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.
>
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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