Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Is child support optional?

While Jim Evangelista's whine (guest viewpoint, Oct. 2) about the unfairness of having his driver's license suspended has some valid points, one point remains ringingly unsaid: Why isn't he paying his child support?

I was a single mother for many years. Child support was sporadic at best and is currently nonexistent. It is nice, I suppose, for a noncustodial parent to be able to view child support as optional. My expenses are not optional. Whether or not payments come, I still have to pay for food, field trips, medical expenses and housing.

While I was single, I did not have the luxury of taking time off of work to go be a poor college student. Child care was not optional. It was hard to explain to my daughter why we couldn't afford swim lessons, etc. I got her into summer camp programs with the help of scholarships. But this meant that the rest of society got to underwrite her deadbeat dad.

So does Evangelista manage to pay his rent every month? How about food? Utilities? Tuition? Why does he consider supporting his child optional? Why is he going to school rather than doing whatever he has to do to provide for his son?

If he can't afford to do both, he shouldn't do both. That's the choice many single custodial parents have to make. We don't have the option not to pay. If he had paid the support, he would not have lost his license.

Why isn't he owning that fact?

JENNIFER ROSENBERG

Eugene

Wild paint job is out of place

An atrocity has been visited upon our city by the staff and board of a local nonprofit. No, this is not another letter about FOOD for Lane County. It's about the insensitivity, possible insanity and definite lack of aesthetic taste foisted on us by the Science Factory (formerly WISTEC) next to Autzen Stadium.

As I walked my dog in Alton Baker Park a few days ago, I looked up and almost retched when I saw what they've done to the Science Factory building. The building was city property until about a year ago, when it was sold to the nonprofit for a dollar.

They've painted the place, but that doesn't begin to describe the sin they've committed. In the middle of a beautiful, natural park setting, they have turned a once oddly shaped but obscure gray building into an offensive, out-of-place cacophony of skinny, vertical candy-stripes, grasping toward the heavens and topped by a bossy, horizontal, black and white stripe. (Full disclosure: I was once a member of the WISTEC board of directors, but I barely know the current staff and board members).

Aren't there rules about what people can do to buildings in our parks? Sure, they want the place to appeal to kids, but let's give kids credit for more common sense than the Science Factory staff and board have exhibited. There are lots of ways they could have made a once mundane building exciting without thumbing their noses at its pristine setting.

BOB RUTLEDGE

Eugene

Refuse to sign petitions

Complaints about legislators not doing their job have been heard in all parts of Oregon. The reasons we are in this current fiscal mess can largely be traced to poorly written tax measures by the likes of Don McIntire and Bill Sizemore.

It seems as though Oregon voters are saying: "We do not wish to pay what it takes for Oregon's children to be educated." "We're not financially responsible for people with physical and mental conditions who are unable to care for themselves without public assistance." "Public safety is not a priority if we have to raise taxes to have adequate coverage."

You get what you pay for: overcrowded schools with less staffing, meaning large class sizes and less educational offerings; mentally and physically challenged citizens who are homeless and even dying, and a law enforcement system in which enforcement is sorely compromised.

Finally, the Legislature has done its job and funded schools, human services and public safety services at a more adequate level. As a result, some of the damage after the taxpayers rejected Measure 28 can be patched up, but there will still be huge holes left. However, Kevin Mannix, a former legislator suffering from poor-loser syndrome, is mounting a campaign to overturn the hard-fought settlement.

Please refuse to sign any of his petitions for Ballot Measure 30. The message we send to our children and those who will be helped by the recovered funding will be a severely negative one.

RITA BABAUTA KILEY

Junction City 

Community provides support

It's easy to read the paper and wonder what's wrong with society today. However, we've found quite the opposite after a horrible tragedy struck our family the night of Sept. 6.

Our daughter, a graduate student at the University of Oregon, was the victim of an attempted homicide where she witnessed a former boyfriend murder the guy she loved and then turn the gun on himself and commit suicide.

To everyone - from the dispatcher who took her 911 call; the police who put their lives into possible harm's way to save Kim and bring her to safety; the emergency medical services crew that treated her with respect while doing what they needed to do to keep her alive until reaching Sacred Heart Medical Center; the doctors and nurses who treated her with kindness and compassion; the guys at Pacific Air who volunteered their time to move her belongings; her friends who are there when she needs them; the doctor who offered her services for follow-up care; and the rest of the community who already have and continue to donate to her fund set up by the US Bank to help defray her huge medical bills - we can't adequately express our gratitude.

Because of these people's skills, love and compassion, we have our daughter, and she has a future to look forward to.

ROSS NIXON

ROSEMARY NIXON

Eugene

Put new hospital near LCC 

After reading about neighborhood opposition to a new basketball arena on land already owned by the University of Oregon (Register-Guard, Oct. 5), I find it hard to imagine smooth sailing for the siting and construction of a for-profit hospital within our city limits. Years of dubious democracy have left Eugene encrusted with myriad collections of political barnacles that will make navigating such a large project very difficult, if not impossible.

While it makes perfect sense to build a new hospital south of the Willamette River and west of the Interstate 5 freeway, the folks from Triad would be wise to realize that it means more dollars to them if they build it on inexpensive undeveloped property in the vicinity of Lane Community College. No matter how accommodating Eugene may appear to be in the wake of PeaceHealth's departure, the tiger does not change its stripes.

Our city's current posturing reminds me of someone with a history of spousal abuse courting a new bride. Not only does LCC have a nursing program that could be mutually beneficial to both entities, but such a location would have increased traffic leaving rather than entering the downtown area.

And, after it is up and running, if our politicos still want a hospital with a Eugene address, they can simply annex it.

NICHOLAS J. URHAUSEN

Eugene

How about dual-use arena?

While it appears the decision on placing a new basketball arena has been made, perhaps its not too late to consider a sensible option.

Combine the construction of a new federal courthouse and basketball arena on the old cannery site. Include an office for Judge Michael (Thanks to the first President Bush) Hogan up in one corner. He could use the entire arena for any significant case. Access to all parts of the building could be ramped and used by the thousands of local disabled citizens and skateboard enthusiasts.

This will probably be considered inane by many readers, but how silly is spending millions of dollars on a building to be used 13 or 14 times a year and an unnecessary new courthouse?

WENDY RAY

Eugene

Limit use of fog lamps

Now that we enter the period of increased darkness and fog, please consider this: Use your fog lamps only in foggy conditions on unlit roads.

I see them commonly used when it is not foggy, on lighted streets in town, on the freeway and in daylight hours.

The result is increased oncoming glare, not increased safety. If you have fog lamps, please use them only when you need them.

KRISTINE M. GARRICK

Eugene

New meaning for 'oxymoron'

Whenever I run across the word "oxymoron" these days, an image materializes in my mind.

I see a big, muscled-up, gas-sucking, four-wheel-drive SUV flying down the road flapping two tattered flags above its roof and sporting a bumper sticker that says, "I support the troops in Iraq."

WAYNE L. MILLER

Springfield

Time to live by Golden Rule

Being an example to the world, we are certainly demonstrating that action that we declared war against. The Bush administration invaded a sovereign nation in our name, killed thousands of innocent people, and continually calls other regimes "evil." If this isn't Orwellian "new-speak," I certainly misunderstand what administration officials are saying.

We had better start living by the Golden Rule and doing unto others as we would have them do unto us - unless we truly want to commit national suicide.

God bless America. It needs it. A prayer for wisdom and compassion wouldn't hurt, either.

FRED BURKERT

Blachly