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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: News: Happening People: Jason Waldrip and River Donaghey REFUGEE ART FINDS A HOME When their kids started college in 1998, mechanical engineers Cathy and Curt Bradner embarked on a search for meaning. The former Bounder, Colo., residents sold their house, car and business, flew over the Atlantic and hopped on a tandem bicycle. Their two-wheeled journey took them across Europe and through India to Mae Sot, Thailand, where they began volunteering with one of the world's oldest refugee populations.
There, they met Burmese child care medic Maung Maung Tinn, whose paintings captured the spirit and suffering of Burmese refugee children. Cathy promoted Tinn's art over the Internet, and soon his work reached galleries across the globe. Tinn used his profits to buy medical supplies, food and clothing for the refugee children, and the Bradners, for their part, founded Art-Exiled. The nonprofit has a dual purpose: to spread awareness of the refugees' plight, and to help refugee artists to find hope amid despair. The Bradners believe that real change comes from offering opportunity rather than aid. They are careful to avoid the "imposed aid" paradigm by including the refugees in all of the nonprofit's decisions. The collaboration has been wildly successful. Each painting fetches $500-$700, enough to lift some families out of poverty. The Bradners also initiated an art training program for the Burmese refugee children, a model that they are now replicating in a Kenyan refugee camp. "The main thing you want to do in a refugee situation is to keep people occupied and positive and buoyed," Curt says. "Art is a fantastic medium for giving people a sense of value." After more bicycle adventures in Africa and South America and a second return to Thailand, the Bradners moved to Eugene to be near a new granddaughter. The couple plans to run Art-Exiled from their downtown home, which will double as a gallery space. The Bradners will continue to promote Burmese refugees' art while expanding their focus to include work from displaced artists around the world. "We'd eventually like to be in a situation where we can help any artists who feel like they are in exile," Curt says. The Bradners are eager to network with local artists and find other venues to showcase refugees' paintings. For more information, visit www.art-exiled.orgor call 485-1133. — Kera Abraham
HIROSHIMA REMEMBERED The Bush administration is expected to soon announce a new national space policy that will give the Pentagon the green light to move toward deployment of offensive weapons in space. Those weapons could include lasers, attack planes that descend on targets from space, anti-satellite weapons and tungsten rods fired from space platforms that would gather speeds greater than 7,000 mph and be able to penetrate underground targets.
Bruce Gagnon, veteran peace activist and coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, will speak on these topics at 7 pm Sunday, July 31 in the EWEB Community Room, kicking off a week of events planned by a coalition of local peace groups in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty limited offensive space systems, but President. Bush withdrew the U.S. from that treaty. In 2003, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq was largely coordinated from space. More than 70 percent of weapons used in that war have been guided by military satellites. The Pentagon now says the U.S. must "deny" other nations use of space in order to maintain "full spectrum dominance," says Gagnon. "In order to sell this space warfare program to the American people, the Pentagon has labeled it 'missile defense,' but in reality, the program is all about offensive engagement," says Gagnon. Gagnon will address the history of corruption within the military-industrial complex and propose an alternative transformative vision for the nation. His talk is sponsored by Progressive Responses, a program of Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC), and is co-sponsored by Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) and the Justice Not War Coalition. More information on Gagnon can be found at www.space4peace.orgNext in the week-long series will be a video showing of Last Best Chance and discussion at 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 3 at CALC, 458 Blair Blvd. The docudrama deals with the global threat of nuclear terrorism. The video is based on facts about the lack of security for nuclear weapons and nuclear materials around the world. Then, from 4 to 7 pm Friday, Aug. 5, The Shadow Project will be presented at the Eugene Public Library, sponsored by WAND. The political chalk art is in memory of the human shadows burnt into the streets by nuclear bombs. Participants will collect materials and head out into Eugene and Springfield to create the shadows. Aug. 6, WAND will have a table at Saturday Market, and at 1 pm Peg Morton will continue her Ribbons of Tangible Hope project around the Federal Building. A community gathering at 7:30 pm Aug. 6 at Alton Baker Park duck pond will commemorate the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Beyond War (www.beyondwar.org)is also involved in the Hiroshima events, displaying a local version of "The Wall," a collection of interlocking wooden blocks with peace messages. The local project will be shipped to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August to join similar walls from around the world. For more information, call 434-0256.
