LET TERS
A BRAVE VOICE
THE GREAT TAKEOVER
Thank you EW and thank you mystery
writer for the brave and eloquent piece titled
“Married to Hate” (2/2). I am so thankful
that a story such as this has come to light,
as it illustrates the virus-like properties of
identities based on hate and how the internet
has opened up a new fertile ground for this
incorrect thinking to reinforce itself.
The author was put in an incredibly
discordant and painful situation, and the
fact that she has risen above that morass
and currently flourishes brings me tears of
joy. The writing also made me think deeply
about what it means to identify with a race
or ethnicity in general, and the potential
pitfalls of taking that identity and putting it
at the forefront of one’s world-view.
Remember those bumper stickers
that came out of Key West a few years
back: “One Human Family.”
Scott Zarnegar
Galena
Whether a large New York-based
conglomerate buys The Register-Guard or
Phil Knight and other private donors in
effect buy the University of Oregon through
Oregon taxpayers’ sheer abdication, we
need to grasp a broader issue: economic
interests colonizing and steering all our
institutions — even a longtime, family-
owned, local daily newspaper.
Instead of op-ed pages, coffee houses,
universities and other forums where a
free exchange of ideas and opinions form,
corporate and government imperatives control
the direction in which our society goes. Means
— money and power — become ends.
This market-is-god tendency has been
intensifying over that past half-century or so.
It’s not absolute. But it’s hard, I find, to deny.
The market economy and administrative
state impose an ethos of instrumental
rationality — knowledge for wealth and
power — on journalistic, educational and
other institutions.
Truth is not good in the deepest sense;
rather, we have “fake news.” Values are not
what are in fact valuable; rather, we have
“alternative facts.” Reason is seen only in
its means-end, instrumental sense, not in
its practical or moral sense.
Being human and the natural
environment have no intrinsic value, and
what it means to be human or a citizen
has no higher or shared purposes, only
individual purposes.
In such a culture, is there any rea-
son The Register-Guard, the UO and other
institutions should continue to have loyalty
and consensus from within, respect among
citizens and freedom from tight corporate
and state control? Will efficient manage-
ment for externally imposed objectives
be The Register-Guard’s rational role?
Sam Porter
Eugene
OBJECT LESSONS
The article about finding out about white
supremacists in your family (“Married to
Hate,” 2/1) makes a few things clear:
1. You never know what’s truly in your
sweetie’s heart for at least the first 12 years
of marriage. Stress will bring out character,
or a lack of thereof.
2. If you don’t think you’re being
propagandized and profiled with every
curious click on the internet, you’re nuts.
3. Finding condoms in a married man’s
wallet is a big deal breaker. Lol.
The age of innocence is over, folks.
Annie Kayner
Eugene
YES, IT’S POLITICAL
County residents showed up at the Jan.
30 County Commissioner’s meeting to
express our outrage at the lengthy wait for
a work session we had requested at the Jan.
9 meeting. The work session to discuss the
commissioners’ referral of the Freedom
from Aerial Herbicide Spray Ban to the
November ballot had been scheduled for
May 23, after the May primary election —
a four-month wait!
Chair Bozievich lost his composure,
saying he was likely to pull the work
session altogether because, to him, the
spray ban proponents were using the
primary election as a political ploy.
Of course, it’s political! Don’t
15,000 citizens who signed the petition,
demonstrating that aerial spraying of
toxic chemicals is an important issue
to them, have a right to know where the
commissioners stand on this matter before
we vote in May?
Commissioner Williams also stated
spray ban proponents were making the
spray ban political. The spray ban is a
health issue, but of course it’s political!
Corporate timber interests have invaded
our government structures and have
legalized protections to the harmful
practice of herbicide spraying in our
forests, impacting the health, safety
and welfare of area residents and the
environment.
Yes, of course it’s political.
Michelle Holman
Deadwood
4
PICTURE OF DISATISFACTION
Thank you for your excellent profile
of the legislative accomplishments of
our female-led Oregon Legislature in the
2017 session (“Dancing Backward and
In Heels,” 2/1). It was, as you note, a
“shining hour for progressives” as well as
an extraordinarily effective and productive
legislative session.
