LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Castillo made correct ruling

It is true, as stated in The Register-Guard's March 15 editorial, that Superintendent Susan Castillo has the authority to direct the Oregon School Activities Association to scrap its plan and design a new one. However, as is true in life, just because you can do it does not mean you should do it.

The question in front of Castillo was not on the substance of the proposal, it was this: Did OSAA follow the proper rules?

The OSAA reclassification is a very emotional issue, and the superintendent is well aware of the potential impact on students, families and schools. It is very likely that the plan will end up in court. Both sides have the option and the incentive; therefore, it is important that the superintendent follow a squeaky-clean legal strategy to resolve this issue. Everyone in this case is best served by following the process.

The best way to get to a decision is through a hearing of the appeal from Eugene, Salem and Medford. In order to get to a hearing, the superintendent needed to make the ruling she did. She could have ruled to scrap the plan, but that would not have resolved the issue - it would have only kicked-off the next legal battle.

Superintendent Castillo is committed to the legal process, where both sides contest the facts in a hearing, and a final ruling is delivered. To do anything else would short-circuit the process, not correct it.

ED DENNIS, Chief of Staff

Office of Susan Castillo

Superintendent

of Public Instruction

Salem

OSAA's proposal is flawed

The Oregon School Activities Association's proposed six-classification system is fundamentally flawed.

The OSAA is fond of representing the six-class system as being supported by the majority of member schools. Such a statement is at best misleading. Yes, the schools in the proposed 1A to 4A classifications seem satisfied with their placements. The problems with the proposed plan all lie within the 5A/6A (currently 4A) classification. The OSAA has never had the blessings of these larger schools.

In fall 2005, the OSAA Classification and Districting Committee surveyed the superintendents, principals and athletic directors of all 4A schools asking if they favored dividing the 4A schools into 5A/6A classifications. Guess what? Eighty-seven percent responded, and only 32.7 percent supported the six-class plan. There was 67.4 percent approval for a plan that maintained the 4A classification and created two new football-only divisions.

Despite these clear results, the only plan the OSAA committee chose to present to the Executive Board and Delegate Assembly was the six-class system that 4A members had roundly rejected. Is it any wonder that now there are active appeals by three of Oregon's four major metropolitan areas against this unwanted plan? Only the Portland area, which OSAA, in order to garner support for the 6A plan, allowed to form leagues willy-nilly through "play-ups," is not appealing.

HOLLY WESTON

Eugene

Development requires parking

When I read articles decrying low downtown property values, I find it hard to see how public funding should be used to fix that situation, or even whether it is good or bad. It also seemed a bit mystifying to me that downtown street reopening would in and of itself make downtown Eugene vital, as was sometimes represented.

Those things being said, it is even more mystifying, given the investment in street reopening, not to provide more places to park or encourage the location of a high-quality grocery store downtown. The traffic-brings-renewal scheme doesn't work if the cars can't stop or there aren't things to stop for. And the end game of mixed residential and commercial downtown makes sense as well.

If Whole Foods is willing to locate here and these plans could benefit The Shedd as well, building parking seems reasonable - or no more unreasonable than other renewal efforts. I'd agree that a well-thought-out and designed parking structure would be in some ways a subsidy of the project, but so were the streets.

Either there should be some clear direction to the city of Eugene with respect to downtown development, or the money should be spent doing something useful like fixing potholes.

DARRELL JONES

Eugene

Analyze parking garage funding

Reporter Ed Russo didn't bother to mention how the parking garage will be funded in his article "200 pack Whole Foods forum" (Register-Guard, March 14).

You, too, may find yourself on the side of the opposition if you realize where the City Council intends to draw funding from.

The City Council is considering diverting: $250,000 from storm water funds, $400,000 from riparian funds, $475,000 from library funds, $5,035,000 from urban renewal funds and $1,035,000 from facility replacement funds - $7,195,000 total, and this is not where it stops.

There is to be a 2006 bond measure for the library, so why will the council sacrifice these funds? The council just raised the storm drain fee a meager 30 cents for stream corridor acquisition and now it is already looking at diverting these funds to the garage.

The council is planning to put a 2008 bond measure on the ballot to pay for a new City Hall. Shouldn't the council be directing the over $6 million of urban renewal and facility replacement funds towards the City Hall project?

The tax-paying citizens of Eugene are not a bottomless pit for funding resources. Next time you open up your ballot to vote on a new levy, find out where the money actually went the last time you supported a levy.

