It’s Insidious
It is scary to me that anyone on the Lane County Commission board is injecting Christianity into county meetings (EW, 8/14). The boundaries between “state” and religion are very important.
Thank you for publishing about this insidious takeover.
Debby Phillips
Eugene
Look at the Complexities
We write in response to the article entitled “The Art of Politics,” written by Bob Keefer (EW, 7/31). We passionately believe in freedom of speech and artistic expression, and we believe that criticizing the acts of a foreign government are legitimate political protest. As an art reporter, Keefer did a fine job of framing Cassy Steuerwald’s experience. Our concern is that so little media attention and concern has been directed toward the repeated targeting of Dean Adrian Parr Zaretsky.
Jews are not a monolith, and many of us have grave concerns about the current government of Israel, particularly in regard to Gaza. We are united in our belief that targeting Jews in the diaspora and holding them responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is not legitimate political protest; it is antisemitism.
What Keefer’s article does not account for is that Parr Zaretsky has been targeted personally and repeatedly since the attacks on Israel Oct. 7, in ways that other University of Oregon officials and administrators have not. We suggest that her Jewish identity is implicated in this. In this time when our own government uses actual, assumed and invented antisemitism as an excuse to repress academic freedom, we urge the University of Oregon to take the threats against Parr Zaretsky seriously and do everything in its power to support her.
We ask Eugene Weekly and other local news organizations to expand their reporting to include the complexities of our current political discourse and the impact that they are having on real people.
Reisa Maddex, president, Temple Beth Israel; Caitlin Roberts, 1st vice president; Judy Boles, 2nd vice president; Diane Baxer, past president; trustees Elliott Farren; tova stabin; Kelly Menachemson
Eugene
Respect the River — it’s a Force
Two drownings at the Owosso Bridge in as many weeks. Two families devastated. Two tragedies that should remind us all of something we don’t like to admit: the river doesn’t play fair.
I grew up on a river. I’ve always been a strong swimmer, someone who respects both the thrill and the danger that comes with moving water. And I’ll tell you this plainly: that part of the Willamette is not safe. I wouldn’t raft it, float it or boat it — and I certainly wouldn’t swim or wade in it.
It’s deceptive. Water that looks calm isn’t. It takes just three inches of moving water — three inches — to knock a grown adult off their feet. And beneath that surface is a tangle of hidden hazards — metal, tree branches, debris — that can snag even a life preserver and hold someone under.
And we need to teach our kids this. They don’t inherently know. They see a hot day and a cool river, and it looks like fun. What they don’t see is how quickly that moment of fun can turn fatal.
This isn’t about fear. It’s about honesty. About respect. The river is a force of nature, and if we fail to acknowledge its power, it will remind us in the harshest of ways. Please, for your safety and for the people who love you, stay out of the water at Owosso.
Daniel Isaacson
Eugene
Cancel the Flock
Since May, a massive surveillance system has been implemented in Eugene, the largest in the city’s history. Since May, you have been watched everywhere you go, and your data shared with a myriad of law enforcement agencies and anyone that Flock wishes to share it with.
Do you remember when the public had a chance to comment on these cameras before their installation? Probably not, because that never happened. The unelected city manager, Sarah Medary, signed the contract in March. Hardly anyone on the city council or Eugene police commission knew about the Flock cameras before their installation. Your tax dollars (grant money from the state is tax dollars, at least partially) are now funding a dystopian surveillance network in Eugene that will need to be maintained and leased.
Mainstream media in Eugene have been firing off one Flock-aganda story after another, talking about how many crimes are being solved with these cameras. Questions are then to be asked: Does mass surveillance actually reduce or prevent crime? What could these crimes be? Are they all scary serial killers, gangs and retail theft rings, or could they be protesters, homeless people and poor families stealing food to survive? Does the 4th Amendment mean anything if we are constantly being spied upon?
Where does it stop? When the president is seizing police departments and the country is seeing the largest rightward shift since 2001, we don’t need more surveillance. Cancel the Flock contract now!
Kamryn Stringfield
Eugene
Yearning for Humanity
It occurs to me to send a postcard to my local ICE office, expressing my thoughts. I’m not really sure what I want to say, so I put pen to paper to see what happens. Here’s what arrives:
Dear Eugene ICE Agents,
Please know that my heart goes out to you as you carry out the difficult work of immigration enforcement in our community.
Not because resistance to your mission is so great, but because you are required to push so hard against the sacredness of your own humanity.
I yearn for you the freedom to show your faces, the natural goodness in the smile, in the eyes, in the relaxed and welcoming stance.
I yearn for the day, the moment, when you make the consequential choice to strip away the armor, the mask, reclaim your true humanity, and do useful things in this world with your one precious life.
Respectfully,
I can’t predict what will happen when I put pen to paper. I trust that it is always for the good.
Mary Sharon Moore
Springfield
The Power of Telepathy
I had a strange and mysterious event happen to me a few years ago. While riding a recumbent bike I became dizzy, it was the onset of vertigo. I decided that I needed to find an upright three wheeler — an adult trike.
For years I looked in bike stores and on-line for such a contraption. I would need an electrical assist to ride up the hill to my home. I never mentioned this to my older brother.
Two years ago while visiting my niece and her husband, I mentioned my dilemma.
“We have a bike like that stored in our garage,” my niece said. “My dad bought it online a few years ago, now he’s nearly 90 and not able to ride it, you can have it.”
When my niece showed me the trike I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was precisely the type of bike I’d been looking for.
I believe it was a form of telepathy. Does this phenomenon only exist between siblings? I don’t think so. Spouses seem to have telepathy, too.
In old-growth forests there is an interconnectedness between the above ground trees and the century’s old underground plant life and root systems. A symbiotic beneficial relationship.
Is it possible that human telepathy is a form of root system that also helps sustain and enrich human existence akin to the interconnectedness of our forests?
If we could only stop cutting down our old growth forests, would it help sustain them? If we could stop wars, would it help sustain the existence of the human race?