IAL
Who decides where
to draw the line?
The Washington State Senate recently passed a
measure barring the sale of sexually oriented tapes and
CDs to minors.
Touchy, right? You bet One cun. hear the argu
ments now:
It s time to draw the line!
Who gives you the right to draw the line7
We’re in moraldecay — we must draw the line some
where!
Okay, where? Who decides where to draw the darn
thing anyway7
And round and round we go, again, When" it comes
to a decision affecting this country's rights, it always
boils down to the same argument The trouble is, no
one is ever absolutely right; both sides, at the same
time, offer winning and losing points.
The measure would expand present law now ban
ning the sale of erotic printed materials, films and pho
tographs to minors so that it includes musical record
ings it passed the -Senate with a 35-f) vote after receiv
ing a near-unanimous vote in the House. It will now go
to Guv Booth Gardner
So what would define sexually explicit lyrics7 In
this instance, the group 2 Live Crew A words would
serve as a prime example. The bill came in response to
an Lvcrett. Wa mother who complained about her son
repealing "obscene” language he’d learned from one of
the group's recordings.
Now here's where it gets sticky. Point number one:
It is correct to wonder just what a child, here defined
as a "minor," is or isn’t able to handle, what is or isn’t
healthy for a child to be exposed to. Laws surrounding
children should ideally protect them from what they
supposedly are not ready to experience
Now, number two As stated above, who will de
i ide where to draw the obscenity line7 Just what will
constitute "sexually explicit" material? Lvervone
knows everyone has a different opinion. On every
thing. So whose will take tin1 l ake? Applied to 2 Live
Crew’s lyrics, what one person might find offensive an
other may find acceptable.
It's not for one to judge right or wrong, it's merely a
fact that there are as main ways to see an issue as there
are people. Room must be made for various opinions
And that’s where drawing lines gets hard.
It gets dangerous when The Law decides to play
God. When these folks get to say tin- final yea or nay on
what goes instead of the individual, it's scary. Then
again some Americans some imposed restraint.
Final answer? Hard to saw You decide
LETTERS POLICY
Letters to the editor must lie limited to no more than
J:i() words. legible, signed and the identification of the
writer must lie verified whim the letter is submitted.
1'he I tncrahi reserves the right to edit unv letter for
length or style.
()rc$t in Duitv
Emerald
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IN 1988 OtoPGt gltfM
AiREO THE
Vsj'lLUE WoRTON ADS .
/NFLA/AIN6 VOTER FEARS
IN A BRAZEN ATTEMPT"
To polarize tue nation
F
HE'S GONE Sc^T.
VOTE. PAT BUCMAMAN.
PAT b^ChajuM PcH DfttSi D£wTCOW
WE'Gi CALUN6 iT - 2 a H _
AjU^AB[ rty/s y? ^
LETTERS
Concerns
Ail opt*n letter to Barbara
Kolierls
As 1 propart? to gradual!) in
June, ! hate become increasing
ly aware lital other yvomen
(r :ii It.w mi unit' familltis like
inyvll. will not have tht; op
portunity tu gt'l a (jualitv. af
hi education
1 . an t speak (nr all colleges
m Oregon, but the University
lias suffered ins ause of the eui
h i. ks rt si;.ling (mill Measure f>
i i .line to tlie ! niversitv to at
tend graduate scIkKjI in roun
seling psychology be; ..use it s
known as one of the f* st in the
t nunlry
However w ith the urn erlain
ty of funding. I believe the
quality of this program, and
other programs at the Umversi
1V. yy ill d .reuse it seems lively
students yviil pay lor an educa
turn in schools outside nl Ore
gon i( there continues to be a
la; v of financial support for
high-quality education in this
state
! would encourage you to i all
a spei iiil session to allow the
forming of a bipartisan solution
that w on Id restore the Universi
ty s fin,mi lal integrity and the
necessary commitment of Ore
gon S finani ial n-soun es to ed
ii. ation I yy .old support re;;r j