PUZZLE DEBUT Landscape architect Justin Lanphear is used to looking at things from a bird's-eye view. And, as one of the hosts of the Last Friday Artwalk, he wanted to come up with a collaborative art project with a sense of place. So he dreamed up a puzzle — a BIG puzzle — celebrating his community.
First, Lanphear laid a puzzle pattern over a map of the Whiteaker neighborhood from Chambers Street in the west to Willamette Street in the east, Broadway in the north to the Willamette River in the south. He then used a digital projector to blow it up to 8 ft. by 9 ft. and, with the help of a few friends, traced the image over plywood and cut out 144 puzzle pieces, each roughly the size of a piece of paper. He labeled the pieces with coordinates corresponding to different parts of the Whiteaker neighborhood and passed them out to volunteers during the Last Friday Artwalks in April and May. The instructions: Go to the place your piece represents, find a source of inspiration there, decorate your piece and turn it back in. The Whiteaker neighbors are a diverse, erratic bunch, and the puzzle reflects that. Some pieces are impressionistic, but others incorporate poetry and abstract art. "The puzzle represents the collective creative perception of the Whiteaker neighborhood," Lanphear says. "There's a seemingly chaotic nature to it, but there's also a unifying element. This project is not going to last forever, but the neighborhood is like that too — constantly changing." The biggest challenge, of course, is getting puzzle artists to turn in their pieces. So far, Lanphear has collected just over half of the pieces, but he's aiming to have 70 percent in time for the puzzle's debut during the Last Friday Artwalk on July 29 at 845 W. 2nd Ave. — Kera Abraham
PESTICIDES IN SCHOOLS It might be hard to believe that the place children are most at risk for exposure to harmful toxins is the place they spend most of their time — at school. A survey released recently by the Oregon Environmental Council found that pesticide use is common in most Oregon schools, and that 70 percent of schools did not comply with Oregon's pesticide use reporting law. The survey also found that only 13 percent of Oregon school districts say they never use pesticides, while the remaining 87 percent use pesticides mainly to control weeds on athletic fields, lawns, and playgrounds. "Children are most susceptible to the potentially harmful toxins that may be found in the pesticides the schools are using because their bodies are still developing," says Ray Berardinelli, marketing consultant and program manager of the study. Berardinelli also says that he does not think the children are necessarily in danger, but that there is definitely room for improvement in schools' use of pesticides. Many schools do have hope for a toxin-free, or close to toxin-free, future. Of the nearly 70 percent of schools surveyed that do not comply with the pesticide reporting law's requirements, the entire 70 percent is interested in finding out about newer methods of controlling pests that avoid or minimize the use of pesticides. Most schools are not familiar with but are interested in learning about Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which could reduce the amount of toxins and pesticides used on school premises. IPM involves a combination of pest-control techniques, many of which do not incorporate chemicals. The study also provides recommendations about training, technical assistance, and incentives to schools to promote IPM practices. — Emily Freeman
RAFFLE FOR LOCAL ARTIST
Community artist, husband, father and friend Anthony Vanderford, 34, is battling liver cancer. A raffle of prizes donated by local artists and businesses will raise funds for Vanderford and his family. Vanderford has given countless hours and boundless energy to local arts nonprofits such as Lane Arts Council‚ YouthArts programs, Saturday Market, Circle of Hands, and the Oregon Country Fair. In 1999, Vanderford founded Survival Arts for Empowerment (SAFE), a project that provided art opportunities, skills, and supplies to at-risk youth at the Downtown Eugene Mall. Raffle tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20, available at Lane Arts Council, Saturday Market, Circle of Hands, and Morning Glory Café. Donations may also be sent directly to: Anthony Cancer Fund #380101, Oregon Community Credit Union, PO Box 77002, Eugene 97401.
CORRECTIONS/ CLARIFICATIONS A local chemist pointed out an error in last week's cover story on water fluoridation. Fluoride replaces hydroxyl, not calcium, on the tooth's surface.
Clear
as Mud Eugene planning staff came to the City Council last week for an endorsement of their approach to controlling urban sprawl and traffic congestion with denser and walkable mixed-use centers. They didn't get it.
