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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2018)
LET TERS Eugene’s World Class Neighborhood Grocer NOV 23 - DEC 23 OPEN MOST DAYS HALF A MILLION LIGHTS VENDOR MARKET FOOD & DRINKS FIRE PITS LIVE MUSIC PICTURES WITH SANTA Spiral cut ham Holiday meats Vegetarian roasts Organic produce LIVE REINDEER DECEMBER 8TH We’re here to help you set your next holiday table 25th & Willamette • Eugene 8am-10pm • 541.345.1014 facebook.com/capellamarket E U G E N E WA L D O R F S C H O O L’ S L IGHT F AIR THE VILLAGE GREEN COTTAGE GROVE, OR Admission is free! Live Music Puppet Shows • Crafts Candle Dipping • Games Crystal Cookie Cave Russian Tea Room 1350 McLean Blvd., Eugene 541-683-6951 EugeneWaldorf.org Educating Children for Life 4 EUGENE STATUS QUO Henry Houston has done his usual good job with his piece on Rep. Peter De- fazio (Nov. 29). DeFazio’s comment that he plans to stay in politics until “the U.S. gets rid of Trump [and] Democrats take the Senate” probably means he’ll be in politics a long time. I expect President Trump to be ousted in 2020, largely due to the immigration mess. Even former open borders advocates John Kerry and Hillary Clinton recently acknowledged that uncontrolled immigra- tion is “crushing” Europe. It will eventu- ally overwhelm the U.S., too, but as the November election results indicate, Amer- icans largely don’t see that as a problem. That’s a bad omen for Trump and others who support the rule of law. Regarding the Senate, though, it’s a dif- ferent ballgame than the House, where the liberal enclaves on both coasts hold major voting blocs. The Senate is the great equal- izer. Each state — red and blue — has only two senate seats, and the states in the heart- land tend to be more conservative. So there’s a good chance Republicans will hang on to the upper chamber, at least for awhile. This and Trump’s veto pen likely mean the new crop of “progressives” and social- ists just elected to the House will not, at least in the near term, be able to move their leftist agenda. They will, however, stop Trump from advancing many of his priori- ties. Accordingly, it’ll probably continue to be business as usual where little gets done and the division grows worse. Jerry Ritter Springfield Hello vegans and carnivores: I hold my comments back every day I go among people, so I won’t insult anyone individu- ally for his or her eating habits. But it’s not polite to publish the cover of the Eugene Weekly with gross diagrams of dead bodies (Nov. 21). Why did you all do that? It’s bad enough we have share the planet with humans that care nothing for its spirit, but do you throw it in our faces? I guess the human status quo is still too desensitized from guilt to notice the feelings of those people and ani- mals around them. It’s really sad, because some of you are otherwise really nice. Please wake up and think about becoming vegan. Look up PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) and EVEN (Eugene Vegan Edu- cation Network) here in Eugene for ad- vice for how to make the change. Thank you and good luck. Everlynn Gladiola Veneta NO DEFENSE FOR DEFAZIO W INTeR SATURDAY, DEc. 8th 11 aM - 3 PM THE LEFTIST AGENDA VillageGreenChristmas.com 725 Row River Road Cottage Grove, OR 541-942-2491 December 6, 2018 • eugeneweekly.com For a piece of truly fake news, try Con- gressman Peter DeFazio’s self-defense com- mentary (“DeFazio on Climate Change,” Nov. 29). Responding to a quote in Politico and a letter in the Eugene Weekly critical of his efforts to address climate change, De- Fazio says he’s long “talked about carbon pollution and climate change as an existen- tial threat to the planet” and touts his intro- duction of legislation 10 years ago to “cap, regulate and reduce carbon pollution.” Apparently, DeFazio believes a bill he drafted six years ago, “The O&C Trust Conservation and Jobs Act — whose provi- sions would strip environmental safeguards for clean water and wildlife and result in 33 square miles of Oregon’s public forest lands clear-cut by private industry each year — has nothing to do with carbon pollution and would have no bearing on climate change. Will the $500 billion he’ll be proposing as chair of the Transportation Committee for highways and transit be predominantly for electric and hydrogen vehicles on pave- ment made from something other than oil? Being better than Art Robinson is not good enough in the Anthropocene. As a so- cial liberal, a labor Democrat beholden to timber interests, time and again in the face of environmental catastrophe DeFazio has shown that he is part of the problem, not its solution. Time for the Weekly and its liberal read- ers to shed their denial and open their eyes: The emperor wears no clothes. Robert Emmons Fall Creek SAFE VACCINES Earlier this month Stacey Black submit- ted a letter decrying the whooping cough vaccine, but her assertions are untrue. The whooping cough vaccine is a safe and ef- fective. Statements like “78 percent of the people who caught whooping cough in Lane County this year were fully vacci- nated” are meaningless without includ- ing more demographic information. For example, suppose that out of a population of 100,000, 100 people develop pertussis. Seventy-eight of those people were vacci- nated and 22 were not. If we assume a 90 percent vaccination rate, that means 9000 people in that population are vaccinated, and 1000 people are not vaccinated. 78 divided by 9000 = 0.87 percent of the vaccinated people got sick 22 divided by 1000= 2.2 percent of the unvaccinated people got sick A much higher percentage of the unvac- cinated people got the illness, showing the vaccine has efficacy. This demonstrates why statements like those made by Black are not helpful in determining vaccine ef- ficacy, and how out of context, they can be misleading. Black is also concerned about formal- dehyde in the vaccine. Formaldehyde is used to inactivate bacterial products and decontaminate the vaccine during produc- tion. Most formaldehyde is then removed from the vaccine. Formaldehyde is a natu- rally occuring compound and the small amounts that circulate in the bloodstream far exceed the amount in a single dose of vaccine. All in all, the pertussis vaccine is safe, effective and helps protect our children from a potentially deadly, contagious dis- ease. Emily Dalton Pediatrician, Eugene Pediatric Associates ACROSS THE AISLE I read the letter “Guns And Safety” in the Nov. 29 issue of the Weekly and felt compelled to respond to Josh Welch’s comments.
