We've got issues.
LESS HOT AIR Casting a myopic eye on the state Legislature, former Sen. Tony Corcoran [“Hot Air Society” column, 2/21] avers that we ought to be optimistic about Gov. Kitzhaber and the Democratic majority he enjoys. He touts Kitzhaber’s Oregon Health Plan and Salmon Plan as having “already established his legacy.” Continue reading
SUCK IT UP, SOUTH Continue reading
KILLING MY BEES As winter sets in I spend my evenings worried about my honeybees. I have been noticing a lot of dead bees on the bottom screen boards and it alarms me. I know my bees have visited all my neighbors’ yards. The city of Eugene and some of my neighbors are not only poisoning our bees but our water supply. Continue reading
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
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
NO MORE FLAT TAXES Continue reading
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
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
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
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