Kitzhaber Koming to Korvallis

Former governor Dr. John Kitzhaber will be breezing through Corvallis on Monday, May 1st, to discuss the Archimedes Movement, a project he started to reinvigorate the way health care works in Oregon.

I'll just get this out of the way now: John Kitzhaber is one of my heroes. I first met him when I was serving on the editorial board of the Gazette-Times in 1996, when he was first running for office. I've yet to meet another politician who actually answered questions so directly. No spin! Plus, he had a brilliant vision for health care in Oregon then, as now, but the Oregon Health Plan that exists today has been gutted and is but a shade of what could have been.

The main goal of the Archimedes Movement is to get a health care initiative on the ballot for the 2008 election. The details of the plan are still being brainstormed, and public involvement is invited. The basic tenets are that everyone should have access to basic care and that funding should be implemented in a similar fashion to public education, which is already a guaranteed benefit for all American citizens.

If you would like to be involved, Dr. Kitzhaber will be holding two meetings in Corvallis tomorrow, the first one at the Corvallis Senior Center at 3 p.m. and the second at the First United Methodist Church at 6 p.m. The latter will be a participatory event, so bring your ideas and be part of something that has the chance to make a real difference in our state.

El día de los niños, el día de los libros

Saturday is the 10th anniversary of Children's Day, Book Day -- a day promoting books and literacy across cultures. A children's author in Texas heard about El Día Del Niño, or Day of the Child, a Mexican tradition dating back to 1925 that emphasized the importance of kids in society. She and a librarian at the San Antonio Library decided to expand on this concept and emphasize literacy, and thus, a pseudoholiday was born.

This year, the Corvallis Multicultural Literacy Center will be bringing this idea to town with the help of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library and ArtCentric. Kids can drag their parents to each of these facilities to participate in activities such as making books, reading to therapy dogs and viewing the multicultural art display at ArtCentric. Kids will actually receive a little passport that can be stamped at each place.

All of these places are downtown, easily within walking distance from the Saturday Farmer's Market and the Riverwalk. Corvallis is a great place to find freebie events such as this, despite the lamentations of the teenagers and college students who believe there is just nothing to do in town. But the college students really seem to mean there aren't enough venues for underage drinking, and the teenagers... who can please them anyway?

Another great event for older kids is the Teen Game Night sponsored by the library a couple times each month. For a couple hours, kids from 12 to 18 get together and play board games and computer games at the library. The most popular event seems to be Dance Dance Revolution on the giant projection screen. The next one of these will be held May 8th from 5 to 7 p.m.

And now for a cuteness break

At the Safeway/K-Mart/Carmike shopping center off of Circle Blvd, there is a tiny little ecosystem smack dab in the middle of the parking lot. Right next to the Jack in the Box, there is a chain link fence surrounding what looks like a drainage ditch.

In actuality, it's a small man-made pond surrounded by tall grass and weeds... and there are ducks! Right now, there are two duck couples living there (occasionally visited by some friends that we actually see taking off and flying away to wherever they sleep) and both duck pairs have recently hatched several little ducklings. There are several tiny little waddling puffballs, dutifully following mom or dad around the lake, eating bugs in the grass, occasionally venturing under the fence onto the sidewalk.

This is the second year we've gone to visit these ducks, and the largest group of ducklings yet. A couple of days ago, we witnessed the little ones hurling themselves awkwardly into the water, sometimes falling in, then zipping around the lake like it was a game. It is a real joy to take five minutes and just watch them.

However, please do not feed the ducks! This is important, recently emphasized in the City of Corvallis newsletter. I hope you take it seriously. I've seen a few people throwing french fries over the fence, which ducks will happily gobble, but contain none of the nutrients they actually need to thrive. There is actually plenty of food in that little drainage ditch. The babies are not going to starve. Feeding them human food seems like harmless fun, but it really does them more harm than good.

But you should go see the ducklings while they are still there, just because. If I can remember to bring my camera, I'll post a picture.

What to do with Seventh Street Station

Tonight at 7 p.m. at LaSells Stewart Center, there will be a Corvallis Planning Commission meeting regarding the disposition of the old railroad yard at SW 7th Street and Western Blvd.

The development company that owns the property would like to build 86 apartment units and 13 single-family homes that would fall into the "affordable housing" category. Their development plan includes open space, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and some improvements to the existing narrow roads in that area.

