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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1995)
EDITORIAL Legislators must work for citizens Th© Oregon Legislature is hack in session and legisla tors, vvi* hope. will gut bac k to work. Sessions of the' legislature have been getting longer ever)* biennium, but less work seems to be getting done. Citizens are being forced to do the jobs of elec ted legis lators by way of the ballot. Legislators haven’t been doing the job they were elect ed to do. Nineteen measures appeared on the Novem ber ballot. Unfortunately, many of these had to be voted on by Oregonians in an election because the Oregon Legislature failed in its mission to serve the needs of the state's <.iti zens. and Oregonians felt that they had to step in to do the fob. Some legislators, such u — The fan t that so many hilts have hern introduced may hr a step in the right dirn lion, hut it doesn't net rssari ly mean that legisla tars are doing thru jobs. n <*> iMju. rvtTVMJ miuuuAi t' Sali'in. hflv:> introdui • ■ • ! icnvtiv it. a number of tho bills. such as Mannix’s insem ination bill. have nothing to do with the needs of Orego nians today Oregon need" politicians who will stand up for education and work to strengthen the stale's econo my. The side issues, such as insemination, are irrelevant and only serve to distract legislators from their more important work !f legislators get down to business and work to solve actual problems that matter in this stale, it may help vent the frustration of citizens away from the now overused initiative proi ess. The more measures that make it to the ballot, the fewer tho number of voters who want to research and vote on them. The fact that so many hills have been introduced may be a step in the right direc tion, but it doesn't necessarily mean that legislators arts doing their jobs Oregonians ‘•houid ki'i'p Wat, hfid eye', on then legislators !<» make sure that they do the job that Oregonians elected them to do. Legislators are elec led to represent Oregonians While some on the fringes of politic al movements may have their own narrow agencies, the majority of Oregonians don’t believe that issues such as banning insemination is worthy of legislators' time There are much more urgent problems that must tec dealt with. However, the number of hills proposed in the legisla ture indicates one thing Oregonians want change now and won't stand for the status quo. This is demonstrated in part bv the Republicans taking control of both hous es of tho legislature this year. Business as usual just isn't good enough in Salem anymore. Legislators should heed the warning of citizens or else they will find themselves out of jobs and force citizens to use the Initiative process to do their jobs for them. Save citizens the trouble Legislators should do the job that they were elected to do. Oregon lholy po 80i ivc*m o*cco*«?«a) The frapon iV> f ^aemi »* pvtWwK) ikv*, Momtoy f <<lay dunny tt* tctsx* and I o**riay fif'd Th;,'*day l*m fcy |h« O*+Q0f\ 0* y Co ad ?N> Urw#r*diy of OnMon l Onapan tr«« l 1***3 ;%***!*» pfvxjerxtfy of !Tv# l>VvO< V?y w<fr> fi* 5ka4* XJO Ql th+ I ft Mo---l>¥oo and *& a cnownba* of »>** A**x><»!aid !**«*» tr>« < a property Tha «ntW-./ o» umt 0< pipftr* <» ptOMKXAM.** tty UMr Cdfto^4fv<CtiM Kafy Soto Managing I CHtor Editorial Editor Afl Editor f r««i«rK« I(SHOT u»vkJ ?Nom RotsNi Rmvm Mt" Poauay lu« Bvnmoaii) Editor Sport* Editor Sup$>t4Nn«nt» Editor MgM Editor HuteKCA Qvn MU* .♦ Tmt* CcAcMn Pohi*a A«*ocUtt« Editor*. > ■ •«**** * re*' Carp SfuOr** Govm^'m*--ArtS'Nm M*':«wr^ t dward*. 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I thought he might have started to "get it." Me gave a glimpse of what we might hear tonight when he spoke to the Democratic Nation al Committee on Saturday Regrettably, his analysis of why the election swung the way it did didn’t show that, however For instance, he said part of the reason the elm tion went the wav it did was there was just too much good news so it wouldn't get reported Yeah, it's amazing that too much good news could overturn forty years of history. Of course, as with every politician who loses, he had to say that the Democrats "didn’t get their message out I really knew Clinton didn't get it when I heard him start defending big government and pro* eed to say that the govern ment was indeed the answer to many of society’s problems Mr Clinton, if there was any message given las! November, it was. “Get government off my back." not. “Let me ride on its Inn k But Clinton will probably keep telling us that we want more government. Americans do want a govern ment that will fulfill the needed services it provides as outlined in the Constitution We want a military force that will prov ide for the necessary defense, A gov ernment that will protect such freedoms as speech. religion. the right to bear arms and the right to assembly But, for tntt most part, wo con tinually si«' Washington gutting in our way anti restricting our freedoms Here’s a good example A Wyoming legislature in the slate House, Roger Hut kfeldt, is com ing out against the Endangered Spat it-s Ai t in a hig way llu ts proposing legislation that would offer a bounty of SStKI on wolves that slrin from Yellowstone National Park lbs bill also has a provision requir ing the State of Wyoming to assist anyone who is charged with the violation of the Endan gered Species Act for killing a wolf. The wolf has been listed as an endangered specie* and is being reintroduced into the wild in some places such as Yellow stone. Hot kfeldt calls his bounty bill a “good neighbor law "If you had a mean dog, you're not allowed to let the mean dog loose," he said ' We're just let ting the federal government know, lie a good neighbor. Don't hft your dogs run loose,'" he said. You might say this is a big overreact ion just abide by the low and go on with life, you might suggest But the problem is that Wyoming is full of ranches and rant.hers Wolves threaten their livelihood Wolves can destroy their livestock and thus their wav of putting food on the table. They're not called "vicious killers'' lor nothing Tins is not unique to Wyoming either Idaho. Colorado and Mon tana have other proposals that react to the wolves' reintroduc tion to the wild in the same man ner. It just show s how the locals are getting upset at Washington get ting too big and powerful as the election landslide showed. Another example of govern ment's encroachment is Clin ton's own health cam proposal. With a problem of some Americans not having health care (atul not even that big of percentage lacking coverage). Hill and Hillary proposed a mas sive takeover of the American health ( are system This sector of our economy makes up a whopping one-seventh of our economy With employer man dates and health care alliances. Americans saw something they didn’t like — further encroach ments on their freedoms Washington was forced to react liven with a flip-flop on the issue (as Clinton loves to do) on full coverage and other pro visions. the Democrats could not scrape together a plan that would Ik? passed by a Democrat ically controlled Senate Public sentiment ran too strong against it. Yet we still hear the same old lines of more government is good On Saturday, Clinton told his Democrat friends that it was time to "stand up and do what is right" because it will eventually turn out "OK in the end Hut the majority of Americans know if ins definition of "right" is going to be bigger govern ment. it will never turn out fine be< iiuse we've seen how those policies fail So if tonight Clinton attempts to lay out his vision that includes smaller and less intru sive government, he will have a much easier time getting on the right sides of both the new Sen ate and House and the voters If he continues to show his liberal colors, lie'll only end up watch ing the election returns in the full of 1996 with a concession speech in hand. Brian Womack is a columnist for the Emerald. ■ LETTERS POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald will attempt to print all letters containing comments on topic s of interest to the University community. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or st vie