I was surprised, however, given the
headline and the focus of the article, to see
the accompanying photo of Senator James
Manning, rather than one of either Rep.
Julie Fahey or Rep. Nancy Nathanson,
Lane County’s only two female legislators.
Two out of eight, I might add.
I was especially dismayed because the
Reproductive Health Equity act was one
of the signature accomplishments of this
session (which Fahey was instrumental in
crafting and carried to the floor) and the
Ways and Means committee (co-chaired by
Nathanson) will be so crucial to continued
progressive success in 2018.
While I respect Senator Manning and
am sure he is doing great work in Salem,
I found it extremely unfortunate that
the Weekly chose to feature neither of our
two local female legislators but instead
highlighted a man, even when the article
was ostensibly about female leadership.
Please do better next time, EW.
Laura Illig
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We try to ensure women and people of color
are represented in our pages. The story, which covered
women’s accomplishments as well as the increased
representation of people of color, was accompanied by
three photos of female legislators as well as Sen. Manning
and interviewed both Reps. Fahey and Nathanson.
SAVE OUR OPEN SPACES
I’m glad Ken Kesey Square is still there.
I couldn’t comprehend why anyone would
take it away. I feel the same about the green
grassy geese fields along the Willamette,
by the Frohnmayer Footbridge, which are
slated for development by the University
of Oregon. An article in Eugene Weekly’s
Jan. 18 issue (“UO Planning to Expand
Toward River”) admits controversy and a
growing debate.
February 8, 2018 • eugeneweekly.com
Why manicure everything? This
peaceful riparian zone’s a food source and
resting area for the wild geese, a place we
can commune with them. I ride my bike
the length of both sides of the river, and
my favorite part is crossing the dirt path
in the huge meadow surrounded by geese
zooming in for a landing amongst their
friends, honking joyful salutations.
This slice of heaven is now
slated for synthetic turf fields lit by
floodlights? No! A more park-like
setting? More buildings? Please let it be!
I saw an osprey in the trees swoop down to
catch a fish. A bridge of stones adjoining
island-like peninsulas appears and
disappears in the flood and flux. Tree frogs
croak on high. The last red leaves of the
season beckon. I get my feet wet poking
through the brush.
A good witch knows there’s potent
magic in the green earth along the river;
I’m asking you to leave it be.
Erica Snowlake
Eugene
BOUGHT AND SOLD
Three county commissioner seats are
open in this year’s election — those seats
currently being held by Commissioners Jay
Bozievich, Sid Leiken, and Gary Williams.
These three incumbents have all accepted
campaign donations from the timber and
mining industries in Lane County.
Extractive industries have a lot to gain
(or lose) when land use and other local
laws and policies support (or undermine)
their businesses. So they pay for good
representation with campaign donations.
We the people have a lot to gain (or
lose) too, but few people have the means
to make donations comparable to private
industry.
Let’s clear out the industry lackeys
currently on the Lane County Board of
Commissioners and fill these three open
seats with new commissioners who serve
the people, not their corporate masters.
Linda Kanter
Deadwood
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
It is my understanding that the Eugene
City Council is considering adding an
alternative auditor measure for the May
ballot, to join the original measure which
garnered 10,000 signatures (and to be
transparent, including mine) and met all
city requirements for the process. This was
not an easy or quick process.
Now another group of citizens has
bypassed the whole initiative process and
convinced the City Council to put their
own measure (dubbed auditor-lite) on the
same ballot. Would it not be more open and
democratic to allow the people to vote on
the original, up or down, without adding
competition?
The adding of this competing measure
will not reassure or instill trust. If the people
don’t like the current measure and vote for
it, it won’t pass. That would then allow the
council to present an alternative for a later
vote, without allegations of favoritism or
cronyism. Please re-consider this.
Susan Brenner
Eugene
DOG IN THE MANGER?
Give them credit for a clever and
potentially effective strategy. If you can
keep people arguing over the detailed
differences in the two performance auditor