Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1994)
EDITORIAL Let freedom ring: end imperialism For over 200 years now, we’ve celebrated a rag-tag group of outlaws who started a revolution in the name of self governance. We’ve lagged that day, yesterday. Independence Day and worship it yearly with parades and barbecues, fam ily get-togothers and firecrackers. But since becoming a world power ourselves, we’ve come full circle and have taken the role of oppressor instead of oppressed. Vietnam is a good caso-in-point. In 1954. President Dwight D. Elsenhower recognized French rule over Indo-China and ignored Ho Chi Minh’s plea for U.S. assistance in creating a Vietnam indepen dent of French rule. A Geneva Conference of world powers lator cut the country in half, with Ho taking tlit* north and cementing his ties with the Communists, and France backing the South. As French forces fell in the ensuing war. the U.S. rushed to South Vietnam’s aid. By the late 1960s. the U.S. was carpet bombing much of Vietnam. By the end of the war, tno U.S. defoliated over 14 percent of South Vietnam’s forests. The effects of that war can still bo felt today. The Diox in-based Agent Orange still soaks the land and kilts many through birth defects. The hundreds of bombs alive in Vietnamese fields still maim countless civil ians each year. In Cambodia, that country’s forces were weakened so badly by secret U.S. attacks ihat the Khmer Rouge gained control of the country in 1975 and slaughtered one mil lion of its own people. Yet. the l t.S. still backs its loader. Pol Pot. Cambodia still suffers today. The people of Phnom Penh run back to the countryside at night and intellec tuals across the country still don’t wear glasses for fear of death. In all. America’s Southeast Asian war was utterly dev astating. killing millions for years. The Vietnamese econ omy only saw the light of day in 1989. when international trade sanctions allowed multinational companies to do business there. Camlrodia has yet to see any light at all. All this could have been avoided had Eisenhower rec ognized Vietnamese sovereignty and not French control: Ho Chi Minh wouldn’t have turned to the Communists for support and true peace could have been made. In reflecting on this year’s fourth, we should again reach back to the words of our forefathers and realize how far we’ve strayed. The unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has strings attached in its modern version. Those rights, still "under God ”, are quantified by nation al boundaries or the political interests of the U.S. As the world's military superpower, we need to live by our ideals because without them, we will succumb to Britain’s disease of the 1700s and ignore the rights of oven our own people. Putting our ideals into practice can happen this year. Vietnam is up for reconsideration of its trading privi leges with the U.S. That economic ban should be lifted, and we should let those people finally live in peace after well over 50 years of struggle. To do so would represent not only a reconciliation with Vietnam but also with ourselves. It would finally allow us to match our words with our deeds. Oregon Daily PO ©OU1V9 EUGENI Th# Oregon Oatfy Emerald <% p*ibfcsh«d da«i> Monday through Friday during the sthoo year and Tuesday and Thursday du'.ng the iomm#r by the Oregon 0a»»y Emerald PufcAshtnn Co tnc 41th* Untversrty at Oregon. f ug*n«*. Oregon The Em«rak! operatiss MSdependentty ol th« University «v«9t% Ofl«c©* a? Soft# 300 of the l ft:. Mimo'mi Union tv\J <s a member o* frte Associated Proas Tho t mer afcd «* private property The unlawful removal or use o* paper* >s pro&ecu*.ab*« by aw Editor Kory Soto Assoc tats Editor* Mr*j Dedotph. in* SdtocoA. D»*d Thorn Photo Editor M»« h«H Sh "«$<n Night Editor Kofy Soto Qenerai Monster Judy MwkJs Advertising Director Mas* .% »?«' Protection Manager M • rrfo Rov> Advertising Br an Ddv n Son* Outta. Tony Fo*. Jeff U.v on M ao M *<«m* Classified Bes>v M*- ■ Ms Business: Kathy Garbo- e Supervisor Production: 0m McCobD. ^oobdot Coord dfty Tara Gauttney Jerwtm Roland Wewsroom 346-5511 Display Advert:sing 346-3712 Business Office 346-5512 Classified Advertising 346-4343 VJKen food labels will be. simple enough for US consumers * to understand them ifiW* bv**4LC Mfwj 1 , VOUO'OM'riAV //■ » us60QOob8ap OPINION Too much junk TV can make you sick Gee, I'm so excited to be a budding journalist.! can't wait to bide outside of celebrities' homes and hunt through their garbage for clues into their sordid, private lives. And it looks like the minor degree I will obtain in Theatre Arts — the one I thought would 1» completely useless yet fun — will come in handy l/Kik at any magazine Watch any TV news program. Infotainment is the name o' the game