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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1994)
EDITORIAL r... .... Sour grapes make a great shoofly pie U S. News and World Heport has never been so cru el. In news releases sent out across the country Friday, the magazine offered a list of cities which, it predicted, would be among the nation’s top economic boom towns of the 90s. Eugene was included on the list of eight cities, which were to be highlighted in the magazine's April 11 issue. Turns out. however, that Eugene is not mentioned in that issue after all. The magazino decided to publish only the top seven; apparently. Eugene didn't make the cut. But this was not before the Associated Press and sev eral newspapers, including the Portland Oregonian, ran articles on the city's new honor — the honor that wasn't. Heh heh. U S. News says. Just kidding. .Eugene's boosters have so far reacted with disap pointment upon hearing about U S. News' backtracking That's understandable, but they shouldn’t let them selves get carried away (a canceled subscription might Imi overreacting). Granted, it can be disheartening to find that your hometown checks in aftor Kenosha, YVis. and Albuquerque. N.M. But only until you find out the sys tem U S News was using to predict the top towns. The system? Send reporters out to several dozen cities, pic ket! by economic forecasting firms as likely to see significant economic growth, and have those reporters conduct interviews with key figures in each town, newspaper editors, economic development offi cials, and so on. The reporters' findings are then com piled, quite unscientifically, and the magazine's editors pick the top cities based on the reporters’ findings. According to U S. News. Eugene just couldn't com pote with the likes of Huntsville, Ala., which has great large-mouth bass fishing, and Lancaster. Pa., which boasts a restaurant called Miller’s Smorgasbord, billed ns "a groat place for shoofly pie." How can Eugene compote with shoofly pie? Admittedly, no one would be questioning the maga zine’s ranking system had Eugene made the final list. Maybe that’s the problem. This is another case of a meaningless study which is cheered by the winners and jeered by the losers. And besides, what difference would it have made if Eugene hod been tapped as one of the nation's small city "boom towns" anyway? Aside from a burgeoning sense of civic pride, not much. People don’t make deci sions on where to live based on surveys; they make them based on where they can get a bettor job and/or live a better life. And businesses have more reliable sources than U S. News, which clearly choked on this one. Ami what else could it be called but a choke? The magazine said it had a list of tho top seven cities, then produced a list of eight. If it can’t even count, how could it be trusted to predict the economic growth of each small city in America? Oregon Daily I T he (>egon Danty t menakl <3 pubfeshod da*ty Monday through f nday dunng the school year and Tuesday and Thursday dunng the summer by the Oregon Da«»y Emerald Pubhsfww Co . tnc at the Urwersrty of Oregon, f ugene Oregon The t >ntv»k1 operates rfv1ependent*y of the Urwer^fy w*h oftces at Suae 300 of the Eft) Memorvai llnon end •% a member of the A*** rated Press The fmeffiki <s pr-v,»te property The unlawful removal c* use of papers i» prosecutable by law Editof-ln-ChM: Jeo Beti Managing Editor GaAcry Anda**on Editorial Editor David Thom Graphic* Editor Po»iay Fraaiarvca Editor Jo« Winter* Sports Editor Stove IAm» Editor tel Editor Jeff P<fct\wdt Photo Editor Mk’isei Shmde Supplements Editor Ke#> Solo Conor: cowea nioprensiom Associate Editors Edward Kloptensiem. Stud** Govmivnant Actfvitom, Rebecca Mer'tt Community, Heather* Mm*e. Higher £dueatexx A&mrustraboo News Staff: Mandy BauCum Ion Bei!>n©skt. Enc Bucfchaite' W-ison Chan. Da*e Charbonneau. Amy Colombo. Jm Dav*t. Meg Dedolph. Amy DevenpcrT Maiwi f *td* Matir Ft»her. Sarah Henderson. Yin l eng leong Manus Meiand Tr.sta Noe E Isabel* Resrvstjema. Robtw* FI ©eves l a Setcacoa. Scott S*monson. Stephan* Soaon, Susan n© Steffens, Mk;h*ie Thompson, Amy Van Tuyt. Dana* West General Manager: Judy R*dl Advertising Director: Mars Waiter Production Manager M^heie Ross Advertising. Brian Daw Sob*r Dutta. N*cole Mer/mark. Teresa Isabel© Jett Ma'.on Jeremy Mason, Mchael M^tiffe Kelsey Wee” Classified Berky Merchant. Ma-vage* v<to» M*». a Srm T/e Teck Distribution: John long. Graham Sampson Business Kathy Carton* Supervrscr Judy ConnoSy Protection Dee McCobb, h'OdUrfon CoonAnafcr Shaw>\a Abe*© Greg Desmond Tara Gauitney. Brad Joss Jervrnt*r Roland Nafl Thangv'f*1. Dayton Ye© H*w%toom . 346-5511 Oftkr«..... 