BREWHAHA EXAMINES EQUAL RIGHTSby Ted Taylor, Editor of the Eugene Weekly

What’s it like to “come out” to family and friends as a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual in modern times? The bigotry and ignorance of the last century have eased somewhat, but it’s still difficult for people who are LGBT to feel like they truly belong to a community. And people who come out sometimes find that their sexual preferences become the dominant factor in how they are perceived by others.

“Your sexuality is all people see,” says Matt Friday, one of the panelists in a two-hour Brewhaha political gathering at Davis’ restaurant March 19. The discussion was cosponsored by the Bus Project, Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) and Eugene Weekly.

Becky Flynn and Maceo Persson of BRO outlined the status of domestic partnerships since the Oregon Equality Act and Oregon Family Fairness Act survived legal challenges and went into effect Feb. 4. In the second half of the evening, three panelists, Matt Friday, Joe Cedar and Alison Cerezo, talked about their personal experiences negotiating the maze of heterosexist laws and a homophobic and transphobic society.

From L to R: Alison Cerezo, Joe Cedar, Matt Friday
Photo|Lynn Moracco

Domestic partnerships are now legal and binding for Oregon residents, and about 1,300 same-sex couples in the state have tied the knot since Feb. 4 when a legal challenge to the legislation failed. Anti-gay activists have filed two initiatives to repeal the laws, and petitioners have until July 3 to collect 83,000 signatures to get on the November ballot.

Meanwhile, domestic partnership is still approximately 1,000 rights and benefits shy of marriage, says Flynn — but the new laws are a big step in the right direction, providing couples with legal rights in the event of emergencies and outlawing discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. The details of the laws are available at on BRO’s website. In the panel discussion, the three panelists told their stories and talked about not being trusted because of their sexuality; chronic homelessness, unemployment and violence that can affect those who are transgendered; higher suicide rates among the teen LGBT community thanks to homophobia; difficulties trans youth face in negotiating the local school system; the need for “transinclusive” policies in local government and institutions; and the empowering effect of the new equality laws.

L to R| Lynn Moracco, Lane Co. Bus Project Director, and Maceo Persson, BRO Field Organizer, introduce the last segment of Brewhaha. Photo|Ted Taylor

The group also talked about terminology and its significance. “Queer,” for example, has been gaining popularity in the community because it recognizes the complexity of sexuality and includes more than two genders. — Ted Taylor

For more by Ted Taylor - Keep reading the Eugene Weekly, or check out his EW! Blog

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Brewhaha is a monthly event organized by the good work of many dedicated Bus Project volunteers as well as the Eugene Weekly. These nonpartisan educational forums often occur on the last Wed. of the month. Keep your eyes peeled on this very blog for updates on our next event.

We have all obviously been glued to the Democratic primary coverage. I got goosebumps when the Obama supporters started the “YES WE CAN!” chant. A few nights later I shuddered in embarrassment as Hillary started the “YES WE WILL” chant at her rally.

You could feel the hesitation in their voices, shortly after a brief humorous moment of “oh, clever, I see what you did there.” Was she joking or not? Since they mercifully dropped that one, maybe she was.

Someone who is not joking is Jim Torrey. I laughed out loud when I spotted the first Torrey for Mayor sign…“Yes, Eugene, We Can!”. Are you serious!? Are we that dim that we won’t think that he directly took the Obama cheer and stuck “Eugene” in it? I do give him points for one thing…Yellow and Green do always get me fired up.

I was eagerly awaiting to see the first Kitty Piercy sign. My sick sense of humor was praying that it would say “YES, EUGENE, WE WILL!”

I was disappointed and relieved at the same time when I saw the real slogan…“A Mayor for ALL of Eugene.”

This is going to be one fun race to watch.

I began writing a blog post about a very unpleasant discovery that Comcast began deliberately blocking our port 25 this morning — without informing us. All day we were not able to send outgoing email — and if I didn’t work in the software industry, I would likely take more than just an hour troubleshooting and creating a temporary workaround. I had a entire post written about how unimpressed I am with Comcast and their business procedures, their outsourcing residential customer service to India, Net Neutrality in general, and the slow erosion of the rights of an Internet customer.

And I could write lengthy articles about the business model that Dex Media engages in, where it is more profitable for them to provide poor service than good service. Regulations or competition are the only things that could change this. We have all had these experiences with large companies. You probably can think of at least three immediately. And there are no benevolent alternatives because for many industries there are so few choices the it is a battle between a poor company, a worse one, and not having the service at all. Some examples are national news companies, Internet access, cell phone service, cable service, satellite radio, and radio conglomerates. And luckily this is not the case for some services like water — at least in most of the US.

