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BRIGHT SPOT I found a bright spot in EW with Lisa-Marie DiVincent's letter "Really Listening" (6/3). She calls for a little more compassion, caring about diversity and different points of view. It does seem like EW editorials and articles have recently sold out to creating more conflict, divisive and polarized opinions rather than promoting dialogue and discussions aimed toward meeting each other's needs. Are we really listening to everyone's needs? How about for our children and grandchildren and for many different people yet to come? Could it be that EW, like the rest of us, has needs for some new rays and ways of looking at what we have here? The natural beauty around us is so much grander than our struggles. Can we appreciate and play in that? Meet me beyond our limited history. Let us imagine a kind, strong, healthy, caring and joyful Eugene-Springfield-Lane County community. We want to start somewhere. Will you and I be there too? Charlie Larson , Eugene
THREE-BUCK RON Perhaps it would be appropriate to put Reagan's likeness on the $3 bill. I remember him as the first U.S. president to reach office by means of treason (offering, while a private citizen, to sell arms to Iranian terrorists, if they would keep Americans as hostages until Reagan was inaugurated). Treason is the main thing that George II and Reagan have in common. I hope Kerry, after he's elected, uses the so-called PATRIOT Act to put the entire Bush cabinet in Guantanamo, forever. Maybe a few foreign objects forced into a few orifices would make them understand what torture is really about. Wayne Ford, Eugene
YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE A message to those of you who steal potted plants, so lovingly cultivated, off front porches: 1) Thou shall not steal. 2) The eyes of God see all. 3) Instant Karma is gonna get you. 4) What goes around comes around. Think about it! Quinn Harrington, Eugene
VOTING FOR EVIL I am feeling very frustrated with the lack of choices in the presidential election. I do not want Shrub in office again, yet I feel if I vote for Kerry I am voting for a corrupt system. Kerry is bought and paid for by corporations that also buy Shrub. I worked on the last two Nader campaigns and agreed with Ralph when he said "the lesser of two evils is still evil." I wrote Ralph when he was doing a survey on running this time and said; "the lesser of two evils is still the lesser of two evils, so don't run this time around." But now I am thinking, I can't vote for evil. I know that is a strong word. But it is not an exaggeration. Our country is run by multi-national corporations that control the politicians and these corporations are destroying the web of life all over the planet. So what to do? Peaceful revolution comes to mind. Violence will only get us thrown in prison. We need to unite, buy local, boycott corporations that are heartless, grow our own food as much as possible and demand change! This revolution has to come from a spirit of love, not fear. Can Kerry go back to his roots? Don't count on it. He's a puppet for the corporate master. A vote for him is a vote for our country to continue down the dark destructive path it's been on for many years. Vote for Nader? Maybe. We need to think this through carefully, I'm convinced our survival depends on it. Pam Driscoll, Springfield
WHICH CARBON? From the EW "Meltdown" article (6/10): "carbon levels are expected to double from pre-industrial level by 2050." First let's be clear that we're talking about carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere. "Carbon" is of course included in CO2, but it's also in soot, charcoal, graphite, diamonds, all living things, and especially in fossil fuels. We won't double the carbon in the general environment, but rather the CO2 in the atmosphere, mainly by burning fossil fuels. Do such predictions take into account the increased CO2 from more and hotter forest fires, and from less CO2 staying dissolved in the oceans, both of which will also result from higher temperatures? Do temperature predictions also include that less ice around the poles causes greater absorption of sunlight, and that increased water vapor is also a greenhouse gas? How about methane hydrate deposits on the ocean floor, which may break down to methane (a much worse "greenhouse gas") as ocean temperatures rise, and eventually to CO2? All these factors, and probably many unknowns, multiply with each other to produce unpredictable temperature rise. I wonder if we aren't hearing the simpler analyses, leading to near-best-case scenarios. Dan Robinson, Eugene
