EDITORIAL
School board says no
where will they go
Eugene has a reputation in Oregon as being a friendly
city. The Eugene School Board and citizens living
around Civic Stadium have put that reputation in dan
ger.
Wednesday night the board voted five to one to accept
the recommendation of Eugene .School Superintendent
Margaret Nichols not to allow a homeless camp to be
established at the bus bam near Civic Stadium.
Nichols and neighbors cited the safety of students
attending South Eugene High School as a major reason
for the denial. One neighbor was quoted in Thursday's
edition of The Register-Guard as saying that though she
didn't want to "criminalize the homoless”there was no
disputing "the use of alcohol and drugs is very well doc
umented among the homeless."
These residents have seen a few too many episodes
of Cops. Drug use among high school student is very
well documented, apparently these residents are under
the Impression that without the car camp near the high
school none of the students will use drugs. Wrong. There
are probably u goon num
ber of student there who
have already tried drugs,
and their experiments hap
pened even though there
was no homeless < ir camp
near their school.
Much of the testimony at
Wednesday night's meet
ing c ame from people who
were at one time homeless
or are currently homeless.
The school board
said no. I don*t
personally see
any reason to go
back to them/
Rtchard Greene.
member ot Shelter Work
Group
A former resident of the
Centennial car camp was quoted in The Register-Guard
as saying, "what I needed was a place I knew my wife
and children would be safe while 1 looked for work/' A
place where his wife and children would be safe, not a
place where he could spend the day doped up on hero
in.
So where do the homeless go from here?
At a news conference on Thursday Shelter Work
Group announced plans to propose a winter car camp
near Centennial Boulevard for the third year. The group
also planned to examine using Armitage State Park as
possible car camp site, and said it would keep looking at
the bus barn us a possible site after it is vacated. Richard
Greene, member of Shelter Work Group did not sound
optimistic about the last option, “The school board said
no. I don’t personally see any reason to go back to them."
Where have compassion and empathy gone?
The decision by the school board is just the latest exam
ple of how extremely selfish people can be. This decision
is just like people who advocate more and longer prison
sentences but don't want prisons built near their homes,
or people who claim that they are sympathetic to drug
addicts but don’t favor residential treatment centers in
their neighborhoods.
There is a time to say not in my back yard: When a
nuclear power plant wants to set up shop in you back
yard it would be more than wise to say no because it
has been proved that living next to a nuclear reactor pow
er plant can cause harm to people, animals, and vegeta
tion. But where you are saying no to ideas that could
potentially benefit families and children or people who
have been down on their luck because it may devalue
your house or make you neighborhood look undesirable
or because you fear something that has not been proved,
that’s called paranoia.
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OPINION
Everyone’s a lawyer, that’s okay
I was breast fed by lustioe, and
watnnd on the Uw I com*'
from <i family of lawyers My
mom is a lawyer. Mv pop is a
lawyer They met on opposite
sides of a divorce case, with my
mom representing the woman,
and my pop representing her
estranged husband Mom won
the case Pop won a new law
partner and a girlfriend In a case
of what fan only be I ailed poet
ic justice, I think it's rather fitting
that they are now in the process
of a divorce.
My sister is a lawyer. So is her
husband They attended law
school together and did really
cute stuff like helped each oth
er study for the fair exam
Now my brother is vi< arlously
getting into the act. and has
announi «d his engagement to a
wonderful woman. Her occupa
tion? You guessed it
So how have I been affected by
this overabundance of esquires?
For one thing, I can impress my
friends by telling them some of
their rights (You know, the stuff
that police and landlords neglect
to inform you of ) I also have a
strong sense of what's fair and
what’s not. When 1 was a wee
four-year-old, my parents sent me
to my room and told me to stay
then*. Alter about thnte minutes,
I flung the door open, thrust my
hands onto my hips and told
them 1 knew my rights.
Attorneys are a strange breed.
They don't like being called
"sharks," or "ambulance
chasers." Try it and watch them
gel mad. They are also quite
defensive if you say that their
profession takes advantage of
people (kind of like journalists!)
Mom and pop used to work
together in the same law office. I
guess you could call it a "mom
and pop" operation. Working
there made for some interesting
times. Especially when my
mothers rich divorce clients
would turn up their snobby
noses at my pop's destitute
criminal clients.
Yep, mom helped break up
marriages anil pop helpixi soften
the jail sentences of crooks As
i ^
LiaSauiccia
you can probably tail, none of
this has made me the least bit
cynic til Working tit their office
niHili* me realize just how tit the
merry of lawyers people are It's
as if mother Justice made up her
own little language just so her lit
tle cuddly counselors could
always keep busy translating it
for everyone else.
One of the hardest things I hail
to deal with as h child was that
my pop's clients were sometimes
child molesters, murderers and
rapists (and even an occasional
flasher) One morning I woke up
to see him on the front page of the
newspaper next to his child
molester client. “Why do you
have to defend these people?” I
said in tears,
l'hat’s when he taught me one
of the most important lessons I
have ever learned. If you are in
law school, you will probably
learn it too. although it's so tmsit
I suspect that it's the easiest to
forget. "Lia." he said, "everybody
accused of a crime is innocent
until proven guilty. And every
one. even the guilty ones, have
the right to legal counsel.”
When he put it that way, I
could see that I had no busiturns
assuming somebody is guilty
without a fair trial. And in my
everyday life, 1 guess it has influ
enced me not to judge people
before hearing their stury In jour
nalism, that can make the differ
ence between a catty, misin
formed article and a realistic,
compassionate one.
I loved to watch Pop spellbind
a courtroom and make the
uptight prosecutor look dumb.
Having a divorce lawyer for a
mother can fa; a kick in the pants
as well. I don't know many oth
er people who joke about hand
ing out their business cards at
weddings
The most important thing she
taught me was that women could
do anything. The second most
important thing was that women
who Is'lieve they can !>e anything
(such as an attorney) get hassled
a lot She told me stories about
coming home from law school
and bursting in tears as soon as
she got in the door because she
didn't want all the men and the
one other woman in her class to
see her cry. She cried because in
those days, there weren't any sex
ual harassment laws and her pro
fessors thought nothing of asking
her opinion about whether
women who got raped deserved
it or not.
Yet if I wore to pick one skill,
just one, that is the singlumost
advantage to being raised by
lawyers it is this; Arguing skills
1 don't always use them, espe
cially if the argument is one not
worth fighting But if I’m in the
mood, or if I'm provoked, and
ESPECIALLY if I'm talking to
some jerk who thinks they are
smarter than the whole rest of
the world, and ESPECIALLY if
thiil jerk is WRONG, then watch
out I'll put them on the stand,
make them squirm, and relish in
it.
So if I think I am such hot
legal stuff, then why don't I go to
law school, you may ask. The
answer is this: I don't think I'm
hot stuff. Like most other
lawyers (and journalists), I just
pretend.
A career in the law just isn't for
me Although I believe in justice
and fairness, I couldn’t handle
watching people being thwart
ed from true Justice because of an
ill-working justice system 1
couldn't handle the disappoint
ments of losing someone’s case,
of not doing enough to help
someone.
Besides, if I worked for the
Law, l couldn’t break it as often.
Lia Suk iccia is a community
reporter for the Emerald.