DeFazio Responds
A recent letter (Sept. 17) attempting to rewrite my record and Rep. Val Hoyle’s record on forest policy was so garbled that it deserves a response.
The 2001 Clinton Roadless Rule was a major step forward. It protected millions of acres of our national forests from new roads and commercial timber harvest. But that was 25 years ago. The fact that we accomplished something then does not mean we don’t address the conditions we face today.
The Clinton Roadless Rule included large stands of old growth because they were scheduled for harvest under the Clinton Forest Plan — and included millions of acres of tree plantations, which now need thinning because of increased fire risk.
Right now, the Trump administration is moving to rescind those protections. So, what can we do?
We can sit around and hope Democrats eventually regain control of Washington and restore forest protections. Or Oregon can act now to develop its own roadless-area management plan, as states like Colorado have done under existing federal policy.
I strongly favor doing the work that is available to us today, with our governor and Legislature, based on Oregon’s values and our own forest conditions. Rep. Hoyle and I agree on that.
Going back 30 years to argue over who was sufficiently radical in 1996, or who won or lost a campaign based on one issue does nothing to protect Oregon’s forests in 2026.
The point is, what are we going to do to protect Oregon’s public lands from the real threat they face today?
Peter DeFazio
Springfield
Oil Change
After three decades of ineptitude with Democrats at the wheel, Oregon desperately needs a Hoyle change. Let’s make a pit stop and vote for Monique DeSpain!
Don Richey
Eugene
Older Drivers?
How easily and nonchalantly does Kim Kelly (viewpoint, Sept. 24) condemn older drivers for all the sins associated with bad drivers in Eugene! I’m one of those older drivers Kelly insists must be regulated off the roadways of our neighborhoods. How smoothly she notes how we oldies can jump on a bus — which I did for years, until the city tore my No. 33 bus ride down, to be seen only rarely on our streets. Ironically, the city is now advertising for riders.
If older drivers are so notorious, Kelly should live in my neighborhood near Chambers, where it’s commonplace to hear driver after driver climbing south, pedal to the metal. And oh, how those muffler-less vehicles scream, heading for the mountain top! I walk daily with a walker and when I climb to 29th Street, where the signs say 25 mph is the regulation, I would bet a month’s worth of my Social Security that more drivers drive 45 rather than 25. In fact, virtually no one drives 25 on the climb. And how many of those speeders are oldies? Maybe she is confident of the number.
I personally don’t know how many older drivers are out there causing mayhem on our roadways. I do know they (we) are hardly the only villains needing extra policing. Just drive anywhere in Eugene and hold your vehicle to the 25 mph or 30 mph the signs “suggest.” My experience is that many drivers, old or young, feel safe violating these and many other roadway regulations.
Karl Keith Beyer
Eugene
Leverage a Fee on Big Box Stores
Eugene has always been known to prioritize sustainability and livability, and that is why many of us choose to live here. I’m excited that we will have a chance to further these values on the ballot this November.
Measure 20-388, the Eugene Clean Energy Fund, would establish a fee on the gross profits of the biggest corporations operating in Eugene — think Walmart and Target — and direct the funds to local efforts to fight the climate crisis, including building out community solar installations, investing in resilience measures like increasing access to cooling, electrification projects, and expanding urban greenspaces and forested canopies. The initiative is modeled after a successful effort in Portland, which similarly places a fee on big box stores to help pay for local climate mitigation, adaptation and green jobs. Since the passage of the Portland Clean Energy Fund in 2018, it has generated $1.71 billion for climate-related investments in the city.
While Cascadia Wildlands is deep in battle against the Trump administration to defend our region’s carbon-rich rainforests, it is imperative we also take local action to confront the worsening impacts of climate change. That’s why I hope you will join me in voting YES on Measure 20-388 this November.
Josh Laughlin
Cascadia Wildlands
Eugene
More on the Meadow
The Sept. 17 letter from Susan Jerde about Madison Meadow tells just one side of a more nuanced story. About 20 years ago, a group of neighborhood NIMBYs successfully raised enough money to “preserve” that 2-acre open space (aka vacant land) rather than see it accommodate another 10 or 12 homes within their centrally located and highly walkable neighborhood. That amount of money could have been used to acquire far more land outside the city, with far higher open-space value. And instead of those new homes being built within walking distance of downtown, they had to be built somewhere else, possibly way out at the edge of the UGB. I am an advocate for open-space preservation, but other competing factors need to be considered.
