On Westmoreland
I would just like to clear up a misunderstanding in the August 20 letter from Todd Boyle, who would like to see some Eugene landmarks renamed, including Westmoreland Park.
The Westmoreland name originated well before the Vietnam War and General William Westmoreland’s dubious tenure. In 1923, the city was about to annex a parcel of land to the southwest, and a realtor named W.B. (no, not D.B.) Cooper sponsored a contest to name the new neighborhood. A Mrs. G.W. Davis of 142 West 11th Avenue submitted five names, and pocketed the $5 prize for her nomination of “Westmoreland.”
I don’t know what inspired this suggestion, except possibly that there is a region so named in England, referring to the “land west of the moors.” In any event, the name became attached not only to the park but to numerous other entities in the neighborhood. I credit local genealogist Dawn Carlile for finding the relevant article in The Register-Guard archives when I posed this question in a history book written for the city.
Bruce Steinmetz
Eugene
White Noise
I’d wager there’s more gender and race stereotyping happening within the pages of the EW than in any other newspaper in these here parts. Case in point: In the August 27 edition, Black Girl From Eugene columnist Ayisha Elliot asserted, “White people align with those making decisions without the consent of the masses, because that latent control is useful to them and, honestly, it’s lazy.”
What is so disappointingly predictable, though, is that EW readers rarely, if ever, call out such nonsense. Is it lack of courage or are you “people” just being lazy again? Maybe James in the book of the same name had it pegged when he said “White people love feeling guilty.”
Dan Dizney
Eugene
Walk in the Meadow
I enjoyed Cynthia Lafferty’s Gardening column (Sept. 10) about native pollinators and wanted to share the wildflower garden at Madison Meadow with readers. If you walk along 22nd Avenue from Monroe to Jefferson in the Friendly Neighborhood, you can’t miss it, full of Douglas aster, goldenrod, blanket flower, a volunteer mullein and more.
Madison Meadow is a two-acre natural area owned by a non-profit for the public benefit, and we have been working with Lafferty’s Doak Creek Native Plant Nursery and other native plant nurseries for over 15 years.
I’d like to invite folks to walk through this small island of greenspace at 22nd and Madison in Eugene. Volunteers have planted over two dozen native trees and many native shrubs (often from Doak Creek) since raising the funds to purchase the land in 2008. The meadow is home to wildlife and welcomes visitors, from preschools to college classes, weddings to memorials, nature lovers looking for a little peace and children looking for a romp through the high grass.
The best way to learn more about Madison Meadow is to follow our well-worn paths, but you can also visit our website, MadisonMeadow.org, where you can find history, plant lists and some nice photos! Madison Meadow is truly an example of many people coming together to save and care for nature close to home.
Susan Jerde
Madison Meadow board member
Eugene
Is Hoyle Radical Enough for Reality Today?
Bob Warren’s August 27 letter supporting Val Hoyle for Congress downplays how environmental activism shaped ambivalent Democratic leaders like Hoyle and Peter DeFazio. A little history helps to understand this.
Both Hoyle and DeFazio initially ran afoul of conservationists, DeFazio at Warner Creek and Hoyle with the Jordan Cove Project. Hoyle lost the 2016 secretary of state primary because her vocal support of Jordan Cove alienated climate activists. She reversed course when DeFazio’s House seat came open in 2018, and after activists’ hard-fought campaign had already succeeded.
DeFazio, however, became a local hero despite initially criticizing the Warner Creek blockade. When angry forest defenders occupied his office, he didn’t call the cops. Instead, he leveraged the crisis to get President Bill Clinton to save Warner Creek from the axe. This brilliant move defined his career.
In 1996, DeFazio thus blazed a trail for Hoyle. Both resisted radical approaches to climate change and forest defense. Both supported the Roadless Rule, but neither wants the Roadless Rule to become federal law. Therefore, Hoyle can prevent MAGA from further plundering of public lands in 2026.
After all, what’s changed in 30 years?
Just the climate emergency, the length of fire season, the severity of droughts and wildfires, the automation of logging/milling, the scientific understanding of fire ecology, and the amount of corporate money and influence in politics.
Politically, Val Hoyle may be the only sane choice on the ballot, but DeFazio’s 1996 compromise no longer addresses physical-material reality, if it ever did.
Will Watson
Eugene
Tell Trader Joe’s to Boycott Israeli Products
To: Trader Joe’s Management
From: People for Peace and Justice in Palestine, a local group of concerned citizens based in Eugene/Springfield:
Like millions of people around the world, we are horrified by the genocide and ethnic cleansing that Israel has been inflicting on the people of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, as well as the violence it is spreading throughout the Middle East. We call on you, as a company that values customer input and prides itself as an ethical business, to join the international campaign to boycott Israeli products.
This effort by our organization is part of the international call to boycott and sanction Israel as the best way to end its slaughter and starvation of the Palestinian people.
While Trader Joe’s claims it is “transforming grocery shopping into a welcoming journey full of discovery and fun,” it is certainly not fun to discover that — almost three years into this genocide — you are still carrying Israeli products, such as Israeli Feta cheese, Bamba puffed peanut and corn snacks, Dorot frozen garlic, Dorot frozen ginger cubes and Israeli Pearled Couscous.
If you truly want us, as customers, to find our Trader Joe’s experience “rewarding, eventful and fun,” we urge you to be on the right side of history.
We, the undersigned shoppers and members of People For Peace and Justice in Palestine, implore you to: Stop stocking Israeli goods in your stores until Israel ends the occupation, respects international law and ensures full and equal rights for Palestinians.
Peter Chabarek, Alex Awad. Wayne Martin, Sarita Lief, Herb Everett, Ibrahim Hamide, Steve Goldman, Randy Prince, Christa Knittle, Fred Martin, David Zupan, Mi-ye Sakamoto
People For Peace and Justice in Palestine
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
American Calvinism
This year, speakers at both a Turning Point USA event and Conservative Political Action Conference told the audience to have more children than they can afford. The focus of their right-wing Calvinist political movement is not to increase the average person’s amount of guaranteed minimum material wealth, personal space, free time and save the Earth’s ecosystem by transitioning away from perpetual economic growth; instead, it’s the exact opposite!
That’s because the megachurch higher-ups benefit financially from having large congregations, or at least they believe so. American Calvinism repudiates the principles of social and economic justice and substitutes for it hammers of domination and subordination based upon wealth inequality.
Here in the PNW for the last 178 years, we’ve been politically united in opposition to American culture, with our ultimate goal being to achieve total cultural erasure of it, which is necessary to save the Earth’s ecosystem from destruction! The European Union and the BRICS bloc are our allies in this struggle, because they are Weberian at heart just like we are.
If the coconstituted doctrines of American Calvinism were to continue to be accepted as foundational and apodictic, they would lead to the cementing of economic and social order and the erasure of personal sovereignty. American Calvinism, then, must be dismantled, for should it, with the aid of supremacist doctrines, maintain its triumph over the people of this world, its crown will be the funeral wreath of mankind, and this planet will once again follow its orbit through ether, without any human life on its surface.
Andrew Munkres
Eugene
Defense, Offense
It’s been said that the best defense is a good offense. That adage holds true in many instances. Games, debates, courtrooms and warfare provide sufficient evidence.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Americans witnessed a savage, unjust attack on our country from outside forces. They demonstrated the vulnerability of America, and 2,977 innocent people paid the ultimate sacrifice.
That was 25 years ago, and the wounds are still fresh in our collective memory, but the attack on innocent Americans continues apace — the only difference being that the attackers are coming from within.
On Nov. 3, America’s best defense is to vote.