WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. YOU CALL THAT ANARCHY? I am so tired of Eugene anarchists. Shane Edwards' sophomoric bleatings and self-serving revisionism ["The Lessons of Seattle," WW, Dec. 15, 1999] reflect the degree to which this movement has no coherent or realistic message. Its proponents clearly don't even understand the meaning of the name. Anarchy means a state of nature untroubled by any formal government structure. Yet the anarchists keep saying they stand for protection of the environment, among other things. How are you going to protect timber or fish stocks or air quality if we dissolve the fragile regulatory structure we have been able to carve out? There wouldn't be a drinkable source of water left without a quasi-representative government which can be shamed into action after enough working-class children develop leukemia. Like any other form of sensationalism, superficial violent protests will eventually focus attention on the actors themselves and away from the issue. Especially when the targets aren't really the source of the problem. To high-five yourselves because you threw a few bricks through a Starbucks window, and to say that this will help raise the curtain for an international anarchist movement, is ridiculous. How can anarchists even have a movement?! It's a contradiction in terms. Oppressed? What a cop-out. Travel outside the comfortable confines of the States and you'll see oppression that your sheltered existence in Eugene couldn't begin to compare to. You claim that the violence in Seattle was broad-based, but countless firsthand accounts by other participants describe the property damage as unrepresentative and unwelcome. Certainly our version of republican government is far too beholden to businesses and multinational corporations. Certainly the influence of money in the process makes a mockery of democracy. But I have yet to hear an intelligent argument explaining how small bands of thugs running around breaking things is going to change that. I don't mind seeing broken glass outside of a Seattle Nordstrom, and I don't mind if a bunch of Eugene yahoos gave more organized, peaceful protesters a black eye. The convergence of so many unrelated groups willing to get off their butts and take a stand put the issue of the WTO in people's heads for the very first time. That's an important first step. The WTO is a real threat that after Seattle might be forced to undergo necessary reforms. But don't flatter yourself that this has anything to do with Anarchy. Dave Coulter Southeast Alder Street LOSERS: WILLAMETTE WEEK I think you got your scoreboard columns mixed up last week ("Scoreboard," WW, Dec. 15, 1999). You listed smokers as losers when clearly they should have been placed in the winners' column. This ordinance will provide an opportunity for these smokers to stop smoking. Statistics show that over 80 percent of people who smoke want to stop. When the ordinance takes effect next July 1, it is estimated that 25 percent will immediately stop, and another 50 percent will cut down on the amount they smoke. It will also stop damaging the health of others, including people with allergies, asthma and other respiratory ailments who work or frequent these businesses. The real losers are the tobacco industry and its allies. Less smoking means less revenue and profits, less advertising in your paper, and providing a new norm that smoking is neither glamorous, healthy, nor tolerated in public places. The task force to "snuff out smokers lighting up in bars" will look at the economic impacts of businesses and will surely find, as in California, Corvallis and other ardent communities, that there will be neither a decline in business nor an increase. It will also strive to educate the community that secondhand smoke is a Class A carcinogen right along with asbestos, radon and benzene. Our indoor air needs to be regulated just like our outdoor air, water and food supply. You placed Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz in the winners' column when clearly she ranks in the losers' column for not supporting the ordinance, as well as Commissioner Sharron Kelley. And while you're at it, why not include the Willamette Week in the losers' column as well? Since you started taking tobacco advertising earlier this year, your coverage on the tobacco-control effort in Oregon has been obsolete and virtually non-existent. You used to cover the controversies in the local club scene, like the story of a Marlboro smoker thrown out of a Camel club (Rogue of the Week, WW, Nov. 11, 1998). You haven't mentioned the efforts of Sen. Ron Wyden in Washington, D.C., and his stand against the tobacco executives. You have not once covered events involving youth, tribes and coalitions of various counties that have been working exhaustedly to decrease death and morbidity, decreasing medical costs, helping people stop smoking, and decreasing tobacco promotions, sponsorships, advertising and consumption. Camel and Natural American Spirit have truly affected your journalistic reputation, since you continue to take and profit from their ads. I heard your publisher Richard Meeker say no one has been complaining about the ads. That is not the point. You really need to look at your selection of articles and begin to cover these significant stories generated mainly from Measure 44. I can understand The Oregonian taking out full-page ads and stuffing Rooster snuff coupons in the paper. I never thought that the Willamette Weak would follow a similar route. If you don't have a Rogue of the Week selected yet, I nominate your paper. Better yet, how about Rogue of the Quarter Century. Come on, WW. Get it together. Erik C. Vidstrand Southwest Nevada Street - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published December 28, 1999