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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2019)
letters TOOTHLESS ORDINANCE ity changing to a basic fee, and now the Legislature has added fees for electric and hybrid cars. Unbelievable! Ruth Duemler Eugene Your Oct. 31 article “Perpetual Plas- tics” made it sound like Eugene was doing all it needs to do in regards to its Single Use Serviceware ordinance by sending out a letter “last week,” despite the fact that the ordinance went into ef- fect in June. The article’s tone, with quotes from a city official, makes it sound OK that the city isn’t doing enforcement on their own. It’s up to the public to report busi- nesses that are not complying? Has the public even been educated about the ordinance so that they might know to report bad businesses? No. Are we to accept that it’s up to the public to clean up our plastics prob- lems? Sure, consumers are partially to blame for buying so much crap, but how about the companies producing the waste, or the politicians/governments allowing this trash into our city/county/ state? The ordinance states: “A retail food and beverage estab- lishment may not provide single-use serviceware to a customer unless the customer explicitly requests the sin- gle-use serviceware or the customer is asked if the customer would like single- use serviceware and the customer re- sponds affirmatively.” That means that all Eugene restau- rants have to stop putting out straws, stirrers, condiments and utensils. You have to ask for them or be asked. Many restaurants are still not complying with this. There is much work that needs to be done cleaning up our environment. This kind of foot-dragging will hardly keep up with all the waste we are producing. Jim Flynn Springfield We highly recommend seeing A Thanksgiving Play at Oregon Contem- porary Theatre. Larissa FastHorse has written a witty and sly satire on a holiday where white people have a lot of bag- gage to unpack. Native artists give us many enter- taining ways to educate ourselves. View movies such as Smoke Signals, Pow Wow Highway and Wind River. Read books by Louise Erdrich, Janet Campbell Hale and N. Scott Momaday. Visit and attend events at the Many Nations Longhouse on the UO campus, which include story- telling, dance, song and drumming. As a parent you can educate your children that the land in Eugene is the homeland of the Kalapulya people. Read picture books from the library about Pa- cific Northwest traditional stories such as Raven’s Light, Coyote in Love (Crater Lake Legend) and The Salmon Princess. Have your children follow or write to Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland, who recently became the first Native Ameri- can women elected to Congress. To learn about 21 things you can do to be more respectful of Native American cultures, search “21 things you can do to be more respectful of Native American cultures” at nonprofitaf.com. Always gently and clearly address stereotypes your children share about Thanksgiving and Indigenous peoples: “Actually, that’s not real. Let’s find out what’s real together.” Christopher and Deb Michaels Eugene IGNORING DISASTER DEFAZIO ON THE TAKE We first heard about climate warm- ing and possible disasters more than 60 years ago. Have we recognized the disasters taking place with droughts, flooding, excess heat and difficult mi- grations? No! Instead we have our local util- Why defend Rep. Peter DeFazio (Let- ters, 11/7) when we can look at the re- cord? The Jordan Cove Energy export project, which would become the larg- est polluter in Oregon with its 230-mile fracked gas pipeline, is one of a number EDUCATE RESPECT of fossil fuel corporations DeFazio takes money from. DeFazio will not take the “Fossil Free Pledge,” apparently so he can continue to receive that money. On Nov. 16 of 2018 DeFazio said that “the idea that in five years or 10 years we’re not going to consume any more fossil fuels is technologically impos- sible” doesn’t make him the strongest Green New Deal advocate. Business as usual is no longer an op- tion. The politicians who brought us to the brink of climate disaster are not the bold change-makers we need. We need new vision and younger minds who have more years and more “skin in the game” for solving climate breakdown. Time to take a stand and put more women in charge. Check out Doyle Can- ning for Congress. We need brilliant, compassionate, fearless politicians in Congress who can lead. Doyle is all that and more! Deb McGee Eugene MAYBE RAKE INSTEAD? Regarding the tragic shooting in North Eugene, where “a leaf blower was found in the street near the shooting”: I really dislike leaf blowers and maybe the neighbor did, too. They generate large amounts of airborne dust, mold spores, allergens, dried animal feces, pesticides and fine particles that increase the number and severity of asthma attacks, cause or aggravate bronchitis or other lung diseases, and reduce the body’s ability to fight infection. Stephen Cole Eugene LIFE IS UNKIND I have been following the local “Choose Kindness” campaign with in- terest. Hard not to when you see yard signs all over the place in Eugene. It raises many unanswered questions for me, such as: “Would the UO Ducks be 8-1 playing Division-1 football with this campaign? How would they implement it?” Or cops in dealing with dangerous armed criminals? Order Your Turkey Today Reserve a fresh range-grown turkey, direct from the ranch for your holiday table! Our Deli offers a wide range of Traditional Side Dishes—delight vegans to carnivores. Turkey pickups start Mon Nov 25 Side Dish pickups start Tu Nov 26 Holiday Hours W 11.27 8am-10pm Th 11.28 8am-2pm Eugene’s World Class Neighborhood Grocer 8am-10pm • 2489 Willamette St • Eugene • 541.345.1014 capellamarket.com • facebook.com/capellamarket • @capella.market 4 N O V E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 9 E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
