I would like to urge every one of you to email the editors of the
Eugene
Weekly and the Register Guard (and the Other Paper, and every other
publication you can think of, television station, radio, whatever!!!),
I
however only have the above two e-mail addresses: EW is
(editor@eugeneweekly.com) and RG is (jmosley@guardnet.com). Tell them
to
print this information ASAP.
Believe it or not the Eugene Weekly does not believe there is
public interest in Y2K. And we won't even go into the responsible
reporting the Register Guard is doing about this subject. I know this
martial law proposal is supposed to deal any "emergency" (including
handily, civil disturbance).
Many of you may not be aware that the city
of Eugene was given a petition in March by a large group of citizens,
myself included. The petitiion was a list of steps we wanted the City
of
Eugene to begin taking in order to beging preparedness for Y2K. The
steps
included Citizen Emergency Response Team training, public wide
distribution of preparedness information, and liasons with local
agencies
and businesses (such as red cross and food for Lane County) to
develope
organized contigency plans on a city wide level, rather than leaving
individual agencies to do the best they can or attempt to organize
after
the fact. We were told that the list would be given to the city's Y2K
management team by David Kelly to be a preparedness checklist. It's
mid
July and as far as I know virtually no action has been taken,
especially
on the most vital level, public information.
Even more alarming, is an action which looks very much like the
city IS NOT going to take the intitiative on organizing neighborhood
group
and it's citizens, but is rather doing the opposite by puting itself
in
the postion to declare
matial law. The city has demonstated time and time again that it views
an
informed and empowered public as a threat. This is an outrageous
affront
to our civil liberties by an administation that has proved itself less
than trustworthy with those liberties. Please make it clear to the
media
how much people need to
know what is going on, before they don't have any choice in the
matter.
Thank you, Nayma Glenn
----------------------
"For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing
institutions ...
Now I feel quite differently. I think you've got to have a
reconstruction of the entire society, a revolution of values."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
see www.igc.org/icc370/mlk.htm
Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that
I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my
moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile
connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others,
have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining
moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of
hope for the poor--both black and white-- through the poverty program.
There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup
in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it
were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war,
and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or
energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like
Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic
destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the
war as an enemy of the poor and attack it as such.
Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it
became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating
the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their
brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily
high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were
taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society
and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties
in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest
Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the
cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they
kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them
together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity
burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would
never
live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face
of such cruel manipulation of the poor.
My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it
grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last
three years --especially the last three summers. As I have walked
among the desperate, rejected and angry young men I have told them
that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I
have
tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my
conviction
that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.
But they asked -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They asked if
our nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its
problems,
to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions
hit home, and I knew that I could never raise my voice against the
violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken
clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today
-- my own government.
For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for
the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under
our violence, I cannot be silent.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967
Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam
(his best, and least reported speech)
Martial Law In Eugene - Hearing
Subject: Emergency Code Ordinance, City of Eugene
This seems to moving below the radar
without comment in the press
or media. The Council has already had one work session on this, a
public hearing is scheduled for 12 July and final action is scheduled
for 26 July. Given the possible impacts of legislation of this type
felt
worth the effort to enter the major provisions of this proposed
ordinance. The provisions, powers and definitions are direct
quotations from the first draft of the ordinance. At the 29 June work
session council requested some changes, these are not yet available.
Emergency Management Ordinance
This Ordinance adds an entirely new section to the Eugene
Code regarding the declaration of a state of emergency and granting
additional powers to the City Manager for the duration of said
emergency. This is response to a state statute that assigns the
responsibility for disaster response to local governments.
For the
purposes of this ordinance Disaster is defined as:
"An occurrence or imminent threat of
widespread or severe damage,
injury, or loss of life or property resulting
from any natural,
technological or human-made cause including
fire, flood,
earthquake, windstorm, wave action, oil spill
or other
contamination, radioactive incident,
epidemic, air contamination,
blight, drought, infestation, explosion, riot,
hostile or paramilitary
action, or structure failure of a dam,
building or infrastructure, or
other public calamity requiring emergency
action."
