VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
America casts its vote
for change... yet again
■ OUR OPINION: A . i
for q , • k ';<• )iu! ■ )• ’. e < '•
gridlock to the Congr<-r.s
(lhain (Ji.un (ihain
(Change of fools
Americans just can't seem
lo got enough change in fed
eral government.
Three years ago the elec
toral majority elo< ted Bill
Clinton on his platform of a
new vision for this country.
We voted for, among other
things, an end to the grid
lock between the legislative
and executive branches.
But. we got tired of that
(not enough change) and
elected a Republican majori
ty to tin* Mouse anti Senate
two years ago. Republicans,
who one year before had
been the bastions of status
quo politii s. !«•( ame the
harbingers of a new spring
for America
Right.
SiQ( e i hristening the (ion
tract with Amori) a revolu
tion. the Republicans have
been preparing and pushing
their baiant ed-budget pro
posals through both houses.
Last week the House and
Senate approved the COP
budget, and Newt, et al.
stood and applauded their
efforts Of course. Clinton
has said he plans to veto the
pat kagf*.
Welcome hack to gridlot k
Americans are politic ally
restless. Our attention span
for long-term reform is equal
to our willingness to wait
through cummen ials
between sitcoms Real polit
ic al work is boring and
lengthy. Rather than waiting
to see if programs sue h a
health-c are reform and
Americorps will have an
effec t. Americ ans voted for
instant gratification.
And what we are left
CAMPUS COLOR LINES
VWiar 0 you tt'.f'* about
race fetation* on campus’’
Pteasa submit youf lettef to
the Cmefatd offices at Su««
TOO h ( MU Of send us
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ode@o»egon uotegon edu
l t*tte»* on this issue will be
published Nov 6
with, is a mirror image of
tin? nation’s budget prob
lems under the Hush admin
istration - illuminating for
us, ont it again, what we hate
about American politics
"All these people do is
argue They never get any
thing accomplished I’m vot
ing tor change In the next
©lection."
Hut the quick fix isn’t
working Voting for
"change" without an under
standing of what that
< hang© will mean is conn
terproduc ti\ v
"Change" has bought us
two years of legislative
salaries to t ut Medic are, col
lege loans, welfares, national
service, the Corporation for
Public Hroadc asting and the
National Endowment for the
Arts two years of wasted
time to lav waste to the
poorest of Americans — two
years to prepare "sweeping
reform" that will never get
past the ()val Office.
America does need a change
We need to learn that out
responsibility for the future
of this country does not end
when we i hw k our ballots
it is where it begins
If politic tans are ignorant,
arrogant, belligerent and
wasteful, if they are out of
touch with Ainerii a, if they
are power-hungry and inet
fective it is not their fault. In
our haste to kill the bore
dom of legislative |in|activi
ty. we elected them and
then changed the i hannel.
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U.S. isolationists threaten U.N.’s future
Dithering” was the word Emerald
columnist Primo Fontana chose to
describe the United Nations last week
[ODE. Oi t 25), on the 50th annivervtrv
of its founding
Reading through his simultaneous indictment
and sentencing of the 1 'tided Nations i onv incud
this reader that dithering had but one accurate
function — to describe the polemic of the
columnist Whether or not his sermon was well*
intended, he dithered
In an age
of new i sola
tionism in
the United
States, a col
umn about the United Nations in a college daily
might suggest a welcome counterbahuu e to the
short sighted revival of ultra nationalism Hut
not with Fontana
The temptation for some patient souls might
lie to say. "give hint time to gain the perspective
of experience, when he'll recognize that the
United Nations for all its warts, its human
failings — is a better alternative than that
offered try pompous flag-wavers "
I'm not that patient —- not when I see the
spectacle of a veteran legislator, Robert Dole,
pandering ton right-wing constituency by using
the United Nations as the si apegont for the
world’s problems The time is overdue for citi
zens (and readers) to rebut the shallow bully
boy behavior of politicians who would exploit
us and of the bandwagon writers who miniit
them
Fontana, paranoid over the United Nations
impinging on his nation's sovereignty,
des< ribed “the chains of the United Nations
shackling nation*'' who otherwise might, as
individuals or in treaty, perform more effective
ly on the world stage. Then he used the Gulf
War as an example of flow the United States
was aide to evade those shackles How was this
achieved? By acting, he wrote, under the guise
of the Undid Nations.
Hypocritical as it was. (tie Gulf War, which
the United States strong-armed its allies into
acting in a U.N disguise, at least was open in
ils blatant illegality that served U.S oil inter
ests Too often during the Cold War years, it
fifi
] I he V V./ must develop oa independent
police force capable of rapid deployment
w bile .still being directly accountable to the
Security Council.
33
1C
l veryone on this globe has a life or death
stake in lthe l \'sj survival.
-95
was the hidden U.h agenda that (through
underi over activity of the CIA) frustrated what
must ol us thought our agenda was to aid the
grow th of democracies throughout the world
That contradiction of our stated goals with
our hidden behavior is what valid journalists
research for their published reports But
Fontana follows the path of least resistance just
like too many of his < ol leagues out in the "real
world " He. and they, take the easy way out,
dutifully digesting the data fed them by authori
ties. than regurgitating the party line for their
readers As they quickly learn, it's so much eas
ier to wave the flag
Fontana described himself as one of those
outside the Amerunn journalcstu and political
elite, not having “a stake in the U.N.'s sur
vival.''
He's w rong Everyone on this globe has a life
Or-death stake in its survival.
Granted, if the United Nations is to be sus
tained. some of its golds must tie re-evaluated,
the veto dominant« of Security Council mem
bers must he diminished; it must reform proce
dures that are wasteful.
Most important, it must develop an indepen
dent polite force capable of rapid deployment
while still Iseing directly act ountable to the
Security Council.
The last thing you and 1 (and Prime) need for
survival is empty-headed indictments of the
United Nations that ore pushed by politii ians
and newspaper columnists whose heads lie
buried deep in the sandbox of isolationism
George Hr res is a hoard member of the Oregon
l /ruled Sat ions Association Hr is the former ifm
versify of Oregon Sports Information director,
past editor of the faculty/staff newsletter Inside
Oregon and current manager of the University
Speakers Bureau His latest hook is The Year of
the Duck.
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