What they did get was criticism of allowing tall apartment and commercial buildings next to established single-family homes and a unanimous council vote to use "opportunity siting" to more carefully chose sites for higher density rather than blanket up-zoning neighborhoods. "With the current rules that are in place, it is destroying the neighborhood," said Councilor George Poling of planning staff's proposal to allow apartments alongside houses in the Chambers Mixed Use (Nodal) Development zone. Councilor Betty Taylor said planning staff should recognize that allowing apartment buildings next to home owner's back yards "is totally inappropriate in many places" and is "really upsetting people and decreasing property values, and in some cases destroying neighborhoods." Before the meeting a group of Chambers area neighbors had lobbied the council with an alternative plan that they said would meet goals by increasing density in commercial parts of the area while protecting the established single-family residential neighborhood. "We are tremendously pleased" with the council vote last week, said Matt Purvis, a leader of the Chambers neighborhood group. However Purvis said at a public forum this week that neighbors continue to be disappointed that planning staff proposals for the neighborhood still seek to put tall buildings next to homes and continue to be "rife with error and have widespread opposition from the public." City Manager Dennis Taylor told councilors he would look into the discrepancy between the staff proposal and the unanimous council vote directing that opportunity siting be the "primary strategy" of the city's mixed use development effort. "Point well taken," he said. But that's not the only problem MUD has. MUD was previously called "nodal development," but the city changed the name after intense opposition and confusion. Nodal development was the city's response after the state required 15 years ago that it control traffic congestion by reducing vehicle miles traveled per capita by 10 percent over 20 years. City staff claimed such a reduction was impossible and instead proposed an alternative measure of complying with the transportation planning rule: using nodal development to concentrate much of the new growth in pedestrian and transit friendly mixed-use zones — and thus reduce driving. In TransPlan the city promised to set up 38 such zones. But implementation of the zones quickly ran in to trouble as businesses and developers balked at regulation and limiting traffic, and home owners opposed putting big apartments and busy commercial buildings next to established homes. In 1993 the city put two of its most promising nodes at 29th and Willamette and in the East University neighborhood on indefinite hold. City Planner Allen Lowe told the council this week the city had learned its lessons from the problems. The "one size fits all" approach to nodal/MUD rezonings proved "wildly unpopular," he said. But tailoring MUD designations for each neighborhood will be expensive and slow, Lowe warned. MUD's impact in controlling congestion will be very slow, he said. "The change will occur incrementally and over a very long period of time." But Councilor David Kelly said the city was moving too slowly to control traffic with land-use planning. "Incremental is one thing and snail's pace plodding is another thing and that's where, unfortunately, I think we are." Councilor Bonny Bettman said she was concerned that the city's MUD centers would not have the frequent transit service that is crucial for their success. "Many of these centers are not going to see these kinds of service for multiple decades," she said. Taylor said she was concerned that the city had ignored council direction to eliminate commercial only nodes from city plans since they wouldn't meet mixed-use goals. Friends of Eugene President Kevin Matthews faulted the city for it's muddled MUD planning. He said the proposed Chambers node is "dead on arrival because it's got a hundred lanes of traffic going through it." The huge "river of traffic" will never allow the area to be pedestrian friendly, he said. Matthews also faulted the city for putting some nodes on the car-dependent edge of the city. "It's like planning 101 has been skipped," he said. "Basically nodal development is being used as a cover for subsidizing sprawl at the Royal [Ave.] node." Previous city surveys have shown widespread support for the concept of controlling urban sprawl and traffic congestion by increasing density. But Councilor Kelly said it "has to be density done right." Councilor Taylor praised the Chambers neighborhood group for pushing to improve the city's planning efforts. "What they're doing will help not only their neighborhood, but the entire city, if they're successful."
FLUOROSPAR!
