LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Message adds insult to injury

I was dismayed to see the large ad in The Register-Guard purporting to rally the defenders of marriage against Senate Bill 1000. The ad was full of lies and half-truths, as we have come to expect from the self-righteous defenders of special rights for hetero- sexuals.

What was unusual about this particular ad is that SB 1000, a bill having nothing to do with marriage but instead offering the compromise of civil unions, already has been killed in the House by the Republican leadership. It was gutted and stuffed, in the charming lingo of politics, and there is nothing now to rally the faithful against.

What do you suppose would motivate the marriage coalition and Sen. Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, to place ads in newspapers around the state, fighting a bill that has already been killed? Demagogues often attack unpopular minorities solely to advance their own popularity. I wonder if we can expect a new candidate for statewide office to emerge. Or are the defenders of the faith just adding insult to injury because they can?

GLEN ADAMS 

Pleasant Hill

Wider union reform is needed

The split-up in the AFL-CIO has brought much-needed attention to organized labor. In addition to the often-cited causes of labor union decline, there is one cause that is obvious, yet seemingly unmentionable.

Isn't time to tell it like it is? Labor needs to clean its own house. Many unions are corrupt at the local and/or international level.

Many unions have become nothing more than labor companies. Some union bosses have made careers of taking the members' money, giving it to the politicians and then crying that the labor laws are inadequate or unenforced. At the same time, they keep a stranglehold on the union and discourage rank and file participation.

The lack of democracy within the unions has turned people off. Some unions are nothing more than fiefdoms rife with cronyism and nepotism. The feeling of powerlessness is rampant. Rank-and-file solidarity and activism often are discouraged and can lead to retaliation by union officials. Elections are stacked against members trying to unseat incum- bents.

There is a movement in this country that is working for change. That is the union democracy and reform movement. Union members are fighting for control and are forming caucuses and activist groups inside their unions.

Unions are as relevant today as ever, but it will take the rank and file to reform them into an effective force again. Not all unions are bad, but the ones that are discredit and inhibit the whole movement.

ROBERT WYATT KEATON

Eugene

Bring troops home from Iraq

Some would have us believe that support for our men and women in uniform requires us to choke back any reservations that we may have about the way that President Bush and his advisers choose to use our military and either join the pro-war chorus or keep quiet. I disagree.

I had the good fortune of serving in the first Gulf War under lawful orders to enforce the United Nations Charter - a charter hammered out by the people who won World War II in hopes of preventing World War III. I sympathize with the folks wearing our uniform now, serving under the leadership of a bunch of conniving chicken hawks who've been much too eager to send others to serve in ways that they themselves have never served. But my concern for the well-being of our soldiers doesn't make me feel obliged to stand with those who've bullied us into supporting an unnecessary war with a blitzkrieg of disinformation. Rather, my concern for the well-being of our soldiers makes me want to see them brought home - where most soldiers prefer to spend their time.

So, if you really want to support our troops, you might want to tell your elected officials - via phone, mail and your next ballot - that you resent being lied to and you're ready for a regime change in Washington.

Our invasion of Iraq has created a training camp and recruitment tool for jihadists without making us safer. Support our troops by bringing them home.

PAUL GRIFFES

Eugene

Don't ignore Muslim grievances

Bill Lioio gets just about everything wrong in his July 25 guest viewpoint.

He asserts - without offering any evidence - that those who attack us are "zealous believers in a dark and distorted faith that says their ideology is the will of God and that their duty is to spread it by force to the unwilling." In fact, this is the absurdity that Americans are asked to believe that has brought about the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Spend time researching the issue and you will discover that Osama bin Laden is concerned not with trying to convert anyone but with removing American troops from Saudi Arabia. The same is true for the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, it is President Bush who is trying to impose his ideology on the unwilling peoples of the Middle East, as he stated in his second inaugural address. It is the United States that has more than 700 military bases throughout the world. It is Vice President Dick Cheney who has ordered plans to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons in the event of another attack comparable to Sept. 11. It has been successive U.S. governments that have propped up brutal regimes in Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

One can argue with the methods employed by the resistance, but willfully obscuring its motivations will only lead to greater tragedy for everyone involved. We have only one morally valid course of action: Bring all of our troops home. Then we would truly have better triumphing over worse.