ONLY PART BIODIESEL Your recent article on climate change ("Meltdown," 6/10) states that the city of Eugene has "switched to biodiesel," which is not altogether accurate. Diesel engine vehicles in the city fleet are fueled with a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, known as "B20." While this blend produces a significant reduction in unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulates, it reduces carbon dioxide and sulfur emissions by only 20 percent. While the city fleet managers are to be commended for their forward-thinking decision to run their vehicles on a more environmentally friendly fuel, Lane County has yet to invest in even small percentages of cleaner-burning fuels. Lane Transit District annually consumes in excess of 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel, all of it petroleum-based. LTD recently purchased five cleaner-burning buses which are rather too large to be practical on the majority of urban bus routes. Running the existing fleet of buses on a biodiesel blend would go a long way towards improving the quality of the air in our valley without necessitating any investment in new vehicles. If you are concerned about air quality, greenhouse gasses, and sustainable, renewable fuels, contact the fleet managers for the city and thank them for their participation in renewable fuels and ask them to consider using a higher percentage blend of biodiesel in their vehicles. If city vehicles are delivering satisfactory performance with biodiesel blends, there's no defendable reason the LTD and county fleet vehicles shouldn't be using it as well. R. Sparks Scott, Eugene
MEANINGLESS LABEL In his letter ("Being Gay is a Choice," 6/10), Steve Twede tells a story of a friend who "elected to leave" the gay lifestyle (after "many years"). First, would he please define the buzz phrase "gay lifestyle"? There may be a perception that this must include things like unsafe sex with multiple partners, but in reality "gay lifestyle" is about as meaningless as "straight lifestyle." As for the issue of choice, people like Mr. Twede seem to think homosexuality is simply a behavior, but as with heterosexuality there's a variable drive behind it. People can be somewhat flexible in their sexuality, but most have a preference that is curiously magnetic, and hardly a choice. The fact that a percentage of gays (or perhaps bisexuals if they can truly switch) at least try to be "straight" doesn't change this. Some gay people who are hammered with negativity might try to bury those feelings, but with how much success and at what cost to their mental health if they fail? And how many heteros have been successful at repressing their sexuality? But then, gays are nothing like pure and natural straight folk like Mr. Twede, right? Ryan L Newburg, Eugene
ART FOR THE AGES I say thank you to Annie Kayner ("Real Artists Don't Play Games," 6/10) for her straight up letter on an ugly situation in Eugene. It seems that many fail to realize how much goes into real Art. Art and craftwork, as Tom Blodgett says, are divided by an abyss. Art is Art and nothing else. I had the privilege to study under Tom Blodgett. His work is proof of a lifetime of study and labor. But, for reasons including those highlighted by Annie Kayner, he works virtually unnoticed under the weight of those who forgot just how important Rembrandt and Van Gogh are. It seems that Eugene operates on a contradiction; People are so ready to accept everything as art, but are likewise unwilling to pay art prices for it. As Annie alluded to, you can't find art at Wall-Mart. It takes mature human beings to see the value of a real artist. I write this as an invitation to all those who understand the importance of the financial support needed for an artist to continue his work. Blodgett has lived and worked in Eugene for decades, yet he is kept a secret. To those who look to be thrilled, come to his studio and see for yourself. His work sets a standard, and standards are essential for growth. There is art for the ages right here and now. Michael James Elmira
REAL ARTISTS Hey Annie, get your gun and shoot yourself in the foot, because you have already put it in your mouth (6/10). Yes, real artists do attend openings and First Friday Art Walk. Real artists don't consider all galleries as "blood sucking." Real artists recognize the crafts and the lesser arts. Real artists can sometimes pick up some cheap material at the Wal-Mart that you hate so much. It's great that you have been in seclusion for 40 years, because it is quite evident that you are not a real artist. Jerry Harris, Eugene
EMPTY BLOCKS What makes a great neighborhood? It's not the price of the housing or the home owner/renter ratio. It's a very special place where neighbors know each other, celebrate together, share resources (from vegetables to trucks), cherish the children, and provide "eyes on the street" at all hours of the day and night. Such is the livable neighborhood where the Eugene Faith Center is situated . Recently Faith Center neighbors were informed of the Center's expansion plans; only two days after that the trees started coming down. Next up is the removal of one and a half blocks of affordable rental housing, to be replaced by a large parking lot. This space will be used on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. The rest of the week it will be, well, one and a half blocks of empty parking lot. If money allows, a youth center will be built where five of the homes once stood, but according to Pastor Thomas, that could take as long as two years. When asked by concerned neighbors if shuttles from the fairgrounds or carpooling would alleviate congregation parking needs, we were told that the congregation doesn't like shuttles. I pray The Faith Center will reconsider their immediate plans to remove the homes before they complete the permit process and have raised the funds they need. I also pray they work with the neighborhood for an equitable design solution that balances private property rights with the common neighborhood good. Paula DeBell Eugene