Normally, this would be the best type of development possible in a town like Corvallis. The existing land is a blight, full of dead grass, debris and old rail lines. Developing vacant lots within the city limits is certainly preferable to annexing and developing the surrounding forests and woodland meadows that make this town such a lovely little bubble. But the property in question borders the Avery Helms historic district, with its Victorian and Craftsman homes.

If the development will look anything like the new apartments being crammed around campus along Jefferson Avenue, I understand the concern of the neighboring residents. However, this land should not be left empty while housing prices soar and McDonald Forest is increasingly boxed in by half-million-dollar McMansions. The town's Historic Preservation Advisory Board is merely asking developers to minimize the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods, which seems a reasonable request. But we desperately need more affordable housing within the city limits.

If you want to read the development plan, you can download it from the City of Corvallis Planning website, but be warned: it's more than 100 pages.

Put down the remote control and back away slowly

That's right, kids ... it's TV Turnoff Week! From today through Sunday, you aren't supposed to watch any television. At all. No, not even the American Idol elimination round, or whatever it is called. No, you're not supposed to TiVo all the shows you normally watch and watch twice as much TV next week.

According to Nielsen, the average American watches four hours of television every single day. Kids between the ages of 2 and 17 will watch an average of 19 hours per week, while babies under 2 will watch six hours per week. Forty percent of us keep the TV on while we're eating dinner. Fifty percent of us have three or more TV sets in our homes.

I know several people at both extremes of the TV-watching spectrum. My household of three watches a maximum of six hours per week of television time on our single set, more typically two or three hours, often none at all. (American Idol is part of that right now, thanks to the crazed fan who lives in our household, but I spend that hour hiding in my room with a book or complaining bitterly from the kitchen.) Usually, the entirety of our TV usage is catching up on Netflix goodness.

A local friend lives in a studio apartment with two rooms, and there is a TV set in each room. One TV is always on, whether or not he is watching, for background noise. He usually falls asleep with it blaring away. A friend who lives farther away recently admitted that his family of three watches 50 to 60 hours of TV shows per week, often recording one show while watching another, then catching up. His 1-year-old daughter watches a couple hours a day. They have absolutely no other hobbies. They consider TV time to be family time.

I can't believe there are that many good shows on. I can't watch sitcoms anymore. The inanity and incessant laugh track and commercial breaks just irritate me far beyond any enjoyment I might feel from watching a show. I download Lost on iTunes (and counted that in our TV watching) because that $1.99 is absolutely worth watching the show with no commercials. Other than that, what else is on? Then again, we also gave up cable and satellite because we found ourselves watching repeat episodes of Iron Chef out of desperation to get our money's worth. So what is everyone watching that is worth giving up that many hours of their lives? Seriously, aren't there better things to do?

Besides, the weather in Corvallis is as beautiful as it ever gets. How often do the forecasters use the word "delightful" to describe the upcoming weather? So go outside! Enjoy a week without the idiot box.

Transparency in government

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law in 1966 by President Johnson with the lofty goal of permitting public access to government records. After all, the government is working for the public, right?

Last year, the Sunshine Week campaign was launched for the first time in response to the growing number of documents "redacted" by the federal government. The Bush administration has classified more documents than any in our history, a trend that worried newspaper editors (among others) and prompted them to call for more transparency in government.

Sunshine Week was actually held back in March, and the Corvallis Gazette-Times was one of several newspapers nationwide that submitted requests to local government agencies asking for various documents to be released. Most complied locally, the only exception being the Benton County District Attorney, who declined to disclose DUI cases that had not yet been heard. Guess he feels he is above the law, because who the heck is going to go after the DA, anyway?

So, why am I writing about this more than a month after the fact? First of all, I fully intended to do so at the time, but it slipped my mind. But what reminded me about Sunshine Week was a section of the City of Corvallis website that I stumbled upon while trying to figure out which city council ward I live in. The city of Corvallis is so dedicated to transparency that you can actually see every email sent to either the mayor or city council members.

After a good 20 minutes of voyeuristically rifling through the mayor's email, I have found this very enlightening. It's a good way to gauge public opinion on various issues. For example, letters against the Earth Charter outweighed letters for, some calling upon the mayor to reverse the town's further decline. Hee hee! There were also letters addressed to Ms. Berg with "Dear Sir," showing that some people can't be bothered with simply looking up the name of the person to whom they are writing. And there were a slew of letters offering to enlarge certain portions of Ms. Berg's anatomy that I am fairly confident do not exist.

WiFi for everyone!

This week, mayor Helen Berg presided over a minor little ceremony in the Book Bin downtown, officially launching free wireless internet access (WiFi) in Corvallis.

