EDITORIAL
r
Simpson coverage
lacks news value
Avoiding the O.J. fiasco has been the law in Emerald
country this year Without exception wo have banned
stories about “the trial of the century." On occasion
one has slipped in without the knowledge or approval
of the editor, but for the most part the Emerald has
gono without the Juice.
Now that things are moving along at a pace just a tad
bit faster than a snail's we think the time has finally
como for us to confront the mockery of justice this trial
has become.
Actually, we don’t want to editorialize on O.J. *s guilt
or innocence, because we ere among the few people
left on Earth who still believe the courts should decide
that one We would like to talk about some quirks
things that are allowing this trial to compete with the
president’s State of the Union Address for ratings.
From all outward appearances everything about this
trial has news value. The press is reporting on every
thing from Marcia Clark’s change in hairstyle to the
now IBM computer on Judge I-a nee Ito’s desk. They are
even reporting about other reporters. There are so
matt) satellite true ks outside the counhouse that if you
threw a raw chicken up in the air it would In* cooked
before it hits the ground.
people touring Beverly Hills are making o I'« man
sion and Nicole Brown Simpson's townhouse a tourist
attraction Everyone who ever mot the counlt^is writing
a book about his or her experiences w 11h them. Ami all
of them are gaining instant celebrity for it Even O.J.’s
neighbor’s cleaning lady is getting in on the action, it 4s
like those people on Oprah who say "1 knew (insert
mass murderer’s name here) when he was young lie
bought M*Ms and I put it together, You know: M&M.
mass murderer."
And what's up with the defense? If we were paying
those legal bills wo would at least insist that they play
nice with each other. W« know a few two-year-olds
who act more i iviliz.ed toward each other than F Law
Bailey and Robert Shapiro.
What w>e can’t seem to Figure out is why this is sliii
garnering so damn much of the public’s attention Is
there actually someone, besides O.J. and Nicole Brown
Simpson's friends and relatives, who reads every darn
one these articles? Will watching this trial make us bet
tor people? The answer to both of these questions is
probably no.
But it doos give us a release from our daily grind.
And that is what this trial has become, a fantasy, arid
escape. What no one seems to grasp is that this is not a
football game. O.J. is not going to emerge from this a
hero regardless of the verdict. And neither will we as a
society remain unscathed.
Even in earnest jest wo are harming ourselves by
making jokes about this or by ignoring the real societal
issues that this case seems to be bringing up
Oregon Daily
»Q non fcvX**»*
Thtt (Wpon fWy l <s put*ah«rf Mc*>d*y ttvo«ugt> f radfey tt* *****
y#*' ttMMMftty *n-d Thu»«Jay ng lb-* Hamnett by tb« Oftdy EmfriM)
KjCAtfeng Co , Inc at V>wo«vT, ©4 Oregon f ugtsr*. Otsgcn
f h# f tfvaapftr*)enfty o» rUfw»»Vty at, 300 a*
l‘*t> IMon *r*3 .•« a me.-gsu o* Aa#ot**t*d
Th* fimritf «* pr*mtoa property TTve <a*>L*w*<* tgmovil Of uM of pAper* i* pffMHKUMMl
by imm
CdttOf tn Ch** Kiy Sa*o
wwraytou Conor
Editorial Editor
Maw* Art Editor
Eraalanca Editor
ftefcfcMB f Vmv*»
Ml*
tort Baft*'***’
mcaff of
Spom E dSUx
SupptomOTt* EdMOf
Night f dttof
Meo*cc« Mown
Om twMz
Tn*U» to*
Awovton* C
Aaaoctata cdnom * * -t+*ai<ch van Carp. .Vi***"* uc*amm*n4 Act***** MUr- ««*•■>* |Owm<a*
Co»»«wn^ T <<!*«> SrrKtr-, h+ghe* £AettanfAdmtnmttwbon
N«wr* Staff Sjon-o Aafeury Amy CoM«t», Pat Oafe. Amy l D*v*npOrt ?a»*a t cfwrvMftt*
J>«mo Fontana. G*y*« Fo*m*n, C*vi««apn*r f o*. Man Gabion. Gary Grata, Jo* Manaood.
A»*» M«nry Tf*vc* K*arn+y Shannon Kadoft Adam KwJar So/ann* Marta. Mar* M: Tyr»
fl®*! Moatku*. Haian* Mcv^gomary Anna Mp* ar-KomlaM Goftaan PoWig. Shwr-j Ba.-n«ry
*«*• Sabaw«*v Paul Van Sc***. Hdafu TomaoMk A** Waaa liruv' Womack
Oanaral Manager Judy fW*
Adverting D»»eclor Mar* AjAw Production Manage M*-*** Ho#*
MwWnfl; Anne Amador. Amta Borgae*. Marco Oar*^ | l nr» Marahar. Ncoaa
Mar /m*?* J««my UMon Jaif' Uk'f»( To - M Ka««y Wo*cp»
Ctaaafffad flacky *»« hja-M. A4*-vv*r Ky%* Oar*. Jo* $*«en
D4»trttXitM>n: John Long, Faranc Hafcocti. Fbgmt ^SMpmA
Bu**rv#»» KaShy Cartoon* StaMrvipicv Judy Conno*>
Production (V'*a «A'C.f<fr l>',xk*:Uy' yxi*'.%f,- v-aw.i At*** ?*r* Ga^-t-Mry Brad
Joaa. Jaw*H»» Hoiawt Clayton Y**
itowvoom
Buko«m Offk.9
546-5511
346 5512
Atfvutn.ng M6-3712
ClMliHW A(N«r«»Wvg MAU<3
(AUPO»NiA
<u(?vrvt0
FIW$
(AUPOBNiA
fjffViVtD
OUFCWNXA
$URV!VCO
FLOODS
SO LON6,
CAllPCRNlA
■ OPINION
Single mothers attacked, vilified
Kvery generation is plagued
with social problems From
det ade to dor ado. certain prob
lems explode, larger than life,
and i apture the national atten
tion, only to be upstaged by
another "new" s<x tat dilemma
The nature of these problems
remains relatively the same
What changes from year to year
is the scapegoat: It's because of
the illegal immigrants, it's
because of women's lib, it's
because of the Irish, it's because
of the Jews
The newest national scape
goat is a surprising one to find
on the receiving end of the
wrath of many a politician,
preacher and American < itizen.
