Barack Obama's Visit to Eugene

Line around Mac Court

The highlight of yesterday for the democratic presidential frontrunner, Barack Obama, was the endorsement and praise from New Mexcio’s Governor, Bill Richardson. Barack Obama has been the talk of the media the last few days with his 5000+ word speech which directly addressed the issue of race to try and soothe the controversy brought up over the Senator’s Reverend.

Barack later then made a pit stop in Eugene, Oregon at Mac Court around 9pm. The stadium holds 9,000 people in which people were lined around the entire block both ways with people apparently standing in line since 6am in the morning, according The Oregonian.

Security

The scene was quite eerie as the security guards, Eugene City Police, and the Secret Service all paraded around the crowd to show their dominance in authority. Security guards made their rounds around the barricades and searched the crowd with metal detectors as well as padding down everyone in the front line.

I didn’t make it out to the line until around 7pm which was when the doors were slated to
open.

Barack Obama

The whole stadium filled up by 8:15 pm and there were thousands of people that were left out in the cold. I was one of the thousands that almost made it to the door, nonetheless, I was able to make it to the front part of the barricades in hopes of seeing a glimpse of Barack Obama on his way into the stadium. Thousands of die hard Obama fans waited until 9pm when he made a quick 10 minute speech to acknowledge the crowd. The Secret Service in particular were like robots while they surrounded Obama as he made his rounds around the crowd. As he proceeded to circle the crowd and shake peoples hands, of which I had the pleasure, he raised the spirit of his supporters.

Although I didn’t get to see Obama’s speech on the inside of the stadium it was well worth getting to see him up close. The feeling of the crowd really invigorates and inspires the masses, especially young people.

Oregon doesn’t get to vote for the primary until May 20th, which is two whole months away. With the democratic nominee still up for grabs with Hillary Clinton fighting the good fight, Oregonians may actually get to see their vote count.

More Toxics found in Oregon Rivers

A study released by the U.S. Geological Survey (5MB) has found pesticides in the Clackamas River as well as trace elements of pesticides found in drinking water which comes from the river.

15 different pesticides were found in the drinking water! Most, fortunately, were barely detectable and were 11 times below the federal limit for humans or lower. However, three of the pesticides had no benchmark for the safety of human health.

The study at most shows that something must be done to clean up the river.

Quite frankly, I am getting tired of reading about more and more toxics in our water, food, and atmosphere. Not only do I have to worry about toxics, now I have to worry about pharmaceuticals and antibiotics in my tap water too? I suppose our water in Oregon is not as bad as it is in China. Just beware of the tap and the extra bonuses that come with it.

Toxics Found in Remote Crater Lake Oregon

In an article that came out of The Oregonian, a new study has determined that the evergreen trees around Crater Lake in Oregon are contaminated with industrial PCB's, DDT (a banned pesticide), and at least two other pesticides in use by local regional farmers. It's hard to imagine that a banned pesticide such as DDT is being found in such a remote area such as Crater Lake, especially when the United States government phased the pesticide out in 1972.

Traces of DDT were also found in Montana's Glacier National Park at levels higher than are found in fish studies done in Africa where DDT is still used to treat mosquito problems!

These findings have come from a six-year study, conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon State University, of airborne contamination in 20 Western national parks and monuments released this week. The study illustrates that the chemicals and pesticides tend to linger around even though efforts have been put forth to reduce or minimize their impact in some cases such as DDT.

In a broader sense, it proves that a continued effort should be made to reduce toxics if alternatives are available. For example, organic farming has been a rising industry due to growing acceptance of its superiority and health benefits over conventionally grown produce. One study conducted by the National Academy of Science even suggested that the prolonged use of pesticide spray have actually reduced yield rather than increased it in certain crops.

Rather than embracing the "Green Revolution" from decades past, it's about time we move forward with a modern and sustainable agricultural farming practice. There is also a strong need to reduce use of chemicals, pesticides, and herbicide spray by developing a nationwide Last Resort Policy. Please urge your representatives to support a reduction in toxics, and if you live in Lane County, Oregon please support the issue by signing this petition to minimize toxics.

You Know You're in Eugene When

So this is a re-take on something my friends did from San Jose, so I decided to make one for Eugene because it's fun and SO TRUE, please add more in comment form if you can think of anymore:

• 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 you walk downtown and get asked if you want mushrooms


• when you're on your way to the club and 100 bicyclists nearly run you over with their clown suits and techno music blazing


• when you're in downtown and you're asked to smoke pot


• when all the hippies come out of the closet for the Eugene Celebration and for the Country Fair


• when strolling through town on Saturday and you find the Market


• when you see the Eugene Weekly people delivering papers on bike thingy's


• when it's the middle of winter and a freak sunny day comes along and half the city is walking around town


• when you order pizza downtown and the homeless/punk kids ask you for a slice


• when you hear people refer to the city as the "Euge"


• when you use the 5 or so taller buildings in downtown as a reference point


• when you go to the local coffee shops at 9pm and their packed with locals


• when you're stuck in traffic on West 11th going to and from West Eugene and downtown


• when kids from the west side don't know their way around downtown


• when you can spot someone is out of place because they're from Springfield


• when you can spot someone is out of place because they're from Junction City


• when someone is an outsider because of the way they pronounce "Willamette"


• when you can spot a driver from California and you get all pissed about it


• when you see that everyone and their mom has piercings or tattoos of some sort


• when you see a million tattoo and piercing shops


• when you read the paper and they're still arguing about what to do over the pits downtown


• when you notice that there are very few corporations downtown, they are mostly in West Eugene


• when you go for a stroll in the park and see a bunch of people playing their bongo drums


• when you go to 5th street market and a really cool local band is playing


• when there's a DUCK game because every car and person in town is decked out in DUCK in gear


• when you read that Phil Knight from Nike has donated yet a few more Million Dollars to U of O


• when you go to a local health food store you get asked to sign a petition


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


• when you are a republican and the extremist liberals find out about it


• when spring break comes around and every frat house on campus has blazing parties going on


• when you go to the club and girls with hairy arm pits are a normal thing


• when you encounter multiple people with really bad B.O., but nobody seems to care


• when you refer to Springfield, a local Eugenian will quiver


• when you hear people argue about which Springfield belongs to in the Simpsons


• when you see piles of trash/junk in front of peoples homes with "Free" signs in front of it


• when you almost get into a car accident from the 1 foot piles of leaves everywhere in the fall


• when you go to Alton Baker Park and you see people smoking out and chilling by the river


• when you decide to explore the river in Springfield and you accidentally find a nudist colony


• when you're talking about "the mall", it's referring to Valley River Center


• when you know what VRC and DAC stand for


• when you know that Thursday and Saturday nights are the best nights to go out


• when you goto to 80's night and see that it has been taken over by the gays and lesbians


• when you are in downtown because the ambulance and fire truck sirens are always going off


• when many locals you meet are vegan or vegetarian and frown down upon the meat eaters


• when you shop at the Kiva, Sundance, or Capella's and you're given a 5 cent credit for using re-usable bags


• when you eat at Cafe Yumm!

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can you think of anymore....please add to the list by commenting on this blog