Easter Eggs Out of the Question?
If egg prices are putting a damper on your family’s backyard Easter egg hunt this year, here’s a fun alternative: Dress your kiddos in their Easter Sunday best and hiking boots and hit the Ridgeline Trail for your family’s own dog poop bag hunt.
Lucky children who are at the trailhead on Spring Boulevard first will hit an immediate jackpot of three to five treasures. Then, once on the trail, keen-eyed youngsters can test their eye-spy skills looking in the branches or flung among the trilliums and ferns for the green bags. Brown and black bags are under dead leaves or near the bases of trees.
By the time your family reaches Dillard Road trailhead, your kiddos will, depending on how much you give them for each bag, have enough money for their own dozen or so eggs. Organic and free-range at that. And they will be helping their fellow citizens who conveniently “forget” to pick up their bags.
Chuck Kalnbach
Eugene
No One Wins in Police Shootings
It was appropriate for Camilla Mortensen to commemorate the death of Brian Babb (EW, 3/27). This killing, like that of Ryan Salisbury, illustrated for the Eugene community the dangers inherent in encounters between armed, mentally ill individuals and the police. Then-EPD Chief Pete Kerns declared both shootings as being “within policy.” The Register Guard editorial at the time likened this to the doctor saying, “The operation was a success, though the patient died.” The city responded with citizen initiatives establishing the independent police auditor and Civilian Review Board.
It also had an effect on the Eugene Police Department. And it is here that I think Eugene Weekly has dropped the ball as journalists. Reading Mortensen’s story, you would never know of the record the EPD has run up in recent years of taking individuals, mentally ill and armed, sometimes quite aggressive, into custody without using deadly force. This means officers put themselves in deadly danger so that the suspect’s life is kept safe. Is this newsworthy?
What is especially concerning is Mortensen’s journalistic decision to include the quote from Babb’s family member about the death of Charles Landeros. Landeros died after attempting to murder police officers. At the time the Weekly ran stories describing the killing as murder by police. No apology was ever printed after the investigation showed what happened. We must be vigilant against police violence, based on reality, not prejudice.
Jack Radey
Eugene
Editor’s Note: The reference in the Babb story to Landeros was that Babb “also points to the 2019 shooting deaths of Charlie Landeros and Eliborio Rodrigues by Eugene police,” in reference to statistics that Black and Latino people are more likely to be shot by police. Eugene Weekly has referred to Landeros as being killed by police.
Support Art Education
Art education should be a place where creativity is encouraged, not crushed. Yet across our local institutions, emerging artists are being met with outdated systems, retaliatory practices and educators more focused on control than cultivating talent.
We are witnessing a growing divide between faculty comfort and student growth. Too often, students who challenge norms or ask for accountability are labeled as disruptive — shut out of opportunities, overlooked or dismissed altogether. This quiet silencing is happening in critique spaces, studio classes and even hiring decisions tied to student jobs.
The problem isn’t just individual, it’s systemic. When leadership chooses silence over support, when gatekeeping replaces mentorship, and when diversity of thought is viewed as conflict, we all lose.
Our current art educators must do better. The next generation of artists deserves bold mentorship, not bureaucratic censorship. It’s time to rebuild a culture that centers creativity, care, and integrity.
Ash Crane
Eugene
Supporting Judy Newman
I am happy to support Judy Newman for re-election to the Eugene 4J school board. She has done a great job on the Board. We need her, especially to help us through these changing times with a new superintendent starting at the school district, and the federal attacks on public schools and equity.
My children attended 4J schools, and I’ve volunteered for decades for children and education.
For the past 12 years, I’ve served on the Lane Education Service District School Board. I know what it takes to be a good school board member: first, be dedicated to the mission — above all else, helping every child succeed. Understand that equity means every child is welcome, and it is our responsibility to give them all a fair shot.
Second, put aside your own ego: learn and show respect for all, don’t micromanage.
Third, listen to the whole community, not just the people you agree with.
