Time For a Change
This is the op-ed I published in the Eugene Weekly, April 17, 2025
I think it’s time we vote to reconstitute the Lane Community College Board of Education in May’s special election. The reason: this Board is completely dysfunctional with its current six-member configuration. The Eugene Weekly covered the painful machinations of this body in January, and what follow is my take…
When Lisa Fragala, a veteran LCC Board Member, was elected to the Legislative Assembly last November, she immediately resigned her position on the Board. Very soon thereafter a notice appeared on the LCC website announcing that there was an opening for the vacated position and that the College was seeking applicants from among Lane County voters. According to Board policy 2110 “When a vacancy is declared … the remaining board members shall meet and appoint a person to fill the vacancy from any of the electors of the district…”(emphasis mine).
I was one of four applicants for this slot. I am a retired, career higher-education administrator, having served, for example, with the Oregon University System for several years as the primary liaison to the state’s community colleges and the System’s policy expert on transfer-student activity. When that position ended, I spent a decade as a community college academic dean. In retirement, I have been a part-time LCC faculty member, during which time I was an officer in the faculty union and a member of the College’s Budget Development Subcommittee.
I thought I had a lot to offer to the Board and gave it my best shot during the interview process. However, I had read the application materials of my fellow candidates, watched their interviews, and would have been delighted to have had any of us appointed; we were a very strong pool from which to choose. As stated above, according to Board policy, members had the obligation to fill the position and make itself a whole, seven-member governing body.
During a Zoom meeting on December 16, 2024, the Board agreed to a process for making the selection that included a ranking system for candidates. Then, at the December 18 meeting, all four applicants were interviewed in person. In the first round of applicant ranking, three Board members voted for one candidate as their first choice (Jesse Maldonado), two voted for another (Bob Brew). Neither Dan Isaacson nor myself received any first-place votes. Even with this split, though, I imagined that reason would prevail and either Mr. Brew or Mr. Maldonado would be chosen. Four votes would be needed to appoint.
However, as the discussion proceeded, two Board members refused to rank the candidates, clinging to their one and only choice. In an even more egregious action, one member removed herself from participating entirely and even left the room during voting. The result was that, in spite of our qualifications, no candidate prevailed and the Board left the seat vacant in violation of their own policy and prior practice.
Then, subsequently , during the January 8, 2025, Board meeting, at the urging of Board Member Austin Folnagy, there was yet another (entirely painful and embarrassing) discussion of the selection process. A “motion to rescind” went nowhere and the position continued to remain vacant.
Finally, much to my surprise, at the April 2 meeting, this time at the urging of Board Chair Zach Mulholland, the matter was revisited yet again. Mr. Mulholland took the position that Jesse Maldonado should be now appointed to Position 7 since he is the only candidate from the original pool to throw his hat into the ring for election in May. This suggestion seemed like a no-brainer to me: yes, onboard Mr. Maldonado now so he wouldn’t have to wait until July 1. He is both a known quantity (having already interviewed) and is running unopposed.
Did this Board now do the logical thing? Nope, not a chance. With another three/three deadlock, the position continues to remain unfilled until after the election. The discussion preceding this vote was entirely cringe-worthy. Go find it on YouTube and then ask yourself if this is the group you want to represent the citizens of Lane County and making decisions (or not) about our College. I certainly have an answer for you. So here are my May-election recommendations, which will give us three new members.
Zone 1: Jerry Rust
Zone 3: Devon Lawson
Zone 4: Austin Folnagy (incumbent)
Zone 7: Jesse Maldonado
However, whatever you do, please vote. I know these are not the most high-profile races. Mail those ballots in! I think we all have an idea about what happens when citizens decline to participate in our beloved democratic process.
Dear Peter
Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, is currently battling cancer and nearing the end of his days. His daughter, Bethany, has put together a “Peter Yarrow Living Tribute” page online at https://www.peteryarrow.net. (Contributions to this page can be submitted at https://tinyurl.com/y26rfxv2.)
