American women are really becoming
confused about sex and gender. My wife is
from Ukraine and thinks American women
are strange. Most foreign women and men
do as well. They ask, “Why do American
women report rape many months or
even many years after it happens and not
immediately?”
Foreign women say they should be
required to report immediately, like within
48 hours, or forget it. American women
will sit around thinking and thinking and
creating more and more delusions in their
heads and finally convince themselves they
didn’t really have sex willingly — they
were raped. Then you have a man whose
life is destroyed and sitting in jail in major
distress, not understanding why she is
VIEWPOINT
claiming rape.
If a woman is raped against her will, she
should immediately report this to the police
by calling 911. We need a law that you
must report within 48 hours. This nonsense
of women reporting alleged rapes months
later or five or 10 years later has to stop.
If you have sex and decide after the fact
maybe you shouldn’t have, it’s not rape.
It’s simply a bad decision. We all make bad
decisions, and then we learn from them.
Keith Southworth
Eugene
EDITOR’S NOTE: The man who sexually assaulted Laura
Hanson was found “responsible for sexual misconduct as
defined in the Student Conduct Code” by the UO.
OCEAN PLASTIC
I’m a biology student at University
of Oregon. I am writing this letter so
that people pay attention to the damage
of plastic pollution to sea animals. The
negative effects are not limited to resource
consumption.
There’s a long coastline in Oregon, so
plastic products easily get into the ocean.
Plastics have found their way into all five
of the world’s major ocean current systems
and are one of the most common types
of litter found in Portland’s rivers and on
Oregon’s beaches.
When dead birds’ bodies are opened,
people find that they die because they
cannot digest the plastic products they eat.
Also, I saw some pictures of sea turtles
who suffered a lot from plastic product.
They were surrounded by plastic product
when they were young, and after growing
up, their bodies are shaped by these plastic
products.
Public awareness could be helpful,
because it is needed for everyone to stop
throwing plastic into the ocean.
If only a group of people are aware of
this, the problem cannot be solved. My
point is that we should stop using plastic
products unless they can be digested by
animals in nature. Also, we can treat some
birds to detect plastic products.
Thank you for paying attention!
Yuxuan Wei
Eugene
BY JOHN SUNDQUIST
Dangers of Spray
HONORING THE LEGACY OF JAN WRONCY WITH CHEMICAL FREE ROADSIDES
C
itizens of Lane County, take pride in
your roadsides! Unique in the nation,
the county hasn’t poisoned them since
2003, with unexpected benefits. Green,
living roadsides and the well-crafted
policies that achieve them are among the many gifts
left by Jan Wroncy of Blachly, whose body returned
to the soil April 16.
Currently four out of five Lane County
commissioners are directing staff to change county
law and substitute any policy that will start spraying
again. Meanwhile, on April 13, Douglas County
commissioners bought $100,000 worth of chemicals
on killer discount from the Oregon Department of
Transportation, saying they couldn’t afford manual
labor like Lane County, and that their pavements will
crack as soon as any vegetation touches it.
The head of Douglas County poisoning is also the
county safety officer, who was videotaped spraying
over and into the Umpqua River. The commissioners
shown the videotape and damage said they didn’t see
a problem. This same safety officer was witnessed
spraying Forest Service land May 16, 2016, while a
school tour was on the property. He was using a mix
of Roundup, Opensight, Payload and Alligare.
At the other end of the spectrum, Jan Wroncy
was the mother bear, protecting children and all
defenseless creatures in the biosphere from chemical
trespass and involuntary exposure. Scientist, farmer,
networker and legal tactician, she was fearless,
brave, polite. Always composed, Jan presented her
facts and evidence during many meetings, including
with those responsible for poisoning her.
I met Jan about 1984 when she was farming
near Coburg. I was impressed immediately with her
brilliance and ethics, and about 20 years ago she
talked me into applying for membership joining her
on Lane County’s Vegetation Management Advisory
Committee. She represented citizens living with
multiple-chemical sensitivity, what we today call
toxicant induced loss of tolerance (TILT).
