Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Lawyers contribute

I was really disappointed in Bob Welch's July 14 column about legal aid for the poor, because it did not mention the pro bono work done by local attorneys for older people through the Senior Law Service. Senior Law Service is a program of the Lane County Law & Advocacy Center. It receives partial funding through the Lane Council of Governments, the Area Agency on Aging, the Older Americans Act and the United Way.

As program director, I recruit volunteer attorneys and match them with older people who have legal problems. Eugene and Springfield attorneys volunteer practically every single Saturday morning at two senior center locations, and they have done this for the past 28 years. A Cottage Grove or Creswell attorney is on duty once a month at the senior center in Cottage Grove, and a very generous Springfield attorney volunteers once a month for 10 months out of the year at Willamalane Senior Adult Activity Center.

On a regular basis, I get feedback from some of the thousands of people who have been assisted by these attorneys who do pro bono work, and they tell me what the attorneys did for them and how much they appreciated it.

Welch is entitled to draw conclusions from his research and express his opinions, and I don't disagree with his statement that Oregon needs more attorneys willing to help out. But I also know that the pro bono work done by local attorneys for seniors represents a significant contribution. They are a credit to the profession, and Welch's column should have included this.

JEAN BEACHDEL, Program Director

Senior Law Service Eugene

Bush exhibits contempt

Once again, our court-appointed president has revealed his contempt for Congress, his heartless disregard for women, and his supreme arrogance.

By instructing the U.S. State Department to withhold funding for a United Nations family planning program - funding that was approved by Congress earlier this year - Bush seems to be saying that he, not the Congress, knows what's best.

Bush's own fact-finding team has reported that this U.N. program improves women's lives through education and birth control, that allegations that the program supports forced abortions in China are untrue, and that the program reduces the number of abortions performed by preventing unwanted pregnancies. But don't confuse Bush with these facts. He's decided to interpret the report "differently" (Register-Guard, July 15).

Furthermore, Bush high-handedly refuses to release the team's report, even to Republicans in Congress. Hmm. I thought the Supreme Court appointed this compassionless conservative president, not king.

SUSAN DENNIS Eugene

Of pies and democracy

Maybe I slept through the better moments of my education, but I don't remember learning that the following can happen in a democracy: "...their (the wealthy) property should be confiscated and then they should be put in prison clothing and made to do hard labor." But according to Kathleen Schlenker (letters, July 19), this is what we must do if we are to live under a democracy.

Yes, we can debate infinitely about greed and corruption, but this deals with another issue: Jealousy. The "us vs. them" mentality takes a strong grip, but if I may pause and simplify:

If Schlenker spent an afternoon baking a pie, it's her pie. She may eat it, she may share it, she may hoard it. But in the end, she is why the pie exists, and it's hers. What if I don't have a pie? Should I take hers away? Should I make her sit alone in my pieless kitchen as punishment for daring to bake a pie - and because I didn't have the ingredients to make a pie? You say she worked hard to afford the sugar and flour, that she picked the fruit herself, and spent all afternoon in a hot kitchen? So what? I want a pie, too! This is America! I want my pie! You say I have to work for it? Not according to Schlenker's logic.

Call me crazy, but I don't think Schlenker is talking about democracy. In the United States, we have freedom to choose the life we live. If somebody wants to work hard, gain material assets and have "fancy homes all over the world," they certainly get my blessing. Every day, we wake up and we choose our lives that day. The wealthy aren't the problem with this country, the problem is a lack of personal accountability for securing one's own happiness.

I myself am not going to wait for someone else to bake me a pie. Neither should Schlenker.

JOLENE LOUDON Junction City 

Music, drama cut, too

Budget cuts at Creswell High School include all extra-duty contracts - not just contracts for athletics, as a July 18 Register Guard article implied.

There will be no more rib-splitting "Wednesday Night Live" sketches in the spring and no more drama productions in the winter because the budget will not allow for them.

There will be no more stirring renditions of the national anthem, no more "Hey-ey-ey, Baby" with the trombone section leading while the rest of the band sings, no more "Louie, Louie," no more music at athletic events because the budget will not allow for pep bands.

