Daily Emerald
Editorial
Rogers’ gaffe again
embarrasses county
The debate on the local nuclear free zone issue has
shifted from the city council's agenda to the county
commissioner's office. On Tuesday, by a 3-2 vote, the
commissioners voted to approve the first reading of a
proposed amendment to the county's 3-year-old nucle
ar free zone ordinance.
The commissioners are attempting to revise the
language of the ordinance so that it conforms to the ex
isting city NKZ in effect in Eugene. The amendment
would limit tin* ordinance to "prohibit design, devel
opment. manufacture, production, maintenance and
storage of nuclear weapons and their components."
The current mandate not only bans nuclear weap
ons and their components, but also delivery systems A
public hearing is scheduled for the July 25 commission
meeting, along with a second reading of the amend
ment .
Casting the negative votes at Tuesday's meeting
were the unlikely pair oi )err\ Rust and Hill Rogers
Hut while Rust cast his vote based on his beliefs, Rog
ers is apparently afraid of a possible lawsuit by Eugene
Peaceworks. which contends that revising an ordi
nance through a counts -wide vote is outside of the
commissioners' authority
Peter Sorenson, a lawyer working on behalf of Eu
gene Peaceworks. submitted a letter to the county sug
gesting the illegality of the commissioners actions re
garding the revision of the nuclear free zone ordi
nance Rogers stated at the meeting that "i( we adopt
this (the revised ordinance), Eugene Peaceworks may
go out and get a real lawyer instead of Peter Soren
son.’ '
Rust i barged Rogers with slandering a private citi
zen and abusing his position as chairmen of the county
board Rogers responded bv stating, "I will say what I
want to say
It's admirable that Rogers believes in free speech
It's unfortunate that he thinks it only applies to him
self
It was Rogers who had the environmental maga
zine Forest Voire removed from the county courthouse
a few months ago because he thought it didn't belong
next to Timber, the industry's magazine. He didn't
bother to check into the legality of his actions barest
Voice has since been allowed back into the courthouse
It is Rogers, also, who does not believe that county
employees should be allowed to have earnings deduc t
ed from their paychecks for donations to environmen
tal groups
Chairman Rogers' constituents in South and East
Pane County should be concerned His verbal poke at
Sorenson is the latest in a series of gaffes that under
mine an elected official's boundary Although lie voted
correctly on the ordinance amendment, it was for the
u rung reason
“Look! We re finally getting attention from the White House!"
Campground good answer for homeless
In lilt* past three weeks since the closing
of the Opportunitv Shelter local homeless
activists have worked hard to make their po
sition known and then von es heard
They've set up demands and stuck with
them keeping constant pressure on i ountv
and < its governments Recently it appears
the advoi ates are foe using their energies on
getting the < 11\ to revoke Us Iran on camping
in public areas
The c it\ had pre\ iously dec lined the re
quest based on concerns about health and
safety regulations and state laws governing
public c ampgrounds
While there is validity to the c itv's i.on
c urns, there is still an immediate housing
problem that needs to be solved The c ountv
is working on expanding its alreadv existing
family shelter and developing low-income
housing but until the work is complete and
there is adequate shelter for these people
ue need another option The obvious solu
tion is opening a temporarv campground for
homeless families
('.ranted there are main problems in
voiced in opening up this kind of camp
ground It would need to be staffed 1!-4 hours
a ciav This c mild be done on a volunteer ba
sis bv members of tbe community . oi the
c itv could hire stall people
The c ampground would need to be
equipped with the same services as most re
creational campgrounds: running water,
showers, toilets and garbage service. While
these servic es might be complicated and ex
pensive to operate they would be an abso
lute necessity to keep conditions sanitary,
espet iall\ with a lot of children around
There is also concern that, once the
campground is opened, people would flock
to it and I'.ugene would become a niece a lor
the homeless This problem could he- less
ened il tin- campground is open only to
homeless families.
