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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2022)
letters EW STILL GOING TO POT Like, wow, just loved the 4/14 Eugene Weedly, six full ad pages selling pot. Is that an EW high? Terrifi c front page and two inside page tribute to actor Jim Belushi, 93- acre Oregon pot farmer, brother of John Belushi, the longtime daily pot smoker who blasted through that proverbial gateway to the hard stuff , a death via speedball doses of cocaine and heroin. Count me stoked! Don McLean Eugene Editor’s Note: Jim Belushi has reiterated in multiple interviews that he believes if his brother had been self medicating by smoking cannabis he would not have died. APPOINT DI LIBERTO TO 4J BOARD When I was teaching full time, I worked alongside Tom Di Liberto at the middle school level. Di Liberto was a leader in all respects — meaning he took on responsibility — for many things in- side and outside his classroom. He is not the kind of person who waits to be assigned tasks. He just naturally acts responsibly on behalf of others. A man of service. This quality, along with his 30-plus years of full time teaching, make him a valuable asset as a school board mem- ber. Having come from teaching in Cali- fornia in a district that had a very hos- tile relationship between the board and the teachers union, I was immediately impressed with Di Liberto’s role in the teachers union, Eugene Education As- sociation. Respectful, competent, reli- able, trustworthy and collaborative. Ex- cellent. All essential to get the job done. The board would be crazy not to appoint Di Liberto to one of the recently vacated seats on the Eugene School Board. Sue Kilber Eugene TIMBER INTERESTS GET CARTE BLANCHE IN OREGON Great respect to Saint John Hunt for his April 7 letter (“The Rape of Or- egon”). Your awareness of an ugly clear- cut indicates your good heart for our environment and the forest habitat of thousands of other species. You have lived here and faced that hurt for two years. I’ve lived here for 50 and have become almost numb to the clearcut. I S W E BR & BLUES ER CHOWD remember the one-log loads that were commonplace back then, along with the words of my old Coast Range friend and logger, Tom Alexander, who at age 92 said, “ We never thought we would get it all, but we did.” The once-vast forests of western Or- egon and the Pacifi c Northwest were re- ferred to by Oregon State University sci- entifi c studies as being more important to the health of the planet than all of the tropical forests combined. Meanwhile the reductionist timber families speak of the mono-cropped Doug-fi r planta- tions as “forests,” counting the three- year-old seedlings as though they con- stitute such a complex, multi-layered bio-sphere as true forests do. Unfortunately, the freaky tragedy of clearcut logging is not only what you see. The layers upon layers of poison herbicide that are applied to kill com- peting vegetation end up in our water, our bodies and wildlife are hidden. The Forest Practices Act gives the timber industry and the chemical and fi nancial industries carte blanche to do as they will with our precious forest lands. Richard Gross Deadwood WHY NO DISCUSSION ABOUT ARMITAGE PARK? On Tuesday, April 12, there was a public meeting with Lane County Parks. Only a handful of the public attended, while there were at least eight staff members present. The meeting was to “discuss” the plans for expanding the campground at Armitage Park. The majority of the time was spent on the presentation, and we were told what a thoughtful plan this was. While they claimed they wanted feedback, they were not prepared to answer questions, and one of the staff members actually stifl ed feedback. Armitage Park is a gem of a park, but it is also a small park. Why are camp- ground spaces being prioritized that will primarily serve non-county resi- dents over preserving the open space in the park? The county staff acknowl- edged that the additional 21 spaces will not even begin to meet the demand for campground spaces. There are many magnifi cent old trees in the park, and a huge area of the park will be under asphalt and concrete if this plan goes through. It is dependent on funding, but why is there no discussion about why april 25- may 1 20+ coastal breweries, tons of chowder & live music! 777 w. 6th ave. beergardenme.com E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M A P R I L 2 1 , 2 0 2 2 3
