Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1996)
VIEWPOIN7 S EOlTORIAtS OPINIONS. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Arms good for hugging but some have to fight ■ OUR OPINION U S military rnemb#*s should know the job description before fO*nmg service When Johnny awnw marching home again, hur rah. hurrah Sadly. Johnny doesn't always tome home. Men and women who decide to Join the U.S. mili tary (all In rank with one of the best trained and equipped military forcer th the world In exchange for two or more year* of your life. Sam will send you to some form of bask: (raining or officer school, give you a stylish haircut and some cool uni forms, put you on a great Iibysical workout schedule, louse and feed you, pay for your medical and dental needs, provide you with leadership skills, and pay you while you're doing all of the above In addition, most military members have the option of signing a contract that guar anions them some money (or college Service member* usually get the chance to travel and most likely got to see some sort of adventure Oh, and by the way, the U.S may send you to your bloody death While the many benefits of military' service make volun teering an attractive career move for thousands of young people e*«:h year, it seems manv of them are unaware of the price they may one day he called ii|»nn to pay It is quite possible that thousands of military mem* hers sign on the dotted line without ever really thinking about what they afe < ommt! ting themselves to The lad is, military life CM be exciting and reward ing, but St can also get you killed The military exists to pro tact our nation and to aid our international neighbors when they are in trouble I .ike it of not. the US t» the single remaining superuow of and ha* linen given trie [fib of lining the big strong polic e officer, more by default than for any other mason When i! come* time «o pat L up the troop* and send them into battle. CNN and the rest of the media are always there to broadcast and document the emotion al goodbye hugs and tear* between military members and their loved one* TV crew* always seem to catch that one soldier who bawls, "I never thought I’d ac tually have to go to war." We saw theif tear* and felt their pain during the Gull War when reserve and guard force*, traditionally resigned to the mission of responding to natural disasters or large scale international hostili* ties, were tallied Into active duty by George Hush We are sewing the same kind of hardship stories now - families separated by fear and thousands of mile* - as our men and women in uniform go to that hopeitt** mess in Bosnia But they go willingly They don't have a choice. To their credit. American military members have a tough job to do. and they do it better than most We need to Mipporl our service member* All that society need* in return is the assurance that military people understand the risks Involved with the career they have chosen. War should not lie roman tic i ml And warriors should not kid themselves into thinking their military bene fits will always outweigh the ultimate sacrifice they might one day have to make *«jw> . nMVmt MS «.<x NM MW «* *«M» M '•)•• «•» * —■«*» * «w k»mm* »m« — m.« *■»»» »—.«»■«■. a <m om, —» A»«W»at#WHiknt«w i - in MiiMi r AM mu n jtf Mm f ■»—- —•* mwwm — - » — — mmutttnimm ?l«tiattM**>M« JKWKI, m **»<>«« *• *» HMMnWOMMU* kl«MMIMM> l*m On* larM aM tw* MM aMwt i*Mn» — *«— am MtaMw MM*W Mlttwwl (■NtattfUM1**1* emam "M*! vs** «.«»- mm trKamua. f*w»-n>*>» iMtCwt (toMt tlNUHW VMM WnM «WMf ItfrUjAnO; vmpWM 9jg&, IfcjUS M|*> •*« *«» **#-;.! JN»* WM M <*» MMMMMH •MlSNm MMMt v*** MM.MX t|MMOMMX 'mMM* t«***>t«* ll»M MtWM* .MM1 «***•* .■«»!* SMW«W MMCMIM* laMOaa* **«««« Qrmjum Un uapt mm mcmi Emsmm 4* Mm U:.'MT MtMM Mim «»- •«. • *»“•>' “**•■»* MhOMM* flu* ‘tli*** MM* .mM» «» OmMkm m «*•*» JMKWt ««ni %•»■> «•«*«> &*•**» mms Omrnm9 M—miiiwii WiW 7V|E MA*£$ GooO £usr*/ESS S£NS£. £nq>vRAiG*in6 A CftfATW* SVA/£R<W WE CAN K££P OU» COftt AftEAH OP rRADlt'cW^L ftEV'f/Vuf, 0UT ADD po7*N/r74L F04 A Ntu/Ct^TWAfR &AS€ V4A//Lt IN mf MiT Wf HAVT Pfe<ofn fNnwse cowm/aN, in TbCAVJ CUMAHE W*y£ 7b look Ar OwQcoin^cn go rrrxA un€ l^oNfy Im< tm$u It MR T^AT'J WMV ms Z&HsBUCAhJ 8uytour of TME D£av>cRATIc P4RTy /J iuCM A 7mjt.lPK. DEAL *OR goTH THE 4ND n*£ AMt® 't.Mv K>nt<} lAyotf voncfj L yu. ft MfKil o/r Suomy TV news serves itself, not public interest Turn on any TV new* program today, and you will hear about trudge* defied*. Medicaid cot* and welfare reform What vou will no* hear about la a $100 billion corporate giveaway (ongres* t« about to enact You will no* hear about it because the corporate recipient* are the television broadcasters tWm* wive* Under the (xanmumtalmn* Ac* of ttt.14. the federal t ciimminN