Councilor favors

pro-growth faction
As president of LandWatch Lane County — a group whose mission is to protect farms, forests and open space from sprawl — I’m delighted to learn that Ward 7 City Councilor Scott Meisner is “concerned about community growth” (“Legal eagle,” ODE, Aug. 20). He says he doesn’t want his community to be like others “that have grown badly … places that we might have once loved and are appalled by now.”
It appears, though, that Meisner sees no connection between his “concern” and his actions as a city councilor. For how else do you explain his vote, with the pro-development majority, for the West Eugene Parkway. Or, how else do you make sense of his decision to side with that same pro-growth majority and do only the minimum necessary to preserve Eugene’s natural resources?
“Legal eagle” Meisner would likely retort that he made his decisions after a good deal of thinking and analysis. Maybe so, but the truth is Meisner simply votes with the majority the majority of the time. Perhaps, then, he deserves our sympathy rather than our disgust. For his obviously chronic need to curry favor with his council vote and with shameless pieces of self-promotion like your recent article strongly suggest that the boy just can’t help it.

Robert Emmons, D.A.

1974 University graduate

And they were all yellow
I didn’t think it was possible, but the Oregon Ducks have done it! Last year I complained bitterly about the Ducks’ blackish, green-on-green uniforms. I thought they looked like ducks caught in an oil spill.
Well, you know, I had decided during the summer that they weren’t so bad, and hey, the helmets look good. Besides, it could be worse. And it is!
I flicked on the television, not knowing what was on, and there it was — the Oregon-Mississippi State game. You know, a person needs preparation for these kinds of things. Man, all YELLOW … I’d be embarrassed to get into that uniform. Hey, if we play UC-Santa Cruz, we’ll be the Unripe Bananas vs. the Banana Slugs (their official name). And, we can make Coldplay’s “Yellow” the official song at game time (if they don’t file a court injunction to block it).
No self-respecting team that expects to get into a bowl game of any kind ever, ever, pulls on a uniform where the LIGHT color is the predominate shade. Especially when it is the ugliest uniform ever paraded on a football field. And that includes the Beavers’.

Erik Walker

San Francisco

ASUO is nonpartisan
As the recognized voice of University students, the ASUO Executive serves to improve the lives of students by doing such things as placing students in decision-making bodies on campus and going to Salem to lobby legislators on key issues that affect students. On the latter, a recent letter to the editor (“ASUO must include Republican voices,” ODE, Aug. 14) and guest commentary (“Republican voices make message stronger,” ODE, Aug. 20) have stated that the Executive did not contact student groups on campus, specifically the College Republicans, to obtain a bipartisan cross-section of students for the Aug. 11 lobby day.

By law, the Executive is a nonpartisan organization; therefore, when the Executive lobbies on behalf of students, it must lobby on behalf of all students, regardless of political party affiliation. When the Executive plans to lobby legislators in Salem, it informs students through the normal channels and invites them to participate.
The Executive invites any and all students to participate in each of its events and encourages students to contact any Executive staff member to voice opinions or inform the Executive of an issue that affects them. The Executive also has an internship program for students who are looking to get more involved; please contact ASUO Intern Coordinator Erika Brakken at 346-0619 for more information on the internship program.

Eddy Morales

ASUO Vice President

senior

Spanish; planning, public policy

and management