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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2022)
letters IS THIS HOW WE TREAT CHILDREN? According to Education Week’s 2022 School Shooting Tracker, the school shooting at Robb Elementary is the 27th school shooting in the U.S. this year. By my calculation that means there is a school shooting somewhere in the Unit- ed States roughly every three and a half days. Is this how a civilized society edu- cates its children? This is trauma, pure and simple — and we, as a nation, are allowing it to happen, over and over and over again. Trauma re- peated is trauma multiplied. I have never lost a child in a school shooting, but I have grandchildren at- tending school. I can’t turn away from this. None of us should. If I had it in my power, I would make every member of Congress sit down face to face with parents who have lost a child, or had a child witness a school shooting, and simply listen. To my senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and my representative, Peter DeFazio, please reach out to your col- leagues. Find a way to save our students, our teachers, ourselves. Joan Rawlings-Boyd Eugene WEEKLIES ARE WHAT’S HAPPENING Happy 40th birthday year to Eugene Weekly! (“Vol. 1, No. 1,” 5/19). Weekly pa- pers are America’s heart: local stories, celebrations and concerns, along with a forum for discussion. Whether it is local issues such as homelessness, national issues like tax fairness (i.e. the Child Tax Credit renewal) or global issues like the pandemic and support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, readers learn and discuss all in these pages. Not to mention elections, repro- ductive rights and climate degradation. So happy birthday and thanks for all you do, from an appreciative out-of-town E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M reader and conversation participant. Willie Dickerson Snohomish, Washington CANNING NOT ‘DULL’ Calling the smart and courageous Doyle Canning “Dull” Canning (“Carpet- baggering Dilettantes Abound,” 5/12 ) was a low punch even for a former politi- cian and state employee like Tony Corco- ran, who supports a slate of mainstream Democrats who have played the partisan fundraising game in Salem for years. Corcoran and his so-called “Hot Air Society” should set a higher standard for rhetoric and truth. Canning is anything but dull. A fresh-faced progressive at- torney and environmental activist who has worked closely with Bernie Sand- ers, Canning is precisely what the state and the world needs now. Our survival, let alone prosperity, depends on new vi- sions to advance climate action, regulate polluting industries, incentivize sustain- able logging and agriculture, create jobs and housing for the homeless and immi- grants, expand the right to collective bar- gaining and a long list of alternatives to business-as-usual, including ending pay- to-play politics along with subsidies to the main culprit — the oil and gas industry. Jack Cooper Eugene Editor’s note: Val Hoyle won the Democratic nomination for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District with about 65 percent of the vote as of May 20. Doyle Canning had 16 percent. STUPID DRINKING WHITE BOYS On the afternoon of Saturday, May 21, personal business caused me to drive through the corner of 19th and Alder in Eugene. On that corner was a group of college-aged white males, beers and hard liquor in hand. Empties littering the ground around them. They held a sign “Honk and I’ll do a shot.” I heard cars ahead and behind me furiously honking, and as promised — the boys swigged. I was witnessing the past, present and future. The past: Generations of white privilege and safety nets resulting in the creation of these foolish white boys. The present: Soulless losers without worth or self-respect. The future: Cirrhosis. Self-pity. Anger. Blaming others for their nothingness. I’ve heard from friends who frequent- ly need to drive by that corner that the honk/drink scenario is a common occur- rence. Fascinating. I guess the University of Oregon and Eugene Police Depart- ment chose to turn a blind eye. I don’t need a crystal ball to know that if those kids were Black males, they’d be beaten, tazed and thrown in jail, if not outright shot dead for “rioting.” There would be no repeat performance. I have no hope for this country when I see these fi ne examples of future “lead- ers” on the verge of spewing out to the culture at large. There, they will continue to damage and disrespect not just their own bodies, but whatever and whoever else they touch. White “superiority.” Ha! Ramona Wise Eugene GET OVER IT In my 40-plus years living in south- east Eugene, one thing is obvious: The NIMBYs and the southeast Eugene neighborhood association are the vocal minority. Is the majority selfi sh to put drinking water ahead of a few trees and a project you object to? That’s like the folks who buy a house near a dairy and then complain about the smell. Don French Eugene CHOOSE SUSTAINABILITY We don’t want to see the deep in- justice at the heart of the accelerating climate crisis. Those of us in the global north, who are responsible for the vast majority of planet-heating pollution, are not doing nearly enough to relieve its crushing eff ects on frontline and fence- line communities. We can and must end our reliance on fossil fuels. That means change. We need to con- serve fi nite resources (that’s almost ev- erything) so those least economically and politically prepared to deal with droughts, famine and destructive weath- er, here and abroad, have a chance. Here at home, Oregonians are wor- ried about the loss of biodiversity, low reservoirs, scorched landscapes, smoky skies and heat domes. We can take per- sonal and collective action to demand that decision-makers direct resources to mitigate the worst eff ects (every 1/10 of a degree of heating we prevent makes a diff erence) and help communities adapt where rising homelessness, the legacy of white supremacy and rural poverty are heavy burdens. The technology is here, and clean energy has never been more aff ordable. Investors are abandoning risky fossil fuel investments. The emerging norm is for rich countries and their relatively rich people to take the lead, because we can. We have a chance to do our part in Eugene, to put concrete policies in place to electrify our new buildings. Gas is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions and has signifi cant health impacts. Stop the injustice. We can live more sustainably. That’s the real choice. Patricia Hine Eugene MORE PEOPLE MEANS TIGHTER HOUSING Humans propagating, migrating and populating the planet unsustainably is what created HB 2001. Anyone awake knows the hous- ing market is collapsing as prices rise, whether to own or rent. Nationally, the haves live locally while the have-nots who serve them are forced to live/drive from the outskirts, adding to human-caused M A Y 2 6 , 2 0 2 2 3
