Eugene Weekly : Letters : 04.21.05
REGRESSIVES II
I want to amplify upon last week's letter (4/7) on "Regressive Politics" from my fellow Springfield News columnist, Todd Huffman. The Bush administration is fully out of the closet. There's no denying or minimizing it. They want to reverse the New Deal. But they don't stop there in regressive ambition. They even aspire to reverse the Enlightenment.
Democracy is undermined by vote fraud. Government accountability is ignored. Macchiavelli is resurrected to counsel rulers in control and manipulation of the people.
Empiricism is trumped by irrational ideology. Global warming data is suppressed while polar ice caps melt. Embryonic stem cell research is prohibited with indifference to thousands suffering terrible afflictions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injuries. A simplistic two-word phrase, "intelligent design," is given equal weight with the massive evidence of evolution painstakingly assembled over 170 years from multiple scientific disciplines. Sex education is limited to "abstinence only" preaching despite overwhelming evidence of its failure, including increased incidence of HIV/AIDS. In February 2004, some 60 prominent scientists including 20 Nobel laureates signed a complaint charging administration interference in the scientific review process and deliberate misrepresentation of scientific findings.
Their "culture of life" pretensions are similarly medieval. Like the Grand Inquisitor's highly selective recognition of the right to life, Bush's war has inflicted an Iraqi mortality figure conservatively estimated at 100,000 by a peer-reviewed, Johns Hopkins-led study published in The Lancet, Britain's leading medical journal. Iraqi victims have been mostly women and children, killed largely by coalition bombing. Meanwhile, press attention has remained obsessively absorbed with one long-comatose American woman, preceded by a relentless series of other diversionary topics, while the real right-to-life story — an Iraqi death count from Bush's war some 30 times the number of Americans killed in 9/11 — has gone unmentioned. Among regressives, the sacred right to life applies only to Americans.
I enthusiastically support Huffman's recommendation that we adopt this term — although I privately apply a term to them less printable.
Jack Dresser, Ph.D. , Springfield
WOMEN'S ROLE
As this year marks the 35th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day, we continue to focus on the grave dangers that face our world in terms of the environmental destruction and degradation wrecked upon the planet in order to feed, water, house, clothe and manufacture things for all of humankind. The current levels of population and poverty lead to unbearable pressure on the Earth's resources, which leads us to deplete them at rates that cannot be replenished. What will we leave our children from our world so outstripped and polluted?
Slowing global population growth would both reduce the demand on resources and lead to fewer women of reproductive age. This can be accomplished if women around the world who want to control when and if they have children have access to family planning and education. The U.N. estimates that worldwide, 350 million couples who want to use contraceptives lack access to a full range of family planning services. Unfortunately, President Bush ignored the causes and consequences of increased population growth when he reinstated the "global gag rule" that limits access to international family planning, and again, canceled the scheduled annual $34 million U.S. contribution to the United Nations Population Fund that could have prevented nearly two million unwanted pregnancies and approximately 800,000 abortions.
Our Earth cannot sustain continued population growth. In order to improve the health and well being of children, women and the planet, we must make sure that every woman can freely decide the size and spacing of her family through access to safe and effective family planning.
This Earth Day, it is imperative to make the population connection — increased access to family planning will lead to solutions for the problems of rapidly dwindling environmental resources such as food, water, housing and clothing materials for mankind.
Sarah Hafer, Eugene
LESSONS LEARNED
As a soldier who has recently returned home from Iraq, I too have been seeing the "Support Our Troops" magnets/stickers, and I am honored. It's not about supporting the troops monetarily or even physically, it's about supporting us mentally and emotionally — which the veterans of Vietnam didn't have. The country has learned from this and is now doing everything they can to welcome us home, and to make sure that we know that they care about us.
The cost of war bears a great burden on the country, but that burden isn't comparable to the one on the soldier. The magnets are a way of reminding the citizens of America that the soldiers, sailors, and marines are also Americans that deserve your support because of what they are, and what they do. Whether you believe in the war or not, they are American citizens who responded to the call of duty that not all good Americans are willing to do. So from a veteran, all of those who unconditionally support the troops, thank you.
Josiah Sanders, Oregon Army National Guard, Springfield
ANOTHER ASSAULT
Right under our noses an assault on public land use is taking place once again with Senate Bill 1028. It has been concocted to restrict and eliminate access to public lands, greenways and waterways. It will impose fees on recreational non-motorized water craft; inner tubes and bicycles could well be next. Please write to your state representatives and encourage them to vote against this intrusion into our rights as boaters and citizens of Oregon.
Garrett Campbell, Brownsville
SAVE THE TREES
Oregonians have a great responsibility to our old-growth forests. So when I hear that the U.S. Forest Service is planning to log 2,000 acres of old-growth and mature forests in the McKenzie River watershed, well, I'm not a happy camper.
