LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Hospital shows compassion

I'm writing in regard to "Miracles happen at PeaceHealth" (letters, Dec. 24).

I think we should be very grateful to have a wonderful hospital like Sacred Heart in our community. The day before Easter, I was not feeling well, and my daughter took me to the emergency room. By 5:30 p.m., I was in emergency surgery. I spent five days in the hospital, and everyone from the surgeon to the nurses were kind and attentive.

In June I had a second surgery - and encountered the same wonderful people, dedicating their lives to serving others.

I'm grateful to be here celebrating this Christmas season. A big round of applause to Sacred Heart. God bless them all. I know the same compassionate caring will continue in 2004.

LINDA KEYSER

Eugene

Differing degrees of hypocrisy

Regarding The Register-Guard's Dec. 24 editorial about Strom Thurmond. I believe what happened is a very old conflict, one that the ancient Greek playwrights made use of frequently in their tragedies. It is the conflict between "family" and "city" (to use their terms), or between private and public demands. Sometimes the two are of equal value, but diametrically opposed - as in the story of Antigone, who was executed because she disobeyed her uncle's order not to give her brother a proper burial.

Fortunately for Essie Mae Washington-Williams, she and her father found a balance between these two demands of principle, and Washington-Williams was wise enough not to press her father into the need to violate what he, as an elected official from the Old South, regarded as a priority: the public good ahead of his private or family obligation. In an era when we are bombarded with examples of double standards (supporting Saddam Hussein in his use of chemical weapons and then going to war against him, for example), it is essential we learn to make distinctions among the degrees and kinds of hypocrisies we see.

Some kinds of double standard in human life are totally unavoidable and can be managed only with wisdom and constant vigilance. I believe this is what happened in the case of Washington-Williams and Thurmond. He was lucky to have such a truly mature daughter.

ANITA SULLIVAN

Eugene

Thurmond had many supporters

As I read the Dec. 24 Register-Guard's sad lead editorial, "Thurmond's sad legacy," one impression that it surely lacked was that of seasonal good will or charity.

There's not enough space allotted to a letter contributor to adequately comment on such a tirade of half-truths and bitterness. Some of it was just flat-out laughable. A U.S. senator who was re-elected eight times had "few defenders?" When you can win that many votes term after term, there must not be much that needs defending.

Millions of babies (who escape abortion) are fathered by men who contribute nothing but their paternity. In contrast, Strom Thurmond provided an education and other financial support for his illegitimate daughter, and even for her own offspring.

At a time when there were few forums for a conservative viewpoint, Thurmond openly aired his views in a 24-hour filibuster on the Senate floor. His editorial detractors, while stating that the late senator lacked courage, publish their own remarks without byline. Considering the fornications of our last president, we needn't go back to 1925 to find a sexual peccadillo to condemn.

ROGER N. PAGE

Eugene

Two additions to Warren Awards

Henry Willis' Dec. 28 "Warren Awards," as usual, was interesting. However, among this year's notables, two very significant Americans were absent:

1) Rachel Corrie, 23, whose beautiful and courageous life came to a crushing end when an Israeli army bulldozer ran over her in March 2003. Corrie was protesting the destruction of a Palestinian pharmacist's home in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp. Her ultimate sacrifice, yet again, demonstrated the fundamental brutality of the Zionist state.

2) Edward Said, 68, renowned university professor at Columbia University, who succumbed to leukemia in September. Said distinguished himself as a courageous international thinker, writer, uncomforming cultural theorist, classical pianist and a champion of the Palestinian cause in the belly of Israeli overseas power.

Both deaths have orphaned us all. Said's legacy is for the ages through his many books and essays, whereas Corrie's, I believe, should be attached to a university academic program.

I suggest that the women's studies or Judaic studies program at the University of Oregon be named after her. The university, peculiarly, does not have either an Islamic or Middle Eastern studies program that could raise consciousness.

M. REZA BEHNAM

Eugene

Find source of mad cow infection

The Register Guard's Dec. 26 editorial about mad cow disease focused attention on the paramount need to identify the source of the infection. Whether the unfortunate cow developed its infection in Canada or the United States, the likelihood is it contracted it from its feed. If so, then many other animals could have been exposed over a wide area with serious implications for the beef-eating public.

