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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1986)
Editorial Winning candidates deserve opportunity Students for a Progressive Agenda (SPA) has again won control of the ASUO governing agencies. SPA-backed can didates won the ASUO presidency for the third time in four years and hold six of seven seats on the Incidental Fee Committee. The only successful campaign by a non-SPA in a con tested race for major student office was Ron Munion’s vic tory in the 1FC runoff. SPA dominates the EMU Board and Student Senate. We supported the election of some non-SPA candidates, but we offer congratulations to all winners. We are all part of the University community. It is a small community packed with differing ideas and opinions. Dur ing election season these opinions are brandished most har shly in public. Winning candidates must now make the transition from campaigning effectively with words to governing effectively with deeds. This is not easy. Some superb campaigners such as former ASUO Presi dent Julie Davis never adjusted, spending the year flopping distractedly from one avoidable problem to another. We hope the new ASUO leaders work with both sup porters and detractors to make the University a better place. Conflict over ideas can be creative, exciting and produc tive. It can also be sour, debilitating and destructive. Each participant in the annual dialogue over student self government must choose between going forward with the positive or resurrecting the negative. This choice must be made by winning and losing can didates. by ballot measure supporters and opponents, by ad ministrators and by newspapers. Bearing in mind honest dif ferences of opinion and of role, all of these participants should try to go forward. Ideals, goals and methods may differ. There is nothing unhealthy about straightforward conflict and disagreement over issues of public concern. Student leaders in all organizations should approach their duties, pleasant or disagreeable, in as professional a manner as possible. Effectively governing an enterprise as large, diverse, in dependent and controversial as the ASUO programs is not for the thin-skinned or impatient. Effective governing means careful planning, com promising when necessary, deciding in a timely manner and, occasionally, snuffing sour projects before they eat peo ple. time and money. Successful governing means doing all this while newspapers pick and choose between student successes and t ilures and while administrators stall unpopular changes, waiting for the next ASUO election. We want the new ASUO officials to succeed in this tran sition from candidacy to government. Those who opposed the winning candidates need to give them the opportunity to prove themselves for better or worse. SPA does not win by accident. It wins because it is the only year-round organized political party on campus. It re tains this status because most of its activities are close to the mainstream of student views. Until the recent IFC runoff, students opposed to what SPA does have not cared enough to mount a serious challenge to SPA leadership. Noninvolvement points to a certain level of satisfaction as well as a larger theme of indifference. SPA candidates won the election fairly and are entitled to govern within the constraints of the ASUO Constitution. We wish them well. Oregon Daily Emerald The Oregon Daily Emerald is published Monday through Friday except during exam week and vacations by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403 The Emerald operates independently ol the University with offices on the third floor of the Erb Memorial Union and is a member of the Associated Press. The Emerald is private property The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law General Staff Advertising Director Susan Thelen Advertising Sales David Wood Sales Manager, John Boiler, Jessica Cederberg, Michael Gray, Laura Goldstein, Robin Joannides, Carlos Lamadnd, Marcia Leonard Shawn Leuthold, Catherine Lilia, Snawna Reed. Kathy Stein, Joan Wildermuth. Laura Willoughby Production Vince Adams, Kelly Alexandre, Lynne Casey, Shu-Shing Chen. Ellen Cross, Stormi Dykes. Manuel Flores. Shannon Gaither, Ross Marlin, Mary May. Rob Miles, Angie Muniz, Charla Parker, Ken Parrott, Jennifer Peterson, Geoff Rainville. Michele Ross, Alyson Sim mons, Gregory Tipps Production Manager Classified Advertising Assistant to the Publisher Russell H Steele Vince Adams Jean Ownbey Page 2 . T » > » Editor Managing Editor News Editor Editorial Page Editor Assistant Editorial Page Editor Sports Editor Photo Editor Friday Edition Editor