vision2020
Re: letter to the editor--never published
I printed it out and read it over and would sure like to use it in the
eagle... do I need permission to use it?
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LuJane Nisse, Publisher
LatahEagle and The Boomerang!
visit us on the web at
www.the-boomerang.com
www.lataheagle.com
(updated periodically)
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-----Original Message-----
From: G M <herecomestheflood@yahoo.com>
To: pooch@moscow.com <pooch@moscow.com>
Cc: Vision 2020 <vision2020@moscow.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: letter to the editor--never published
>Wow. Thanks for sharing this Evelyn.
>
>And don't many of you agree that this piece does
>indeed deserve to appear in the Daily News, perhaps as
>a guest editorial?
>
>
>Greg Meyer
>
>
>
>--- Neil Palmer <pooch@moscow.com> wrote:
>> This was intended to be a letter to the editor of
>> the Daily News. It
>> is from a family friend from Toledo, Ohio who
>> recently visited. Since
>> it has not appeared in the Daily News in the last
>> nine days, I thought
>> I would simply post it for the Vision 2020 list.
>>
>> Evelyn Palmer
>>
>> ----------
>> > From: mike ferner <mferner@utoledo.edu>
>> > To: editor1@moscow.com
>> > Subject: Moscow visit
>> > Date: Sunday, June 06, 1999 6:45 PM
>> >
>> Roger Kendall, Managing Editor
>> Moscow Daily News
>> Moscow, ID
>>
>> Dear Mr. Kendall,
>>
>> A couple of weeks ago, I visited some friends in
>> your city and had the
>> opportunity to discuss local political issues.
>> Reflecting on those
>> discussions prompted the following op ed piece. I
>> am submitting it for
>> your consideration for an upcoming issue of the
>> Daily News.
>>
>> By way of bio information, I served two terms as an
>> independent member
>> of Toledo City Council from 1989-1993, and ran for
>> mayor as an
>> independent in 1993. Currently I work as
>> Communications Director for
>> the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, a
>> union representing
>> migrant farmworkers in Ohio, Michigan, NC, and
>> Florida.
>>
>> Please let me know if you have any questions or
>> comments. Thank you
>> very much for your time and consideration.
>>
>> Mike Ferner
>> 419-243-3456 (work)
>> 729-7273 (home)
>>
>> ************************
>>
>> On a recent, lovely visit to Moscow, I had the
>> good fortune to take
>> in many local sights, and also talk with residents
>> about some of the
>> issues facing Moscow's citizenry.
>> One issue that caught my attention was the
>> question of planning for
>> the new municipal pool, and how much corporate
>> sponsorship to allow.
>> If you think that questions about whether to
>> allow corporate logos
>> on umbrellas or a water slide are mundane and trite,
>> I urge you to think
>> again. This very question is sweeping the nation's
>> municipalities and
>> school districts like a wildfire. And I believe it
>> is not an
>> overstatement to say that the long-term consequences
>> for our democracy
>> are every bit as serious.
>> For three of the four years I was in local
>> government in Toledo,
>> our economy, tied closely to the auto industry,
>> experienced a serious
>> recession. Day after day we agonized over budget
>> cuts to significant
>> programs for our citizens. We scrambled for funds
>> from any source
>> imaginable.
>> It was during this period that we discovered
>> what we thought was an
>> ingenious source of revenue--not huge, but large
>> enough to save some key
>> programs from the ax.
>> Corporations, like the grocery chain that
>> controlled most of
>> Toledo's food stores, banks, and manufacturing
>> firms, offered to sponsor
>> a host of programs in city parks that had previously
>> been strictly
>> publicly funded. With only a vague sense of unease,
>> I agreed with my
>> colleagues who enthusiastically endorsed this great
>> new idea. Corporate
>> banners began appearing at many city park events.
>> About this same time I noticed the school
>> district embarking on
>> similar ventures. At one downtown parade, I saw a
>> high school band
>> marching behind a banner proclaiming it was "brought
>> to you by
>> Kroger's." School buildings began sprouting signs
>> thanking companies
>> for "adopting us," by providing funding for items
>> not otherwise possible
>> with tight school budgets.
>>
>> It was not until after I left office and took time
>> to seriously reflect
>> on this new trend that I began to realize that what
>> I had witnessed and
>> participated in was much more than "entrepreneurial,
>> win-win,
>> public-private-partnerships." It was much more than
>> simply a question
>> of whether corporate signage was in good or bad
>> taste. It really did
>> strike to the heart of our democracy at the most
>> fundamental
>> level--local government. Here's what I mean.
>> With just two tax abatement votes, local
>> government in Toledo
>> lifted over $100 million in tax liability from
>> Owens-Corning Corp. and
>> Daimler-Chrysler Corp., and placed it squarely on
>> the backs of local
>> citizens and small businesses. In addition to the
>> abatements, local
>> government gave these companies nearly another $100
>> million in outright
>> public "gifts" in the form of infrastructure
>> improvements and cash
>> grants. State and federal treasuries were similarly
>> raided. With the
>> public purse pauperized, the rest becomes
>> predictable:
>>
>> * School officials help soft drink companies win
>> brand loyalty and
>> future market share among young consumers with
>> "sole supplier"
>> contracts that promise some added revenues for
>> textbooks.
>> * Our public officials told citizens that parks
>> will get improvements
>> only when "private partners" are
>> secured--partners that will not
>> invest in unseen infrastructure, but only in
>> ball diamonds and
>> swimming pools that can be named after them.
>> * The same corporations that receive millions in
>> subsidies make
>> tax-deductible contributions to school levy
>> campaigns, so the
>> patriotic suckers still on the tax rolls can
>> keep public
>> institutions afloat.
>> * With what remains of our democracy, we elect
>> our city councils and
>> school boards. But none of us voted for the
>> corporate officials
>> who increasingly have more to say about
>> allocating resources within
>> our public institutions.
>>
>> What do we teach our children and ourselves
>> by all this? Be
>> careful. Don't rock the boat. If you're a public
>> official, be careful
>> not to ask "anti-business" questions. Be quiet.
>> Get in line.
>> Government incompetent. Corporations good. Thank
>> the new monarch for
>> small favors.
>> What a far cry from when populist forces in
>> every state in the
>> union kept corporations on a very short leash; when
>> "we the people"
>> understood ourselves to be sovereign over all the
>> institutions we
>> created--including corporations. How quickly we
>> went from this status
>> to simply being consumers and taxpayers with so
>> little control over our
>> lives and our own institutions.
>> Surely this change has been presented to us as
>> "progress," and of
>> course no one wants to be judged as standing in the
>> way. But how do we
>> measure progress? How have we strayed so far from
>> being self-governing
>> people?
>> For all these reasons, I believe that your
>> debate about corporate
>> sponsorship of public facilities is more than a
>> question of good taste
>> or attractive design. It is about very fundamental
>> values to
>> self-governing people. Public facilities should be
>> just
>>
>=== message truncated ===
>
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