Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Alternative is worse

In a perfect world, Bruce Levine's guest column (Register-Guard, May 9) would be right on target. He states, in part, "I recommend we withdraw from the madness of industry psychiatry and begin to help ourselves and each other."

Until that day, however, or until there is a cure or better solution than psychotropic medication for those whose very lives and independence these medicines make possible, I challenge Levine to spend even one day walking in the shoes of anyone suffering the effects of mental illness.

No matter what the side effects of the drugs, the alternative is worse.

ILANA EPSTEIN Eugene

Teaching stewardship

I'm an environmentalist. I belong to several environmental organizations, I actively write letters and support conservation causes, and I started the Kids Saving Earth Club in a Eugene public school several years ago. Accordingly, I think that Wilderness Watch raises some good points in the recent article, "Watchdog group battles Steens camp for runners" (Register-Guard, May 6). I usually side with environmentalists, and in this case I'm not making an exception. That's why I support Steens Mountain Running Camp.

I attended the camp in 1999 as a 55-year-old mother, and although I'm not a runner, I went on the "Big Day" through what is now wilderness area, taking in beautiful canyons, waterfalls and aspen trees (campers go into this wilderness area only two days out of the year). I saw the minimal impact the camp had on the land, the wilderness education it provided to kids and the inspiration it fostered to respect the earth and all living things. I was inspired.

Kids today need all the help they can get on their way to becoming responsible, respectful adults. Steens camp was a turning point in my own son's life. Through inspirational and educational talks during camp, he developed a strong sense of self and a love for the earth. How many kids have an opportunity to learn first hand how to be stewards of our precious earth? It's this very kind of camp that will motivate kids to become environmentalists, and I can think of no better environmental cause to support.

ANDREA CALLAHAN Eugene

Message to youth

We have abortion - or the termination of a pregnancy, if you will. We also have assisted suicide or death with dignity. It seems that when our teens decide to take themselves out of the gene pool, they just skip the middleman.

They all seem to me to be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You have to admit that we may be telling our youth that ending one's life may be a legitimate way out.

WILLIAM L. LOCKARD Eugene

Nameless angels

On May 8 at 3 p.m. near Willamette Street and 13th Avenue, our son was accosted by a knife-wielding "gimme-your-wallet" bandit while on his way home from work. Our son refused. In the ensuing escape, he fell into the grille and bumper of a car. He broke his nose and suffered severe cuts on his face.

As his parents, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the nameless people who came to the aid of our son: the several people on the street and from the nearby businesses, the police, the ambulance crew, the emergency room staff and doctor at the hospital and the very special lady who cradled our son's bleeding head in her lap while consoling him.

The street scrounge escaped with a lesson in failure and left behind a good description for the police to use. Hopefully, the Eugene Police Department will be able to one day to track down and eradicate this obnoxious detriment to the good people of Eugene before he knifes and kills one of the citizens.

Thankfully, the compassionate people of Eugene were in abundance at this time and place. We extend our most humble appreciation to the faceless, nameless people who gave of themselves to a stranger, our son, in a time of great need.

KAREN and JOHN RHODES Central Point

Protect LCC area

My appreciation to The Register-Guard and reporters Christian Wihtol and Greg Bolt for exposing the latest Arlie & Co. clandestine attempt to move the urban growth boundary (Register-Guard, May 9). Congratulations to Lane Community College President Mary Spilde and the LCC Board of Education for declining the offer and keeping developer John Musumeci at arms length. Does anyone really believe this "gift" to LCC does not have some very significant strings attached?

For example, building a sewage system for LCC that Arlie & Co. would then share would be a violation Oregon State Land Use Goal 11, unless, of course - and it is all so clear now - you move the urban growth boundary. The students, staff, administration, faculty, and the community at large have shown during the recent budget problems that we are willing to support LCC without selling off parts of the campus.

In other recent news involving the LCC area, the Oregon Military Department has told Lane County that it wants to go ahead with approving access to the site of a proposed armed forces reserve center near LCC and not wait for the public's right to the appeal process to run its course. This was a direct attempt to circumvent the citizen appeal process. The issue is now scheduled for a Lane County public hearing to be held at 10 a.m. June 4 in Harris Hall.

It is a constant chore to be on the lookout for these kinds of actions. Common sense tells us if we continue to remove farm and forest land from production for subdivisions, our economy will suffer. After all, it was Oregon's farmers who realized this back in the 1970s and authored the comprehensive land use laws we have today.

CRAIG SHELBY Eugene

Noble New Yorkers

In regard to columnist Bob Herbert's response to the U.S. Justice Department (Register-Guard, May 10) reaffirming that the Second Amendment is a right of the people, Herbert writes: "I had a .45-caliber pistol hanging low on my hip many years ago when I was in the Army. ... I'm not anxious to think about that kind of weapon (or something smaller and easier to conceal) being in the pockets and the purses and the briefcases and the shoulder holsters of the throngs surrounding me in my daily rounds in Manhattan."

These would be the same New Yorkers who on Sept. 11 risked their own lives and carried a quadriplegic down 80 flights of stairs rather than leave him behind. These would be people like the old man that told the younger people to get out first because he had already lived a long happy life. They are the same New Yorkers who gave total strangers room, board, rides home in their cars, money and whatever else they needed in their time of crisis. They are the same New Yorkers, who stood patiently in line for hours to give blood for the expected survivors, except the blood that was never needed because there were 3,000 deaths and no survivors. They are the same people who, in the face of a total meltdown of their police and fire infrastructure did not loot, rob, steal or otherwise abuse each other.

These are the maniacal homicidal nutcakes that Bob Herbert is afraid of?

MARK RICHANBACH Eugene

Health services blocked

The Bush administration is using its position as a large donor nation to silence other countries already providing their young people with sexual and reproductive education and services. At the recent United Nations Summit on Children, our government joined the Vatican, Sudan, Egypt and Algeria to oppose United Nations-supported programs that increase access to contraception and counseling.

It did not seem to move our government one whit that young women are at risk of death or serious injury from teenage childbirth and AIDS. Youth from poor and needy countries begged for the continuation of these vital programs and resources. Even when these youngsters are married, our government wants to deny them information about birth control. Instead it insists on educating only about abstinence.

Once again we see one religious philosophy - rather than medically accurate, research-based health policy - drive public policy decisions. As representatives of the United States, the Bush administration delegation to the summit included a Vatican adviser, a member of Concerned Women of America, and representatives from a religious college and a private religious school who pushed for a solid abstinence-only agenda.

Millions of girls and boys around the world may well suffer and die in the wake of this administration's refusal to honor our country's previous agreements to improve health and education for young people.

KITTY PIERCY

Public Affairs Director

Planned Parenthood Health Services

of Southwestern Oregon Eugene

Plaza needs greenery

They don't have to plant any spruce trees to spruce up Willamette Plaza at 29th Avenue. But it certainly does need some green islands with trees, shrubs and even flowers!

I have lived in Eugene for 17 years now and have been hopeful that very soon that ugly sea of unbroken blacktop would be improved. We have nurtured and supported this shopping area for a long time and have seen it unchanged as other plazas and parking areas have improved and been beautified, such as Oakway Plaza and the Fred Meyer and Eugene Clinic parking areas.

Most people are pleased to shop in an attractive area. An ugly and dirty plaza area is not welcoming or inviting. I assume the businesses there would like to see it improved for this reason. In this "City of Trees," we appreciate all the businesses who take pride in making Eugene a very livable city.

WILMA R. HOWARTH Eugene

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