You Signed the Waiver

I have been following the Oregon ski resort dilemma, it’s not great for the winter recreational people and mountain workers. A small handful of people have won settlements even though they knowingly signed waivers to ski at their own risk. I totally agree if the mountains have avalanche risks that aren’t mitigated properly or chair lifts that are not maintained that fail, that should be on the mountain resorts’ responsibility, but honestly anything else should be on the skiers’ risks. Some people want life bubble wrapped and that just doesn’t work for certain inherent risks. Oregon is relying on the last insurer from what I understand and the next settlement that wins could break the camel’s back, bringing down winter recreation for the people that understand this. Signed, a frustrated snowboarder. 

Josh Arreola

Eugene

Who is ICE?

Who are the ICE employees? If you talk to the average ICE employee, it is a given that the masked wonder has a low IQ! The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi “Puppy Killer” Noem, especially looks for high school dropouts — hired! The ICE employee has an edge to be hired if they are a Proud “Little” Boy! An ICE applicant is hired immediately if they can spell — KKK or white supremacy or Christian nationalist, the ICE masked wonder who is willing to tackle an old Hispanic woman and if she tries to get up and has no problem shooting tear gas in her face — hired! It’s a shoo-in if an ICE employee doesn’t hesitate to break a Hispanic car window and drag the driver out of the car and plant a knee in the back — all the while there is a hysterical crying baby in the back of the car — hired! The ICE employee who is willing to break up a hard-working immigrant family and laughs — hired! The ICE employee who can snatch a young college student off the street and send her back to Venezuela without due process — hired! Once an ICE employee is hired, they receive an official “I’m a Thug Diploma!” My dad fought the Nazis in Europe during WWII for four long, brutal years to stop the spread of fascism and was wounded four times! Can history repeat itself? You bet, especially when we have a 34 felon draft-dodging coward running this country. ICE OUT!

Note: This might be a bit too harsh and the ICE thugs carry guns! What do you think? 

Frank Harper

Springfield

High School Memories

I saw Oklahoma! at South Eugene High School in 1958 or so. Curly was played by our future governor, Neil Goldschmidt. And I think Judd was played by Tim Hardin, who later wrote “If I Was a Carpenter” and “Reason to Believe.” If my memory serves me well. But, hey, that was a long time ago and I may be wrong.

Diane Albino

Marcola, Oregon

Proud ‘Anti-Crypto Bro’

I’m writing as a proud local “anti-crypto bro,” because Eugene deserves a clear warning: Coinbase and Crypto.com have both applied for national trust bank charters. If approved, these companies would get to wrap themselves in federal credibility without taking on the basic responsibilities every real bank must meet.

These companies have long records of compliance failures, privacy violations and enforcement actions from regulators in the United States and abroad. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition lays out page after page of these problems in formal opposition comments to both applications.

Nothing in that record suggests they’re ready to handle other people’s money under the banner of a federally chartered institution.

A national trust charter would let them manage customer funds and move money through the financial system while sidestepping essential consumer protections. There would be no deposit insurance, no community reinvestment obligations, and no expectation that they support places like Eugene. But there would be a shiny “bank-like” label that misleads the public into thinking their money is safer than it really is.

At a time when crypto fraud is exploding and elders are losing their savings to scams tied to these platforms, granting them federal charters would be reckless.

We should not accept crypto companies trying to dress themselves up as banks. Regulators should reject both applications.

Kevin Cronin

Eugene

Warehousing Inequality

Permitting decisions should be driven primarily by two criteria — class war and long-term environmental impact.

The same number of parcels will be delivered in Eugene-Springfield and the question is who’s going to deliver them. Let’s assume Amazon is a large fraction but far from the only source. 

Amazon operations in Eugene-Springfield lag their operations in most of North America. In most cities, Amazon is ending use of USPS and UPS, shifting to Amazon fleets and Amazon Flex gig drivers.

Amazon deliveries in E/S are still mostly USPS and UPS, but increasingly come via Amazon vans from their hub in Corvallis. Obviously, they plan their nationwide pattern of operating their own distribution hub in North Eugene. This will be highly automated and integrated with their legendary global logistics system. In the long run, nobody will work there and the deliveries will be Amazon Flex. 

USPS gets Amazon parcels at the post offices, such as 97405 at 34th/Willamette. UPS gets them at their Irving Road/NW expressway hub. But they both have their own entire distribution and sorting systems serving thousands of shippers. For example, eBay shipped $75 billion in 2024.

So, if the same number of parcels will be ordered by online shoppers in E/S, then how and by whom should they be carried? IMO, Amazon is such a menace that the warehouse should be blocked as an act of strategic necessity and political and social wisdom. We’re all going to end up as minimum wage gig workers, following instructions from robots.

Todd Boyle

Eugene

ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS

Peace

Veterans For Peace has a T-shirt with  the sayings of Dwight D. Eisenhower, general of the Army, with the words:

“I HATE WAR as only a soldier who has lived it can, as only one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

There is another quote, this time from another general of the Army, General Douglas MacArthur:

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.”

Imagine that the savings, say, of one fourth of the military’s budget was directed, instead, toward early childcare, fully funding K through 12th grade, health care issues, etc.

Michael E. Peterson

Eugene