• We reached out to Eugene Wake Up for the story we ran in the Dec. 26 issue about the BBs fired at homeless people camping outside Eugene Weekly. Stephen Sheehan of Elk Horn Brewery and Facebook personality and former journalist Rick Dancer head up the group. Sheehan, whose restaurant was vandalized by an unhoused woman, responded, “I think the true homeless and the business owners are getting overwhelmed by the lawlessness that’s happening in our community. We need to band together to stop this.” While we believe that it’s crucial for business, elected officials and nonprofits to work together to solve the crisis of homelessness, it’s dangerous to say a few “true” homeless should be helped, and the rest should be punished. That’s the kind of rhetoric that can lead to attacks against the homeless by vigilantes.
• Warning: Drive, walk and bike carefully through the intersection of Franklin Boulevard and Walnut Street near the University of Oregon campus. That’s where two young pedestrians were recently hit and seriously injured by a pickup truck. Police say they were crossing against the light. Students and others who live on the north side of Franklin can be too casual about crossing the busy street, and drivers don’t deal well with the mess. Traffic engineers, where are you?
• The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, one of our favorite organizations, writes in its 2019 legislative report that the last session in Salem “was an incredibly successful year for immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, voting rights and more.” ACLU Oregon testified at 99 hearings, reviewed all 2,768 bills introduced and advocated for 47 bills that successfully passed. Let’s keep that momentum in 2020.
• What we’re reading: Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie. Known as the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Wylie told what was happening inside the British consulting firm and Facebook. This is the story about the effect that the firm’s data-mining operation had on both the 2016 U.S. election and the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom. It’s a terrifying story, one every American should know, and it leaves us wondering what technology will bring about in November 2020.
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