Money seems to he the biggest obstac le
to opening the campground. The city and
countv would have to use monev that has al
ready been set aside lor other homeless
housing projects to set up the campground
At this [joint it would he money well
spent. Homeless families need a place to
stay and maintaining a campground for the
summer would he more cost effective than
operating a shelter tor the same period ol
time.
Ottering homeless families a sate place
to camp while long and short-term housing
plans are developed and constructed would
reduce the immediate* problem oi housing
homeless women and c hildren.
With greater comiminitv involvement
and volunteer work, a caretullv supervised
campground could be just the solution the
i ity and county have been looking tor.
Letters
GTF complaints
\\ itii regard tu (hr lilting ot
(hr enrollment i .ip .mil tuitmn
xxaix rrs
Kt>( rntlv (hr (haduatr
Teaching I allows federation at
(hr t nix rrsitx has received .111
unprri edented numhrr ot i uni
plaints hum graduate teai lirrs
who havr lirrn told that thex
do not qualitx lot summer tin
lion waivers (the so-railed
"sandwich"I because the\ did
not have lull at ademii year
teai long appointments tor
PlM't'tn
Manx CTI s believe that a
spring term appointment xx ith a
contract tor the following tall
term entitles them to a stimmet
tuition waiver I-anguage in the
ai aileiliu year fee hook seems
to support tills be I let
It is ironii th.it the thiiversi
tv. committed to an academii
mission, appears im lined to or
conser\ alive with approval ul
tuition w aivers to .1 ( nt 11 all\
important group of modrstb
paid m holars and teai hers hut
is willing to grant tuition waiv
ers to .1 group (student athletes)
whose mission is generally
considered to be non academic
l ire Oregon State Hoard of
Higher [-.duration has declined
to 1 onsider an oln ions solution
to its funding problems, name
l\ allowing the I'niversiK to
drop from the i’aeifir 10 bon
terem e
Athlete s rear lies out and
touches the < iti/.enrv ot this
state 111 a was that academics
does not If fall were* to come
with no green and gold glit.’. to
entertain Oregon sports enthu
siasts. maybe some among
them would realize that the
funding c risis in higher educ a
tion is genuine Maybe some c,f
them would begin using their
ideas .inn then votes to Hint a
solution so thev could once
(igain s,i\ "How 'bout them
Du. ks1'
Diane Kau
om
Just as easy
lu the timber industry artii le
[Om-: June 28], logger Sam
Hale believes that the timber
i ontroversv is a matter ol prior
ities. and is quoted: "1 don’t
think we should destroy an in
dustry that is over a i cnturv old
just to save a bird.”
I'm not in favor of protecting
endangered species to the detri
ment ol everything else but
you could just as easily say "!
don't think we should destroy a
spe< ies that is a thousand y ears
old just to save an industry "
Or "1 don't think we should
destroy a planet that is 4 billion
wars old nisi to satisfy our own
greed
It s really all the same, isn't
it’ It's nisi ,i question of priori
ties
lames Drew
Computer Si ienc e
Wrong as a right
Thank you, Deborah Frisch,
for your commentary on homo
sexuality (0/)f. July ,i|. Here is
my response.
You're assuming that there
are no "moral absolutes." It's
up to each person individually
and to society to decide what's
right and what’s wrong Well,
if this is the case, you're right
and it doesn't make sense to
ask whether homosexuality is
right or w rong Or drug abuse '
Oi rape:' Abortion? \nimal
abuse? Murder7 Suicide?
()ur soi lets has defined, gen
eralK what is right and what is
wrong and those w ho step out
side ot tin- i irt.lt* are labeled
"deviants " Hut who is to say
that what is right for one per
son is right lor another?
A lot of people think th.it it s
OK to commit suicide That
doesn't affect anyone else,
right? Or drug abuse? If an act
causes only one person to
stumble, feel pain, or puts ob
stacles in their life, then it is a
moral issue. Homosexuality is
biblicall\ a sin; it is a conflict
of interest, and it causes people
to stumble. We are a confused
people when we try to justify
wrong as a right
Charles Armsbury
Eugene