LET TERS
FOR THE BIRDS
While the theme for EW’s latest Outdoors
Issue was welcome (May 18), I’m disap-
pointed that, alone of the pursuits covered,
birding was treated as a joke rather than the
positive pastime so many find it to be.
Personally, I find that birding encompass-
es many of my passions: curiosity about the
world, getting outdoors, learning, science,
experiencing nature and even storytelling.
I realize the tongue-in-cheek sensibility of
Mr. Keefer’s piece wasn’t meant to denigrate
birders, but it may discourage some from ex-
ploring the ornithology thicket.
If anyone would like a fun but serious
introduction to birding — with a focus on
the Eugene area — I wrote a ’zine called
Chittering Madness last year. The second
issue is in the works, but I still have copies
available. Email requests to mishapzine@
yahoo.com.
Ryan Mishap
Eugene
ANTIQUATED BUREAUCRACY
Your recent article on abuse and neglect
in Lane County’s long-term care facilities
(“A System of Neglect,” May 4) raises sev-
eral important issues.
One is the culture at Oregon’s Depart-
ment of Human Services (DHS). Their at-
NOTES FROM THE RIVERSIDE
titude seems to be to wait until abuse or
neglect occurs, then issue a fine, which
they know won’t work, and finally order
the facility to stop admitting new patients.
Shouldn’t they be more pro-active —
dealing with problems before they reach
the neglect stage? If the problem is not
enough nurses and caregivers, why isn’t
there a regulation requiring x number of
caring professionals for every y number
of patients, and then fines that are high
enough so the owner will make changes.
Another problem is the antiquated bu-
reaucratic system of DHS. You might have
made clearer that Adult Protective Servic-
es is a part of DHS. And while APS often
does very essential work, it is sometimes
used to avoid dealing with the real prob-
lems, e.g. overworked staff.
A culture that has lost sight of its mis-
sion and an antiquated bureaucratic system
— they go hand in hand. DHS needs some
big changes — the sooner, the better, for
all our sakes.
John Kiely
Eugene
NEGLECTING THE ELDERLY
Thanks to Kelly Kenoyer for the im-
pressive piece on Oregon’s long-term care
facilities (May 4). Bravo to Lee Bliven for
his dedication.
BY M A RK H A RRIS
Misappropriated Tropes
BACKLASH MASQUERADING AS BUDGET CUTS
W
hen a trope or metaphor gets popu-
larly misappropriated due to cul-
tural transference, problems ensue.
Two examples often used in
mainstream Western culture are
“low man on the totem pole” and the “pawn in the
game.” Neither of these artifacts originally comes from
Western civilization — that civilization in which cul-
tural historical amnesia is a given norm and assimila-
tion is a goal, thereby dooming those who buy into the
concept to repeating preventable mistakes, like déjà vu
all over again.
On the west coast of Turtle Island, the Tlingit-Haida
Nation originated totem poles. Though their political
influence at one time stretched down into what we call
California, totem poles, like feathered headdresses and
teepees, became a recursive meme meant to stand in for
indigenous nations that never used them.
Obviously the being represented at the base of the
pole, holding every one else up, has to be the physi-
cally strongest and, perhaps, the spiritually strongest,
and certainly not the least powerful or significant in an
artificial hierarchy. Similarly, the pawn in chess is the
only piece on the board that, having reached its goal,
can transform itself into the most powerful piece on the
board.
As both totem poles and chess are originally arti-
facts, taken from indigenous communities of color, that
have been adopted and changed by Caucasianization,
we can expect these histories to be erased, and the emic
(internal to the culture) symbolism to be misunderstood.
If I were low man on the white cultural totem pole, I
might be looked upon with contempt by the ones riding
on my back and shoulders as being a lower life form,
when I’m actually supporting them.
Similarly, if I am an empowered pawn, capable of
shape-shifting and exerting powers of transformation in
myself and others, I can do that, even if visibly removed
from the game. Just as successive exalted cyclops of
Eugene Klan #3 have done by becoming businessmen,
educators, politicians, administrators, etc.
In the quarter century I’ve worked at Lane Commu-
nity College and the two years I’ve been employed at
4
May 25, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
the University of Oregon, I’ve been both forewarned
and forearmed. Blessed enough to innovate and make
change, only to see such innovations and changes get
washed away by various forms of backlash rather than
being built upon and protected.
African-American professionals who’ve worked
and moved on from both workplaces have warned me:
It’s the belly of the beast, it’s a great training ground
for institutional racism, it’s vicious, or viscous like mud
or quicksand; it will eat you alive like quicksand made
of acid.
Of course, I didn’t enter into Eugene’s “progressive
paradise” with rainbow-tinted glasses, either. The up-
side is that here, if you’re patient, you can get things
done that might take longer in other places. But it might
take you longer to implement what is a longstanding
progressive standard elsewhere.
So, while I’ve participated in many innovative proj-
ects — at LCC, in the community and, finally, the past
two years at the UO — to enhance the infrastructure,
nothing can’t be undone by backlash or budget cuts or
backlash masquerading as budget cuts.
I like the irony quoted in the UO mission statement:
the university “focuses on teaching and research excel-
lence, with a focus on critical, logical thinking, clear
communication, and ethical living.” Budgets and ex-
penditures reflect priorities.
As of this writing I’ve yet to be paid by the UO,
working as an instructor teaching International Sub-
stance Use Treatment. I’m an addictions prevention,
treatment and recovery practitioner. While not in 12-
step recovery, I promote the “Addiction is Slavery”
meme: I’m like Harriet Tubman or Morpheus. I teach
addicted pawns caught in the matrix of addiction to be-
come powerfully transformed, addiction Jedi knights
and Warrior queens, rather than agents of the addicted
system.
During basically the same time period, a drunken
white assistant football coach got paid inside of a week
for five days work, more money than I would’ve gotten
paid if I worked for 10 years in the soon-to-be-canceled
substance abuse prevention program.
I was forewarned to understand how the university
might value me if that value is measured in dollars and
cents. I know how much money football makes, but
how many brain-injured, addicted football players are
there and who would help them?
If that value is measured in lives saved, improved
and extended, and addiction reduced, the consensus
might be that the value is priceless. Everything that
has a beginning has an end. The end for the substance
abuse prevention program is approaching. The prob-
lems won’t be going away,
and neither will many of
us. We’ll still be here,
teaching pawns to
transform, jumping
barriers, and elimi-
nating obstacles to
empowerment.
Mark Harris is an instructor
and substance abuse prevention
coordinator at Lane Community
College and the University of Or-
egon.