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ELECTRIFY YOUR RIDE
Climate change increasingly head-
lines the news as extreme temperatures,
cataclysmic fl oods and wildfi re smoke
touch everyone’s lives across the planet
and in our own city and county. While
government action at all levels is need-
ed to reduce climate-changing green-
house gas emissions, personal action
is required too. Both the city of Eugene
and Lane County have completed analy-
ses demonstrating that transportation
is responsible for the largest share of
carbon emissions locally. Because much
of our electricity is produced by fossil-
fuel-free hydropower, switching out
your gas- or diesel-burning vehicle for
electric transportation off ers a tremen-
dous opportunity for you to personally
make a diff erence.
Sept. 22 through Oct. 1 is National
Drive Electric Week, and the Emerald
Valley Electric Vehicle Association is
hosting an event to explore options for
electric transportation. Come to Ama-
zon Community Center on Sunday,
Sept. 24, from noon to 3 pm to compare
electric vehicle models at an EV show,
talk to EV owners, investigate the world
of pre-owned EVs and discover tax cred-
its and rebates. The event has a particu-
lar focus on the sharing part of the EV
transition, including e-scooters, a new
e-cargo-bike loan program and a chance
to sign up for an electric carshare — a
few among many options that can help
you save money while switching to elec-
tric. Plus, we will display a 1965 Karmann
Ghia — previously highlighted in Eugene
Weekly — that has been converted to
electric.
Don’t wait to make a diff erence. Use
National Drive Electric Week to electrify
your transportation!
Charlie Loeb
Eugene
VIEWPOINT BY DON BRASTED-MAKI
Loving My
Neighbor as Myself
CHRISTIANS SUPPORTING THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY
I
am a Christian and proud to call myself one. I attend
church on Sunday and a Bible study and prayer group
during the week. I am also chair of the First Congrega-
tional Church of Eugene’s Open and Affi rming (ONA)
Work Group responsible for making sure our church is
a safe, welcoming and affi rming place for the non-binary
LGBTQ folk to come, worship and openly be who they are.
On August 12, KEZI did a story on the Eugene Pride in the Park
Festival featuring an interview with Bryan Carver, a protester
from Wellspring Bible Fellowship, based in Roseburg, who said,
“Homosexuality is sin, and what’s being celebrated today is the
kind of thing which God judges nations for,” and “We do not
speak hate, we speak what we believe is the truth.”
When he spoke of “God judging” and of “speaking the truth,” he
gave the impression that he spoke for God and for all Christians,
but he does not. He does not speak for me, the God I worship,
or for the churches in Eugene who welcome and affi rm nonbi-
nary folk as they are and support their right to be who they are.
I would not worship a God who disapproved of them for doing
that. The protester must worship a diff erent God than I do or
be wrong about the God that he does worship.
At the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC)
Convention, political commentator Michael Knowles told the
crowd, “For the good of society… transgenderism must be eradi-
cated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideol-
ogy, at every level.”
While Knowles subsequently claimed that eradicating “trans-
genderism” is not a call for eradicating transgender people,
any time the word eradication occurs in the same sentence as
a word that describes any group of people, alarm bells should
go off , and they did.
Transgender people are not an ideology or an “ism.” They are
individual human beings who discover that they do not identify
as their biological gender or the gender they were identifi ed as
at birth. Knowles is playing a dangerous game of semantics. He
is trying to galvanize the Republican base by directing their hate
and anger at something they do not understand. The LGBTQ
community is under attack by those on the right as a means of
stirring up their base of support. My church and many others
in Eugene try to provide a safe place for these people to gather
and be fully accepted and affi rmed for who they are.
Many Eugene area churches were present at Eugene Pride
to show their support for the LGBTQ community but were
not interviewed by KEZI so they could give that support voice.
In addition to my own, First Christian Church, the Unitarian
Universalist Church, Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church and Trin-
ity Methodist all had booths or an organized presence. There
may have been more. To the best of my knowledge, none of these
churches worship a God who judges homosexuality to be a sin or
feel a need to eradicate what Knowles labeled “transgenderism.”
Contrary to what the protester claimed at Eugene Pride, he
was preaching hate — hate against those in the LGBTQ commu-
nity whom he fears and can’t understand. By labeling them an
“ism” and ideology and calling for their eradication, Knowles,
too, is preaching hate.
I worship a God who knows me and loves me for who I am and
does the same for all those in the LGBTQ community. I follow
the man who told me that loving my neighbor as myself, even if
that neighbor looks, thinks and acts diff erently than I do, is one
of the two greatest commandments. I belong to one of many
churches in Eugene that share my values and beliefs and fully
support the LGBTQ community. ■
Don Brasted-Maki is a retired writing instructor, active member of First
Congregational Church of Eugene and the proud father of a transgender son.
2023-2024
VOTING ENDS
SEPTEMBER 29
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