Seeing the real enemy
As election season winds into its 11th hour, desperation hangs in the air around the issue of whether those of us who actually vote our principles will be enabling “the enemy.”
It amazes me how readily Americans give away their natural power. We pretend that we only have a shot at real power every four years; that if we blow it at the ballot box, we have to wait until the next electoral circus to recover our power. Then, of course, there’s all the power we’ll “lose” to the “wrong” Supreme Court.
A Bush presidency and Supreme Court is not really the disaster. The disaster we actually face is the relinquishing of our spirit to a politics of despair, a politics of second-guessing and hedging bets and a politics that accedes our natural power to create both local and global change day to day and week to week: Bottom-up change, in defiance of whatever hierarchy pretends to wield definitive power in this land.
When, exactly, do we intend to start living and behaving in accordance with our actual highest beliefs and principles? Is it just after we cast one more vote for the guy we don’t really believe in — because we’re afraid?
Living life, and doing politics, in this hopeless and fear-based fashion is the paralyzing sickness which we need to see as the real enemy. Too many “Greens for Gore” have lost their vision, and now preach a politics of reactivity, disempowerment, appeasement and despair.

Vip Short

Eugene

Putting youth first
Born in the summer of 1950, in the small town of Eugene, I was the product of a home filled with love and support. My mom was always there to talk to me after school and dad came home every night, anxious to hear all about my day.
Most parents are still trying to fill those roles — but they are finding themselves stretched beyond belief by the demands and stresses of needing to work to make ends meet. There are many single parent homes who are even more challenged to find positive alternatives for their children before and after school hours.
As a lifelong Eugene resident and a graduate from the University School of Community Services and Public Affairs, I have long believed that we, as a society, need to prioritize prevention programs. That means spending money up front to teach life skills and not waiting until a young person makes a really poor decision that forces us to begin their connection with the juvenile justice system.
Measure 20-37 is the first true prevention measure I have ever seen. It was developed by a very thoughtful and caring group of non-profit agencies who worked with the city recreation department staff to plan, survey, document gaps and develop a proposal that reaches out to as many youth as possible. It definitely put the young people first — right where they belong!
Please join me in voting yes on Measure 20-37. We need to start prioritizing youth right now.

Marilyn Kalstad

class of ’74