Give Me My Damn Ballot!
Demond Hawkins’ viewpoint (‘Disengagement is Dangerous’) last week articulated my frustration with a disappointingly large percentage of eligible voters in this country who squander away the right to cast a vote. I have voted in every election, local and national, since I was 18 thereby poking a finger into the eye of would-be authoritarians and keeping our feeble democracy alive. Those who are jaded somehow expect change in government to happen overnight. History demonstrates that change in systems takes time. It takes generations! Give Us The Ballot by Ari Berman should be required reading for all high schoolers. Local elections are even more important. Springfield voters check out Callee Ackland for Springfield City Council on the upcoming November ballot. She represents a younger generation, is a veteran and will be an advocate for productive housing policies.
Chava Kronen
Eugene
Trump of Lane County?
Thank you for the informative article (‘Money Like Water,’ EW June 11 edition) on Kathy Jones-McCann’s many, varied and so far successful attempts at eluding her share of fiscal and moral responsibilities to the community and land from which she has acquired her great wealth.
Her hubris is impressive.
I am left with only one question (or possibly two:) Who does she think she is? Donald Trump?
Linda Seymour
Eugene
‘Access Bridge’ to the Truth
Lauds and plaudits for Christian Wihtol for investigative journalism (EW June 11 edition) at its finest: a precise, well-researched, comprehensive expose of Kathy Jones-McCann’s illegal constructions on the McKenzie River, coupled with her “super-sized” contributions to two Lane County commissioners’ recent reelection campaigns for “the good of all Lane County citizens” according to McCann (insert eye-roll here).
No building permits, no septic approval, no fire-vehicle access road, no property taxes assessed and paid on structures built three years ago.
Perhaps procuring Lane County Commissioners Ryan Ceniga and David Loveall’s votes in favor of McCann’s land-use appeal could turn those noes into yeses. Just a thought. Sure looks like uber-rich white privilege behavior echoing the Trumpian world view: Rules and Laws Don’t Apply to Me.
Also, McCann’s lawyers’ arguments that the back-water channel is not part of the river doesn’t hold water. Kind of like calling a “war” just a “short-term excursion.”
Thanks to a whistle-blowing neighbor and to Wihtol’s excellent reporting, McCann’s chicanery is no longer hidden from public view. We citizens of Lane County now have a veritable “access bridge” to the truth and let’s hope, to justice.
Karen Myers
Eugene
Response to Embezzlement Critic
Mark Weintraub felt inclined to side with the convicted embezzler, so I felt compelled to respond for the rest of us reasonable people. We as a community almost lost a paper that we all love. It serves to weave the fabric of our culture with news and humor and does so at no cost to the reader. The Weekly is one of the last vestiges of original Eugene culture and to lose it would be heartbreaking. You are able to write in, have your opinion heard, and see all of the happenings through this media. How could you stand with someone who almost took it away?
Our society and country cannot afford to play sympathy cards for those who work to tear apart our nation piece by piece, theft by theft. People who commit crimes must be brought to justice and serve as a reminder for the rest of us that there are consequences for our actions.
Weintraub jumped on his soapbox to wag his finger at EW for seeking justice for their losses. I invite you to house thieves. Reform them yourself. Be the change.
It is beyond disappointing that the kleptocracy we live in is so ripe with sympathizers on all sides and I can see the spiral of destruction that awaits us. When did it become OK to be a thief?
Chad Wiest
Eugene
Eugene Clean Energy Fund
There is something about gathering signatures that people view as having the plague. Signature gathering is what dozens of volunteers are doing in order to get a proposed city of Eugene measure on the November ballot.
If passed, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund (ECEF) would place a surcharge of 2 percent on the gross profits of local big box stores that make more than $1 billion nationally and $500,000 locally but would exclude basic groceries, medicines, garbage, recycling, and health care services. The estimated $15 million a year generated would be invested back into the community through four grant areas: 60 percent into renewable energy and efficiency programs for households, 25 percent into creating clean energy jobs, 10 percent into green infrastructure projects, and 5 percent into future innovations.
The ECEF would assist renters and homeowners in weatherization improvements, window replacements, ducting for heating and cooling upgrades making energy bills more affordable for utility customers. The fund would create training and education for electricians, HVAC and heat pump installers, building energy auditors, solar, battery and electric vehicle infrastructure maintenance technicians.
Most importantly, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund would help reduce the city’s carbon footprint within the community in an equitable, social and economic process while transitioning off of polluting fossil fuels and meeting the goals of the Climate Recovery Ordinance. Signing this petition may be the easiest individual effort you can do to help Eugene fight climate change and to help yourself.
Jim Neu
Eugene
Affordable?
