i
MONDAY: Opinion
TUESDAY: Politics
WEDNESDAY: Opinion
THURSDAY: Politics
FRIDAY: Opinion
editorials, letters, commentary and perspective
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Eugene, OR 97403
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Democracy is alive and well.. .barely
No matter how abused it
may be, the Oregon
initiative process is the
epitome of voter power
According to the Sept. 16
edition of The Register
Guard, it’s just too costly
and “reaches beyond
just ballot overload” to allow peo
ple a direct say in how they will
be governed. They point to the re
cent two-volume Voters’ Pam
phlet as a perfect example of self
government gone ridiculous.
“Volume One will contain mea
sures only and will ‘feature’ 248
pages, making it the largest pam
phlet in state history. What’s to be
done about this overload?”
The Register-Guard’s editorial is
just one in a series of similar com
plaints from all over the state. Op
ponents of the Oregon initiative
process point to the current batch
EH
TT
oi z j Danot
measures as
proof that the
process doesn’t
work, that it is
often used to
enact frivolous
and foolish
laws and that it
is simply too
costly to con
tinue. What
tnese opponents seem to forget or
deliberately ignore is that the ini
tiative process is the closest thing
we have to the exercise of pure
democracy. It allows people to put
political proposals directly before
the voting public, and it allows
that voting public to decide for or
against those proposals.
Opponents urge that the initia
tive process be severely limited or
even eliminated because many of
the ballot measures are ill con
ceived, poorly worded and may do
more harm than good. But, if the
creation of foolish, frivolous and
some
times fraudu
lent laws can be
used as a basis for
eliminating a part of our
governing process, then our
forms of government on local, state
and federal levels would have
been trashed years ago.
Is it a chore to wade through the
248-page pamphlet trying to make
sense of the 23 ballot measures?
Sure is. Each measure not only has
the text of the measure and a neu
tral explanation of its possible ef
fect, but also one or more argu
ments for and against it. Anyone
with $500 to spare or the time to
gather 2500 signatures can get his
or her argument in the pamphlet.
The Register
Guard finds this unnec
essary and excessive, and pro
poses that in the future, the
arguments be limited to one each
per ballot measure. So who gets to
make those arguments? The
process of becoming an informed
voter requires gathering all the in
formation possible, pro and con,
about each measure. If arguments
in the pamphlet are limited, where
do voters turn to get more informa
tion? Apparently, The Register
Guard hopes they will turn to its
editorial pages for the “right” stuff.
Do some of the ballot measures
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald
seem to border on
the absurd? Sure do.
My personal favorite
act of lunacy is Measure 46. ft
would require a majority of regis
tered voters, not a majority of actu
al voters, to approve new taxes.
When was the last time a majority
of registered voters even voted, let
alone voted the same way for any
thing? In a country so proud of its
democratic traditions, voter
turnout has often been less than
half of the total registered to vote.
And the total registered to vote
never comes remotely close to the
number who could vote if they
simply quit complaining, got off
their lazy asses and participated.
Is the initiative process open to
abuse? No doubt about it. Salem
J
eye surgeon Gordon Miller
demonstrates that fact. He person
ally put up the money needed to
push his personal agenda and get
measures 35,41 and 42 on the bal
lot. He hired the signature gather
ers, paid for arguments in the Vot
ers’ Pamphlet, and for all I know
personally crafted the words in the
measure. All of Miller’s measures
would enact foolish, needless and,
in the case of Measure 41, bizarre
legislation. But Miller also demon
strates an inherent strength of the
initiative process. The process al
lows any citizen who feels the ,
need for change in the way govern
ment conducts its business to ask
the rest of the voters to validate
those feelings by actually forcing
that change.
Is the process cumbersome? Yes.
Does it require voters to do more
homework, to become more in
volved in governing? Yes. But with
all its flaws, the ballot measures
represent a process that allows
Oregonians to make decisions
about how they will be governed.