Here is the message I sent to Peter yesterday.
- - - - -
Dear Peter –
We have met on two occasions, but you have meant so much more to me than a couple of brief encounters. Here are just a few thoughts before you go…
In the early morning hours of December 18, 1969, as I was experiencing a relationship trauma, I needed an escape from my current situation, and as I got into my car, the radio came on to the gentle, unmistakable opening chords of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” – “All my bags are packed…” In the ten thousand times I’ve heard that song since, I’ve always been reminded of the strains of Peter, Paul & Mary during that cold winter morning in northern Wisconsin. And how meaningful those John Denver lyrics were for me at that point.
In November of 1988, when I was on a business trip, I went into an art shop in Lexington, Kentucky, and found a poster with a black & white 1964 photo, by John C Desaint, of John, Paul, George & Ringo; Peter, Paul & Mary; and Ed Sullivan (see below). I just had to have it. I gently carried this incredible find back home to Oregon, had the print framed, and it’s been on display in every place I’ve call home since. You were my favorite artists – the Beatles providing the pop, and PP&M the folk - for the soundtrack to my high school and college years.
On February 9, 1991, I attended a Peter, Paul & Mary concert (the only time I saw you together) at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington. This was at the beginning of the first Gulf War. You, personally, invited any of us in attendance to get together with you after the concert to talk about current events, and I was in that very small group who was there. (Of the 3,200 at the concert, only about 20 of us hung around to talk with you.) I’m sure you don’t remember me from this event, but I remember that evening very clearly. Among the topics were the morality of that specific conflict. And all war. You were so very gentle, kind, informed and articulate. Just as I had imagined you.
On May 21, 2019, I was the event photographer at Linda Carroll’s house when you performed as a benefit for your new non-profit. Before dinner, you graciously posed with each of the attendees so that they could have a remembrance of that night. You worked with me via mail and email to personally sign all the prints so that I could then distribute them. You were really great to work with, and even signed multiple prints for me and my date, Gwendolyn. A signed 8x10 hangs in my living room right now; and it always will. I have since been able to brag that Peter Yarrow’s contact info is in my phone.
The Beatles; Peter, Paul & Mary; Ed Sullivan - by John C Desaint (1964)
Gwen and I sat in the front row of the folks gathered in Linda and Tim’s living room that night. A special and enduring memory of the occasion happened when you approached Gwen, sitting at the end of the row, and sang most of one verse of “Puff, the Magic Dragon” directly to her.
Peter, you have meant so much to so many. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for living the life you have. I’m glad our paths crossed.
Blessings…
- - - - -
Soundtrack Suggestion
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them, every one
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
(“Where Have All the Flowers Gone” – Pete Seeger)
Update
Sadly, Peter died today, January 7. Here is the New York Times obituary.
Well, Poop!
I’m a mall walker. Yep, I’m one of those gracefully-aging folks that put on their track shoes and rack up some low-impact mileage inside. Last weekend, on a very-dreary Sunday morning, I got to the mall about 9:00 a.m. — a comfortable two hours before opening time. As I was on my second lap, and coming up on the newly-installed Christmas tree at center court, much to my surprise and disgust, I almost stepped into a rather large pile of, well, shit. It was ugly and god-awful smelly. I was aware that there were at least a couple dogs accompanying their owners on this particular morning, so I was contemplating how to talk about this with the next canine handler I saw.
A few minutes later, near the tables by the coffee shop, I spotted one. At first I walked on by, but then I circled back to have a conversation. To the guy holding the leash, I made the observation about my recent fecal encounter and asked what, if anything, he might know about it. I wasn’t surprised when he said he knew nothing — but then he did, sympathetically, express great dismay. He asked directions so he could check out the situation himself.
I continued on with my walk and by the time I had made my way around to the trouble-spot again, the offending heap was being cleaned up by the housekeeping folks. Bless their hearts.
Then, a couple minutes later I came upon the same guy. He was talking to yet another dog owner, so I was curious about the conversation. As I walked up, he recognized me immediately, and let me know what he had found out: security folks, he reported, had determined that it was not dog shit.
