Now You Know
Enjoyed your story about “Oregon’s Hippie Island” in Crete (EW, 2/6) , and I gasped at the last line: “beneath the Matala moon.” That’s what Joni Mitchell was singing in “Carey”! None of my guesses made any sense.
Kathy Kifer
Eugene
Gun Toting and Bible Quoting
David Loveall is the “gun toting, Bible quoting” current president of the Lane County Board of Commissioners. He rakes in $114,000 of our taxpayer dollars per year. Is he who we want to lead our county into the future? His term is over December 2026. Come on Springfield, surely you deserve better leadership!
Debra McGee
Eugene
This is Not Sustainable
The recent ice and snowstorm exposed a painful truth: When systems fail, lives are at risk. With no official daytime warming spaces, our unhoused neighbors were left shivering on sidewalks, desperate for shelter.
In a city of over 180,000 people, only two buildings — the St. Vincent de Paul Highway 99 Service Station and the downtown Eugene Public Library — opened their doors to large numbers of people. The rest was left to volunteers, faith leaders and outreach workers who refused to look away.
This should not be our reality.
We cannot keep relying on last-minute efforts and grassroots volunteers to do the city’s job. When agencies shut down and no official emergency response is in place, it is churches, outreach teams and neighbors who ensure people stay alive.
But this isn’t sustainable.
Cities, emergency managers and policymakers must act now. We need designated public daytime warming spaces during severe weather — not just overnight shelters that send people back into the cold at dawn.
Eugene prides itself on compassion, yet when the weather turns deadly, people are left on the streets with nowhere to go. How many more storms will it take before we treat this as the crisis it is?
Sarah Koski
Eugene
A Life Well Lived
Sad announcement: Tom Brown, a local activist, Our Revolution Lane County member and so much more, passed away on Jan. 22.
Brown was a tireless activist and fellow warrior until his longtime health issues kept him from participating in the activities he usually attended.
Brown was known for his steadfast belief in progressive values. He was dedicated to fighting for the rights of others and he attended many rallies, marches, etc. where his huge banners — “Healthcare for All” and “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” — could be seen (with him standing behind them).
Brown also helped table for ORLC and ESSN, and he went to many other events (too many to list here). He also wrote the ORLC email newsletter, which later changed to the E-volution Newsletter.
Brown is missed by his friends and family, and we honor his life by continuing to do what we can to improve life on this planet for everyone.
Kristy Murray
Eugene
Think of the Gardens
The Eugene City Council continues to work on its urban growth plans, with permissions for more infill and accessory dwelling units (ADU) on existing properties. Regardless of what the City Council allows, I hope people who are building additional dwellings keep in mind the needs of your neighbors.
Please recognize that, as food prices increase, it will continue to be important for people to be able to grow their own food. This means they must have sunlight on their gardens. If your home faces south, remember that a tall backyard dwelling will cut off sunlight to your back neighbor’s south facing gardens. Same with neighboring construction on each side. Please keep your buildings low in height, and perhaps your neighbor will thank you by sharing some delicious garden produce.
Tricia Hedin
Eugene
Volunteers with Love
Over the last weeks I and many others have participated in volunteering for Egan Warming Centers in a variety of ways. Some cooking at a kitchen in the afternoon — chopping vegetables, making sandwiches to go or picking up donations from various places; setting up sleeping mats or serving dinner; playing music or handing out blankets; checking in guests and their belongings or some staying outside all night; handing out oatmeal and hot cocoa in the morning or coming in early to clean up and make it look like 90 to 150 people weren’t sleeping there just an hour ago; or others planning on what would happen the next cold night.
Where would we set up? Would there be enough volunteers to open?
To all these people and more I witnessed an immense amount of gratitude from the guests. I also witnessed kindness, patience and compassion towards one another. Being awakened at 6:30 am to get ready to go out in the cold, some were understandably grumpy, but kindness and patience prevailed.
Knowing Egan wasn’t open last night (Feb. 13) I found it hard to sleep, wondering where these people were finding food and shelter. I suspect I wasn’t alone in these thoughts.
My deep thanks to all at Egan, St. Vincent de Paul’s, the many volunteers, and most of all, to those guests who came and changed my life. I hope others will find suitable ways to join us. Volunteer, donate and give our fellow human beings some love.
Kathy Reardon
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
A Concerning Trend
The thought of dismantling the Department of Education at the federal level and just sending block grants to states is very concerning. As a retired special education director, the possible loss of special education funding (around 12 percent of SPED costs from federal money) is concerning for school districts as cuts will need to be made in other areas if the money isn’t available, to provide services.
Of greater concern is that a block grant to states or school districts, without accountability for spending on children with disabilities, will result in political infighting in districts for the dollars, plus a huge loss of services for students with disabilities. We are back to pre-IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) years. It’s shameful.
Cindee Robertson
Eugene
Expand Death With Dignity
As I age, I find I wish that there was a strong effort to get behind expanding Oregon’s Death With Dignity laws to include dementia and aging itself. Some places in Europe have expanded their laws to include dementia and letting those age 70 or over to make their own decisions as to end of life care.
