Our Pleasure
Thanks for running “This Modern World.” We need it now more than ever.
Tim Baxter
Eugene
Rise on April 19
Those of you who use social media probably already know this, but according to Newsweek and Rachel Maddow, the 50501 movement is scheduling another rally for Saturday, April 19. This date fortuitously coincides with the 250-year anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, a historical event rarely commemorated on calendars or celebrated nationally as we did not at that time have a country to call our own. It was an official act of war in defense of our armories following the culmination of years of active rebellion against the rule of a mad king an ocean away.
One of my ancestors, a Minuteman, died that day along with seven others. More, including his cousin, died later from wounds incurred in battle. Lately, with each passing day, I feel their spirit rising up inside me.
Now we have a country, America, and events have come full circle. But this time the madness is here, infiltrating our halls of power.
April 5 was the rally heard round the world, and not a shot was fired.
We did it before. We can do it again.
Leo Muzzy
Eugene
More about C.S. Price
Bob Keefer’s article about Roger Saydack’s book on C.S. Price (EW, 4/3) was a real treat! As mentioned, Price’s paintings were once exhibited in the same show as Pablo Picasso. And while almost everyone has heard of this fellow, Picasso, hardly anyone alive knows of Price’s great art.
Saydack’s commentary on his stunning first response to Price’s painting, “The Fisherman” — “It stopped me in my tracks. I was fascinated by it. This person was talking to me. The whole setting of the painting was mysterious.” — leaves the reader to his own imagination since no image is shown of the painting, described as having a “mythical, even Biblical feel.”
Though I’m very familiar with Price’s work, this was one painting of his that I’d never seen. But thanks to Saydak, I did some digging. It took awhile, but the search was worth it. Maybe you’d like to share this image with your readers.
Tom Lincoln
Springfield
EV Owners Pay Already
Representative John Lively’s commentary in Eugene Weekly’s April 10 issue (“EV’s and Fees”) makes a valid point but obscures another important policy goal that can be accomplished in the 2025 transportation bill.
I and many other EV owners do not object to paying road usage charges (we already contribute to ODOT revenue through significantly higher vehicle registration and title fees, which Rep. Lively didn’t mention). However, it would make sense for the total revenue package of gas taxes and road usage charges to incentivize the transition to electric or other clean fuel vehicles. The state receives many benefits from the switch: cleaner air, fewer health problems associated with tailpipe pollutants, risk reduction from large or small fuel leaks that poison soil and water, and a significant reduction in climate-changing carbon emissions. Plus, there is an economic benefit because the money spent on transportation fuel stays in the state and region instead of leaving for oil- and gas-producing states or countries.
The value of all these benefits should be calculated and weighed into the eventual formula that balances road usage fees and gas taxes. In 2019 the Oregon Legislature established a goal of having 250,000 registered zero-emission vehicles by 2025, and at the end of 2024 we only had 109,330. Oregon needs to strongly incentivize cleaner transportation, not make it costlier than the more-polluting alternative.
Charlie Loeb
Eugene
Keep Newman
What do great public servants have in common? They know everyone does better when everyone does better. Judy Newman takes seriously the guiding belief and value of the 4J School Board: “Do what’s best for all 4J students.”
As co-director of Early Childhood Cares in Eugene for decades, Newman helped deliver early intervention to special-needs babies through preschoolers and prepared tens of thousands of children for kindergarten.
As a public school reading specialist, I worked with fine teachers who sent struggling students my way, wanting them to have the best opportunity to succeed. Literacy, critical to community and the nation, is a social justice issue. Newman agrees, and in two terms on the school board, she has been a civil servant, ready to help teachers and students succeed. She supports Oregon’s Early Literacy Success Initiative, for students in Oregon and many in 4J are seriously hurting for reading. The 2024 NAEP test, given across 50 states, found 48 percent of Oregon fourth graders and 35 percent of eighth graders below the basic level of reading proficiency, followed by low math proficiency. 4J scores were similar. 4J has a terrific team of reading specialists addressing this problem. They need consistent support from both schools and the board.
Newman, ready to work with a promising new 4J superintendent, will continue to champion students. Keep the wheel on the bus — do vote, and vote Newman for school board by May 20.
Brenda Johnson Kame’enui
Eugene
Stay on Message
The April 5 Hands Off! local 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 Senator 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
This Will Help
Oregon lawmakers are in the process of putting forward HB3075 to help ensure Measure 114 can finally go into effect. Measure 114 was passed by Oregon voters over two years ago to strengthen background checks and establish a permitting system for the purchase of firearms. Oregonians want these common sense fixes. What’s wrong with requiring a permit and fingerprinting (like for teachers, social workers and more) when you buy a gun? It’s not like we’re asking you to match your ID to your birth certificate! We’re not hand-checking your gender! The fact is: Oregonians voted for this law two years ago, and while we wait, the death toll climbs.