Yes, you got that right; it was assessed, by whatever means I am unsure, to be human in origin. (Or was it Bigfoot? — I was unclear.)
What. The. Fuck.
Well now, what motivates me to report this experience? I guess it got me thinking about how other humans in our culture are behaving disgustingly — and shitting on institutions much more sacred than mall floors. It would seem shit-piles are becoming the norm.
So, what am I thinking of?
Well, for one: former-President Trump’s attempt at overthrowing American democracy as we know it on January 6, 2021. A result of “the big lie,” his coup attempt was beyond-words distressing. He totally shit on the norms of the rule-of-law in general, and the peaceful-transfer-of-power in particular.
Then, of course, how can we forget the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. Six of the nine, black-robed, all-powerful, lifetime-appointees blatantly shit on fifty years of precedent regarding women’s reproductive rights.
Additionally, I’m thinking of how this also reaches down to street level; whenever a local school board acts to ban books, it directly shits on the first amendment. How crazy is that?
Well, I am sure you get the idea. The heaping pile of crap encountered during my walk took my mind to other places. This is quite the extrapolation, I know. Still: shit is shit. And it’s everywhere.
Soundtrack Suggestion
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
(“Blowin' In The Wind” – Bob Dylan)
The Triumph of Evil
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. (Edmund Burke)
I am always appalled when politicians, pundits or others warn of an “impending” or “possible” constitutional crisis. What does that mean, “impending”? I, for one, believe we’re in the middle of that period right now with, quite literally, the future of our representative democracy at stake.
I have often said, and still believe, that the country will turn things around once we’ve hit bottom (to borrow that widely-used term from AA). Of course, where that bottom is, or when we’ll hit it, are open questions. For example, some thought that the Access Hollywood tape was a new low in American politics and that things couldn’t get any worse in the 2016 presidential race. Surely The Donald couldn’t win an election after that!
But we know what happened and, still, he persists. It’s the summer of 2018 and the Liar-in-Chief remains in the Oval. (Please, feel free to substitute “Bigot-in-Chief,” “Misogynist-in-Chief,” “Unstable-Idiot-in-Chief,” or some equivalent term, should you so choose.)
Then, Helsinki, this week. There has been much uproar, but tRump has doubled down and now says he’s inviting his Russian boss to the White House later this year.
It time to come together, America. And it’s especially time for rational, reasonable Republicans (for surely they exist) to step up, make themselves known, and to call the President out on his traitorous, dangerous, divisive, debilitating shit.
Please, it’s PAST time. Let’s call THIS POINT the bottom and start to turn things around before a world war and/or global economic collapse become the real bottom. Because that’s where I believe we’re headed.
The Campaign to Make America Hate Again
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you [Donald Trump] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-age, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, and … you scream about patriotism. (“The American President” – 1995)
As the sage, cultural observer John Oliver recently noted, the person we have just elected as president is a “Klan-backed, misogynistic, internet troll.”
It would seem, fellow citizens, that we “have a lot of ’splainin to do.”
Alas, I am one of those highly-educated, elitist, left-coast, blue-state, living-in-a-bubble progressives, who thought it totally impossible the country could elect such a toxic and unqualified candidate. Plus, this is true: I did buy into the polls that predicted a substantial win for HRC.
However, by donning my value-laden blinders this way, I was ignoring what I knew, deep down, about human nature. And, especially, what I believed about the male of the species in this country.
It now seems evident that Donald Trump’s racist, female-objectifying, gutter talk spoke to millions. In fact, I believe all those “disqualifying” verbal moments by the candidate, the ones we progressives expressed such utter disdain for, were actually the very essence of The Donald’s broad appeal.
