LET TERS
IMPROVE RESILIENCE
As a permaculture designer, I read
the article “Second Source” with interest
[“Water for Life,” 11/23]. My work cen-
ters around creating resilient food and wa-
ter systems by preparing for disasters both
acute (like earthquakes) and chronic (like
climate change). While it’s important that
EWEB improves the resilience of munici-
pal water supplies, there are less central-
ized methods of obtaining water that we
should also prioritize.
These include greywater recycling
systems — now permitted in Oregon —
which allow “waste” water from sinks,
bathtubs and washing machines to irrigate
home landscaping. Tanks, ponds and other
earthworks can store seasonally abundant
rainwater for use in the dry season. In-
stalling these systems on every house and
apartment complex would dramatically re-
duce demand on municipal water supplies.
Local land managers can also modify
their practices to improve water quality
and quantity by implementing low and no-
till organic farming techniques and manag-
ing forests by selectively thinning to main-
tain continuous canopy cover.
In the words of the late permaculture
designer Bill Mollison, “The greatest
change we need to make is from consump-
tion to production.” We need to see our-
selves, our homes and our neighborhoods
as the “second source” for water, food and
other needs, and decrease our reliance on
increasingly strained centralized resource
distribution systems.
Tao Orion
Resilience Permaculture Design, LCC
Cottage Grove
abuse, such as grabbing a woman’s pussy or
raping an ex-wife. Six-inch heels are crip-
pling and make women and girls powerless.
Feminism has become a dirty word and
sexism is hip — something to joke about.
Articles like this help make it part of main-
stream society — making it “normal” and
available for us all to be affected and in-
fected by this way of thinking.
How about giving words and their
true meaning more thought before you put
them on public display? It might just make
our world a better place.
Jean Denis
Eugene
DEHUMANIZING ARTICLE
Opening the “Holiday Happenings”
section of the Weekly at random, my eyes
lit on the “12 Days of Eug-mas,” Number
6. I could not believe it.
Still depressed about the state of our
country and the world, here it is, in my
hometown newspaper. Women are “titties”
and men are men. On stage or off.
This is called objectification. It is dehu-
manizing, which makes it easier to justify
DESIGN MATTERS
MESSAGE OF INDIFFERENCE
The day before Thanksgiving and a
mere week before paychecks would be dis-
bursed, the University of Oregon decided
to break its promise to its employees that
it would cooperate with the Fair Labor and
Standards Act regulations. Some employ-
ees for months now have been counting on
a fair and reasonable increase to their sal-
ary to reflect new standards and fair wages.
Due to an injunction in Texas, the new
regulations are on hold based on the expec-
tation that they will disappear once Trump
takes office. Some institutions have made
the moral decision to follow through with
them anyway, or instituted the regulations
early and decided not to reneg.
However, the UO is among the many
that have decided they care more about
money than their employees, and sent some
workers, including my husband, home to
grieve with their families at Thanksgiving
over not only the significant impact to their
livelihood, but the clear message of indiffer-
ence their employer has toward them.
Please help us show the UO the mistake
they have made by calling the office of Presi-
dent Michael Schill directly and asking why
they would make such a heartless decision.
Sydney Georgieff
Eugene
NO BAD INTENT
I am an alumni of the law school and
acquainted with Professor Shurtz. I never
took a class from her and was not at the
BY JERRY DIETHELM
You Have to Serve Somebody
RENAME KESEY SQUARE
Y
ou have to ask yourself: Why such ex-
treme prudence by our Eugene City
Council when it comes to the official
renaming of what everyone now calls
Kesey Square?
And what was it that occasioned the flurry of let-
ters to the City Council from the business community
urging delay?
Was there something incipiently territorial per-
ceived in that renaming, some slippery slope toward
the official acceptance of public ownership, a per-
ceived barrier to those still hoping to build over the
square? Would the mere act of changing the name
from Broadway Plaza to Kesey Square actually have
such power? Some must have thought so.
They say naming is like a handle on a pan. In the
old West, the saying went: “What’s your handle, part-
ner?” In other words, what grabs that pan full of you
and pulls it into mind?
Such naming turns out to be a natural part of think-
ing and shows up everywhere.
I remember my ninth-grade Spanish teacher ask-
ing me, “Como se llama usted, Geronimo?” What do
you call yourself, Jerry? And I would answer dutifully,
“Me llamo Geronimo, señora.” I call myself Jerry.
It was the same in French: “Je m’appelle?” And the
good student would respond: I call myself, Jerome.
And so it became clear that a name was an appella-
tion, meaning that something was being “called,” and
that the act was a profound process of bringing that
thing into presence and into mind.
A good test for the authenticity of that calling is
when a name sticks, like Pig Pen in Peanuts or Kesey
Square. George Bush, with no doubt special insight,
called Karl Rove “Turd Blossom.” Let’s just take his
word for it.
4
December 1, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
KEN KESEY STATUE IN
KESEY SQUARE
Bob Dylan won’t be going to Sweden this year, but if
he stopped by Kesey Square, this is what he might sing:
“You can call me Wheezy, you can call me Deezy
and you can call me Freezy,
If you want to make it easy, you can call me Kesey.
But, o’naza, don’t call me Broadway Plaza,
My name is Kesey Square.”
And then his chorus [where he takes it from the
bridge]:
“But no matter what you say,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
The large roomful of people that attended the city’s
public forum on downtown open spaces this past Dec.
2, now almost a year ago, made it very clear that they
wanted to keep and improve Kesey. They wanted to
see it activated, not sold. They wanted to see invest-
ment in our downtown commons, not their closing.
They didn’t want to trade off one space for some
improvements to another. Obviously, there’s still
some foot-dragging going on here. But as Dylan says,
“You’re going to have to serve somebody,”
City Council: You’re going to have to serve some-
body.
Jerry Diethelm is a Eugene architect and planning and urban design con-
sultant.