And Emergency is defined as:
"Any human-made, technological or natural event or circumstance
causing or threatening loss of life, injury to persons or
property,
human suffering, financial loss including but not limited to
fire,
explosion, severe weather, drought, earthquake, volcanic activity,
spills or releases of petroleum products or other hazardous
materials, contamination, utility or transportation emergencies,
disease, blight, infestation, civil disturbance, riot, sabotage
and
war."
Should the City Manager decide that either a disaster or emergency
as defined above exists he may declare a state of emergency for all
or part of the city for a period of time not to exceed two weeks. This
declaration can be extended for additional two week periods. He is
also given the sole authority to request that the Governor declare a
state of emergency for the city.
The City Council may by majority vote repeal the City Manager's
declaration of a state of emergency.
The new powers granted to the City Manager during a declared
State of Emergency are:
(a). Designate persons to coordinate the work of the public and
private relief agencies operating in the area and exclude from the
area any person or agency refusing to cooperate and work under the
coordinator or to coordinate with other agencies engaged in the
emergency work.
(b). Regulate by rationing, freezing, use of quotas, prohibitions on
shipments, price fixing allocation or other means, the use, sale or
distribution of food, feed, fuel, clothing and other commodities,
materials goods or services.
(c). Order the removal of debris and wreckage which may threaten
the public health or safety on public or private property consistent
with the provisions of section 6.010 of this code.
(d). Barricade streets and prohibit vehicular or pedestrian traffic or
regulate the same on any public street leading to the area designated
as an emergency area for such a distance as may be deemed
necessary under the circumstances.
(e). Prohibit or limit the number of persons who may gather or
congregate upon any public street, public place or any outdoor area
designated as an emergency area.
(f). Establish a curfew for the designated area which fixes the hours
during which all persons other than officially authorized personnel
may
not be upon the public streets or public places.
(g). To the extent allowed by law, prohibit the sale carrying or
possession of any weapons or explosives of any kind on public
streets or public places.
(h). Establish rent controls and provide temporary or permanent
housing by purchase, lease or otherwise and to enter into
arrangements necessary to prepare or equip the living units for
occupancy.
(i). Order the evacuation of persons from a designated area as
necessary.
(j). Adopt rules for the expeditious issuance of permits necessary,
address issues which arise from the emergency or disaster.
(k). In accordance with the rules adopted under section 2.1230(5) of
this code suspend the applicable public procurement requirements.
(l). To the extent sufficient funds are available and budgeted, to
redirect city funds to pay expenses incurred as a result of responding
to the state of emergency.
(m). Appropriate or confiscate merchandise, equipment vehicles or
property needed to alleviate the emergency. The city shall reimburse
the owner within 60 days at the customary value charged for the
items during the 90-day period before the declaration of emergency.
(n) Order such other measures as may be necessary to protect life,
safety and health of persons or the safety of property.
In addition to these powers granted to the City Manager this
ordinance also contains the following provisions:
(6) Authority to enter property.
During a state of
emergency
declared under this section, a city employee or agent can enter into
private property if the person has reasonable grounds to believe
there exists an immediate need for assistance for the protection of
life or property, and that entering onto private land will allow the
person to take steps to prevent or minimize danger to lives or
property from the declared emergency.
(7) Violation of Measure or Order.
No person shall
knowingly
violate any emergency measure or lawful order of a city official
taken pursuant to the plan or this section.
(8) Controlling Provisions.
In the event of a state
of emergency,
these code provisions shall control over any conflicting code
provisions.
The penalty for a violation of the provisions of this ordinance is up
to a $500 dollar fine, 100 days in jail or both.
This ordinance also contains an Emergency clause that causes this
ordinance to go into effect upon passage and signing by the Mayor.
The complete text of the draft ordinance and council packet is
available at the City Manager's Office, City Hall 777 Pearl Street.
If
you have any thoughts or comments regarding this proposed
ordinance you can submit them in writing or make them at the public
hearing. The City Council will be holding a Public Hearing on a
proposed Emergency Management Ordinance at their Council
Meeting. See above.
came in email came in email came in email came in email
came in email came in email came in email came in email
came in email came in email came in email came in email
came in email came in email came in email came in email
came in email came in email came in email came in emai
-- email (email@email.email), July 13, 1999.