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NO BIG SURPRISE Some of us aren't too surprised with Jim Carlson's e-mail slamming Councilor Bonny Bettman. One just has to watch one city council meeting and recognize Bettman's detailed study of local issues. She takes time to be well informed, and items of importance to her constituents don't slide by. What is important to constituents is not always the same as what is important to city staff, and this is where the conflicts and bad attitudes begin. The problem is the present system where our elected city councilors are not allowed to talk or work with City Hall staff. Staff under City Manager Dennis Taylor prepare projects and bring them to the council for approval with no or little interaction with the elected officials. This does not seem to be a very democratic system when there is no or little direct contact with elected counselors. I urge voters to elect candidates who will support a system where their vote really counts, and I believe Alan Zalenka and Rich Cunningham will want more democracy at City Hall and less unfortunate slamming. Ruth Duemler, Eugene
A HEALTHY MIX Alan Pittman's latest editorial disguised as a news brief (4/13) laments the low wages paid by call centers. He is right that call centers typically are at the lower end of the community pay scale. It is also true that these jobs don't generally require college degrees and are more available to first-time job-seekers, seniors and people with disabilities than many higher-paying jobs. How many call center employees do you suppose left higher-paying jobs to go to work there? Most likely, none. But there probably are others in the same situation as the young woman working at a local restaurant who told Congressman DeFazio how excited she was to have been hired by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line because it will be the first job she's ever had with full health benefits. It is true that many call centers are easily moved, and we've lost a number of these jobs in recent years. But when a new building is constructed for more than $60 million with the company tied to a 20-year lease, it's a pretty good indication they aren't going to suddenly outsource their jobs to India to save pennies on the dollar in wages. Just as employees don't turn down better-paying jobs to work in call centers, the Eugene/Springfield community doesn't turn down higher-paying businesses in order to recruit call centers. But neither do we turn up our noses at the opportunity to bring 1,000 jobs that pay well by their industry standards and offer full health benefits, simply because they aren't the jobs some people want for our community. A healthy local economy has jobs for people across the spectrum of ages, education, skills and interests. There is definitely a place for call centers and their jobs in our community. Jack Roberts, executive director , Lane Metro Partnership
WRONG FOCUS It's a specious argument whether to term the ongoing methamphetamine situation an epidemic or not. An epidemic is a rapid and extensive development or growth, usually of something unpleasant. Works for me. In 22 years of addictions work in this state alone, I professionally have never ever noticed the problem lessening, but simply ignored by the press while remaining endemic: characteristic of a particular place or among a particular group or area of interest or activity. That could be an occupational hazard of my jobs here, reinforced by a personally experienced increase in mail opening, a meth lab being busted across the street, and a constant amount of references by clients, colleagues and friends. I in particular notice continuous health disparities in treatment access, and treatment success, for people of color in this state, in this town, which not surprisingly, go unreported, remain unreported by your newspaper. Not everybody who wants treatment gets treatment. To cite that treatment statistics have remained flat or have lessened is another way of saying that demand for treatment remains constant, and/or access to treatment has lessened, due to shifting budget priorities. Not that an epidemic is manufactured, as the article implied. Every 24 hours legal drugs (tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals) kill more people than died on 9/11, every death a preventable one. Is this an epidemic? Or endemic? Is underage drinking epidemic or endemic? Does it matter which? What are you going to do about it? You could be about promoting solutions — or not. Mark Harris, coordinator, Multicultural Substance Abuse Prevention, Lane Community College
HALF A WEP Maybe I'm naive, but when I looked at the map of the proposed West Eugene Parkway, it seems a simple compromise would be to end the parkway at the Beltline. That way it is still a good shortcut and bypasses all the congestion near Fred Meyer and the little strip malls, but doesn't go through and destroy wetlands. Why didn't The Register-Guard's article on April 11 mention the wetlands? Wetlands are great filtration systems and important habitat for many different species of plants and animals. That is my major reason for resisting it. That and the fact that people have got to wake up and start thinking of mass transportation. Has anyone been paying attention to global warming? Hello! I think Mark Robinowitz was correct: It's really about the greed of a few. Same old story. Pam Driscoll, Eugene
