Editorial Vote down ASUO health insurance I lerc art' the final four would give graduating students the op tion of signing a pledge of serial and em ironmental re sponsibility The pledge would be entirely voluntary, and would continue to be part of graduation ceremo nies e\erv veer Urging students to fie socialU const ions is some thing evervbodv needs to do. but we wonder if the measure is n ails nei essars The pledge asks students to “investigate and lake into ac count the so< lal and en vironmental < onsequem es of anv job (lies might con sider Hut liov\ serious will students lake Ibis:’ I hose kind of pledges are currently ill vogue Will students really follow the pledge s guidelines^ However, the above reservations don I detract from what Measure o is Irving to do The reasons for the pledge are good, even it a hit naive We urge students to not only vote yes on Measure 6 hot to sign the pledge ,md take it seriously The ASl!Q health insurance plan. Measure 7. is by now familiar to most students especially to readers of these pages. Of all the ballot measures, it is the one that has garnered the most pre-election discussion and generated the most controversy. In short. Measure 7 will ask voters to choose one of four options for the ASUO Student Health insurance Program. Thu first would require mandatory enroll ment in tlu‘ insurance plan Next would be a mandato ry plan with a restrictive waiver. Third would be a mandatory program with a loose waiver, and the final option is voluntary enrollment in the insurance plan. Our stance on the ASUO health insurance proposal has not changed. A mandatory health insurance plan of any kind is too much to swallow. Forcing students, who are already shackled with tuition burdens, to ac cept an insurance plan just to go to college is unaccept able No matter what the potential gains, students should have the choice about their own health insur ance. Getting an education and acquiring a health in surance policy have nothing to do with each other, and should not be linked in any sort of way. Put simply, vote Option D for Measure 7. Measure 8 is another incidental fee allocation; this time for the University Counseling Center. Students an: asked to support a self-imposed increase of $1.50 per term to fund staff increases for next year. In general, a 60 percent increase from last year for a student group would probably be unpalatable. How ever. given what the Counseling Center can accom plish and where the money is going, it’s hard not to fund the increase. What makes Measure H even hetter is the s/z.OUU in matching funds (50 percent of the total Counseling Center budget) the University will kick in if the ballot measure passes. The administration is finally realizing thev have a responsibility to the students outside of the classrooms, especially international students and mi norities The University cannot ask students to fund the Counseling Center on its own. and thankfully, it does not. Vote yes on Measure 8 The final measure on the ballot is an incidental fee request for the KMU Child Care and Development (’en ter Students are asked to approve an additional HO cents per student, per term (for a total of $2 80) to cov er state-mandated wage increases. The type of student attending the University has changed over the last two decades. Now there are more nun-traditional students on campus; many of them are older students with children. The only way they can go to school is to have some sort of an affordable on campus i hiId care facility. Unfortunately, students again are asked to shoul der the burden for what should be a national, state, lo t al and I (diversity problem. Parent fees currently cover 82 percent of the cost of the KMU center. Students pay :u> percent of the costs, while USDA meal grants pay for the remainder Clearly, the government and University adminis tration need to contribute, but in the meantime, it's up to us Vote yes on Measure 9 S. I Gl)KS,.