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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1994)
EDITORIAL Deadbeat parents targeted by new law States have tried a number of methods to get parents who are delinquent in paying child support to pay. Want ed posters, garnishing wages, garnishing tax returns, jail time — you name it, some state in the union has tried it. Unfortunately for families affected by this problem, many of these tactics remain empty threats because law' enforcement agencies do not have the time or the man power to enforce them. So what would make a delinquent father or mother pay overdue child support? The state of Maine thinks it has the answer, by revok ing the driver's licenses of parents who do not pay their court-ordered child support. Not only does the slate have the power to take away driver's licenses, it also has the power to revoke pro fessional licenses such as those required to practice med icine or law. Residents of Maine affected by this law were warned repeatedly about the possible loss of their licenses before the state actually made good on the threat. Jane Sheehan, Maine Human Services Commissioner, told the Associ ated Press that the initial warning letters "yielded the state Si 1.5 million in back payments." Maine’s governor, John R McKernan. decided to pro pose the Family Financial Responsibility Act after he realized that the state was paying millions and millions of dollars to people who have become impoverished because one parent or the other was delinquent in mak ing the required < hild support payments. On July 1 some Oregon residents who fail to pay child support will also bo subject to the same type of child sup port enfor< oment The new law. OKS 25.750, will not lx* applied to doctors and lawyers but it will be applied to truck drivers, commercial fishermen and some other state licensed professions. Prior to ()KS 25.750 taking effect there were a number of things that could be clone to extract overdue child sup port from deadbeat parents. I’he first step, according to Doug Mitchell, a deputy distric t attorney for laneCkiunlv. is a simple letter request ing child support. This letter is followed by others. Next comes garnishment of wages, or the taking of child support money directly from the parent's wages. If that does not work, the state can put a lien on property. If tin* parent continues to be delinquent the court can hold him or her in contempt and send the parent to jail. If a delinquent parent lias his or her professional license revoked, how can he or she be expected to work to pay back the overdue child support? I bis is the argument used by many opponents of laws like those in Oregon and in Maine. It is true that the delinquent parent will not be able to pay back the money owed their abandoned family if he or she is in prison, hut the pain of poverty experienced by the delinquent parent in jail is essentially the same pain suffered by the impoverished child he or she has neglected to support. Maine and Oregon are to bo applauded for their vorv sincere efforts to put an end to the problem of delinquent parents. I lowever, there is still much work to lie done on this front, most of which must start at home. If we as a nation want to rid ourselves of the problem of deadbeat parents we must make those parents feel their worth before they become mothers and fathers — when they are children. Children who grow up to feel worth less will treat their children as though they are worth nothing. Oregon Daily fOOOl JIM EUGENE OREGON «J«0 Tn? 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Offlc* 346-5512 CX»pi«y Actv<w’ti»Jng Actv«fti»irvg 346-3712 346-4443 6COP EVENM6 vytat MEGt 'o E^40 \Ajc\SABt A6 XXI KMOvg IT AMQ CoNrs*ut WR*** >£E *<**>* ,T ■ LETTERS Agenda Homosexuals aren't a constitu tionally recognized minority. vet the media and opposition make a lightning jump to sav that homosexuals are and the Oregon ( iti/uns Alliance is taking mvav their rights as such Homosexuals all have consti tutionally guaranteed rights as American citizens Thev |ust don't have i nert ion of law to force accept ante and approval of homosexuality That’s the dehate Will homo sexuals be allowed to force at i eptance of a lifestyle people don't agree with? Hu* homosexual agenda allows religious beliefs, people just can not exen ise them Making homo sexuality a minoritv, a Jewish del icatessen owner observing kosher law t old lie forced to hire homo sexuals who are considered unclean. What people do in the bed room's privacy (within law) is their business But when homo sexuals demand minority status and to teach our children ho mosexuality as equal to rat e or nationality, then the public has the right to debate. Since America's inception, communities have set their stan dards OCA's initiative doesn't "lake