Slant

Hats off to the activists who marched in Eugene and other cities across the country for reproductive rights on Oct. 2. This seems to be a fight that never ends, heating up again with the Texas anti-abortion law and the U.S. Supreme Court’s unwillingness to rule in favor of women’s rights in this case. We all know that Roe v. Wade is at risk with this court. The long haul is all about electoral politics. We need to elect officials who care about reproductive rights as much as the advocates who marched in Eugene do.

• Indigenous People’s Day is Monday, Oct. 11, and in advance of the day that has bit by bit come to replace the celebration of colonizing that was Columbus Day, City Club of Eugene hosts “The Aftermath of Great Loss: The Modoc People Persevere.” The Zoom recording of the talk by Donald Dexter, a Eugene dentist of Modoc descent, and local cinematographer Christelle Auzas appears on the Eugene City Club Facebook page at noon Oct. 8; it airs again at 7 pm Monday, Oct. 11, on KLCC, 89.7 FM.

• This week Eugene Weekly runs the 11th obituary for a homeless person who has died in Lane County during 2021. We know we have not even begun to eulogize all the unhoused people who have passed as their lives, and deaths, are not adequately tracked. Case in point: During the late June heat wave, the Oregon Medical Examiner’s Office listed no heat related deaths as happening in Lane County. That seemed odd given the sheer number of unsheltered people in this area, despite the best efforts of volunteers and nonprofits to help them. The relatives of Rodney Heckathorn say he died asleep in his sleeping bag during the heat wave. 

Where has Nicholas Kristof gone? Is he raising money for a run at the governor’s office in Oregon, or has he decided to forget about it? He has not officially announced, although Willamette Week has said he intends to run, and he has taken two years’ leave from The New York Times, where he is a columnist. We’re reading Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, his latest book with his wife and fellow journalist Sheryl WuDunn. In it, the problems with Oregon and this country seem insurmountable. It also seems to us that perhaps this man from Yamhill, where the book kicks off, would be better suited working in the federal government. So what’s next?

 What We’re Watching: Impeachment: American Crime Story on FX. The minds behind two earlier seasons — the first on O.J. Simpson and the second on the killing of designer Gianni Versace — are back. The new season focuses on President Bill Clinton’s sexual assault allegations. The third season continues the series’ standard of great set design, costume design and casting that makes you feel as if you’re a fly on the wall in Washington, D.C., in the ‘90s. Impeachment focuses on Monica Lewinsky, though it reminds viewers of other allegations against Clinton. Will Clinton finally issue an apology to Lewinsky and the other women he’s allegedly assaulted after all these years? On that note, if you are not following Lewinsky on Twitter, you are missing out. She’s sharp and witty.