letters
OPEN WEEKENDS
FOR WALK INS
EPPS WRITES NOVELS, TOO
EUGENE NEEDS A NEW MAYOR
I was pleased to read Garrett Epps’s
commentary (“Insurrection Election”)
in the Sept. 14 Eugene Weekly, and hope
that there is more to come. But I won-
der how many EW readers realize that,
before he became a law professor, Epps
wrote two excellent novels? They are The
Shad Treatment, about Virginia politics
when conservative Democrats still ruled,
and The Floating Island, a Swift-inspired
peek at political shenanigans in the post-
Watergate era. I urge all fi ction lovers to
seek them out; they appear to be readily
available through Amazon.
Mike Kopf
Eugene
The two buddies, Kitty Piercy and
Lucy Vinis, have been the worst mayors
Lane County has had to endure. Neither
one did anything positive for our com-
munity. We have had no City Hall for
years, the homeless numbers continue
to increase to over 3,000 people liv-
ing on the streets. And even worse are
the 400-plus teens on the streets. And
there are never any concrete solutions.
There is no direction to agencies such
as highways and streets being cleaned,
downtown parking structures falling
apart, etc.
We need a mayor that is from the 21st
century!
Marlene Pearson
Eugene
HOLVEY PETITION CAMPAIGN
WAS DECEPTIVE
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2
S E P T E M B E R
2 1 ,
2 0 2 3
Since 1949
The crazy eff ort to recall state Rep.
Paul Holvey should have been legally
stopped a long time ago, since many of the
signatures were gathered deceptively. I’m
afraid I signed the petition early on, when
a nice young signature gatherer in front of
the library asked if I support unions in Or-
egon — I said, “Sure I do,” then she briefl y
described the petition, never mentioning
Holvey. I should’ve read it, but I went by
what she said. Shortly thereafter, I real-
ized I had been duped.
A week later a diff erent signature
gatherer appeared at my front door and
asked the same question. I immediately
asked if this was the recall Holvey peti-
tion, and she sheepishly admitted that
it was. I accused her of being deceptive
and unethical — but I tried not to be too
harsh, since she was just trying to make
her money.
I imagine that many of the signature
gatherers realized that honesty about
the petition would not work well, so they
resorted to this deception. I also imag-
ine that many of the signatures they
gathered were based on this deception,
and are thus invalid. The recall eff ort
should therefore never have become a
ballot issue, costing time, money and
energy that we all could be putting else-
where.
Jeff Harrison
Eugene
HOSPITAL CLOSING IS AN
OPPORTUNITY
This is a golden opportunity to cre-
ate a better hospital, one where doctors,
nurses and support staff love to work
because they are respected and em-
powered to give their very best. That is
the goal of democracy, but PeaceHealth
uses the autocratic model, not the dem-
ocratic model.
Ever since PeaceHealth was sold
and modern practices that are far from
democratic took control of our hospital,
things have gotten worse for those who
work in the hospital for profi t. Peace-
Health showed its wrong values from
the beginning of RiverBend, built more
like a high-scale hotel for the very rich
than a modest hospital where good re-
lationships and good health care are the
priority.
We need a locally owned hospital that
is about community and our well-being,
not profi t and exploiting people.
Carol Seaton
Eugene
TRUMP WENT
AWOL ON JAN. 6
Regarding “Insurrection Election,”
Sept. 14: For 187 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021,
the then-president, Donald Trump, did
nothing while four humans died at the
site (more died later), our Capitol build-
ing was defi led and our elected offi cials
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M