Letters to the Editor

CROWNING JOY

DEAR MERCURY—Thank you for the picture of Brokencyde
[Up & Coming, Nov 12]. I was having a hard time crowning while I
was on the toilet and it really helped me out.

-Jason Lopez

DOUBLE DIP

DEAR ANN ROMANO—YOU, my dear, are the dipshit [One Day at a
Time, Nov 12]. Have you READ the new health care bill? NOOOO of course
not, you know why? Because it’s 2,000 FUCKING PAGES LONG. Simply going
along with something because it has the headline Health Care Bill is
for lack of a better term, ignorant.

 -Stefanie Pinniger

NO NEED FOR SPEED

People continue to speed through because they don’t give a fuck and
neither do police [“Protest for Pedestrian Rights,” Blogtown, Nov 10].
I live a few blocks on in a far more residential setting, and drivers
do the same thing. I always wonder what it will take—someone’s
child being killed while they’re walking to or from school,
maybe—to make someone pay attention, but that’s apparently not
the case. It’s appalling to hear that, despite these recent and awful
incidents, and despite the protest and vigil going on tonight, people
continue to drive like complete morons—at 80th and Foster and, it
would seem, everywhere else.

-Posted by Bob-Jim on blogtown.portlandmercury.com

LIFE CYCLE

HELLO MERCURY—Sarah Mirk’s article on the lack of
vehicular homicide laws in Oregon makes an excellent case that drivers
are getting away with murder and that the laws need to change, and I
thank her for writing it [“Getting Away with It,” News, Nov 12].
However, while I am leery of using the tragedy of my friend Kipp
Crawford’s death to make a political point, it frustrates me to see yet
another in a long line of heavily reported-on cyclist deaths in
Portland fail to change the dialogue away from the flawed ideas that
facilitated them. Changing the laws Miss Mirk reported on will only
allow us retribution. And regardless, whatever the laws of our state or
country may say, they are not the laws of physics, which make it
indisputably clear that if a car hits a pedestrian or cyclist, no
matter if it’s negligent, deliberate, or a genuine accident, the person
will be seriously injured and likely killed, while the car and driver
will likely remain undamaged. There is only one way to save lives, and
that is to abandon the ridiculous notion that we should “share the
road.” We must ask ourselves how many people were hit and killed on the
Springwater Corridor last year? The answer is none. If we look at other
cities in the world like Amsterdam and Copenhagen that are considered
more bicycle friendly than ourselves, we find that they are so because
they have wholly separate roads and lanes of traffic for cyclists,
separated by medians or concrete curbs that cars can’t simply drift
over, or absentmindedly make a hard right through. I’ve heard drivers
complain that this sort of policy would be a waste of money, but it
benefits them not to hit and kill cyclists every bit as much as it does
for the cyclists not to be hit and killed. This is not to mention that
cyclists are also taxpayers whose interests have been ignored for too
long. I realize this letter is long, contains no hip new slang, and
doesn’t deride any of your critics for their views [on] whatever piece
of genius/crap was unleashed on an unsuspecting city this past week.
Still, I hope you listen. Kipp Crawford was, as everyone has repeatedly
said, a deeply talented musician and a really great guy. If the tragedy
of his death is fated to be used as fodder in an ongoing political
dialogue, then the best way to honor him would be make it the tipping
point where real action will finally be taken so that no one else has
to get the phone call so many of us received last week.

-Josh Gross

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOSH for winning this week’s prize—and
thanks for the smart thoughtful letter. Josh will receive two tickets
to the Laurelhurst Theater and lunch at No Fish! Go Fish!, where you
can fuel up on a hot meal for the ride.