For now, within a region spanning the waterfront to 5th Street, Highway 34 and Harrison Blvd, anyone with a laptop and a wireless card can log onto the internet and check email or look up local restaurants. There will be no downloading porn on the city's dime, however, as access is limited to a relatively small selection of websites. For $5 per day, or for a monthly fee ranging from $10 to $39, residents and visitors can have unlimited access.

The WiFi service will be provided by Alyrica, a Philomath company. Larger companies like Comcast (boo Comcast) briefly considered delving into free WiFi, but apparently panicked when they realized that this would make it a bit more difficult to gouge customers. Alyrica plans to expand the region of WiFi access, first to NW 9th Street and the Oregon State campus, then later to other parts of town. They also plan a partnership with OSU that will allow students to access their ONID accounts for free.

This whole plan makes me giddy, and I don't even have a wireless card!

Once again, communism runs rampant in our little town.

At least, that's what Holly Swanson of Operation Green Out would have us believe.

Earlier this week, the Corvallis City Council became the first city in Oregon to endorse the Earth Charter, a manifesto suggesting ways to make the world a better place. The basic tenets of the Earth Charter (PDF) are about what one would expect: adopt sustainable practices, support methods to eradicate poverty, don't wreck the environment, and hey, everyone, play nice.

Holly Swanson made a special appearance at the city council meeting to strenuously warn the fine citizens of Corvallis that this was "not a fluff document" and that supporting documents "mirrored communism." Worst of all, it echoes the sentiments of the dreaded Green Party, whom Ms. Swanson adamantly states we must not trust. The Operation Green Out website appears to be down, but viewing the file cached by Google shows that Ms. Swanson believes the Green Party is out to indoctrinate children into communist ideas, even referring to "Eco Child Abuse," as well as inciting anti-American riots. I also found a letter written by Ms. Swanson directly to "every child in America" with dire warnings about the Greens and their evil ways.

She even plays the Nazi comparison card with, get this, a quote from the movie Swing Kids: “In 1939, Nazi Germany declares war on freedom and demands conformity from its youth.”

Fortunately, the majority of council members voted to send Ms. Swanson and her "red sky is falling" paranoia back to southern Oregon. The document is nothing particularly scary or binding; rather, it is an ideal direction for us to be heading. Not a harbinger of doom.

Catching up with an issue close to my heart

I planned on posting this over the weekend, but completely forgot. What can I say? The weather this past couple of days has been too nice to sit at my computer.

Monday night, there was a health care forum at the library to discuss and brainstorm solutions to the health care crisis we are facing in this country. It's obviously too late to attend this meeting, but it's not too late to learn more about this issue and make your feelings known. Health Care for All Oregon is a good place to start. HCA-O advocates a universal single-payer health care plan for all citizens. I agree wholeheartedly. Too many people panic at the idea that we might let the commies run our medical programs, but realistically, this is the best solution for our broken system. Unless we really want to be Darwinian about the whole thing, and let the poor folk die off.

In addition, former governor John Kitzhaber has founded the Archimedes Movement, a sort of health care think tank. Dr. Kitzhaber was the author of the original Oregon Health Plan before lesser minds gutted the plan and left it withered and worthless.

If you have any interest in health care reform whatsoever (and if you would like to receive affordable quality treatment at any point in your future, you should pay attention), you can get involved right now, by filling out a simple survey. The Citizens' Health Care Working Group is gathering information from the public. You don't even have to leave your house.

In a country as wealthy as ours, there is no excuse for anyone to have to skip a doctor's visit or pass on a necessary prescription simply because of cost. Health care is prohibitively expensive, well out of the reach of the vast majority of families who earn less than $100,000 per year, unless they are lucky enough to work for an employer who provides insurance. Even so, some people are forced to skip their employer health plans because they can't afford deductibles, premiums and copayments. Sometimes, purchasing food and ensuring shelter are simply more immediate needs that must be addressed. But there is no excuse for turning someone away because the only job that person happens to be qualified for is slinging burgers or cleaning the gum off the undersides of movie theater seats. If I were to purchase my current level of health care coverage for my family, out of pocket, the premiums would cost more than my monthly rent. Lucky for me, I won the health care lottery with my current employer.

At the very least, I think we need to rid the world of HMOs and profit-based clinics. Health care workers have the right to earn a living, and I am not advocating lowering salaries of health care workers, but when you have for-profit corporations deciding what kind of care patients should receive, and continually finding ways to refuse care to those who need it most just to increase revenue, well... frankly, I find it evil.

