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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 24, 2018)
LET TERS SHUT UP ABOUT HAYWARD are changed, making them easy to cheaply mass-produce. They have no qualms pre- senting as healthy and sustainable while destroying the environment, using GMOs and treating workers unfairly. I feel tricked. I’ve unknowingly con- tributed to the profits of, and supported the policies and practices of, companies with which I have profound disagreements. Greenwashing and the unceasing on- slaught of mega-conglomerate buyouts is a discussion that needs to continue to hap- pen. In the natural products industry this is the elephant in the room. Jacob Dials Eugene To everyone who is still debating on the East Grandstand (“Hayward Field’s Trans- parency Problem,” 5/17) and its viability or lack thereof: Please stop! This is a done deal. It’s going to happen. No amount of debate or whining about it is going to change this. Please recognize that I too am a fan of the East Grandstand and I have attended many track and field events there. I have seen Steve Prefontaine run with adoration. My mom and I cried the night he died. It was heartbreaking. In order for the University of Oregon to host the world outdoor championships, this must happen. I understand that the de- sign may be flawed and the phallic tower ridiculous, but nonetheless, this is going to happen. Just get used to it. John Carlson Eugene ARMS RACE SPLITTING THE VOTE Analyzing the voting data for the duel- ing city auditor ballot measures shows that the majority of voters did want an auditor, but vote-splitting resulted in no auditor be- ing selected. There is a block of about 11,000 vot- ers who voted no on both measures. This group was opposed to hiring any auditor. This number is derived by assuming those who voted yes for elected also voted no for appointed, and visa versa. So, subtract the yes-appointed votes from the no-elected votes, and visa versa. This shows the roughly 11,000 block of additional no votes. There were about 38,000 votes cast for each measure. Subtracting the 11,000 no-auditor votes leaves 27,000 vot- ers who did want an auditor. The data confirms this, showing a combined to- tal of 27,014 yes votes between the two measures. But, the minority no-auditor block won because the yes votes were split between the two measures (with nearly twice as many yes-elected than yes- appointed votes). It is well known that offering a compet- ing ballot measure often results in the most popular measure being defeated because of vote-splitting. I don’t think using vote-split- ting (a side effect of our antiquated voting system) is a good exercise of democracy. Only if all yes-appointed voters wanted their measure or no auditor at all, has de- mocracy prevailed. But if at least one-third of them would prefer an elected auditor over no auditor, then democracy has been cheated. And it has been cheated knowingly by those on the appointed campaign who are aware of the vote-splitting effect. James Stauffer Eugene SOLAR TOO EXPENSIVE Pete Kuntz, of Colorado, claims that solar and wind together provide “18 per- cent of U.S. power” (Letters, 4/5). He should inform the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which figures it dif- ferently. According to their website, wind provided 6.3 percent of America’s electric- ity in 2017, and solar produced a scant 1.3 percent; together, that’s 7.6 percent. We’re going to need coal to make steel and to build windmills, since (so far) re- newables are not able to smelt iron ore. As for solar power surpassing the gen- erating capacity of nuclear, that was per- haps a semantic mistake. Growth in solar installation will exceed growth in new nuclear installation. But the EIA shows that, for 2017, nuclear power provided 20 percent of America’s electricity. It will take a very long time indeed for renewables to catch up, and even that predic- tion assumes the gradual retirement of Amer- ican nuke plants, with no more new builds. Choosing solar is a personal decision, not one upon which the readers of this newspaper have the ability to decide for the world at large. If you want to buy a solar system, go ahead. I can’t afford one. The reason to oppose nuclear power is not that it might be marginally more ex- pensive than solar, but because it has al- ready produced a quarter-million tons of highly radioactive fuel rods that will be in- imical to human life for hundreds of thou- sands of years. We should oppose nuclear power. But let’s care for the facts. Christopher Logan Eugene BOW TO YOUR CORPORATE OVERLORDS The natural product landscape barely resembles the health food movement I grew up in as a child. Every time I turn around, another “natural” brand is intro- duced by a multinational conglomerate. Nestlé owns Garden of Life and Pel- legrino. Clorox bought Rainbow Light, Natural Calm and Burt’s Bees. New Chap- ter was purchased by Proctor and Gamble, which shares leadership with Monsan- to. Unilever owns Seventh Generation, and Odwalla profits go to Coca-Cola. Yes, I get it. When natural/organic goes mainstream, mass markets are exposed to virtues like human rights and sustainability. However, cash becomes king. Formulas Lao Tsu states in The Tao Te Ching that “weapons are instruments of fear, all crea- tures hate them. The Sage uses them only when there is no other choice.” Countries with a large cache of death-imparting intel- ligence and hardware have this choice. A lot of pain and suffering will be averted world- wide if all arms and resources get diverted into life-cherishing, peaceful interests. Until then, to keep safe from a govern- ment unresponsive to the people and that our Constitution’s creators urged us to be wary of, every sane adult should be able to own and carry. How else is the balance of power that needs to exist between cops, the military and regular civilians possible? With every new presidency, Republican or Democrat, more and more of our resources feed wars and killing. This change of direction, for obvious reasons, needs to be a simultaneous world- wide effort and transformation. The U.S., which has five times the weaponry of the next runner-up, China, should lead in this effort. Once all law enforcement, military and civilian weapons in the world get re- cycled, our planet will brim with joy. David Ivan Piccioni Eugene THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET While members of the Republican ma- jority are competing to see who can make the deepest cuts, there is a budget pro- posal before Congress that would boost the economy for all of us while cutting the number of people in poverty in half. It’s The People’s Budget, proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 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