LISA WARNES

Eugene

Help stop unplanned pregnancy

The Register-Guard's March 12 editorial called South Dakota's law banning all abortions "brazenly unconstitutional" and "legalized discrimination." A New York Times editorial called the law "unconstitutional under existing Supreme Court rulings." That editorial quoted Gov. Mike Rounds saying "the true test of civilization is how (the state) treats its most vulnerable citizens," including "unborn children." It also pointed out that in the last census, South Dakota had the "nation's three worst counties for child poverty."

While Oregon is not South Dakota, we are well into the 2006 election campaign. Candidates have filed, and initiative proponents are gathering signatures. In the battle over reproductive rights, the issue this cycle will be over teen safety vs. parental notification. About $3 million will be raised to support or oppose this initiative alone.

How better to spend those millions? A responsible leader might suggest that anti-choice organizations spend their funds helping pregnant women with living expenses, medical and child care costs and educational opportunities. Some groups may already do that, but how many more women could be assisted if these funds were spent promoting "life" rather than on signature gathering and ads?

Likewise, those who defend teen safety and women's reproductive rights could devote their resources to providing unbiased, comprehensive sex education and increased access to contraceptives so as to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place.

REGINA COX, Board Member

Planned Parenthood 

of Southwestern Oregon

Eugene

UO diversity plan has problems

The University of Oregon has released the latest draft of its diversity plan, available on the UO Web site at the link to diversity. It starts off with inspiring words about dedication to the principles of equality of opportunity from the UO mission statement. But things go downhill from there.

First, there is a lot of talk about a supposed crisis in diversity at the university, and the need for cultural competence and cultural responsiveness. Then it becomes clear what the plan is really about: more special diversity scholarships and fellowships for members of favored groups, and further racial and ethnic preferences in faculty hiring. All of this done at great cost and enforced by a new administrative apparatus intruding into every dean's office and every department at the university - and this, when other universities are beginning to back away from reverse discrimination practices (Register-Guard, March 14).

It seems that the university must have money to burn on these new reverse discrimination plans in this latest diversity document. What all this has to do with the academic mission of the UO is beyond me.

Is this really what we want from our public university? Is anybody in the Legislature paying attention?

CARLA MOSER

Eugene

Abortion requires regulation

The statement that Emelia Udd made in her March 12 letter, "Our government has no business regulating the personal decisions of women in this country," has left me with a couple of questions.

What about men? Should the government regulate their personal decisions? What is a personal decision? Robbing a bank? Murder? Rape?

I would have thought that getting a haircut or a tattoo might be a personal decision, but terminating a human life form definitely is a bit more than that. The fact that abortion is so controversial would indicate to me, strictly from a human rights standpoint, that the government must regulate that decision with the purpose of erring on the side of caution if nothing else.

Our freedom to choose only extends as far as the next person's rights, even if that person is still a fetus. Should we have absolute freedom? Someone may pay the price if we do.

CURT SWITZER

Springfield

Are you ready to give up a car?

The uproar about global warming goes on and on: One hundred years from now the temperature in Roseburg will be (gasp) as hot as it is today in - Medford! And it's being caused by that dirty carbon dioxide from those ugly fossil fuels.

There is little disagreement in scientific circles that human-caused emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere amount to no more than 5 percent of the global total. Of this, American cars and our electric power industry are said to contribute about one-third - less than 2 percent of the global total. So if we were to prohibit driving any cars or trucks and turn off all of our electricity, more than 98 percent of the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere would continue unabated.

The Kyoto Protocol claims to provide us an out. We could buy emission credits from countries not yet sufficiently developed to qualify as CO2 polluters. This is not to say they won't be in the near future, especially with a massive infusion of cash from us taxpayers - nor will it in any way reduce man-made CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.

So are you willing to get rid of one of your cars and shut down your home electricity and heating for half the day or pay massive pollution penalties to some underdeveloped country?

OWEN W. DYKEMA

Roseburg

LETTERS LOG

Letters received in past week: 185

Letters published: 61

What's on readers' minds: The winner and still champion for the third week running is the heated debate over the plan to bring a Whole Foods Market and associated parking garage to downtown Eugene. The Whole Foods controversy and related comments about a proposed downtown development on Broadway drew three times as many letters as any other topic. On the national front, President Bush's warrantless spying program continued to draw criticism from local letter writers.