Starting with roadsides, I discovered Jan was
fighting for civil, constitutional and property rights
in forestry and agriculture and all in public land
management to boot. She was concerned with every
toxicant upstream and upwind of everybody.
I’m still astounded by the sheer number and
complexity of issues Jan could master and move
forward, all from her home in the Coast Range.
She was always ready to help, for too many years
providing the only information available to those
injured by chemical drift and trespass. EW’s blessed
Lane County Area Spray Schedule is one of the many
strands Jan is weaving.
When county staff applying chemicals made
attending meetings and traveling on roads dangerous to
her, Jan sued for accommodation under the Americans
with Disabilities Act. Fighting for the rights of all
citizens and against Lane county attorneys, Jan’s
lawsuit reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
At the same time she found county and state
herbicides repeatedly blocking all her roads to food,
medicine and legal help. Another citizen suing the
county for injury from roadside spray also found his
roads blocked by spray in a manner that appeared
both retaliatory and coordinated with county legal
staff.
A new Lane County Commission was elected in
May 2003, and the new majority decided to minimize
county liabilities. They unanimously passed Lane
Code 15.500, the law to Use of Herbicides as a Last
Resort Policy, in August. Public Works staff stopped
spraying roads immediately, which continues until
today.
Sadly, some staff have been trying to get chemical
treatments re-started ever since. Now four out of five
commissioners support chemical use, and current
Vegetation Management Task Force recommendations
represent the most recent effort to get started.
Alone in the nation, Lane County hasn’t used any
herbicides along our roads since 2003, with many
surprising benefits. Besides the outright reductions
in poisoning program costs and legal fees:
• The grassy borders along our roads absorb
and clean the toxic runoff leaching from the
asphalt surface and leaking from vehicles and their
tires, preventing this pollution from entering our
waterways.
• The grass edges support the roadbed and
eliminate most erosion into ditches and culverts,
and reduce shoulder maintenance activities in most
locations.
• Invasive weed seeds are rejected by the
established ground cover, leaving only a few
corridors and isolated spots with problems.
Tour neighboring counties’ roads or ODOT-
maintained state and federal roads to see today what
1,500 miles of Lane roadsides used to be — dangerous,
expensive, chemical-dependent and very, very ugly.
But roadside poisoning is big business.
In 2009 the Oregon Legislature approved
most of Lane County for an ODOT no-spray pilot
project. The appropriation passed through all final
committees, but when ODOT got its copy, the line
item was missing and the project had to be cancelled.
ODOT has since made their requirements for
an official no-spray right-of-way too onerous for
any sane agreement. ODOT has its own agenda of
fostering chemical dependence, as do the Oregon
departments of agriculture and forestry.
Along Lane roads today, the greatest threat to
Lane citizens is from ODOT’s massive roadside
poisoning along roads inside our communities and
beside our rivers. Unquantifiable poison exposures
and liabilities originate from illegal poisoning of
county rights-of-way by adjacent landowners.
Staff and commissioners are encouraging the illegal
treatments by looking the other way. For monetary
gain, or even aesthetics, some adjacent landowners
poison county land with massive amounts of unknown
chemicals with unknown re-entry times.
In 2011, Jan achieved a longtime goal when
county public service announcements explained the
county didn’t spray its roadsides, and citizens should
do likewise. A new commission was elected, ending
those reminders.
Treasure Jan’s roadsides and elect commissioners
who will protect them. Demand an Integrated
Vegetation Management Plan that builds on county
success. Support and pass the petition by Freedom
from Aerial Herbicides Alliance to outlaw poison
drift in the county. Fiercely protect children and
biodiversity, and do it politely.
John Sundquist and his wife Marsha are retiring north of Coburg on a
riverbottom farm they are converting to an educational venue on how
nature works and how people can support nature. He started serving
on Lane County’s Vegetation Management Advisory Committee in 1996
and twice served as committee chair. Sundquist currently serves on the
board of Forestland Dwellers.
eugeneweekly.com • June 9, 2016
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