Coping Today
Spending time in the forest helps me with stress and keeps life in perspective. Being mindful. Just listening, watching, smelling, just being. Nature is therapy.
Sue Bitterling
Eugene
See the Portland Frog
The generals and admirals feel humiliated, the soldiers aren’t getting paid and all the armed forces are simmering with righteous anger.
But do we really want a military coup?
I for one would rather look to the Portland Frog for redress.
Bill Smee
Eugene
Is There a Permit for This?
Why did the organizers of the Oct. 18 march/demonstration decide not to apply for a permit?
When as many as 20,000 people (including children and vulnerable adults) will be out in the street, it seems dangerous and provocative to have made this decision.
I was looking forward to being there with my granddaughter, but not now.
Susan Matthews
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We reached out to rally organizers, who tell us they are building a social movement based on civil resistance, which by definition involves noninstitutional actions.
Special Thanks to EW
In an EW survey a while ago, I mentioned that I missed “Katewy Cube,” and what do I find this week but Jade Wilkerson’s “Break Time” — a great comic in a similar vein! Thank you, Jade and EW!
Mark Zorn
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We don’t know what “Katewy Cube” is — we used to run “Something Eug” by Dan Pegoda — but agree Jade is great!
Swallowed Up by Big Health Care
After reading current magazines like The Economist and medical research journals, I must commend the grassroots organization Healthcare for All Oregon (HCAO) for taking on the health care challenges of accessibility, cost and quality care.
HCAO is working to provide Oregonians with the skills and resources to make informed decisions about their health and well-being by creating a single payer system. Innovation and improvement, with an emphasis on preventive care and maintenance of good health, are needed for the current health crisis, which often leaves many people uninsured or under-insured and having to use expensive reactive care (ER, Urgent Care).
Unfortunately, “equity companies” often provide funds to buy out local health clinics and hospitals so for-profit corporations (insurance companies) dictate or restrict the health care costs and performance of care without the input of doctors, nurses and other care providers. Ideas and suggestions are welcomed by the governance board of HCAO as they draft the new health care system.
At this time rural clinics are in danger of closing, medical research funds are being halted, and insurance premiums and drug prices are going up drastically. We need to avoid the staggering economic burden of health care by creating a better system that works for everyone.
Janet Brougher
Eugene
There is Some Overlap
Thank you, conservative Jerry Ritter (EW Letters, 10/9), for listing some of the right’s misconstrued beliefs about liberals.
You’re right, DJT is such an inept, lying, scammer, he makes Bush II look like a boy scout. CAHOOTS is necessary. The police department is not equipped to be street psychologists. Enforcement of the immigration laws to deport criminals instead of harassing and traumatizing citizens is what we all want. Law enforcement is funded as per the needs of each city. No one wants defunding.
People don’t “choose” their sexual identity. That’s biology, and no one is forcing any changes. Just like no one is being forced to abort a pregnancy.
You know where we’d be without DEI? Medieval England? Saudi Arabia?
Twenty million dollars on a city hall? Maybe prudence is in order.
I’m glad you agree on surveillance overreach. As you being a person who believes in small government, that’s a positive indication that you are maybe inclined to work with those of us that believe society is a “village” and not an “ism” ruled by corporations or an elite monied class from the top down.
Don’t look up.
Annie Kayner
Eugene
What’s Up, EW?
Wow. One of the best music shows to hit McDonald Theatre this year, and the Weekly doesn’t have a story, a blurb — hell, not even an advertisement for it? Amigo the Devil and Lucero definitely deserve better than that!
John Arredondo
Eugene
Editor’s Note: We try to get it all in (and all events are in our free What’s Happening calendar). We try to prioritize local events and events folks may not know about. Advertising is always an available option for anyone looking to promote their events.
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Waiting on Their Next Sinecure
As if it’s not enough that Republicans in the House and Senate show no interest in performing their duty to act as an independent branch of the U.S. government, what is equally disturbing is that the White House staff is failing us miserably as well.
During past administrations we expected the people who worked with the president daily to help the chief executive act presidential. Yesterday, when the president couldn’t even correctly identify the gender of U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, it was obvious that no one saw fit to brief the president before his embarrassing comments. His staff is merely a gaggle of lazy ticket-punchers mailing it in and waiting for their next sinecure at Fox News or some other right-wing misinformation outlet, content with being merely overpaid spectators at the spectacle that this administration has become.
John Tietjen
Corvallis
Hunger on Campus
No student should go hungry. And yet, that is the reality for far too many students on our college campuses throughout Oregon and throughout the United States. This is even crazier to think about when we consider the amount of food we throw away in Oregon. In 2022 alone, Oregon threw away enough food to line garbage trucks up I-5 from the southern border to the northern border twice. That is far too much food being wasted when so many people are going hungry.
Much of that food is produced by large food producers, and when thrown away, it is actually still safe to eat. By diverting that thrown-away food to food banks when still safe to eat, and compost systems when not, we would not only continue our battle against climate change, but also feed those in need.
I have been working on this campaign for the past year with OSPIRG Students, and through my conversations with students and people in Oregon, I know that this is an issue that students’ basic needs need to be addressed by our decision makers. Being able to afford textbooks and meals is a struggle far too many students deal with daily, and it is up to our decision makers to take charge of tackling this issue.
Kali Kleven, OSPIRG Students
Eugene
Voices Will be Heard
I want to set the record straight on the “disruptive” tactics used by anti-genocide protestors at Sen. Ron Wyden’s recent town hall, per the letter from Karen Myers (EW online letters, 10/2).
Several questions on various topics were asked and answered without interruption. But we anti-genocide protestors called it out and made ourselves heard when Sen. Wyden misrepresented his policies regarding Israel, misrepresented the scope of carnage engineered by Israel, or resorted to racist stereotypes about Palestinians. Which was any time he opened his mouth on the topic. This was “good trouble,” as John Lewis would say, and I couldn’t be more proud of the other troublemakers in the auditorium that day.
Myers suggested that loudmouthed Jews like me shouldn’t interrogate our elected senator. But I must use my voice because Wyden has participated in a modern Holocaust, thereby betraying principled Jews like me who believe that “never again means never again.” Wyden serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he has voted to send absurd amounts of money and weapons to Israel without condition for decades, he has voted against the recent Block the Bombs Act, and in return, he has accepted $1,280,376 from pro-Israel groups in his career (OpenSecrets.org). He absolutely is the person we should be yelling at to change his policies or resign.
Myers wants bad Jews like me to only go where our voices can be ignored. If you cared at all about the scores of Palestinians being murdered every day with our weapons and money, you would have used your voice, too.
Geoffrey Gordon
Eugene
Profits on Everything Now
I agree with Lou Sinniger (EW Letters, 10/2). The July-August edition of Mother Jones magazine has an investigative article on the damage that private equity funds are doing to our health care system. They are parasites who do not care if they kill their hosts. I am hoping that our state legislature has the power to limit their activities.
The article mentioned that the next cash cow that they tend to invade is children’s sports activities. As long as I can remember, nonprofit organizations such as Kidsports organized sports activities for children with every cent of the fees charged used for the benefits of the kids.
Recently, I have been noticing lawn signs for i-9sports.com. If you check out their website, you will find that it is in business not for the kids, but to make a profit. If you sign your child up to this organization, some of your fees will be siphoned off for profit.
I don’t know what kind of salesmanship they are using. Please ask yourself how it will benefit you to sign your child up to a profit making organization.