away" rights It ensures the right of communities to set their standards. fob protection is guaranteed everyone equally. Oregon law states personnel decisions can not be based on non-job related fiutors m state government. One's sexuality isn't job related It isn’t a job qualification, duty or func tion Since sexuality is "non-job" related, personnel decisions (hir ing, firing, promotions, raises, etc ) cannot tie based on it Our initiative allows all branches at government to pass such ordi nances protecting all people equally. Merle Pacewicz OCA Area Captain Junction City Gone too far In the name of saving jobs America has gone to bizarre lengths We keep on subsidizing tobacco so as not to put farmers out of their chosen work. The same, of course, is happening on and on here in the Northwest where we clearvut old-growth for est to save logging and mill towns from going under and losing their job base I know. I know, it's their way of life! Isn't it obvious bv now that them are different values and fott.es at work now that tobacco companies have cheated for vears to hide the deadly effect of their drugs from us. or that the timber barons have known for half a cen tury that America could run out of trees to cut? Them is another sacred cow of )oi»s —the permanent highpaying |obs at the Pentagon. The United States is the biggest arms mer chant in the world and there is no sign of a decrease in this most lucrative business or any sign of our own disarmament Any law maker would !«• voted out if his district lost defense jobs' The United Stati-s space program operates in the same vein, hold ing on to job security, which costs us plenty We cannot go on at this insane pat e. paying no heed to the envi ronment or the "dumb middle class" which pays for all these programs with its taxes (corpo rations do not pay) Alternative job opportunities am them and need to tie explored more seriously. Hllde K. Cherry Eugene Disgrace Comparing homosexual prac tices to a person's ethnic heritage is a disgrace to the trials and struggles of America’s true minorities Attempting to create a minority classification based on wrong and potentially destructive behaviors is an insult to the cit izens of this great country Today, homosexuals are at tempting to compare their wrong sexual practices to tieing denied the right to vote, the right to use public restrooms and fai ilities and being forced to si! at the fwi k of the bus How can anyone com pare such public disgrace and humiliation as that to the prat tices one chooses to do in the pri vacy of the bedroom? If homosexuality is granted minority status, government en tities and offic ials will lie forced to present homosexuality to our children as something good, equal to race, gender or nation al origin, etc. This minority clas sification will forc.e everyone's private* sexual behavior into the public arena for evaluation. Those identified ns participating in homosexuality will be given special classification and con siderations. Granting civil rights protection for homosexuality is nothing more than special rights. Who else is afforded minority status based on their wrong behaviors? Stop minority status for homo sexuality. Sign the OCA "Minor ity Status and Child Protection Act" at your local mall or call the Brooks offii e to get a petition and vote yes in November. L. Miller Deputy Director OCA Lane County Dependency Decrying the cycle of depen dency tfiat keeps millions of Americans on the welfare rolls fur years, President Clinton on June 15 unveiled his new $9.it billion welfare reform initiative. This presidential effort is meant to save the treasury mon ey and silence the critics of fed eral entitlement programs. American politicians have been elected and reelected by appealing to the darker side of voters by lambasting welfare mothers and indolent fathers for receiving federal subsidies. The same politicians, howev er. are themselves on the welfare rolls of political action commit tees which have their own agen das For example, take pro-Israel PACs Recently they succeeded in convincing members of Con gress to supplement Israel's annu al aid of $.1 billion with nearly S242 million Also, on March 31, President Clinton authorized the Defense Department to give Israel Sltit 9 million in military' equip ment; and on April 29, Congress approved an SHI) million grant to Israel tor Jewish refugees Amer ican treasury and private dona tions will bring the total aid [xm k age to $5 billion this fiscal year alone I bis translates to Stood for every man. woman and child in a country of 5 million people. Since the creation of Israel in 194H, American taxpayers have doled out S70 billion in aid to that country. How can anyone complain about Americans on welfare when the state of Israel has been on welfare since its birth? M. Reza Behnam Eugene
