VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Juvenile prisons won’t
solve state’s problems
■ OUR OPINION: Blame for
t€ien crime belongs to
Oregon voters, parents
and neighbors
Kids art* out of control in
Oregon, and the state has
dec ided to spend S24 mil
lion to rectify the problem
hv building prisons.
As laudable as the idea of
locking up teen offenders is.
it will not solve the prob
lem. No matter how many
prisons we build in this
country, they keep filling
up. More prisons are a quit k
fix to a complex problem
that cannot Ik* solved by
"tough" laws.
What is most infuriating,
however, is that while
politicians will agree that
the rise- in )menile crime
points to a larger soc ial
problem, no one in Salem or
i).C seems willing to take
on the issue. That’s because
the rise in juvenile* crime is
not the fault of politic ians.
Oregon's teens nor spending
any money on them until
they break the law And vir
tuoily all of that responsibil
ity must lie laid at the foot of
ordinary people.
We talk about rebuilding
communities and spending
"quality time" with Ameri
cas youth We wring our
hands about the desperate
stale of the Americ an family
and the break down in fami
ly values Meanwhile, every
one stands around waiting
for someone to do some
thing. Someone does. The
criminal justice system has
become the nation's babysit
ter. and it’s almost as expen
sive as a c oliege education
livery day on the talk
show circuit, somebody
stands up and says. What
about the children'’'' ( ire.u
question.
It's vo easy to he self
righteous iilxuit that sort cW
thing Hut how many of us
know the children in our
neighborhoods or their par
ents How many parents go
to parent-teat her confer
ences or ITA meetings?
How many people c an*
about who the boy next
door is before his photo is
on the front page of the
morning paper for robbing
the 7-Kloven? We shake our
heads and say, "What went
wrong?"
And we blame the econo
my, and we blame racism,
and we blame television
violenc e, and we blame
drugs, and we blame the
schools, and we blame
Republic ans and Democrats
and all of that is true Hut
in the end. we have to
det ide how long we will
continue to ignore our own
shortcomings.
1 )o we want to make
ex; uses, or do we want to
make a different o?
It 's ours.
ll may t»«* mere coinci
dent c. but the riso in ()re
gun's juvenile crime rale
(m i urrod at the same time
the now infamous Measure
5 t ut property-tax funding
for public schools. The vot
ers. not the bureaucrats,
made that decision.
Kalhor than streamlining
statu government, it elimi
nated school arts programs,
extra-curricular sports or
orei.ted financial harriers lor
participation Main -.In
dents now find themselves
after school. In an empty
house, with no productive
channel for their energies.
They have video games,
M I V, and “hanging out
At the very least, it means
that no one not the par
ents, not the neighbors, not
the si hool. not the govern
ment is looking out for
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THE MESSAGE TVOAV /J,
TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
PoR VouRSELF GET A JOB,
WORK HARD AND THEN...
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Farrakhan focus misdirects debate
t was quite (i sigh! Boys being held by their
lathers, uncles and grandfathers Listening,
embracing, hoping for answers All the
-A. while gathering under a < ountrv s flag that
had let them down many times The flag, per
haps a hit faded and tattered from enduring gen
erations of shattered dreams, seemed to promise
that this would finally lx* the day of c hange
They were told to put down their guns and
pi< k up tlmir babies They listened They were
asked to be witnesses to the sea of tranquility
that they were i mating. They obliged They said
that their march would be misunderstood by
many. They were right.
The focus on Louis Fnrrakhan as the icon of
last week's Million Man March, n gathering that
vve now know was the largest demonstration in
ly thirsty.
America's choice to sec th*» march through the
Karrakhan lens indicates just how much ner
vous, w hite egos need calming. The march gave
all people the opportunity to address the pathol
ogy of racism that is the infer lion of our nation
al being By choosing to focus our anger on Far
rakhan, rather than our energy on the issues
being raised, we wrapped one another in a con
formed blanket of opposition against the Nation
of Islam's lender, while we blinded ourselves to
I ho cancer.
The message preached by Farrakhan, as well
os the marchers, was that black communities
must coalesce if letter lives are to l>e achieved
for oil Is it so difficult to recognize that this
message is larger than one man' Why must we
remain fixated on a demagogue, when there is
so much work to be done?
We re told that the hint k unemployment rate
is twice the rate of whites and poverty rates are
three times as high for blacks as for whites.
Young African-American men are more likely to
he ill prison than in ( ollege, and one of every
three is either behind bars or on parole.
1 hi-, st.uk re,i!it\ is i ert,iinly i a use for white
egos to Ixtcome nervous Hut what should Ihi the
response to this nervousness? Do we address the
problems of racial discord and our responsibili
ty in eradicating them, or do we bury our head
in the sand with misdirected debate?
Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison, in
her book Flaying in the Dark, refers to "the
impact of racism on those who perpetuate it It
seems both poignant and striking how avoided
and ummalyzed is the effect of racist infection
on the subject ' It is time for white Americans to
honestly look at their views on race and try to
understand why blame and denial so often moti
vate rac ial dialogue in this country.
On Monday. Oct. tft, a multitude of
African-American souls heard the call to take
the initiative in rebuilding their families and
communities The time for counting on white
support was over Today, blai k America strug
gles alone for well-being, survival and existence.
Meanwhile, the rest of us pat ourselves on the
back for opposing Farrakhan.
I never knew white drums could be so deafen
ing
diet able as it is saddening If
you haven't read the coverage
of the event yet. don't worry
You can still get plenty of the
repetitive, Louis-Farrakhan-is
evil cominentanes that are
being mass-produced by our
notion's most original thinkers
They all go something like this
That Units t'armkhan is
OPINION
something terrible, mi / Zip'
Hates whiles. Hates jews Hates Catholics Hates
gays Hates everybody hat those weird, militant
limking guys with the how ties that always stand
behind him They're even scarier
Then he says all those strange things hke
when he was on Larry King's show last week,
talking about Colin Powell being president, he
said. "It i alms the nervous, white ego." There he
goes again talking in that absurd, coded lan
guage that nobody gets
He could learn a lot from Cohn That's the
gay African Americans should he supporting.
A person who served lus country' and didn ‘t ask
ton many unnecessary questions An honorable
African American who learned to stop whining
and start achieving
ncu ism. rat ism. racism i non i snow if i.onn
has ever used that word I know President Clin
ton and Senator Dole don 't They both spent the
day far away from those ~marching“ throngs
Ishouldn't they he at work?) boldly taking a
stand and denouncing Farrakhan for all of his
evil And with all this grumbling that has come
from the O I and Million Man staff about blacks
don't have this and blacks don't hare that, it’s
nice to know we're all staying focused on what's
important Farrakhan.
The pundits constantly tell me that Louis Far
rakhan is a hate-monger. All right, now that
we've cleared up that complicated debate,
where are we? We are left lie re standing, empty
as before, without having engaged in the racial
dialogue for which this country is so desperate
Keith Cunningham, a senior majoring in English,
i> a columnist for the Emerald
WHAT DO YOU THINK’
The Oregon Da ly Emerald welcomes your opm
ions on this and other issues You may submit a
letter no longer than 250 words to the Emerald
ottices at Suite 300 in the EMU or send us your
thoughts via e-mail at odet^oregon uoregon edu