 |
  |
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
|
Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes. News: Buying
a Mayor Happening Person: Matt Butler FEMINIST STATE OF UNION ADDRESS AT UO
Bethroot Gwynn's Women: The Longest Revolution recreates the herstory of the second wave of the feminist movement Friday at the UO. In the tradition of personal theater, the piece highlights the experiences of Oregon and West Coast women using intimate stories, historical events, poetry by Gwynn, humor and song. The performance promises to speak to anyone interested in social change and particularly feminist, gay and women-centered women. Gwynn describes The Longest Revolution as "a feminist state of the union address." Commissioned for the 2003 30th WomanSource Fall Gathering outside of Ashland, Gwynn wrote the piece around the questions, "What has changed for women in these past 35 plus years?" "What have we accomplished?" and "What have we yet to do?" Starring Bethroot Gwynn, Jane Mara and Jennifer Council, the piece includes cameos by seven other women from the area. Eugene residents Lory McClane and Judy Goldstein will share stories of their feminist work during the '70s, including participation in the Women's Press, Starflower Trucking Collective and Amazon Kung-Fu (a women's self-defense program). Proceeds from Friday night's performance will benefit the Southern Oregon Lesbian Archival Collection at the UO Library. SOLAC librarians are actively gathering journals, essays, and letters that support research into the lesbian experience in Oregon. Women: The Longest Revolution shows at 7:30 pm, Friday, April 23, in 100 Willamette, UO. Suggested donation is $5-$15. No reservations are necessary. The show will also be performed April 24 at Portland State University, where reservations are encouraged, (503) 232-6003. — Kate Storm
COUNCIL BALKS AT BLOCKING BIG STORES While dozens of cities around the nation have moved to regulate big box stores such as Wal-Mart, it doesn't look like Eugene will be one of them. The Eugene City Council voted 5-4 April 12 to not impose a moratorium on big box retailers. Councilors Nancy Nathanson, Jennifer Solomon, Gary Papé, and George Poling and Mayor Jim Torrey voted in favor of big boxes and Councilors Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor, Scott Meisner and David Kelly voted to pursue a moratorium. The moratorium would have been put in place pending a council meeting May 24 on whether to regulate the size, location, traffic impact and other issues with development of the giant stores. Big box stores are under attack across the nation and in Oregon for urban sprawl, traffic congestion, pushing down wages, hurting local businesses and sheer ugliness. Most recently, Steamboat Springs, Colo., imposed a three month moratorium on big boxes, and the Central Point City Council in southern Oregon is taking a stand, despite threats of lawsuits, against a planned Wal-Mart "supercenter." "The intent is to protect local businesses and local workers," said Taylor of her moratorium proposal. "It's way overdue. People are saying now, 'Why haven't you done something?"' But Solomon said she opposes restrictions on the "valuable service" stores like Wal-Mart provide. "This just feels very anti-business to me." Nathanson, now running for mayor, said city staff work on the moratorium would distract from higher priorities. She said a moratorium could affect a wide variety of retailers. "Are we saying no more Jerry's, no more 5th St. Public Market?" Taylor said her proposal would clearly not apply to places like 5th Street, with many small stores in a single complex. It also would not apply to a controversial Wal-Mart expansion in West Eugene because the corporation is grandfathered in with an already submitted application. Bettman said the city needs a moratorium before it addresses the big box issue May 24. In the past, developers have rushed to file permits for structures that wouldn't be permitted under proposed city code changes. "If we don't have a moratorium, then it just sends out a signal that now is the time to get your application in." Bettman said preserving local jobs against poor-paying big boxes should be a city priority. The city spends a lot of money on economic development, she points out. "I think we can also spend money to protect local jobs." A "Wal-Mart is a Bad Neighbor Rally" begins at 5 pm Thursday, April 22 at the corner of Commerce and West 11th in Eugene.— AP
EFN HOOKING UP WITH LOCAL UTILITY Two seemingly unrelated local public service organizations are making plans to link up to their mutual benefit. Eugene Free Network (EFN), struggling with financial and technical problems, announced this week that it will be turning over its Internet services to Emerald People's Utility District (EPUD). Paul Harrison of the EFN board of directors said in an EW news story (4/8) that the non-profit organization was in a "tight financial situation" and was "looking at all possibilities." This week he said EPUD offered the best solution out of several possibilities. EPUD, in addition to providing traditional utility services over the past 20 years, has been growing a sideline, low-cost Internet service in recent years at www.epud.net "A deal has been worked out so that all of our customers will be offered services, and will be able to receive service credits," says Harrison. "People who paid ahead will see their pay-aheads honored," and the current standard ISP rates will remain the same. Harrison says EFN will "continue to participate in a scheme that allows low-income people to get discounts on rates and allows non-profits to receive services from OPN, the parent organization." "We feel like it's really a good thing. EPUD is a strong electric company that has a strong ISP offering, very reliable, very solid, and they are the kind of people who work with a strong public interest motive," says Harrison. — TJT
NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE SPEAKER TO OUTLINE MISSION The idea of civilian peacekeeping is an idea that's been around a long time. In fact, according to Nonviolent Peaceforce (NVPF) spokesperson Nick Mele, who will speak in Eugene April 29, Mahatma Gandhi was working on such a project when he was assassinated. Gandhi's project might not have achieved fruition, but his vision has.
