A ‘Best of Eugene’ Experience
A week or two ago, I received a “to occupant” letter from Eugene Springfield Fire and opened it trepidatiously to find out quickly that they would like to come by, in person, to help a single old hippie in a 100-year-old home who seemed a match to a profile established by two recent fire deaths in low-ceiling old shacks that had fireplaces/woodstoves that leaked carbon monoxide and killed the occupants.
I instantly recognized the danger if I pursued my course of restoring the ability to use wood heat in winter and fully agreed with their assessment. Rather than warn me of a future code violation, he came in and swiftly installed in my bedroom, in the best possible place, a new smoke alarm, free. I had not heard of the tragedies before, but all my experience told me his account was spot-on real. They had surveyed aerial photos of Bethel, found my place fit the profile, and acted in a timely fashion without drama. For me, a true “Best of Eugene” experience!
Rick Valley
Eugene
The Homeless are Us
A veteran who spent 10 years unhoused on the streets once told us, “No one wants to be out here on the streets.” Lane County statistics on homelessness back up that claim: 82 percent of unhoused persons in Lane County lost their housing here, according to county officials. They were not attracted to this area by services — 82 percent had housing but lost it here.
There are as many reasons for becoming unhoused as there are people — job loss, divorce, illness and staggering bills, a wage that cannot keep pace with rising costs, catastrophic events. Some of the kindest, most caring, talented and intelligent people you would ever meet are unhoused. They deserve our help, not our harassment. Sweeps solve nothing. Since when does heaping trauma on top of trauma ever help or solve anything? Sweeps only make it more difficult for people to retain their health and find ways out of homelessness. As for so-called crime reduction, study after study show sweeps do nothing to reduce crime, just as harassing any arbitrarily selected or stereotyped group of people would not reduce crime in a given area.
Across the U.S. homelessness is up 30 percent over the past 24 months and is at an all-time high. The unhoused are not “outsiders” or “the other,” they are us. Who’s next?
Martha and Peter Dragovich
Eugene
A Simple ‘Thank You’
I know that the decision by PeaceHealth to close the University District hospital was met with anger, disappointment and sadness by many in our community.
I want to share a positive experience with PeaceHealth. I am low income, have a chronic health condition and have OHP [Oregon Health Plan]. I often have tests, procedures and other medical needs requested by my PCP that are not covered by OHP. PeaceHealth has a “bridge program” that can cover up to 100 percent of out-of-pocket expenses for low income patients. I have accessed this program for almost two years now. I am so grateful to PeaceHealth for offering me financial assistance so I can focus on my health, not how to pay for it.
A suggestion: If you use this program, how about calling the administration and saying, “thank you.” We are often so quick to complain about problems, and yet forget to say thank you.
Wendy Harris
Eugene
Adding to a Good Point
Dan Bryant has a good point for solving homelessness (EW, 1/2). The only thing missing is how do you build these housing units in quantity? Relying on local and state alliances will always have limitations!
A better solution is to include, on the West Coast, all the states and recommend economical green natural disaster resistant manufactured modular units that can be stacked three stories high and placed in areas not being used, like railway and interstate highway right of ways.
The modular must fit standard rail and truck transportation dimensions for quick delivery. The social and management services would be all the same in each state, hopefully reducing homelessness migration!
Don Strout
Eugene
A Path to a Sustainable Future
The fires in Los Angeles are a great tragedy, but as we mourn for those who lost their lives and belongings, along with the innocent animals, we must not be complacent. What happened in L.A. could happen here, despite the current “atmospheric river.”
Does Eugene have a shared vision for a sustainable future? Don’t we need stronger brush and limb clearing laws, stricter water management and recycling, more community gardens (such as Atlanta’s urban forest), new green building codes (including grey water and underground power lines), fewer single-family homes and more mixed-use urban development, restrictions on living in the woods and building on the rivers. What about more efficient and convenient mass transit and safer bike paths, more community-wide solar and wind energy generation, a better climate change curriculum in the public schools, not to mention certain individual lifestyle changes, such as eating less meat, using far less plastic and walking more?
Jack Cooper
Eugene
Turning Off the Radio
I just heard on NPR news radio the president-elect (in his own words) threatening to acquire Greenland for the U.S. by any means, plus a reporter parroting that the said megalomaniac wants to annex Canada.
Why is NPR reporting this stuff deadpan, as though it’s normal news?
If his fantasies are worth reporting, where is the response from opponents?
If his opponents won’t dignify his fantasies with a response, might NPR report that as the opposition news?
Turning off the KLCC again, FYI. Perhaps our local station could offer some editorial comment instead of passing on this froth unexamined.
Nancy Buffum
Eugene
Find Different Sources
Responding to Jerry Brule’s “Health Care Crisis” (EW letters, 1/2), I agree that our “system” is fatal (for patients and CEOs) and frustrating. However, don’t blame Donald Trump. Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (based on Mitt Romney’s model in Massachusetts) was the first step in privatizing Medicare and Medicaid via the “Advantage Plans.” Joe Biden also has pushed privatization.
