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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2017)
LET TERS ORPHANED ANIMALS Excuse me, but I was just wondering … Would it be at all possible to some way check the empty University of Oregon stu- dent housing apartments, dwellings, etc., for any “pets” abandoned this graduation season? Please let “us” not let it happen again. S. Parnelle Fall Creek MERKLEY IN 2020 I want to give Kudos to Eugene Weekly for endorsing, in your Slant column (July 6), Oregon’s own U.S. Senator Jeff Merk- ley to run for president. I’ve listened to Merkley speak a num- ber of times, and he is by far one of the most intelligent and pragmatic leaders that we currently have in government. More importantly, he is focused on the key issues of today that affect everyone. He is truly a man of the people, who would fight to do what is right instead of bowing to special interests, as so many politicians today do. Merkley stood alone among senators in supporting presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He recognized the many faults Hillary Clinton had, and how she could not inspire the nation the way Obama did. The WikiLeaks revelations of how the Demo- cratic Party’s National Committee did all it could to secretly support Clinton and also sabotage the Sanders campaign is a disgrace that the party still needs to further address. This can only be done with new leader- ship at the very top, and I am confident that Jeff Merkley would be the best person for that job. Vote Merkley 2020! Lance Jacobs Springfield THE BARK AND THE BITE The Weekly article “Forest for the Trees” (June 22) missed many important facts I supplied during our interview. The quote “It makes no ecological or economic sense” attributed to me failed to mention that attached to this statement is the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data showing less than 2 percent of Or- egon‘s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is derived from the wood products industry. In fact, if one looks deeper at timber harvest statistics for Oregon in 2014, less than 12.5 percent of all timber volume is derived from federal public lands. That means of that roughly 2 percent of GDP less than 0.1 percent of Oregon’s GDP is from logging on federal public lands. Our statements that Oregon’s old growth forests can store up to 1,000 tons of carbon per acre, thus a great mitigation strategy to address the climate crisis, did not attain mention. The article did not mention that the McKenzie River is the sole source for Eu- gene’s municipal water, according to the McKenzie Watershed Council, and that two large springs with a flow of about 30 This American Life An engaging show featuring essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage -- based around a different theme each week. Hosted by Ira Glass. Sat 11am or on Demand 4 July 13, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com gallons per minute each will be impacted by a planned logging road. Finally, the article does not mention our long-term goal is designating all public forestlands as biological and carbon re- serves for human survival. Shannon Wilson Eugene WHERE TO PARK? Some Eugene folks want to re-build Civic Stadium, but no one has mentioned parking. Where are all the patrons going to park? Still hopping the curb to park on a grassy lot that isn’t meant for parking? Or filling the neighboring streets? You backers of Civic, have you thought about parking at all? It hasn’t been men- tioned, that I’ve seen. Jan Gardner Eugene ON WALDEN POND SCUM Hats off to Eugene Weekly writer Ca- milla Mortensen for one of the best pieces of political reporting in recent memory, about Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (“Not Mr. Nice Guy,” May 25). Not many Oregonians know that Walden was the author and chief advo- cate of TrumpCare, perhaps better known as WaldenCare, that will throw 23 million Americans off health insurance rolls be- fore 2020. It is sad that one of Trump’s biggest boosters and enablers is ensconced in Ore- gon’s Second Congressional District. Like Trump, he is truly an embarrassment to the values most Oregonians hold dear. I am hopeful that Second Congressional District voters will rise up to Walden and his shenanigans and insist on accountabil- ity. His effort to hide from his constituents — by playing cat-and-mouse games — is pathetic. His duplicity of saying one thing to his constituents while promoting an alt- right agenda in Congress is appalling. Opponents in the Second District smell blood. I was pleased to see that several possible worthy opponents are checking out the possibility of sending Walden back to Hood River for good, where he can’t do any more harm. Kim R. Smith Eugene STAINING OF THE SHREWD Of the many inconsistent observations made in “Taming of the Shrewd” (June 29) — none of which were well-supported or well-researched — I gleaned that the author is a self-hating, white, affluent in- tellectual arguing that the Oregon Shake- speare Festival’s support of diversity is deceitful because they alert theatergoers to the nearby homeless population and don’t provide $1 tickets to transient populations. I’m surprised EW printed this. Talk to any actor in America. OSF of- fers the best regional theater contracts you can find: 6 to 9 months of paid work in a world where you are lucky to have a month
