POLLUTION UPDATE
The Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) cited Sacred Heart Medical
Center on Feb. 3 for monitoring and
recordkeeping violations related to an
underground storage tank at its facility on
Hilyard Street in Eugene. DEQ also sent
Kingsford Manufacturing Company a warning
letter on Feb. 3 for 23 days worth of Clean
Water Act violations at its Springfield facility,
specifically for discharging high-temperature
wastewater. DEQ sent Christian Church Homes
of Oregon a pre-enforcement notice on Feb. 22
for violations related to an underground diesel
fuel storage tank at Olive Plaza that was
operated without a permit between 1979 or
1980 and November of 2016.
B Y T E D TAY LO R
‘THESE ARE DANGEROUS
PEOPLE IN DANGEROUS
TIMES.’
— PETER DEFAZIO
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
BRINGING
IT ALL BACK
HOME
•The GTFF (Graduate Teaching Fellows
Federation) is hosting a Know Your Rights
Training for activists and international
students, presented by the Civil Liberties
Defense Center 5 pm Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 609
E. 13th Street. This event is open to the public
and free.
• The Coalition for High-Quality and
Affordable Education with Fair Labor Practices
(made of different unions and student
organization at the University of Oregon) will
be having a Rally Against the Tuition Raise
noon Thursday, March 2, at the Ford Alumni
Center. UO President Michael Schill is
recommending a 10.6 percent tuition increase
for in-state students and the GTFF says, “We
believe this undermines access to affordable
education for people in Oregon. Come and
speak against the tuition raise!”
• The Public Interest Environmental Law
Conference is March 2-6 at the UO Law School.
See stories this issue and go to PIELC.org to
download a brochure of the conference.
• The Eugene-Springfield Nonviolent
Communication (NVC) coordinating committee
is hosting a workshop entitled “Living Our
Authentic Self.” Organizers say the three-day
intermediate level NVC workshop will be led by
Robert Gonzales. Gonzales holds a Ph.D. in
clinical psychology and has been conducting
NVC training since 1986. The workshop is
March 3-5 at the Eugene Garden Club, 1645
High Street in Eugene. For more information or
to register, email: ClassInquiry@comcast.net,
or call Steve Goldman at 541-686-3056.
• The 2017 Sustainability Town Hall will be
held in Corvallis 7 pm Thursday, March 9, at the
CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the Oregon State
University campus. Registration closes March
5 at sustainablecorvallis.org, and organizers
say, “This event typically draws a standing-
room-only crowd.” Participants will be seated
at 40 tables of eight for an interactive town hall
program in three parts, each with a presentation
from the main stage followed by discussion
and activity at the tables. Opening remarks on
“Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Groundwork
for a Sustainable Community” will be by Dr.
Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, an enrolled
member of the Confederated Tribes of the
Siletz Indians who earned her Ph.D. from OSU in
Environmental Sciences.
6
March 2, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
DeFazio, Merkley draw
highly energized crowds to
Eugene rallies
PHOTO: TODD COOPER
C
ongressman Peter DeFazio got a rousing reception
Feb. 25 at Lane Community College, with attendees
chanting “Thank you! Thank you!” when he entered
the gymnasium. The standing-room-only crowd of
more than 2,000 repeatedly voiced its appreciation
for DeFazio’s vociferous opposition to the Trump Adminis-
tration and its chaotic, backward agenda.
The community forum was followed by a health care
rally with Sen. Jeff Merkley.
“The last time I saw a
crowd like this, it wasn’t so
friendly,” DeFazio said, re-
ferring to his town halls six
years ago when angry Tea
Party conservatives railed
against him for his sup-
port of the Affordable Care
Act, aka Obamacare, and
tried to shout him down. “I
didn’t go out the backdoor,”
he said to applause. If any
ACA critics or Trump sup-
porters were in the crowd Saturday, they were quiet and did
not carry signs.
DeFazio condemned the aggressive and ill-planned ac-
tions by the new administration, which he called “shock and
awe,” a relentless agenda seeking to dismantle our national
systems of public education, environmental conservation,
health care, consumer protection and constraints on Wall
Street plundering. “These are dangerous people in danger-
ous times,” he said, referring to the Trump team.
“They thought we would be dispirited and demoralized,
but they were wrong,” he said. “They have energized people
like never before.” He asked how many people in the crowd
were becoming politically active for the first time, and eas-
ily 1,000 people stood up, cheering.
DeFazio told the crowd that it is vital that the American
people “keep up the pressure” on Congress and the adminis-
tration to thwart the far-right agenda, and to work on remov-
ing Trump — and more critically, recruiting and electing
more progressives at all levels of government.
Cathy Boucher of Eugene said of DeFazio and Merkley’s
rallies: “They weren’t there to reassure us! They were there
to ask for our help — to the point where Peter invited those
who had time to campaign for swing seats in California next
election. I left the events feeling sobered yet inspired and
thankful we have these two.”
DeFazio said there are four ways to “fix” Social Security: cut
benefits, raise the benefits age, privatize it or, his preference, lift
the cap on payments. Currently, only the first $127,200 of indi-
vidual annual earnings is taxed. Raising that cap to $250,000 or
more would “assure full solvency for the next 60 years,” DeFazio
said, and give a monthly boost to low-income seniors.
DeFazio, along with Sens. Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden and
Elizabeth Warren, introduced a bill to this effect Feb. 16.
DeFazio’s message of resistance was echoed by Sen. Jeff
Merkley, who held an enthu-
siastic rally on health care in
the bright sunshine outside the
gym following DeFazio’s talk.
“We need to resist this presi-
dent with everything we’ve
got,” Merkley said. “We need
to stay the course, sustain this
energy and rebuild a solid
foundation for government by
and for the people.“
Merkley pointed out that
more than half a million Or-
egonians have benefitted from Obamacare, including the pre-
vention benefits that lower costs. “We are not going to let Trump
dismantle the ACA,” Merkley said. He introduced Maureen An-
derson, a nurse from Oregon Health Sciences University, who
described the huge population of low-income patients she cares
for — the “sickest and most vulnerable” women and babies who
would lose health care without the ACA and the Oregon Health
Plan-Medicaid.
“In this daily war, we are the boots on the ground,” Anderson
said.
Republicans trying to repeal the ACA have not come up with
any alternatives that will not cause a revolt by millions of their
constituents and haunt them in the mid-term elections. DeFazio
outlined a way to improve Obamacare: Add a not-for-profit public
option. The original House bill for the ACA had a public option
but DeFazio says it was lost in conference committee.
Eugene resident Larry Craig noted that DeFazio spoke against
the Electoral College, but Craig said he was “surprised that [De-
Fazio] didn’t talk about the National Popular Vote state compact.
It provides a way of keeping the Electoral College in place while
supporting majority vote. In brief, each state in the compact agrees
to have their electorates all vote the way of the national majority.”
Local NAACP President Eric Richardson praised Merkley and
DeFazio for “leading the state and nation in opposition to this
mean-spirited, unhealthy and unproductive administration.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley pointed
out that more than half a
million Oregonians have
benefitted from Obamacare.