According to The Washington Post, government officials have insisted that the nation's food supply is safe because the infected Holstein's brain and spinal cord, which are believed to contain all the infectious material, were diverted by the local slaughterhouse to a rendering plant. That is precisely the problem.

According to the Miami Herald, some 286 rendering plants recycle 40 billion pounds of animal waste a year, producing a key ingredient of feed for many kinds of animals. Even though a 1997 FDA mandate bans brain and spinal tissue from the human food supply as well as cattle feed, one questions whether such a ban can be implemented.

Since 1997, all products containing rendered cattle or sheep material must have a label that says "Do not feed to ruminants." But years after, FDA inspectors found 25 percent noncompliance. Many renderers lacked a system to prevent commingling of ruminant and other ingredients.

One can only hope that industry has dramatically improved its compliance in collaboration with taxpayer-financed regulators.

And that brings us to the mad cow-anti tax connection.

ALAN JACKSON

Cottage Grove

Let's name official curmudgeon 

A good holiday present for the city of Eugene would be endowment of a permanently funded, elected, senior management position titled Municipal Curmudgeon Laureate. Responsibilities of this position would not only be passing judgment on local politics but the primary duty would be to exercise binding veto power over actions of the City Council, mayor, chamber of commerce and any Eugene representatives to the Metropolitan Partnership.

Qualification requirements would be long-term knowledge of the Eugene political scene, a sharp wit, a sharp tongue, a scathing pen and a keen perception of the absurd. Somebody would be sure to nominate Wendy Ray.

MAX SMITH

Junction City

Here's what our taxes buy

Tom Preuss says in his Dec. 29 letter that public employees are non-producers. I agree that there's much we don't see from paying taxes.

We don't see anarchy in national, state or local decisions because we have a government voted in by the people. We don't see occupying forces from abroad, because we have a military that stands ready. We don't see rampant crime in our streets, because we have police upholding the law, as well as courts distributing justice.

We don't see fires raging beyond control, because we have firefighters who brave flames to protect families and homes. We don't see the roads we drive in disrepair, the water we drink flush with pollutants or the air we breathe overwhelmed with smog.

All of the above does not happen because - in addition to our representatives, soldiers, police, court officers, firefighters, civil watchdogs, teachers, administrators and community college instructors - behind the scenes stand the hard-working people who sort through the paperwork, man the phones and organize our public systems into a functioning machine.

There is much we do not see as a result of paying our taxes, and for that I am grateful. I offer my appreciation to all public servants, the unsung heroes and unfortunate scapegoats of contemporary political rhetoric.

RUSSELL H. SHITABATA

Eugene

We've failed Founding Fathers

In response to `What if Founding Fathers knew?'(letters, Dec. 29): I believe the Founding Fathers would be both proud and deeply concerned about the current state of our nation. I know they would be proud that the guarantees of liberty and free speech and separation of church and state that they labored long and hard to build into the first 10 amendments to the Constitution were still in force, but I know they would also be deeply concerned that inroads against these prized liberties were being made - not only by many of the country's citizens, but also by the very government that they had originally constituted.

I believe our Founding Fathers would be proud that so many people still cherish the vision of a United States that they had originally envisioned: a shining beacon of justice and compassion to the world, a nation embodying the bedrock principles of the great religions throughout history.

But I know they would also be profoundly disturbed that their dream had somehow gone so wrong as to produce a government that is disrespected by many of its own people, and also uniformly despised by the vast majority of the planet's peoples.

Looking at our state of affairs, I think our Founding Fathers may well have considered boarding the next boat for somewhere else. But not back across the pond. Rather, a new destination, where they could begin their bold experiment all over again, perhaps this time with more of a chance of success.

JAMES HILGENDORF

Vida

LETTERS LOG

Letters received in past week: 162

Letters published: 57

What's on readers' minds: Iraq continues to be the most popular Mailbag topic. During the past week, we received 15 letters on the Bush administration's Iraq policy. We also received seven letters each on the discovery of a slaughtered Holstein in Washington state that tested positive for mad cow disease, and the revelation that the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, an ardent segregationist for much of his political career, fathered a child with a black woman in 1925. Other hot topics included: forest practices, Measure 30, Mel Gibson's new movie "The Passion of the Christ," plans by the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians to build a casino near Florence, and a proposed surcharge on sales of dog and cat food in Lane County.