Keep Baseball
We must keep the Eugene Emeralds in Eugene.
Joe R. Blakely
Eugene
DeName Them
Eugene has a park, school and street named after people who shouldn’t be honored: Westmoreland, Polk and Churchill.
William Westmoreland was commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968, then chief of staff of the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1972. Born in South Carolina, he was not only author of, but executed genocide against Vietnamese civilians as well as VC or NVA. In a war illegal under international law that killed over 3 million people, he was the guy.
Winston Churchill genocided 3 million people in India, and James Polk executed the U.S. invasion of Mexico in the 1840s.
These are complex histories. But Eugene should rename these three things just as most statues of Robert E. Lee have been removed across the U.S.
And have a public process to rename these places after people we actually love and respect!
Todd Boyle
Eugene
Open the Pools
Visit a public pool nearly anywhere else in the country, and you will find a vibrant community space full of life all day long. People from all walks of life go to the pool to play, swim laps, aquajog, sunbathe or simply hang out in the water, all together at the same time. Apart from one or two short sessions dedicated to lap swimming, most of our city’s pools are simply open or closed, end of story.
This may seem like anarchy to those used to the oddly regimented system of Eugene’s public pools, where you can’t simply go to the pool. Here, unless you are lap swimming, you must navigate a byzantine system of separated sessions, or risk being turned back at the gate. But the anarchy of most other public pools works out better than you may think. Lap swimmers still lap swim. Those who are not lap swimming generally stay out of their way. People self-organize and respect each other. This is what communities are all about.
I’ve been told that the reason for our oddly regimented system is a shortage of resources, particularly lifeguards. I would argue that the best way to make these limited resources work best for everyone, is to make them open to everyone. Free the pools. Take down the dividers. Let us play, exercise and hang out in the same pool, at the same time. It will be fun, I promise.
Billy Epting
Eugene
To Protect with Wisdom and Courage
For years, one of my favorite poems has been “The Future of Forestry.” I return to it not because it offers easy answers, but because it asks us to think about what we choose to protect before it is gone.
That question feels especially relevant as Eugene discusses the possibility of attracting large, big-box businesses and, heaven forbid, disastrous data centers that could cause irreparable harm to our local ecosystem.
This isn’t an argument against economic development. Communities need jobs, innovation and investment. But growth should never come at the expense of the very things that make a place worth living in.
Stewardship is about more than preserving trees. It is about protecting watersheds, wildlife, neighborhoods, public spaces and the quiet character of a community. It is about recognizing that some things simply cannot be rebuilt once they are lost.
Eugene has long defined itself by its relationship with the natural world. We are a city of rivers, wetlands, forests, trails and people who value them. As we weigh proposals that promise economic opportunity, we should also ask what they require of our land, our water and our future.
The poem reminds us that stewardship means protecting places that cannot speak for themselves until it is too late. It is a call to think beyond quarterly returns and election cycles toward the legacy we leave our children.
The future of Eugene should not be measured only by what we build, but by what we have the wisdom and courage to protect.
Sarah A. Koski
Eugene
Not OK Culture
Hello Eugene. I am a two-year resident of Eugene having lived in four other states. I have found a very different culture out here which I wasn’t expecting; some of it delightful and some of it disheartening. I call it the “It’s all good” culture — well I need to say, no, it’s not.
It is not OK to scream about folks having a right to live on the streets any way they want and beg on street corners. They need help not normalizing this crisis. It is not OK to allow violent sex offenders to run wild among us because they are “never med able.” It is not OK to ignore the amount of garbage everywhere. It is not OK to ignore the rules or laws because everyone is supposed to “just be kind.”
It is OK to expect the enforcement of rules and laws in schools, gyms, stores, roads and on private property. Sadly, our president has condoned lawlessness which I see every day seeping into our lives with rule breaking and callous behavior (i.e. blowing smoke out of truck exhaust at the Pride celebration) and I know many of you would agree Donald Trump should be in jail. But lawlessness in the name of individual freedom hurts the majority who also have a right to peaceful, clean, safe and aesthetically pleasing surroundings; that uplifts all. So in short, I guess there are some cultural differences I find out here that are just not OK with me.
Patricia Wack
Eugene
Thanks, Coyote Steel
Pass along my huge thank you to Coyote Steel of Eugene for me. They sponsored this year’s Rust photography contest at the 2026 Lane County Fair, and I won their contest with an older photo.