That certainly is one petition I would sign.
Hugh Massengill
Eugene
Viewpoint to a Viewpoint
It was no surprise seeing retired pastor Dan Bryant compare President Donald Trump to a madman responsible for millions of deaths (EW, 2/13).
We’ve been hearing the same rhetoric within the unhinged, hysterical rants of congressional Democrats and their media shills during the past couple weeks. Perhaps a reminder of why their side lost on Nov. 5 is in order:
Most Americans don’t want illegal migrants, including violent criminals, pouring into our country and communities. Most Americans don’t want biological males in women’s sports and locker rooms.
Most Americans don’t support radical gender ideology and recognize that there are not 50-plus genders. Most Americans don’t approve of wasteful government spending. Most Americans don’t support the weaponization of federal agencies.
Most Americans are tired of DEI and CRT and don’t support non-prosecution of criminals. Most Americans want education, not indoctrination in our schools.
Most Americans don’t want their tax dollars going to a rap artist in Palestine, to luxury hotels for migrants while veterans sleep on the streets and to the myriad other frivolous and wasteful expenditures that Elon Musk’s DOGE team have uncovered.
And most Americans know fully well which major party has been supporting all the foregoing and more. That party polemicizes bitterly, even calling for violence (“real weapons”) against the administration, but won’t discuss the DOGE findings themselves and have offered no credible plans to address them.
That’s why Trump and his wife Melania reside (again) at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Democrat meltdown is a disgrace!
Jerry Ritter
Springfield
Call it what it is
The AP headlines refer to a “straight-arm gesture.” The New York Times goes into depth about the history and cultural context of “Elon Musk’s salute.” The responsibility falls to smaller publications like the Weekly to record, for posterity, what happened plainly on camera on inauguration day: the president’s new pet dog got on stage and gave two Sieg heils, one after another.
Donald Trump, who gloated in 2022 over giving Elon Musk’s companies billions of government dollars, “without which subsidies he’d be worthless,” has now handed this Nazi and his people unrestricted access to any government financial system that they can find. They’re telegraphing mass layoffs of the federal employees that keep huge chunks of our society working, and if that succeeds, then they’ll surely move on to something worse.
As long as I’ve been old enough to vote, the Democratic Party has warned in their fundraising messages about the threat that Trump poses to American democracy. Three times in a row, I voted for a candidate that I didn’t like because, for all their faults, I believed that threat was real. It’s here now. The Republicans control the presidency, the Supreme Court, and the senate, but their majority in the House of Representatives could be as small as one seat after special elections.
The world is watching Val Hoyle, her 214 fellow House Democrats, and the judges of our federal courts. I can only ask that they do all they can to check the power of these white nationalist kleptocrats.
Don Rung
Eugene
Perform Civil Disobedience
The current U.S. administration has elected to sequester funds that only Congress is slated to receive and appropriate, per the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, they have decided to sequester most activities to the Executive Branch that once were the purview of Congress.
We can perform a civil disobedience action by sending our federal tax dollars directly to the State of Oregon for the stated purpose of civil disobedience, but also to help the people of the state of Oregon in these difficult times.
I strongly suggest we do this not only this year, but every year the current administration is sequestering financial and political activities to the Executive Branch, in unlawful opposition to the U.S. Constitution and its requirements for Congress.
Write to the State of Oregon Tax offices to indicate your intention to do this and send your monies at the time you see fit (Oregon.gov/dor/pages/index.aspx). I suggest using the personal income tax link for your original comments and when you send in your federal tax monies to the state of Oregon.
TD Hawkes
Eugene
Gaining Traction
So, a month into the Great Orange Administration 2.0 — still think West Coast secession is a wacky idea?
Bill Smee
Eugene
‘Trusk’ has Gone Wrong
Make no mistake about it. Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who I like to affectionately call Trusk, are not doing what the American people want them to do.
They are doing what they want to do, to serve their own self interests; power, greed and retribution. They are just firing people and doing their best to shut down agencies with no real knowledge of what an agency does. Yes, people want to see waste disappear and more efficiency in the government. Yes, some agencies are bloated and mission creep is real.
Trusk attacks on agencies will be felt by MAGA and the many people who voted for him. They will feel it in their pocket books. They will feel it when they can’t sell their products, they will feel it when they can’t keep their businesses open. The religious right think they have been persecuted and can’t practice their religion, but don’t realize they have always had that freedom to pray as they choose. And now they want us all to think and pray as they do. Talk about taking away freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
I’ve always believed that government is not meant to be efficient. It’s meant to be effective. And America, even with all its failures, has been more effective than we can imagine. Sadly, we will all feel it when the USA democracy disappears and becomes however you want to label an autocracy and authoritarianism.
Mark Hinnen
Eugene
With Popcorn
What a great time to be a Republican congressperson! Little to do except watch the show.