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