We have been hearing since the early 80’s that free markets are the cure-all for any industries. Conservative politicians and some political pundits still cite this as common knowledge. Graduating from the conservative University of Chicago school of economics, we were taught that a free market naturally leads to many desirable properties including enormous efficiencies and cost-savings to the customer.

But.

There are some assumptions that must be in place for free markets to lead to these desirable properties. There must be significant competition. And customers must have ability to readily switch from one competitor to another. Four cell phone companies is not significant competition. One high-speed, residential Internet company is not real competition. When there is little or no competition then businesses will immediately maximize their profit by charging more money, locking customers in, provide poorer service, making customer service less helpful, creating policies that weed out the most costly customers. The most costly usually are the highest risk, those with the least money, or those with the most demands or complaints relative to their revenue.

This is not a problem for high-end sports car oligopolies. This is a problem when there is a monopoly on the sale of water. For example when water became a monopoly (aka privatized into a single company) in Bolivia — they drastically raised the prices because that would increase their profits even though it would price people out. On the scale between sports cars and water, where does Internet access lie? Where does cell phone service lie? Where does access to investigative journalism lie? The only protection to monopolies are regulations and restrictions for industries that either structurally require few companies (such as electric companies with their power lines) or end up that way through mergers and acquisitions.

Consumers don’t have the advocacy organizations, the will, or the money to compete with these companies. We, as consumers, have no voice but our ability to take our business elsewhere. Or in the case of these monopolies and oligopolies, take our business nowhere. Our government is the only entity that is in the position to create a level playing field where consumer rights are just as important as corporate profits.

How many silly little YouTube videos are going to come out of this Presidential Election?! A lot I hope!

I don’t know anything about Pokemon, but this is a nice flashback to early PC games!

Have you ever heard the song “It’s Raining Men”? Not like this THIS you haven’t.

Hat tip to Jeff Alworth at BlueOregon for the head’s up.

It’s almost TOO easy, so be gentle!

If Escher built a house of cards, then removing any would lead to 52 pick up. This seems to be a good model for the current economy as we see someone about to remove the Bear Stearns card — and some rare Fed (and JP Morgan) maneuvering to make sure it stays there.

The fundamental problem is that everyone who has lent money is worried about getting it back — and so they are asking for more back than usual. And if you owe money, it is more likely that you don’t have that money in the bank, but invested elsewhere. And getting that money back means that you are selling to cover positions. For example, if you have some stock and a big credit card bill — and the credit card needs their money paid back, you probably have to sell your stock even if the market is down. The amounts that banks, big equity funds, investment banks, etc have had to actually keep has been way too low (for example about 1/33 for the Carlyle Capital Group). Their, and many others, strategy of investment works wonders when the economy keeps growing. Imagine missing out on some of the mortgaged-backed security growth — the groups that have been making money hand over fist have taken large risks that have worked perfectly while there has been plenty of liquid for them to immediately borrow from someone else if they needed money.

Now, even with interest rates being quite low, people are nervous to borrow because of the fragile state of the economy and also because they are being forced to repay and having trouble borrowing to do so. The Fed has been making use of some tools not seen since the Great Depression to inject liquidity back into the market — basically allowing companies to borrow huge amounts of money for very short periods. But in many cases the Fed is starting to take more risks than it has. For Bear Stearns, they have allowed JP Morgan to borrow huge amounts for 28 days with much of the risk squarely on the Fed.

Usually in downturns, there are some industries that generally do well. Though there are some differences this time. The weak dollar and the demand from some growing giants (eg China) means that a number of very core commodities (eg copper, steel, oil, etc) have not dropped in price. Some have been doubling in price. Oil has hit $110 after being $35 in mid 2004 (note that the Iraq war did not bring the price down and Exxon-Mobil has been making record profits). Copper has gone from less than a dollar/pound in 2003 to almost $4/lb today. These raw material costs staying high will make some of the traditional downturn industry more difficult.

The need for real regulations that would have prevented much of this will ward off the future construction of houses of cards — but what about now? What is the solution now? How can we have our cake and eat it too? How can we keep spending with record deficits and have an economy that becomes more financially sound? How can we find the lenders to make this happen indefinitely? Can we find the next China and Saudia Arabia? The next Japan?

So how can we make no hard choices and maintain the high standard of living that we have enjoyed?

This Sunday marks the 5th Anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. I can remember this and how clearly it angered me in 2 different ways. 1) Going to war in Iraq, incredibly stupid and done on false pretenses. 2) I was trying to watch March Madness and they kept breaking into the games with coverage of us dropping bombs!

Please come down this Sunday to the Parade, Rally and Vigil sponsored by Eugene PeaceWorks and the Take Back America Coalition…

Some highlights include…Emily McClain, Jefferson Smith and Samba Ja!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS!

Sign the petition while you are there!