alums liommiMunn (FtXT) was given the authority to dec id* who get* to broad c**t ova* the electromagnet!. spectrum and for what purpose* Only a limited portion of the spectrum i* utable tor broadcasting, and «o every Iwued<aster mu*t get a license from the FCC that M*" ihe* where when, what and how they may broad***! In the tOMtis. digital tec hnoiugv made High Definition Television (HDTV) possible HDTV' can pro*id# a television picture appro*# lung l'w him in quality with compac t disc quality audio In Itt'D the ft X set aside an HiortiMNu puriitm of (lie public spectrum fur each currant licensee The idea wa* that each hrua.lt aster would con \«ui to HDTV in the new portion of tin* spectrum and then diw ontinue using tile old portion The K2C could llien malic* ale the old portion fee caber use* Two iwrct developments have .-ft,- . tiraly eliminated the original n,lent The first development t* social Survey aflet survey indicate* (hat the viewing public is nu* interested m HOTV at thi* time While everyone like* the idea of receiving a hot ter picture with CD-quality sound, few are will ing to pay $2,000 plus to buy a low-end televi sion that um display the unproved picture HOTV* * appeal drop* even mure when people find out that they will have lo buy a converter ho* for their evicting televisions if they want to receive any picture at all The converter won't let you we a HDTV quality picture on your current television; it will only let you see HDTV brood cast* at the same quality you are now getting The second development is technologies! Video technologies have prugreswd far heyond what the PCC*. expo, ted- Digital compre* sion now make* it possible lo broadcast six or seven tunes the information in the same hand width This means that sis or seven channels can now be broadcast in the same band width that used to be needed lot only one- These addi tional channels can he used to carry multiple television broadcast* but they can also be used !>» ‘ c'liucjr plume data tioiixmixsiun »nd paging systems a* well The broadcasters responded quickly by spend mg million* lo lobby Congress and the FCC, con v iruing both to accept the concept of "spec trum flexibility What this boil* down to is that the broad* asters want the free use of the new par lion of the spectrum but with no limitation* or requirements as to what they can do with It. Thu broadcasters offer no guarantees of imple menting any form of television broadcasting, let alone HDTV, using this new portion of the * peri rum They offer nothing in return No foe*. no public wrvic* programming, nothing! They don't (ran want to be required. an the)- now are. to . " —- operate in me own immwi oi UVJ the public a* ihe Coramumu (ion* Acfl of 1934 demand* In the |us! few year*, the FOC he* auctioned off use of small portions of the public sped rum to private companies that operate cellular phone and pag ing system* Using the values established by those auctions, the portion of the public spec tmm that current broadcasters want for free u. w<*rth up to $100 billion. Not only do they want the licenses for free, they want distribution of the licenses limited to only current broadcaster* Don't take my word for any of this, look at the legislation that i* about to he passed Section 20? of Senate bill S (452, the "Telecommunication* C ompettnon and Deregulation Act of !«<>'• give* the FCC discretion to give the new spec trum only to existing broadcaster* If the FIX doe* give the new spectrum to them, it has to allow the use of "ancillary and supplementary *ervua»" {cellular phone, paging and data trail' mission services) House bill H R 1555. the "Communication* Act of 1095," Section 301 compels the FtX to give the extra spectrum to the current broadcast The impact of these two bills is far too com pie* to examine in much detail in this column, but some of the other major implication* are • Access to the public bruadcasting spectrum will continue to lie limited to a few enormous corporations • No requirements lot public access, program ming diversity, improved programming or any other use are being required in return for using the extra spectrum. • Television broadcasters will be free to go into the cellular phone, data transmission and paging businesa using the extra spectrum with little or no return to the government. • Affordable HDTV will probably be **>l back decades One more thing has been lost in these political maneuvers — the last vestige of integrity in broadcast journalism The complete failure by television news to cover this story clearly shows that what they mean by thepuhhi has a right to know i* that the public has a right to know only what they, the broadcasters, wool the public to know Dim Haiti a senior majoring m journalist columnist for the Fmerald
