Editorial
Eugene City Council
is dragging its feet
It has been more than two months since Eugene voters
passed a nuclear-free zone ordinance and the City Council
has yet to implement any of its provisions. While some of
the ordinance’s provisions may have legal snags, critics cor
rectly cite that the council is. and has been, dragging its feet.
This, however, is not surprising. In November, the City
Council was deadlocked in a 4-4 tie on whether to endorse
the initiative. Mayor Brian Obie broke the tie, and the coun
cil voted to oppose the measure.
Eugene Commissioner Bill Rogers voiced stronger op
postion. Not only did he vote against the measure, he active
ly campaigned against it, saying he was unwilling to “put a
great deal of effort or staff time into implementing” the
measure. So from the start, the nuclear-free zone was
fighting an administrative uphill battle.
Now the City Council says the roadblocks to implemen
ting the initiative’s provisions deal with constitutionality. It
is concerned that some of the tenets of the ordinance may
conflict with state and federal laws.
No nuclear-free zone in the nation has yet been ruled
unconstitutional, and the Eugene ordinance draws all of its
provisions from already-existing nuclear-free zones.
Even if the Eugene nuclear-free zone pre-empts state or
federal authority, and there is no precedent to indicate that it
does, corrective measures to its provisions could be rewrit
ten by the council, or better yet, through a voter referendum.
The council also is concerned with the adminstrative
power the Nuclear-Free Zone Board may assume — if indeed
it ever is assembled — as well as the provision allowing
private citizens the right to sue for violations of the
ordinance.
But these two hurdles easily could have been cleared,
for the council has the power to amend the provisions of the
ordinance.
Although we by no means recommend that the council
drastically alter the ordinance, these are minor points of
contention compared to the so-called question of constitu
tionality and could have been resolved by now if the council
truly wanted to expedite the will of the voters.
The City Council risks being labled insensitive to
Eugene citizens by using its objections as a rationalization
not to implement the program. It would be in the council’s
best interest to resolve the matter quickly and work out the
bugs later.
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Merit-based
My how the times have
changed. Here I find myself
supporting an intitiative by our
new Governor. Neil
Goldschmidt's new inventive
and experimental program call
ing for a merit-based scholar
ship program warrants serious
consideration.
Yes. the governor is right. Ac
cording to the ODE article on
Jan. 14, only 60 percent of
Oregon’s brightest stay in
Oregon. It is about time we tried
to retain the other 40 percent.
One argument against the
program goes: Students who at
tend out of state institutions do
so because of "church related"
reasons. Even if this argument
were true for most students, it is
impossible to believe that this is
true for the gifted, bright
students. When was the last
time that you heard someone
going to Harvard or Stanford
because of their divinity
schools?
And then there is Students for
a Progressive Agends (SPA)
supported by student body
president Steve Nelson. It is
about time that Steve starts to
realize that he represents all of
the students and not just the few
Oregon Daily
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Angelina Muniz, Julie Paul, Ingrid White. X Kang Xie
represented by SPA.
Steve wants all of the money
to go into need-based programs.
But Steve, that is how most of
the money is now spent, and it
has not solved the problem of
brain drain in Oregon.
The new program. Steve, is
only an experiment. It should
have a chance to succeed or fail.
I urge all students concerned
with this matter to call Steve at
his office — it’s about time
Steve heard from the rest of us
at the University.
Ron E. Munion
Political science, history
Resisters
The article, ‘‘Men who avoid
draft registration could lose
many benefits,” (ODE. Jan. 15).
appeared to be just a govern
ment press release intended to
increase compliance with the
law. Unfortunately, the article
was very misleading.
The increasing likelihood of a
draft was not mentioned. Yet
U.S. policies in Central
America are leading to a war re
quiring a draft. Even if this war
is forestalled, the probability of
a draft remains high due to the
shrinking pool of military-aged
men.
Citing a 1984 Brookings In
stitute report, the Central Com
mittee for Conscientious Objec
tors stated, “...the Pentagon
may in fact be facing recruit
ment shortfalls in the next eight
years. At that time the Pentagon
may call for a peacetime draft to
compensate for these shortfalls,
as they appear unlikely to con
sider reducing recruitment in
centives.” (The Objector. Dec.
1985).
Obviously, draft registration
presents a real risk of being forc
ing registrants into the military
and war. The risk now applies
to all registrants — student
deferments have been
eliminated.
While ignoring these cir
cumstances. the article exag
gerated the costs of resisting
registration. The fact is that out
of about 600,000 non
registrants, only 19 have been
indicted since 1980. The other
major penalty for students los
ing financial aid is offset by
alternative funds for resisters.
Lastly, the article ignored the
most important issue of all:
Draft registration is a vote for
war — any war which is pur
sued by the government. In con
trast, resisting draft registration
constitutes a powerful blow
against a misguided foreign
policy and the wars which it
spawns.
Steve Kasner
History
Unbiased
Frederick Leff and Steve Mc
Cormick have made assertions
that will be answered. You will
come to realize that it is not we
that lack homework time, Mr.
McCormick (ODE, Jan. 16); nor
is it we that are a bit confused,
Mr. Leff (ODE. Jan. 14).
Your gravest errors are due to
your lack of thought in most
areas. You both fail to take your
theories to their furthest conclu
sions. The implications of my
conclusion and yours is that the
other has seriously misinter
preted the facts. That is to say
that I feel just as repulsed by
you claiming to be a science ma
jor as you do I.
Let us duel with the facts
(please, no more doctrines
you’ve merely been taught, but
truths that you have
extrapolated).
By the way, the next time you
hear someone say that the Bible
is full of contradictions, laugh
at them and say you know so
meone just waiting (and
waiting) for the chance to give
away $400 for that information.
Be rest assured that we will
document our sources, as will
be expected of you, and we will
be using nothing but establish
ed, nonreligious, unbiased
facts.
Brian Frary
Biology
Charlie Richards
Economics