Brule wrote: “We need many more doctors and nurses.” Locally, our Oregon Medical Group has been corporatized (allowed during the current administration), leaving patients doctorless. Have you tried finding a doctor lately? Ain’t gonna happen.
Biden also cut millions of people from Medicare that Trump had allowed during COVID. Biden said “COVID is over.” Many local people have long COVID while the rates of rare cancers among 30- to 40-year-olds are skyrocketing.
Biden is neither different nor an improvement over Trump. Don’t even get me going on Syria, Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, Yemen, Somalia, Myanmar, Georgia (the country), Taiwan, Venezuela, etc. Did I miss any wars that Biden has us in?
Readers should move beyond Trump bashing, though it is fun as I am by no means a Trump supporter. I suggest avoiding the propaganda of NPR, NYT and CNN and support non-corporate news that don’t have CIA and FBI employees on their staff. Search out: Black Agenda Report; The Grayzone; The Duran; Naked Capitalism; FLCCC Alliance, etc. Listen skeptically, find source documents (not “authorities say”) and get off the cliché anti-Trump propaganda because there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Derwood Potter
Eugene
Jan. 20 — A Mixed Bag
Jan. 20, 2025 will be the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
It will also be the inauguration of the insurrectionist who, on Jan. 6, 2021, sought to decapitate elected leadership to prevent congressional confirmation of Joe Biden’s election. Donald Trump will swear at the Constitution, not to it, in flagrant violation of the 14th Amendment, which states:
“Section 3:
No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States … who, having previously taken an oath … as an officer of the United States … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
There have been countless indicators that America is no longer a constitutional republic. Inaugurating the insurrectionist puts us in uncharted territory. Even President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal was minor in comparison.
Since Jimmy Carter died just before New Year’s, the traditional flying of the American flag at half-mast for 30 days means the flag will officially be in a state of mourning for Inauguration Day.
Trump’s presence in politics has been “sane-washed” by corporate media treating him as normal. MLK’s legacy has been “white washed” to ignore his evolution as a prophet who spoke against the “triple evils” afflicting America: racism, economic injustice and militarism.
For decades, the King family has said MLK was martyred because he expanded his advocacy beyond solely focusing on civil rights. MLK day is a federal holiday for a victim of the federal government. Read more at Jfkmlkrfk.com — Legacy of the Sixties.
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene
Forever Trapped by Wet Paint
In the old days if you actually painted yourself into a corner, you had to wait for the paint to dry. What if the paint would never dry?
Our world’s move to all digital data over the last few decades has created such a situation. All our medical, school, legal, financial and even personal data is electronically stored in the “cloud” with no real paper trail. However, there is no actual “cloud.” All that data is stored in data storage facilities which are powered by fossil fuels primarily.
We didn’t save trees by moving away from paper storage. We created huge data centers that each may require the same amount of water that a town of 50,000 would need in a single day. Large tracts of agricultural land are required to house these mega storage facilities, and the electrical needs are astronomical as well. With the emergence of AI all those energy, water and land issues will increase exponentially, and AI and crypto currency industries are already asking for less environmental regulation in order to expand.
So, it looks like the paint will never dry as we stand trapped in that corner.
Hal Huestis
Eugene
Who We Are, Who We Are Not
Is it possible that the United States (historically the defender of freedom from tyrants) is to go beyond bluster and actually bully or menace two smaller and weaker countries for the sake of demonstrating to ourselves and the world we are capable of such a thing? Do the people of the U.S. have enough of a memory of who we are so that they will rise up with a voice that must be listened to that this is not who we are?
Leo Rivers
Cottage Grove
But Will You Take Them In?
Kudos to the letter writer for pointing out that there is a large segment of the homeless that are criminals with no desire for self improvement (EW, 12/26). Will the Barefoot Defenders take his suggestion to invite them into their homes?
Why aren’t the families of these individuals taking these individuals? Maybe not the majority of EW readers, but clearly the large majority of Eugene residents are quite fed up with their criminal behavior, blatant disrespect for any rules and their attitude of “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.” Disagree? Then start a Go Fund Me campaign or invite these individuals into your home (I’m sure you would have no concern leaving your children, wife, pet alone with them).
Don French
Eugene
Free Leonard Peltier
I’m urging citizens to call for the pardon and release of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement leader, who has been in federal prison for almost 50 years. Amnesty International and others worldwide believe he is a political prisoner.
He maintains his innocence, and there are serious and ongoing concerns about the fairness of his trial and conviction. Tribal nations, Nobel Peace Laureates, former FBI agents and numerous others — and even the former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office handled the prosecution, has called for Peltier’s release.
Now 79 years old, he suffers from several chronic health ailments, including one that is potentially fatal. President Joe Biden should grant him clemency and release him before it is too late.