And last, always be transparent, have ethics and integrity in all you do.
This describes Newman perfectly. In addition, she has 45 years of experience in education and is a state leader in early childhood and special education. This is a clear decision. Vote for Newman for Eugene 4J School Board.
Linda Hamilton
Eugene
Better Rally Vetting
The local April 5 Hands Off! rally against the anti-American Trump/DOGE policies was packed with an overflow crowd of thousands, with small towns and cities in every state also showing up in force. The unified message in these demonstrations was supposed to be simple: Trump 2.0 and his Project 2025 agenda seek to unravel American democracy as we know it.
However, one of the local rally speakers veered off on her own little tangent. She started to rag on former President Joe Biden’s Israeli weapons policy and also singled out New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hour filibuster speech against Trump’s attempted dismantling of America’s laws and institutions. Her agenda? The Israeli-Gaza war and the genocide of the Palestinian people. She blasted the Biden administration’s weapons policy and even singled out Booker not mentioning the conflict at all. I actually heard scattered boos for her comments.
As an American Jew, I do sympathize with the speaker’s words. Israel’s ultra-conservative and corrupt leadership’s over-reaction to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack has been horrific and sadly continues. Much of Israel’s population opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, the thousands of rallies that were organized were supposed to be a unified rebuke of Trump’s dismantling of American institutions and norms. The speaker’s comments were truly divisive.
I hope future rally speakers will be vetted better going forward, so that they don’t wander far from the objective: Donald John Trump is a threat to American democracy.
Gary Farbstein
Eugene
A Different Look on Tariffs
In Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, it states that “Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare…”
Congress delegated its power regarding tariffs in 1934 to the President and can take it back. Tariffs are now applied at the whim of one person bypassing the safeties and mechanism by Congress where it was meant to be. Framers envisioned the administration funded by fees (park entry), duties and imposts (tariffs) and excises (federal enterprises). Foreign goods sold here are a privilege; so, can be regulated, licensed and taxed (tariff). With the questionable 16th Amendment, taxes on personal income replaced tariffs as the major funding.
Virtually everything we purchase is partially or totally foreign produced since regulations, taxes, materials and labor are friendlier to producers outside America. We did this to ourselves, and it will take decades to fetch back the ability via reduced government, plant construction and creating a willing workforce.
Tariffs are a tax on those consuming wealth while taxes on income are on those producing wealth. I would not mind paying the constitutional tariffs if the non-constitutional income tax ended. I would end up paying the same tax amount while the wealthy who buy so much more would be paying their greater share. But the enforcement of income tax allows tremendous control by the government over us and now tariffs just increased our tax taking.
Keith Stanton
Florence
Gloves are Off
I’m not ashamed of Donald Trump (well, OK, of course I am — duh). I’m really, plain and simply, ashamed of the people who voted for him, try to rationalize the things he does, or believe he has any truly good intentions at all. He just doesn’t.
This isn’t about politics anymore, those sometimes subtle, sometimes drastic, differences the left and right have. Those different preferences and fine lines. Any truly objective or reasonable person can see that. If you don’t see it, or can’t admit it, you’re simply blind or just plain disingenuous, for whatever reason.
This is about plain old right and wrong — decent humans and utter buffoons. I could previously, cordially and civilly disagree and still maintain some diplomacy. No more, the gloves are off. If you voted for him and support him, or even tolerate him, you’re simply just not a thinking, caring, nor objective person at all. You’re on the wrong side of history. Point blank.
And don’t come at me with some “blah, blah, Joe Biden…blah, blah, what about this or that” BS. First, nothing compares to this, not remotely. Second, I don’t automatically support whatever blah blah BS you’ll come up with about all that. I don’t say these things about Trump because I think the left/Dems are so perfect or ideal. Of course they’re not. Regardless, Trump is the worst possible representative of anything resembling a leader, a president or anything that America should aspire to be. Point blank. Period. Full stop.