LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Eugene already has a hospital

I'm beginning to understand the actions of the Eugene City Council related to hospitals. Like George Bush, councilors apparently don't read newspapers.

Our city leaders seem to be hyperventilating at the prospect of luring Triad into town under the guise of needing a hospital in the central downtown area, south of the Willamette River. Has anyone noticed the city of Eugene already has one of those? It's known as Sacred Heart Medical Center - fairly big place, you can hardly miss it. But just to be sure, it's located at 1255 Hilyard St. The City Council should wander over some day and take a tour.

Ah, but you may think Sacred Heart is moving out of downtown. Actually, not true. Yes, PeaceHealth is building a new hospital at the RiverBend site in Springfield. But as reported in this paper, PeaceHealth will also be redeveloping its Hilyard Street location, leaving a hospital with more than 100 beds - and an emergency department - right where it is. Downtown, south of the river.

Does Eugene really need two downtown hospitals? Residents should ask why our City Council needs to do much of anything to assist a for-profit health care corporation based in Texas to build a second downtown hospital, particularly if the incentives involve taxpayer money.

Eugene already has what the City Council seems to covet so dearly, and it's not going anywhere. To the council: Read the paper!

GLEN CAMPBELL

Eugene

Biodiversity needs protection

When I was a kid in Virginia, my dog and I used to go down to the creek and look for creatures. We found water skippers in stagnant pools, snakes sunning on rocks, squirrels chattering in the trees, cicadas clinging to the bark and turtles in the leaves.

Now I am working on my post-baccalaureate in biology at the University of Oregon and currently taking biochemistry. I now have a glimpse of how complex the genome of each species can be and how it has evolved to solve its own unique problems of survival in the context of the environment and other creatures.

For example, bacteria associated with the roots of pea plants are able to grab nitrogen from the air, allowing them both to live on poor soils. Fungi are able to synthesize sunscreens that protect algae inside them so both can live on exposed rock. To lose a species, even one that at the moment does not seem important or useful, could be the thread that unravels the life-supporting capacity of this planet for humankind or the key to a cure for a disease we cannot otherwise fight.

Our only measure of wealth, true wealth, should be the richness of species on this planet and the biodiversity we protect. Please oppose efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act.

DAVID McCLURG

Springfield

AP classes are at college level

In her Sept. 25 guest viewpoint, Diane Downey discusses plans at North Eugene High School to implement a mandatory Advanced Placement English course for all 11th graders. Although I strongly support any attempts to provide a more rigorous curriculum and raise the standards for all high school students, I take issue with some of the views expressed in her article.

The statement that "all but a very few students are right for AP because - all students deserve a college preparatory curriculum" is misleading in that AP courses are not just college preparatory courses but college-level courses. Upon successful completion of an AP course, as measured by earning a passing score on a nationwide exam, colleges may award a student credit for the equivalent college course and advanced placement in a higher level course. Clearly, the AP course content must be equivalent to that of the college course for which credit is earned, far beyond a college preparatory level.

It is unrealistic to expect that all high school students will be able to cope with the pace and rigor of a college-level class in their junior year. If, as Downey's article suggests, the intent is raising the bar for all students rather than implementing a course with AP expectations, i.e. students will take the AP exam and a reasonable percentage will pass, the designation AP seems inappropriate. To label such a course AP is at best a misnomer contributing nothing to an otherwise commendable effort to raise expectations for all students.

HANS VOLWERK

Chemistry instructor

Sheldon High School 

Eugene

We know that evolution works

David Johnson (letters, Oct. 6) attacks evolution by asking how the first cell could come to life "from a dead rock" and find others like itself "to procreate with."

First, he's discussing abiogenesis. Evolution theory addresses changes in life forms, not the origin of life. Second, it's incorrect to suggest that single-celled organisms have to find partners in order to procreate. They don't.

But more important, no serious researcher suggests that a cell came from a rock. The first self-replicating molecules may have been RNA enzymes (ribozymes). Self-replicating, evolving ribozymes have been created in test tube solutions - research by David Bartel and Wendy Johnson at MIT, for example. Early Earth likely had similar natural solutions. The first life form was probably similar to these reproducing ribozymes, not to modern bacteria or protozoa.

It is at this point - with a reproducing ribozyme - that evolution comes into play. In fact, when subject to evolution some of the descendants of the ribozymes created by Bartel and Johnson ended up 100 times more efficient than their ancestors.

Not to say we know exactly how life started. We don't. We do know, however, that evolution works because we've used its principles - genetic variation, heritability and selection of breeding stock - to produce everything from sweet corn to dachshunds. In fact, the artificial evolution of dogs is probably mankind's oldest successful biology experiment.

DON STAHL

Eugene

Right, left wrong about Miers

The inability of polarized factions of the left and right to understand President Bush's logic in his appointment of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court is revealing. Righties feel he has flinched in the face of opposition to a stronger conservative candidate, while lefties feel he is guilty of cronyism and is just appointing a buddy to do his bidding.

A thoughtful look at the situation denies the hysteria coming from both sides.

With Miers, the court receives a swing vote toward an interpretive view of the Constitution and a turn away from the disturbing trend of legislation coming, in effect, from the unelected bench. This is a legitimate mainstream conservative concern.

With Miers, not unlike Sandra Day O'Connor whom she would replace, the court receives a swing vote toward individual, women's, minority and civil rights in general, which is a legitimate mainstream liberal concern.

The president knows full well how critical this appointment is to the stability of a very polarized nation and has acted accordingly. His personal relationship with the appointee gives him the confidence that the patch he is applying to this rift will indeed stick. Miers' long struggle to shatter every glass ceiling she has encountered and her understanding that upholding the integrity of the Constitution is the most effective way to promote individual freedom and opportunity bode well for a balanced and effective court.

Just what is it about unity that emotional partisans find so challenging?

WILLIAM DiMARCO

Junction City

Funding is the real school issue

Nancy Willard (Register-Guard, Oct. 2) can continue to blame the Eugene School District's problems on alternative schools. However, the real problem is a lack of school funding.

Before all of the state school funding cuts, every school in Eugene had 24 kids in a classroom, physical education curriculum, counseling services and music. Currently, these are considered luxuries.

Concerned parents and educators across Oregon are joining together to improve funding for schools with the Stand For Children organization. Stand For Children is the only organization in the area advocating on the behalf of the education that all children deserve. Eugene members are constructively working together to make this happen.

JOANN HOFFMAN

Eugene

Eliminate police car features

This is in regard to the news items about a woman who was raped by a man who was pretending to be a police officer. He was driving an old police cruiser sold at a public auction.

These old police vehicles are hard to distinguish from the ones in current use because they are still painted as a police vehicle. I think that all police vehicles sold should have any distinguishing police car features obliterated before resale.

JOHN S. SMEED 

Eugene

U.S. owes Iraq war reparations 

When the United States first began bombing Iraq for questionable reasons - now proven to be wholly fabricated - I remember wondering if President Bush and the other members of his Cabinet would ever bring themselves to visualize the faces of the Iraqi men, women and children they were causing to be mutilated or killed.

Perhaps in their dreams some day, the incredible suffering they have inflicted will breach the levees of their conscious minds and come home to them like a hurricane. In the meantime, however, their actions are our responsibility.

It is incumbent upon all of us citizens of the United States to begin to grasp the enormity of what has been done in our name, so that we may direct our representatives to correct our mistakes by systematically withdrawing our troops, submitting ourselves to the World Court and paying war reparations to the people of Iraq. Only then can we begin to heal our own ravaged country.

CRAIG MAHAFFY

Eugene