The NVPF is a recent incarnation. It was born when David Hartsough, a longtime peace activist who got his start in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, met Minnesota peace activist and Presbyterian minister Mel Duncan at the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference in May of 1999. The two started recruiting a small group of people at the conference who were interested in third party nonviolent intervention and they began to lay the groundwork for the NVPF. The NVPF is now an international organization with offices and chapters throughout the world, including one in Eugene. Its pilot project is in Sri Lanka, where NVPF members are working with local groups to achieve an end to that country's longstanding conflict. "The recognition that there are people there with no sides other than their interest in seeing the conflict end can be a powerful reassurance and morale boost," says Mele, a former career Foreign Service Officer who served with the U.S. Information Agency and Department of State from 1975 to 1999. Peaceworkers work with the local groups to help them achieve their own goals toward peace. Mele says it's important for people to educate themselves on the history of nonviolent action and to get some training in techniques. That training can be put to use not just in international settings, but at home, in any setting. In the U.S., where there is "no general acceptance that nonviolent action is effective," he says, there is no type of civil peace service, whereas many European countries have them. There had been an office in the Pentagon charged with planning such an entity, but that office "was closed down by the Bush administration as a cost-saving measure," says Mele. Mele will speak from 7 to 9 pm on Thursday, April 29 at the EWEB Community Room. His visit is sponsored by the Eugene chapter of the NVPF. The talk is free. For more information, call Leslie at 342-5325. — Aria Seligmann
EUGENEANS TO JOIN MARCH ON WASHINGTON When Eugene resident Emily Gilbert and her 9-year-old daughter Hannah discuss their upcoming attendance at the April 25 March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C., Gilbert explains that "the present government really wants to take away women's right to decide what to do with their bodies." Gilbert's daughter responds, "That is none of the government's business, Mommy." Hannah is no stranger to women's issues, often accompanying her mother to work in Eugene Planned Parenthood's finance and administration department. She has been exposed to the protesters that sometimes gather outside the office on Saturdays. Her major concern about the march in Washington is the presence of such people. Gilbert assured her that there will be police present and that it is their constitutional right to march. Gilbert, her husband, Rich, and Hannah will join more than 50 Eugeneans and hundreds of thousands of others in marching for women's reproductive rights. Sarah Vokes, chair of Lane County Action Team of NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, will be marching with the Oregon delegation, which includes NARAL, Oregon Planned Parenthood Federation, the Oregon chapter of the National Organization of Women, and Oregon ACLU. Last week, 17 women from UO Students for Choice hit the road to D.C. "I would hope to send the message that there are more people who care about women than there are people who don't care," Gilbert says. Vokes wants to make sure that "choice is on the radar screen" this election year. "Bush has been hands-down the worst president on reproductive rights," Vokes said. — KS
Buying
a Mayor
Mayoral candidate Nancy Nathanson has the cash backing of development interests who stand to rake in money on urban sprawl and freeway projects if she's elected. Development interests — including real estate speculators, builders, construction companies and local timber barons — contributed $10,350 to Nathanson's campaign as of April 1. Nathanson, who has a solidly conservative and anti-environmental voting record as a city councilor, is backed by the Chamber of Commerce, but opposed by local environmental and good government groups. Nathanson's single biggest contributor is the Giustina timber family and their various companies who gave a total of $2,600, according to required contribution reports. The Giustinas have speculated on large tracks of land on the edges of Eugene and could stand to make millions from urban sprawl. The local Wildish clan, owners of sand and gravel and construction companies as well as land holdings, are Nathanson's next biggest backer with $2,000 in total contributions. Wildish does millions of dollars in local highway construction work and stands to make millions more on projects like the $130 million West Eugene