Housing is not a crisis of affordability, but of expectation and supply. All rentals and purchases are affordable since all get voluntarily rented or sold. Wanting a castle at the price of a hovel is a personal crisis of expectation, not a failure of the market. Demanding someone else pay for it is a personal crisis of adultism, not a failure of capitalism. Either lower desires, increase means, and/or relocate. More supply results in lower prices. Ignoring this does not alter market supply/demand reality. Private contractors are motivated to build when rents/sales less build-costs yields better profit than investing elsewhere. Half the cost to build and operate housing is bureaucratic regulations and taxation; $200K of the typical $400,000 home. Some regulation is healthy and a few taxes needed, but these have become smotheringly excessive. With private demotivated, let’s have public agencies build/subsidize construction. But bureaucracies feed themselves and buddies first, resulting in public efforts costing two to five times more. People pay that cost in higher taxes and lower freedoms. Only by keeping bureaucracies small can we keep their inherent negative effects minimal. Every agency is a business with a mandate to grow, taking profits out through payroll, corruption and privileges. It loves those who say “government should fix this,” approve in Lane County 67 percent of tax measures, and refuse to become politically involved. Making housing expensive was caused by our agencies and they are using it to further grow in size, power and profit.
Keith Stanton
Florence
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Not this Time, EPL
I’m a fervent library advocate, volunteered for many years, first in the internet room at the old library, then spent a summer doing the RFID conversion. I taught my kids to shelf read. Last year I crafted a women history month display for the children’s room.
I remember the night the new library opened. The whole family walked two miles to admire the new facility. Something in the elevator triggered the smoke alarm. My autistic first born soiled themself in terror; COVID caught me with three books. I remember booking my first holds pickup, lining up at the window carefully distanced.
I’m a frugal Benthamite, alter-abled resident of the Whiteaker since 2001. It’s time for Eugene to live within a budget. UO, 4J, LCC all have humongous deficits. Fire fees, stormwater fees, library levies — it’s time to meet as neighborhoods, rank priorities, close the library on Mondays and Tuesdays. LCC and UO should slash administrative budgets, offer unprofitable majors remotely. The trickle down from the policies of the kakistocracy matters more than what we citizens want.
Joi Cardinal
Eugene
Fuel-Efficient Driving
Fuel-efficient driving can largely be summarized with:
slow enough starts
slow enough stops
driving under the speed limit
and vehicle maintenance
— pjbabysteps
Parker Maidlow
Eugene
PeaceHealth Behavioral Health Unit
I am writing this letter to raise awareness about the treatment of mentally ill and traumatized individuals within the so called “trauma-informed” Behavioral Health Unit at PeaceHealth.
I recently spent 24 hours in this unit and witnessed vulnerable people being treated in deeply concerning and dehumanizing ways. Patients were repeatedly dismissed when expressing basic needs, ignored during moments of emotional distress, and treated more like problems to manage than human beings deserving dignity, compassion and care. When individuals became upset or emotionally triggered, staff responses often felt punitive rather than supportive.
Despite the unit identifying itself as “trauma-informed,” staff members could not clearly explain what trauma-informed training they had received or identify who provided that training. Multiple staff members stated only that “PeaceHealth” trained them or that each employee receives different training. This lack of consistency, accountability and transparency is alarming in a unit serving people in acute mental health crisis.
As a trauma-informed care educator, I was horrified by both what I witnessed and how I was personally treated while experiencing a mental health crisis. I am calling for comprehensive, standardized trauma-informed care training for all Behavioral Health Unit staff. Vulnerable community members deserve genuine trauma-informed care rooted in safety, respect, compassion and humanity.
Mental health facilities should never operate through fear, intimidation, dismissal or emotional neglect. People seeking help during their most vulnerable moments deserve compassionate treatment that recognizes trauma, preserves human dignity and prevents further psychological harm within clinical environments.
Tonya Valadez
Eugene
Our People Don’t Know the Difference
Recently on daytime TV’s The View, America’s popular lady commentators glorified the N.Y. Knicks’ appearance in the NBA Finals like it was the answer to all America’s problems.
They do not understand that professional sports detract from the breadth and depth of citizen study and action necessary to deal with Democracy’s Final Hour in America.
America’s evangelical Christians wring their hands about marital adultery all the while ignoring adultery against the U.S. Constitution.
Pistol Pete Hegseth goes to France to remember D-Day and instead lectures Euro nations about the need to stop the “invasion” of immigrant freedom-seekers to their shores. Which is more important Pete, stopping fascism or stopping people of color from obtaining a better life?
America worries about gay marriage, when ordinary heterosexual marriage and attendant child-birthing and child-rearing have been going down the tubes for decades for reasons having nothing to do with homosexuality.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
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