Eugene Weekly

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our local teachers who wore yellow and blue, the colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School, on the Monday after the tragic Friday. America’s teachers have joined cops and firemen as first responders, and we need to better support them. Happy New Year to all those who seek knowledge through higher education and training, the hard work of learning and refining of skills, and to all who teach and mentor them. Our future depends on critical thinking and our ability to adapt and evolve. Continue reading →

• Mass shootings are now part of our national identity, and each incident seems to trigger the next one. The solution to gun violence, we hear from folks like Rep. Dennis Richardson, is more guns. Arm those teachers with Colt .45s and Bowie knives! Install hitching posts in front of every school! But hardly anyone in the media talks about this tragic phenomenon in terms of lack of health care. When the topic of mental health does come up, it usually just adds to the false perception that mentally ill individuals are all dangerous. Continue reading →

• A homeless micro-housing pilot project requires four to six months to get a conditional use permit? Holy freezing to death on the streets, Batman. We respect the need for due diligence, but when lives are at stake, a little expediency is in order. Kudos to the council for approving the Opportunity Village pilot project, and in particular to Councilor Alan Zelenka for making sure a location was chosen before the council’s winter break, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking those at risk on the streets are now safe. Continue reading →

• The city of Eugene’s budget woes are in the news, and the city has been polling residents about how to raise revenues. It looks like some proposal will go before council and maybe voters soon. The polling asks lots of questions about attitudes and it appears the city is looking at what the citizens are willing to do in terms of taxes and fees, and also testing various arguments and selling points to see if they have traction. Continue reading →

• Thanksgiving is a big family holiday for some, a celebration of “America” for others and, for many indigenous peoples, a reminder of racism and genocide. We give big props first to members of the Eugene community for speaking out about their feelings about a flyer that advertised the “Spanksgiving” Fetish Ball using an image of a woman in facepaint and an “Indian headdress.” And second kudos to Diablos Fetish Night for immediately responding to those concerns from the Native community. You can catch some of the dialogue on EW’s and Diablos’ Facebook pages. Continue reading →

• Veterans Day this week went by without the presence of a prominent local Vietnam vet, John “Mac” McFadden, who died Oct. 16 at the age of 66. “Mac McFadden was the veteran of a war no one much talks about anymore,” says local writer Hart Williams. “A war, that, had we remembered its lessons, would have prevented us from invading Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that Mac was against. Continue reading →

• Votes are still being tallied as we go to press this week, but we’re encouraged by what we’re seeing. Eugene City Councilor Betty Taylor gets another four years, and it’s clear Juan Carlos Valle would have done much better if he had run in a different ward. Chris Pryor, for example, was unopposed in Ward 8, but he got only 3,600 votes out of 8,200 ballots cast in that ward. That’s a huge undervote in that race, and also in the race for the County Commission seat that now belongs to Pat Farr (16,816 undervotes). Continue reading →

• Will your vote bring back the unicorns? Probably not right away. But not voting might bring back the dinosaurs. A few zombies are also on the ballot, hoping voter apathy will allow them to rise and feed. Mmm. Brains. Deadline for voting is 8 pm Tuesday, Nov. 6, and white ballot boxes can be found around town and on campus. Many of the races and issues in this election are too close to call. This is a time when an individual can make a difference.  Continue reading →

• Find our condensed endorsements ] in this issue, a 350-word version of last week’s 3,500 words of analysis and recommendations. Our short picks are a handy way to compare our endorsements with those of the R-G, which were also compiled this week. We differ from the daily on the regulate pot measure, corporate kicker measure, the Circuit Court write-in, Court of Appeals, Eugene City Council Ward 2 and House District 7. Continue reading →