We've got issues.
Ketchup (from the 17th-century Chinese kôe-chiap or kê-chiap): the Rs in Congress will be playing it for the next two years, and BO in Washington will be rampant. When Hillary Clinton is elected president in 2016, she will nominate Barack Obama to the empty Thurgood Marshall seat on the Supreme Court. Continue reading
MANAGING THE HOMELESS There are more than 2,000 homeless persons living in Lane County, and I’m one of them. Our sleeping shelters include the Eugene Mission, women and family shelters and Egan Warming Centers when it’s cold. Due to the magnanimous decisions of city and county governments, a few outdoor refugee camps have been approved for tent and car camping. A constantly moving, unauthorized Whoville — rightfully flying an upside-down American flag — is also an alternative place to sleep. Continue reading
• Oregon’s minimum wage goes up 15 cents an hour to $9.25 in January, thanks to a ballot measure in 2002 that tied the minimum wage to inflation. But of course an extra $26 a month in pay won’t bring Oregon’s estimated 72,000 working-poor households out of poverty. Seven out of 10 poverty-level families have at least one parent who is employed, often full-time at minimum wage or above. The Oregon Legislature in 2015 is expected to try to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and Republican die-hards will object, saying thousands of jobs will be lost. Continue reading
A woman with mild developmental disabilities finds herself in an abusive relationship with a man who is also the father of her 8-year-old daughter. Tired of the physical violence and verbal abuse, she files for a restraining order and has the man removed from their shared apartment in a Section-8 housing unit. The woman still does not feel safe from her abuser and begins to develop an escape plan with her friend who lives in Eugene. The friend promises a new start, a place to stay while she works on getting housing and a job, and convinces her to buy a bus ticket. Continue reading
For people like me who are Jewish and queer It’s especially hard at this time of the year When gentiles assume that we all are alike Like straight folks ignore that you’re really a dyke When people around you are into a thing That makes them rejoice, get nostalgic and sing And all the whole time, it’s a thing that’s not yours And YOUR thing’s a thing everybody ignores Or else they just act like both things are the same Continue reading
NOT THIS GREEN Glad to see your mention in Slant last week [12/18] of the R-G’s littering — aka the viral green Emerald Valley Shopper every Wednesday — and in a town that actually “likes” green! Sure, it is a micro issue given all the major topics, but we do notice. I walk daily and I espied this hard-copy message on a south Eugene lawn in October. Someone just said NO! But does the R-G read? Douglas Beauchamp, Eugene MIRROR, MIRROR Continue reading
• Our Give Guide has expanded from less than a page in years past to the multiple pages you see this week. Eugene is home to hundreds of nonprofits doing exceptional work locally and around the world, so our list is far from complete. Why are we such a thriving center for nonprofits, much more so than other communities our size? Continue reading
CORPORATE MODEL LACKING The university is not a business! Despite what Chuck Lillis says, his role at the university is to preside over the board of trustees of a “semi-public” institution of higher learning, not be a corporate CEO of the UO. Continue reading
• Parting is such sweet sorrow: Since Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariota won the Heisman last week — and won it decisively — he ceased to be just another great UO athlete. If he wasn’t already, Mariota is now a national celebrity, evidenced by his immediate appearance on network television Dec. 15 when he read the Top Ten list on “Late Night with David Letterman.” Letterman introduced Mariota as “a good-looking kid” from “your University of Oregon Ducks,” and he wasn’t talking to us, Eugene. Continue reading
I’ve had this sense of it, open season, aka socially sanctioned targeting, since age 7, reinforced at 19, and lulled into a Eugene false sense of security pushing 60. I admit to a certain numbing grief over my lifetime composed of anger, rage, sadness, depression, loss and, finally, resolution. Being black bears the responsibility of acting as though you have some wisdom (at least sense, good freedom-fighter home training) and are working for the liberation of human beings everywhere. Continue reading