Letters to the editor: The Jan. 6 hearings, e-bikes and climate change

Keep e-bikes off the bike paths

I have ridden a bicycle across America twice as well as across Vietnam and Cambodia. I have a passion for riding a push bike as they would say in Australia. I love to ride the beautiful paths between Springfield and Eugene nearly every day no matter the weather conditions.

When spring arrives, the use of the bike paths increases with casual walkers, runners, bikers, electric scooters and electric motor driven bicycles. I'm always courteous when I pass walkers or a bike that may be traveling at a slower pace.

The problem is with the hot-shot bikers who think they are in the Tour de France passing without warning. To make things worse, people riding e-bike's speed well above the 12-mph speed limit. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed.

Now that e-bikes are becoming affordable there are more of them on the bike paths. They need to slow down and be courteous. An e-bike is a motorized vehicle so, why are they on the bike paths?

The paths are for exercise, not as a freeway to mow down walkers and slow-moving bikers.

Frank Harper, Springfield 

Are we too late?

We surpassed a milestone humanity has not reached in more than 6,000 years.  According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association, the Earth is at 421 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 50% higher than the start of the Industrial Revolution and increasing 2 ppm per year. Scientists say 350 ppm is the allowable level for humans to sustainably live.  The burning of fossil fuels has put us at this level and we are cooking the planet. A rapid transition off gas and oil and using electric energy through renewables will help us reduce carbon emissions.  Nationally, the Biden administration has enacted the Defense Production Act to manufacture energy efficient heat pumps and solar panels making climate change and clean energy a natural security issue.  Locally, we need to phase out gas appliances, and the city could require the Downtown Riverfront proposed multi-dwelling buildings be electric. This and passing an ordinance making all new residential construction be energy sourced by electricity would help the city reach their Climate Recovery Ordinance goals.  Increasing 2 ppm of CO2 per year, we do not have time to procrastinate. We are already experiencing the consequences.  Jim Neu, Eugene 

The 14th Amendment lays it all out

In the story "Witnesses testify they rejected plan to reverse election,’ it says, "Several members of Congress are also under scrutiny, and the panel is also probing several candidates for elected office who were among the rioters."  The 14th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, Section 3, says:  "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."  So, why have these people been allowed to run in primaries, and, having won (a disgrace in itself), be allowed to stand for election in November? That the "disability" could ever be removed for any reason whatsoever is also shocking to me.  John Raymonda, Florence 

Vote out complicit Republicans

The Jan. 6 hearings verified that there is no partisan Democratic witch hunt because all of the witnesses were conservative Republicans from the Trump administration. They swore under oath that everyone in the White House knew the election was NOT stolen. Attorney General Bill Barr and many others told Trump that there was no fraud. Trump coerced state officials to overturn election results and had 61 lawsuits that were dismissed for lack of evidence.

Finally, he embraced John Eastman’s crazy plan to have the vice president throw out the election because of fake electors. Eastman took the Fifth more than 100 times and asked for a pardon because he knew that plan was illegal and unconstitutional.

Eastman has ties to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife and because of affiliation with the coup, Thomas should retire or be impeached. Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel initially condemned Trump for the coup attempt on Jan. 6, but soon thereafter most Republicans violated their oaths, to spread the Big Lie, thus becoming complicit in the attempted coup. They deceived Trump’s loyal but gullible followers for millions of dollars and power.

All Republicans should be voted out.

Jerry Brule, Eugene 

Renew hope for all

I, as a 93-year-old citizen, was proud to be with my pubic-school-teacher daughter and hundreds of other folks gathered in Eugene's Monroe Park to raise awareness in our community of ways that we can make our neighborhoods, schools and churches safer, healthier and happier. Many organizations, faith groups and individual persons were represented in a beautiful multicolored show of unity.

I realized again that we are all related and must work at not only dealing with immediate problems of caring for the homeless and changing gun laws, but also we must spend more of our resources on the long-range goals of saving our planet home, health care for all and equal education and job opportunities for everyone.

Thus, I will continue to put my resources and heart into Health Care for All Oregon, my Methodist faith community, the NAACP and my neighborhood emergency planning group. I do believe and am grateful that kindness and love, not guns and division, can renew hope and joy for all!

Shirley Kingsbury, Eugene 

Get business people out of the presidency

If the Jan. 6 hearings are any indication of the necessary quality of a president, it can be summed up in a few words. No businessman — or woman — has any business being president. Sure, the boorish behavior of a CEO or company president (insults, inflamed ego, need for worship) are expected negatives of someone running a company.  If we are rewriting the Constitution let's add a stipulation. The office of the president must be based on statesmanship, not a CEO's sole adherence to a company's bottom line.

Garth Price, Eugene   

Hutchinson embodies a patriotic spirit

Since the riotous storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, I have been appalled and disgusted by the response of most Republican U.S. representatives and senators. These lawmakers refuse to call out the former president’s delusions or outright lies!

In contrast, during the televised Jan. 6 hearings we have seen numerous brave Republicans who refused to bow down when the former president tried to manipulate them into committing illegal acts, ignoring the Constitution, and/or breaking their oaths of office.

We saw Cassidy Hutchinson perform an incredible act of courage as she testified about activities in the White House in the days leading up to and on Jan. 6. She is a Republican and has worked for and with Republicans. At 26, she has shown the silent Republican lawmakers the brave and righteous path. She should be lauded for knowing the right thing to do and doing it; the Republican representatives and senators should be ashamed of themselves for staying under the thumb of a lying tyrant.  Teresa Dobles, Eugene 

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The Opinion Page runs Sundays and Wednesdays in The Register-Guard.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Keep electric bikes off the bike paths in Eugene this summer