So what, say you. the intelli gent reader (Uh-oh. I'm not a very good future journalist, am I. assuming that you are intelli gent.) It's not news to me (pun intended) that my "information" is loaded with junk food for the mind. Everyone in the country, including those junky news pro grams. is talking about the shot gun marriage between news and drama. Well. I'm sick of it Sick of not knowing what a reader wants. Sick of the one extromu that thinks news is a bunch of gray ing men in gray suits stringing way too many big words togeth er for the American public to care. Sick of the other extreme that thinks that news is Dan Rather pretending to ho con cerned about O.J. Simpson's "suicide notes." Sick of being sucked in and misled by those horrid TV movies that present the "truth" so convincingly that "criminals" are convicted with out a trial and "heroes" are mode overnight. I am not convinced that this is what you want Want to know why? Because I believe that you are smart You crave informa tion the way your body craves nutritious food. Hut when you go to the EMU for a study-snack break, all that's offered for you are high-fat crap foods. And when you turn on the TV or pick up most publications, all that's offered is a little bit of mind nutrition cloaked in a lot of junk. And who can blame the intel ligent reader for liking junk? We are all guilty of swallowing it. Goddess knows I've been guiitv of feeding it to you If we are Lu SAinccu offered a carrot vs. a cookie. how many of us would take the car rot7 Even if the cookie makes if, feel like we swallowed a lard hall ail hour later, whereas the carrot gives us energy, we might still opt for the instant gratifica tion that a cookie provides. Get to the point. Lia. The point: the media thinks that you are dumb. The media thinks that this is what they need to do to make money. They don't think about the fact that you lead a busy life, make important deci sions every day. and are swal lowing their crap because you need a few laughs, some enter tainment They think you swal low their crap bec ause you are dumb and profitable. They think that the "American public" are a bunch of Budwuiser -swilling slobs that do nothing but sit on the couch and consume their b.s. disguised as "news." There's nothing wrong with craving entertainment. Our cave-dwelling ancestors did. and created rituals and cave drawings to feed that need. The rituals and drawings had moan ing which reflected the meaning in their daily lives Both our TV docudramas and news reports derived from invasions of pri vate lives have meaning too. but that is what we are struggling to find. It angers roe when journalists don't think about those mean ings. When they are afraid to speak out against the blurred lines between news and junk, between nutrition and < rap when they deny the entertain ment element is there: when they snv that this is what you, the intelligent reader, wants, when they say they have to run 25 million stories on l.orena Bobbitt and the angle at which she chopped off John’s...mem ber...because if they don't, the competition will. I don't suggest we go back to boring news that people don't understand or care about. Of course dramatic elements will make the news hit home with a bigger punch But how about some honesty? How about call ing it what it is? How about renaming Hard Copy? How about coming clean and telling the public al>out those journalis tic biases that always slip into stories and always will? (The biases are useful, they bring meaning to the story, but are harmful if the reader doesn't realize they are there.) Readers, it's lime to stand up (if you are already standing, then get on the soap box) and tell the media what you want. Where you want the news, and where you want the entertain ment and how you want the hybrids laholed. I)o you really want Time magazine, something you should be able to trust, screwing around with O.J. Simpson's picture to make him look blacker? Are you going to swallow their pitiful excuse that it was "a work of art” designed to make Simpson look more ■'sinister''? (Can you say racist?) Everybody likes a cookie once in a while. They remind us of the proverbial comfort Mom gives. But nobody wants to die of a heart attack because they have been eating cookies made with globs of lard. Wo should be able to trust cookies. But they * are often made of the stuff that clogs your arteries and gives you cellulite We should bo able to ' trust the new s. But as Time and countless others have proved, "news'' is often made of junk that clogs your thinking and puts fat on your brain. But you. intelligent one. have always got the choice of what vou put into your mouth. What are vou going to swal lovv? Ua Salciccia is an Associate Editor for the Emerald
