Community Voices Weekly: Year of the rematch

Happy Sunday, Lookout Eugene-Springfield,

I wish I knew how to quit you, politics.

In last week’s newsletter, I breathed a sigh of relief for the end of primary election season and a return to more diverse topics filling the Community Voices section.

Then I went and wrote a column about the general election. The prospect of rematches of the previous races for Oregon governor and U.S. Representative in the 4th Congressional District was too interesting to pass up.

If Christine Drazan couldn’t beat Tina Kotek in 2022, and Monique DeSpain couldn’t unseat Rep. Val Hoyle in 2024, can either really hope that 2026 is their year?

Read my take above, then let me know what you think: lte@lookoutlocal.com

Oregon’s education malaise

I wasn’t the only writer with state politics on my mind last week.

Joshua Purvis recently attended a lecture at the University of Oregon by New York Times columnist and Oregon native Nicholas Kristof. Afterward, the two swapped emails about what Purvis calls “Oregon’s gap between progressive intentions and public outcomes.”

Perhaps nowhere is that truer than in Oregon’s K-12 education system, he wrote in a column last week. Despite the passage of the Student Success Act that has funneled billions of dollars to public schools, Oregon performs at or near the bottom of national rankings in reading and math.

Dueling takes on Farmers Market traffic

Sometimes I publish a letter to the editor, and it strikes a nerve. That was the case when Steven Baker recently wrote in about the Lane County Farmers Market — specifically about the impact of street closures around the pavilion and plaza on businesses like his that are located nearby.

The day after Baker’s letter published, my letter-to-the-editor inbox had several responses (a few of which didn’t meet our standards for publication).

But Eugene letter-writer Erica Lyon’s response did. Lyon called Baker’s letter “alarmist,” and argued that “practically everyone would stand to benefit from a more permanent closure of these streets during market hours.”

Do you attend Farmers Market events on Tuesdays or Saturdays? What do you think of the traffic situation there?

A voice for women in combat

Everyone is welcome to submit one letter to the editor or guest column for Lookout to consider publishing every 30 days. In my time as opinion editor, I’ve come to expect a monthly submission right on schedule from several writers.

One of them is Eugene resident Steven Hunnicutt. He penned a touching tribute to Vietnam War combat nurse Diane Carlson Evans, who passed away on May 20, five days before Memorial Day.

Evans collaborated with Lookout columnist Bob Welch on a 2020 book about her successful fight to honor women veterans of the Vietnam War with their own memorial in Washington, D.C.

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