Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 1996)
VIEWPOINTS ( 01T 0 n l A1 s OPINIONS tEIffRS 10 TMf fOlTOR Liberals, conservatives help lower teen births ■ MM OMMMfc We should lake a lesson m teamwork from town ol Tillamook Jack and fill want up the hill to play a gnine of doctor Th«y lay on the ground, rolled around, and nine months later (ill gave birth to lack Jr. Hut they didn't learn to do that In Tillamook. Oregon While teenage pregnancy continues to be a severe problem across the nation, little Tillamook County ha* found a way to lower its number of unplanned con ception* The northwestern coastal county recently caught the attention of the U.S. Depart ment of Health and Human Service* after the communi ty cut its teen pregnancy rate by two-thirds. Their formula for success? Teamwork. Organisers decided the bait game plan was to gang tackle the problem. The gang turned nut In bo a ft rung** one, though — one that wfliuN the word "diverse." Churches, public and pri vate agencies, schools, health worker* and families first all got together to tu knowledge this issuts Than. they rolled up their sleeves and wont to work Who would have thought that a group of people from directly opposite political spectrum*. beliefs and val uos. could have* over reached an ifMOMri on anything mon> important than how to flip a light switi h f incredibly, those differ i’IKM actually provided the motivating factor that jump started the entire communi ty's involvement. "Everyone did some thing. and the combination worked." »«id a Tillamook Counly Health official. Soma of those "some things" included Tillamook Counts- schools working with Ine IlfMilh Department lo have loan parents talk to students about th<> 2a hour responsibility of rearing for an infant Also. the school district and a special commission for families and t htldmn worked with parents on an acceptable sex-education curriculum Youth pastors from local churches met with families to discuss improving com munication between parent* and their teens, particulariy on the topic of family values and sexuality. I Mini teamed about uxli n« and how to resist omniums lo become sexuel iy active from « hurth-spon somd speakers. teen-age boys learned about tho responsibilities of child roaring, and the Women's Crisis Outer committed itself to helping students recognise anti avoid domes tic violence anti sexual assault As a result of these and other proven strategies, Tillamook has a teen-age birth rale of unlv seven per thousand among females aged to to 17. Only four years ago. Tillamook's rate was much closer to the top of Oregon’s 36-county list . In comparison, lame County's birth rate in the same age group was 16.8 per thousand in ttMM A local task force has a plan for the lane County Commission on Children and Families that it hopes will mirror some of Tillam ook County’s successes. We can only hope this weird but wonderful solu tion works for our county as well. mma f AS X UNDERSTAND it, THE iNEqQ fAAT ION SUPERW/frHWAV W»LL ENABi-E us Tt> SEND *T BACK. ^_— 4 Hifif i»wd sC*** ** MP-4 t* Wt <Ah KXfP ^ *nTH £50 tUAMMltf i Angry boys can cause unexpected harm It'* amaiing how the rule* of lift* t hang* Take *«g«*r A* a bay. i w*» able to express my anger in any way I mm fit — ** reaming, trying, vailing — the usualchildish ! responses Kimberly Andrews mad* me real angry little Mi** Fourth Grade Perfect Perfect blue eyn, perfect blond hair, perfect white dress Perfect, perfect. perfect After a math t**t or an ***«ay was handed back. Kimberly and her ponytail would skip down the hall to her mother's awaiting arm* "look mom. another A!" One dav Kimberly made me no angry that my ik-year old blood reached the boiling point It wa* creative writing time The topic was "pur pie and Kimberly wrote some m hmaltxy story about a little Purple Iris blowing in the wind You'll have to understand that at the time I‘rime and hi* movie Purple Rain were the hippesl things a fourth grmler could imagine It made perfect sen*# to me that I should write a spin off entitled "Purple Pain ~ The star of the story was the lauded txn k star Priss who wore purple lace and rubbed it all over himself I was quit* proud of my conation I mean. hey;, this wes creative writing and all. Whan lm> papers «wv handed buck. Mrs l.umlev* utmiwmi* un my Mary were rather brief *l>" and “Inappropriate " Kimberly laughed at me with victory, at which lima 1 grabbed her pa par. tor* it in two and dogged her right in the stomach. It Mi great 1 waa> able to lash out in the must immature manner I could conceive But at some point in our live* we learn that anger and immaturity are not the moat produc live meant of expression So what happens when a boy reaches the age of maturity and finds himself ignorant of the destructive poten tial of his vehemence? This question is pathetically answered in the January 19th edition of the Oregon (xurtmenta Ior. In addition to the usual boyish bragging about drinking and tax, the Commentator included a list entitled. "Top 75 Reasons Why Women (Bitches) Should Not Have Freedom of Speech " The list was written by four first year students at Cornell University and has circulated around the Internet for months Included in the 11*1 are No. 20 "This is my dick I'm gonna fuck you. No more stupid ques tions “ ; No 39 “Of course, if she ain't speak, she can't cay no and No 47 “Nothing should come emt a woman’s mouth. SWALLOW BrrcHr Those of the (Utmmrnlatof claim that they oppose the list but were forced to include it for the purpose of providing context to the Cornell Internet debac le However, the manner in which the accompa • nying article make* light of th« list suggests that the Commentator writer* thoroughly enjoyed the list end simply cited a convenient excuse to revel in a boy's angry fantasy* I art it be noted that the (Cor nell *tory ran in several nation al publication*, including The Sew York Time*, none of them printed the list Tantamount to saying. “To write a story about manure we must include a pic ture of manure so that you know what it looks like," the claim that the list had to be included with the story is insulting The Commentator rails (ho list merely "a had joke" »mi argues that only "the easily offended'' will be bothered No 38, "If she can't t|>eak. she can't cry rape " Please tell me who 1* offended by this? Is it threw overly sensitive men who, when hearing such “humor." think about their sisters, their mothers or their wives? Is it threw paranoid women who are imprisoned at night because they fee) unsafe walking outside' On these boys' playground, fearful woman are merely intruders who simply don't know bow to have fun So how dure one explain to a child that a (ok# about invading a woman should not be described as a "form of humor"? The Commentator argue* that “there it a clear line between thought and action " This incom plete observation ignores the effects of symbolic, discourse No. I do not believe that a man might road this list and proceed jo rape a woman IIowkvm. | do believe that svmlxds lead to thought*, and thought* load to action Not long ago member* of tinsel's opposition party plastered poster* of Yitzhak Rabin dressed in a Nazi uniform throughout the streets of lerusaletn Party loader* organized rail lea where Rabin was labeled the next Hitler Two week* later Rabin was assassinated Tlw study of pro paganda i* rich with example* that demonstrate the interconnection between word* and action Statements *uch as No JO. "They should |ust shut up and obey anyway* do more than express humor They create a fantasy world where women out be objectified, violated and discarded without remorse tike prepubeacent children circling around a Write magazine in the bathroom, the writer* of the Commentator laugh without remorse They cannot even fathom the destruction of their banter It sure is hard when you're dealing with hoy*. Keith Cunningham, a senior muffing in English. »• a columnist for the Emerald E mail ketthcQoregan uaragan edu
