The Emerald fully supports Lane Transit District drivers, and other union members, in their struggle with LTD leadership.
Today the two sides will sit down for one more try at mediation. The main issue in the dispute involves health care coverage: Union employees want to keep the benefits that they currently enjoy, while LTD insists it cannot afford to do so.
We hope that an understanding will be reached so that a strike can be avoided. But
if LTD refuses to meet the union’s demands, the Emerald fully supports a strike, even though the impact would be very costly
to University students and the Eugene
community as a whole.
According to an Emerald report (ODE: “Eugeneans back LTD drivers at demonstration,” Jan. 14), LTD gets over a half-million dollars in student fees to provide students with free, unlimited rides. Nearly 3,000 University students and employees use the bus to get to and from campus. Lane Community College students would be also be severely impacted if a strike occurs.
We hope the LTD will refund student fees
if bus service is shut down. We hope that
University students will attempt to carpool
to school. And we hope that the community will not blame the union for the added frustration. We must stand in solidarity with the
drivers as they fight for the rights that
all workers deserve: a family wage, health benefits and respect.
Let the punishment fit the crime; justice must prevail in abuse cases
Charles Graner received a sentence of
10 years for his role in the abuse at Abu Ghraib. Many Iraqis are disappointed at the sentence, some saying that he should serve his sentence at Abu Ghraib enduring the torture he inflicted on the prisoners under his care. Others have argued that he was simply doing what he was told, and should not be culpable for following orders.
The sentence was an appropriate beginning. Graner deserved a decade for his immoral actions. He is a remorseless, sick man incapable of shame. After his sentence, Graner actually said, “I did not enjoy it.” Right. That is why he was posing and smiling in those photos behind a mountain of naked prisoners. I’m sure it was pure hell for him.
Justice will not be served, however, if
the prosecutions end here. Graner was not
acting alone. He was a morally-challenged proxy for an evil scheme developed and
condoned by his superiors. Those up the
ladder must also be made to pay for their actions if this ruling is going to convince
the Iraqi people and the world that we are serious about spreading the idea of liberty and justice for all.

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