The war is on against the sin
gle mother Crime, poverty, illit
eracy. drugs, unemployment It's
all the single mother's fault The
single mom, sucking up the wel
fare, is single-handedly respon
sible for destroying American
family values. She is sending
this country into a spiral of
shame
Whether this idea has been
perpetuated by media, politi
cians or public sentiment, the
new right political movement
(and plenty of those off it tally
not on the right) is targeting the
single welfare mother for leg
islative punishment
Newt Gingrich seeks to cut off
aid to poor single mothers and
put their kids in orphanages In
Oregon, Hep Kevin Mannix, l>
Salem, smelling the nation’s
thirst for single mother blood,
has proposed a preposterous bill
to the Oregon Legislature that
would deny single women the
right to he artificially inseminat
ed
l doubt either of these mis
guided plans will ever make it to
fruition, hut the politicians ore
showboating to the public;
showing them that they mean
business in this new war on the
enemy of family values, and the
public agrees Punish the single
mother —- both socially and
tinaiu ia 11\ to hull her solo
reproduction.
Single motherhood — when
you're talking about the 15-year
old girl in the ghetto or in some
small rural town working on her
second child — is an enormous
problem It puts the life of both
(ixm Fokmw ^
parent and child in jeopardy. It's
probable that neither will
r»« eive a good education or get a
decent, well-paying job, which
in turn makes both of them like
ly candidates for government
aide, or in the worst case-sce
nario. a grizzly government sta
tistic
And certainly something
needs to he done But nothing
will work until we realize that
single motherhood is one symp
tom of a lot of huge problems:
lack of edu<ation. poverty, insti
tutionalized racism and self
esteem.
While politic wins are racing to
penalize single morns for lean
ing on the welfare system, no
one is looking at the reasons
why 14-year-olds are having
kids, and why many of these
young mothers and their kids
become public assistant-addicts.
The young welfare mom lives
in poverty She prolrably hasn't
finished school, and now that
she has a child, she probably
never will, as there aren't too
many programs that allow her
to take her kid to school, and
she certainly can’t afford day
c are. Her child grows up in
poverty and falls into the same
cycle.
Maybe if at school, this 15
year-old mother had learned
almut birth-control, or had been
offered free birth-control and
easy access to it. she never
would have got pregnant Few
impoverished teenagers get
pregnant on purpose*
But politicians, while trying
to eliminate young, single moth
ers. are shooting themselves in
the foot by blocking birth con
trol education and distribution
in middle and high schools.
And teenagers continue to get
themselves pregnant
Some young women have
babies so that they can have
something to love, someone who
will love them bark.. It's a
pathetic reason to have a child,
but not nearly as pathetic ns the
state of the self-esteems of these
young women who have n babj
because they have nothing else
to do with their lives
We have to look at the reasons
why in our society, when a 15
voar-old hoy dreams about his
future, he dreams of playing bas
ketball or !>eing a pilot or a cop.
hut when his female counterpart
dreams of her future, she can’t
see past her birth canal.
It’s very easy to vilify these
young women To think that
they are having more kids just to
collect more benefits. Anyone
who thinks that has never spent
a day with a baby — chasing,
fussing, feeding and worrying.
It's easier to blame these people,
who at the lowest rung of the
political ladder have little
means to fight back than it is to
try to fix the real problems at the
root of society's ills
The government will continue
to bully single moms, and try to
legislate the lives and bodies of
all women. Single moms will
continue to receive the blame,
though last time I checked, it
takes an egg and a sperm to
make a baby Hut the enemy is
Single Mother, not Absent
Father.
1 haven't heard much out of
any politician's mouth about the
problem of Absent Dads, the
missing half to the single parent
equations The deadbeat-dad
legislation targets fathers who
are legal custodians of their chil
dren.
And I'm pretty sure missing
fathers will never be a part of
this equation, nor will they be
taking the blame for the death of
family values
Plenty of people in Congress,
and elsewhere in this country,
are perfectly happy to have a
reason to castigate women. All
those people, who were
opposed to that lOfiOs. counter
culture thing called women's
lib. are now getting some
revenge.
Today's scapegoat is the sin
gle mom Tomorrow's scapegoat
may lie the liberated woman.
Gayle Forman is a columnist for
the Emerald.