Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The study of history

If anyone wonders why our kids can't come close to the level of the classical education that our grandparents had, just read high school history teacher Bruce Wald's letter (Dec. 30).

History is the most important subject that students can learn. It puts the other disciplines into context and provides a framework with which to organize all other knowledge. It's also the subject most susceptible to teaching fads such as political correctness.

A hundred years ago students learned what's called "the great man" theory of history. Fifty years ago it was the "historical forces" theory. Now it's the "average Joe" theory, in which teachers focus more on everyday people. All these techniques address valid areas to be explored, but each is taught the way the "new math" was taught to my generation - as if we've finally found the true way, and all the others were misguided.

This latest method is born of a view that nothing contributed to history by a bunch of "dead white guys" is worth learning (unless it is to vilify them). Cutting-edge historian (and college professor) Victor Davis Hanson wrote about the death of classical history education in his book, "Who Killed Homer?" and was savaged by his brethren for suggesting that Western civilization is worth teaching.

Now Wald writes that he doesn't teach our kids about "the rich white elite" and calls our leadership "war criminals." So when surveys show they don't know who Winston Churchill, F.D.R. or, God forbid, Plato or Socrates were, we'll know why.

DAN CARLIN Creswell

Money talks in Eugene

Election finance data available at the Eugene city recorder's office prove that a well-to-do minority has, over many decades, provided campaign funding exceeding that available to their political opponents by a large factor. Many of the same names and business interests appear repeatedly, year after year, in a long succession of election finance reports.

Majority grass roots groups occasionally win elections through in-kind contributions, mobilized labor, and numerous small financial contributions. The defeat of nuclear power development in 1970 by Eugene voters is an example of this sort of turnaround.

Disproportionate campaign funding significantly improves chances for money-backed victory at the polls, the relative merit of issues notwithstanding. Generous financial campaign support is more readily available from the fat cats among us whose political goals are occasionally inconsistent with perceived long-term environmental, social and economic needs.

Two PACs supporting Measure 20-54 in the November 2001 election jointly collected 45 percent ($69,500) of total donations ($154,518) in amounts greater than $499 from 29 sources. The corresponding donors opposing Measure 20-54 collected 11 percent ($2,660) of total donations ($24,460) from four donors. Combined "yes" PACs were unable to spend their $14,433 campaign fund surplus. The single opposing PAC ended with a $10,601 deficit. Given this tilted playing field, the close election outcome is indeed surprising.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared unlimited campaign money to be equivalent to free speech. Following this line of reasoning, insufficient campaign funding is a loss of freedom, an injustice! Does anyone care?

RAY WOLFE Eugene

Triumph of reason

Donald Richey (letters, Dec. 30) has apparently had very little exposure to the theory of evolution - which is unfortunate, considering that it is the foundation of modern biology. A casual glance at any college-level biology textbook will reveal that evolution, one of the most successful scientific theories ever devised, is simply taken for granted. I recommend Bruce Alberts' "The Molecular Biology of the Cell."

At times, I take heart from the evolutionary theory linking animal and human behavior to help explain and understand the darker aspects of human nature. Richey's mention of a TV show depicting a particularly horrible example of animal behavior (a troop of chimpanzees killing and dismembering an intruder from a foreign troop) provides an outstanding analogy. Very similar behavior took place among humans the night of Oct. 11, 1998, in Laramie, Wyo. Matthew Shepard, a gay man in a cowboy bar, was beaten and tortured nearly to death, then hung on a barbed wire fence to die. He was from a different "troop" of humans.

The theory of evolution allows us to understand but not excuse this, as a terrible consequence of our relatively recent descent from less advanced animals. We are territorial animals, but civilization does not permit our lapses to animal behavior.

Richey asks, "If evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?" One could ask the same about humans. But there is hope for the triumph of reason.

STEPHEN J. REMINGTON Eugene

More photos, please

The Register-Guard's photographers are fantastic. Thus, I felt slighted at the rather tight allocation of space for the Dec. 30 collection of photographers' favorites from 2001. The New York Times provided an entire section for their photographers, and I know for certain that readers would have enjoyed many more pictures than the beautiful few the newspaper chose to share with them. Maybe next year? Please?

MARTY CASADO 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. Mail letters to Mailbag, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2188 Fax: [phone] E-mail: [e-mail]