LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Ortiz has needed skills

I was shocked to see the editorial supporting Scott Meisner's re-election to the Eugene City Council (Register-Guard, April 22). Meisner states that "he is not done." I have no doubt that this is true, and that is what I fear the most - he is not done ignoring the constituents who are poor, homeless or disabled. He is not done supporting big business interests.

Andrea Ortiz is an intelligent and compassionate woman who has the skills and knowledge to bring much needed change to Eugene. I encourage voters to take a look at Meisner's record on any number of important issues, including human rights, the environment and homelessness.

MELISSA MONA

Eugene

Test benefit recipients for drugs

Can anyone explain to me why there is no drug test required to receive the Oregon Health Plan, food stamps, Section 8 housing and a number of other state benefit programs available?

To gain employment, I am required to submit to a drug test. I am also required, through that employment, to pay taxes to support these benefit programs.

From what I have observed, this is backwards. The people receiving free insurance, food stamps and other benefits should be the ones subjected to drug testing.

The cost of drug testing would pay for itself. Drug testing would help in the effort to clean up the drug abuse in our state, help with domestic violence and show that Oregon means business when it comes to these issues.

Am I the only person who is tired of these people having their cake and eating it too?

P.J. KING

Eugene

No streets left to save

Driving along Crest Drive or Storey Boulevard, you can't miss the myriad signs proclaiming, "Save our streets - no collectors." For many of us who drive these routes every day, the irony is overwhelming, because in fact there are no streets left to save and no one understands the "collectors" part!

Both of these roads have long disintegrated into pitiful patchworks of broken asphalt pockmarked by innumerable potholes that multiply like summer insects. So it's hard to fathom a passion for preserving lousy, narrow roads that create dangerous conditions for pedestrians and inflate the maintenance costs of the vehicles that imperil them. The standing joke in our family is that these streets will be the worst encountered on any vacation involving travel by car.

I've heard the argument that fixing the roads will destroy the rustic character of the neighborhood. I don't buy it. The relatively well-maintained roads that people living just outside the city limits enjoy do not diminish the charms of rural Lane County. Perhaps the residents along Crest and Storey are unwilling to pay the assessments that will accompany the improvements of decent pavement, a sidewalk and a bike lane? That's legitimate, and I could understand and sympathize with signs that said, "Save our pocketbooks."

Better yet, let's remove the signs that insult our collective intelligence and put up the ones we really need: "Pave our streets - no more dis- grace!"

MARK WATSON 

Eugene

Wounded soldiers decorated

The Bushies are demanding records about Sen. John Kerry's Purple Heart. They apparently don't know that when brave military men get wounded by enemy action, they get a Purple Heart.

Of course we know George W. Bush wouldn't know that because he was so scared he went AWOL from the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. He did the same thing during the Sept. 11 attacks, when he hid for several hours in a bunker just when the country really needed a leader.

And this man is our commander in chief? God help us!

KEN ROCKWELL

Florence

Ortiz has integrity, strength

Andrea Ortiz is an incredible woman. I respect her integrity, her strength, her compassion. She listens. She is thoughtful. She is comfortable with dialogue and looks for answers.

I have worked with her for a number of years on the Eugene Human Rights Commission and admire her skills and dedication. I have seen her work as vice chairwoman of the Eugene Police Commission and have served with her on several task force groups working to improve police and community relations.

One of the things I like best about Ortiz is her willingness to share her voice not stridently, but thoughtfully and respectfully. Her voice is one that's lacking on the Eugene City Council. I've campaigned actively for Ortiz, and if I lived in Ward 7, I'd vote for her at the drop of a hat. I encourage those who live in that ward to vote for Ortiz.

Because I'm in Ward 1, my vote is clearly and enthusiastically for Bonny Bettman, another voice of integrity, insight and wisdom - one who has well represented the residents of Ward 1.

NEIL VAN STEENBERGEN

Eugene

Different ways to view abortion

The question of abortion is difficult, even for its supporters like me. I know there are many who see it as murder of innocent babies by callous, selfish adults. But like most things regarding human experience, there are different ways to look at abortion. Assuming we have a soul, no one can say when it enters our body. One thing, however, is sure: Life is long, and it can be heavenly or it can be a hundred years of hell.

I personally know only two people who began life as unwanted children. Both were the result of early, unintended pregnancies. The parents dutifully married, then later divorced. Both children were sensitive, artistic girls, and I'd have to characterize their lives as two of the most painful I've witnessed.

