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DISSENTING VOICE So Dan Carol (Kumbaya Dammit, 2/26) laments Ralph 3.0. How amusing. What Carol fails to see (or affirm anyway) is that Nader represents the only dissenting voice of any real substance. Mainstream Democrats don't provide a compelling alternative platform and haven't in decades. Yet again they're proving themselves to be simply a potpourri of reactionary voices that only know how to dissent. Thank God for the presence of Ralph Nader then: At least the political left has somebody in their mix who actually stands for something. Will he cost them the election? Sadly, the underlying calculus all points to whether or not enough people are sufficiently angry at Bush. In other words they won't be voting for the Democratic leader and whatever new and innovative ideas that person might have, but against Bush. Inside party faithful notwithstanding, does anybody actually know what Kerry stands for? Until the Democrats actually come up with a platform of substance, they will always lose votes to the Naders of the world. Frankly, after all these years of not doing so, I'm beginning to doubt that they're actually up to the task. Mark Grant, Vancouver
ED UNDER ATTACK Teaching is an honorable and rewarding profession. I have encouraged many talented young people, including my daughter, to consider it a career. But recent developments have thrown doubt on the wisdom of such advice. Just last week, Rod Page, secretary of education, the man in charge of public education in this country, labeled the National Education Association (NEA) a "terrorist organization." As a member of NEA, the largest teacher organization (2.7 million members) in the world, I was appalled. For more than 30 years I have participated in the NEA by advocating for public education. Now we have been branded "terrorists" for bringing up concerns about the so-called No Child Left Behind Education Act. Many teachers, parents and students believe that the ultimate aim of this act is the destruction of the foundation of our democracy — public education. By branding public schools inferior and its teachers "terrorists," it opens the door for privatization of education through the voucher system. In the same week, Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, proposed cutting Social Security benefits and making recent tax cuts for the rich permanent. This comes just as I was getting used to the idea of my state pension decrease of 25 percent after 30 years of teaching. In the next 10 years, close to two million teachers will retire. These developments, along with the trend to defund public education (failure of Measure 30) don't bode well for recruiting the best and the brightest young people to work with our children. Pete Mandrapa, Eugene
SLUSH FUND The Riverfront Urban Renewal Area (news story, 3/18) is a tax giveaway! Approximately 178 acres will have taxes based on improvements on mostly vacant land removed from the city budget for the next 20 years. This is a costly decision against the best interests of the people of Eugene. The projected revenue is $150 million. We should all thank the city councilors who opposed this boondoggle. They are once again thinking for the people of Eugene rather than allowing this "slush fund" for developers. On March 8, five City Council members allocated $750,000 out of the Urban Renewal District for "planning" courthouse transportation improvements and they plan to give another $350,000 in a few months. The council has also adopted a resolution that if the feds fail to pay, the city will. A million dollars of the Eugene city budget, and I thought we were facing shortages all over this town! If you want this to go for a citizen vote (the council voted not to), help us collect the needed 4,500 signatures. They must be turned in the first week of April. You can pick up packets to circulate among your friends at Paul's Bikes at 24th and Alder and 2580 B McKenzie. Ruth Duemler, Eugene
HARD QUESTIONS With the Oregon Natural Resources Council celebrating 30 years in business (news story, 2/12), it is interesting to think about the careers of environmentalists like Andy Kerr, Tim Lillebo and James Monteith. When you reflect on the organization's focus and effectiveness these days, compared to what was happening in the ONRC's heyday — say, 15 or 20 years ago, when Kerr & Co. were shaking things up and making names for themselves — you have to wonder what ever happened to those high-profile, working-class activists who made environmentalism a real force for change in the Pacific Northwest. "Times have changed," they might say, and the politics of preservation along with them. Maybe so. But have our most basic land issues been resolved, as for instance how to manage Northwest forests in an ecologically sound, socially acceptable, politically sustainable way? They have not. A radical program still needs to be advanced to where use of public forests at the proper scale — based in communities, supporting communities — is understood as part of the overall preservation scheme. Where are the grassroots organizers to push such a program today? Not working at the ONRC anymore, it seems. It is discouraging to realize how far environmentalism has strayed from the grassroots, to become in effect just another layer of bureaucratic oversight on an outmoded, hopelessly conflicted system of management. Some people in the Northwest might question the ONRC's longstanding preoccupation with "wilderness" issues. This while the economics that dictate land use and resource policy go mostly unchallenged by mainstream pros like Monteith, Lillebo and Kerr. Some of the same people might envy these guys their jobs — people in Northwest towns who no longer have any job, due in some part to the past efforts of the ONRC. The irony in that can't be lost on the career environmentalists. So I hope they pause in the celebration to take an honest look at their work — and ask themselves, their supporters and the public at large some hard questions about where environmentalism goes from here. Greg Vranizan, Eugene
BAD TASTEZ The cover with the image of the policeman's zipper down and the words "Bad Boyz" (1/29) was, I thought, in bad taste. The harassment of women should not be taken lightly. I think that the connotation of the cover indicates that the policemen were just "bad boys" — when really it should be criminal to misuse their power against easily made victims. Pat Boteyn, Springfield
