An open letter to Reps. Kropf and Levy and Senate candidate Broadman
I am sure that you saw the recent reports of the huge bed shortage that exists in regard to addicts seeking help towards recovery.
The changes made to Measure 110 say that if an addict is arrested he/she can voluntarily be diverted to treatment to avoid jail time. How will that work if there are more addicts seeking treatment than there are available beds?
What are you going to do as state legislators to make sure there are more beds and more staff? Will you call for and fight for a bigger budget?
If beds aren’t available, when an addicted person seeks help and none is available the most likely scenario is that they continue using. Unless, of course, they are imprisoned. Where, actually, drugs and alcohol can be pretty accessible.
Two of you championed this change in Measure 110.
So, I would like to know: What will you do? What legislation will you propose? How much are you willing to budget? Will you lead the fight for this?
— Michael Funke
Water Usage
How can the City of Bend claim to be a leader in the conservation of water when they approve developers to put in large strips of grass alongside the roads? The 10-foot-wide green grass meridians along Butler Market and Deschutes Market Road, surrounding a vacant tract, is a glaring example of this. Then let’s take a look at the grass strips going into the Old Mill District and lining Brookswood just as starters.
I would suggest cleaning your own house before using our dollars to clean up others.
—John Eskew
Assault of Mothers at Rodeos
The wild cow milking event, showcased at the La Pine Rodeo the first weekend in July every year, is a troubling spectacle. What does this event entail? A mother cow is separated from her baby calf, released into an arena, roped and wrestled into submission by a gang of rodeo performers. This helpless new mother is rendered immobile, with one or two performers holding her head in a lock while others pull her tail and another forcibly robs her of her milk. All this happens while the crowd cheers, further terrifying this innocent and docile animal.
Though this gross act of violence is not sanctioned by the PRCA, they do absolutely nothing to stop it. Central Oregon, it’s time to support prosocial events in our area that do not exploit animals for the sole purpose of human entertainment. We must take a stand and stop celebrating public displays of animal abuse.
Visit copak.org to learn how you can help. Reach out to La Pine Community Health Center and Cascade Natural Gas and ask them why they support animal abuse and the mistreatment of new mothers in the rodeo.
—Elsa Barnes
Rodeo Schmodeo
In response to all the letters about rodeos, I give you “speciesism” (/ˈspiːʃiːˌzɪzəm, -siːˌzɪz-/), a term coined by Richard D. Ryer. It’s defined as “a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one’s own species and against those of members of other species.”
The belief that humans, as a supposedly superior species, have the right to use non-human animals as we wish fuels systemic and institutional exploitation of animals. This extends to all economic sectors: the food industry, animal testing, medicine, clothing, labor and transport, tourism, entertainment, trophy hunting….and rodeos. Follow the money.
Flight/fight, freeze and shutdown are biological responses to threat or danger in human and non-human animals. Imagine this: an electric prod is applied to your ass; you’re chased with no chance of escape, caught, thrown down, tied up and immobilized. Please imagine the pain and terror of that animal being forced into this “sport.” Do not for a minute think….
No harm done! Horses, bulls, steer, and calves suffering broken ribs, backs and legs, torn tails, punctured lungs, internal organ damage, ripped tendons, torn ligaments, snapped necks and agonizing deaths. (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
If we cease our denial and rationalization and give this issue serious thought, we’ll stop watching animal torture and calling it sport, or upholding it as the great Western way of life. There are other ways and we’re a much more inventive, creative species than that.
—Krayna Castlebaum
Women’s votes
I don’t need to write ALL the rights that have been taken away from women because you already know. I don’t need to write ALL the rights that are being spoken about being taken away because it’s on the news. The only thing that’s left that I am not aware of that would take away a woman’s rights is the right to vote. You think that will never happen? Did you think all the women’s rights that have already been taken away would happen in this day and age?
—Angela Kamm
Letter of
the Week:
Thanks to both Krayna and Angela for their letters this week. Two Letters of the Week! Come on into the Source office to grab a gift card to Palate.
—Nicole Vulcan
This article appears in Source Weekly July 4, 2024.
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Rodeos should be banned period. Pure animal cruelty and barbaric. Anyone who says otherwise is condoning animal abuse.
But let’s also think about anyone eating burgers at McDonalds or any other fast food joint that serves beef from cow lots where the cows are forced to eat grain sources with GMOs, pesticides and loads of corn and soy with the cow’s head locked in-between bars, standing in their own feces with no room to move in the blazing sun is also participating in animal abuse. We take their calves away from their mothers
( whom have an almost human gestation period 9 months and 10 days), continuing milking the cows for 24/7 milk production, killing the males for meat after they have been placed in feed lots. It is animal slavery and most people don’t think twice about it when at the grocery store purchasing these products. It’s Handmaiden’s Tale for animals. And this is just cows. We as Americans are abusing animals on a scale that is really unfathomable. So before you go through that drive thru today, consider what you are eating and how you are participating in animal cruelty. And if that doesn’t do it for you, know that you are ingesting all that unhealthiness in your body. Even if we eat locally, grass fed beef that is raised “sustainably” and slaughtered in a “humane way” which is not really humane at all if you think about it, it is a form of participation in animal cruelty . It’s time to think about alternatives, for our health and for the animals and our climate. A great documentary is “What The Health” . It’s worth a watch and considering what we are doing to our bodies, to the animals and to our planet including our climate and our soil. And before you give to American Cancer Society, Susan G Komen Foundation, American Diabetes Association , take a look at who their sponsors are. I am sure these organizations started out with good intentions but It’s worth a little investigating. Yikes! My dad used to say “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. It went over my head at 8 years old but now I get it.
I totally agree with Nicole Perullo’s commentary in response to the excellent letters from Krayna and Elsa. Horse tripping finally became illegal in Oregon; could “wild cow milking” be next?
Michael Funke’s open letter asks some interesting questions. Rather than dispute the anti-110 misinformation campaign and defend a law voted in by 58.5% of Oregonians, many of our favorite neo-liberal politicians caved, leaving us with the unfunded compromise described so well in his letter.