Author: Letters Editor

Letters to the Editor: 2-14-2013

Letters

WHAT BUDGET CRISIS? We are being told that we have a budget crisis, but what most people don’t know is that the budget is not the only way to gauge the financial health of the city. The full picture can be found in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The CAFR reports all the assets and liabilities of the city; the budget is just a very small part of that report. The CAFR has always shown a huge surplus, even when the budget shows a deficit.  Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 2-7-2013

Letters

ABUSE OF POWER The “Neighborhood Groups Exonerated” news brief Jan. 31 accurately reported how City Councilor Chris Pryor instigated a formal investigation of neighborhoods’ involvement in a land use appeal without having any supporting evidence of wrongdoing, and how the city attorney’s investigation completely exonerated neighborhood leaders. However, some important facts weren’t mentioned. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 1-24-2013

Letters

A PAINFUL DEATH Sweet Pea has died. Many of you might know him as the kid who sold his artwork out in front of Circle K and the Pita Pit. He was homeless. A few weeks ago, he was violently attacked simply for being homeless. They beat him so badly that they caused severe nerve damage. So badly in fact that he literally could not move without horrible pain shooting through his body. He was homeless and had nowhere to go after they kicked him out of the hospital. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 1-17-2013

Letters

CRIMINALIZING SURVIVAL As I write this I am looking at a ticket a friend, who happens to be homeless, received for using a heating vent in one of our many alleys here to warm his hands. His charge? Criminal trespass 2, which carries a $280 fine. It appears that in the minds of the EPD, homeless people who have died from exposure are much preferable to the sight of one warming his hands in an alley.  Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 1-10-2013

Letters

CIVILIZED SOLUTIONS America: 350 million guns, 47,000 psychiatrists. We have a constitutional right to bear arms. We have no constitutional right to health care. America is the most heavily armed nation in the world. America also leads the world in mental illness. Half of all Americans develop at least one mental illness. Half of all cases begin during childhood. Nearly half of all Americans have at least one gun at home. The human brain controls the gun. People will find ways to end their pain. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 1-3-2013

Letters

MAKING IT BETTER Yet another mass shooting by a young person, and in a grade school at that! I am sad, but I am also angry at a culture that allows this to continue. And yes, I too am a part of all of this. Let us please have a serious conversation. Some will speak of gun control laws and that is a part of the equation; but this runs so much deeper, a societal problem, a dysfunctional way of thinking. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 12-20-2012

Letters

BASIC RIGHTS ISSUE Eugene liberals, where art thou? As of this writing (Sunday, Dec. 16) the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, repeat, Free Speech Plaza, has been legally closed by the county for, so far, six days following totally unsubstantiated health charges against SLEEPS who were protesting local anti-homeless laws there. Continue reading →