-HUH.HlM TM YOU COULD SM THKI THINGS ^IDOWNSUP... Letters Nukes I believe i! is .1 mistake to put the controversy over the pro posed nui tear free /one in terms of growth vs no growth Idle issue is vsh.it type of eco mimic development in our I (immunity and how last do we want it More importantly I believe the people of luigeiie are roll cerned about who has a sav m our et nnomic growth Traditionally those types ol dei isions have lieen left to an elite levs business leaders and i losely allied politn inns, and I think the people ol Eugene are more than ready for a change of ' business as usual The same lo< al ballot meas ure for a strong nut tear free /one that is up tor a vote May 1 ri was approved twice before in lotto and again in I0HH e.u h time passing by a majority of more than ret percent ol the vote However, in prior years, that measure was dramatic ally watered down hy the mayor and i ity count il This time around, the meas ure (20-01) will be a charter amendment so when the voters speak, the city gov ernment will not he able to thwart the w ill of the people The vote this May IS will be a i ham e lor people to express their freedom of i hon e on an issue of economic develop ment The question is simple do we want the nuc lear vveap ons or nut leal pow er industries to be allowed to set up shop in Eugene7 II we do not speak out now in favor of our right to c hoose the type ol industry we want in our community, our power will In diminished in the future |nhn Iordan Eugene No more trees So environmentalists .lo calising timber workers to lose their jobs by creating a limber shortage, are they :' Well. I have a little story lor all believers of this in\ th Once upon a time, back in the loads, the forest Service dec ided to allow a temporary ini rease in the timber harvest, knowing that this above-sus tainable yield harvest could not hr t oiititnied for more Ilian a few years without devastation tlir Northwest's forests In those rears new jolts were ere ated and the economy boomed But w hen the I SI S called lot a decrease bat k to previous h.tr rest levels, the timber industry t ried foul and t omplained ol all the poor workers who would lose their jobs I 'ruler in dustrr pressure, the I 'SINS sot (.umbed and allowed the Ion nmn to < ontinue. year after year Now wore in the 1‘1‘lOs. and few sinmfuant patches of old growth have esi aped the t ham saw Meanwhile, the timber in dustry greedil\ argues for even more trees So what if we allow the till) tier industry to log our remain ing old-growth? Jobs will be maintained tor a while, but soon there will be no big trees left to t ut As .1 result, jobs will be eliminated and am lent for ests w ill exist only in our mem ories. Thirty-five years of overcut ting In the timber industry now threatens the Northwest's for ests. its wildlife, its economy .md its residents So let's stop blaming environmentalists lor timber industry problems bet's stop old grow th logging now Scott l.add (ieography TRASH With the 20th celebration of Karth Day over, we are once again reminded of the some times ruthless effect our behav iors have on Karth (beat i hange is necessary so that our planet and the species on it may continue to coexist Kach individual has the responsibili ty to promote this coexistence One simple way to improve this situation is to promote the concept of precycling, reusing, reducing and recycling Pack aging is responsible for taking up fill percent of all landfill space Consumers can change this by demanding environ mentally sound packaging that is effectively reusable, recycla ble or made of recvi led materi als. The Kei yc ling Advocate Stu dent Harbingers, a student group, are dedicated to envi ronmentally sound pai kaging thorough tin1 ()rogon Rut vt ling At I For mure information. call TRASH at 244-0812 or (>83-‘)(Mt> Kyle Anderson Stephanie Haver Students Peyote The ruling has been handed dou n and it isn't at all surpris dig I am referring to the U.S Su preme (Court's decision that pe vole use by Native Americans is not protected by the Consti tution Tbe ruling was lead In Antonin Sealia. a Reagan ap pointee (gee. what a surprise) I bis is truly fitting. After all. when has the white man ever done anything to preserve the dignity and rights of this conn try's indigenous people? Kvery other vestige of Native American culture has been trashed; why not go for what's left' Isn't that right. Dave Frohnmayer? That's right, Oregon Attor ney Ceneral and COP guberna torial candidate l-'rohnmavei was instrumental in having the i ase reviewed Tbe reason that he didn't want two fired drug abuse counselors to be eligible tor un employment was based on the tai t that they used pe vote in a i turn h ritual. He was so deter mined that be got on an air plane and flew all tbe way to lit! to testify before tbe high court. Frohnmayer seems to believe that allowing Native Amerii ans to use peyote would set a prec edent for any group that tried to form and receive rights for drug use as a religious practice The fait that peyote rituals have been continued for hun dreds of years obviously meant nothing to him. Please be reminded that this petty man is running for gover nor of Oregon. I only hope th.it people concerned about Native American rights will "just say no" to Dave Frohnmayer. Tim Webber Student