opinion
■ Mhk 9reswasson
I 5l a Quorum of one
Folk wisdom advises one to speak sweetly, so
the words will taste better when they have to be
eaten.
Put another way, be careful about acidly
condemning something, for next week it may be
your salvation.
I remember in 1977 interviewing a representa
tive about the Land Conservation and Develop
ment Commission and being told that the Legisla
ture shouldn’t mess with land use planning
because the people had approved it in the 1976
election.
About a month later, the same lawmaker
spoke favorably about public financing for poli
tical campaigns, even though the people had
rejected that idea in the same election.
This session, the House Business and Con
sumer Affairs Committee passed out a bill ex
panding the hours grocery stores can sell wine
and beer. Despite the popular idea that govern
ment ought to get off our backs (so we can get on
everybody else’s) one member was disturbed that
the Legislature even had to spend the time and
money dealing with this problem.
“After all," opined the legislator, “the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission could have dealt with
the situation by rule.”
Now, log-truckers find, themselves in a similar
predicament. Forest workers are among those
who argue most fervently against government
control. Yet, for many truckers, the government
is the only answer.
See, most gypos get paid on a piece basis
rather than hauling on salary. It used to be that the
independent truckers got together to decide what
price they would charge for their services. About
five years ago, however, the attorney general
ruled that such practices violate Oregon’s anti
trust regulations.
The result is that many haulers find
themselves in trouble when there is a surplus of
trucks. Certain logging companies take advan
tage of the situation and refuse to pay a decent
wage, knowing that someone will take the work for
the low price.
In response, Sen. Charles Hanlon,
D-Cornelious, has introduced SB 6, legislation
that would put log hauling rates under the Public
Utility Commission and allow the state body to
ensure that the rates paid fall within a zone of
reasonableness.
“You have to realize that the log trucker has
abolutely no economic punch. These people don’t
have any mechanisms to legally bring the rates up
and are out there negotiating with not much to bid
on. They're low man on the totem pole and once in
a while they get dumped on.”
But, doesn’t the regulation scheme violate the
principle of less government interference?
“Yes,” admits Hanlon. “But I would say, as a
general rule, if principle advances your cause, you
argue principle. If it doesn’t, you ignore it.”
Of course, while paradoxes are often un
avoidable, the same is seldom true of contradic
tions, also in big supply at the statehouse.
When members of the House jumped on me in
February for swearing in my column, my main
detractor announced that he planned to deny me,
therefore most the students at the University,
access to his office.
Scarcely a month later, he was on his feet
again, this time lauding Freedom of Information
Day and pointing to the press as the public’s eyes
and ears.
It’s enough to make one’s hypocrisy meter
jump into the red.
voi rs
‘We’ vs. ‘them’
Vet another letter has appeared in the
Emerald, praising the American way and
panning socialism. This time we are best
because of our system of competition —
but look at Russia: in school, children
compete for grades and the “winners”
are trained for the higher paying, higher
status jobs On the job, Russians com
pete for monetary and other bonuses
(such as the privilege of a better apart
ment). Also back in school the competi
tion for membership in the party begins
and the "winners” are groomed for the
party leadership. Within the party, com
petition goes on for the high ranking
positons — Stalin killed Trotsky during
this "test of worthiness.”
Equality no more exists in Russia than
it does here — ask the Russian woman
sweeping the streets if she has the same
pay and power as the party boss who put
her there. On the larger scale, the Rus
sian state socialists compete against the
American free-enterprisers for markets,
r
and for Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba and
the Middle East. "We” compete with
"Them" for military supremacy — “we"
are supposed to be proud because we
have the nuclear might to kill all life on
earth twelve times over, and “they” can
only kill us all nine times over
There is nothing to be proud of about
dog-eat-dog competition and inequality
— neither Russia nor America is “better"
on this count. Both systems are cruel,
inhumane and dangerous to the contin
uation of the human race — a “third way”
must be found — one that enhances the
human ability to work toward mutual
benefit, not mutual disaster.
Linda Jencson
Community education, anthropology
‘White Paper’
It was back in 1964 when President
Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin "in
cident" as a pretext to justify bombing
North Vietnam “back to the Stone Age.”
In 1981, the Reagan Administration is
using a similar pretext for escalating US
military intervention in Central America
and to back up its charges that El Sal
vador has become a "textbook case of
indirect armed aggression by Commun
ist powers,” it released to the press on
Feb. 23 an inch-thick “White Paper”
entitled, ‘"Communist Interference in El
Salvador.”
Seeing as this document is the key
justification for sending military aid and
advisors to El Salvador, I thought it
deserved some scrutiny. In the summary
of the “Paper" that I obtained from the
State Dept., there were two pictures of a
trailer truck allegedly used to smuggle
arms into El Salvador and seized by
Honduran authorities in January 1981.
Pictures were taken from two sides; one
from the side and the other from above.
The side view of the trailer has horizontal
lines and about eleven (the picture is
blurred) vertical frames reaching almost
to the trailer’s roof. The photo taken from
above which reveals the weapons show
1
THE DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE
part of the side of the trailer. However,
this trailer has different siding than the
trailer photographed from the side — the
vertical frames are missing. One can say
with almost 100 percent certainty that the
two pictures are not of the same trailer.
It’s not suprising that the U S. govern
ment might be willing to put out
documents of questionable validity to
back up an interventionist foreign policy.
But it's an indictment of U S. journalists
and media outlets who prostituted them
selves by unquestioningly going along
with the government publicity campaign.
David isenberg
Junior, international studies
Sophomoric column
For a writer — if that is indeed what
Greg Wasson considers himself to be —
to rage about self-serving liberalism and
illogic while blatantly exemplifying both
of them is not only annoying but embar
rassing (“A Quorum of One,” May 4). I
don’t know what rattled his cage so hard,
but I sympathize; there must have been
more to it than he was willing to write
about. For that very reason, though, he
came away looking very foollish; much of
his column made little or no sense (e.g.,
what is this nonsense about John
Birchers as James Kilpatrick’s storm
troopers?). Wasson's anger at Kilpatrick
is understandable — from a strictly emo
tional point of view — but was expressed
mostly through invective, which has
never changed anyone’s point of view.
Wasson can hardly be believed when he
says he wants disinterested commentary
— he can't manage it himself, he just
wants the bias his way. And his contempt
for Phyllis Schlafly is perfectly appro
priate, but his comparison-in-illogic is
not even in the same league as her exer
cise in asininity: crime against another
human being is wrong, and the fact that a
gun makes some kinds of crime easier
has no bearing on who holds the final
responsibility for those crimes. And per
sonal responsibility is what it's all about,
right, Mr Wasson?
A Quorum of One" is usually well
meant, but the fact that the Emerald is a
college newspaper is no excuse for so
phomoric commentary If Wasson is go
ing to make a fool of himself in print, I
would just as soon be spared the proof of
it.
Michael E. Stamm
Graduate secretary
Ennllek Hanartmanl