• Learning about the shooting and five
people killed in a targeted attack at the
Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis
has left us reeling. EW’s had threats before,
but like newspapers across the country, we
won’t close our doors or stop covering the
news. But still we wonder: Will one of us be
shot someday because someone comes in
the door with a gun? Will Lane Community
College or University of Oregon students be
shot because someone rampages cam-
pus with a gun? Will our friends get shot
because they went to a concert? Will our
children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews
get shot because they go to school?
Thurston, Columbine, Newtown, Orlando,
Las Vegas, Parkland …
They won’t get shot because of anything
they did or anywhere they went. All these
people are being killed in mass shootings
because we still don’t, after all these mur-
ders, have our act together in America on
real, actual gun control.
• Councilor Betty Taylor plans to make a
motion on July 9 to give her fellow Eugene
city councilors the chance to offer voters
a straight up or down vote in November
on an independent elected city auditor.
Her proposal will be slightly modified, she
convened the conference, and he asked if
we minded opening up our cozy newsroom
to a documentary filmmaker making a
movie on slow news. No problem! Imagine
our surprise when a four-man Italian film
crew showed up, and we saw their inter-
views with folks from The New York Times
and Buzzfeed in the movie trailer. Watch out
for the film and manifesto next year.
MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE
GATHERED AT THE JUNE
30 FAMILIES BELONG
TOGETHER RALLY IN EUGENE
P H O T O BY D AV I D G E I TG E Y S I E R R A L U P E
says, to meet some of the objections to the
elected auditor proposal that lost in May. For
instance, a residency requirement will be
added, and the cost formula will be modified.
Taylor and many others believe the elected
auditor lost in May because the City Council
put an appointed auditor measure on the bal-
lot, splitting the vote or causing voters to say
“no” to both, as The Register-Guard recom-
mended, in the confusion. We wonder how
this council will vote on Taylor’s motion.
• The June 29 City Club of Eugene
meeting about what changes are ahead
for transportation in this area left us
thinking that we have good minds working
here on how we should all move from one
place to another. Speakers were: Lindsay
Hayward, general manager of PeaceHealth
Rides; Edward McGlone, director of public af-
fairs for Lane Transit District; Marc Schloss-
berg, cofounder of the Sustainable Cities
Initiative; and Joshua Skov, president of Bet-
ter Eugene-Springfield Transportation. They
talked about driverless cars and buses, how
to move people who need help, community
values such as climate change and much
more. A question was asked about bike
theft, a major issue in Eugene. Another
question brought up free bus passes for
students. McGlone said LTD wants to bring
that back.
• The news cycle is exhausting. Shoot-
ings, rulings, protests. It races by. Last
week EW participated in a conference on
“Slow News” with the UO’s School of Jour-
nalism and scholars and journalists from
around the country. Make that the world.
Peter Laufer, author of the book Slow News
• Amazing Oregonians rallied for quite
different reasons last weekend. Portland
and Corvallis turned out by the thousands to
welcome home their Oregon State Beavers
baseball team from Omaha, where they had
just won the College World Series to make
them this year’s best college baseball team
in America — from rainy Oregon yet. Thou-
sands more in Eugene, Portland and cities
all across the country marched to protest
Trump’s deplorable immigration policies.
Many brought their children and carried signs
asking how our country could possibly be so
cruel as to separate kids from their parents.
Sounds like a stretch from pitchers to public
policy, but maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s all about
taking our emotions to the streets in this
fragile democracy.
• As we go press, news of the passing of
Richard Swift of the Shins, the Arcs and the
Black Keys is hitting the music world. Swift
also owned a recording studio, National
Freedom, in Cottage Grove. He died July 3 at
age 41.
SLANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHA SING NOTES COMPILED BY THE E W EDITORIAL BOARD. HEARD ANY GOOD RUMORS LATELY? CONTAC T EDITOR@EUGENE WEEKLY.COM
Did you know?
We provided 1,314
swim lessons last year.
THE Y BUILDS
STRONG COMMUNITY.
Eugene Family YMCA. Serving Eugene since 1887.
Learn more at eugeneymca.org
NewYMCA.org
eugeneweekly.com • July 5, 2018
7