We Didn’t Lose
Measure 20-373 didn’t lose — it was overwhelmed by a well-funded disinformation campaign financed by corporate interests that profit from the degradation and pollution of our environment. Follow the money. That alone should have raised serious questions for voters.
The fearmongering about an avalanche of lawsuits came straight from the corporate anti-environmental playbook. Similar laws exist around the world, and citizen lawsuits remain rare because environmental litigation is costly, complex and time-consuming. Very few people have the resources to pursue such cases.
These scare tactics were pushed by corporations that profit from Lane County’s natural resources while local communities and ecosystems bear the consequences. Many of the people funding the opposition don’t even live here. Why else would powerful interests like the Koch network invest so heavily against this measure?
And contrary to misinformation spread during the campaign, neighbors could not sue neighbors. The measure clearly applied to harms caused by corporations, government agencies and business entities — not individual residents.
Despite the outcome, our campaign was honest, tireless and community-driven. Volunteers showed up at public forums, organized events, knocked on doors and engaged voters across multiple platforms. Because of that work, more people than ever now support legal protections for the natural world.
We will not turn our backs on our watersheds or on the more than one-third of Lane County voters who supported the Rights of Nature initiative. We are obligated to future generations, and honored to protect Lane County’s precious watersheds. We won’t/don’t give up.
Michelle Holman, a chief petitioner for Measure 20-373
Deadwood
Record Number of Police Complaints
It seems like this Officer Martin Siller thing happened during a perfect storm. The scandal broke, the public reacted, the auditor published their annual report and then the community reacted.
The facts seem clear. 2025 had a record number of police complaints. Chief Chris Skinner is moving us in the wrong direction. Siller’s body camera footage gave us a small peek into the culture at EPD. It’s sickening to think that Siller was co-workers for years with people like Officer Christopher Drumm, who pled guilty to official misconduct for raping women at gunpoint while on duty, or Officer Joshua West, who pled guilty to strangling his girlfriend while off duty. These men enable each other.
EPD feels like a toxic mess. Each new offense builds on the last, and anger will keep building until the pressure valve is released. EPD needs to get their house in order. Leadership change seems like the best path if we want Eugene to move on from the culture of Siller and Skinner.
Lena Kartzov
Eugene
Bike Lanes Not Enough
As another life-long bicycle commuter, I thought I’d write in to agree with Darin Henry (May 7) about the fantastic bike lanes we have here in sunny Eugene. I read his letter while sharing a cup of coffee with an NPR story about city surveillance cameras, after which I hopped on my trusty steed and pedaled up Pearl Street to the Safeway.
Heading back home on High Street, I was coasting up to the red light at 13th in the two-way bike lane. I knew there was a cop in a black SUV in my mirror, and when he rolled up beside me, I figured he was just slowing for the light like I was.
Next thing I know, he’s cutting across my lane and pulling into the convenience mart. It wasn’t until his front tires were across the sidewalk that he turned on his left blinker. To borrow from The Great Man himself, I am not making this up.
Having survived that, I continued on my way, but I didn’t get very far. I was half a block from The Shedd when I saw a car take a left off of Broadway onto High Street (the wrong way, not that it matters) and into the bike lanes. As she proceeded toward me she was waving at me through her windshield, smiling ear to ear and pointing to the parking lot, which I guess was supposed to make it OK.
All of this got me to thinking about Henry’s letter and his comment about “protected bike lanes.” Those concrete dividers are nice and all, but nothing can protect us from ourselves.
And don’t get me started on those surveillance cameras . . .
Leo Muzzy
Eugene
Fish Folly
On the May 7 cover, the picture seems to show the kitchen manager breading raw fish by tossing it right on a prep table? Hopefully, this was just done to get a good photo?
Rick White
Creswell
Saturday’s Farmers Market
I believe it was last year a Saturday Market spokesperson, who included the Farmers Market, said they were “disability friendly,” but that doesn’t seem to be the current situation.
I figure I can walk maybe 300 feet, which means I can no longer go to the Farmers Market on Saturdays for their wonderful fresh vegetables and now fresh strawberries, and not even able to drop someone off there as the roads are all blocked.
I am aware there are legitimate complaints from vendors that car exhaust from cars parking next to their space was too much, but now the cars are not able to come closer than a two- or three-block radius.
Betty Vail
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Salt Lake City’s Tornado
Here’s a story about the deadly tornado in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1999, during the Outdoor Retail Convention. My husband and I were helping to set up the tents, we were whitewashing the booths in the second tent when a young man yelled out, saying that a tornado was coming towards the tents. Sky and I started to run kitty corner towards the Salt Lake Convention Center with some vendors. We all stopped and said, “But we don’t have tornadoes in Salt Lake.” The young man yelled out again, so we continued to the convention center. We felt the tornado and ran as we could. My husband turned around cause he had never seen one, and it floated him towards the door. I ran into the center, turned around to see it too, when a security officer yelled out to get away from the glass windows and duck behind some booths. Sky and I survived all of this, but other workers that were setting up in a tent were affected as it totally wiped it out. Some of the workers were injured, but none of them died. A vendor from Las Vegas was killed because a window pane from the Delta Center cut off his head. When I had returned to our house, my daughter ran up to me and gave me a hug, crying but extremely happy that we didn’t get hurt.
Boy, we had quite a story to tell of our survival.
LuAnn Davini
Springfield
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