My Rust entry came to mind because I thought it had the clarity where your eyes could feel the textures of the rust. Apparently, so did the judges. I not only won a blue ribbon for first place, but they awarded me $200 for my close up of a rust-covered 1950s GMC truck front end.
That photo was taken in Jasper when I toured a “rest home for older vehicles.” I thought it would fit right in the Rust contest, so I had it enlarged. Then I found a nice color mat for it. I entered it proudly on entry day, along with my other photography entries. Of course I had high hopes for all.
Visiting the opening day of th eLane County Fair, I was surprised by my win, and of course very delighted at the same time. The unforgettable photography coordinator, Kat Tabor of Eugene Weekly was also delighted for me and wanted to take my picture! She announced I had won $200 and added it’s the largest prize given at the fair. Yea me! What an honor and I‘ve got to say, that’s the most I’ve ever won for my photography hobby. Again, thank you, Coyote Steel for sponsoring the Rust Photo Contest.
Cynthia Branen
Marcola
Republican Steam
Don’t mind if I blow off some steam? Clearly, by now there should not be any doubt that the Republican Party has its head buried so deep up Trump’s ass that they wouldn’t know if the sun shines until their asses are on fire.
Christine Drazan being the next attempt to take Oregon from blue to red is perfectly fine with the over 300 mass shootings thus far this year. I see where her point is; and it’s perfectly normal for an owner of an AK-47 to follow the manufacturers’ instructions by loading as many bullets in the magazine and then kill as many people as possible with a single pull on the trigger. Her message is, “Hey… they’re just following the manufacturers’ instructions! And just think of all the jobs being created by the removal of all those people who were once employed.” And, think about the benefit of mass murder in reducing the population. We have less people flying in jets and driving gas guzzlers polluting the air we all breathe. Eventually, there won’t be a homeless population problem.
Their motto should be, “Lives Per Gallon.” Come to think of it — Republicans are the ultimate environmentalists. They are speeding up the reduction in populations everywhere via Trump and his deranged acolytes through the reduction of age expectancy.
Tom Baxer
Dexter
Who Really is Supporting DeSpain?
I recently found out that Monique DeSpain, running for Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, (Val Hoyle’s seat) controls at least three PACs. I found one, hybrid PAC WinRed, and started looking through it to see who was really giving her money and support. After 200 pages on my computer, out of 27,000-plus entries, it would appear that 99.9 percent of the donations are coming from outside of Oregon. I found maybe three in Oregon and they were for small amounts, less than $1000. Many entries were “earmarked” from other Republican election campaigns across the country. (Is this a Super PAC?) A majority of entries were for less than one dollar. Now why would someone give 0.9 cents to a campaign?
Obviously, these PAC’s are slicing and dicing the money they get from regular Republican folks across the country in order to manipulate the numbers for her! For “real leadership, not a career politician,” she sure knows all the tricks!
This really stinks! I have avoided PAC’s forever and now I finally understand why. This is how it has worked across the spectrum forever, and I don’t like it one bit! The whole process is slimy, and no wonder so many people are turning to progressives and the DSA these days. I’m right there too.
But the real question is why are almost no Oregonians supporting DeSpain? What does that say about her?
Robin Bloomgarden
Eugene
The Parasites
The word “parasite” originated from ancient Greek; parasitos — “one who eats at the table of another.” Interestingly, the antonym of parasite is host. In a host — parasite relationship, the host is weakened or eventually dies.
The opposite of parasitism is a mutually beneficial relationship. It relies on reciprocity, meaning the organisms involved give and receive fairly.
As an organism, the United States grew robustly only to be infested with parasites in less than 300 years. The list of bloodsuckers feeding on the American host body is lengthy: tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate subsidies, the military industrial complex, bloated government agencies, elected officials trading on Wall Street, etc.
Some parasites like mosquitoes, fleas and leeches are obvious. Others like malaria, Lyme disease, tape worms and parasitic brain-eating amoeba can severely weaken or kill the host.
Our country is sick. Its parasites have nearly bled the American people dry. The list of symptoms correlates to our citizen’s access to five basic human needs; air and water, food, shelter, health care and education.
Vote out the parasites! Vote in a governance that provides our population with a mutually beneficial relationship like promised in our Constitution.