346-5913 Display Advertising..346-3712 Classified Advertising .346-4343 d LEGALIZE 1 6S ?? i«Or n rHcti**LO ms-j 1 AJOw BACK n> out gtOULt/H-Y D jtX AHQ Y/oLlAICt "iQ LETTERS Gilroy for 44 I'd like lo take this opportuni ty to recommend to all of my friends, past, present and future, the i andidncy of Jim Gilroy to represent District 44 in the Ore gon legislature. We could do no batter. Jim is a dedicated puhlii servant, having given 14 years to the city, eight as a i ity i ouncilman and six as your and my mayor It is time for him to take on a larger office and what could lx* better than to have him as state legislator |im is honest and durable, a family man who stands for fam ily values, and has the ability to fac.e the issues head on and with a clear understanding He is there for all of us. as he has proven in his local offices If you wont honest govern ment. as I do. in Oregon, then please join me in supporting Jim Gilroy for the office of State leg islator form District 44 Jack Dongle Cottage Grove Men pay too I'd like to applaud Stephen Crawford's commentary piece [ODE. April 4) He expressed many of the opinions that 1 hold to lx* true hut heretofore reluctant to express for fear of being lalxtled sexist The University of California at Berkley operates a shuttle system almost identical to our Saferide, but with one distinction People with penises are allowed to use it. Maybe we should rethink our policy governing this service that we all pay for, regardless of our gender. 1 liken the labeling of men as potential rapists to the labeling of black people as potential thieves. Both lalxds an* the prod ucts of irrational fear and igno rance. We men have to learn to adjust to a world when* we an* to lx* sexually and emotionally ster ilized; we have been forced to accept not only the labal "poten tial rapist." but also "potential sexual harasser" and "potential pedophile." Wo are taught that our sexuality is somehow bestial, our affections unwelcome. Ms Salciccia's comments reflect this attitude, and in lieu of calling hero sexist and reduc ing her to yet another label, I must say that I emphatically dis agree with her opinion. C. Constantine Poulos English, Philosophy Release them The editorial on Melvin Carter (ODE. March 2‘1) made some good suggestions. To those I would like to add my own mod est proposal: Instead of releasing rapists like Carter, why doesn't the prison system parole or par don political prisoners like Leonard Peltier? Native American activists Leonard Peltier has served 18 years and was rec ently "reward ed for good behavior" by having his application for parole denied Peltier is no rapist, and there are strong indications that the evi dence for his murder conviction was fabric ated by the Kill Even the prosec ution has admitted that they really don't know who ac tu ally committed the murders for which Peltier was convicted. Jake Salolywody Eugene Won’t tote In reference to the letter by Stephan Crawford [ODE. April 4) regarding the discrimination of Saferide against men: As a woman on campus and a staff member with Saferide, 1 took extreme offense to your argu ments. We have discussed this issue at length at Saferide and have consulted with men of color and gay men on campus. The ques tion they then asked of us, “Who will drive the vehicles, men?" If the purpose is to protect these men from other men, how would opening Saferide's services to males accomplish that? I also find it typical that once again one of the only services on campus exclusively for women is being attacked. When was the last time the football team was attar.ked for not having women players? There was found to lie a need for the services that Saferide pro vides for women, so it was cre ated. If it is felt by enough men on campus that a similar service is needed for men, then there is nothing to prevent one from being formed I do not feel that it is Saferide's responsibility to pro vide such services for men. We are too busy providing for the women on campus, women who are protecting themselves, not relying on someone olse's work and commitment to tote them around. Angharad Jones Psychology Tasteless ad Contrary to the conclusions reached in the April 4 editorial in the ODE. rarely has The Reg ister-Guard done anything as sleazy as Sunday's publication of the National Rifle Association’s full-page ad about Russel Obreni skv. While I don't like Obremsky any better than the next guy, he has not stood trial for the crime with which he is <barged, and the charges could he completely bogus The ad also recommend ed telephone harassment of a public official, ex-parole board head Danny Santos Ibis piece of trash did not con tribute anything positive, hut rather was intended to generate support for the "new NRA by whipping up fear in this com munity. Would the Guard also publish a full-page swastika for the neo-Nazi group? As most informed people know, "Three strikes and you're out' will affect very few criminals and will not have an overall sig nificant effect on crime. It is a feel good measure At $30,000 per year, to incarcerate a crimi nal for the next 50 years is an expensive undertaking. It would l>e letter to spend this $1.5 mil lion on education, rehabilitation, and drug addiction treatment. By blocking almost every rational attempt at gun control, the NRA is the major reason why this country is awash with guns and why Obremsky had no trouble getting his. Needless to say, they don't mention this Jim Remington Physics
