LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[May 10th, 2006] BUS DRIVES ON BOTH SIDES

Jon Weatherford wrote that state legislative candidates Jesse Cornett and Ben Cannon offer the first glimpse about whether Bus Project regulars can make it to the electoral finish line ["A Fork in the Road," WW, April 12, 2006]. The Bus won't complain about getting some well-written ink, but the article does merit clarification.

Jesse and Ben are promising leaders, but the Bus is not sending resources to support their campaigns (not even the Bus specialty: volunteer feet-on-the-street). Indeed, there is meaningful Bus effort on multiple sides of those races. A longtime Bus Project intern is the campaign manager for Rod Monroe, and one of Mary Botkin's leading strategists is an original Bus board member.

As we work to bring new people into politics, it is inevitable (and hoped for!) that some will run for office (such as '02 rider and elected-in-'04 state Rep. Chip Shields)...but that shouldn't be confused for the main goal of the Bus's efforts. The primary purpose is not power...but service.

The Bus Project is at a fork in the road—the watershed question is whether the Bus can become a lasting engine for change rather than a fly-by-night spark of energy. We're aiming for the former, which is why we're engaging all likely leaders...from the Bens and Jesses of the state to youngsters/hipsters who have yet to take No. 2 pencil to their first ballot.

And in that vein, we will almost certainly—and with giggly pride—"go on another voter-registration drive."

Garrett Downen
Bus Project Managing Director

COMMENTARY ON THE FLY

I labeled, stamped and sorted about a thousand of the Lew Frederick campaign postcards which feature a photograph of his great-grandfather and never noticed the small gap at the older man's waist.

This is a community which can't seem to figure out how to run a high school in an African-American neighborhood. And when presented with a picture of a 103-year-old, legally blind freed slave whose eight children graduated from college, all you see is his zipper.

The photograph wasn't revealing, but the degrading and demeaning Willamette Week commentary certainly was.

Kathleen A. Pool
Northeast 25th Avenue

SHOT BELOW THE BELT

Probably the person who wrote "Can You Believe This" on May 3 was attempting to be very clever. However, to zero in on a great-grandfather's fly—not zipped for a couple of inches—in a charming picture of Lew Frederick's family makes one wonder if that person is a fool or a pervert!

Juanita Baker
Southwest Corbett Avenue