And, oh, there were so many examples of his outrageous behavior: the labeling of Mexicans as rapists; implying that all Muslims are terrorists; referring to African Americans as “The Blacks.” He dismissed John McCain’s war heroism and went to absurd lengths to attack Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a Muslim-American soldier who died heroically in Iraq. During the first Republican debate, he joked about his derogatory comments made toward Rosie O’Donnell, including calling her a “pig.” Further, during a Clinton-Trump debate, we learned of his sexist behavior and remarks toward Alicia Machado (“Miss Piggy,” “Miss Housekeeping”), a former Miss Universe. And then, the most explicit, demeaning and aggressive sexual language of all (“grab them by the pussy”), was revealed with the release of that “Access Hollywood” encounter with Billy Bush.
There was one outrageous episode after another, for well over a year, and still, Donald Trump was alive and well as a candidate. How could this possibly be?, we all asked.
Well, I’m here to suggest that the American public just couldn’t get enough of this in-your-face, potty-mouth, fuck-you-all attitude. In fact, (a huge portion of) the country fell totally in love with his message. There is a lot of racial rage, and anger with the system, out there, as well as a tenacious attachment to “traditional” male/female roles (that look and feel much like the 1950s). Unfortunately, such beliefs, attitudes, language and behavior haven’t changed much over time, no matter what we progressives would like to believe about the current level of American cultural enlightenment.
I say all this speaking from personal experience as a white American male who has been alive during the last half of the 20th century – and so far into the 21st. (I am basically Donald Trump’s age.) Although I have spent most of my life in the relatively safe arena of academia, I do have first-hand knowledge of the pervasive racism and sexism out there in the “real world.” For example, when I was in college, during two summers I worked “on the line” at two different factory jobs in the upper Midwest. Virtually all my co-workers were middle-aged white males. During these months, I witnessed, every day, the manner in which “the other” was viewed. I heard the “N” word – and learned about how “the woman’s place is in the home” viewpoint prevailed. Many years have passed since my time on an assembly line, but I can assure you these attitudes and behaviors are all very pervasive, contemporary and real.
Then, in addition, I have years’ worth of other experience witnessing the lives and values of more privileged white males. For five years, I was a professional event photographer, during which time I went to fraternity and sorority parties for a living. I worked very closely with these types of campus social groups and became intimately involved with members and their out-of-classroom activities. The whole scene fascinated me so much that, years later, as a Ph.D. candidate in Higher Education Administration, I wrote a doctoral dissertation describing the socialization process of a college fraternity. I spent three years doing fieldwork and, in my report, explicitly described the recruitment and indoctrination of new members. During this time, for example, I attended social events held for high-school seniors where fraternity members presented a number of skits, meant to both entertain and inform newcomers about fraternity life.
Here is how I described one of those occasions, lifted directly from my dissertation (Indiana University, 1995, pp. 58-59).
The skits were apparently a takeoff on “Saturday Night Live,” and initially reminded me of the kinds of things we used to do at Boy Scout camp on occasion: just good-clean-all-male fun. That first impression did not persist for very long, however.
On this particular night, there were about eight or ten skits altogether. During one of them, two members, portraying “cool” fraternity guys, talked between themselves about what being in a fraternity is like. For example, one asked the other what happened after the party the other night, with the reply, “Hey, I got laid, sucked and fucked. It’s a given!”
During the skit, women were consistently referred to as “bitches,” and were usually yelled at with an order to do something – to perform some act. It was explained that “two vocabulary words fraternity men must know the meaning of” are “leave” and “cram” – and each was explained and used in an appropriate context. “Leave” was illustrated in a number of shouted sentences such as “BITCH, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES OVER THERE!” and “BITCH, YOU BETTER LEAVE, I CAN HEAR YOUR BOYFRIEND HONKING OUTSIDE.” “Cram” was used in the context of “CRAM MY DICK INTO HER PUSSY.” Much laughter accompanied almost every line of the skit. It appeared that everyone in the room thought all of this to be quite funny. I tried to pay particular attention to the few women in the room, since the material seemed to be so patently offensive. They, however, were laughing along with all the guys as best as I could tell. (Note: a few sorority women had been invited and were present to serve food and to do some cleaning up.)
