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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1995)
Bowl tickets used to aid politicians Dragon's first trip to the Rose Bowl in 37 years was the perfect opportunity to showcase our state. Finally, people throughout the country can think about something other than Tonya Harding and Bob Packwood when they hear someone say "Oregon." With more than 200 million people watching the Rose Bowl game in the stands and on television, it's no wonder if ita ' lilt tried to capitalist on this opportunity to promote a great state. The Oregon iw onornic Development Department spent S22.000 of oublic dollars to send 12 employees to Pasadena. Their mission was to woo companies and business dollars to Oregon, The agency purchased 100 game tickets for SAB apiece with lottery dollars. While the task of attracting new business to Oregon is not easy and does require schmoozing, the manner in which this trip was organized and the vague way in which state officials answered questions regarding the trip was inappropriate. Oregon House Speaker Bev Clarno has a legitimate reason to question the expense. Like with any state government expenditure, public officials need to be accountable for their dollars. Although officials claimed they were working to pro mote Oregon while in Pasadena, it’s too easy to assume that they wore enjoying a free trip at the expense of tax payers. If this trip was a legitimate promotion of Oregon, the state should have no reason to hide it from its citizens. The purchase of the tickets was first publicized by an article in the Statesman Journal in Salem If investiga tive reporters hadn't discovered the expense, it would have gone uwnentloned. Citizens deserve to know how their money is spent, and what benefits result from their money. Did the state's schmoorors got any promises from companies or did the money just fund free games, nice hotel rooms and airfares? State officials must have already been negotiating with companies before the bid to the Rose Bowl. Just the fact that Oregon made it to the "Granddaddy of them all should have been enough publicity. Businesses obvi ously would recognize Oregon for that accomplishment, even if state officials didn't receive free tickets to the game. Peggy Eberle. communication manager for the Eco nomic Development Department, said state officials met with GO representatives from 25 companies. When added to the 12 employees sont to the game, that accounts for 72 of the 100 purchased tickets. What happened to the remaining 18 tickets, which are worth $864 of unac counted for state money? Rose Bowl tickets were a rare commodity. Many peo ple stayed home from the game because they didn't fall under the very narrow categories that qualified Oregoni ans for face-value tickets, it would be a shame to think that some of these tickets were used in an unjustified manner. 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Barbara Roberts did (and didn't) accomplish during her four years of aimless wan dering in Salem and throughout the Oregon countryside, her para mount moment tame on Jan. 8, 1995. at 11 59 p m What achievement could pos sibly surpass her extraordinary and intelligent choice not to seek reelection you ask? Although Roberts proclaimed Jan. 3 "1X111 Day" in honor of the football team's winning season, “Duck Day" is relegated to third place in the all-time Barbara Roberts Hall of Fame for the pur poses of this column No. it’s not the decision to ax her laughable and insidious “A Conversation with Oregon" cam paign that eventually led up to vet another sales tax proposal — a plan exponent mg almost instantaneous demise follow ing its public announcement And no, it's not the fact that with thti former governor out of office, so ends a 30-year liberal reign of terror perpetrated by the Roberts clan in various govern mental roles Rather. Roberts' exceptional decision to NOT commute the death sentences of nine out of the 17 death row inmates that seek clemency marks the pinnac le of her administrative career Among the model citizens beg ging for relief from Oregon's lethal needle was Dayton Leroy Rogers. a murderer w ho holds the dubious distinction as the dead liest serial killer in state histo ry. Rogers moved into the infa mous category after being convicted in 1987 of kilting six women in the Molalla forest mur der case. out), goal is ro poo. back THE £nT/££ NEW DEAL. I TAKING. US SACK TO A 7>mE Iia/*v£nI...lct j see._wa/£\/ was it? a ^ ■ OPINION Roberts sticks it to condemned prisoners Then there is Jeffrey R Williams, a man who heard voic es from God and decided to apply a psychotic twist to the "Wel come to Oregon" signs liordering our fair state Williams was sen tenced to die in 1989 for the murders of Unna Tuxen and Katherin Reith, two German stu dents who were hitchhiking up the Oregon Coast. Don’t forget Grant S. Ghar Itoneau. lie wants to exchangee his death sentence for life in prison after a conviction stemming from the torture and murder of a Port land transient woman in 1993. The reason for the accolades here is that 1 had a deliciously rabid column watting in the wings in the event the former governor failed to put aside her personal beliefs and follow the mandates of voters, judges and juries Way to go Barbara! Although she did pardon three women before leaving office, none of them sat on death row. and the circumstanc es of two women didn't involve mur der. Huberts has repeatedly gone on the record as “personally and adamantly opposed to the death penalty." But during her 1990 campaign for governor, she said that while opposing society's ultimate sanction, she would nonetheless follow the will of voters and the law The death penalty was abol ished in 1904 and reinstated in 1984 by voters, by a 3-to-l ratio New Governor John Kitzhaber is likewise opposed to the death penalty. He told the Emerald editorial hoard in November that he wouldn't let his personal beliefs interfere with the will of voters We'll see Groups, such as the Oregon Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, incessantly lobbied Rolierts to commute the death sentences as the final act before leaving office Mark Kramer, a spokesman for the coalition, whined to The Associated Press because Roberts didn't “follow the enlightened lead" of the outgo ing governors of New Mexico and Ohio. Both granted clemen cy to murderers before slinking out the back doors of their respective capitols. The electorate decided some people simply didn’t deserve to live after perpetrating heinous crimes against fellow humans, namely those who tend to kill their fellow men and women Forget all the hooey about the death penalty acting as any kind of deterrent for criminals. If the freaks on death row gave a damn about penalties, they wouldn't be in their present situations. The death penalty is about justice and society’s ultimate punishment against those who destroy that which we hold most dear — life, including the lives of family and friends The last sentence likely presents a contradiction, a possible flaw in logic for those opposed to the death penalty How could one say that life is the most precious thing we have, and then ail as a proponent for state-sanctioned killing? Easily. The majority of murderers don’t possess that little moral taskmaster called a conscience The number of those on death row feel remorse only because they were caught, convicted and sentenced To warehouse these animals for their natural lives is a waste of taxes, as the opportu nity for rehabilitation is nil. Thu death penalty is also about punishment. It’s simply too bad the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment of criminals, in the ideal world, the state would use the same cruel and violent means to destroy killers as the killers themselves applied to their vic tims. Hut that would bo uncivilized And we live in a domesticated, civilized society. Just look at the model citizens on Oregon's death row foe Harwood is a columnist for the Emerald