DANIEL BLADES

Culp Creek

Dropout rate is biggest crisis

Am I the only person who noted and agreed with Bob Herbert (Register-Guard, July 22) when he argues that the U.S. high school dropout rate is our "biggest U.S. crisis?"

Herbert says that, "Nationally, only about two-thirds of students - and only half of all blacks, Latinos and Native Americans - who enter ninth grade graduate with regular diplomas four years later." To me, that is the biggest crisis, for the distant future, that we face. Is my letter the only one responding to his column?

A friend of mine, some years ago, took a National Education Asso- ciation-sponsored trip to Norway. The goal was to learn about Norwegian education and share information with Oregon educators.

To his surprise, no one wanted to hear about Norwegian education. One education administrator did ask: "Did you tell Norwegians about the athletic facilities we have here for our students? Those facilities are certainly superior to those in Norway!"

My friend replied that he had told the Norwegians about our athletic facilities and they were envious. But Norwegian schools focus on teaching students survival skills. People are Norway's No. 1 resource.

So it is for the United States. We live in a global economy. Our dropouts, as research indicates, are more likely to get into trouble with drugs and to end up in jail. They become a liability and not an asset for our country. Is there anyone willing to argue that the U.S. high school dropout rate is not our "biggest crisis?"

JACOB VELDHUISEN

Eugene

There's no need to eat animals

A picture is worth a thousand words.

How about the one of the smiling girl with her pig that appeared with a recent article in The Register-Guard about a local 4-H competition? She had just marked various butcher cuts on the pig lying calmly by her side, an animal she had raised and nurtured and would now sell for bacon.

Apparently it was a joke. Probably not too funny for the pig.

In the body of the article, another girl said she was initially bothered by the nurture-slaughter scenario but had gotten over it. What are we teaching our children? Love it or eat it?

Here's a lesson: Animals are sentient beings. It hurts to be carved into cutlets. Humans don't need to eat meat to be healthy. In fact, we would be much healthier without meat in our diet.

In addition to the morality and health issues, it's just more efficient to eat plants rather than feed plants to animals and then eat them.

Shall we eat our dogs? Our cats? Our horses? Are they so different from the pig? It doesn't have to be this confusing.

As the bumper sticker simply says, "If you love animals, don't eat them!"

BENTON ELLIOTT

Eugene

Minnis hypocritical on SB 1000

In the 2004 Oregon Voters' Pamphlet, Speaker of the House Karen Minnis complained that the activist commissioners of Multnomah County had subverted public process by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She stated, "They didn't hold any public hearings. They didn't give any advance warnings. Their actions were arrogant and wrong."

On July 21, Minnis became an activist legislator. She sent Senate Bill 1000 to a House committee, and its leader called a work session with limited notice that was closed to the public and other legislators, thereby eliminating any testimony.

The original language regarding civil unions and anti-discrimination was replaced completely with the reciprocal benefits language - which offers a very limited set of provisions - then voted on in its gutted-and-stuffed form. It was then sent to the budget committee, where procedural methods cannot be used to go around the House speaker, nor can minority reports be attached that allow debate on alternate versions.

I guess we should have seen this coming, since throughout this year Minnis repeatedly has said that SB 1000 would not see a vote in her chamber. Not only is this a flagrant abuse of power, but her words and actions reek of hypocrisy and arrogance.

Minnis can speak and vote against the bill, but as an elected representative of the citizens of Oregon, she needs to put her personal opinion aside and allow the full House to have an up-or-down vote on SB 1000 in its original form.

TEDD CHILDS

Eugene