TOXIC TAXES
RE: “Road Work Ahead” [News, May 7], regarding a proposed monthly fee for households and businesses to help raise additional transportation funds.
HELLO GENTLEMEN—I just moved myself, my lovely wife, and [my] business to Portland from Washington State. I just purchased [and] registered a car, [and] paid to register my business. The recent street tax debate incentivizes me to locate my offices and hire employees in Vancouver. Why invest in a community with such backward public policy? Creating a tax requiring additional administration will erode the revenue and shift the burden away from the actual infrastructure users to already overtaxed businesses and homeowners.
Sara Howe, Howe Innovative Design
GENDER SPECIFIC
RE: “A Long Time Coming” [News, May 21], regarding the recent overturning of Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage.
DEAR MERCURY—The judicial system has no business in attempting to validate, through same-sex marriage rulings, the current gay “mass-political-delusion” that there exists a “third-sex-gender”—as if it were a scientific fact. On the contrary, current biological evidence points to the fact that the only true gender determiners are the genetic chromosomes found in the nucleus of every cell, of all living species—which dictate that the males possess the “XY pairs” and the females possess the “XX pairs.” Therefore, no evidence exists for a “third sex or gender” that can justify a third category for legal marriage. The Supreme Court will have to make its final decision based upon scientific facts rather than collectively driven psychological delusions. Wake up to reality, people.
Anthony P
WELCOME BACK, OLD BUDDY
RE: The Food Issue of May 21, as experienced by former Mercury employee Lance Chess, including “Eat Your Vegetables!” [Feature], “Vegetables Are Gross” [Feature], and “I’m Not Mad, Just Disappointed” [Film].
I surprisingly enjoyed this week’s Mercury. It is refreshing that you were able to mostly put aside your cynicism and write in earnest about vegetables. Erik’s candy counterpoint was a refreshing tonic against your fiber-filled coming-of age tapestry.
Lance Chess
IT’S ALL LIES
RE: Sham democracy, fraud, deception, cops, and the media.
DEAR MERCURY—Why don’t you do a story about how the criminals in control of the media and government are trying to manipulate people into thinking that America the great republic is a DEMOCRACY and manufacturing consent to govern the people through fraud and deception? Police officers have no more authority than the employees at Walmart, however the media has made people believe in lies.
William IAM
FOOD FIGHT
RE: “The Mislabeled Vegetable Epidemic” [Feature, May 21], a comical disambiguation of edible plants.
HEY IDIOT—All fruits are vegetables!! However not all vegetables are fruits, which is why we have smaller groups of vegetables like fruits, legumes, etc. Please make a note of it.
Matt Powell
THE YUPPY/HIPSTER DIVISION
RE: SE Division, once a sleepy stretch of town that has exploded with hot restaurants and new condos at an impressive rate, even compared to other newly christened hotspots.
DEAR MERCURY—I feel that if Elliott Smith were still alive today and he saw what Division Street has become, he would stab himself in the heart again. I am originally from Chicago, so I don’t mind the yuppification of a neighborhood. But in Portland, it just seems like it does not belong. In the future, it will become known as D-bag Street Village to hipsters displaced by hipsters who became yuppies!
Matt Wayland
BIKEPACKING: NEVER MIND
RE: Bikepacking. Like backpacking, but on a bike. It’s over. We guess.
DEAR MERCURY—I just want to place an ad that appears in print and says: “Bikepacking is over.” Can you advise on how to make this happen?
N Dougher
OKAY N, there you have it: message delivered. Now that you’ve won this week’s Mercury letter of the week by tickling our fondness for bizarre complaints, you can backpack, or bike, or pogo, skate, cartwheel, summersault, helicopter, hydroplane, or whatever your ass down to the Laurelhurst Theater, to which you’ve won two free tickets!
Hey Anthony P, NEWSFLASH! The Supreme Court has ALREADY made “its final decision” (last summer). Even the current 5-4 right-leaning court, with its history of completely unprecedented and unsupportable rulings (i.e. Citizens United, “Bush V. Gore”) was unable to avoid the blatant UnConstitutionality of federal OR state prohibitions on same-sex marriage (i.e. the 1st, 9th, 10th and 14th Amendments and the Supremacy Clause, to list the most obvious).
Bans on gay marriage have been ruled UnConstitutional, period, and are falling like rotten fruit across the nation. Attempting to justify unequal rights for certain groups based on religious belief OR pseudo-scientific argument simply does not pass Constitutional muster. Your right to oppose same-sex marriage ends with your right not to enter into one. Deal.