Much of Oregon's beauty is drawn from these lush ancient forests, our clean blue rivers and abundant wildlife. For some, just knowing these amazing jewels of nature are out there is satisfaction enough. But look at it from an economic perspective, and there is no denying that Oregon's natural attributes draw visitors from across the country and beyond our borders to hike our amazing trails, bike our magnificent mountains, raft our wild rivers and camp in our parks and wilderness.
The logging slated to take place along the McKenzie River would not only affect our natural lands, but it would negatively affect the innkeepers, merchants, restaurateurs and others who rely on tourism to make a living.
Destroying the few ancient forests we have left is reprehensibly irresponsible and a great injustice to future generations. Logging ancient forests is a crime against nature.
This land is our land. We Oregonians must safeguard our majestic trees from the Forest Service's destructive policies. Write your congressional delegation and tell them to stop the logging of old-growth forests. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for it.
Anthony Cantarine, Eugene
TIME TO GET SERIOUS
I appreciate EW's 3/24 report, and Erin Cianchette's 3/31 letter, on the "Oregon Fair Energy Bills," HB 3135 and SB 527, which I introduced with Sen. Bill Morrisette and other colleagues. We are striving to pass these bills because we believe that the public needs more input into the process of siting energy facilities, and because now is the time to get serious about supporting renewable energy.
Currently, the state's Energy Facility Siting Council has the complete authority to overrule local land use laws when siting power plants. The Oregon Fair Energy Act will provide more opportunity for area residents to complain about the placement of polluting facilities. It will give local government a place at the table and the ability to stand up to powerful special interests when potential new facilities would violate their land use laws.
We must ensure an adequate and sustainable supply of energy, as well as a thriving environment, to future generations; but we currently have much more electrical capacity in the permitting process than we will need in the foreseeable future. These bills are a first critical step towards responsible energy planning in Oregon.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, Central Lane and Linn Counties
CHEMICAL REACTION
I have been shopping at Eugene Hardware for 30 years. I just stay away from the garden chemical section.
Last week I went in for a garden tool and found that upon exiting 5 to 7 minutes later, my clothes reeked of the chemical smell and I started reacting right away: red face, itchy eyes. I had noticed a pickup-size load of Roundup stockpiled right behind the check-out counter. The next day I had a very cordial meeting with the manager in his parking lot. He offered to have my purchases brought out to me in the parking lot if I called ahead.
I recommend this idea to everyone concerned about the presence of chemicals at the places they like to shop. Of course, sticking to all-organic venues is a very good idea, too.
Jynn Bowers, Eugene
NATIONAL DEBT
Hey kids, I would say thanks for the loan, but my generation has no real plan to rectify this stupendous national debt that grows to keep our hyper-consumptive dream afloat. We've spent all of our money. Now we're spending yours. A leader with imperialistic visions of historic glory will do that to an economy. You will realize this as you inherit the consequences of our spending spree. Of course we are doing all of this for you. So hang in there.
Chris N. Hallett, Eugene
TALKIN' REVOLUTION
Eugene's daily newspaper in an article (3/26) about two Eugene Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan, formerly a Soviet Union republic, reported that political demonstrations and unrest grew from hundreds to thousands, and President Akayev fled to an undisclosed location. The protesters claimed "widespread corruption and rigged elections," demanding Akayev's resignation. How about Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004? What will it take for a second American revolution?
John Saemann, Eugene
QUIET, PLEASE
I went to see a foreign film last week that got great reviews in EW. I think I liked it, but it was hard to concentrate — people in the audience were talking the entire time! Saying "shhh" many times didn't work — neither did changing seats twice. These weren't young kids, who might not know any better; they were adults ages 35-70 who should know better!
I love the magic of going to the movies and losing myself in the film and forgetting about the world outside. It's impossible to do that when your attention is broken every few minutes by things like "What's that?" "He's eating an onion." "There's Louisiana!" Please remember that going to the movies is not the same as being alone in your living room — and keep your comments to yourself until after the show!
Loren Asrael, Eugene
KEEP THE TRUTH
At last the truth is in black and white: Salman Rushdie says it (March 13 in the R-G), "the combination of religion and nationalism … is frightening." And the Democrats are rushing around like squirrels, in my opinion, to claim their religiosity to get a vote.
This is my homeland, too. I was born and raised here. I'm the grandniece of a Methodist minister and am myself an ordained minister, but still, I say keep religion off of the political platform, off the streets and practice it in the confines of your own home and church. And please, even if you have an open heart and embrace all the major religions, as I do, let us keep the truth on our lips. "The universe wasn't created in six days by a superforce that rested on the seventh," as Rushdie says.
I also wonder about the numerous religious posters on more and more lawns, driveways, and in windows in the apartment complexes; how intrusive and offensive it must be for the immediate neighbors who are anything but Christian. I cannot believe that these poster-proselytizing folks truly know their religious history of wars upon wars in the name of their God, nor can they possibly grasp the harm they inflict on others by their "our way is the way" thinking. This is not the way to generate a "Love thy neighbor" atmosphere.
God lives in the degree of goodness and compassion we all have within our own hearts; this is not something to take to the marketplace, it is rather, a way to be.
Peggy Starr, Eugene
