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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 2016)
LET TERS ‘TIS THE SEASON Let’s take a diversion of comments on Trump, Eugene City Council, pot, election results, healthcare, housing, etc., and de- clare a “Merry Christmas, Best Wishes & Happy 2017!” Stace Webb Eugene ALL HAIL TRUMPTOPIA A quote from Marine Gen. James Mattis (Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense): “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Does this mercy extend to Trump? God forbid anyone gets punched in the face. Mattis said “everybody,” so I’ll take a general at his word. Mattis probably sees Trump as a use- ful bobblehead — tip of the spear, so to speak. Broken weapons can be discarded. Generals learn stuff like this while work- ing above the visible ceiling. Visible ceil- ing means: Folks you have never read about in People magazine, doing stuff you never hear about from morning show TV. Would Mad Dog stage a plane crash? A drowning? Only one Marine knows for sure. After the Commander-in-Chief de- clares martial law and a shooting war with Canada (or somewhere) gets trumped out, America will need some serious law and order right here stateside. Liberals and squishy-soft democrats have just been issued new marching orders. Let’s target everyone … except, of course, those Nazi skinhead alt-right gang- sters right next door in D.C. at the Ronald Reagan Federal building. In the 1940s, America sent soldiers to Eu- rope to kill Nazi Fascists; ironic, isn’t it — that was a policy Ronald Reagan supported. Yes sir, times have changed. Orwellian enthusiasm will be deployed to the masses, even if that requires water- boarding and torture. Welcome now to our New World Dis- Order, citizen nobody. People not wealthy just became obsolete. Remember, “the minority has spoken.” All hail Trumptopia. Glenn Jones Eugene SCAPEGOATING IN ACTION On one hand, we have a professor who impersonated a black doctor. On the other hand, we have a university accepting a billion dollars from Nike, a company that coldly profits from exploiting brown wom- en in Asia in virtual slavery conditions. The fact that we are aware of one event and not the other is the function of scape- goating. University of Oregon students success- fully pressured the university to divest from HOT AIR SOCIETY South African Apartheid gold years ago. Where’s the consciousness now? Kari Johnson Eugene America White” House that you voted for … silently. Karen D. Myers Eugene NO CONSENT Here’s an invitation for you, Dan Mat- theisen [Letters, 12/15], to earn your very own participation ribbon: All you have to do is attend the Women’s March in Eugene. On Jan. 21, 2017, in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington, Port- land and other cities around the country will unite in Eugene, standing together in solidarity with our families and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health and our community, recognizing that our diversity is the strength of our country. Yep, Dan, I’ll see you at the new Fed- eral Courthouse at noon on Jan. 21. We’ll exchange participation buttons, OK? But I promise I won’t insult you or be con- descending by calling your voting choice a “childish response.” And no need to quell any sad feelings. But thanks for the concern anyway. According to an ancient maxim of com- mon law, “silence gives consent” (Qui ta- cet, consentit). And like so many citizens in this democracy, I am not consenting to a Trump presidency and I will not be silent. Instead, I will be pushing back and inten- tionally resisting the advances of the sexu- al predator, bully and racist in the “Make CAN’T HAPPEN HERE Wouldn’t it be terrible if it turns out that the Russians tried to influence our elections and politics. I’m glad to live in a country that would never think of doing that to others. Pete Mandrapa Eugene RAPISTITUTION According to a former prostitute inter- viewed by Chris Hedges on a recent On Contact program on RT.com, there is no such thing as “sex work.” “Sex for pay” is not “sex” and it is not “work.” It is all rape, and henceforth I will be referring to the institution of prostitution by its proper name: rapistitution. Pornog- raphy also needs to be similarly renamed and should properly be called rapography. John Thielking Eugene A MODEST PROPOSAL My name is Stefan Strek. My support- ers and I won the “popular vote” for mayor in Eugene’s 2016 primary election. Our city recorder and Lane Elections might not BY TON Y CORCOR A N Politics and Sausage-Making COMMISSIONER PETE SORENSON IGNORES