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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1995)
VIEWPOINTS EDITORIALS. OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EOITOR Irish approve kicking spouses to the curb ■ OUR OPINION: The right lo divorce solves some problems but could create others Ah yes. the luc k of the Irish. Finally, being a citizen of the emerald isle is not syn onymous with tming .1 devout Catholic or living one's life trapped in a love less or abusive marriage. The Irish have spoken: They want a divert n In the closest voting dot i sion in its history. 50.2 per cent of the country t ast its ballot in favor of a referen dum that would allow ton pies to sever the tie that binds. Although would-be divorcees must be separated for four of five years and prove "no reasonable prospect of reconciliation" to file for divorce, the deri sion marks Ireland's most signifit ant break with the t him h to date. Until now. Ireland was the only western country that did not allow divorc e under any i ire umstances In many respects. Inc ludiug abortion and contraception, the country has been one of the (iatholh < hurch's last government-sanctioned strongholds in the western world. As such, this narrow vic tory is soon as a major set back for dictated morality. It may not lie a divorce from Catholii ism, but it is a seri ous separation. Aside from any religious affiliations, the dec ision gains some Important ground for the Irish. The mandate from the church prevented thousands of cou ples from leaving a painful relationship behind or being able to find love again. Marriage without divorce as an option locked many people into unions that turned sour and from which there was no escape Women with abusive or unfaithful husbands were unable to end the torment and humiliation They were told to endure. Apparently, for those and other reasons, a majority of the Irish de< ided they couldn't take it any longer An estimated 40,000 Irish couples had previously been denied permission to remar ry, and it is assumed, will l>e first In line to dissolve their unhappy unions. However, as much of a gain as the referendum is for human freedom of choir e. it i annul be celebrated with out some reservation. After all, divorce has not exac tly been the greatest freedom to grace America, nor the rest of the world. As much ns we tout the rights of the individual to determine the course of their life, it is c lear that mar riage iu this country has t.eased to be an "until dealh do-you- part" prospect. Rather, with a divorce rate thut continues to hover near the 50 percent mark, tying the knot has become a promise easily untied. Of course, divorce is not solely responsible for rising teenage c rime rates, teen pregnancy and the millions of single parent families liv ing below the poverty line, but it is a critical part of the problem. As sue h. while vve may laud the Irish for their willingness to embrace this particular American free dom, the worst thing that could come of their decision would be to follow in our footsteps. ?h* t^s*1 I '.rm:**3 f* (U^> MoffcJkiy though I dtftvqj the *c#*9tii »f«J tyevSfj &*3 Thw' vdi» Gunng •*» wtme t* »h* Or«QOft CU^ t ***** PiritfaMIQ C<* W* it ft* o< 0^>-. t «dm. 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J44 371* 344 4343 I X Oo*j'r wA^T Wou WATcHWG TUiS garbage. »jnv Do you I WA7XK 7W | sruFP? I £V5FUaJcT!OMAL fA'AlLI?^ SELF-M^T'UPON, UDu/ S£lF-£STEEM, DEPRESSION, \ EAT/NG 2 DISORDERS... —(At k fTHf?£ SffM TO8CA Nfr, , tor j> j 4^ U.S. politics breeds uncaring voters Apathy Political doldrums Fear and loathing in the ballot boxes Fear and loathing when Clinton told the Checkerwwjue storv of his child hood growing up in « dysfunctional home Must we babv ail our President's inner child? Relief in the midst of apathy when Pete 1 sued my own state while Governor* Wilson dropped out of the president fa! rati' One less Repunlk an clone to not think about Genuine sadness followed by heavier doses of apathy when Colin Powell announced that his family was more important than the presidency. Why didn't Hush think of that one? »;* oi Aimiruiin vou*rs The people who went our votes say we're lazy, ignorant, 'disenfranchised', or too c heap to buy a si,imp They never think it might be them. Years of pleasing the folks with the votes in the conservative center have made the Republi cans and Democrats as bland as baked squash Their shrinking ideological differences have stagnated into automatic voting rituals that reduce Congressional decisions to a game of numbers. They bicker over cosmetic changes like an old married couple Occasionally they swap White House duty to keep the magic alive. But they haven't offered anything genuinely new since Federalism was an option. Maybe am e you tried to stand up for choice You rattled your little flag and charged into the Isoilot booth with your No. 2 lead pencil think ing, this time I'm voting Independent, damn it. So you scribble in the name of a scientist from the Green Party, or Ross Perot, or your neighbor. But your efforts are puny It would take l.llUO pimple like you from each of the five congres sional districts in Oregon to put your neighlvor on the presidential ballot Most state laws make ballot access’ a euphemism for 'fat chance.' Discouraged, you drift back to the Kepubli can/Democrat fold — sucked in by the security of the usual 'solutions' and the same old fat es. It s false security, but in politics that’s the only kind available. Don't make waves in the cesspool, the story goes, because the stuff will splash into everybody's mouth. So you stick to the devil you know even though he's a crashing bore. Congratulations and welcome to bipartisan politics. The country's going to hell and nobody's happy, hut it works, right? Sure, if you don’t count the five times in the last 1-t years that the government has had to grind to a petulant halt because of in-fighting. It seems once they get our money they can’t decide how best to overspend it. Their pre fit— Apathy is the insignia of American voters. 1 he people who want our votes say it e re !a:y, ignorant, disenfranchised, or too cheap to bus a stamp They never think it might be them -99 dictable crises ensure that there will be no sewage splashed — nor real progress made. It's the perfect flawed system for a public; that fears the unfamiliar The rewards of resignation are identical can didates politic izing so-c alled 'tough' issues such as abortion which have no business as political platforms Or unimaginative approaches to bud get reform like slowing — not stopping — the rate at which we go bankrupt Hence, apathy. And hard on the heels of apa thy is nostalgia for something voters haven't really had in years: choice A viable third party Full-scale electoral reform Now ideas, even if they're wac ky Snapshot polls have been predicting third party sue cess for a long time A 1991 Times Mir ror Center poll found that almost half the coun try was in favor of a third major party. When they surveyed Americans again in September a record 62 percent supported the creation of a third party, and more than half wanted an Inde pendent on the presidential ballot in 1996. The future looks like a threesome, provided we keep plugging away at the present. Ideally, multiple parties will compete to dec ide policies, allowing new ideas to get past the gate and keeping the Republicans and Democrats on their toes I! would l»> like the break-up of Ma Bell — setting free-market fon.es loose in Congress to improve the service. It might at least encourage this country to reexamine its sacred cows and experiment with governmental authority. Who's to sav that privatizing sidewalks or mining Jupiter's rings an* bad ideas? At the very worst, the state could decline under lousy leadership, corruption, and bank ruptcy. Qr we could remain as we arty declining under Ujusv leadership, corruption and l»ank ruptcy — plus the regret of knowing apathy allowed it to happen. Falling back on the usual candidates is worse than not voting at all. Calculate the number of Congressmen who aren't oither Republican or Democrat (one), and consider what representa tion means Then, if you can't overcome apathy, avenge it Vote Independent in the next elec tion. For kicks. Snn/a Sherwood. a senior majoring in journalism and English, is a columnist for the Kmeraid
