VIEWPOINTS
tOITORIAlS OPINIONS LlTTfflS TO THE tQITOR
Montana has Freemen,
but Oregon has Tonya
■ OUR OPINION The Big
Sky slate may have
learned something horn
the wacky Northwest
What's up with the stale
of Montana7
First off. the statf ha* all
those gun-bugging Freemen
holed up on some snow
dusted ranch with half the
nation s FBI babysitting
them
It's probably due to all
that crystal-clean Rocky
Mountain air that blows all
over the plai n See what
happen* to a handful of
wheat fanners, cattle ranch
er* and NBA cowboys when
they grow up breathing air
permeated with actual oxy
gent
"Whooooee' Don't cha
love that there crisp moun
tain air Clyde? (Hyde. I been
watchln that durn mailman
an I do believe he's one ’o
them there jack-booted FBI
CIA-ATP agent* from
Warshington — I say we
plug that bastard full 'o lead
and send him to that big
federal huildin' in the sky!"
If we could just send the
whole shoot in' hunch of
them to California to bn*afhe
some Los Angeles air fur a
few weeks, they'd probably
turn out |ust fine — that is,
if they survive the dnve-bv
shootings,
And at this stage. il took*
like Theodore Km zynski
could turn out to be the
alleged Unabomtrer One
thing U certain With that
stylin' haircut. he'll never
have to worry about making
the cover of fiQ magazine —
he's got a doo to make a
Deadhead die for.
Kaczynski was i barged
last Thursday in Helena,
Mont., with one muni of
possessing bomb compo
nents
But Montana wasn't the
firm to have inch a promi
nent, though disastrous,
spotlight in the national
madia
Orison was Yep We‘ve
been them, done that —
long before the UfMbombor
or Freemen
Remember Bigfoot?
Although we're »ure the
funy one never sent any
mail Iwmilw to anyone, he *
still from the Northwest
Tlte mysterious muppet has
limn scaring people for
decade*
US. Senator Bub Park
wood? The naughty man
who couldn't keep his lip*
off the liquor or his hands to
himself?
From Oregon
And how abrmt the Bhag
wan Shree Rajrieeth and his
free-love and heavwbeads
commune in Eastern Oregon
during the mid '80s? Talk
about a media event A cou
ple of the Hhagwan s follow
er* were convicted last year
for their part in a plot to kill
then Oregon State Attorney,
(Starlet Turner
Apparently, the two
missed the Bhagwan's semi
nar on leaving federal attor
neys the hell alone
The notoriety doesn't stop
there
I onyt Harding, that
sniveling embarrassment in
ih* 1904 Olympics. i> from
Portland
The slain lias town quieter
I hi* past few months and
year*. That's exactly why
the bozo in Mood River
recently filled a shell he
owned near Muster with all
kinds of explosives, and
then let the thing blow sky
high. This immediately
brought all the media and
the other half of the nation's
FBI track to Oregon.
After all. we've got to
show those Montana boys
how it's done.
r*
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Jessica’s fliaht: Parents crash vouna life
Do you bear the r»inf Do vmi hear the
mint" Watching a thunderstorm rapid
ly approaching, an anxious Jessica
Duhroff talked to her mother on a reilu
tar phone momenta I adore she emlwrked on her
final flight After stalling shortly after takeoff,
th* 7 year old a (awna nose dived into a street,
immediately killing hwiica. her father and the
flight engineer
Seven years old I dreamt about flying when I
wa* that age The freedom of soaring like a bird,
having my own wing*, the usual kid stuff Of
course those were merely fantasies, and hack
then the only takeoffs I had were from swing
sags and fungi* gyms
But the alory of » attempt to lie the
youngest pilot to aviate arms* the country is
nothing like a childhood drawn*
It's an incomprehensible nightmare of
parental folly
In the world I live in, ? year-olds don’t set
aviation distant* rax rands They ride hikes, they
play hide and go seek they pick their noses
The only planes they fly room through their
imaginations at whimsical speeds
And thru I see a pudure of|«*i*t< a in the cock
pit. taken »• she pr«|Mn>Mi for hrnt «dght -day,
h.tXJO mil* trek. and I had iuumhiui I literally
brw urm> ill «t the tight of the brown bomber
(•dud that Jessica's parents wraprred around
h#w I g«*»» she wm supposed to Us another
Charles Lindbergh or something Jessica's father.
Uovd Oubtuff. w*» a master at promoting photo
ops like this one.
In the picture, Jessica sits in a specially made
booster seat, she is fastened to a specially made
•oat belt, and she steps on ■ set of extended rud
der pedals because the plane wasn't intended
tor people her size %
With an ovarsized headset perc hed atop the
“Women Fly" cap she wears. Jessica turns to the
tamers and gives a thumbs up But Jessica does
not smile like the SS pound Amelia Earhart she
is supposed to be Her lips are dull, and the
appears motionless Her eyes are half closed and
glazed over with an expression that says. "Why
am I here7"
Following the crash, the most pathetic com
ment aune from Jessica's mother. Usa Blair
Hathaway The unapologetn mother said that
her daughter died "in a state of Joy" and that Je»
sica's "life was in her hand* "
Contrary to this pitiful eulogy, reports indi
cate that Jessica's life was always in the hands
of her media-hungry parents The entire reconl
breaking venture was conceived by Jessica's
lather Before the fateful voyage began. DubrofT
had spent SI.JOG fur 200 special baseball caps to
give to friends and reporters. He brought a pro
fessinnal television < amera on board the plane
so he and fmsica could appear on ABC New*
IHibroff wu in *uch a rush to get to Maaaachu •
Mrtt* and appear on NBC's "Tixisy Show” that
he rushed into a b»d*weather takeoff that should
have been delayed or canceled all together.
OPINION
Since (he t rash, loud
protests have been made
regarding young pilots who fly
Perhaps even more noise
should l>e made about deatrui
tive adults who live vicarious
ly through their children.
We could start a national
campaign and use Jess tea's
mum and dad as the poster
couple. A father who makes
nu daughter play the tragic rule in ht* own jmr
verted dream A New - Age mother who cele
brate* a 7 year old * "freedom of choice." The
campaign could read: "If You're Going to Fail
This Miserably At Being A Parent, (art Sterilized
—■ Please. For Their Sake!"
Jessica's parent* gave their daughter no toy*,
they opted for power loll*, so that Inuiu could
"learn by doing." She was home-schooled and
restricted from television When Jessica's mom
wa* asked if she might have pushed too hard.
«he remained entirely unrepentant, saying that
her daughter had a lull, wonderful, wonderful,
exquisite life."
Seven years old
Why can't this mother at least concede that
perhaps she did something wrong, that perhaps
she was too hard or too controlling, that perhaps
she pushed and pushed until jeaaica had no life
of her own?
Yet least* a * story ia about more than Lloyd
Dubrnff and Lisa Blair Hathaway's pitiful par
enting It's about a society that squeeze* its chil
dren to a pulp. It's about dance classes and
piano lessons and play praetkaa It's about
adults who don't know the first thing about rais
ing children.
Parents should be there to steady tha bike as
the growing leg# turn the pedals, to smile and U>
cheer as the tiny body determinedly pushes for
ward If the child (alls and scrapes, if the hat
swings and misses, if the piano notes are off-key
time and time again, the cheering must never
stop.
Parents must freely dispense this uncondt
tional love, without strings of fame attached
Only then will our children acquire their own
wings and truly achieve flight
Kmth Cunningham, a senior majoring in English
<* a columnist for the Emerald. E-mail
kmthc^ktmgan. uorogon edu