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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2017)
LET TERS CORRECTING NEGLECT one must act in any given situation. The implicit assumption is that only strict instruction, codified behavior and the threat of swift punishment can prevent abusive relations, as if the degree to which we are free is the degree to which we harm others. It is a lie at the heart of mass so- ciety. No matter the problem, mass society’s solution is always greater control; the uto- pian vision being pursued requires robot- like behavior governed by finely tuned algorithms that deny our autonomy. It is a vision that is hostile to human wellbeing. It is a breeding ground for abuse and ha- rassment. Ian Smith Eugene Last May, you brought our attention to the problem of a lack of accountability in our long-term residential centers, which has led to abuse and neglect of our most vulnerable citizens. Because you took the time to research, interview, listen and re- spond, change has occurred (“A System of Neglect,” 5/4). As your mission statement says, Kelly Kenoyer, you provide a voice for the op- pressed and dismissed. Thank you so much. Kim Donahey Eugene HEALTH CARE CONCERNS On Wednesday Nov. 8, a contingent from Health Care for All Oregon and some Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network activists joined a newly formed group called CareWorks. The aim of our get-to- gether was to talk with administrators of the memory care facility Benicia in Santa Clara. The administrators refused to hear com- plaints levied against them by family mem- bers of patients as well as employees, who expressed regret with the care facility’s tactic of cutting corners to maximize re- turns. Benicia’s threats and unwillingness to meet in dialogue were very telling. By forcing employees to double or triple their workload, Benicia like many other such facilities, increased their already bloated profits, taking advantage of people’s need for jobs. The time to complete chores was also divided, further stressing everybody involved. It is obvious to see how these inad- equacies and failures affect Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, who are vulnerable and need reasonable staff-patient ratios. Costs for patients range between $3,900 to $5,640 per month. Also relating to health care, people should vote “Yes” on Measure 101 on Jan. 23. Federal funds will match $15 for ev- ery dollar our state puts into helping cover 95 percent of Oregon’s residents (includ- ing all 400,000 children). If the measure doesn’t pass, 350,000 people will lose their coverage. Kathy Filip Eugene MUSSELS ONLY CLEAN SO MUCH POOP Your article on freshwater mussels (“Mussel Mania,” 11/16) came out a week before the one-year anniversary of Salem’s release of more than 22 million gallons of raw sewage into the Willamette River. Mussels may clean rivers, as the article notes, but as long as the Oregon Depart- ment of Environmental Quality routinely gives the green light to municipalities — when inundated with rain — to unleash their excrement into our waterways, then these magical mollusks will have only a marginal impact. Bob Berman Cheshire THE GREAT BACH-LASH Now that the Oregon Bach Festival has been reorganized under the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance, the 4 KNOW YOUR BOUNDARIES question arises: Does Janelle McCoy have the power to fire musicians? Or do these decisions rest within the School of Music? This might have a bearing on the confi- dence of the OBF supporters as to whether the Matthew Halls debacle might be re- peated. Norm Purdy Springfield BACH FEST SUCKED Eugene Weekly’s pre-Thanksgiving is- sue featured the pinched face of a woman fired from the Oregon Bach Festival on the cover (11/22). About her past activi- ties, and those of Matthew Halls, I have no personal knowledge. But the Bach Festival itself sucked last year. Only three works by Bach were pre- sented: three installments of the massive St. John Passion; an organ recital; and the St. Matthew Passion, a long choral work involving multiple personnel. So the en- tire Bach content this year was religious, and mostly operatic. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a great deal of secular music, much of it for solo performers or small ensembles. Why were we invited to complex, hours-long reli- gious recitals? Perhaps last year’s one- third drop in attendance is a clue that Eu- gene is not an overwhelmingly religious community. Furthermore, we don’t need cartoon characters to “introduce audiences to time- less music.” Bach’s own secular works, and those of other high baroque compos- ers, offer plenty of immediate value to general audiences. Beethoven’s Solemn Mass may be much praised by experts, but I stopped going to mass when I was 14. And Japanese drummers? Eh? Want to draw large crowds, keep down costs and return the Oregon Bach Festival to its roots? Feature several solo and small- ensemble performances of secular works by Bach and other baroque composers. It will be a struggle to restore the prestige en- joyed under Helmuth Rilling. But the fes- tival could take an important first step by concentrating on Bach and his contempo- November 30, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com raries, in small-ensemble, secular works. Christopher Logan Eugene DEMAND NO ON FOREST BILL Thanks for reporting on Seneca tim- ber’s election to the GreenLane board. I have been disappointed by the large adver- tisements in the Eugene Weekly of Seneca timber including the word “sustainable” and dismayed at the coverage of the 2,452 acre “Goose Project” that Seneca is log- ging. We are at a critical point in human his- tory with global warming and mass species extinction under way. The public forests in western Oregon are one of the top 10 forests in the world for the carbon they sequester and provide other important eco- system services. A federal bill has passed in the house titled; “Resilient Federal Forest Act” HR 2936, which would remove public com- ment and scientific reviews on environ- mental impacts by increasing the “categor- ical exclusion” zones from 70 acres and under to up to 45 square miles — an area larger than the city limits of Eugene! Contact Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and demand they vote no. Read chief scientist at the Geos Institute, Dominck DellaSala’s testimony to Con- gress last September titled “Exploring Solutions to Reduce Risks of Catastrophic Wildfire and Improve Resilience of Na- tional Forests” for scientific findings for resilient forests. Pam Driscoll Dexter MORE CONTROL, LESS FREEDOM In a society characterized by elaborate power structures and widespread alien- ation, it should come as no surprise that abuse and harassment are rampant. Pro- posed solutions such as more frequent workplace training, tougher laws, and more aggressive criminal investigations aim only to further regulate personal be- havior and more precisely delineate how Sexual abuse can happen to anyone, so what can we do to help protect our children and ourselves from sexual abuse? Take martial arts classes? No. Carry a gun? No. Have firm personal boundaries? Yes. Personal boundaries are the physical, emotional and mental limits we establish to protect ourselves from being manipulat- ed, used or violated by others. They allow us to separate who we are, and what we think and feel, from the thoughts and feel- ings of others. Your personal boundaries speak to you in the form of feelings, intuition or logi- cal pattern recognition. Recognize and ac- knowledge to yourself when you feel “con- fused” or you sense something is “off.” You can’t pinpoint what’s wrong. But your internal warning system keeps ringing. Run, run now and do not negotiate your boundaries with the aggressor. Know your boundaries; they will help keep you safe. Signs of unhealthy boundaries include: going against personal values or rights in order to please others; giving as much as you can for the sake of giving; taking as much as you can for the sake of taking; let- ting others define you or your feelings; ex- pecting others to fill your needs automati- cally; feeling bad or guilty when you say no; not speaking up when you are treated poorly; falling apart so someone can take care of you; falling “in love” with some- one you barely know or who reaches out to you; accepting advances, touching and sex that you don’t want; and touching a person without asking. Josephine Brew Eugene GOBBLE GOBBLE, TWEET TWEET It was both uplifting and ironic to see the president issue the traditional pardon to the Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House. It was a telling demonstration that the old adage is indeed true — that “birds of a feather flock together.” W.C. Crutchfield Eugene YES ON MEASURE 101 Why vote yes on Measure 101? Why wouldn’t you? No, really, a yes vote on Measure 101 won’t raise insurance rates, but it will save lives. When 95 percent of Oregonians are
