VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS. OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Supreme Court should
interpret Constitution
■ OUR OPINION: Highest
court serves the nation
best by enforcing, not
making laws
As mentioned in this
space just two days ago, the
U S. Supremo Court began
its 1905-90 session on Mon
day. So what? H«nv incredi
bly boring. What could tei
even vaguely interesting
about nine people wearing
stuffy and uncomfortable
looking blat k robes, squirm
ing as they trv to sit still in
high-bar kod, hard, wooden
chairs and mumbling to
ea< h other in logalesn as
they wade through piles and
piles of boring legal papers
and documents?
In reality, this, the highest
court in tin* land, makes
decisions that affect our
everyday lives This elite
body of judges determines
the outcome of the laws we
live by today and the laws
we vvi 11 have to adhere to
tomorrow
As long as the Supreme
Court remains a neutral
entity that interprets the
Constitution rather than
making law, it will l>e doing
what it is supposed to do.
Something to watch this
court for will ire whether or
not the conservative justices
will once again stand
together in their voting.
Chief justice William Helm
quist heads the court's con
servative segment, made up
of justices Antonin Scalia
and Clarence Thomas In
several key cases during the
last session, conservative
victories, often won by a
single swing vote, were aid
ed by the usually moderate
votes of justices Anthony
Kennedy and Sandra Day
O'Connor
justices Stephen Hreyer.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John
i’iiul Stevens, and David
Souler make up the liberal
arm of the court
While some members of
the American Civil I.iiwrties
lInion Itelinve the court's
"moderate middle" experi
enced an all-out collapse
last year that forced justices
to align themselves with
either the left or the right,
others detect signs of a more
cooperative 191)5-96 session.
One such signal is the
court's definition of religion.
The ( ourt has done Amer
ican mm iety a huge favor in
its interpretation of religious
cases The court has begun
to make decisions from the
viewpoint of religion not
being so much a belief in a
supreme Iwing as much as it
is .1 matter of metaphysics,
i.e.. the right to debate and
address questions such as
Who are we, where are we
from, and where are we
going?
This new approac !i to an
old controversy allows new
individual freedom of
expression in the never-end
ing battle over religion. As it
now stands, the protection
of human conscience from
government coercion is
intact.
As long as the court con
tinues to discover new ways
of interpreting the Constitu
tion based on the review of
c asos already tested and
proven through the jurisdic
tion of lower court rulings,
U.S, citizens will continue
to enjoy the rights of life,
liberty and the pursuit of
happiness without gov
ernment intervention.
If tins high court begins to
legislate, something the sep
aration of powers tries to
prevent, we should all he
alarmed.
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‘Celebrating diversity’ should extend to all
Do you rnmt!mlH*f that little ditty by John
Mellencamp that went. "1 was Ixirn in n
small town, and I lived in a small
town"' Well, that's pretty much me:
Gilroy, California. Not that Gilroy was a had
plane to grow up, but once the childhood Joys of
now tipping and toilet-papering expired, it came
time for me to seek out new horizons, and I
found myself in our beloved Eugene.
Now, making my annual trek from Gilroy to
Eugene at each summer's close, a sense of
excitement enlivens me. I no longer have to lis
ten to the small ideas that seem to dominate my
small town
And what better way to oinhark on another
year of dwelling in the land of tolerant thinkers
than to take part in the festivities at the Eugene
Celebration ?
Yes. from dancing the rnambo to drinking the
micros, every kind of activity, affiliation and
attitude is act opted here Now throw in a little
Catholic hashing, and you've got diversity
Eugone-style
The defamation of St Mary 's Church during
the Eugene Celebration parade sadly indicates
that w hen it comes to so epting others, this
community still has a long way to go
The projudit e was expressed by a group
called the The Righteous Ku kies As an entry in
the annual parade, the 20 or so Ku kies masquer
aded through i it\ streets as flying nuns, t ari«,a
ttired monks anti pope-like clowns When the
"holy" entourage reached St. Mary's Church,
several of the Rickies ran onto the church steps,
lifted their cassocks and habits, and proceeded
to bow and prostrate themselves toward the
i hurt h s Interior. For their w itty display of
good-spirited fun, the Rickies were awarded set
ond runner-up and a $200 prize
The start ling aspect of this whole debut le is
that the response from those who adhere the
“Celebrate Diversity" sticker to their school
binders, work cubicles and curtained Volkswa
gen* lias been a concordant cry of, "What's the
big deal?”
Although it is disheartening to hear this ques
tion even being posed, allow me to answer it in
universal terms.
We all have convictions that are deeply per
sonal and are sometimes difficult to explain. But
we have them, and we know that without them,
we would Ih> missing something.
Many Catholics look to the pope as their spiri
tual leader It's not difficult to understand why
these people would be offended by having this
figure dressed as a clown. That is not to say that
OPINION
1AHU11 *11 [(I
Pope John Paul II and his decrees on such issues
as sexual orientation and female clergy are not
clown-like. Hut these issues should be
addressed in the arena of fair, public debate and
should not be held up to public mockery where
differing beliefs are debased.
Once the Rickies began genuflecting toward the
inside of St Mary's, the attack moved from taste
less spoof to bigoted defamation of a place of
worship. There is one place, and one place only,
to which Catholics genuflect: the tabernacle. For
Catholics, the tabernacle is the receptacle of the
holy Eucharist. which is believed to embody the
living presence of Christ Whether you find this
belief misguided, archaic or quaint is not the
issue. Tlie worship Catholics give to Christ is
their own and should be resins-ted, period.
However, at present. Catholics in Oregon are
being denied peaceful existence, let alone
respect Since lust month's parade. Catholic pus
tors have received anonymous, threatening
phone calls One week ago, a statue of The Vir
gin Marv was stolen from St Mary’s. Oist your,
roadside billboards were posted in Portland and
southern Oregon that associated the Catholic
Church with the "masterpiece of Satan's power.
But this is Eugene, not some podunk, close
minded. southern Oregon community. This is
the place where deviation from the norm is a
way of life We wouldn't lie caught dead tx-ing
confused with those fasc ists who dwell in the
state's countryside.
Why, then, must our community embrace the
history and bigotry of the rest of the state with
such complete and utter conformity?
As we embark on the inevitable religious
debates that appear so frequently on this page,
perhaps we should keep a few things in mind:
Rational dialogue is one thing, anti mean-spirit
ed attac ks are quite another; some Catholics
believe that structural change of church dogma
can occur from within, and some of us tan
revere the church and still recognize its faults.
We all should be comfortable enough in our
agnosticism, Judaism or Catholicism to allow
other beliefs to coexist with our own. However,
if that comfort level actually existed, wo would
be living in the community of celebrated diver
sity that s referred to in the rhetoric of so many,
yet embodied in the actions of so few.
Eeith Cunningham, a senior majoring in Eng
lish. is a columnist for the Emerald