LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[September 7th, 2005] HOT TOPIC

Regarding "Hot or Not" [WW, Aug. 24, 2005]: In the West, we are surrounded by pervasive evidence of two things: (1) The world has been getting warmer long before the SUV, and (2) Nature has repeatedly recovered from catastrophes on a scale beyond anything humans can produce.

Thousands of years ago, ancestors of native Americans simply walked across the Bering Straits from Asia. They kept walking right through Oregon to Clovis, N.M., which had a temperate climate then similar to Oregon's now. Mastodons lived in Oregon then.

Climate change began long, long ago.

The eruptions which created Crater Lake and Newberry Crater were orders of magnitude greater than Mount St. Helens. Each eruption put more toxic gas and particulates into the atmosphere than humans have since the beginning of civilization. These eruptions must have disrupted global climate for years, but then, nature recovered.

Nature is amazingly robust.

Mr. Koberstein quotes Philip Mote: "There is no debate in the scientific community over whether human-caused global warming is possible or observed." Really? Read The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg (Cambridge University Press, 2001), which contains a tightly argued refutation of the "hockey stick" school of human-caused global warming. Googling for "skeptical environmentalist" will return 52,100 hits for sites both pro and con. This sounds like a debate to me.

No, Lomborg and company are not nut-jobs, like creationists or "intelligent design" advocates. They're serious people who also have serious questions about politically correct eco-orthodoxy.

If George Taylor is among their number, well, good for him.

Andrew Wilson
Southwest Downsview Court

THE WHETHER MAN

Anybody with even just a little actual training in climatology knows that it differs dramatically from meteorology, in which George Taylor is trained. For one, the system that you study is larger, more complex, requiring different paradigms for approaching the matter. You need patience, insight and cooperative research, not an adherence to some outdated reductionist school of thought that has been long since proven false.

George Taylor is so oblivious to his own ignorance that he even fails to acknowledge that greenhouse gases, while naturally cycled through the planet, have never been so high thanks to substantial human additions. Nor would he, because then he would have to mention that they play an important role in feedback processes in our climate...which could mean not only change, but runaway change.

We are not doomed unless we obstinately refuse to change certain aspects of our life so as to ensure our continued coexistence on this planet. "I have an opinion on this issue" is purely subjective and misinformed and does not have a place as a representative of the state. George: Please go back to predicting tomorrow's likelihood of precipitation rather than mucking up rigorous intellectual debate with your uneducated "opinions."

Daniel Marks
Southeast Salmon Street

PORTLAND: MORE RACIST THAN SWEDEN

Rami Makboul doesn't owe an apology to the purported OLCC inspector who said blacks belong in Northeast Portland and that they need not be encouraged in any way to come downtown ["A Whiter Vue," WW, Aug. 17, 2005]. His ignorance is only superseded by his exiguous [that means small -ed.] mind. He has defamed a tiny minority who for the most part are law-abiding citizens. As a newly arrived African-American artist and writer, I read about crazy white men killing panhandlers in downtown Portland, and there's that other nutty white dude who stabbed an innocent old white man in the back as he was entering a restaurant in trendy Northwest Portland. I read about Meth Head Nation in Southeast Portland, and gangs of white youths attacking women on the streets of downtown.

Mr. Makboul, of Palestinian descent, might need the help of black people when a racist white person attacks him for looking like an Arab terrorist in the near future. He can change his hip-hop club to a "Top 40" format, and maybe he can attract all those young homeless whites that I see everyday in downtown Portland.

I have lived in Sweden for most of my life, and I have never seen more racism than what I have seen in Portland, a city that might well be named "The Biggest Littlest Racist Town in America."

Jerry Harris
Southeast Main Street

A CLEAR VUE OF RACE

I noticed Roy Tate's reaction, "That is a racist statement," to [club manager] Rami Makboul's email suggesting that black patrons of the Vue belong to Northeast Portland, and not downtown, received some prominence in your recent article about the Vue's problems with the OLCC ["A Whiter Vue," Aug. 17, 2005].

Well, Rev. Tate, too bad. The reality is blacks commit a much higher percentage of the crime in this city than their proportion of the population would suggest. Mr. Tate should spend less time hyperventilating about racism every time someone notices this fact and more time advocating for the incarceration of the thugs who commit these crimes. Perhaps, then, the racism "problem" would solve itself.

Jeff Altig
Northeast Sacramento Street

THESE COLORS DO RUN

To the Nose: Regarding your column "The Great White Dope" [Aug. 24, 2005], I like to get as self-righteous as anyone about other people's racism, and certainly Portland has its share. However, as a person who has followed local politics for nearly 40 years, I take issue with your implication that "people of color have trouble getting elected to office" in our city.

Actually, the record shows that very seldom have minority candidates lost elections when they were serious candidates (by that I mean people who ran campaigns, not those who merely put their names on the ballot). For example, look at former City Commissioners Dick Bogle and Charles Jordan; ex-Multnomah County Chair Gladys McCoy and her husband, former state Senator Bill McCoy; former State Representative JoAnn Bowman; and Senators Avel Gordly (who took out a white incumbent to get into the Legislature) and Margaret Carter. The present county commission has two Latinas, Maria Rojo de Steffey and Serena Cruz. I can't remember a black candidate for judge losing an election, and I served on the Portland School Board with Herb Cawthorne and Lucious Hicks, both black. And, in the last election, African-American Sonja Henning handily won a seat on the school board.

I have been involved with, and have followed the activities of, several organized efforts to recruit minority citizens to run for various offices. It's difficult to get folks generally to run for office, for obvious reasons, and minorities are no exception. Portlanders would be better served if we had more elected officials of color, but the reason we don't have more is not that white Portland citizens won't vote for them.

Stephen Kafoury
Northwest Couch Street

THE WHITE STRIPES

I have to write to defend the letter writer who advised cyclists to use side streets [Mailbox, Aug. 10]. Contrary to his critics, I have long found side streets just as fast and far safer. Sure, I've had close calls, but drivers are slower and more alert on side streets. The two times I have been hit by a car, once ending up in the hospital, occurred on main roads with a bike lane. Stripes give a false sense of security.

Expecting higher driver consciousness is not reasonable. Awareness needs to be embedded in the design. In Amsterdam, bike paths are nearly always located between the sidewalk and parked cars, separate from traffic. A driver turning right, instead of veering directly into the bike lane, faces it once into the turn and recognizes crossing it. Also, on the passenger side of parked cars, a cyclist is less likely to get "doored," which can also produce serious injury.

Forsaking design, BTA [Bicycle Transportation Alliance] and others insisting on the rights of cyclists on main roads looks crazy. One letter writer saying he was hit near the double-line of a highway indicates he was in the wrong place. He should have crossed like a pedestrian, looking for cars. And your writer riding on 15th & Prescott? That looks like a death wish.

Riding a narrow main street without room for a bike may be legal, and BTA-approved, but getting hit is not just "unlucky." Nor are drivers the villains. We need better design for safe bike routes to divide us from moving traffic. Until then, side streets are a good choice.

Terry Hammond
Northeast 27th Avenue