• This week is Best of Eugene, and we love praising all of Lane County in its weird wonderfulness — especially during global pandemic. We hope you enjoy it, in print and online, and accept the award we are giving ourselves: Best Source of Fire-Starting Material. Between riots downtown, wildfires up the McKenzie and rabid Trump-supporters who hate us, Eugene Weekly papers and our little red boxes have been lit up more times than a joint at a Snoop Dogg show back when they used to actually happen at the Cuthbert. It’s been a hell of a ride, but we keep showing up. PSA: The papers are fine to burn when you’re done with the crossword, but if you could ease up on the boxes, that’d be super. 

• Whether or not Donald Trump concedes (and if he does, we’re wondering which landscaping company he will make his speech in front of) the election is heading toward the Electoral College and certification, and Joe Biden is the president-elect with Kamala Harris as the vice president-elect. Harris is the first woman of color elected vice president — something to celebrate even more after a year of deeply warranted Black Lives Matter protests. Is a Biden-Harris ticket perfect? No. We have miles to go before we heal this country of its racism, rifts and COVID-19. But before we go back to trying to make this a better world, we are going to take a moment to have that celebration, breathe and look forward to decency in the White House, and a rescue dog, too. 

• We wonder how many voters from this congressional district know that famed urine collector Art Robinson was just elected to the Oregon State Senate. Remember him? He ran and ran and ran against Rep. Peter DeFazio, funded by the Mercer family, finally giving up to become chair of the Oregon Republican Party. The Oregon State Senate is 18 to 12 Democratic. Robinson is 10/10 crazy, and he’ll be replacing the equally crazy Herman Baertschiger Jr., who led three Republican walkouts in the Senate.

• On Friday the 13th the City Club of Eugene is doing the first of two programs on the Holiday Farm Fire. To watch, check the City Club Facebook page at noon. Speakers will be Joe Moll, executive director of the McKenzie River Trust; Gordon Grant, USFS/OSU research hydrologist; and Jared Pruch, United Way of Lane County. Bravo to the City Club for carrying on with its important programs remotely while we all look forward to sitting in a room again and talking to each other.

• Once again, the BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) community has shown America that if they want to elect a president, they will. As we watched the votes in Pennsylvania and Georgia roll in, it was the citizens of Philly and Atlanta who bridged the gap. Both cities have BIPOC populations that have been tormented by white American politicians for generations, and both populations decided to speak up and vote out a clear racist, hateful, dishonest man who never had any business being in the White House to begin with. So BIPOC people, who have been overwhelming victims of Joe Biden’s Crime Bill of 1994, helped deliver him to the White House, so where does that leave us? Will he remove qualified immunity? Will he go back and arrest the people who murdered Breonna Taylor? Will he at least give us some COVID-19 relief? We shall see. One thing is obvious though: If BIPOC people want to put one of their own in the White House, they will. 

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