PERILOUS STRETCH Gag me with a spoon! Week after week adoring fans flock into the Bijou, wildly applauding the faux-spiritual film What the #$*! Do we Know? For me, a workaday physicist far removed from the genius category, the whole concept is atrocious, riddled with misconceptions and reflecting a popular trend to extend quantum physics from the submicroscopic to the macroscopic world, tapping the perilous machinery of analogy and metaphor. The highly credentialed, babbling scientists and spiritualists are clearly there to hawk their latest books. The Heisenberg uncertainty inherent in the behavior of ultra-tiny entities somehow becomes a feel-good scenario of "infinite possibilities" in our visible world. I left the theater with a new understanding of positivity, that the millions of Holocaust victims, starving Third World children, and brutalized Iraqis are clearly the result of their own self-imposed negative thinking. The stage is set by the alluring remark that science has disproved medieval "truths" (flat earth and the like), so how do we know today's accepted "truths" are any more realistic? Alas, the film totally ignores the most significant turning point of modern times: empiricism and the scientific method. A theory is not accepted simply because it "makes sense" mathematically or intuitively or because, well shucks, I just want it to be true! It is tested, modified, tested again, challenged and reevaluated endlessly. The dispassionate process virtually rules out the acceptance of nice, self-consistent conceptual systems based entirely on speculation. All right, if I fall short of guru credibility, I will highly recommend the writings and teachings of the most brilliant physicist since Einstein, the late Richard P. Feynman, who set the record straight on scientific voodoo. James Wood, Eugene
SWALLOWING THE WAD Poor Colin Powell, this once proud man has become the equivalent of Monica Lewinsky. There he was last week in front of microphones and cameras doing what Monica did in privacy, having to swallow and defend the latest wad of lies coming out of the Bush Administration. This time it was not about yellow cake or centrifuge tubes of WMD, but claims that the war against terrorism was working. A Bush report in April had falsely claimed that the number of terrorist attacks and victims had declined to the lowest level in 34 years. It turns out just the opposite was true. The number had increased sharply. "Errors crept in that frankly we did not catch here," said Powell. Unfortunately no dry cleaner can remove these stains from the red, white and blue fabric of our country. What a pity, before he sank to his knees at the pleasure of President Bush, I think that Colin Powell might have made a great future president. Michael T. Hinojosa Drain
LIBERATED IRAQ I am having a premonition about the future of Iraq. I see locked borders, curfews, cronyism, suppressed media, forced conscription, public coffers plundered, hand-picked political successors, etc. The newly "liberated" Iraq is starting to look a lot like North Korea. After a few more stolen elections, maybe Bush & Co. will similarly "liberate" Americans — or is our liberation already in progress through the PATRIOT Act and its progeny? Please, please get involved in "regime change." Your future depends on it. Don't forget: One superpower equals absolute power, and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Doug Heiken, Eugene
REGIME ROTATION The 2004 presidential "election" features a plutocrat from the occult Skull and Bones secret society who supports police state legislation, a new gas pipeline from north Alaska, more troops to Iraq, the war in Columbia, nuclear power, Enron energy deregulation, delaying fuel efficiency improvements in cars until 2015 and opposes the Kyoto Treaty. And then we have the incumbent, who is a war criminal, complicit in the murder of 3,000 people in New York (9/11 was Bush's crime, not an "intelligence failure") and countless Iraqis, Afghans and others unfortunate enough to live near natural resources sought by the U.S. empire. The 2004 presidential "election" makes the 2000 contest look honest in comparison — at best, it will merely be "regime rotation" (replace Bush but keep the most important policies: Homeland Security and the War of Terror). The biggest way the election has been rigged is not phony computerized ballot machines (although they are a severe violation of democracy), but the manipulation of the process to ensure that Bush's cousin was picked as the opposition candidate. Bush, Kerry and Cheney are cousins, part of the American aristocracy. Kerry's foreign policy chair, Mr. Rand Beers, is a Bush regime member who is a self-admitted perjurer. See www.oilempire.us/kerry.html I was disappointed that EW urged people to vote for pro-war candidate John Kerry in the primary. Voting for Dennis Kucinich was an excellent way of pressuring the leaders of the Democratic Party who support Bush's oil wars (although under new leadership). If liberals pressure the Democrats to oppose war and fascism, the D's might regain some backbone and win more elections. Mark Robinowitz, Eugene
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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