Sidetines Editor Night Editor Associate Editors Community/Politics Higher Education Student Activities Student Government University Affairs General Assignment Julie Shippen Michelle Brence Jolayne Houtr Alan Contreras Scott Harding Robert Collies James Marks Sheila Landry Allan La*o Jolayne Hoot/ Paul Sturt; Andrew LaMar Chris Norred Sian Nelson Kirsten Bolin Mike Rivers Reporters: Tony Ahern, Sean Axmaker. Dan Coran. Kim Kaady. Capi Lynn, Amy Moss, Chuck Thompson, B J Thomsen Photographers Lynne Casey, Shu-Shing Chen. Maria Cor vallis, Steve Gibbons, Derrel Hewitt. Ross Martin. Karen Stallwood, Mike Wilhelm News and Editorial 686-5511 Display Advertising and Business 666-3712 Classified Advertising 666-4343 Production 666-4381 Circulation 686-5511 Letters Global stage Bravo to all th« actors, dog on chain included, who took time from their schedules Wednes day, April 23, to include everyone in a celebration of William Shakespeare’s birthday. Prepared monologues, a sword fight and bawdy im promptu aside. an hour of live theatre in the EMU courtyard was worth missing a biology lecture. A large crowd gathered, sometimes even joined in. A good time was had by all, it was a welcome break from the usual demonstrations, the status quo rhetoric concerning political indignities. Such issues are relevant — but so is Shakespeare and other live theatre happening at the University Theatre. Thank you to the theatre students who shared their en thusiasm with us on Wednes day. You’ve shown, once again, that all the world can really be a stage. Heidi Lutz journalism Remembrance In our culture, we look (that is, if we bother to look) with shock, hqrror and disbelief at the enormous cruelty „ and brutality inflicted on fewisfi people, on the elderly and-the handicapped, and on many, many others during the Nazi regime in Germany. The ruthless oppression en dured by those living under Marxist governments (or under any totalitarian system) is im possible for most of us to im agine. (It is much easier to turn to the television or to soma other means of avoiding such, unpleasantness.) We live in a media-shaped reality: television, movies,, magazines, newspapers and t looks all feed us someone else*? world view and values (which are often swallowed without critical examination). We can thus be blinded and never recognize our blindness. I wonder how future genera tions will look hack at us. With alt of the knowledge and resources available to us. what have we done? Have we simply given lip-service to a few fashionable causes? Have we truly fought for what is right and fair, simply because; it is right and fair (and even if no one noticed us doing it)? Is there less injustice and suffer ing around us because of our choices? I wonder if the following mot to might not be appropriate in the EMU: “To those who were robbed of life — the unborn, the weak, the sick, the old — during the dark ages of madness, selfishness, lust and greed for which the last decades of the twentieth century are remembered" (Inscription on existing monument). William Moore Music School , Only a fool Marriage is much more than what the Emerald recently labl ed a. mere status " ('.hrisf stated',, "From the beginning of creation Cod made them male andifemale. .-. And they shall be one flesh.. . what Cm! hath joined together, let not man put asundnr"(Mark. chapter to) The Bible clearly illustrates the importance of marriage in .Clod's .plan for mankind. Any other relationship, in which sex is involved j violates Cod s com mandment that such relation ships occur only in marriage. Sure, some say it's old fashioned to live by Cod's com mandments. Even a few chur ches professing Christianity have degenerated into taking lukewarm attitudes toward mar riage. morality and family (they should read Mathew 7:21-23). There are some who enjoy stacking religion and others who think living according to Biblical standards (abstinence from sex until marriage and then no relationships with anyone but your lifelong mate) is restricting. But only a fool wouldn't endorse such moral principles in light of the conse quences of disobedience to Cod's laws. Because many have chosen not to live according to Biblical standards, our society is plagued by a multitude of sex ually transmitted diseases — which can’t bo cured and often cause death or sterility. We also have epidemics of divorce, abortion, child abuse, rape and many other social ills. To support the standards of the Bible is to support life. The "modern" admonition to "Do it if it feels good ut the moment" has proven to bring anything but life and happiness. I.ori I'arkman Elmira Monday, April 28, IHHtt