Here in Corvallis, we are very fortunate to have a top notch nonprofit regional medical center run by people who are dedicated to providing care to everyone. But even so, the hospital squeaks by year after year because insurance providers under the current system reimburse far below actual cost and the hospital will not turn anyone away. The money has to come from somewhere, and it would take a lot less money to scrap all the middle managers and minor bureaucracies in favor of one system.

Nothing is certain but fresh fruit and taxes

Tomorrow may be the dreaded tax day, but it also heralds the triumphant return of area farmers' markets. Yay! The Corvallis farmer's market is held Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the riverfront and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be live music and games for the kids this weekend, plus lots of yummy locally grown produce. While the First Alternative Co-op and Richey's Market also have local produce, the prices are generally better when you buy straight from the source.

Besides, if you load up on fresh strawberries, maybe you'll be in a good enough mood that filing taxes last minute won't seem so painful.

Jesus for president!

While I was driving around town yesterday, I noticed lawn signs in front of various houses. I was racking my brain, trying to figure out if there was a special election coming up, and then got close enough to read the signs.

I think the sign manufacturer forgot the exclamation points. Easter! Jesus! He is risen!

Much like the "Jesus is the reason for the season" signs at Christmas, I suppose these signs are a way for True Believers™ to reclaim their holiday from those shady types who focus on bunnies and baskets and all those lovely Dove Truffle Eggs. A way to tell the Easter Bunny to step aside, because unlike the heathens across the street, with their plywood bunny cut-out on the lawn and their children running around finding eggs, we want to confirm our place in heaven. Or something.

But really, is faith so shaky and fragile that it needs to be proclaimed with a flimsy piece of vinyl on a couple of wires? Ignoring the pagan origins of the vernal equinox celebrations is fine, if it bothers you, but are you truly worried that someone might think otherwise? Or is it borne out of competition, a "We're more Godly than the Joneses" type of lawn sign arms race?

Yet another hallmark of the ongoing culture war, perhaps.

Bikes and brotherhood

This evening, at the corner of 23rd and Fillmore, I saw a woman with close-cropped hair, probably mid-40s, riding her bike on the side of the road. As she passed my car, I realized she was strumming a baby blue ukelele. I'm sure that surprise registered on my face, because she shot me a fairly stern "What are you lookin' at?" glance. But really, a ukelele is worthy of a momentary open-mouthed stare.

Corvallis is known for being bike-friendly. Even before there was a real emphasis on creating bike paths and bike lanes, the mostly flat topography and relatively quiet streets were simply conducive to biking around town. The artist formerly known as my spouse didn't bother getting his license until he was into his 20s and his pregnant wife mentioned that she would prefer not to drive herself to the hospital in labor.

Anyway, Avijit Chakraborty takes biking to a whole new level. This gentleman from Calcutta breezed through Corvallis this week as part of his quest to bike around the world, championing pollution-free transportation and environmental sustainability. He has already logged more than 25,000 miles -- just shy of the Earth's circumference -- in 35 countries in Asia, Europe and North America. Another 10,000 miles will also land him in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Mr. Chakraborty believes in vasudhaiva kutumbakam, a Vedic concept stating that the world is one family. This feeling of connection with the rest of the world is something that is sadly lacking in our self-centric society, where we constantly seek more for ourselves, to hell with the rest. If everyone was just a smidge less selfish, we'd all be better off.

Mmmm... kau pi.

I've never been a big fan of fraternities and sororities, other than the truly academic or international organizations that don't focus on drunken social activities. Yeah, I know the Greek organizations always claim to be doing some good in society, but I recently had to sit on a bus that was chauffeuring sorority girls and their dates to some bar downtown, and my initial impressions from my own college years were solidly confirmed.

But I love this. A group of students in the late '70s formed a mock fraternity called Eta Kau Pi. One of the founders was actually Dr. Jess Hickerson, a prominent OB/GYN doctor in town, and his son is part of the group that has resurrected the Un-Frat.

My brother once formed a mock fraternity as well (I Phelta Thi), so maybe I'm just partial to this sort of satirical silliness.

Bipolar weather disorder

I love Oregon weather. I know the rain gets to some, but really, most of Oregon's rainy days are also interspersed with bits of sun, often streaming through dramatic clouds. Today, we were driving back from Eugene and, for about half an hour, the sky was blue and clear and sunny on one side of I-5, while the other was dark gray and pouring rain, with a giant, luminous, double rainbow on the other. It was glorious, although the sheep didn't look too thrilled to be standing out there in the rain.

