Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Council reflects city

Have you noticed that The Gang of 9's paid advertisements have become less meanspirited (and less funny), but its ideas are still cartoon-like?

The gang's latest idea is to elect Eugene city councilors citywide. It says doing so would eliminate extremists on the council, leaving centrists who could work together. I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.

For the purposes of illustration, suppose citywide elections eliminated Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, Pat Farr, and Gary Pape from the council. Would a council composed of Nancy Nathansons, Gary Rayors, Scott Meisners and David Kellys have decided to build the West Eugene Parkway or not? Whichever way they decided, close to half of the community would have disagreed with them.

The problem is not the council. The current council actually reflects the community remarkably well. The problem is that the community itself is divided on many important issues.

The solution is to find leadership to unite our differences into a single common vision. Perhaps The Gang of 9 can think of a charter amendment that guarantees good leadership.

Until then, I thank the gang for highlighting an important problem. I invite its members to join me and other concerned citizens in the dialogue they say they want. If it's true that we get the government we deserve, then perhaps the way to bring the council together is for us citizens to start coming together.

ROB ZAKO Eugene

Boston tea terrorists

I'm writing this on Dec. 16, the 228th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, that incident in which some characters dressed in beads and face-paint destroyed private property in the name of a radical political philosophy.

Given today's (if I may use the term) liberal definitions, I suppose these guys would be classified as terrorists.

BILL SMEE Eugene

Teetering species

On Sept. 11, Osama bin Laden was responsible for killing .0000006 percent of the human population. According to United Nations statistics, 22 million people have been born since Sept. 11. As tragic as Sept. 11 was, the situation is worse for the rest of nature.

Sept. 11 is happening to a dozen species every day. If we lost 4,000 Asian elephants on Sept. 11, we would have killed 8 percent of the known population. There are only 350 Siberian tigers left in the wild, 4,700 Bengal tigers, 1,000 pandas and maybe 600 mountain gorillas. In this generation, we risk losing many of our large, well known mammals. Let's not even consider the countless obscure plants or tiny fishes.

This urgency makes the gift of Intel Corp. founder Gordon Moore timely and crucial. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation provided the largest gift ever given to a private conservation group, $261 million to Conservation International.

CI and organizations like it, including the Nature Conservancy, are committed to purchasing and protecting the planet's last wildlife areas. Republicans, Democrats and even Libertarians support these groups because they buy up land and extend private property rights to wilderness areas all over the world. By applying free market principles to environmental concerns they avoid political controversies such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is federally owned.

But this is an expensive way to save nature. CI estimates it will need an additional $6 billion to complete the purchase that the Moores started.

We should applaud the foresight and generosity of philanthropists like the Moores. Environmental concerns transcend political beliefs. Let's not let Sept. 11 make us forget our responsibility to future generations.

ALEXANDER YUAN Eugene

Ugliness has a price

I deeply appreciated the remarks by Otto Poticha (Commentary, Dec. 9) regarding the plight of Eugene's architectural environment. The vitality, spirit, inspiration and artistic quality that fully 99 percent of our buildings sorely lack are, nevertheless, definite proven human needs. Living and working under such empty conditions, day by day, cannot occur without a price that, however unconscious and invisible, whether understood, believed or otherwise, still manifests itself as an impact that deeply diminishes the quality of our lives.

Until we can open our minds, interpret our fear of controversy and show some trust and support towards our more creative building design professionals, we will remain hopelessly stuck in the rut of mediocrity we currently occupy.

ROBERT O. BEAUCHAMP Eugene

Thievery was painful

I really think we were robbed on Sept. 11. We were all robbed. Which one of us was not affected? As family members of this great nation, we were robbed of our sense of security. Since that day, I think and feel very differently about family and friends, about how I speak and react to my loved ones. I'm aware that no matter how many material items you accumulate, in the end they cannot prolong your life.

I certainly believed that Sept. 11 affected us all. But one recent day as I was leaving for work, it hit me that my holiday decorations had all been removed from my front porch. My wreaths, which were beautifully designed with fruits, nuts, berries and birds, were taken from my front door and from the wall. Someone actually had to open the screen door to get to the wreath that had a snowman and a snow-woman that I got last year during the holiday sale and had waited all year to put up.

I just wanted to cry, and I'm not sure why. These items don't mean a thing to me; their value wouldn't break me.

So why do I feel so hurt? I can't imagine a child coming home with these items and a parent not questioning where these items came from. I can't even begin to fathom the idea of an adult walking to my door and taking my holiday items off my porch.

I don't want to feel victimized, so I want this person or persons to know that I wish them a happy holiday, and if these items will give them much joy, then I can live with that. Merry Christmas!

CONSUELO DELGADO Eugene

Talk about architecture

Kudos to The Register-Guard for taking a big chance and printing the text of Otto Poticha's speech to the Eugene City Club (Commentary, Dec. 9). The Register-Guard is not known for acknowledging architecture and architects, and it seems to have strayed from precedent.

Perhaps there might be a new spot in the paper for an architectural critic, perhaps a Fred Crafts of the built environment; perhaps the exposure might spark dialogue and involvement of the public at large. Just look at what The Gang of 9 has done for discussion about issues regarding Eugene developers.

Growth in Eugene is probably inevitable. Poor vision and lack of aesthetics will just create more clunky architecture; who wants more of that? Growth and development that is well managed and done with care and concern will benefit the entire region. Increasing the density in the city's core through incentives might help attract developers who will be inspired to demand creative architecture, or perhaps there could be a nonprofit development corporation that oversees, assists and coordinates building and development projects and that works with the city and the public to produce a unified vision.

What's needed most is the involvement of everyone in Eugene, in any way they see fit, to care about, discuss, learn and express what it is that matters to them about Eugene and the buildings they see.

I am looking forward to more letters in Mailbag and feature stories about architecture, and perhaps a few protestors on the mall demanding diversity and beauty in buildings. I would even like to see a few cardboard signs held by the people at the foot of the Jefferson Street bridge stating, "Will work for decent architecture."

PAUL DUSTRUD Eugene

Presidential immorality 

Surely I am not the only one to see the contradiction.

President Bush builds an international coalition to fight terrorism, a valuable and worthy effort by any measure and one designed to dismantle the forces that endanger us all.

Yet the same president has abandoned international treaties on global warming, chemical weapons, land mines - and now a key treaty to our national security, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

By such acts, the president thumbs his nose at the concerns of other peoples. Europe stands to become another Siberia; such a global warming disaster could befall Europe in a decade, according to our National Academy of Sciences. Small island nations may cease to exist as sea level rises. War-torn peoples around the world are maimed and killed by abandoned land mines. And so on.

By abandoning the ABM Treaty, Bush can race forward with his ill-conceived and useless missile defense program, a technology whose absurdity was horribly demonstrated on Sept. 11. Will Russia be more willing to negotiate nuclear arms reductions? Not likely. Will China, India, Pakistan and North Korea shun nuclear weapon and missile development? Not likely. So are we more secure with a missile defense system? Not at all.

Bush's motivation is easy to track. The money trail leads to those who purchased his presidency. So Bush pays his political debts with the currency of our collective security. Beyond politics and beyond arrogance, this is immoral.

ELDON HAINES Eugene

CAPTION(S):

The Register-Guard welcomes letters on topics of general interest. Our length limit is 250 words; all letters are subject to condensation. Writers are limited to one letter per calendar month. Because of the volume of mail, not all letters can be printed. Letters must be signed with the writer's full name. An address and daytime telephone number are needed for verification purposes; this information will not be published or released. Mail letters to Mailbag, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188 Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]