Eugene Has Codes
Like Michele Miller and Joe Blakely (EW Letters, 5/22), I have endured the loud and aggressive evangelical haranguers and harassers at the Saturday Market frequently the past two months. How delightful it was last Saturday, May 24, to hear the melodious strains of buskers and drummers, the happy tunes echoing from the Market Stage, and people chatting and laughing, enjoying the friendly and welcoming market ambiance.
And having researched the Eugene Municipal code concerning “Noise Disturbances — Specific Prohibitions” (Eugene.Municipal.Codes/EC/4.03), it’s clear that the amplified fire and brimstone harangues assaulting the ears of market goers and vendors is illegal and is, therefore, prohibited. In a nutshell, using sound producing, amplifying or reproducing equipment on public property or on a public right-of-way, unless authorized in writing, is prohibited and in violation of Eugene city ordinance.
Free speech at the Saturday Market? Use your voice, if you wish. Amplify it? Not allowed. Please don’t be snookered by some gobbledygook argument that “preachers” are exempt from the “no amplification” restriction.
All of you who treasure our Saturday Market and Farmers Market keep supporting our hardworking and talented vendors. And if the disrupters show up again, cite the city code about noise disturbances and insist that the Eugene police who are present shut down the loudspeakers. If the officers won’t, join me in filing a complaint with the city and the police department for non-compliance. Nobody is above the law.
Karen Myers
Eugene
Shop Local Grub
We should buy our travel grub where? Oh, local paper, wake up. Writer, editor, proofreader all missed a chance to say: Kiva, Sundance, Capella, Friendly Street (EW, 5/22). How strange to highlight corporate groceries. Even “Market of Too Many Choices” is Oregon and organic, local. Sigh.
Jackie Melvin
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We could not mention the local markets since the story was about Bend, but yes, we do try to highlight the local, so if any Bendites have suggestions, send them to Letters@EugeneWeekly.com!
You’re Outta Touch, We’re Outta Time
Much respect to Lynn Porter (EW Letters, 5/22). “Outta touch” again is the city. Seems to me the “Country Club” rules. From the bulldozing of old City Hall to letting our tax dollars go directly to landlords as public services were housed in rented buildings to the Parks and Recreation Department treated as an option — and so much more “self dealing.” Sad and “inhuman” effort. Key word: “inhuman.” Even the sun appears to agree. For as I typed key word the sun broke through the marine layer.
Mark Whitson
Eugene
The Erosion Within
The real threat to journalism may not be lawsuits or executive orders, but the erosion of journalistic integrity from within.
While faculty at the University of Oregon raise alarm about external attacks on journalism (EW, 5/22), I offer a different but equally urgent concern: journalism is collapsing from the inside out and has been for quite some time.
Too many journalism graduates today enter the field with ideological training that prioritizes narrative over neutrality. They struggle to present the facts plainly — to answer the simple, essential questions of who, what, when and where without layering in analysis, emotion or bias.
And the public notices.
According to Pew Research Center’s 2023 data, just 26 percent of Americans say they trust national news outlets. Meanwhile, we are witnessing the collapse of local journalism across the country — not just in newsroom closures and layoffs, but in the fading discipline of fact-based community reporting itself.
This loss of public confidence is not just regrettable; it’s dangerous. The First Amendment protects the right to report. But that right is squandered if journalists no longer see the line between truth-telling and advocacy.
We don’t need more commentary masquerading as news. We need a return to craft — the discipline of reporting facts clearly, objectively, and without ideological overlay. Journalism schools should be leading that charge, not abandoning it.
Stanley Fields
Eugene
Online Only Letters
Puff of an Airline Piece
I was more than simply disappointed to see your article on the ease of air travel from Eugene (EW online, 5/22). As I’m sure you’re well aware, leisure air travel is one of the few things that regular folks can easily eliminate in response to the climate catastrophe. Air travel, per the NOAA, is estimated to be a 3.5 percent contributor, and it’s something that we can quit, right now. Your article was a puff piece for that industry.
Jim Chaney
Veneta
Language Means Everything
I was disturbed by students protesting on behalf of Palestine disrupting the library at Columbia University, and I agree the university needs to enforce order for the sake of other students. However, what is most disturbing is the language used to distort the truth.
First, Marco Rubio refers to the protestors as “vandals,” and the university president referred to “violence and vandalism.” Yet nowhere do I read where any violence or vandalism took place. This is an attempt to mischaracterize a group of people who feel passionately and perhaps went beyond what was appropriate to demonstrate that in an attempt to smear them as evil or dangerous.
More importantly, House Speaker Mike Johnson stated, “America will no longer tolerate your antisemitic violence, destruction, harassment and intimidation,” and Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated, “Antisemitic mobs will no longer be tolerated,” equating demonstrating on behalf of Palestinians with being antisemitic. It is not. Demonstrating on behalf of an oppressed people who are under attack by a stronger power is not antisemitism, and I am sure the vast majority of pro-Palestinian protestors care about Jewish or Israeli people as much as they do about Palestinians. To characterize them as antisemitic is wrong, insulting and an attempt to distort the truth in order to demonize those one disagrees with.
It is important to counter these distortions. Standing up for people being killed is not antisemitism. It is the responsibility of all of us to care about and stand up for people who are being bombed, killed and starved.