I see a lot of people with fake-and-bake tans here in Corvallis who would probably prefer warmer, dryer weather, but no thanks. The rain keeps this town green and pretty, and we have distinct seasons, unlike California, which (for the most part) has hot and dry vs. cold and rainy.

The most effective way to communicate with the Vatican...

... is probably not a cardboard sign on a street corner.

At the corner of 9th and Garfield, as you turn into the Dari-Mart/El Sol de Mexico parking lot, someone has put up a cardboard sign addressed to "Roman Base." I understand who this person is talking to, and I can make out a portion of the context, but I can't really discern what the author is attempting to communicate.

I hope the other voices this person is hearing can understand the hidden message better than I can.

Welcome to the new home of the Corvallist

I'm not the most tech savvy person in town, but eventually I figure these things out. Hopefully, I'll get this site whipped into shape in short order.

Until then, please don your hardhat and watch for falling bricks.

Kelley Wirth cleanth up her meth

Yesterday, in a move that surprised... probably no one, Kelley Wirth pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine in a deal made with the district attorney that will allow her to avoid jail time. Instead, she will be on probation for 18 months, perform 80 hours of community service (hopefully not in the political arena), and pay a whopping $407. She was also going to lose her license, but she made puppy dog eyes at the judge and said something akin to, "Won't somebody think of the (my) children?" and he agreed to let her keep driving.

However, she is not to contact her alleged former lover, janitor Fernando Mendez, who was basically bribed over $20,000 to resign and promise not to sue the state government.

I'm not an advocate for jail time for minor drug possession, so this seems perfectly fair. It will be interesting to see what happens with the state ethics investigation over Wirth's last minute pay increases to her mother.

Lesson for the police: Look, but don't touch.

One of Corvallis' finest resigned from his position with the Corvallis Police Department today, apparently in an effort to avoid the internal affairs investigation he was undergoing while on administrative leave.

It seems that Ryan Thayer, 25-year-old husband and father, was one of several police officers who busted a party on campus that consisted of young, nubile coeds clad only in lingerie. These officers somehow ended up in several My Space photos with the girls later on, and I'd be willing to bet (although cannot currently verify) that no noise ordinance violations were cited at this particular party.

Officer Thayer apparently liked what he saw, because he then conducted an affair with an OSU student, arranging trysts while he was on duty protecting Corvallis citizens. Now that he has resigned from the force, the investigation has been discontinued, but I still sort of hope that his wife kicks his ass.

Ryan Thayer, being sworn in, August 2003

(courtesy Corvallis Police Department newsletter)

Can't see the forest?

Arbor Day is still a few weeks away, but the National Arbor Day Foundation has just issued the Tree City U.S.A. certifications for 2005. Corvallis received recertification this year, along with 42 other cities in Oregon, a record number for our state.

I was surprised to discover that Corvallis has only been a Tree City for the past four years. Some cities in Oregon have been certified for more than 20 years. Of course, the certification is not based on the number of trees in the city, but on items like per capita budget for tree preservation and observance of Arbor Day. But darn it, for a pretty little tree-filled community such as ours, with a world class College of Forestry at the university, why weren't we certified earlier?

We also received a sort of bonus award, the Tree City Growth Award. That makes us extra special.

Bread and Circuses

This evening, at the Benton County Fairgrounds, Circus Gatti will stage two shows for the public's viewing pleasure. The promoters advertise the circus as a traditional three-ring family affair, with high-wire acts, flame-jugglers, acrobats, trapeze artists, clowns and, of course, animal shows.

The animal shows are problematic for many. Circus Gatti puts on approximately 450 shows in 150 cities in the course of 9 months. They travel with ponies, monkeys, Rottweilers, Siberian and Bengal tigers, and elephants, but sometimes have to leave the larger animals out of town in certain regions where there are bans on using exotic animals in acts such as this. The USDA has cited Circus Gatti repeatedly for failing to provide adequate enclosures and care for the animals. At previous shows, distressed chimps dragged their trainer into the crowed and mauled a child and a tiger became stuck in a flaming hoop.

Circus Gatti representatives claim that the situation is overblown and that the animals receive proper care. But frankly, I'd still rather go to the zoo. At least the zoo tries to emulate the natural habitat for their animals, as opposed to coercing them into performing for a couple hours a day, only to be shoved back into their travel trailers.

Just a short note today

Presidential candidate Michael Smith is on the front page of the Gazette-Times this Sunday. It's a decent interview by Bennett Hall and worth a read.