Eugene weekly., February 13, 2020, Page 4, Image 4

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STOP MAKING SENSE
The play Sons of the Prophet is fast-
paced, comical and tragically tumultuous
in its portrayal of intersubjective
relationships that transgress the borders
of family, individual psyche, jobs, dreams
and failures.
The dialogue often moves into a
babble that doesn’t allow us anymore to
distinguish between individual voices.
Malek Najjar, director, and Alex Mentzel,
lead role, explained how the script often
specifies silent moments for the actors.
They have to stop in the middle of a
sentence but are told to continue thinking,
without voice. Other voices jump in, take
over and get involved in a cacophony
of voice-like sounds. This seems to be
the current theatrical style. The skillful
dialogic timing, where every second
counts, plus the pauses were thoroughly
rehearsed and well executed.
The dialogic pace is similar to that in
Selina Fillinger’s (Eugene’s own young
and celebrated author and dramatist)
Something Clean, recently produced in
New York. The dramas’ play with meanings
and the voices’ soundscapes should be
seriously considered.
In her review of The Sons of the Prophet
in the recent Eugene Weekly (“Tangled
Dramedy,” 2/6), Dorothy Velasco desires
a narrower, more focused topic — as we all
might. However, our post post-modern life
is much too tangled for such a dream. The
characters in The Sons of the Prophet are
overwhelmed by inner and outer events,
and they are expressions of much larger
than subjective issues. The grotesqueness
of life whispers through their silences,
as well as through the irony between
the wisdom of Khalil Gibran and the
senselessness of reality.
Dorothee Ostmeier
Eugene
CHECKING OUT
I just don’t get it. Our planet has way
too many people on it. Too many people
consuming too many things and creating
too much trash while wrecking the climate
and wildlife populations in the process. Too
many people are having too many babies
who are then also having too many babies.
The whole thing is getting worse and
worse. Yet we denounce suicide (“Out of
Focus,” 1/30). What the hell is wrong with
suicide? If somebody, old or young, wants
to check out, why not let them? Why not
help them (help us) once they have made the
choice? Why is it a terrible human tragedy
when the teen suicide rate goes up?
Se ems to me it would b e go o d
to get them gone before they birth
more humans. Why is it alarming that
middle-aged and older adults want to
die earlier? Seems to me that they have
figured out what they want, what is
best for them. Who are we to try and stop
them? We should be helping them by
removing the stigma and even providing
a safe way and place to do it.
Why not let prisoners die by euthanasia
if they choose to do so? That sure would
save the rest of us a hell of a lot of money.
I chalk all the suicide hysteria up to
prevalent fucked up Christian morality
in this country.
What ever happened to freedom of
religion or just plain old freedom to do
with your life whatever you choose? Why
is suicide not a basic human right?
Jim Flynn
Springfield
TUITION DISASTER
The University of Oregon’s Tuition
and Fee Advisory Board (TFAB) is quickly
ramrodding another rubber stamp
proposal for UO President Michael Schill.
They hope to have a recommendation for
a “graduated tuition” plan on Schill’s desk
by the end of the month. TFAB is holding s
series of three 8 am public meetings in the
next two weeks to pull it off. The graduated
tuition proposal will lock in tuition rates
for five years for incoming students but
will allow TFAB to increase tuition for
each incoming class. It isn’t clear if they
will have to get approval from the Higher
Education Coordinating Committee to
make tuition increase over 5 percent if
they only raise tuition for only a segment
of the student population.
For students, this means the utter
collapse of unity against tuition increases
and the continuing marginalization of in-
state students at UO. The TFAB board has
continually stated that graduated tuition will
expose UO to greater financial risk but are
committed to the proposal as a marketing
ploy to increase out of state enrollment.
With the current rogues’ gallery of
corporate oligarchs on the UO Board of
Trustees, risk exposure sounds like the
prefect recipe for crisis restructuring and
institutional privatization.
Eric Howanietz
Eugene
NO KOBE BEEF
In November 2007, Billy Thorington of
Davenport, Iowa, buried his 15-year-old
son, Cody, who had died of a rare form of
cancer. Prior to the burial, Thornton placed
a Kobe Bryant jersey in Cody’s casket. He
did this not only because Cody had been
a huge Bryant fan but also because Kobe
had personally given him the jersey after
a Laker’s game attended by Cody and his
entire family, which had been arranged by
the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The foundation has also confirmed that
Kobe Bryant had granted similar wishes to
more than 200 children like Cody over the
course of his career.
He had also done much to promote
women’s athletics. LeBron James once asked
him if he was disappointed to not have a son
to follow in his athletic footsteps. Bryant
responded by telling James that he didn’t
need a son because he had a daughter who
was following in his footsteps. Speaking as
a father, that’s what real fathers do. I think
the world would be a more compassionate
place if we had more men like Bryant who
choose to act rather than to just criticize
other fathers by writing uniformed letters
to the editor.
Shame on Eugene Weekly for printing un-
iformed and inaccurate non-sense (Letters,
2/6) and then attaching a reac-tionary
headline to it (which I won’t repeat here). So
much for journalistic integrity. Your time
would be better served in the future by fact
checking before you insult someone who, like
us all, had flaws but who consistently showed
up for terminally ill children and women’s
athletics, as much as Bryant did in his short
life. That’s what real journalists do.
Gary Rutledge
Eugene
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