One of them has spent the last 20 years in the care of the state for mental illness and will likely never emerge. The other is a bitter, frustrated woman whose life has been a constant disappointment to her. For the last two decades, both have seemed driven to constantly blame and attack their mothers, who despair of ever having anything but painful, antagonistic relationships with their daughters.

Now, it may well be that each of these girls, given the choice of never having lived, would still choose their difficult, sad lives. But if they had been given the choice of being wanted, anticipated and cherished instead of dreaded, endured and resented, there's no doubt which they would have chosen.

JOE VALASEK

Eugene

Where were Bush, Cheney?

I am constantly surprised and disgusted by the depths that some Republicans will go to discredit someone they oppose.

Now the Republicans are pathetically trying to discredit John Kerry for being in Vietnam for less than his full year's tour of duty. The fact that he was wounded three times and received the Bronze Star and Silver Star for bravery while there seems to make no difference to them.

Listening to radio talk show host Ed Schultz the other day put it all in perspective. He pointed out, after reading just a few lines of one of Kerry's commendations, the differences between Kerry and President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney:

First, Kerry was a commander of men in war. Where were Bush and Cheney? Second, Kerry was voluntarily in Vietnam fighting for what he believed was not in the best interests of his country at the time, but he was there nonetheless. Where were Bush and Cheney?

Third, Kerry came under repeated enemy fire while performing his duty in battle. Where were Bush and Cheney?

And fourth, he was wounded while rescuing a fellow serviceman. Where were Bush and Cheney? (And that was just one of Kerry's military commen- dations.)

When Bush and Cheney and their radio stooges can match any part of that record, then let them speak out about someone else's honor and patriotism.

HANK PERRY 

Eugene

Weigh rights of the unborn

With all that has been said about the abortion issue over the last several decades, one could be easily forgiven for believing that there were only two sides to the issue: "for" or "against."

However, as with all issues, there are some areas of gray in between that we often fail to address, such as partial-birth abortions. Why, you may ask, do pro-abortion extremists claim the right to do with their bodies as they choose at the expense of a perfectly viable fetus?

What gives any pregnant woman the right to consider a viable fetus expendable simply because it still lives within her womb? If this same woman were to cut off her arm, for no other reason than that the arm was inconvenient, she'd most certainly be locked up for a mental health evaluation.

Yet this arm is not viable. It cannot live on its own. It is nothing without the rest of the body. It has no heart and it has no brain. Yet, given this analogy, we place a higher significance on the removal of a mere arm and none whatsoever on a viable and totally helpless human being. When, I might ask, does the boundary between a woman's reproductive rights end and the rights of a viable unborn begin?

Does the pregnant woman believe that she owns her fetus - and that since it belongs to her, its rights are nonexistent? If no, then what? If yes, then I might wonder if the abolition of slavery did indeed ever happen.

BRIGITTA HAWES

Eugene

Taylor is hard-working

Once in a while a person with intelligence, integrity, experience and devotion to the people she or he serves will run for office. We now have such a person in Betty Taylor.

She truly works for the long-term good of our community.

Taylor speaks out for the kind of progress that enhances the very quality of life that attracts people to live and work in Eugene. She supports helping our existing local businesses and promoting a healthy downtown, as well as protecting area waterways and trees.

Voters in Ward 2 who believe in open and accessible city government should join the many organizations and leaders who endorse Taylor and cast their votes for this wise and hard-working candidate.

MARJORIE TRACY

Eugene

Latest Bush ad an outrage

The latest Bush-Cheney campaign ad is an outrage. How dare President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney accuse Sen. John Kerry of voting to send troops to Iraq without body armor? The current administration is responsible for getting the U.S. into a war opposed by most people on this Earth, for the difficult conditions in which our troops are fighting and for the failure thus far to "liberate" Iraq.

This ad is nothing but a malicious insult to Kerry, a man who has spent his life, from battlefield to the Senate, fighting to keep America safe and strong. The Bush-Cheney administration will go to any lengths to win this election, even the most dishonest and dishonorable ones.

Let's get registered and get out to vote against the most corrupt administration in modern history.

KATHLEEN EPSTEIN

Eugene

LETTERS LOG

Letters received through Wednesday: 214

Letters published: 65

What's on readers' minds: The May 18 primary election has dominated Mailbag flow during the past week, with the mayoral race between Kitty Piercy and Nancy Nathanson generating the most letters. Other hot topics include questions raised by supporters of President Bush about Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War record and his later opposition to that war, violence in Iraq and abortion.