Eugene Weekly : Letters : 09.02.04

IT'S YOUR LAND

The leader of the "have mores" sent one of his female whores to the Monaco factory in Coburg last week. Interior Secretary Gale Norton arrived to pay back CEO Kay Toolson for his generous contributions to the Republican party.

Apparently Ms. Norton had no time to actually visit any of the Oregon lands under her control. Instead, she spouted the jingle: "It's your land, lend a hand." Hey Gale, keep those damn RVs off my land!

And Ms. Norton's idea of her department's initiative: "Take Pride in America" is to hop into one of Monaco's half-million dollar motor homes for the ultimate, isolated-from-nature trip up I-5 to Washington state. The gasoline consumption of one of these monstrosities makes any SUV or Hummer look earth-friendly by comparison.

George W. Bush was awarded the 2003 Doublespeak Award from the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Public Doublespeak. This year's deadline for submissions is Sept. 30. I highly recommend Gale Norton for the award she so richly deserves.

Robert Simms, Eugene

MAJORITY RULES

I don't know why I am surprised and shocked at this (mayoral) campaign tactic. The city of Eugene residents spoke their minds with 51.6 percent of their votes on who they wanted for mayor. 51.6 percent of us are tired of Big Money coming in here and destroying one of the most beautiful places on the planet. 51.6 percent of us were happy someone had finally stepped up to the plate to say this is enough.

It does not surprise me that they are hiding where the money comes from. Who wants someone in office with friends backing them up that don't have enough courage to state who they are? Didn't we already go through that for years? Torrey has run this town into the ground long enough. 51.6 percent of the residents said so by voting for Kitty Piercy. Piercy for mayor!

Pam Mamula, Eugene

LIBERAL LOVE

If you are a liberal, be proud, for you are in step with the world's great minds. We can thank liberals for progress in every field of human endeavor, for progress in the arts, the sciences, communications, philosophy, medicine, and literature. We can thank liberals for the freedoms we enjoy, for the rights we take for granted, for abolition of slavery, for laws prohibiting child labor.

Liberals have given us public schools, prison reform, women's suffrage, pure food and drug laws, safe working conditions, the eight-hour day, paid vacations, national parks, birth control, Head Start, Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, civil rights, and social justice.

Liberals have advanced our knowledge.

As written into the preamble of the European Constitution, we share a heritage "of humanism, equality of persons, freedom and respect for reason." Our Declaration of Independence was written by liberal insurgents who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Eleanor Roosevelt gave the world the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

So if you are a Liberal, be proud, for you are in the company of men and women who reached for the stars and made our lives richer in many, many ways.

Virginia Conley, Springfield

JOBLESS IN OREGON

I have worked as a medical assistant for over 20 years and I am unemployed for the first time in my life. My husband is a young, healthy man with multiple university degrees, and is also unemployed! Our unemployment insurance is running out in a few weeks, and there are NO extensions available in Oregon, because they claim that the economy is improving here. That is not true. Oregon still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country! George Bush is taking away the right to overtime pay from up to six million Americans, including nurses, cooks, clerical workers and nursery school teachers.

Bush allowed dirty power plants to expand without controlling their emissions. Bush endangered pregnant workers when he stopped regulating exposure to the chemicals used in the manufacturing of semiconductors. Bush rolled back mercury regulations and proposed to defer controls on toxic mercury emissions by power plants for at least a decade. Bush reduced protections for mine workers and eliminated rules to protect workers from tuberculosis.

Bush gutted health and safety protections in response to pressure from top donors and corporate lobbyists. Chemical industry executives donated more than $1.5 million to Bush's 2000 campaign and were rewarded with looser regulations that boosted corporate profits but put pregnant workers at greater risk.

Almost 1,000 young people have died in Iraq because of his policies. Billions of dollars are being spent that should be spent instead to take care of the hungry people here and people who are dying because they have no medical insurance! I will vote against Bush in November!

Elizabeth Stromsnes , Springfield

LEGAL … BUT

In the ongoing controversy about prostitution ads, a brief riposte. For all the reasons suggested, I agree that prostitution (among many other things) should be legal. But I still do not want to see it graphically advertised in the back pages of this paper. Religion should also be legal, but many readers would be disappointed to come across half a page of church ads in the EW ("Thursday is Bingo Night!"). Perhaps the Republican Party should even be legal, but who wants to see it graphically advertised in the back pages of the Weekly?

To Ryan Newburg's objection (8/12), that intelligent people may want a faceless pair of boobs now and then, I would suggest that these people might be intelligent enough to find their kicks without resorting to newspaper ads.

Mass media have a powerful effect on the choices made by their audiences, and newspapers of all kinds shape society by the creative use of "fantasy." They do so in different ways, though, with different results. It's up to EW's publishers — and by implication, us readers — to choose what sorts of mental life we wish to encourage in Eugene. The fantasies we celebrate in the region's most progressive major newspaper will help to define what "culture" means here.