Parkway. Nathanson backs the controversial, sprawl-inducing freeway project through wetlands. Delta Sand and Gravel, which also hopes to make big money from the parkway, gave another $1,000 to Nathanson. Hamilton Construction Company, another road building company, gave Nathanson $1,000 more. Greg Demers has speculated on hundreds of acres of land west of Eugene and in Veneta that could soar in value with the construction of the West Eugene Parkway. Demers gave Nathanson $1,000. The Gonyea family, land speculators who sold Hynix land for its factory, gave Nathanson $750. Many of Nathanson's biggest funders are also big contributors to George Bush and right-wing politics. The Giustinas recently gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee's efforts to re-elect George Bush and his friends. The Wildish clan recently gave $2,000 to Republicans nationally, $5,000 for the pro-parkway campaign two years ago and $2,000 to the Gang of 9's attack adds against City Council progressives. Demers recently gave $25,000 to national Republicans, $10,000 to Oregon Republicans, $10,000 for the West Eugene Parkway and $2,500 to the Gang of 9. The Gonyeas gave Bush $8,000 last year, the national Republican Party $25,000 and the Oregon Republican Party $10,000. Delta Sand and Gravel gave $5,000 to the parkway and $1,000 to the Gang of 9. Hamilton contributed $2,000 to the parkway. Even some of Nathanson's smaller contributors are pro-Bush activists. Jack Courtemanche gave Nathanson $100. Courtemanche is a former assistant to President Ronald Reagan and was Nancy Reagan's chief of staff. When Dick Cheney came to Eugene in 2000 for a campaign stop, Courtemanche picked him up at the airport in a motor home for a rally at Country Coach where Courtemanche was CEO, the Associated Press reported. Nathanson has consistently voted against environmental and other regulations opposed by business and has won the strong backing of the local conservative business community in her bid for mayor. Business interests, including developers, gave Nathanson a total of $18,750 by April 1. The Eugene Chamber gave Nathanson $1,500, Nike board member and attorney John Jaqua gave $1,000 and Industrial Source, a welding supply company, gave another $1,000. The Woolley family, which owns much of downtown Eugene, gave $500, Redhead Real Estate $500, and Pepsi Bottling another $500. Almost a quarter of Nathanson's funding, including donations from the Gonyeas, Hamilton Construction and Demers, came from companies and individuals outside of Eugene. Nathanson's opponent Kitty Piercy reported a total of $38,446 in contributions from local progressives, environmentalists and unions. Big donors include organic foodmaker Mel Bankoff, LCC faculty member Mark Williams and James Gang Publishing who each gave $1,000. The Eugene firefighters union gave $3,000. The firefighters could benefit directly from a friendly mayor, but most of Piercy's other contributors appear to have little to gain other than good government, environment and quality of life. Piercy's donations reflect her broad populist support. Piercy reported receiving 293 donations of $50 and under for a total of $11,251. Nathanson reported only $800 in such small contributions. Piercy has reported raising more money than Nathanson — $38,446 to Nathanson's $24,360. But few expect that early lead to last and more spending reports are due May 6. In the last hotly contested mayor's race, Republican Jim Torrey outspent his progressive opponent Jim Weaver five to one, paying $76,000 for the mayor's seat.
MATT BUTLER
Eugene native Matt Butler grew up in a musical family. "My mom was one of the founders of the Eugene Symphony," he notes. "She plays violin in the orchestra." Butler took up drums at an early age, and played piano through high school. In San Diego for college, he and fellow South Eugene grad Chris Haugen founded the band Jambay in 1989. "Jambay toured relentlessly for eight years," he says. "We did a lot of music, but even more driving!" Now the father of two young children, Butler stays closer to home in Eugene, where he plays local gigs, composes, and produces recordings. He still gets out of town on occasion to manage his personal social-activist project, the Everyone Orchestra, a varying group of all-star musicians that he has assembled to pay benefit concerts in Cincinnati, New Orleans, and now Eugene. The ninth EO performance (since 2001) is scheduled for Thursday, April 29, at the McDonald Theater. "The idea is to get great players together on stage," Butler says. "I call it 'music games' — beautiful things can happen." The concert will benefit Portland's Pangea Project, a non-profit engaging low-income kids in service activities. — Paul Neevel
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
