Lane County Circuit Court, and
learn more about local efforts to elevate
the rights of people and nature over
corporate “rights” and privileges. Check
out CommunityRightsLaneCounty.org.
Michele DeLa Cruz
and Michelle Holman
Eugene and Deadwood
May 5, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
oppressive, patriarchal world.
It is a storyline that should encourage Oregon voters to
think hard about their ballot choice.
Sanders famously finds inspiration in Scandinavia, as
does anyone who has visited that part of the world. But
his supporters in the Oregon primary might better find
dire warning in the prince of Denmark. Hillary Clinton
has won 25 states and 12.3 million primary votes, over
3 million more than votes for Sanders. She is guaranteed
to capture enough delegates to become the Democratic
answer to Donald Trump’s misogynistic, xenophobic,
know-nothing campaign.
That recognized, a wise Oregon voter might hesitate
to mail in a vote for Sanders and instead strengthen the
hand of the woman we need to win the presidency in
November. That is what inspired me to mail in my vote
for Clinton after watching Sanders’ Springfield rally.
Having thought long and hard about it, I recognize
the 2016 election season is a more Oregonian tale than
Hamlet. Whether from history class or from the computer
game, we all know the Oregon Trail. The trek from
Missouri to the fabled Willamette Valley is a far better
metaphor for this long march of an election.
Starting from Saint Louis, pioneers disappointed in the
overcrowded, stratified East set out shining with idealism,
promised a rich, virgin land ready to fulfill the Manifest
Destiny of America, a new Eden. Over thousands of dusty
miles — through bloody hunting, terrible bouts of disease
and treacherous river fording — that shine would no
doubt dim.
Along the trail, at the historic “Parting of the Ways”
in eastern Idaho, wagon trains were presented with the
apocryphal markers: a pile of iron pyrite marking one path,
fool’s gold, leading the way to California and a sign on the
other that read “To Oregon.”
Those who could read, it is said, stayed on the path to
Oregon. Those distracted by worthless glitz, those who
perhaps might have benefited from more time acquiring
knowledge, headed to California.
The parting is a fitting metaphor for those who tire of the
Democratic race and chase the false promise of the Trump
candidacy.
For those who continued on to Oregon, the realization upon
arrival in the Willamette Valley is that there was no virgin land,
no Garden of Eden. Instead, there was a land with promise,
but already full of rapacious traders, suffering terrible spring
floods and with a culture of bigoted views that still haunt our
state. Far from idealism, those who survived and thrived in
Oregon did so through grit and stubborn determination. Even
two centuries later, Oregonians struggle hard, through policy
argument after rezoning battle, to create their Eden.
There is no doubt that Sanders will do well in Oregon
this May; it is Oregonians’ nature to set out inspired by
ideals. However, for a people born from an idealistic
starting point, who persevere past the seduction of
false promises, but who remain committed to steady,
cumulative progress despite disappointment — fighting
through greed and mud and prejudice — the candidate
who fits our state is Hillary Clinton.
For those who vote this May for Sanders “perchance
to dream,” just remember that when you wake up this fall,
we are in a real fight to protect our state and our country.
The Clinton campaign needs your support to win.
Ignore those who would falsely encourage sitting out
the election, maliciously whispering as they did in Hamlet,
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” Consider the
needs of your community and your nation.
Hillary Clinton should win Oregon this November and
she should win with a YUGE margin.
Jake Klonoski was born in Springfield and is a fifth-generation Oregonian.