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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: News: News: News: Happening Person: Mike E. Walsh Sprayin' Season It's that time again. Union Pacific plans to apply herbicides along the railroad tracks through Eugene for about two days, beginning Feb. 28. Company spokesman James Barnes said that the annual spraying is necessary for safety reasons, and that drift control measures will minimize hazards. But nearby residents argue that the spraying needlessly endangers their health and the environment, and they ask the company to seek safer alternatives. Union Pacific will apply the following herbicides along the length of the railroad tracks, from north to south Eugene: Diuron is a recognized carcinogen. It has caused several forms of cancer, genetic damage, immune system suppression and reduced birth weights in tests on lab animals. It is also a water contaminant that has been found in about 20 percent of the nation's rivers and streams. Sulfometuron methyl, the active ingredient in Oust, has been shown in lab experiments to cause anemia, atrophied testicles, genetic damage to the colon and miscarriages. The chemical persists in the soil and may decrease fruit and vegetable production. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is a suspected toxicant that has been shown to irritate eyes, cause skin rashes and exacerbate asthma. Exposure to glyphosate is linked with genetic damange, miscarriages, lymphoma and attention deficit disorder. Knoop Lane resident Pamela Pollack called on Union Pacific to use steam rather than herbicides to kill weeds. "The steam only kills the plants and does nothing to harm our environment, the people that reside in the adjacent neighborhoods [or] wildlife," she wrote in a letter to EW. Eugene residents have complained about Union Pacific's sprayings for years. In 2001 the city responded by drawing up a voluntary Good Neighbors agreement with Union Pacific. The company now notifies the city of when it plans to apply herbicides and what chemicals it will use. But beyond that, city leaders say that their power to regulate Union Pacific's practice is limited. "It's their right-of-way, it's their property," said city planner Steve Norris. The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) criticizes the Good Neighbors agreement as too weak. "Union Pacific does not adequately notify the public, they are not posting notices near the railroad tracks and they are not exploring alternatives to pesticides," said NCAP Public Education Coordinator Megan Kemple. Union Pacific spokesman Barnes dismisses the notion of using non-toxic steam to kill weeds, saying that it would "do more harm than good" by killing microbes in the soil and hindering regrowth. But isn't the point of the herbicide applications to prevent weeds from growing? Barnes couldn't answer that question, but said, "We're always open to hearing the concerns of the community and taking that into consideration." — Kera Abraham
Free Speech Arrest Anti-war activist Peter Chabarek plans to plead not guilty for his Feb. 21 arrest before Sen. Gordon Smith's speech to the Rotary Club at the Eugene Hilton. Attorney Brian Michaels will argue that the arrest violated Chabarek's free speech rights. Chabarek and other members of the Eugene Civil Resisters and Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) protested outside the Hilton before Sen. Smith's speech, holding large photographs of Iraq War casualties and displaying coffins draped with American and Iraqi flags. Signs criticized Smith for his ongoing war support. The activists were not permitted inside the event, but Chabarek handed out anti-war leaflets at the ballroom door. He continued to pass out the leaflets, which called Smith an "accomplice to mass murder," after the Hilton manager, the Rotary Club president and EPD Lt. Peter Kerns asked him to leave. Eugene police then arrested Chabarek and charged him with criminal trespass. Attorney Brian Michaels will defend Chabarek at his municipal court trial. "I think the case will focus on what basis the Hilton and the Rotary Club chose to extricate him," Michaels said. "Why did they bother to kick him out if he wasn't interfering with any business?" Chabarek said that he was passing out the leaflets in a part of the Hilton that was open to the public. "There may be very justifiable free speech grounds to win this case," he said. The Civil Resisters also protested Sen. Ron Wyden's support for war funding during his Jan. 13 speech to the Eugene City Club. They subjected New York Sen. Hilary Clinton to the same criticism during her Jan. 27 fund-raising event in Portland. No one was arrested at those events. Three days of anti-war activities are planned across the nation for March 18-20, the three-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. A coalition of Lane County progressive groups, including CALC and the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network, will hold a march rally, teach-in and evening celebration on March 18, with the theme "Take Back Our America." Mayor Kitty Piercy, former Centro Latino Director Carmen Urbina and Rep. Paul Holvey will speak at that event. The Civil Resisters also plan to stage a civil disobedience action on March 20. — Kera Abraham
Storm of Speakers A 96-year-old political activist, a researcher who compiled a database of every suicide bombing between 1980 to 2004, a peacenik rabbi and an East Coast academic who studies the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina may not seem to have much in common. But each will be speaking on their respective areas of expertise in a three-day span this coming week, bringing to light some of the nation's most talked-about political issues. Rabbi Michael Lerner, the author of The Politics of Meaning and Spirit Matters and the editor of Tikkun magazine, will visit Eugene to discuss the right-wing pre-emption of religious ideals and what the religious left can do to reclaim America. The free talk, "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right," will take place at 7 pm on March 6 at Temple Beth Israel, 2550 Portland Street.
