EDITORIAL
Poor morale doesn’t
justify discrimination
Should people be barred from public service simply
because they are different? After all, such people would
damage morale and inhibit other* from doing their duty.
Currently, there are two places where this type of dis
crimination is openly endorsed — the military and the
Incidental Fee Committee.
Tho military advocates banning homosexuals, some
members of the IFC advocate banning anybody who does
not march lock-step to its ideological drummer. This
became glaringly evident Tuesday when members of the
IFC lobbied in opposition to the appointment of Ed Car
son to the committee.
Carson, managing editor of the Oregon Commenta
tor. a student-run Journal of opinion, was confirmed by
the Student Senate Tuesday, no thanks to IFC Chairman
Steve Masat, member Zoe Pargot and former member Bar
UBra ivougeis jwiiuhu
vacated seat Carson
filled).
Masat, Pargot and
Rodgers submitted a
two-page letter to the
Student Senate request
ing Carson not be con
firmed "even if he is
qualified to sit on the
IFC,” out of fear that his
"appointment would
disrupt the functioning
of tne committee."
Sound familiar?
If you remove Carson's opponents politically-cor
rect frosting, you'll find the same rotten cake that's being
served up by the military. Marginally different ends, iden
tical means.
The main focus of the letter was the editorial content
of the Commentator and how, simply by association.
Carson was guilty of any sins, real or imagined, that have
been committed by the Commentator against any of
the University's sacred cows.
Although tho letter was little more than two-pages of
bitching and moaning in an attempt to establish a case
for keeping the Commentator from serving on the IFC,
it made absolutely no attempt to address Carson the per
son^
Tho letter did raise some interesting questions, though,
as to the mentality of the IFC members opposing him.
The letter said there were several other "very qualified
candidates who are past members of the IFC' (Empha
sis added). Apparently the concept of "change" in gov
ernment has not yet filtered down to the letter writers.
They would prefer to see a clone of themselves rather
than a porson capable of independent thought.
While writing for the Commentator, Carson has delved
into the secret inner-sanctum the IFC calls “home." In
doing so. he has gained valuable insight into how the IFC
operates and how it could be improved.
Why the IFC should be afraid of having a competent
member is a little fuzzy, especially considering its pur
pose. which, according to tho ASUO Constitution, is to
"act only on matters relating to the allocation and appro
priation of incidental fees."
Currently, them
am two place*
wham thlm type of
discrimination la
openly endorsed
— the military
and the
Incidental Foe
Committee.
Oregon Daily
Th# Oregon D«*»y Em#f#W *» puW**N*d darfy Mo^xlay tKrough Friday during fh# iCtHxtf
Y**f and T„#*o«iy */XJ Thu'*C#y during fN» iumm#r by ?n# O#go” Darfy PuW*§h
Co Inc ft! th# Un»v#»*iy Of Or#gt>n. E ug#"«. Oregon
Th* Fm*faW op#rair»a independently of th# University «nth otf<#» at Su;t# 300 of th#
Efb U®fr^Vsa! Un#on *nd 4 « of th* Associated Press
Th# E *>•*#&) * p#»viif# property Th# unt#wrfu< f#rnov#i O u*« Of papers «• pro*#Cuf#&»«
t)y l*w
Editor Pat Malac*
PO l>0
N*w» Editor Ji*«
td«lCHi#l Editor * «*/m*
Graphics Editor Jit** Pasiay
Entort»lnm#nt Editor f '«ytt Moro
F r—C© t anor HOP© NMltor
Editorial Edit of Rv©*s Janitor
Sport* Editor D*v«
Swpptomonti Editor Cafl©> Andorfton
Aaaoctata Edttora 1 *w, lutoy Student Government Ac*v>lio». Daraiyr' t ractye. Commu
rtfy &>»*»' Poht.g MKJN* CducatWIVAdminrttrabOn
New* Sl»« Chatter AAan Mandy Baucum Mad Batvxj' Justin Brown. SAian Clark Dylan
Cou’ter Meg Oadotph. Amy Davenport Amanda f emm Airoa I«"*' Teresa Nuntsuyger.
I ,u Kna#i«i. lisa Ma.,i Damian Metaan Stave M.m*. Trttm. Mu#w Tn*ta No*. Mama*
Schuster EIW> Shaw M^naai ShmcSar Encs Studancka Manon Sutor Mchaie Thompaon
Agu*ar. Amy Van Tuyt, Todd Wittuma
General Manager Judy K.edt Production Manager M*heie Ross
Advertising: Tom leech Shar on Viu Sao» Shawm !»*>ven 0«vc« Manage
lane iicua T»es* Isaoeke. Ptwp Johnson It. On* Kanod Jeremy May. m. Van V CTBy*an II
GiUuvi O. Rachaei Trut,. Angu Wincptemv Br an Wfindheen
Ctaseified ‘’aggy WcOmn Manager Baity logan. Snaron Sauva
Distribution Rebecca Brook* Krisl, Van Gordar. Anthony Wynn
Bualnaaa: kamy Carbon# Supeonsor Judy Conno*y
Production; ingno White, Production Coordinator Krishna Gtangar. Da* McCoec Stacy
Mitchell Jennifer Hound. Jamvlar Smith Anna Stephenson
filcDoctors!