oritizing state expenditures that
yvoukl (Hit foundation funding
for the Department of l.duca
tion before additional capital
project funding for the Dejiart
merit of Transportation I prefer
to have our taxi's spent on edu
cation rather than cutting
through national jiarks to build
neyy roads
I wuulil upprtH late ii if you
would share my concerns wtlh
tfit* Ways and Moans commit
tee Thank, you for your work I
look forward lo hearing from
you am! keeping informed
Theresa Scott
Student
Support
In a commentary in ihe Feb
•t Emerald. Phil Zui kemmn of
the Jewish Student Union at
tucked the Student Insurgent
for publishing «sj its-Swum lit. tale
tics All the articles Zuckerman
cited regarded the history and
policies of tin' Israeli govern
ment and the nature ol Zionism
.is a political ( reed Though
Zu< kerman did not mention
the name of their author, all ol
the articles m dispute were
written hv Carv Murrell, a grad
uute student and graduate
tea. hing lellow in the hlstotV
department
Vi. are fa; ultv members ol
the history department, Jew ish
and non Jewish, vy ho vs ish to
go on :es ord in defense ol Mur
reli s integrity and rebut actu
saliutis of anti-Semitism made
against him
We do not ail agree vs tth
Malls aS V U'W S .11 tile Middle
hast We w ish to affirm, howc.
el. that while Murrell s articles
are unmistakably anti-Zionist,
they are not, in either substance
or Intent anti Semitic Criti
cism ol tlie Israeli government,
indeed criticism of Zionist
principles themselves how
ever stringently or militantly
expressed must not. Ipso
facto. In- confused with ethnic
hatred of Jew s
We is ... v. the debate on this
c ampus regarding Israel, the
Middle hast and Palestinian
rights can be and ought to he
conducted in terms of political
argument, without resorting to
unwarranted, charges of 1-1111111
bias on the part of people- tak
ing p.irt 111 that debate
tdwm H. blngham
Howard Brick
Matthew Dennis
Jack P. Maddex Jr.
Jeffrey Ostler
Daniel A. Pope
Qulntard Taylor
Glenn A. May
Bryna Goodman
Randall McGowen
Mavis Mate
History Dept.
Money
What will Myles Brand think
nl next7 First he spends money
to send out a letter announcing
something that could have just
as easily been published in the
Emm hi 1 presume that this ex
pensive (postal fees, paper,
pouliog us-dx-.i. lurux .curus
municulion probably didn't im
prove the turnout
But now he wants me (and
all of us) to spend SI in order
to trade places with him
Where is all that money going
to7 And what will the one stu
dent chosen actually learn from
the exponent «?
Debra Frye
Student
To choose
Huts off to the University
Bookstore's board ol directors
for taking a firm stand against
censorship in their decision to
not remove pornographic litera
ture from their shelves
Being personally opposed to
violence done from one human
to another In any form, i do,
how e\ it, regret that Men
Against Rape and the Women's
Center continue to make the il
logical derision equating corre
lation w ith causality in their ar
guments Some rapists may
have perused pornographic ma
terial m the past, but I would
imagine it was probably some
thing depicting physical ai ts of
cruelty against women Playboy
and /’enr/iouse are not exam
pies of such material
I In- tai ls art- that many,
main mom men will look such
magazines over ami not commit
any acts of violence Do the vic
timized pasts of a curtain mi
nority justify inflicting their
will upon a harmless majority'
True mg backward in the lives
of deviant persons is a danger
ous game, for there will be
many unusual and unexpected
connection for these people to
their crimes, which would not
appear in the non-deviant, non
violent population.
f inally, freedom of speech
also means freedom to choose.
If you don't like pornography,
nobody is going to force you to
read it In our country, we are
free to turn knobs und dials and
pick what we want to read, see
und listen to. I value my right
to choose infinitely more than
vuur biased opinion of what I
can choose from
Timothy Lsydsn
History
.Psychology