Fluoride-sure Dentist for: 29 years Office in: Eugene, since 1980 Fightin' words: "We are totally missing the boat. In Eugene, we have one tenth the ideal amount of fluoride available in our water supply." I'll give ya this … Fluoride can be toxic in high doses. But with a caveat: We have nothing to lose and strong teeth to gain by adjusting our water supply to the "optimal level" of 1 part per million (ppm) fluoride. If I get my way and you don't like it, you can: Get a reverse osmosis filter to remove the fluoride and other contaminants from your tap water. Communities worried about industrial waste can get fluorospar from the mines in Colorado. Your solution won't work because: It's not enough just to brush with fluoridated toothpaste. Developing children need systemic fluoride delivered by the bloodstream to strengthen teeth from the inside out. And poor kids often don't have access to fluoride supplements. Lesson from the trenches: In Pendleton in 1976, when the city did not have fluoridated water, I took about four kids per month to the hospital for full-mouth reconstruction. But in 1980, after the city installed a fluoridation system, I was only taking one child per year to the hospital for the same procedure. Oh, the shame! Fluoride's opponents are inadvertently causing Lane County's poor to suffer the most. In my career as a practicing dentist, I have never seen a higher decay rate than in Eugene, Oregon. It's broken my heart, because tooth decay is a preventable disease. For the kids: I know many people feel that fluoridation is being imposed upon them, but the kids growing up here don't have a choice. They're stuck with crummy, soft, decayed teeth if they don't get treatment. Surprising concession: As consumers, we tend to abuse fluoride products. If we have fluoridated water, we won't need fluoridated toothpaste — or fillings. Faith in fluoridation: I'd like to see fluoridated water mandated not just at the state level, but at the federal level. Water fluoridation is the most widely studied subject in the world. I am comfortable with fluoride coming from any source, because all I want is that fluoride ion.
Doubtful Dentist
Dentist for: 28 years Office in: Lake Oswego, for several years Fightin' words: "We should not medicate people against their will. I think that water fluoridation is wrong, morally and scientifically. Medically, I think it is dangerous." I'll give ya this … Water fluoridation may have been helpful in preventing tooth decay in the past. But with a caveat: Fluoridation is now obsolete because Americans are getting too much fluoride from food, beverages and other sources. If I get my way and you don't like it, you can: Get some fluoride supplements and fluoridated toothpaste, and lower your sugar intake. Countries in Europe that do not fluoridate their water have the same amount of tooth decay per person as the U.S. Your solution won't work because: Fluoride is quickly losing is stripes in the medical community because it is now ineffective, and dangerous to boot. I'm confident it's only a matter of time before water fluoridation will be as common as blood letting. Lesson from the trenches: In non-fluoridated Lake Oswego, where I am a practicing dentist, I see dental fluorosis even among people who grew up in the area. That can only be explained by excessive fluoride intake from food and other sources. Oh, the shame! Fluoride is linked to (among other ailments) hypothyroidism, which causes lethargy and weight gain. Could pharmaceutical companies producing thyroid drugs be lobbying for fluoridation? I don't have proof, but I wouldn't be surprised. For the kids: America's kids need better dental care without fluoride. Cities that have had fluoridation for decades still have damning decay rates, while cities that have stopped fluoridation and increased dental health education have seen improvements. Surprising concession: If you came to me and you had a bunch of active decay, I would say you could use some topical fluoride because it would help in reducing the amount of decay. Topical fluoride is beneficial to a small degree. Faith in fluoridation: Dentists generally look at the mouth and they don't look at the rest of the body. They believe what they're told. Very few look at the studies. If you say anything negative about fluoride, you have very serious professional consequences.
PRO-FLUORIDATION RESOURCES: Fluoride Works! www.fluorideworks.org
ANTI-FLUORIDATION RESOURCES: Fluoride Action Network: www.fluoridealert.org
JASON WALDRIP AND RIVER DONAGHEY
Good friends since kindergarten at Willard School, Jason Waldrip and River Donaghey have also played music together since sixth grade at Roosevelt. Both were featured on guitar when their band, The Tunnel Kings, played recently at Cozmic Pizza. "Our school talent show was embarrassing — we had technical difficulties," Waldrip admits. "The microphone shocked me on the lips," explains singer-songwriter Donaghey. The pair of 14-year-olds got their start in politics last year when they volunteered for the Kerry campaign. "My dad is really into politics," says Waldrip. He and Donaghey skipped their middle school graduation ceremony last month to take part instead in the Walk for Truth, Justice, and Community, sponsored by the Rural Organizing Project. ROP supports local human-dignity groups in rural Oregon. "My mom was on the peace march from L.A. to D.C. in '86," says Donaghey. "She found this one on the Internet." Donaghey and Waldrip were among a core group of 100 who walked the entire five-day route from Salem to Portland, attending rallies and camping overnight along the way. Learn more at rop.org -BY PAUL NEEVEL
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