LACKING LOGIC Once again Mr. Alsup's attack (4/6) on Mr. Urhausen's motives is uninformed and misdirected. Alsup rushes from assumption to conclusion about people he does not know, based on his emotions, name calling, and not on informed logic. First, Alsup assumes that the funds to pay the plaintiff's lawyer came from Mr. McIntire, but in fact, the entire amount to press this suit and any appeal has been donated specifically for those two purposes by a substantial number of Eugene and 4J residents, none of whom are "neo-cons" and who all felt the city's actions were unconstitutional. What does Alsup think the effect of $.86 per thousand assessment is on persons who own their home but live only on income from Social Security? McIntire, Urhausen, Mr. Rice, myself, all the donors and even Alsup are all citizens of Oregon. Not one is an "outsider" regarding the constitutionality of this issue. Apparently, Alsup's "world view" assumes that the City of Eugene, 4J and Bethel, at their self-serving whim, should not be part of or subject to the state of Oregon, that Ashland and Eugene get and choose to follow only good legal advice and that Eugene politicians, including Mr. Torrey, do not make errors in judgement and never try to game the system. Perhaps Alsup should take the time to read the judgement in this case. We all look forward to the Oregon Supreme Court ruling, although this case and the city's appeal is likely to cost Eugene taxpayers six figures in legal fees paid to a private law firm. John McVickar , Eugene
INSPIRED BY JAM Hooray for a great article about Hip Hop Hope in your 4/6 issue! I was lucky enough to be a part of it — and let me tell you — it was incredible to watch those kids record their own thoughts, words and music on a professionally produced CD in just five days. This exciting youth program was created by Charlie Murphy of Power of Hope and headed up by the city of Eugene Youth Recreation Services in collaboration with the Oregon Country Fair. What the article did not mention was that the inspiration to bring this unique and powerful event for teens to Eugene was born out of the Oregon Country Fair's own youth program, Culture Jam, a model also created by Power of Hope. In August each year a diverse group of 45-50 youth ages 14-18 gather on the OCF site with 25 dynamic artists, naturalists and community activists. The result is often life-changing for those who attend: a one-week, arts-based immersion experience giving youth the opportunity to believe in themselves, discover what they truly care about and bring all that good energy back into their community to make positive change in the world. If anyone wants to learn more about Culture Jam, take a look at the OCF website at www.oregoncountryfair.org Congrats to city of Eugene Youth Recreation Services for making such an innovative and exciting youth empowerment model like Hip Hop Hope available to Eugene teens! Robin Bernardi, OCF Town Office, Eugene
IT'S OUR RIVERFRONT Your "Slant" column of April 6 stated that the best use for riverside land EWEB is planning to vacate when it moves its operations facilities would be the creation of a park. Among your assumptions implicit in this conclusion are that any development other than parkland would benefit the few over the many, that care of the Willamette necessarily means only more "grass and trees," and that the land is not already urbanized. These assumptions warrant scrutiny. Last year I joined group of interested citizens of various viewpoints (the "riparianistas") to discuss Eugene's riverfront and how we might best protect and enjoy it. We agreed on several points that we hope will help start a community discussion about what's best for Eugene's Willamette River. View our ideas, and the text of our presentation to City Club of Eugene at www.bluegreeneugene.blogspot.comOur Willamette is an asset of the highest value and deserves efforts for its enhancement that occur through cooperation, not an "us versus them" shouting match. We can create and implement a vision for Eugene's riverfront that benefits people, plants and animals. The first step is not demanding specific outcomes. We should first discover what really lies at the water's edge — the edge formed by a promising young city and a far-reaching old stream. Phillip Carroll, Eugene
NO INPUT SOUGHT The City Council set a nice example by holding community forums to give residents a voice in the future of City Hall. For the proposed development on Friendly Street, the builders state their intention to build green, offer affordable housing, create a venue for neighborhood activities, schedule a community meeting to obtain citizen input. Yes! This is in marked contrast to the Connor/Woolley procedure downtown, where no community-oriented provisions have been made and no input sought. Once plans for the downtown development are submitted there will be little opportunity for public input unless zoning changes are requested, and even then the scope of discussion will be limited. Connor and Woolley can easily invite public input before these plans hit the planning director's desk. Many residents have offered ideas in letters to the editor in the R-G and EW. A Feb. 19 R-G article outlines excellent ideas presented by UO's Urban Design Studio students for the Whole Foods/parking garage — let's see what they can offer for the eight-block downtown area. Enable us to participate in planning, facilitate public dialogue before it's a done deal, and we could turn out to be a supportive and inspired community, enjoying the flavor of a downtown we helped to create — not to mention shopping and spending in this environment. Alternatively, if some developers are unwilling to listen to community ideas, maybe it's time to legislate regulations to require this. Mora Dewey, Cottage Grove