Rebecca McCroskey
Eugene
An Entitlement for a Reason
The Trump administration, in its quest to decimate the government so that taxes can be slashed for the already rich, is coming for Medicare and Medicaid. Think about it.
Medicare is called an entitlement because we are entitled to receive it — we have been paying into the Medicare fund all our working lives. It truly is “health insurance,” money paid to protect us when we need help. (Not like our current “health insurance,” which lets us down when we need it most.)
Medicaid is how a community lends a hand to those in most need. Recently, in an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk opined that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” So don’t expect any help from him when your husband loses his job and your kid needs health care.
We need a health care system that we can rely on and that expresses our empathy for our fellow community members. We need to protect Medicare and Medicaid; better still, we need a single-payer system that covers us all. Everybody in, nobody out.
Jo Alexander
Corvallis
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Dogs Have it Better
When government agencies seize or kill dogs without following guidelines, owners may be able to sue for violations of their constitutional rights. In a New York case, authorities took a dog into custody after it attacked another dog. Almost immediately following a dangerous dog hearing, the hearing officer ordered the animal euthanized. The owner only learned of that decision in a phone call just before his dog was killed, and his attorney didn’t receive official notice until three days later.
At least the dog got a hearing. My fellow citizens, it’s time our government starts acting with kindness, instead of animosity, toward all creatures who have the right to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The treatment of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, deported illegally without having his day in court by the lackeys of the Trump administration to a dangerous prison in El Salvador where he was in danger of losing his life, and the dithering of the Supreme Court (which finally has required the government to “facilitate” his return to the U.S. to exercise his right to a court hearing), were unconscionable by any human standard. Abrego Garcia has been treated worse than a dog — the people who did this to him and his family, and all those who support this inhuman behavior, should hang their heads in shame.
John Tietjen
Corvallis
Plugging the Launch
I was born and raised in Eugene and I have lived most of my adult life here. I’ve read Eugene Weekly (both paper and online) since I was a teen. I like it and I value it. I plan to continue to read it as long as it’s published, and periodically continue to donate to it and support businesses that advertise in it.
I’m also very excited for Lookout Eugene-Springfield to launch. I plan to subscribe and read it online, because I believe that my hometown is only going to benefit from more local journalism, not less of it.
I hope my fellow residents will join me.
Whitney Donielson
Eugene
Reject HB 2403
I urge Oregon lawmakers to reject HB 2403, a bill that would allow the formation of predator control districts and use Oregonians’ taxes to pay into a federal program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that is misleadingly called Wildlife Services.
Wildlife Services has a long record of using cruel methods to kill wildlife at the behest of livestock owners, including traps, strangling snares, snares, shooting from helicopters and airplanes, and even gassing pups in dens. In 2023, Wildlife Services gassed 55 coyote and fox dens in Oregon. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, it can take between 14 and 48 minutes for a coyote to die this way.
Worse, the agency does not limit its actions to animals actually causing harm. Hundreds of animals can be wiped out simply for existing in the area. This is not responsible wildlife management or conflict reduction; it’s large-scale destruction.
Funneling funds to an agency known for using inhumane and indiscriminate killing methods is not the solution to wildlife conflicts. Native carnivores are a vital part of Oregon’s ecosystems. Instead of doubling down on outdated tactics, we should invest in modern, humane, and effective strategies for coexistence, such as those found in the Wildlife Stewardship Bill and Benton County’s Agriculture and Wildlife Protection Program.
HB 2403 is the wrong path forward. It’s expensive and cruel and a waste of precious tax dollars.
Jane Marsh
Eugene
The Message was Right On
A recent letter (EW 4/10, “Better Rally Vetting”) criticized a longtime union organizer for bringing up Democrats’ anti-worker, pro-genocide policies at the April 5 protest. The writer thought the speaker inadequately criticized Donald Trump. On the contrary, I was heartened to see a working class fighter highlighting the connection between Democratic politicians’ harmful policies and Trump’s return.
Do we really want to defeat this far-right billionaire movement? If so, remembering how we got here is good, actually! To me, the speaker’s point was that the Democrats are incapable of winning this fight. Like Republicans, they are owned by billionaires with many of the same interests.
They’ve capitulated on anti-immigrant and anti-trans rhetoric, setting the stage for Trump’s current attacks on immigrants and trans people. The incoming $1 trillion Pentagon budget is bipartisan, sending more bombs overseas while they deny their role in the unspeakable massacres in Gaza and elsewhere. Republicans will gladly gut social programs while Democrats performatively sigh, only to quietly continue the same policies. Our lives only worsen as we’re sold out for profit.
The cheers during this speech far overwhelmed the “scattered boos.” People are tired of the cognitive dissonance of voting blue-no-matter-who and hungry for seriousness in the midst of this insanity, not just performative hand-wringing.
We need a new system! The time for an independent working class movement is now. We can’t keep falling into electoral team sports as our country and world spiral into crisis, but instead need to unite and fight back!