Social justice advocate, author and educator Felice Yeskel will present "What Katrina Revealed: Racism, Classism and Economic Apartheid in America" at LCC, Wednesday, March 8 at 10 am in Building 17, Room 308. Later that day she'll be at the UO presenting her lecture "Natural and Unnatural Disasters: The Divide Katrina Revealed — Economic Apartheid in America" at 3:30 pm in the Fir Room of the EMU. "The ladder of opportunity has been disassembled," Yeskel said. "The American dream has become the American pipe dream." At the youthful age of 90, Doris "Granny D" Haddock completed a 14-month, 3,200-mile walk across America to bring attention to campaign finance reform. Six years later, her mission continues in Eugene, first with a press conference March 8 at 3:45 pm on the Wayne Morse Plaza, weather permitting. A free community event will follow at 7:30 pm at Cozmic Pizza, where she'll speak on "How to Achieve Campaign Finance Reform and a Velvet Revolution." Robert Pape rounds out the talented group of speakers with a discussion of his book Dying to Kill: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, has said, "Suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic logic to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces." His talk will take place at 7 pm on March 9 at Prince Lucien Campbell Hall. – Tim O'Rourke Chinuk Wawa LCC Class Writing short, descriptive sentences about what a classmate looks like and how they act may seem like a humdrum task. But this seemingly simple assignment is part of a plan to rescue a dying language that has played an integral part in Oregon's history. This winter, LCC has changed its American Indian Language (AIL) curriculum to include not only an amended version of its Foundations of American Indian Languages class, but also the beginning of a series of sections focusing on the language spoken by Native tribes from Northern California, Oregon, north through Alaska and east to the Rockies. The class is meant to expose students to a language not usually offered alongside the typical Spanish, French, German and Japanese curriculum while building the base of a community of speakers able to keep the language alive for the next generation. "Hopefully, when [the students] meet each other in the real world they'll have some phrases, some language skills, so they can have a conversation," says Dr. Janne Underriner, who is organizing and team-teaching the course as LCC's first endowed chair in any subject. "I would love for this to whet their appetite and have them continue to study the language." Also teaching the course are language teachers from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, where the movement to preserve the Chinuk Wawa language in the Willamette Valley took root. Chinuk Wawa is a language with very few "first speakers" left. In the past, it served as a common language between tribes and as a modified trade language used by English speakers throughout Oregon, the Western U.S. and Canada. "Like all Native languages, it's very much on the edge," says Underriner. AIL 101, as the class is titled, will build on this term's knowledge base in the spring and summer terms. Underriner sees students from an array of backgrounds continuing their studies of the language, fine-tuning their oral and written skills and learning about the cultural practices of the people who spoke Chinuk Wawa as a first language. But Underriner's chair position will move to another department at LCC next year, and it hasn't been determined if the program will continue past the summer term. "What we need is funding for the second year," says Underriner. "There's so much richness, so much morphology that we don't see in other languages." — Tim O'Rourke
Historic Houses The proposed Whole Foods grocery store and garage could destroy or displace a historic 1910 craftsman bungalow that was the home of Earl McNutt, mayor of Eugene from 1941 to 1945. The home is included in the city's 1991 Cultural Resource Inventory and described as in good condition with minor modifications and "a good example of a large bungalow with an assemblage of simple, but high-quality decorative features. The house is part of a grouping of historically or architecturally significant structures." An adjacent 1925 bungalow is also listed in the inventory and could be destroyed. The buildings are not listed by the city or the state as historic landmarks and are unprotected by any regulations, according to city historic preservation staffer Ken Guzowski. In other projects, developers have sold or given such historic buildings to third parties who have relocated them to another site, but Guzowski doesn't know what Whole Foods and its developer plan. Ironically, the City Council recently voted to back the Whole Foods project while meeting in city hall's McNutt room, named after the former mayor whose old house the vote could destroy. —Alan Pittman
Drinking Goes Green It's a little early for St. Patrick's Day and its traditional green beer, but Eugene will be joining 100 other cities worldwide March 3 with Green Drinks. The event gathers enviros and progressives on a regular and informal basis to have fun, network, share ideas — and yes, drink. However, consuming alcohol is not a requirement for those wanting to participate, only an option.. The first Eugene Green Drinks will be held upstairs at Lilith's Lair, 453 Willamette St. (formerly China Delight) behind Oregon Electric Station and across from Morning Glory. The group plans to meet the First Friday of every month from 4 to 6 pm. prior to the Art Walk. Green Drinks is sponsored by Helios Resource Network. For more information, call 284-7020 or visit www.heliosnetwork.org
Mike E. Walsh
The descendant of a pioneer family and son of a log-truck driver, Mike E. Walsh lived in a Boulder logging camp as a kid. He graduated from Newport High, majored in history at Western Oregon, and served two tours on destroyers off the coast of Vietnam. "They shot at us," he says. "We picked up pilots." Walsh studied art on the GI Bill at the UO, where he constructed his first site-specific installation as a BFA project in 1972. A working studio artist ever since, he counts some 20 installations among 80 solo shows and 300 group exhibits. Installations feature photos and tiny assemblages inside Plexiglas boxes, providing commentary on social issues such as war and environmental degradation. Commemoration of the AIDS epidemic has been a recurring theme since the 1985 installation, Preparing for War, at the New Zone Gallery. "A lot of my friends have died," he says. A retrospective exhibition of Walsh's work, including one brand-new installation and partial recreations of several older ones, fills all the galleries at the Maude Kerns Art Center through March 30. -BY PAUL NEEVEL
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