Money, Politics and More Money in Letters
There was a woman in need of help downtown last night. She was leaning on a wall, spaced out in a way normally only seen at terrible music festivals. She seemed confused, and fell down badly when she stood on her own. Some punks and I tried to help her up, but she was upset and couldn’t stand without lightly tackling the people trying to get her out of the road. She didn’t know where she was and wanted to go home. When I got in touch with emergency services, no one could help because she didn’t explicitly ask for an ambulance. And because she wasn’t a danger to property, they wouldn’t send the police. If only there was a program that wasn’t the police or ambulances who specialized in crisis assistance and helping out on the streets. Oh well.
Dylan Cianci
Eugene
Hey City Council
What Eugene City Council member handles Ward 7? Whomever that is should drive out to River Road and view the homeless on the streets that no one cares about. That person should check out the walls of the overpass that are several colors of grey and perhaps consider appointing an artist to do murals on those walls to add some beauty to the area. All you need to do is supply the paint!
Ward 7 needs some help!
Marlene Pearson
Eugene
This Modern World
I truly hope that, when the Trump regime mercifully ends in January 2029, that Tom Tomorrow will publish a book of every edition of This Modern World.
It’s the No. 1 piece in the EW that I look forward to each and every week (besides the letters.)
Ben Brown
Eugene
More Water Money
Regarding “Money Like Water” (EW June 11 edition). The “bogs” are vital wetlands ecosystems that purify water via “hydraulic connectivity.” Wetlands ecosystem loss is more like losing a kidney. Unpermitted failed septic systems are an example of why setback laws were enacted. There clearly wasn’t due diligence for the McMansion vanity project. Setbacks could have been followed, likewise, the fire road. The bridge is absurd. The increased impact doesn’t mitigate the damage already caused. Her lawyer wants it both ways, “it’s common knowledge that streams move over time,” and it’s the county’s fault for not having expensive mapping done yearly. Apoplectic complaints about government waste would be almost automatic. If Jones-McCann and her ilk paid their fair share of city, county, state and federal taxes, our governments would be better off.
I’m curious. Out of the 28 acres, was it the only usable site? If wetlands are worthless, why the swamp-front property? Do you agree with ‘legally’ paying off politicians to retroactively get building permits? Is she above the law? Is it acceptable to shirk environmental ethos and tax responsibilities? How much did she cheat the county out of? Does the 96’ long wall alter the floodplain so her neighbor’s first homes get flooded instead of her second? Obviously no hydrology impact study was done so who knows? Do you think she should start over? Will you tell the Lane County commissioners that you support demolition of the illegal structures, payment of back taxes and a hefty fine?
Kevin W. Cook
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Profit
Your Rolex, your BMW with the Gandalf bumper sticker, even this morning’s latte are the result of science. Everything you put on or in your body is based on science. Fire, stone knives and furs, early science, brought us as a species to this level of understanding.
The medium you’re reading on now, the electricity that powers it, your air conditioned environment all are the result of our species’ curiosity. We take these comforts for granted; meaning we accept them as truths.
Creation is on-going. Our species is not the end result in spite of our collective ego. Our Creator is the ultimate scientist. It/She/He is a physicist that left us with billions of theoretical commandments — electromagnetism, gravity, the Krebs’ Cycle are just a few that we’ve somewhat figured out.
Our theories about the natural world are just that, theories. Rigorous testing and objective observations of these concepts give us the science to create the comforts on which we rely.
Sadly, our current administration is subjective about any science that might possibly interrupt the existing business model. Instead, we have climate change and the tragedy of the commons.
Michael Foster
Eugene
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Reality
The Declaration of Independence promises every American three unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nearly 250 years later, the question isn’t whether those words are inspiring. The question is: How are we doing?
The answer is uncomfortable.
On life, Americans spend more on healthcare than any other nation, yet we die younger and lose more infants than citizens of many democracies.
On liberty, we cherish free speech and constitutional rights, yet we imprison a larger share of our population than almost every other democracy.
In the Pursuit of Happiness, we work longer hours, receive no guaranteed paid vacation, tolerate higher poverty and greater inequality, and we rank below many of our democratic allies in overall happiness.
Meanwhile, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and other democracies consistently outperform us. Their citizens live longer, their babies survive at higher rates, they enjoy more vacation time, experience less poverty and corruption, and report greater life satisfaction — all while remaining prosperous, innovative and free.
This isn’t about copying another country’s system. It’s about having the courage to admit that America no longer leads the democratic world in many of the values we claim define us.
Patriotism isn’t pretending we’re No. 1. Patriotism is demanding that we become Number One.
If we measured success by the ideals etched into our nation’s birth certificate — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — we wouldn’t be celebrating. We’d be asking why so many democracies are doing a better job of delivering the American Dream than America itself.
Michael T. Hinojosa
Drain
Lessons of Resistance
The corporate-financed defeat of the Watershed Bill of Rights, revelations of BLM malfeasance in local timber sales, and the Interior Department’s rash repeal of regulatory safeguards — like the “Roadless Rule” — indicate not only that our forests face new perils but that environmental activists must reconceive fundamental concepts underpinning their work.
Americans’ cherished love of wilderness for wilderness’ sake, the belief that it heals and elevates the soul . . . now clash with a federal government and public institutions that’ve been captured by Wall Street banks and extractive corporations — logging, mining, drilling — who have no qualms about destabilizing the climate, threatening public welfare, fouling rivers with silt and toxins, and ignoring science that concludes intact, biodiverse wildlands are essential to the material well-being of human communities.
In other words, our Oregon has been colonized, again — as happened to Native Americans 150 plus years ago — by interests both dangerous to our lives and hateful to our values. Our experience now also resembles that of other populations blighted by corporate neo-colonialism around the world, in Amazonia, the Niger Delta, West Papua and other places.
It is thus serendipitous that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the successful blockade at Warner Creek. Oregon must emulate the strategies and tactics employed there, and in similar regions ravaged by extraction: non-violent direct action; surveillance of extractive sites; and legal and political mobilization. Corporate neo-colonialism respects no law except power. However, for now, considerable power still rests with the American people. Seize it!