Viewpoint:
Virginia Tech Backlash
BY JOSEPH A. LIEBERMAN

Maybe it’s always there, just below the surface, but we expect better of our college students. Still, this is Oregon, which as a territory in the 1840s rejected slavery but voted 8-1 to ban African-Americans from legally living here via the infamous Exclusion Laws (not removed from the state constitution until 1926). This is the place where in the early 1900s, the UO refused to allow interracial rooming for women. And until 1953, Medford and Roseburg maintained unwritten “Sundown Laws” declaring that all minorities must vacate populated areas by sunset. The state’s Prohibition of Intermarriage Law continued until 1959. [Read More]

Viewpoint:
We’re In This Together
Reasons for supporting the county income tax
BY BILL DWYER

A lot has been said about the financial problem facing Lane County. Those who know me know I like to get to the point quickly. So here it is in a nutshell: The federal government’s commitment to county payments funding is inadequate, declining and unreliable, and time is running out. And one way or another it will soon go away. [Read More]

Viewpoint:
End the War at Home
The war on drugs is a war on people
BY JIM GREIG

There are a lot of marijuana smokers in Eugene and Lane County. In the rest of Oregon too, for that matter. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, cowboys and Indians, and just plain Joes. I would guess we all know at least one person who consumes marijuana (cannabis, ganja, reefer, herb, bud). [Read More]