LETTERS
Don't lynch Ed
! am offended by your charm -
lor assassination of Ed (Parson It
would have taken less space to
have put a better picture of him
with the caption "lynch this
man."
I guess you felt this was the
time to bite the Commentator
back. Pick on someone your
own size — guilty by associa
tion is a bad rap. I support (.ar
son and believe he will bring
balance to this tninoritv spend
thrift IFC.
I wish the IFC would pull
their heads out of the Erb micro
cosm and realize there are
15.995 other people on this
campus with the same interests
Ed has. The members of the IFC
are crying foul before the milk
is spilled They're worrying
about their piece of the pie.
Why don't you give Ed a
chance? Ed for higher ed.
W. Elizabeth Wickham
Chemistry
Strike one
I am writing in response to
sports editor Dave Charbon
neau's column on the Portland
Trail Blazers basketball players
and their alleged sexual tiiterai -
tions with the two 16-year-old
runaway girls in the players'
Utah hotel room
Although I believe the col
umn is well-written and pro
vides a marginally appropriate
level of criticism of the players.
I am concerned about one criti
cal mistake I believe Charbon
neau has made. He said the
players are not "totally ut fault.”
and that since the girls allegedly
consented to the sex. they are
therefore "just as guilty as the
Blazer players."
This is ludicrous. Two run
away girls in a room full of
extremely large adult men lack
the social skills, maturity and
sense of protection necessary to
make the best decisions regard
ing their health, safety and sex
uality. In this situation, these
girls may have been too scared
not to “consent."
To claim, as Charbonneau
does, that these two girls are
partially responsible for this
action is a tragic and erroneous
statement. As an adult culture,
we should take full responsibil
ity for the care and safety of our
children, even when they seem
to exercise poor judgment.
Coercad sexual relations with
minors is nothing less than sex
ual abuse. The victims of these
crimes need our full, uncondi
tional support, and the perpe
trators should be forced to
accept all the blame
Will Sturges
Adjunct Professor
Architecture
Language is fun
Ack. What a headline. My
commentary in the Fob 1 Emer
ald ("Language not fun. hut
needed”) was in no way meant
to imply that language isn’t fun
On the contrary, my five-credit,
stress-from-hell, st udy-a-cou
ple-hours-every-night fjttin 102
class is quite possibly one of the
most intellectually stimulating
and enjoyable classes I've taken
here.
1 may complain about the
stress level, but given my noto
rious lack of motivation. I
wouldn't be taking it if I didn't
love it.
David Weingarten
Student
Fish for diversity
This is regarding Martin Fish
er's i olumn "Sorry, but I'm not
a Euro-American" [ODE . Ian
26) My passport savs 1 am a i it
izen of the United States So
then I. too. am simply an Amer
ican. no hyphens, thank you.
Seriously though, 1 would
ideally prefer to be perceived as
just an American and not have
people make all kinds of judg
ments and assumptions about
my Asian looks
Also. I don't appreciate the
categorization of the vocal
minority Fisher conveyed. The
implication that any group of
minorities who speak out an
issues is a band of rambunc
tious students is wrong I realize
the sarcasm, but 1 believe he is
missing tin* point about diversi
ty.
The substance of the matter is
in the population demographics
of America, 1 have heard that
within our lifetime, minority
children will be occupying
close to half the seats in Ameri
can schools. The person I hoard
this from was Professor Ronald
Takaki from the University of
California .it Berkeley.
Takaki is nationally recog
nized in the field of ethnic stud
ies Lest year. Takaki came to
our campus to speak and pub
licly called the University's
race/gender requirement a joke.
If people treat diversity as
something politically correct,
they have missed the point.
Diversity is real, and we must
Im) aware of this.
Stephen Muraoka
Co-director
APASU
Going downhill
If Oregon was once the most
progressive state in the notion,
it must surely now he near the
least. I'm an exchange student
from South Carolina, and I
came here in part to escape the
political insanity of the deep
South However, it seems I've
gone from the frying pan into
the fine
Not only does the state allow
a state-wide measure of dis
crimination (Measure 9) to be
on the ballot, but now Rep. I.iz
Vanl.eeuwen wants to require
every household to be armed
with guns. This makes Jesse
Helms and Strom Thurmond
look like flower children. Aside
from the fact that the hill Van
Leeuwen bus proposed is horri
fyingly ridiculous, if not
shockingly outrageous, what
else might we ask of it?
Vanl.eeuwen says the bill
would cut down on i rime as it
has in parts of Georgia This
may be so. but a much more
effective measure would be to
mine everyone's yards. Why
don't we require everyone to
own an automatic assault rifle
instead of a mere revolver7
One liecomes giddy with sar
casm as one carries out the
logic, hut this is serious Can a
presumably intelligent elected
official really believe aiming
i itizens against one another can
promote peace? Think of the
message We want you. the
civilian, to take the law into
your own hands Burglaries
would decrease in correlation
with domestic homicides and
accidental shootings.
I stand ughast at vet another
monument to political stupidi
ty.
Morgan Melekos
Philosophy