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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EOITOR Teen-crime commercials create inaccurate picture ■ OUR OPINION: Racial depictions of "criminals don't reflect the reality liver since voters approved a "tough" juve nile-crime bill last Novem ber, teen-age crime in Lane County appears to be on the rise. Two Willamette High stu dents were arrested for shooting Aaron Hurra in .Ins garage, and a student at Thurston High shot another student while sitting at a stop light. One student stabbed another in a high school hallway: throe teenagers robbed a SKI XX) credit union; two boys start ed a fire at Springfield High School, and last week two teen-agers were charged with an arson fire at Willamette High Si bool. At least here, the threat of being tried as an adult for these (.rimes hasn't proven itself to be an effective deterrent. Apparently to lumimn iiuiiii' wit? nuissagr. th<‘ state has txH'ii running a s«?ri**s of tough-on-juvonile ( rime commercials aimed at m aring Oregon's youth out of killing their classmates and burning down their alma maters. So why isn’t it working? Well, perhaps the commer cials are speaking to the wrong audience. The 30-second spots fea ture an authoritarian, white male police officer inform ing teenagers of the punish ment that will be meted out to them should they choose to break the law. In between the visuals of the officer, however, young men stand in jail cells as the doors slam shut with an incarcer ating clang The shots of these young men paint a disturbing picture. Almost all of these "trim! mils" am African-American or Hispanic Thus, not only am th«* ads inherently rat is!, but they are also Inaccurate. All of th»* teen-agers who have made Eugene head lines with their alleged crimes in the past year have been white. All of them. What is most upsetting, however, is how not shock ing the commercials are. News media Images of African-Aroerit an men fre quently portray them as drug selling gang bangers or imprisoned criminals Wo have become so comfortable with these images, that see ing voting, black men behind bars seems common place; it reflects what we have ( ome to know as reali ty. Meanwhile. Eugene laments its rise in gang activity and white residents stay on the lookout for biar k gang members hanging out in their neighborhoods. But tin* state's scare-tac tii s don't reflei t the truth; they on I y fuel racial stereo types. Tougher crime laws, in and of themselves, do little to prevent teen agers from committing crimes. If Orego nians want to curb the in< least* in teen-age vio lence, they must begin to look at the causes of antiso i ml behavior in young peo ple. Feeling unloved and Ignored at home while being educated in a school system that erects financial barriers to extracurricular activities will take its toll. Oregonians need to look toward preven tion rather than reaction. And white Oregonians might start by taking a clos er look at their children’s lives. Tf* ittpon OUV I '’*»**J 4 t****N*3 IfcwiH fr*»cwflf* «'**»? 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CRIME LEGISLATION UHE...PQ Mtn 5»v# 11 "Mf 9 S£Mh\yn?Me<jic Marching band plays amid undue apathy While many football fan* ge< up to grab a pretzel and a soda at half time. the Oregon Man lung Band gratis its instruments and heads for the football field The Fighting Lhu ks of football are not the only team to tiegin an enduring season of rises and falls on 1(H) yards of Autzen AstroTurf. Kvery fall the hand also prepares for the sorne titries-long footliall season I was a memlier of the band for four years My membership included trips to the "Toilet Bowl" (Oregon State in Corvallis) and — the pinnacle of rnv band tenure — the Rose Bowl in lanuary 1995 After spending that much time entertaining fans. 1 had this odd notion that the hand's field shows and grandstand tunes were appreciated by the fans But I have served my time, and now. with rny student tickets, I see the games from a fan's per spective I have realized the hand is recognized and appreciated by some But the majority of the fans don't know what the band is. how mut h time the bend spends in rehearsal or how hard the liand members work Being in the liand, the biggest student organi zation on campus, was one of the liest things I've done at the University I met anil quickly became friends with many different people. I was able to attend all the home games, and I had a pretty good seat between the 30- and 40-yard lines. We went to (.ill-Berkeley and to Washington State, and to Pasadena for the illustrious Rose Bowl We even played at a Ducks game in Husky stadium, w ith a side trip to a Seattle Sea hawks halftime show. We marched in the pouring rain from morning until late afternoon at Oregon State. Autzen sta dium and multiple exhibition shows We were drenched like everybody else, hut we also prat - ticod in the rain, endured the cold and wind and fell in the mud During my first two years of this "fun," the band practiced on the hammer-throw field, near Hayward Field. That's hammer throw — as in divots and mud holes larger than the pies you made as a kid After about 5 p in., we had to rehearse in the dark Ikm ause the field had no lighting — hence, rain-soaked clothes and mud covered shoes. And our instruments were none too-happy about the moisture During my last two years, we moved up to the library field Granted, the lighting was bet ter, but we had to deal with complaints from people who said they were unable to study in the library because of the music Who should be studying at 4 in (fit* afternoon on a Friday?! •'so if it wasn't one problem, it was another. Hut despite numb fingers and blistered lips, the band still practiced without (too much) com plaining. and tin- results were great shows seen at Saturday football games. We sacrificed a groat deal of our time to pre pare for the shows, and some fans showed their flunks. While in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl, we played at several New Year's Eve alumni gigs. These people appreciated us so much that we extended our playing time to make them happy. In doing that, we missed our opportunity to ring in the New Year out of uniform. But the band does its best to keep the fans happy oven for those who don’t stick around for the halftime shows or who haven't quite made it into the stands before the game starts Sitting in the student section, I notice several paying "customers" leaving at halftime and sev eral students staying In the past, however, the band has usually played only one game facing the student sections. Yet. very few students join in the cheer when the hand plays a grandstand tune, and even fewer seem to know what is going oil around them. At the University vs Pacific game (Oct. 7). i realized 1 was practically the only student in my section who cheered 1 don't know whether that was because 1 had been in the band and knew the cheers, or because none of die other students cared to show their enthusiasm and support for our Ducks. I tii cotthismi. How » <m an yon t* rofusw to par* lake in the shout for a touchdown, with “Stick It In?" Especially when we've been able to do it a lot more in the past two years And who els** hut a 200-person band is better at starting "The Wave" in a packed stadium? So ye< w»* build enthusiasm and we ( mate support for our team. In different ways (musical ly vs athletically) we work just as hard, and we art* just as talented. Yet we're still trying to achieve the same enthusiasm and support The football team is gaining a lot of attention this week for Homecoming Hut amid the noise, the band members will be around also They don't get a bear hug when they score a touch down or a pat on the butt when they make a tackle. But the band could use an occasional j«tt on the bat k And from where I sit. they certainly deserve it. Kim Weiss is the associate entertainment editor for the Emerald