Christopher Logan, Eugene

ECONOMIC NECESSITY

The problem with Victoria Austin's and Sherylin York's facts and grand generalization "Ladies: Your mind, body and conscience belong to one person — you" (Porn's Crossover," 8/5) is that it's all an abstraction, and ignorant of the history of the recent women's liberation movement. It's an abstraction because it fails to discuss the real fact: that the vast majority of women who enter into prostitution and into the "adult" entertainment industry do so out of economic necessity, and/or out of the emotional and physical abusive, demeaning relationships, past and present. To say your mind, body and conscience belong to you only has meaning in an authentically free environment, something many of us clearly lack in the present society.

The modern women's liberation movement as it arose from within the Left, critiqued that Left, as well as the whole of American society, because of its failure to recognize women as full participants, thinkers and activists, in fighting for an emancipatory future – a classless, non-sexist, non-racist, human society. To reduce the women's movement to one's right to be in the "adult industry" is a sad commentary about where we have arrived today

J. Mass-DeSpain ("We Are All Exploited," 8/5) has his/her own research to report and grand generalization to make: It's '"the machinery of capitalism." Well, yes. I'm a Marxist-Humanist, and believe so as well. But that's no excuse to hide behind an abstraction, and fail to deal with the concrete issue at hand.

However, perhaps most disturbing thus far is the non-response of EW. Did the editorial staff have any discussion of this topic in a meeting, and what were the results? Did the owner(s) have a discussion on their position on this question? And if so, what were the results?

SPEED IS THE PROBLEM

After reading Randy Kolb's response (8/19) to my 8/5 letter, I have more empathy for people who get misrepresented in the press. As #41 once proclaimed, "Read my lips." I wasn't advocating "free reign" for cats (ours didn't have it). I was attempting to make a valid point that reckless speeding is prevalent and dangerous. While walking my dogs (and cleaning up after them, Mr. Kolb), I've almost been hit myself. Wildlife can't be kept indoors, and small children make mistakes, which are more likely to be fatal when speeding is part of the equation. You may be comfortable being an enabler for speeders — I'm not.

Robert Hermann, Eugene

END THE CYCLE

I sympathize deeply with Robert Hermann, whose cat was killed by a careless driver (letters, 8/5). Having been blessed with many cats myself, I know the pain at their sudden departure. Should Robert choose, and I hope he does, to adopt another kitten, I hope he will recognize his responsibility to shield it from the dangers that it is not able to cope with and keep it inside. With five cats of our own, and after losing others to cars and dogs, we've found that they readily adapt to life inside, and they live much longer, healthier lives. Robert is right — animals do not exist in a void. Every outdoor cat that kills already struggling songbirds takes fathers and mothers from their nests — the numbers of birds nationally reaches into the tens to hundreds of millions.

Build your cat an enclosure off a window, so they can feel the sun and wind. They are domestic animals — they ceased being wild when we brought them into our homes. Why should we, who care so deeply for animals, loose them on native animal populations whose homes are already disappearing? Keeping your cats indoors ends the killing cycle — your cat lives, and so does the wildlife.

Jonathan B. Smith, Eugene

AMERICAN EMPIRE

David Hazen's excellent letter (8/12), without using the term specifically, is an appropriate description of the American Empire and it's current dysfunctional impact on/ in the world.

Am I correct in believing that the only way empires get changed is either through armed insurrection, or very slow, almost imperceptible changes over time? If we discard the possibility of the U.S. being altered via armed revolution, given our "super power status," then is it possible to cast a vote in this fall's election that will have the effect of altering our Empire's trajectory?

We are led to believe that a vote for John Kerry is important in this regard; but I suspect that, even if true, it would mean only a slight tweaking in the direction of the Empire, not its total transformation.

Kerry might be able to promote more international cooperation, and a moderate redistribution of wealth back to the middle class. But the tentacles of American Empire would still remain.

Adding to what David Hazen expressed, I do not think we will ever be "safe" until and unless the Empire is substantially altered. How this might be accomplished, and whether or not it is even something we can "vote" for, are the conundrums we face. Is this why 50 percent of voters do not bother to participate in national elections?

M. Boyd Wilcox, Corvallis

MILITARY ASSAULT

An ongoing topic of discussion in EW letters is violence against women. And yet there is a most chilling story which has received no comment, perhaps because it has not been widely reported. A most disturbing enemy is lurking in the camps of our troops; 176 female troops have reported being sexually assaulted by fellow service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of sex crimes in the military is probably much higher since a large number of cases go unreported.

Among the most disturbing trends, is the military's treatment of sexual assault cases. Women have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations – some say they were even threatened with punishment after reporting assaults. A task force appointed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for sweeping changes in May, but victim advocates expressed alarm, saying emergency needs of woman overseas were basically ignored. Incredibly, the military will not fund abortions for women who are raped. They will, however, give abortions if you are willing to pay for it (small comfort to the rape victim). And, there are reports of women coming back to the U.S., after being raped, getting their abortions, and then sent right back into the war zone. No recovery time, no time to deal with any of the abuse going on, and the military is aware of this. Sadly, there is virtually no rape trauma counseling being administered.

Please contact your representatives and call for an outside, independent, investigative agency separate from the Pentagon. According to Dorothy Mackey, founder of Survivors Take Action Against Abuse by Military Personnel, this agency must be able and willing to equally and unbiasedly prosecute generals and admirals all the way down to those at the lowest ranks, because it does come from the very top. Until we have that, we will not have these crimes stopped.

Christopher Michaels, Eugene