GOAL OF PEACE I am a recovering violent person, and I see a lot of similarity between personal recovery and what could be called "cultural recovery." Our culture, our unexamined assumptions and rules for behavior, tells us that our life is constantly in danger, that violent struggle is necessary to resolve conflict, and that wars are inevitable. I question those ideas and suggest that the Department of Peace and Nonviolence legislation currently in Congress (HR 3760 and S 1756) could release us from the prison of fear that we are in. Because of fear-mongering in our culture, it's all too easy to adopt a victim stance, a fortified-bunker mentality that supports the inevitability of war, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. It refuses to consider the possibility of peace as a goal, or even the intermediate steps towards that goal. We have to ask, is fear squeezing the life out of our nation? Will we literally die of fright? The heart of America is diseased by a culture of violence that we created, and we can create anew a culture of nonviolence when we understand what nonviolence really is. Simply put, it is cooperation instead of competition. Nonviolence is not just refusing violence; it is also a courageous commitment to resolve conflict through open, honest, and compassionate communication. Peter DeFazio has co-sponsored the house bill. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden have not signed on. Call them, write them. We, the people, can give them the opportunity to bend history in a new direction. David Hazen, Eugene
IMAGINE Imagine where the War on Terrorism would be now if we had, as suggested by one of our founding fathers, a Department of Peace (DOP). Imagine how many fewer killed and injured Americans, Iraqis and allies there would be today if the DOP had been able to consider and explain the cultural differences of an attack on Iraq. Imagine how much less money would have been borrowed from other nations and future generations to finance a failed military mission if the president, secretary of defense and secretary of state had consulted the DOP. Imagine how much more international respect and power the U.S. would have if the DOP had outlined options and consequences before the "Mission" had been initiated. Imagine the state of our economy if the DOP had been able to estimate the cost of an inevitable extended military engagement. It is not too late to do more than protest. Imagine the political impact of millions of U.S. citizens calling for cost-effective, non-violent interventions and a Department of Peace. Demand that Sens. Smith and Wyden and Rep. DeFazio act now to create a Department of Peace before the unimaginable happens. More information is available at: DOP campaign.org. Jim Petit & nine others, Eugene
UNREINVENTED *!?@!!*? In my letter to the editor (3/23), you misquoted me. You turned a sentence of mine upside-down. You printed: "No matter how much the bosses (themselves reinvented and static)." I wrote: "No matter how much the bosses, themselves unreinvented and static … " I believe my own words to be truer than the words you mistakenly printed. Correction called for!
Marcia Sandhu, Eugene
EDITOR'S NOTE: Our apologies. Most likely a typist error transcribing a hand-written letter. Nice penmanship, by the way.
LEAD ESTABLISHMENT I read with interest the article "Trees for Teens" (2/23), about the efforts of LEAD — a non-profit organization for low-income teens. LEAD is an outstanding organization that continues to positively influence and serve its teen members. It does, indeed, provide Leadership, Education, Adventure and Direction. However, the claim that it began in 1998 as a partnership with the city of Eugene is incorrect. In fact, LEAD was initially started in early 1996 as a leadership group for youth living in Public Housing owned and managed by the Housing and Community Services Agency of Lane County (HACSA) — the local Public Housing Authority. I was present at the weekly evening meeting when the actual name "LEAD" (as an acronym for the different activities) was developed in a brainstorming session by the Public Housing teens themselves. In late 1996, HACSA contracted with the Willamalane Teen Center in Springfield to help with the organization and implementation of planned activities, and in 1998 HACSA began contracting with the City of Eugene's Outdoor Program. In light of the very positive effect LEAD has had on the lives of low-income teens, it is a disservice to the Public Housing adults and teens (who volunteered countless hours in creating, naming, organizing, recruiting members for and publicizing their own LEAD Teen Club) not to give them credit for their efforts in a public article like this. I hope the adults directing LEAD will continue to assist low-income teens in committing to school and to their "life assignments" while giving credit where credit is due. Charles D. Hauk, Resident Services Director, HACSA, Springfield
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