Editorial
Blame it on apathy
for low voter turnout
Voter turn-out for this year’s ASUO student elections
surpassed last year’s anemic voter participation. A little
more than 3,000 of the University’s 17,000 or so students —
or roughly 18 percent — voted this time around. This betters
last year’s 12.5 percent, but not by much.
While it is encouraging to see an increase in voter par
ticipation, this year’s figures offer little to cheer about.
Moreover, the increase may be attributed to competition bet
ween special interest factions; most notably Concerned
Students for Responsible Leadership in one camp and
Students for a Progressive Agenda in the other.
With the factional battlefronts distinctly drawn, one
would think there would have been a high turnout. Despite
the increase from last year. 18 percent is not high enough.
Voter turnout on the national level runs close to 50 per
cent. This is one of the lowest among Western democracies.
It is a poor standard to live up to. yet seemingly out of reach
for University students.
The unseen enemy for the University’s low turnout is
apathy — apalling apathy. In the last 35 years, the highest
voter turnout has been 43 percent, and that was back in
1955. Considering the weighty issues students were asked to
vote on this year, i.e.. child care and Athletic Department
funding, more students should have gone to the polls.
Perhaps next year students will find time and reason
enough to vote. Maybe some issue or some candidate will
strike a nerve in the student body. Maybe next year voter tur
nout will top the national average. Hut then again, maybe
not.
Supremacist indictments
will curb racial violence
With this tin* beginning of Holocaust Week, the federal
indictments of 15 white supremacists last Friday comes as
poetic and legal justice.
The 15 white separatists are leaders of various hate
groups. such as the Aryan Nations Chruch, The Order and
the ku klux klan. All have been charged with conspiring to
overthrow the federal government and allegedly have used a
variety of means to accomplish this end. including murder,
bank robberies, counterfeiting and bombings.
Included in the round up. known as Operation Clean
Sweep, was the Rev. Richard Butler, leader of the Aryan Na
tions Church. Butler preaches in his Sunday sermons that
jews are the children of Satan and non-whites are sub
human and are not worthy of spiritual salvation.
Using a church pulpit to profess hate doctrines should
be a crime in itself, but tin; charges leveled against Butler
and his racist crew outweigh this lesser evil.
In our pluralistic society freedom of expression must be
respected. Hate mongers and racists enjoy the basic civil
liberties granted to all American citizens. However, as is
usually tin* case for any society's radical fringe, the 15 who
were indicted had gone too far. One has the right to speak of
hate and violence, but not to carry these concepts out.
The indictments will not harken an end to anti-semitism
and racism within the ranks of neo-Nazi groups. Vet by pro
secuting their leaders, the federal government undoubtedly
has crippled these groups’ effort to spread violence.
NNlfiCTCP 5TWWK Wtftse OPTiONS
Letters
Safe or sorry
ll bothers mt* when I hear so
meone describe abortion as safe
and legal. Abortion is anything
hut safe
We must begin by putting this
issue in its proper perspective:
Half of all the human beings
who enter an abortion facility
never make it out alive. Those
little babies who get cut to
shreads (I) Mi (!) or burned up
(saline method) certainly aren't
“safe. ”
As for the women involved,
we shouldn't forget the physical
problems an abortion can cause
lier.
Oh sure, statistically the
percentage who become sterile,
hemorrhage or acquire infec
tions may lie small, but we're
talking about an operation oc
curing more than a million
times each year in the United
States. Maybe a presentation of
actual numbers of women hav
ing complications might
discourage many from believing
abortion is so safe,
wonder how a woman feels who
gets an abortion — and later
finds it impossible to bear
children (due to the abortion or
even some other factor).
Oregon Daily
Emerald
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To have to live with the
thought that you might have
aborted the only baby you ever
could conceive must really be
painful.
Yes. abortion is legal, but 1
encourage people to think about
how “safe” it is for tin? baby
and the mother.
Patricia Dalgliesh
Fall Creek, Oregon
Tennis match
Reading the ODE has changed
my outlook on life. Perhaps a
few words of explanation are in
order.
1 was. until recently, an
idealist The social legislation
and political activism led me to
believe that the world was
becoming a more tolerant,
understanding place in which
divergent views and beliefs
would be tolerated, perhaps
even welcomed.
1 transfered to this University
with this view intact, and 1
welcomed the “free exchange of
ideas” and “rational discus
sions of differing opinions.”
Reading the ODE has changed
my outlook by making me
realize that my view was
ridiculously idealistic.
Reading the editorials is like
watching a dead-locked tennis
match — back and forth, back
and forth, ad nauseum.
Eirst the “pro-lifers,” then
the pro-choicers.” Then come
the Creationists and the Evolu
tionists, followed by the
Atheists and the Christians.
1 here is no discussion, just
long-winded discourses from
(•roup A about how completely
misled and wrong Croup B is.
The most common "exchange
of ideas” here happens when
people say. Hey, you, come
exchange you ideas for mine —
yours are wrong.”
And so. with my youthful
idealism turned into more
mature’’ cynicism and
pessimism, 1 no longer believe
the world is becoming a more
tolerant and understanding
place, and I’m prepared to be a
spectator of this life-long
ideological tennis match.
So. if you want to “debate”
this issue with me, I can he
found in the Free Speech Forum
- I'm the one with cotton stuffed
in my ears.
Richard J. Schulte
Telecommunication and film
PIRG attack
James Randall, who has been
attacking the Oregon Student
Public Interest Research Group
for over a year, claimed in his
letter to the Emerald (April 7)
that he would question the fun
ding of any student group
which was as political in nature
as OS PIRG.
Why, then, hasn’t he? Many
of the most active campus
organizations are “political’’ in
nature. Political involvement,
learning to solve some of the
many compelling problems of
our society, is an invaluable
part of a college education.
Is OSPIRG really the most
political group on campusl|[or
just the group Ron Munion and
James Randall seek to destroy
first?
James Randall ignorantly
alleges that OSPIRG is evil
mostly because it's a “partisan"
organization. He is sadly
mistaken.
OSPIRG does not support or
concern itself with the can
didates or activities of any
political party. In fact, both of
the corporations controlled by
OSPIRG students are legally
registered with the State of
Oregon as non-partisan.
Mr. Munion and Mr. Randall
do not agree with the view
points put forward by OSPIRG.
Does that make it “partisan"?
No, I’m awfully sorry, James,
but "controversial" does not
mean "partisan."
Maureen Kirk
OSPIRG State Board Ghair