Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Teach, don't screech

According to Jefferson Middle School teacher Pete Mandrapa (guest column, Sept. 24), state legislators with ideological axes, religious fanatics, right-wing ideologues, education-for-hire entrepreneurs, the International Monetary Fund, multinational corporations and the forces of globalization, privatization and militarization have all conspired to put him in the horrible position of teaching 24 more students this year, thus requiring him to rearrange his classroom furniture. What's next? Demand that he clap his own erasers?

Mandrapa describes the current public education turmoil as one of them against us - the haves and the have-nots. While insinuating that he is one of the have-nots, he fails to inform that he earns about $50,000 a year, gets over three months paid vacation plus the usual paid holidays and is a beneficiary of a generous retirement plan - all paid for by Oregon taxpayers, to whom Mandrapa expresses not a word of acknowledgment.

Mandrapa states that "our system of public education is the basis of our democracy." Not quite true. As a social studies teacher, he should know that the movement toward public education in the United States did not even begin until the 1830s, and that nationwide compulsory elementary education did not exist until 1918. For many decades, the leaders (and teachers) of this country were the product of private, not public, education. In fact, about 24 percent of today's elementary and secondary schools are private.

Exaggerated claims such as Mandrapa's show that leftist whiners can only point to meaningless and amorphous bogeymen like "globalization" and "privatization" as the causes for all that troubles public education today. Perhaps if they stopped their screeching and stuck to teaching, our schools might improve.

THOMAS F. BECKER Eugene

Sacrificing to oil god

As I hear the drums of war sounded by Bush and his warmongering hawks, I fear for our young people. I am appalled that this man in power is choosing to sacrifice young men and women on the altar of the god oil rather than encouraging our citizens to sacrifice a bit of their materialistic dependence on this god. Even in our small community it appears that every other purchased vehicle is an SUV, a true gas guzzler.

This administration pays little attention to alternative forms of energy, such as solar, wind, water, geothermal, etc. In fact Bush has reduced alternative energy in the recent budget by some $80 million.

JAMES CUNNINGHAM Coos Bay

Don't buy Smith's claims

Watching Gordon Smith's television campaign in which he claims to be a leader in the fight against breast cancer for women, I wonder at how he is trying to schmooze us voters into thinking he is a supporter of women's issues.

Let's take a look at how he votes. In 1998, 1999 and again in 2000, he voted against the Patients' Bill of Rights, which requires health plans to provide obstetrical and gynecological care for women. In 1999, he voted against the Robb Amendment, which provides coverage for breast cancer treatment. In 1999, he voted against a motion to table the DeWine amendment to prohibit federal employees and their dependents from choosing a health insurance plan with abortion coverage. We all know where he stands on abortion, even for women serving in the military overseas. And there is more!

Smith states he doesn't plan to make abortion a central part of his service in the Senate. Maybe it isn't his central theme, but after looking at his voting record, it's evident he stands solidly against women's issues.

DeANNA CONLEY Cottage Grove

Greed creates gulf

We will not win the war on drugs as long as our laboring class earns less than a living wage or is disenfranchised altogether by our immigration policies, while our ruling class of military-industrial billionaires buy and sell our representatives like baseball players.

Generations of our former slaves' descendants will continue to be concentrated in the largest prison population in the world, just as three generations of men, women and children are now concentrated in Israel's camps. Our financial system has replaced our democracy and we have tolerated, even in the voting booth, the loss of our consent to be governed and are even being asked to give up our civil rights.

So how can we teach democracy to the Middle East, where our greed for oil has created the same gulf between rich and poor that we are digging here?

Remember, when they say "keep the peace" they mean "start the war."

SUSAN KENYON Eugene

LETTERS LOG

Letters received in past week: 186

Letters published: 60

What's on readers' minds: The White House's push to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was once again the most popular topic in the past week's Mailbag. We received 43 letters on the Iraq issue, all but six of which opposed pre-emptive, unilateral military action by the United States; seven letters each on the Oregon Comprehensive Health Care Finance Act on the November ballot and the Healthy Forests Initiative, which President Bush announced during a visit to Oregon last month; six on the proposed designation of the South University Neighborhood as a historic district, and five each on the city of Eugene's proposed living wage ordinance and the E. coli outbreak that health officials have traced to livestock exhibits at the Lane County Fair.

- The Register-Guard

CAPTION(S):

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