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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1994)
EDITORIAL r Abortion protesters must honor privacy Abortion protestors in Portland crossed unforgivable lines Saturday when they picketed the home of a researcher who Is helping test the abortion drug Kt ' 480 The hour-long demonstration, which was the first in the "No Place to Hide" campaign, was organized bv Advocates for Life Ministries in Portland. imposing somebody's h<<mn is far safer than exposing somebody's home in the womb, the safest home some body ever had,” said protest organizer Dawn M. Stover. Although protesting in front of someone’s home is not as newsworthy as snooting an abortion doctor, the actions taken fry these intrusive protesters must not be Ignored. Protests that invade one’s personal spare are malic iotis and do nothing but provoke more animosity on both sides Saturday s demonstration was a definite violation of private v for Dr, Mark D. Nichols, an assistant professor at Oregon Health Sciences University, who is organizing one of the c liniral trials of HU 4K(». What may seem like ,i harmless demonstration to some is a physical and psy chological threat to Dr Nichols, his family and his neighbors. The protest exposes his neighborhood and his family to the public, making his home a vulnerable tar get for future demonstrations. And the next protest may not bo so civil, especially considering the outbreak of violence against abortion clinics and doctors this year. Protesters on Saturday forgot to notice the signific ant division between Dr Nichols’ personal and professional life llis personal life may not lx* entirely reflective of his professional choices Just (x'cause he's working to test the abortion drug doesn’t mean that his wife or his daughter will run and get abortions if they become < mint. No one knows his reasons for supporting RU-486. His family shouldn't he labeled with views they haven’t expressed and they should not suffer for his career choice, They shouldn't have to 1m» afraid of what might happen in their own home. Privacy invasion is a serious crime and violators should be punished. Intrusion can lead to devastating emotional scars to those affected. Anyone can be trau matizod when their “safety zone” is interrupted. Dr. Nichols’ family must now fear any physical harm that could bo inflicted by abortion protesters. Continuous news reports of dead abortion doctors and abortion clin ic raids will do little to ease their fears. If abortion protesters feel so strongly about the drug, they should picket at Dr. Nichols' place of work. A ral ly at the hospital. If done peacefully, would be more effective and bettor received than a trip to a private res idence. Separate one’s professional life from his or her personal life. Like everyone elso in the nation, abortion protesters have a right to express their opinions. 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Oayton t«w Hawroom 34A-S511 0»*play Advc#b*/ng 346 3712 Bu*in#*a Ottic* 346-6512 Ct«*»iRad Adv#rt»*wvg 346-4343 PONT0IAMC i ***** ■ COMMENTARY Technology a two-sided sword Julian Beard Wait a minute This doesn't compute. In a speech to the fac* ultv, University President Dave Fruhnroayer stresses the impor tance of teaching students to think i Min alh Meanwhile, the University administration engages m a mockery of critical thinking. What am 1 talking about? The $f>0 ten hnoiogy resource fee that we oil had to pay this term. I talked to a lot of students about this at the liegtnning of the term Most had only a vague, peevish recollection of having had to pay "some fee." and many did not remember having paid the fee at ail Hut this is understandable. Tile administration hardly went out of its way to inform us or invite student input on the sub ject I see this as a case of glaring ai ademii hypocrisy The same people who claim to fie purvey ors of critical thinking (Univer sity administration) are now decreeing that we students pay another $t50 a year for high technology without asking us what we tlunk about it We're not supposed to think We re supposed to pay our fee and shut up. And that's just what we did We paid $‘100.000 This is being matched by "outside sources." which means the Uni versity will be spending about $5 4 million a year on comput ers. So far the thing has been hawked on us as if free comput er use and E-mail and such were the whole issue Sure, those things are very handy But they don't cost any $!i 4 million a year So what's really going on here? A whole different hall game, baby, and it's being played behind dosed doors in private meetings We're talking about a sweep ing rwstrui taring of the way this University functions, and the wav our society functions, tiased on a huge new system of com puters arid networks — the "tedinologn al web.*' Supposed ly this will, if we buy into it. make our lives easier, more effi cient and let us got information faster Groat The fact that it could also follow the historical precedent set by similarly pre sented technologies and end in disaster does not disturb our placid consumerism. Hut it should We have a his tory of not asking the right ques tions atKiut its hnoiogy until it's too late, and the consequences have been devastating. Thanks to our technological "progress," we're facing for the first time the potential collapse of our planet's life support systems. Clearly, given the failure of past tech nologies, and the mess they've gotten us into, it would behoove us to take a hard look at the new ones we're about to commit to. No such hard look is being taken at computer technology. There has been practically no debate on the subject The infor mation we tend to hear about the effects of computer technol ogy t omes from the people who produce it and is therefore pro paganda It is not surprising when the general public: is swayed by such partisan, one-sided infor mation Hut the alacrity with which our highly educated com munity has started every morsel of propaganda furnished by the high-let hnoiogy industries is truly disgusting People like to think that com puters are a benign lei hnoiogy that can’t he compared with “dirty" technologies (cars and nuc lear reactors) Think again. The fact is, computer technol ogy. like the technologies (adore it, has the potential to screw up our lives in a big way. and we’d better start looking before wo leap Here are some of the potential problems of computers • Health Computers create health hazards from the day they're bom In the production of computers, according to Ted Smith of the Silicon Valley Coalition. “Workers and the gen eral population are being exposed to the most deadly chemicals that have ever been synthesized Accordingly, the computer industry has an inci dence of occupational illness more than three times that of the average manufacturing industry In "use. i omputer monitors generate a wide range of electro magnetic radiation, which among pregnant women has been related to birth defects, misi arriages and infant death Use of computers has also been related to stress, fatigue, migraines and cataracts. And there are growing suspicions in the medical community that there may be far worse effects that we haven't vet realized. • Economic. Computers are essential for the functioning of the huge multinational corpora tions we complain so much about. These corporations, in their pursuit of profit, wreak havoc on the environment and also on small-scale economies In this way, computers con tribute to the increasing polar ization of wealth Of course, computers are handy for small businesses, too. • Social. Computers have already caused a decline in meaningful social interaction, and it's going to get worse In one particularly disgusting example, many universities teach classes by computer, where students stay home ami get a lecture via modem. Are we insane? Is this what we call education? Excuse me for being old-fashioned, but I say education is one part informa tion and two parts inspiration Inspiration happens when stu dents interact with faculty as human beings. To teach a class by computer is to deprive both teacher and student of the most valuable part of the education process People say, “You can't stop progress " This is just a cop-out rationalization for passivity It’s our progress, and we can #*!% well stop it if we decide we have to. If we hope to leave our, grandchildren an inhabitable| planet, we’d better start making those kinds of decisions. If we i don't, we are resigning ourselves ! to whatever happens. Ami we've ' got no right to pretend that we're critical thinkers. lulian Beard is on English major.
