The Lingering Hazards of Football
In your August 29 Slant note, I believe your use of the term “gladiators” in football was extremely relevant, as I understand many fought until their death before the crowds. Nine years ago, when my former husband was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), I looked up the numbers and names of players who had contracted the brain disease. At that time it was 2,000. My first thought was that it probably indicated another 4,000 “in the process.” His doctor told me the prognosis was 10 years of deterioration before death. These days, I cannot find the names or numbers, and I suspect the NFL has a lot to do with that.
CTE takes years to surface. After his pro football years, my husband earned a masters in psychology and had a successful 25-year career in law enforcement. But around the age of 63, the CTE made itself known, and he quickly lost his ability to speak (the first thing he lost was his driver’s license), and he became dependent on others for everything. I write because people need to know the harm to the brains and also, hopefully, to prevent their children from playing football. For the fatal end of a high-schooler’s experience with CTE, see the book Love, Zac at the Eugene Public Library (nonfiction).
Laura Romeyn
Eugene
EDITOR’S NOTE: Stephen Odom played college football at the University of Utah and was a fifth-round selection of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers in 1974. He played wide receiver and was a kickoff and punt return specialist for seven seasons in the NFL, six of which were with the Packers where he still holds the team record for the longest punt return for a touchdown at 95 yards in 1974. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 1974.
NPR reported on Aug. 28 that around the country, at least seven middle and high school football players had died of football-related injuries in August alone.
Let the Old Growth Live
Our old-growth forests, not just in Oregon but around the country, are an essential component of our ecosystems and the biodiversity within them. Not only are they one of the largest natural carbon sinks in the world, but we utilize them as outlets to reconnect with nature.
Currently, the National Old-Growth Forests Amendment is open for public comment. Now, we must show support for implementing this amendment. In recent years, Oregon’s forests lost old-growth and mature trees, reducing the percentage of old growth to only about 10 percent within our state (“Old-Growth Forests and Oregon’s Healthy Ecosystems,” EW, 9/12)). This is due to the logging industry cutting down mature and old growth trees for their own financial benefit.
To combat this rapidly increasing issue we are calling upon the public to submit comments and sign our petition to showcase the support we have for saving the trees. The message is simple: let our forests live. We need the Forest Service to hear us loud and clear and understand that these old-growth forests are not only helping us mitigate climate change but provide breathtaking and serene scenery and act as biodiversity hubs for ecosystems. The bottom line is old growth forests are worth more standing.
Emma Bynder
Eugene
It Has Happened Here
Appreciation for the column about banned books (“Because It Can Happen Here,” EW, 9/19).
Back in 2022 was my first encounter with three banned books, banned from a high school in Idaho. I promptly purchased the book I had not read. As a great friend once told me — all publicity is publicity — and talking about banned books has really brought attention to many.
Still, several of us have no idea about this quiet war going on to police our libraries. But we can resist this push for fear of the unknown.
In April 2023, Moms for Liberty got me fired up — what a misnomer! Using the Canby, Oregon, high school library banned book list, which was quite long at the time, I started shopping secondhand and purchased several books on the list, built a little library with the help of my husband, and labeled it “Mini Banned Library.” Not all the books in there are on the banned list, but most are. All are purchased from a religious organization, which I find hilarious. I shop regularly to resupply. Most are considered young adult. But all are worth reading, expanding our mind with another’s journey, and learning about the world through a different lens.
As my flier on the door to my mini library states: Many of these books are banned in assorted school districts across the country, including Oregon. Enjoy them, may the force of knowledge and the freedom of a book be ever at your side.
Susan Fox
Eugene
Here We Go Again
Quote from The Register-Guard on Sunday, Sept. 15: “Local governments are seeking community input on multiple initiatives this week, with several public hearings scheduled. The city of Eugene will hear input on a proposal to create an accelerated version of its Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) that would focus on the ‘core’ of downtown, while also holding hearings on proposals to increase fees for stormwater and rideshare users.”
What?
Give more tax breaks to developers of apartments that many Eugene residents can’t afford, then charge them more for stormwater fees and Rideshare?
This on top of recently reducing support for our Eugene library system, resulting in shortened hours and layoffs.
Why keep giving the “core” of downtown more money? We’ve been doing that for decades. How has this helped our city become a more livable place for everyone?
The city of Eugene is not helping, giving multi-year-tax breaks while we watch expensive high-rise apartments being built in the “core” of Eugene.
Carol Ipsen
Eugene
Outrage at 20-362
I am writing to add my voice to the many other voices outraged by proposed changes to our Lane County district voting maps.
There are several reasons the proposal is bad — the wasted tax dollars, the blatant disregard of citizens’ input, the unnecessary stress on county employees — but what makes this proposal truly outrageous is that this is gerrymandering, plain and simple. For those who don’t know, gerrymandering is when a political party manipulates the boundaries of a political district to gain an unfair advantage. Gerrymandering is dishonest.
Why would three of our county commissioners attempt to use dishonest, backdoor methods to change district maps? Is it because they can’t win any other way? Sound familiar? Let’s send a clear message this November and vote “No” on Ballot Measure 20-362 and dishonesty in our elections.
Tibor Bessko
Eugene
Young Voters: Please Vote
I am a 70-plus year old senior, and I am encouraging you to vote in the upcoming 2024 elections. If you aren’t registered in your state, please do so. If you need an absentee ballot from your state (non-Oregon resident), please send for one!
I am dismayed that you have fewer rights than I did at your age, that I, and so many of my peers, fought hard to achieve for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. You have many more years here on Earth than I do, and my rights and your rights are under attack, including: health care, reproductive rights, voting rights, worker rights, human rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration rights, women’s rights, educational opportunities, climate change policies and our entire democracy. Please vote in November as if your life depends on it — because it does.
Cindee Robertson
Eugene
Another ‘No’ Vote
How very disturbing to witness an underhanded political ploy right here in our own community — that is gerrymandering, defined as “manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party.”
The culprits in Lane County are county commissioners Pat Farr, David Loveall and Ryan Ceniga. They’ve decided to indeed manipulate boundaries to better favor their own chances of re-election. There is no other reason for the proposal they pushed through despite public opposition. Their plan will cost us money. It’ll put stress on the county’s hardworking staff. And most importantly, it blatantly ignores the strong recommendation of the citizen advisory group, who reported to the commissioners that there is no reason to change district voting maps outside the normal 10-year cycle.
Let’s not let this Gang of Three threaten our voting rights. Please join me in voting “No” on Measure 20-362.
Mary Addams
Eugene
Guns Bite Back
Oh, the irony. The former president has twice now been the target of assassination attempts, both assailants armed with AK/AR-style automatic weapons — the same weapons the NRA, members of Congress and gun lobbyists have steadfastly refused to ban nationwide.
How can they not acknowledge their complicity in these senseless attacks? Schoolchildren, concert patrons, political candidates and now, most recently, a presidential aspirant have all been targets or victims of this senseless violence. How many more victims will suffer before the madness is stopped? Are we all resigned to be selected as potential targets?
During the 2020 election cycle, 92 percent of Donald Trump supporters supported background checks on all gun purchases, and more telling, 74 percent of all voters favored total bans on AK-type automatic weapons. Yet the slaughter continues, and the near-misses grow ever closer to finding their intended targets.
Contrary to J.D. Vance’s recent opinion, following the last assassination attempt, gun violence is not, as he callously proclaimed, “a fact of life.” Rather, it is a fact of life or death. Just ask one of the survivors. Or perhaps, ask the former president. It’s too late to ask the victims.