DEMOCRATS: WHY? D ear reader, I’ve missed you. We each made our own decisions prior to Election Day regarding what we might do based on the outcome. I voted by mail and chose knee replacement surgery before the elec- tion. My doctor then placed me on planet Norco 5, otherwise known as Vicodinville, for eight weeks of recovery. Apparently, something big happened while I was gone. Try to make sense out of this election. President Obama called it a “clarifying moment” before he left on his Hawaiian holiday vacation last week. No shit! And how the hell did Hillary Clinton only narrowly beat Donald Trump (by 554 votes at last count) in the same 4th congressional district where Peter DeFazio, one of the most progressive legislators in the country, soundly trounced his opponent by over 15 points? Anyway, I’m back to Planet Earth now and Lane County. Holy Bong Water, Bat- man! What the hell did those crazy Lane County commissioners just do? An unlikely alliance of Pat Farr, Faye Stewart and Pete Sorenson voted 3-2 for James Manning over current Rep. Val Hoyle to replace Chris Edwards in Senate District 7. Hoyle was the first choice of Lane County Democrats. Just to be clear, this is not about James Manning. I do not at all minimize the historic opportunity that we have in appointing the first African-American legislator from Lane County. James will bring a much needed dedication and voice to the Sen- ate. I wish him the best of luck. I knew Val as a local Democrat activist long before she first ran for office. I’m a strong supporter of her progressive politics, including her courageous efforts as house majority leader last session to pass Senate Bill 941 and remove the loopholes in background checks for firearms. And she led the fight for the creation of Junction City’s mental health facility. But the commissioners chose the third choice submitted by local Democratic pre- cinct members. Why? Let’s say you’re a county commissioner faced with a 2017 state legislative session staring at a $1.7 billion shortfall in its next biennial budget and the potential closure of Junction City’s state psychiatric hospital (think mental health services and jobs lost in your own friggin’ county): Why wouldn’t you send 4 December 22, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com your strongest, most experienced advocate to Salem? I’m just askin’! Stewart’s vote against Val is understandable; he’s a diehard Republican gun-nut doing whatever the Oregon senate Republicans tell him to do. Even Republican Farr’s vote — and his convenient newfound concern about racial under-representation in the Oregon State Legislature — is politically understandable. It’s no secret that Farr is setting himself up for a 4th congressional district run when DeFazio steps down. This vote got Farr support from the right wing of the GOP while allowing him to take a progressive stand on increasing diversity in the Senate (certainly an important and laudable issue). But Sorenson, the only Democrat commissioner, ignored the first two choices of his own county Democrats and picked the third choice. Why? The R-G suggested pressure brought by the gun-nut lobby to punish Val. But no one is saying that Sorenson opposed SB 941. What folks are saying is that he voted with the gun lobby who wanted to make a point of punishing Val for her vote on background checks. The result is he delivered Oregon Senate Republicans and the Oregon Firearms Federation a victory. Why would Sorenson do that? Is he somehow smarter than all the other Demo- crats? Our entire federal Democrat delegation contacted him and asked him to ap- point Val because of the need for experience in Salem dealing with the challenges Oregon faces in the next biennium with the potential loss of the Affordable Care Act and Planned Parenthood Title X funding as well as other federal issues. Gov. Kate Brown and our Lane Democratic legislators called Sorenson to say that they really needed Val’s ability and experience to be able to hit the ground running in a potentially nasty 2017 legislative session. Key labor, consumer protection and envi- ronmental leaders contacted him to ask for his support of Val. Pete Sorenson ignored all of that and sided with the Senate Republicans and the gun lobby. Some folks suggest this was simply political payback for Val’s support of Andy Stahl when he ran against Sorenson four years ago. But no one can truly know what Sorenson’s motive was. Except him. Was it one too many drinks at the genius bar? Or good old-fashioned political vengeance? Either way, Sorenson ignored his own party. Stay tuned.
