EDITORIAL Provide lull access for disabled citizens Kugttno’s Mayor-elect. Ruth Ha scorn. ha* yet l<» take tin; oath uf office, but has already become the sub jet t of controversy. On Friday. Hasrom ordered her swearing in cere monv invitations to he reprint ml. allegedly because they referred to her and incoming City dmincil mem bers ,is "mayor-ole< t" and "councilor-elect," rather than "mayor" and "councilor." If those were the only changes she had made, there would be no controversy But she also ordered the re moval of information stating the event was when It hail accessible and that it would l«* interpreted for the hear ing-impaired. Museum's reasoning for the deletion was one of aesthetics "I was trying not to get it to look so cluttered." she vs.is report ed as saving in /Vic Keg/s trr( 'third Whatever the reason. Museum's action will like ly alienate much of the disabled community. Dis abled citizens are often overlooked in society, and When do hearing impaired citizens lose their right to the same access to public events and information that other citizens enjoy? any effort to remind them they are welcome should not be avoided, Ba.scom furthered the problem by saying she doesn't believe it's necessary to have ‘’every public event'' interpreted for the; hearing impaired If that's the case, who will dec ide what events should be inter preted and what will ice the criteria? When do hearing impaired c itizens lose1 their right to the same acc ess to public event* and information that other c itizens en joy? Ha sc torn should remember that she was elected to represent all Hugene citizens, equally ami fairly Ami while* Base mil's action should not imply that shu is in sensitive or uncaring, it should serve notice* that, as mayor, her every action will be subjec t to intense sc ru tiny. Mayors are only human, and they make? mistakes Hopefully. Bascom will learn from hers and be a l>ette*r mayor because of them. nt Mueller. Tr.sta Noe< i Ben Shaw Mchael Shon Su«tor. Mcheie Thompson Agu^v Am, Van Tuyi. Todd Wi»amt Jacqueine Woge General Manager: Judy R*xf Production Manager Mche»e Ross Advertising Tom leech Sharon Va* Sales Manager* Shawn fterve- Office Man.ge* .lane IroM. Teresa Isabel;®. Ph«*p Johnson II Chris KanoM Je#emy Mason. Van V OBy»an II. G»H*an Oh. Ange Wtndherfh Classified i’eggy McGinn. Manager Barry logan. Sharon Seuve Distribution Rebecca Brocas. Kristi Van Gordar. Anthony Wynn Business Kathy Carbone Supervisor Judy Connolly Production Ingrid Wh-tr* fVodbcfton Coordmafcv Knstme Granger Dee McCobb. Stacy Mrfche*. Jennifer Roland. Jennifer Sm*h, Anne Stephenson Newsroom 346-5511 Display Advertising 346-3712 Business Office 346-5512 Classified Advertising 346-4343 won * ac.t.Ttorv WO MAN w.v i > Arc taxis* scncor ace. PACXwTlX OF '/A .v >« j conduct ... /0~\ IE US K ^EVS • I ONE. CAN CKLT WOC6A Kv. itWi* wot.'.' 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EZ usm Earth will adjust to catastrophes General License Siephanie Sisson An ml l.inker, carrying twice the oil of the Kxxon Valdez, run aground lust week and began spilling oil in the Shetland Islands Damage to wildlife in the Shetlands has already been do si rilM-d hi (’.oast Guard offii lals as horrendous Although the actual nund>er of lards and fish in that area is less now than it would lie in the spring, the 25 million gallons of oil spilled still has a signifii ant effe< t on wildlife in the area This is tile latest example of the negative effet ts of modem te< hnologi and our limited means of controlling it In March the infamous Kxxon oil tanker ran aground in Valdez, Alaska, and spilled It million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound. A cleanup crew of 10,000, six months and St 3 billion could not repair the damage done to the beaches at Valdez. Thou sands of sea birds and hun dreds of bald eagles and sea ot ters died, and the carcasses of more than 3,000 shore birds in the Gulf of Alaska have lieon recovered. "We didn't have the precau tions in place to prevent (the spill) from occurring, we didn't have the capability to deal with it uih e it was in tin* water, and now we re finding that there wasn't am technology to deal with it on the beaches.” said Steve Provant. on-screen coor dinator lor the Alaskan conser vation department I'he condition of the earth's water supply is only part of the big pit lure Air pollution is an other lag < ont erti According-to a report front tin- Oak Kidge Na tional laboratory, the level of carbon dioxide in the earth's air has steadily increased since the 1800s and has risen sharply situ e the 1950s Can humanity and Mother Nature live together in har mony' I lielieve so. hut it will take more effort on our part Man's i arelessness and greed have done terrible things to the environment Fortunately, |us! as it has done in the wake of volcanoes, earthquakes and other devastating disasters, our planet will survive "Mother Nature, to a great degree, will eventually do the best job of t leaning up this spill," said Coast Guard Vice Admiral Clyde Robbins, the federal cleanup coordinator for the Kxxon Valdez oil spill Robbins has the right per spective Although it is impor tant for us to be concerned about air and water pollution, it is just as important to realize the earth will endure despite humanity and humanity's mis takes. It does not hurt to be more careful about how we use the technology we are lucky enough to have, hut misplac ed Ii'.ir ( mu make us too cautious. Statistics created to make Ainerii alls (eel guilts about the harm vve are doing to our plan et arts ridiculous These statis tics don't show that air and wa ter pollution levels in the Unit ed States are among the lowest of countries comparable to ours in e< onoinir s, government and industry. There is only one way to pre serve tlie planet as it is now, and that is to eliminate man. Mankind's existent e. which de mands progress, has to have some effet t on the earth. As technology changes, as the way we live shifts from an agricul tural basis to mechanical, the earth must change with us. We cannot halt progress and go Iwc k to an age tiefore auto mobiles and ml development m order to accommodate the plan et We just have to lie more careful about how we list* auto mobiles and oil Humanity is not the enemy of the earth. Humanity is not hig enough or powerful enough to destroy the earth. Our planet has ways of purifying its air. cleaning its water and mending itself after both natural and man-made disasters. The earth is a lot sturdier than we like to admit in this panicked, environ in en tally aware era. The earth has sur vived disasters for thousands of years. It will survive our gener ation and many generations to follow Stephan in Sisson writes a monthly column for the Kiner ald. PPES'PEaJT- elect CLiNTOH WAS o not tt> Lose 70UCM WITH THE PEOPLE.. HE IS PLANNING) MORE Bus TOURS, MEET7A/GS, appearances, TALK S*40WS, SPEECHES CALL-IN PftO