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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 2016)
VIEWPOINT LET TERS BY R O DOL F O PA L M A Choose Your Battle NO CANDIDATE WILL SAVE YOU, BUT SOME VOTES ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS I ’m not a fan of HRC. But I’m no Bernie-for-the-revolution person either. No election will bring us the revolution we need. Even electing Jill Stein or Sanders would do the same as electing the “Hope” and “Change” of Obama. The ball is still in our court. And Hillary Clinton is not the same as Trump. I much rather fight the Clinton administration than the Trump administration. That’s why I vote for whom I vote. I vote for who I will have to struggle and fight against. I rather fight against a centrist Supreme Court rather than a right wing court. I rather fight against Clinton appointees rather than Trump partisans from the GOP. I’m not excited about HRC. And I donated to Sanders, (and Stein) but frankly, he’s too far right for me (and so is she). But I know I’ll never have a candidate I really like because that’s not what elections are for. That’s what organizing is for. That’s why I’ll vote strategically but organize for four years. That’s why my vote matters, but not as much as what I do for the rest of those years. Don’t try to tell me, “That’s why we don’t have third parties,” because you and I know that’s not how this system was designed. We have a system designed to thwart real direct democracy via voting. We have a system designed to have only two parties. Not coalitions. There won’t be any third parties for long. We can’t vote our way out of this mess anyhow, even if we had a dozen choices. But that’s why we have to keep on fighting using our freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and talking to our neighbors and knocking on doors right now. We have a lot work to do. Many of our neighbors plan to vote Trump. We have to talk to them and change their minds. This isn’t something that you need to sign up for. This isn’t something that we need to wait for our “political leaders” to show us the way. This is you talking to someone else about politics. This is democracy. This is direct action. I can’t help HRC run a better campaign. I’m legit worried she’ll screw this up. But that’s not my role. I wish HRC was an actual leftist. Frankly, Bernie was no savior either. We cannot win that battle electorally, ever. That’s the battle we win in the years interim to an election. But this isn’t about her. This is about the landscape under which we will have to organize and fight back. This is important and even though I am opposed to much/ most(?) of Clinton’s policies (both Clintons) my vote never means I agree with any candidate. Because I’ll always be fighting. Always. Because even good candidates need us to fight. Because without that organizing, we will never ever get what we need. No candidate will ever save you. And we will always need to fight back. I may not ever be “with her”; but as long as this race is tight, I’ll work to get her to win. Rodolfo Palma L. is a three-year South Eugene resident, via Chile (originally), upstate New York and southeast Michigan. Palma is actively engaged in labor rights, Latinx issues and animal rights, among other justice is- sues. during her primary campaign in 2008. She lost that primary, but she won on healthcare, because when Obama became president he picked up the torch and passed Hillary’s plan as the Affordable Care Act. Bernie is smart. If he can’t get into the presidency through the front door, he will get his policies in through the side door. He has Hillary’s ear because so many of us showed that we support him. If we want to continue our momentum, we can tell Bernie to keep fighting for us, to keep pushing Hillary in the right direction. There is only one presidential candidate who listens to Bernie Sanders and moves her platform closer to his goals: Hillary Clinton. Like it or not, she is our best shot. Kara Huntermoon Eugene INITIATIVE TOOL The initiative process is a tool that the people can use when the government- corporate alliance gets too cozy: A solid argument in favor of not allowing the Lane County Commissioners to hamper our rights to vote on the initiatives put forward by fellow citizens. Tchanan Ross Deadwood MY NAME IS KESEY Downtown Eugene¹s central square is known by just about everyone as Kesey Square. Even much of the city of Eugene¹s own published literature refers to the location as Kesey Square. Almost no one today refers to it by its official, dull and uninspiring name, Broadway Plaza (ugh!). There are other Broadway Plazas around the country, but only one Kesey Square here in Eugene. Peter Helzer’s wonderful sculpture of Ken Kesey reading to his grandchildren has become a unique destination and central way-finding marker in our downtown. We are asking that you write and tell your city councilor and our mayor that you would like them to change the name officially from Broadway Plaza (boring!) to Kesey Square. Changing the name now would only be an acknowledgement of what has already occurred naturally, and it would be an appropriate recognition of an unique figure in Northwest art and culture. Cary Thompson & Jerry Diethelm Friends of Kesey Square GLOBAL WARMING If grassroots activism causes local or state governments to take action fighting global warming, elected officials at all levels of government can take note of voters’ concern about the problem. But Congress must take effective measures to fight global warming, since President Obama’s regulations are inadequate (see The Economist magazine, June 7, 2014). The Paris agreement of December 2015 was weak, because the U.S. offer was based on the regulations. Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) headquarters is optimistic about Congress passing global warming legislation in 2017. In February 2016, two South Florida representatives, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R- FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), founded the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which contains an equal number of Republican and Democratic congressional representatives. The caucus will serve to advance the discussion in Congress. CCL likes to call its revenue-neutral carbon tax proposal “carbon fee and dividend,” since it would not be a tax in the conventional sense; all the money would go back to households equally, except a small amount for administration. Please tell friends and family about CCL. Because of the need to win over Republicans, people living in conservative areas of the U.S. are particularly important. Milton Takei Eugene LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and will print as many as space allows, with priority given to timely local issues. Please limit length to 200 words and include your address and phone number for our files. Email to letters@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044 or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401. @EUGENEWEEKLY NPR’S POLITICAL COVERAGE LISTEN EVERY MORNING & AFTERNOON Christine Dambach Agency Farmers Loves Pit Bulls Too! 541-743-4388 • FarmersAgent.com/cdambach 6 A ugust 18, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
