Eugene weekly., July 22, 2021, Page 4, Image 4

letters
formance. When the conductor angrily
threw cold water on that demand, in-
stead of on himself, the composer re-
lented, and the unconsecrated Levi led
a triumphant premiere.
Wagner may indeed have been a
league leader in anti-Semitism. When it
came to getting the best possible per-
formances of his operas and ensuring
the greater glorification of that titan
himself, he was not above practicing his
bigotry like a fox.
Mike Kopf
Eugene
protective era in U.S. history.
Promulgating the boomer stereo-
type — spoiled, entitled white kids —
contributes to a cynicism that under-
mines the progress we still must make
to forge a more diverse, peaceful, just
and sustainable world.
Paul Gratz
Santa Cruz, California
Editor’s note: Gratz co-authored the EW
May 13, 2021, Viewpoint “Fifty Years
Ago: The Vietnam Anti-War Movement
in Eugene.”
SHARE THE WATERS
WHY PEOPLE
AREN’T WORKING
As a veteran of close to 25 years in the
commercial sector of the food service
industry, I feel I have the background to
speak of what it is like to deal with many
aspects of that industry, both bad and
good. A local restaurant owner, Troy
Potter of The Beer Stein, was mentioned
prominently there (EW 7/15). First, I
wish to praise him on how well he treats
his employees. He is exactly the type of
restaurant owner most employees in
that sector would love to work with as he
actually cares about their well being.
That said, Potter makes one com-
ment in terms of what he can pay, say-
ing he can't compete with what folks are
making with the current unemployment
benefits when it comes to getting his es-
tablishment fully staffed again.
What Potter is saying is just another
continuation of the trope that all too
many are saying. Recent studies have
shown the same thing, over and over
again, that the unemployment benefits
are only a small portion of what's keep-
ing workers from returning to the in-
dustry. All these types of comments do
is obscure how grueling, how low pay-
ing, and how abusive an industry food
service all too often is. Until restaurant
owners start accepting responsibility
for their role in these often dehuman-
izing conditions they are going to keep
struggling to get fully staffed, generous
unemployment benefits.
Neil S. Burton
Eugene
THE THINGS
VETERANS CARRY
I would like to address Winston Nyo-
ki’s letter of 7/15 and help this person
get the facts correct. It was not tens of
thousands of veterans who were sent to
Vietnam, but approximately 2.7 million
military personnel supported this war
effort. As a Vietnam veteran, I’d like to
remind Winston of the effects we suf-
fered, both physically and mentally, and
how long some of us took to overcome
the trauma of both the war and being in
the military. Please understand that it
was not a “cakewalk” for us to get back
in the system, and indeed, many of us
struggled to find our way home. Win-
ston, I hope you’d be more understand-
ing had you walked in our shoes, and I
caution you in using too wide a brush to
paint us all in your picture.
Dirk Beaulieu
Eugene
THAT FOXY WAGNER
Kudos to Eugene Symphony’s mae-
stro Francesco Lecce-Chong for choos-
ing to give us Richard Wagner's Tristan
und Isolde in palatable portions (EW
7/15). I went to the Met simulcast of the
complete opera a few years ago and only
fell asleep twice.
He's also right on in describing what
a rotten individual the composer was,
up to and including his virulent anti-
Semitism. But there's an interesting ca-
veat to his bigotry that's worth noting.
When his final opera, Parsifal, was
ready for production, Wagner carefully
surveyed the list of capable conductors
(not including the great Hans von Bulow,
whose wife he had stolen some years be-
fore) and concluded that the right man
for the job was Hermann Levi, son of a
rabbi and a committed Wagnerian.
Admittedly, there were complica-
tions. Wagner considered Parsifal to
be a Christian epic, and insisted that
Levi be baptized before the first per-
I love summer and am so happy to
use our rivers and lakes for recreation:
swimming, fishing, boating, all warm
weather pleasures. We do share Or-
egon’s waters with many other species
whose lives depend on clean, healthy
and unpolluted shores. We must be vigi-
lant with our trash and our fishing lines.
Yesterday, on the railway bike path
over the McKenzie River at Armitage
Park, I found a dead juvenile osprey (the
nest sits atop the railway bridge). The
big, young bird lay on the tarmac with its
legs completely tangled in fishing line,
horribly crippled. How this happened I
can only guess. Perhaps the parent os-
prey brought a fish with the fishing line
attached and while feeding, the young
bird became entangled.
Dr. Ulrick Streicher, veterinarian with
the Cascades Raptor Center — Eugene’s
wildlife hospital and rehabilitation facil-
ity — says every year she removes fish-
ing hooks and lines from heron, geese,
ducks and raptors who would starve if
these foreign bodies weren’t removed.
We share our beautiful waters with
the same animals and birds we love to
watch while we are swimming, fishing
and paddling. Let’s make a pledge to
clean up and take home what we bring
to the water.
Kimberly Kauffman
Eugene
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