Tel Aviv suicide bomb
kills more than people
■ OUR OPINION Israel and
Palestine may have too
many enermes of peace to
stop the hate, violence
Thu fractured terrorist
group Hamas tutu brought
itself and the Israeli Patna
finian peace pm mi one
atop cloaer to annihilation
with the suicide bombing
attack in Tel Aviv Monday.
Incredibly, outlaw organi
zations such as Hamas fail
to have enough foresight to
see that their murderous
activities usually backfire by
making the situation they
tried to change more intoler
ant of change
In this mm. Hamas is
enraged over the Palestin
ian-lsraeli peace accord
because it wants no formal,
let alone civil, relationship
with Israel In fact, llamas,
and other militant groups.
want nothing less than a
Palestinian stain with a
capital in Jerusalem
in its attempts to achieve
its goals. however, Hamas is
actually destroying any sup
port l»a*e that would give its
people, the Palestinians, a
natter social and political
position in the Holy Land
Israeli Prime Minuter Shi
mon Peres, the Labor Party
and the entire Israeli nation
were poised on the brink of
finalizing the 3 year old
peace agreement With Pates
tinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat and hit peo
ple Now, there are no guar
antees for peace
Although most of the
blood lately has been shed
by Hamas. Israel has its own
factious nf intolerance for a
peaceful coexistence with
Palestine. Yitzak Rabin's
assassin told the world that
himself.
Members start jumping
OCA’s off-course ship
■ OUR OPINION: A
dwindling membership
proves Oregonians dislike
hale molrvated injustice
The Oregon Otiwu
Alliance. Inal ultra-right
wmg Hounding board of
intolerance and injustice,
has lost a huge chunk of its
membership base during the
jmat six years and i* current
ly struggling to get enough
signatures to put its latest
anti-gay right* Initiative mi
the November ballot
The obvious lesson is that
haie can only he peddled for
so long before it starts to
really stink up the place and
turn people away
Even conservative (Chris
tian* who once supported
the OCA an; publicly
denouncing the organization
and pulling a* much dis
tance lietweeti themselves
and the embattled aIItame
as they can
{XIA founder tea Mahan
admits his organization's
latest anti-gay right* effort is
not as strong as the 1992
and 1994 initiatives, having
gathered unly 10,000 tigna
turns so far
What a thrill it would be
if we could have an OCA
free elm tion this November
Instead of defending bask
human rights against indr
fensible ignorance, the citi
zens of (his state could actu
ally turn their attention
toward the issue* that are
important to Oregon's
future.
Hit the brinks. Lon,
You've been found out
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Time tor uniforms
for Public Schools?
fc*i?uw<t
I For Public Officials ?
A**'
XVf^ Wjuf1If
Terror and trembling: The end is near
HumauMM. tsunami*, monsoon* —
there u an emblem of catastrophe for
every pan of the world Because folks
aren't too fond of going through three
disaster*, much attention i* given to those who
can predict them accurately
In California, Mother Nature's gift of calamity
is the earthquake Want to find the state s Sale
mic Sooffa—yerf See Jttn Ber k land
|im is a feisty old soul who claims to know
when the big one is coming Be forewarned that
the investigative method* of the M visar old
geologin are a ted bit unorthodox Oh sure, Jim
does the normal scientific stuff like looking at
moons and measuring tidal fluctuations But to
predict when the next terrible trembler will
occur, Jim firmly believe* in the power of the
canine
Yes. dogs has h day Jim curl* up with hi*
newspaper and meticulously reads the hat-dog
report When too many rover* have gone on the
loo**. Jim say* an "earthquake window" has
opened
Jim believe* that dog* can sense seismic dls
lurbancas The impending doom of an earth
quake nigger* something inside them They
become agitated and antsy whenever a trem
Wing change is about to mint
Well. Jim isn't respected much bv the scientif
ic i ommumtv In is. 1. he was so ridiculed by
the l S. Geologicel Sim ey that he had to quit
hi* job and accept the role of renegade
"It s a shame that high science ignores all
these clues.*' Betkland said as he unveiled hi*
latest batch of seismic forecast*. "(They) My you
can't predict them That's hogwash "
And believe it or not. our prophet is usually
fight Having correctly predicted tile iwh
Nurthmlge quake and the 1«»» Lorn* Prieta
trembler. Jim is far more reliable than the
expert* who mock him Unemployed, he now
works out of his San Jose home
If only the wayward oracle amid find his wav
to our University lie would learn that a gradu
ation window" has opened in Eugene, and evorv
anxious senior walking down 13th Avenue
shows the signs.
Uke Berkland's panicked pooches, there it a
sense of impending doom in their eyes. The
grwduatm-to-he are consumed by an uncertain
future Restless and annoyed, they howl at
night, disturbed by thoughts of what June will
bring
My friends and I have not been immune to
these anxious time* While each of us responds
to the pressure of graduation differently, our
collective angst remain* constant.
There is the friend who obsessively applies
hu as many jobs as he can. j< Penny’s. Mac v s,
Nike — he cannot become a citizen of (Corporate
America fast enough. He plans to start working
throe days after graduation.
Then there's the one who says he's “gotta start
looking" but never does,
And then there's I who hates
even thinking alamt what the
future krill bdd. Kvery visit to
the (street Center and rewrite
of the resume brings me closer
to a decision l‘d prefer having
another four years to make
There is e growing tension
between *11 of us We get on
each other's nerve* and won
der why this year has been «o
damn different than the rest
We get reflective and reminiace about the
"carefree" days of our first few years in Eugene
Da vs when thoughts about employment were a*
common as day* of sobriety Days when finals
meant Scantron, and studying meant footnotes
And we seem haunted by the mystery that
awaits us We think about terms like “glory
days." and wonder if these were they. We visit
our parents' borne and see a world of remote
controls and l-oryboyt, and wonder if a personal
devolution is at hand
Will pint* of dark micro-brew* fade to cant of
(ktors light? Will life giving friendships turn to
distant phone (alls? Will passionate love some
day become routine monotony?
I mailt* that these thoughts are baaed in
melodramatic fantasy In my heart I know the
days of tomorrow will possess the same vari
ant e as the days of today, they will be a tumult
of victories and defeats, highs and lows.
Today 1 participate in the innately human
tendency to roman Hare the past and demonise
the present We forget about the pains of yester
day and ignore ihe joys of tomorrow
We are tike Jim BerkUnd s puppies We strug
gle with this tune uf seismic flu* We scratch,
and we daw, knowing that something big is
about to occur.
We are like Berkland himself, being thrust
into a world of many doubler* and few support
ers
Every moment brings us one step closer to the
day of reckoning A (lay when we will step into
the abyss and face the change alone
XMth Ckinningham. a senior maturing m English,
is a columnist for the Emerald E mail
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