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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1996)
VIEWPOINTS fOUORIAlS OPINIONS l HII R$ TO TMf f Ol I OR Freemen keep America, FBI trapped in standoff ■ OUR OPINION: Action by th© FBI »s overdue m settling Freemen fiasco After morn than BO days, the standoff between the Freemen of Montana and the FBI has become a boring and ridiculous example of a weird situation turned pathetic. Win Ip the Freemen may no doubt believe the whole country is watching them i lonely, that belief couldn't la* further from the truth, They’re old news There's basketball. t»*e twill and Home lenpmvwiumt reruns to watch. Freemen standoff? Those guys are still holed up in Montana* Freemen Shmeeroen Sheemh. Why don’t ihey }usl give in and give it up? iant go of it? They’ve proven their point — above and beyond the call of absurdity — and now it’s time to go back to betng good, old-fashioned, law abiding, ov er-taxed, over-worked, underpaid and obedient citizens like the rest of us After all. it beats anarchy any day. The rest of Montana appears to lie fed up with the whole scenario, and many citizens have protest ed to get the FBI off its nego tiating rear-end and after the Freemen In essence, Mon* tana is doing everything it can to sic a reluctant FBI watchdog on the had boy Freemen. According to one regional paper, a group of local Mon tana tone her* were planning to take on the Freemen themselves weeks btdore the FBI even arrived. What a sight downtown jordan, Mont., must lie — people marching, protesting and shouting because the FBI un i interfering enough * "Dang it *Ji! Cmoo you bunch*' lily-livered, yellow Mhed Washington bureau it«i sissies' < .fab your assault rifle*, jump in your green lank and go butt tome Freemen butt* Shoo! am with I oar gat and play toma of thorn psychological games on 'em You all hotter mount up and head out real quick like or we're gonna lake matter* in our own hand*!* Montana fanner* have crops to plant and the )00 HU agents are in their way. It's nothing new that the FBI are dear over on the opposite side of the aggros sive policy that encouraged the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (under the fumbling man agement of Attorney General Janet Reno) to roar into David korosh's Waco. Texas compound with a V ton tank With all the time it's tak ing. the FBt could be rewrit ing the book on operational guidelines tv/irie agents sit around watching the Freemen who sit around watching themselves and the FBI. The bottom line is that the FBI needs to settle this fias co very soon How hard would it be for the agency to cut all power (as is currently taring considered! to the Freemen's cabin and to tell the Freemen exactly what is happening, and why it is happening7 That way, there are no surprises, no "final stand” John Wayne heroics, no martyrs and no Armaged don (though this Is hardly a religious struggle). The alternative is that the Freemen are allow ed to con tinue their tantrum and make a mockery of Justice. > iWiMiru 7HCV SAV m F£DtRAL &OVEftWW\£NT HAS NO LEgiT/HAT* Al/TWOftJTV OV'fft ANVTN/A/G r 0O4 T TVfMK WE CAN get THEM OUT BEFORE NOV£tt8£ft AT TVE EAftUEif ' r>* Frtibm§r% ***** M» j M'*Mf n#v'u *rfoor>*Tl w<rv vou Om? >t wv Wv htot N ^jVtW*>*vmf#bO*Mn u*r*inttH / Strippers and the self: Where’s the humanity? All rlghi Keith, you've got to cam* with m thi* am«.' my buddy eatd "Strip club* *r» grant. Those chick* will do anything for * couple buck* * This delightful *dvt<« was given to me by a fiend uh.! mean “friend,~ last weekend As had happened main time* behrre, I era* m a group of guys who. after several hours of alcohol ton sumption, decided it was time to frequent a naughty nudie club Needleaa to say. my refusal to 'go with the flow" waa met with some mild antipathy Wall. a* tuai!v lb* lomroanu were more lik* "WHal ib* hic k am you. • faff and "Don‘I worry ketih, w# won't i*U God " Ha. ha. ha My frumda are m s darn clever aomeiim** living tha lone d>***nt«r cm this topic, I had to **plain that my reluct am* to obym.tify | w«nu«n «<> not a value unique It) homuauvuaU or religion* milots, K JPINIOW to 1*1. believe It ttr run guv*. Catholic* and gay* *wnT the only people who think that Own* »* something a tad bit wrung with making • naked woman crawl on all four* and taka dollar bilb from your hand with her teeth l V* town arguing this point with friends fur years to Util* avail. The response* I got aw the usual orw* atom! women "cJtuosing** to strip, saying they make good money and that nobody b getting hurt What t find mo*t intriguing about my friends* propensity to drool on naked dancers is not so much the sexual dementia manifested in their spilt saliva. What amazes me is their utter inability to consider for a moment what their staring does to the subjects of their gaze. They refuse to think about how it would bed to be that lone, naked woman dancing in a smoke filled bar of howling, drunken men. I guess it makes sense for the gawkers to remain blinded to the dancer's condition: any consideration of her emotional state would yield the peinfui realization that their pleasure is derived at the extreme expense of another human being Sedty. this kind of obsession with seif-indul gence that leeks any sense of moral obligation is not isolated to my friends and their erotic pathologies After four years at the University. I Sieve come to the brilliant conclusion that stu dents era primarily concerned with enhancing their own pleasures All other considerations take a back seat to these priorities. Their actions are governed by the illness of insatiability. Indeed, there is e profound college-aged fasci nation with the self. cc — After four years at the University, l have come to the bnltiant conclusion that students anr primarily com emed with enhancing their own pleasures. 55 Thl* ubMtMton lake* many form* I have been with men *o hung up with eying women, it'* sickening They have been conditioned in the language of mat ho bravado "I'll take that one to head hoard heaven I d go ball* deep in that one “ Their word* lack conscience; their Muring i* devoid of cognixance to their action'* impacts Other students engage the self by posting fences of fear in their psyche. So bent on anger, they resort to term* Uke street rat* and "bum* to demcMttrr the homeless I've walked with friend* who. after being aggressively panhandled, have said. That * the kind of shit tnat make* me wairt to treat those people over the head * We say "white trash* with the me frequency that our parents and grandparent* generations used term* tike "nigger ' We remain wrapped in bight, oblivious to all others within our "’civil* society. One would hope that a liberal university would promote "consideration of fellow human beings." Yet many Mudenu do not mm tht* as a valid collegiate goal, the University is here to prepare us for the "teal world.* and God know* lesson* of humaniMk concern* won’t be useful there These pro wealth majors mw college a» some •oft of monetary incubator Few them. the Uni versity serve* a* a tool to increase the personal consumption of the self No. there is nothing necessarily wrung with being rich. It is only when we champion our own accumulation above all other causes that our social obligation is neglected Leas than 1 percent of the world's population possesses « college degree. If that does nut con note a moral responsibility to do more than sun ply serve ourselves. I don’t know what does. We have been taught to privilege the individ ual and not the society Philanthropy and benevolence ate viewed as archaic wastes of time t'he value of altruism has been marginal teed. * In our culture, self-indulgence is the duty and pleasure is the obligation There must be more important goals kmiih Cunningham, a mtuar ma/anna in English, i* a columnist for the Emerald e-mail LeilhtHtorvgan uoregon.edu