It provides a mechanism in which
every citizen can become a direct
player in the system of checks and
balances that keeps our govern
ment from becoming too abusive
and unresponsive to the people
who are governed.
Instead of complaining about
the size of the Voters’ Pamphlet or
about the foolishness of some of
the measures voters are asked to
decide about, we should be prais
ing the Oregon initiative process as
the purest form of democracy
available to us. It should be held
up as an important and perhaps vi
tal part of our system of self-gov
ernment, and Oregonians should
be glad they live in a state where
such participation is possible.
Larry Haftl, a senior majoring in
journalism, is a columnist for the
Emerald. His views do not necessarily
represent those of the newspaper.
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Fri
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mer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University
ot Oregon. Eugene. Oregon. A member ot the Associated Press, the
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LETTERS
Raise minimum wage
I’m no economist. When I
hear complaints that raising
Oregon’s minimum wage
would hamper some business
es, leading to inflation, my re
tort is born of a simple lower
class logic.
If the business person feels a
pinch in his or her pocketbook,
perhaps his or her vacation to a
tropical isle could be cut short
a day or two. Or the next time
they buy a piece of art, opt for
one that is a few hundred dol
lars less than the last one. And
for some, a little less caviar
might be in order.
When I cast my yes vote for
Measure 36,1 do so to the tune
of a bumper sticker I saved
from the 80s: “Inflation isn’t a
natural disaster. It’s caused by
people who profit from it.”
Star Holmberg
Eugene
Drugs commonplace
Don’t get wrong! I’m a pot
smoker who enjoys the wide
variety of pipes and parapher
nalia that can be found at each
ASUO Street Faire. I’m just cu
rious how the conservative
community can condone this.
Are students’ parents aware
that the University chooses to
make room for vendors who
exist to assist their kids in get
ting high? The war on drugs re
ally is a joke.
John Exline
Eugene
No fences
The election is just around
the corner, and I would like to
clear up the terrible mess that
Measure 38 would cause be
cause of the use of the wrong
title in the measure. It is not
about clean water but wants to
ruin the way ranchers have
lived for over a hundred years.
We have lived here on this
century farm all our married
lives, and my husband,
Melvin’s, grandfather home
steaded it, and he was born
here. We have been planting
the draws and the steep hills to
grass to keep the sediment, our
soil, from getting into the
stream. We have a small creek
that runs through our place,
but it goes dry in May or June,
and we would not like to put
two fences along it. Measure 38
is such that we and other
ranchers would be forced to
fence any creeks in our proper
ty'
This bill will force all live
stock out of Oregon as very few
ranchers can afford to either
fence their streams (the defini
tion of a stream is any location
where water runs two weeks a
year) or sell their livelihood —
the livestock.
This measure is for lawyers,
for if someone sees an animal
drinking out of a pond or
stream on your land, they can
sue you. You would then have
to hire a lawyer to defend you
and then pay your attorney as
well as your opponent’s if you
lose. Farmers are not so rich
that they can afford to pay
lawyers at their high fees.
Therefore, fences are the only
solution.
Farmers already have fences
along the road to keep their
stock off and boundary fences
to keep up, so these fences will
fall down and be a tangled
mess. Oregon will have to
fence their rivers, with the ex
ception of the Willamette and
Columbia. At $10,000 a mile,
that will take a huge chunk of
money from taxpayers’ pock
ets. Also, there will have to be
more employees to pay to keep
these fences repaired especial
ly when deer and elk get hung
up in them.
Everyone wants clean water,
but this is a bad measure. Our
rivers are clean and the live
stock drink out of them, but
they want to say that the tem
perature of the water when it
gets warm makes the water
polluted. But it is the sun and
hot weather that make the wa
ter warm and only God can
change this.
There are sensible ways to
make the water in our state
cleaner, but this measure is not
one of them. Please go to the
polls and vote no on this bad
bill as we don’t need Oregon
fenced. Thank you for voting
no on 38.
Joan Lathrop
Wallowa