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[May 30th, 2007] MAYAN SAMBO?

I was stunned to see the racist caricature of a Mayan that accompanied Paige Richmond's article titled, "The End Is Nigh (Sort Of)" [WW, May 16, 2007].

A relative newcomer to Portland, I'm continually amazed by the blatant-yet-unacknowledged racism I've witnessed here. Like the city itself, Willamette Week is not living up to its "progressive" hype.
Leigh Anne Kranz
Via email

WE HAVE A DREAM

Thanks to Byron Beck for reminding us that Oregon's new domestic partnership law is a far cry from full marriage equality ["Not Enough," WW, May 16, 2007]. Byron is to be commended for linking the struggle for gay and lesbian equality with past struggles by African-Americans.

Let's now start to think of ways to not only defend the recent gains for Oregon's gays and lesbians but to enact real reform that will benefit the families mentioned in the story. Anti-gay bigots like the Constitution Party are organizing now to overturn the domestic partnership law. We need to summon what's best within ourselves to meet this challenge and fight for the right of gays and lesbians to live in dignity.
Tracy Egan
Tigard

MEASURE 11 NO BARGAIN

What your interview with David Rogers [Q&A, April 11, 2007] fails to mention is one of the most troubling aspects of Measure 11: Mandatory sentencing makes the stakes of losing a trial so high that the majority of Measure 11 cases never actually go to trial. Instead, public defenders usually recommend to their (juvenile) clients that they take a plea bargain to avoid the harshest sentence. For example, a teenager might be told to take a four-year plea to avoid the risk of a trial that could result in a 7-year sentence. That is, most of these teenagers, having only been charged, not convicted, of crimes, are going to prison without a trial.

This type of sentencing process not only takes the power out of the judiciary—whose hands are bound by this law when sentencing—but deprives citizens the due process of law. It is, at its core, a constitutional issue.
Mischa Webley
Northeast 30th Avenue

STICKS AND STONES

Regarding the May 23 Winners & Losers ("Rural Oregon strips down and goes commando"): So far this week none of my neighbors' cars have been torched, and we didn't have homeless youth sleeping on benches in our rural community's park the last time I looked. We may be stockpiling canned goods because we can make fewer trips by car to the grocery store that way. We country rubes know more about conservation than you think.

Some of us are rural by choice—we paid our dues living in the metro area and are now happy to visit once in awhile.
"PattyKate"
On wweek.com