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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1996)
VIEWPOINTS t 0110 RIAI S QRlHiOHS It 1 T< HS. ?Q I HI tQUOR Government should aid forests, not industries ■ OUR OPINION Forest Service should appease public, nof bureaucrats Far a state that attributes the majority of its beauty to its lush, green landscape. Oregon certainly watches a lot of trees fall in Its nation al forests. Even though part of Ore gon's economy is dependent on togging, there is no excuse for the numerous forests that have been thinned in the past few yeers; the Wallowa-WhiP man National Forest that lies in the Elkhorn Range in eastern Oregon is a good example of this. This logging was not initi ated by private Oregon log ging companies, but by the U S. Forest .Service, who is now planning to harvest again, this time in the east* am Klkhoma The Forest Servile will not stop there If all goes as planned, the federal agency will murder trees to the east and south of the Anthony lakes Moun tain Ski Area, by the water shed near Baker City and in the Dutch Wolf analysis area nearby. The effects of these har vests will include the possi ble contamination of Baker City's drinking water and the failure to eliminate one of our last options for ecosystem restoration Meanwhile, the demand for campgrounds, hiking trails, wilderness areas and other recreational facilities is on the rise. One might wonder why the U.S. Forest Service is cutting down all of these trees when the public ia demanding the opposite The reason is that their mount move* to cut down inm all over the nation in state* such ns Michigan and Alaska am not action* to much a* they am mention* Republican San. Tad Steven* of Alaska is one of the major masons the U S. Forest Servic e is to busy marling Stevens was recent iy quoted as saying. "If the Forest Service targets less than 3 percent of its activities toward timber pro duction. why should them be a Forest Service?" The Forest .Service's recent move to cut down so many trees nationwide could be attributed to its sttempt to stay in existence But trees aren't the only things that the Forest Ser vice is cutting: It plans to cut its work force by 10 per cent this year and next year. Keep in mind that Ore gon's logging companies am also guilty of the recent tree massacres These sawmill owners have been pressur ing the Forest Service to chop down more trees in Oregon's national forest* to prevent them from experi encing a shortage of private timber. We. unlike the Forest ser vice. do not sympathize with these poor loggers who are now suffering from a shortage of trees — a short age they created. Our government agencies should not assume that the solution to everlasting greed is short term destruction. If the Forest Service would like to increase its odds of survival, it should focus more on gaining rev enues from non destructive recreational activities and less on accommodating Ore Eon sawmill owners and cart less senators like Stevens. **■ Immm « m*i— m, fen** <««* *»** *> *mm cm m >«m» m r*»»•»» •»'«* •» iii««» *> m On*•» twit twM NtMa|S» ta <**• -jmummt # On«to. <*»*• Owfat » —« — litmiN» n»twtM «■»— »«»«■—rtt K — ..toitnUi —> a $m» MU at •* |t» ibwa <j«a» M MM A41IMMAU W£’¥E Pur ALL sPe<_i£s p«orfcTioM OM£ Slock grant 50 VOU CAN OfCiOC Almost Kx*ft$€LVf5 WH0 GO£S £AT»NCT. k&w VC ****%. <«wv Knot!) IOjvco k II UfRS OSPIRG hypocrisy I willed »cmi my front pardt this morning to And sev eral QSP1RC potters blowing unto my lidtwtll amongst other gsritage It * ttrilung to think how many well intent ton «! student program* are polluted by OSnKC t hypocrisy Thu wat especially apparent during election* OSPIRG. an alleged propo nent for individual right* and environmental aolutiona, uted student monte* to campaign for further mandatory student fee* It* main strategy for p«diifawl suoosea was hundred* and hun dred* of full color, very expen rive and difficult to recycle potter* that now litter the streets of our campus and cum m unity Joeh Attn Phynea Oil crisis hoax Don't we really know why gasoline price* have been steadily firing? It’s a game that hat been played before by the oil companies in 1972. man ip ulating the "stupid" public and the media A* for the new Imp oil crisis since the Gulf War. there hat not (seen one because the Unit ed State* has implemented a boycott. Calling the oil situation with Iraq a "crisis" is a pure propa ganda tactic t suspect that the all out war on tba environment by the Republican-dominated Con gress and their mad desire to exploit yet another natural trea sure — the Arctic Wildlife Refuge of Alaska — Is the true motivation behind the new ‘oil crisis" These it some oil there, but only enough to sustain the greedy U S. for a few months This plan would destroy the last vast wilderness ansa left in America. The callous senator* from Alaska. Stevens and Murkowt ki. tee not the need for wilder ness. hut money. Instead of Involving the country in pollution control by finding alternatives to gas pow •rad transportation. the Repub licans in Congress t horite to focus on destroying the envi ronment Alt they see is the short-term Cyoff, while our future comet clouded with global warming and the destruction of our health Hilda K. Cherry Eugene Own up Douglass 4 It is true that the decision to relocate the residents of the fourth floor of Douglass Mali was made prior to the incidents of racial bigotry by that com munity during dead week and finals week As Matt Hither points out tn his letter to the editor lOD£. April 30). the fourth floor had already engaged in enough dis respectful. hurtful and danger ous behavior prior to the racial slurs being yelled from their windows during dead week and finals week to warrant the floor's dissolution Hither seems to draw a dis tinction between the behavior that resulted in the dissolution of the floor and the acts of racial intolerance and hatred that emanated from that com munity. While it is true that the prior acts resulting in dissolution were different from the acts of bigotry during dead and finals weeks, there is a common theme and pattern that was pre sent in both sets of behavior Both sett of behavior were grossly irresponsible, hurtful and inappropriate in a civilised community In both sets of behavior, it was clear that the behavior was emanating from the fourth floor of Douglass Hall and that the community on that floor fostered an envi ronment of protecting the floor members involved in the irre sponsible behavior Community members every where share responsibility for the behavioral norms of that community Unfortunately, the community norms developed by fourth floor Douglass Hall residents were dwradwian) by immaturity, vandalism, disre spect for others and bigotry. 1 am unaware of anyone from the fourth floor Douglass com munity who attempted to inter vene to change that norm. While housing staff made efforts at such Intervention, it became clear by the end of win ter term that the lack of civility demonstrated by residents of the fourth floor made it unrea sonable to work with this group in a way that we normally would. Therefore, the decision was made to disband the floor (pending conduct action against some residents has since resulted in their removal altogether from the residence halls). While the particular acts of vandalism, disrespect and big otry emanating from that com munity are of grave concern. of equal concern is the fact that there seemed to lie no individ ual from this particular com munity willing to work with housing staff and other mem bers of the community to say, "This must stop." We also needed lo hear something tike. "We can't con tinue to permit the group norm of this community to deterio rate. We must begin to take some responsibility for our community and behave in a respectful and civil manner " Although long overdue, it is still possible for Hither and his former hall mates to lake responsibility for the actions of their community. 1 would like to invite them to do so now by reporting who was involved in the incidents of bigotry, as welt as the burn ing. vandalism and other inci dents, which occurred on the fourth floor throughout the fall and winter terms. Better yet, encourage those members to come forward (i.e., discuss their actions with Elaine Green, conduct coordi nator. the Office of Public Safe ty or Kelly Messick. Walton resident director) and take per sonal responsibility for their set ions Mike Eyster University Housing Director