LACK OF RESPONSE It's getting to be that time of year again. Our local public radio stations will be asking for support. KLCC has asked me to renew my membership. Even at my humble level of previous support I can't comply. But even if I had greater means I would contribute only at the most minimal level because I have overriding beefs about what I believe to be a lack of corrective response by KLCC to listener input. Now that Alan Siporin has left and no public forum such as his "Critical Mass" hour has replaced his spot, no airing of listener discontent about programming is heard. In the end, though, it seems not to matter because the overpaid, under-performing head honchos at KLCC never really listened anyway. Is it possible for KLCC to remain a vassal of NPR, a corporation increasingly corporate in ever sense, and yet bring in an alternative complement, California's "Democracy Now," hopefully? Will KLCC ever take a lesson on the musical side from some of the truly great stations in the SF Bay Area and efface its endless on-air self-promotion in favor of deep and long excursions into eclectic, international revivals of ancient song, for instance, and longer sets otherwise of more varied music? There's a different way than an AM DJ progression of selective singles, KLCC. And instead of the promotional trinkets — T-shirts, mugs, umbrellas etc. — how about a member shareholder vote to give listeners a real voice in deciding programming? John A. Hickam, Eugene
PROFITS ARE CULPRIT Today people are gathering to show opposition to the rolling back of restrictions that protect threatened species like the marbled murrelet, red tree voles and other animals protected by the Northwest Forest Plan. This doesn't even make the news but this is huge. For we are supposed to believe that for our economy to work, it means we are not allowed to believe that owls should exist, or bears or frogs. I guess I'm supposed to accept that public health is not as important as stock figures, that the disfigured hills in my backyard that are repeatedly planted, clear-cut and poisoned are facts of life, and that I will have to accept that dead landscapes are the norm. No, you will not see on the front page that red-legged frogs are already extinct and that Ph.D. geologists say that Row River Valley is being seriously over-harvested. Thirty-year rotations of trees simply do not match 100 year ones. President Bush will not call on timber companies to bring home well-paying lumber-finishing jobs that went to Latin America, to cut sustainably, or to leave the big trees alone. No, instead he will decide for us that we don't need the spotted owl or the marbled murrelet. Funny, but he is also deciding that we don't need an atmosphere, decent water, or to feel any connection to anything on the land at all because it may just have to be sacrificed for economic gain. Huge profits, not a bird, are the culprit behind the boom and bust economy that has been unfair to so many families and workers. Yet the animals are the one what are going to take the first hit. Will we normal folks be next? Kerstin Britz, Cottage Grove
NO ON TAX April 15th is quickly approaching and this year feels very different from any other year. This year, I am a war tax resister. This year, I will send in my tax return with a note saying that I cannot and will not pay for the war mongering of this administration — for this illegal and greedy war. I am not the typical tax resister. I believe in our government. I believe that the political swings from left to right are a way of moving our country forward. I am a patriot who cries at the singing of our National Anthem at Ems games. And because I am a patriot, I cannot sit idly by and watch our country be taken over by a group of oil men who have had their eye on the prize for decades. In the documentary, An Act of Conscience (Thursday, March 25 7:30 pm, Grower's Market), a couple publicly refuses to pay federal taxes as protest against war and military spending. This film chronicles the couple's five year struggle to nonviolently resist the seizure of their home, and how they were joined by hundreds of supporters from across the country. If you have the courage and you owe this year, consider withholding even the token amount of $9.11. In this day of hanging chads, our most powerful votes are the ones we cast with our money. Carol Horne, Eugene
THREE-WAY VOTE A message to independent and third party voters: The John Kerry campaign, in league with the Democrat National Committee and their friends in the media, has fooled you into believing that what matters most in the upcoming presidential election is that independents and Democrats unify to remove (what is essentially) a moderate Republican from office. On the contrary, the true imperative for independent voters in this election is the same as it has always been: to eliminate the strangle-hold grip that the two parties have had on the throat of American politics since 1856; not to replace one member of the ruling class with a virtually indistinguishable member from the other party. While it may be true that a third party challenge would most likely split the Democrat vote in favor of the incumbent, a long-shot Democrat victory assures the monopoly of the two-party system for at least another decade. You see, the fact of the matter is that the Democrat Party of today is on life support, flailing about for independent voters in a desperate attempt to stay relevant and retain its diminishing share of the power, influence and money in Washington, D.C. I am not alone in my belief that a defeat for Democrats in November will be a decisive blow for a party that has abandoned its progressive principles (to appeal to moderates and centrists) to the extent that it has lost the presidency, Congress, the Senate and most of the governorships in the U.S. The power vacuum created from the collapse of just one party will greatly accelerate the emergence of an independent movement that advances the cause of peace, justice, civil liberties and the fulfillment of human potential within a sustainable environment. Susan Dwightman, Eugene
FALSE ASSUMPTION As a candidate for the District 8 House seat, I had intended to resign as Democratic vice chair of HD8, to avoid any appearance of "insider trading." In fact, the whole reason that I am in this race is to publicize the "insider trading" that has tainted the selection of the last two lower House members representing Lane County during the last two Democratic PCP nominating conventions. I had told several persons that I would do so at the March 18 Central Committee Meeting, so I was very surprised to learn that, at the March 11 Executive Committee meeting I had not attended but had asked to be excused from, I had tendered my resignation as vice chair. Had I known that I was going to resign, I should have made a point of being there. However, the DPLC Chair, who, not coincidentally was deeply involved in both disputed nominating conventions, has assured me that I resigned, even though no letter of resignation was ever delivered from myself to the chair. So it seems that the Executive Committee is in unanimous agreement that I have resigned, even though I don't recall resigning — mostly because I learned that it was traditional to take a leave of absence. Still, the psychologists and telepaths of the DPLC Executive Committee have absolute conviction that I meant to resign. Still, although their opinions are influential, I must insist that I did not resign. But it is their word against mine and I am only one. Hart Williams, HD8 Candidate
LETTERS POLICY: We print as many letters as space allows. Please limit length to 250 words and submissions to once a month. All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity, and must include address and phone number. E-mail to editor@eugeneweekly.com, fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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