LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Programs enable homeless life

Regarding Skye Rios' naive, 16-year-old outlook on Eugene's homeless youth (letters, Nov. 14), as a former teenage runaway and one-time resident of Looking Glass, I remember very well the priorities of being that age. And I can tell you that providing the basics for my own survival were not high on my list.

I knew full well that someone else would do that for me: "Let's see, tattoo or piercing, or a good meal?"

Being a teenage hippie runaway was cool, even glamorous. Eugene has so many teenage and adult homeless people because the city is rife with programs ready and willing to help them out. In certain other circles, that would be called enabling.

Without all the concerned citizens eager to give them handouts, the homeless youth and adults would then have some very clear and constructive options - go home, find a job, go somewhere else or die. And there are very few human beings who would allow themselves to starve to death on the street.

Oregon's social programs, set up to help those truly in need - because everybody falls now and then - are a wonderful thing and a godsend for many people, but I can't help feeling that these programs are being abused and stretched to their limits.

Ron McIntyre

Springfield

Cartoon was unfair to teachers

I've been waiting all week for someone to comment on Jim Borgman's recent editorial cartoon (Register-Guard, Nov. 11) showing a continual line of children traveling from "lousy schools" to "quality jails."

While I certainly agree with the intent of the cartoon - too little funding is put into essential school programs and consequently students feel hopeless and turn to a life of crime to make a living - I strongly object to the label of "lousy."

Many hardworking teachers and support staff make a real difference in students' lives on a daily basis, constantly doing more with less, raising test scores and trying to meet overwhelming needs in tremendously crowded classrooms.

I have time to voice this concern because I am no longer teaching, and I suspect my former colleagues are too exhausted to object to this pejorative cast at them and their efforts.

Marian K. Smith

Eugene

Starling started peer mediation

I read with interest the account of "peers mediating for peers" at a school in the Eugene School District (Register-Guard, Nov. 16).

It seems appropriate to recognize Bill Starling's introduction of this concept to the district as early as 1988 at the then Patterson School, where Starling was employed as a counselor.

His work as the proponent of peer conflict management and its application at Patterson drew praise from students, teachers and administration for its effectiveness in helping students work and play together and to manage their times together amiably.

Virginia Starling

Eugene

Veterans for Peace ignored

I was disappointed to note conspicuous omissions in The Register-Guard's Nov. 12 story on the Veterans Day parade. There was no mention of our big blue-and-white Veterans for Peace bus and no interviews with its passengers, although we represent a vital and growing voice among veterans. Upon taking off our uniforms, we did not forswear our oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That is the sole oath sworn by all members of the Armed Forces and all officers of government. We would fail in our duty should we not condemn the reckless use of our armed forces in a war that violates international and constitutional law, inflicting massive death and destruction upon a nation and a people innocent of any harm to us.

Veterans Day, originally Armistice Day, commemorates the consequences of war upon those who have participated in the organized lethal violence of our nation. Most of those conflicts after World War II have been unjustifiable under the international treaty laws we helped develop and to which we are signatories.

The United Nations and Nuremberg charters prohibit aggressive or pre-emptive war, and the Geneva Conventions define the duties of an occupying power, which we have violated wholesale in Iraq. Other treaties identify weaponry prohibited as indiscriminate or impermissibly cruel, which we have also disregarded, as we have the international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture.

Article VI of the Constitution defines these treaties as the "supreme law of the land." Behind that we unreservedly stand.

Jack Dresser

Springfield

Downtown doesn't need fixing

Regarding the failure of the recent Eugene downtown urban renewal measure: It's clear that the city's elected officials and staff are out of touch with the citizens on this one.

While I agree that apathy, anti-tax sentiment and other factors all played a part in this failure, I'd like to add one more for consideration: Perhaps downtown does not need to be fixed.

Based on my experiences downtown, the real problem is simple fear. Many suburbanites assume that downtown is a den of iniquity populated by dope dealers and thugs. This may be true to some extent, but it's not relevant.

I've been offered drugs in downtown Seattle, Santa Cruz and Portland's Washington Park Zoo. I've been threatened with random violence in downtown San Francisco. None of these areas can be considered wastelands, as so many people seem to think of downtown Eugene. The difference is that in those cities, people just accept some of this as part of life and get on with their business.

Of course, Eugene's downtown does need some physical renovation. The site of the former Western Office Exchange building (which some folks insist on calling the former Sears building) is an obvious eyesore, as are the Willamette pit and the abandoned Connor and Woolley buildings.

But each of these are the result of renewal efforts gone awry. If these problems are fixed, and if downtown were then left to evolve on its own, I think we'd eventually have an entertainment district to rival that of any similarly sized city in the country.

Jim Johnson

Eugene

Globalization costs U.S. dearly

So bankers, builders and greedy real estate speculators are getting burned.

Plenty of people took big risks thinking their home was an endless slot machine. But now that the machine has run dry, we are again forced to live within our means. Democrats, eager to churn the bad news into their advantage, seem to forget that they are in charge now and are not immune from voter retribution a year from now.

Nobody cried when millions of good manufacturing jobs left for China thanks to Bill Clinton and the Demo-Republican rush into globalization, a policy happily pursued by current leaders of both parties to the present day. We are paying a heavy price for those decisions, but don't count America out just yet.

American companies relying on American workers are doing better these days. The stage is set for us to return to being a nation that produces more and consumes less.

We can only hope to clean out Washington, D.C., with some fresh leaders who will continue low-tax/pro-American legislation so that we can continue to lead the world.

David Z. Pokvitis

Springfield

Grants aided museum project

I appreciated seeing the announcement of the Lane County Historical Museum's digitization project (Register-Guard, Nov. 15). But the museum could not have undertaken this project without significant grant support.

Public funding from the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Oregon Heritage Commission, as well as private funding from Trust Management Services LLC, have allowed the museum to undertake the task of digitizing the potentially dangerous nitrate negative collection and start on its general print collection.

This project not only will help preserve these collections for the future, but make these significant collections more publicly accessible.

Robert L. Hart

Executive director

Lane County Historical Society

and Museum

Eugene

Unlicensed people will still drive

I oppose Gov. Ted Kulongoski's plan to bar undocumented immigrants from accessing a driver's license.

Prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol. This new plan of Kulongoski's will not stop "unlicensed" people from driving.

I understand what the governor is trying to do, but at what cost to safety, increased crime and more bad feelings that this surely will create with the lower-class, hardworking person who is only trying to succeed at some poor job? Yes, the poor!

Will 120,000 Oregonian immigrants return to Mexico, or wherever else they came from, if the governor passes this law? Please write or call the governor now.

Cathy Pascale

Oakland

Tax pot to provide health care

A modest proposal that might help solve the problem of health care for the children of Oregon:

Since tobacco is addictive and deadly both to users and those who experience it secondhand, make it illegal and begin ticketing users. If they are found in possession of large quantities, imprison them. If they think they are being harassed now, let them live with the experience of really being hunted by society.

Since marijuana is neither addictive nor deadly, legalize it and begin collecting substantial taxes from its sales. I imagine the users of this plant would be more than happy to support health care in exchange for no longer being harassed and hunted by society. An added bonus - they might stop voting against every public safety proposal put before them.

David Lively

Eugene