Editorial
Offering ex-leaders
refuge a good move
lne United Mates put its lets to good use inis monin.
Both Ferdinand Marcos and Jean-Claude Duvalier gave up
power with help from Uncle Sam.
Marcos stole the Philippine presidential election.
Pressure from Corazon Aquino's grass-roots protest and a
military rebellion swelled. The Reagan administration urged
Marcos to step down and offered him asylum in exchange
for a speedy and bloodless departure.
Wednesday, Philippine time, Marcos and his family fl
ed the country aboard U.S. aircraft and are now sheltered in
Guam, a U.S. territory. Marcos probably will receive perma
nent refuge in the United States.
And earlier this month, the United States engineered
the flight of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier from Haiti.
Duvalier’s ruthless regime ended as he and hiS wife boarded
a U.S. plane to France. f
Marcos and Duvalier are prominent human rights
abusers. Certainly neither man deserved help from the
United States. But consider the alternative:
Both leaders would have been ousted without U.S. in
volvement. But probably. only after a long, and bloody
revolution. Civil war likely would, have-erupted in the
Philippines. „
Creative U.S. intervention ; prevented unnecessary
bloodshed. It removed each country's.target of hatred and
diffused two volatile situations. '• . ' -
In addition, Haiti and the Philippines are. now fiee to
follow the leaders of their choice and pursue democratic
governments. And both countries likely will"reach a st'ateof
stability more rapidly. • °
Of course not every deposed leader should receive U.S.
assistance. The United States must weigh the likely out
comes of such actions carefully.- In the cases of Haiti and the
Philippines, a good chance exists that better government?'
will develop. The countries stand to excel.:
And U.S. intervention should be limited. Providing the
means of escape in the face of a full-scale revolution is dif
ferent from toppling a government.or forcing a leader out.
One issue remains. Marcos was offered asylum in"the
United States and Duvalier was not. The United States
should have opened its borders to Duvalier. . •. *'
Why? As The New York. Times editors aptly put it, if
Duvalier had known beforehand that France .wou.ld be
unable to find a nation to accept him,, he may not have fled.
fudge minimizes crime by
trusting convicted rapist
A Benton County. Circuit judge has trivialized the issue
of rape. . • ; • -
Michael Lott, 19. was convicted, of first-degTee rape,"
first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree, burglary in.
January. Circuit Judge Robert Gardner postponed sentencing
and agreed to let Lott travel to Maryland for .treatment at'
Johns Hopkins University Medical School, in Baltimore. Lott
will receive psychological testing at the school’s sexual
disorder clinic. .' . '. ; ' ..
Allowing a first time offender to obtain.treatment before
sentencing is reasonable. However, Gardner originally, told
Lott to travel to Maryland unsupervised. Even' after velie
ment protest from groups that fight sexual.violence, Gardner
modified his decision only to require Lottos father to accom
pany him.
Carder even reduced Lott's bail by $10,000 to help
Lott's family pay for the two trips.
Apparently, Gardner doesn’t think rape is a serious
crime. Convicted rapists should not be allowed to travel
across the country without the supervision of a professional
security guard. Lott faces a maximum penalty of 45 years in
prison and a $300,000 fine — probably enough to encourage
Lott to consider escape.
Gardner risked Lott’s escape, and with it, the chance
that he will rape again.
Worse, the incident traumatized Lott’s victim. The vic
tim’s best interests should have governed Gardner’s actions,
not the perpetrator’s.
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fair comment on topics of interest to the University
community.
Letters to the editor must be limited to 250 words, typed,
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ffe HWCE.THEY VMM F WEIL ACCEPT ‘EABf DOC DlMUER
• •
Letters
Parking supply
As any economics and non
economics major knows, .there
. is a law erf supply add demand
— the trick is to achieve a happy
. medium. What I see, though, is
the opposite ' —' .a limited
amount of parking spaces for an
. even greater amount Of
• students, especially at 8:30 a,m.
Don't''.say .1 should come
earlier — if'you say 6:30 a.m.,
. I'll tell you some of us have to
. work then. Besides, who wants
to arrive In the dark?
I received a citation while.at- .
lending my 8:30 aim. class . I
. never had a chance to move my
car. I guess my, priorities., are;
wrong' in that I should have *
spent another 30 minutes circj-..
. .ing the campus before (jiving up
: desperately “(never" mind that
.tars could still go around my
.. Rabbit) o . •. * .. ■
»»■. - ’ . ’ .•
The fact that 1 paid $18 for a
•year’s use frustrates me. As I
live arid work off campus, J
would like to be able to park my
car near my blasses in Gilbert
Hall, especially when. I’m on
carripus until dark I don’t think
it’s too much to ask. especially .
.when I,use the. bus' the rest of
• the time (1 know the lot in
' Taylor’s is open at ti p m,, but
who has time to move cars?).
I suggest we either create
more' spaces or increase the
price of the permits. I like the
latter, as it's in line with the .
theory'of supply and demand. If
you raise the price high enough,
eventually , you’ll take cam of .
the “problem" demand.
’ ’ * ' . ‘ ■■ • ' \
Margaret McKenney
Business
Misconception
Regarding jon Wol lander
(ODE, -Feb. 13) and his “en
dangered species.. .the , pre
h or n h u m an b ein g’‘ •
misconception: .
Jonisybu have less sense than
the lemmings. ' .
Kay Wells
•\ Eugene
Frankenstein
I know. I know. It's hard to
come up with a good, exciting,
controversial subject to write an
editorial about every day of the
week. That was very evident in
your attack on OSPIRG (ODE.
.Feb. 7). I think you are trying to
give life to a Frankenstein, dead
on the table until some, mad
editor comes along to give it <i
Jolt in the electrodes! ..
Sure. OSP1RG Is important to
students. But nobody was pull
ing out their hair for the last 15
years because 0SPIRC’. has had a
rent-free office in the EMU base
ment. This whole "controver
sy” cents about through an ar
bitrary decision this year to
discontinue rant-free status to
group's based on whether the
groups are incorporated or not
QSPIRG doesn't feel this is a
’ valid liasis upon which to
discriminate, and so they ap
pealed Big deals
■'-.One thiui* I don't appreciate
.•is the way the editorial makes
OSPIRG out to.be some.sort of
-sinister group, intent on ripping
off the student body for -every
. last penny they can get
In point of h*ct; the $1 each
student pays to support OSPIRG
is .the same amount students
paid 15 years ago! Inflation
aside, if the group will have to
begin to pay rent starting this
year, as you suggest, that gives
all the more validity to their re
quest for additional funds.
Randy MacDonald
Eugene
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