Incredible Open Position:
Lane Director of the Oregon Bus Project

Organizational Overview:
The Bus Project is an innovative vehicle for hands-on democracy.  We drives votes, leaders, and change.  (And yes, we have a bus.)  The Bus engages new people in the civic process for immediate impact and for long-term leadership development.  Volunteer leaders often become involved due to a passion for positive politics and our six Es: Education, Environment, Equal rights, Election reform, Economy, and ‘Ealth Care.

The Lane County Bus is an extensive volunteer network of top-notch grassroots leaders who work to exact local and statewide change.

The Bus Project is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, with offices in Multnomah and Lane Counties.  Its partner organizations include the Bus Project Foundation 501(c)(3) and the BusPAC.  The Bus is not affiliated with any political party, and would prefer that we examine political issues on their own merits and from an independent perspective - not left, not right, but forward.

Location:
Eugene, Oregon

Qualifications:
* Experience with volunteer management and grassroots politics (or something that you can defend as being similarly whirlwind)
* You inspire people of all ages
* Demonstrated belief that citizens (and youth in particular) can be agents of civic change
* Social skills, enthusiasm, and confidence befitting the lynchpin of a giant volunteer network
* Top-notch written skills
* Proven ability to work unsupervised
* Zoom factor (i.e. the ability to see both the forest *and* the trees)
* Highly organized and productive (your friends have a hard time understanding how you get so much done in one day)
* Freedom to travel (sometimes on a bus), and freedom to work long and/or irregular hours (often including weekends and evenings)
* Relentlessly positive in the face of obstacles (and sometimes the stress of too many opportunities)
* Culturally competent (you’ve worked/volunteered/backpacked with at least one culture different than your own)
* Frugality/efficiency (i.e. making much happen with little)
* Really smart
* Access to vehicle to transport supplies, volunteers, and make office errand runs

Responsibilities:
* Personnel and Volunteer Management - Organize, motivate and facilitate volunteer teams to surpass goals (including a tally of volunteer engagements, doors knocked, and voters registered).  Develop and implement strategies for recruitment, retention, and placement of volunteers.  Manage up to five compensated organizers.
* Communications - Write, speak, and spread the word about events and activities through social networks (live and online) and the media.
* Leadership Development - Train and foster up-and-coming leaders through their experiences on Bus efforts.  Further strengthen UO and LCC college ties, including recruitment for the Bus Project’s flagship leadership development program, PolitiCorps.
* Political Direction - Maintain open communication with other local and statewide leaders about forward-thinking political opportunities and campaigns.
* Outreach - Continually build the team, by engaging in face-to-face recruitment, and inspiring others to do the same.
* Operations - Complete or organize coverage for basic bookkeeping, office management, IT, and vehicle care/maintenance.
* Fundraising - Recruit monthly members, organize house parties, and build relationships with major supporters.

Software:
You should be comfortable with computers.  We currently utilize the below skillsets.  You don’t need to rock them all yet, because the list might be different tomorrow.  You should love learning new things.
Databases:  Salesforce, DabbleDB
Collaboration tools:  Wikis, Google Groups, Google Apps
Other:  MS Office, various open source utilities, basic IT troubleshooting

Compensation:
Salary will be less than your value on the open market.  Base rate is $20k/year, but the level scales with experience.  Benefits include health insurance, a healthcare reimbursement arrangement, paid vacation, enormous career growth potential, and a killer social network.

To Apply:
Send cover letter, resume (including three references and salary expectations), and short writing sample to Lynn Moracco at lynn@busproject.org.

Timeline:
Position is open until filled.  First-round interviews are already in progress!

Obvious Fine Print:
The Bus Project is an equal opportunity movement (though a commercial drivers license really gives you a leg up).

And you get to work with these HOT people!

* when it snows and Half of Eugene has snowmen on their porches

* when 7 foot tall snow bongs are erected on a snowy day

* when election time comes around and you are harassed everywhere you go to make sure you are a registered voter

I borrowed this idea from another site (check out Oregon Ecology for more of this) and quoted a few of my favorites — but let’s add to this list, eh Lane Bus? How about

* when Gordon Smith comes to town and Code Pink shuts down the Federal Building

* when the most happening party in town is hosted by a bunch of punk kids calling themselves the Lane Bus (BrewHaha rules!)

* when election season comes and the whole town has 100s political buttons, bumper stickers, and lawn signs on every inch of available clothing/backpack/bike/bumper/lawn/field/highway overpass/skin/hair/etc.

UO MEChA would like to invite community members to Xicano Xplosion on Tuesday March 4th at 6pm, at Agate Hill.

Teatro Milagro’s Production of “Zapatista” will be shown and a Panel after the play. Agate Hall is near 17th and Agate Street, on the east side of the University of Oregon Campus, in Eugene.