Bill Clingman
Lowell
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
Pass it to the Women
Both NFL and college offensive coordinators need to rethink running the ball at third down. Instead, they should be calling a short pass over the middle. The opposing team is always waiting for that running back up the middle. How about a little creativity? How about hiring some very savvy women for offensive coordinators?
Marlene Pearson
Eugene
Check the Record
Check your power bill, then check Christine Drazan’s record.
Oregon now has 144 data centers, with 31 more in the pipeline, according to research presented to the Legislature this month. They use enormous amounts of electricity, and someone has to pay for the new power lines and generation they require.
The POWER Act, which Gov. Tina Kotek signed in 2025, answers that question. It requires Oregon’s largest utilities to put data centers in their own rate class, so tech companies pay for the infrastructure they demand instead of passing it on to your household bill. Christine Drazan voted against it, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
This year, she also voted to let data centers keep a large federal tax break on equipment like cooling systems. Now she says Oregon cannot be “the Wild West” for data centers. Her votes built the saloon.
Kotek is not spotless here; as a legislator, she voted for bipartisan data center tax breaks in 2012 and 2015. But as governor, she made the biggest power users pay their share. Drazan voted against making them pay it.
I live in West Linn, and I’m voting for Tina Kotek.
Jeremy Hogue
West Linn
Boycott Response
It’s as if you were all bitten by a zombie and now you only have one mission. The mission is to belong to something greater than yourselves that’s lacking in your lives. There are more worthy causes to support with less confusion. How about the genocide in Sudan where it is estimated that 150,000 to 400,000 have been killed? But of course, these are Muslims against Muslims and that distinction keeps you silent on the matter.
Perhaps the war in Ukraine, in which Russia intends to take over a sovereign country. Why focus on Israel’s 7 million Jews and 2.2 million Arab Palestinians, all Israeli citizens with equal rights? These rights include the right to be gay, to be a feminist, to speak against Netanyahu and anyone else in the government publicly.
When I was in Israel, one thing that struck me was the many mosques. There used to be synagogues in Gaza and in Judea/Samaria, but those are now Palestinian territories and no Jews or synagogues are allowed. If any of you are gay, why don’t you go to Gaza and ask if you can start a gay Pride parade once Gaza is up and running again? You want to boycott Israel by having Trader Joe’s refuse to sell Israeli products. You’ll be hurting the 2.2 million Palestinians who live in Israel. How about the 250,000 Lebanese Palestinians in Lebanon who are not given Lebanese citizenship or identity cards? Have you asked Lebanon to give them their rights?
Craig Einhorn
Eugene
Responding to the Response
A response to the response asking Trader Joe’s to no longer sell Israeli products.
The response letter Sept. 24 does not represent all Jews. I feel ill after reading that letter.
My therapist brain believes that unresolved trauma from the Holocaust and centuries of “the Cossacks are coming” has blinded some Jews to the facts of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
I grew up in Zimbabwe and then lived in South Africa, and as a person who was raised in a culture oriented to supporting Israel and having lived under apartheid, the parallels are striking.
Palestinians have not been afforded the same rights or dignities of Jewish people on land that their families lived on for generations. They are systematically demeaned, assaulted, tortured and murdered.
True, Hamas is a threat to Jewish people. They raped, killed and terrorized on Oct. 7. The attack did not happen in a vacuum.
I invite readers to research the history of the treatment of Palestinians prior to Oct. 7. Context is everything.
Israel is currently perpetrating war crimes against Palestinian people and our tax dollars are funding their assault.
The numbers of innocent civilians killed or wounded is devastating. Every person lost was loved by their families. Children are routinely murdered or maimed.
Banning Israeli items from Trader Joe’s is one thing we can do to support Palestinians at a time when anyone who takes a stand is accused of being antisemitic. That simplistic trope silences us as the killing continues unobstructed.
Lola Broomberg
Eugene
War Is Not the Answer
It is heartbreaking that the state of Israel has met the criteria for genocide as listed in the UN Genocide Convention. Our planet desperately needs the immediate cessation of violence and destruction of life, especially, but not exclusively, being used by Israel and the United States (with our tax dollars), as the horrific substitute for creating life-affirming solutions. One method of influence for all of us is using and encouraging boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. Boycotts had a noticeable effect on ending South African apartheid. It would be a welcome development if we all can join together — those who care about all the people who call Israel and Palestine home — including the 6,000 signatories of the recent CreativeCommunityforPeace letter, and urge the government of Israel and our U.S. elected officials to immediately stop their violence and create an environment conducive to humane problem-solving. War is not the answer.