There will be no more Glen Miller band selections and no more jazz pieces, because the budget will not allow for a jazz band.

There will be no more evening combined band and choir concerts with classical, pop, rock or patriotic compositions, including goosebump-producing solos sung by young Creswell high school students, no more hand-clapping, standing-for-pride productions of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," complete with outstanding piccolo performances, because the budget will not allow for evening concerts.

Yes, there will be a drama class and band and choir classes during the school day, just as there will be physical education classes. However, the talented drama and music students at Creswell High School will no longer have the opportunity to perform for our community unless money is raised to fund these extracurricular activities. I would like to see the same publicity, the same fund-raising efforts, the same scholarship availability, and the same vocal support for music and the other arts as has been evident for athletics.

LINDA CABRERA Creswell

Stop cycle of hostility

As a proud mother of three and a full-time working professional, I very much enjoy the scarce opportunities my family has in the summer to play together. More recently, we have decided to take advantage of this glorious weather by spending time as a family at the revitalized Churchill High School grounds, with its many sports fields, skateboard park, walking track and paths, and outdoor tennis courts.

Despite the construction of the new skateboard park, a few of the kids still believe that tennis courts are their domain. On two separate occasions, I asked some teens not to skate on the court, as I was playing nearby. I certainly expected to be argued with, but was shocked to hear the vicious expletives - especially from one older teenager - as I calmly informed him that he had acres of paths and parking lots to skateboard on nearby. This teen-ager and another I encountered days before obviously had little respect or consideration for others, especially adults.

"Typical teenager," some might say. Gosh, I hope not - or we as a society have truly failed if we are producing such hostile and rude individuals. We wonder and are anguished as to why so many youth resort to violence to settle their differences. Just ask local juvenile authorities and find out how many of these youths are repeat offenders, and in some cases, are children and grandchildren of former detainees.

How to stop this vicious, horrible cycle? I believe that it starts with the family. It continues with the rest of us. Respect begets respect. Honor your mother and father. Love your children. Treat others as you would want to be treated. It's that simple, but seemingly impossible to achieve. To the teenagers who were so rude to me and others like me at the parks all over our community, please don't ruin it for the rest of us. And go get yourself some help.

ISABEL J. PRICE Eugene

New sonar hurts whales

The Bush administration recently eased environmental restrictions against the Navy using a new sonar, an unproven technology that supposedly pinpoints submarines as far as 6,000 miles away. What has been proven, however, is that this technology disorients sea life, disrupting the hearing of whales, dolphins and turtles.

Last year when an LFA - low frequency activation - system was tested off the coast of Florida, 16 whales beached themselves. Volunteers managed to push some back into the water, but many died. Autopsies showed they'd suffered cranial hemorrhaging due to the effects of this sonar.

The California gray whale has been brought back from the edge of extinction, but now is subjected to this new threat. In a way, we're all threatened by the technology we're developing in our new war stance. And it seems there's nothing to be done; if the "war effort"' or the Pentagon wants it, we've got it. How powerless this makes one feel!

SHEILA EVANS Yachats

Clinic closure leaves gap

It is with concern and disappointment that I read of the precipitous closure of the All Women's Health Services clinic in Eugene last week. This clinic had provided safe, caring and needed abortion services and other health care to women from a very large geographic area. It is hard to understand why closure without weeks, or even months, of notice was believed to be necessary.

What this community does to respond to these unfortunate events will have tremendous effect on women's and children's health. Travel to Portland, or reliance on the welcome but limited access to abortion services that local private physicians provide, will not fill the gap. All Women's had provided the vast majority of abortions in Lane County, according to statistics provided by the Oregon Health Department.

One of the lessons here is that local direction is vital, and that the local physician community needs to participate - or at least not add to the already formidable barriers faced by women needing abortion. Simply pretending that travel to Portland is adequate will only mean that when rare, but real, abortion complications occur, local emergency rooms and providers unfamiliar with abortion medicine will be the only resource. It will also deny women their moral, ethical and legal right to safe, caring and modern abortion care.

NICK GIDEONSE, M.D.

Assistant Professor of

Family Medicine

Oregon Health & Science University Portland

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]