We had a fabulous time at the Ems’ Pride night with TransPonder on June 25. Lots of readers stopped by to tell us how much they appreciate Eugene Weekly and in particular our What’s Happening events calendar. That calendar is generated by submissions from the folks hosting events so please go to Calendar.EugeneWeekly.com/cal and submit your gathering — just like EW itself, it’s free! With 30,000 print issues a week plus online listings, we get the word out in the community! And if you want to support your favorite local free paper, please take out an ad. Finally, it’s never too hot for a hoodie — check out our Local and Vocal black hooded sweatshirt fundraising campaign at EugeneWeekly.com/hoodie.
• The image of a toddler-in-chief throwing ketchup-smeared dishes against the walls of the White House is now seared into our brains. The June 28 testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to President Donald J. Trump’s final chief of staff, about what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was gut wrenching. Attempting to grab the steering wheel of the presidential vehicle away from a Secret Service agent is also the action of a toddler having a tantrum, but toddlers don’t have the might of the presidency that Trump was abusing in his efforts to stymie the peaceful transfer of power in the U.S. And toddlers can’t order security measures lifted as an armed crowd marched toward the Capitol. We absolutely cannot allow anyone like that to be in power again.
• Longtime Eugene activist and Eugene Weekly letter writer Ruth Duemler turns 90 on July 7, and if you see her, tell her happy birthday and thanks for her years and years of advocating for health care as a human right. Duemler called the office recently to ask us to let readers know that the roses are at their peak at the recently expanded Owen Rose Garden by Willamette River near the Washington Jefferson Street Bridge. Go enjoy!
• The U.S women’s national soccer team is fun to watch. They win! Watch them take on Haiti July 4, Jamaica July 7 and Mexico July 11 as they build towards another World Cup. Extra points for U.S. Soccer issuing a statement condemning the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade before the team beat Colombia 3-0 June 25.
• What we’re reading: Dexter Filkins’ definitive article on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is an important read in the June 27 New Yorker magazine — partly because DeSantis clearly considers himself the next president of the U.S. That’s a depressing thought. Some say he would be worse than Donald Trump. If you want to be even more depressed, read Maureen Dowd’s brilliant piece “The Radical Reign of Clarence Thomas” in the June 26 New York Times. And, now that you are feeling blue, it’s time for a lift, so read the newly published Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, a posthumous collection by Barry Lopez that urges readers “not to give in to the temptation to despair.” We’re proud that this great writer lived and wrote from his house at Finn Rock up the McKenzie River.