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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1997)
T EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Steven Asbury MANAGING EDITOR: Thom Schoenbom NIGHT EDITOR: Shannon Sneed Mike Schmierhach EDITORIAL EDITORS: Ashley Bach & Brian Diamond editorials, letters, commentary and perspective NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 DISPLAY ADVERTISING: (541) 346-3712 BUSINESS OFFICE: (541) 346-5512 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: (541)346-4343 SH Enjoy Springtime while it lasts Warm spring days were meant to be spent outside in the sun, not in a stuffy lecture hall Call it spring fever. Call it cabin fever. Call it senioritis, or junioritis, or sophomoritis or freshmanitis. Whatever it is, it makes me and a great deal of the student body very eager to get out of the classroom and into the sunshine. Finally, after months of gray skies and rain, that orange orb floating in space has revealed itself to us. Around campus, flowers are blooming and their sweet scents drift past our noses as we walk to the academic jailhouses known as Willamette, Gilbert, PLC.... Why do we do this to ourselves? Why torture ourselves this way? We are slaves to the lecturer, taking notes as fast as we can. We busy ourselves by participating in group discussions anu auenaing three-hour labs and studios. And for what? A good grade, mavbe an A ora B, or sometimes just to get by with a (gulp) C? Okay, so maybe grades and the like are impor tant, but just as the knowledge we receive in the classroom is fundamen tal to our future endeavors (sup posedlv), so are the truths we learn from living life itself. And truly living means more than just going through the mo tions. It involves valuing everything we do and everything around us. For some reason, many of us have it in our heads that taking time out for ourselves is not important, that stopping to smell the roses is something that can always wait for another day. But it can’t, because taking the time to enjoy life is something that needs to be done every day. There is nothing like lying down on soft grass — not the mushy, water-soaked grass of the Oregon rainy season, but soft, dry, freshly cut grass — while letting the sun soak through the layers of clothing and skin which envelop our bodies and listening to the quiet music of birds, or the wind, or water passing by or melodious notes coming from a nearby guitar. The bliss from just being is a relaxation far too often overlooked when the days are hectic and short, as they always seem to be. So it is up to us to find time to enjoy the spring weather while we can, before the dreaded allergies kick in and we have to run with muffled screams [because our pollen-induced asthma prevents us from having enough lung power for a proper scream) back into the formerly mentioned air-conditioned sweat shops of academia. Come rain or shine, the beauty of the Willamette Valley is right outside your door. But if the sun is shining and you find yourself jotting down note after useless note, remember tbe roses outside are just waiting to be smelled. We work to get by, but we play in order to live. Laura Daniel, a junior majoring in biology, is a columnist for the Emerald. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the paper. CHRIS HUTCHlNSOWEmerald LETTERS ASUO matters An editorial in the April 16 Emer ald argued that students have no real reason to participate in the election process because activities of the ASUO do not significantly affect stu dents’ lives. This is a very negative and unconstructive view, and more over, wrong in many ways. The ASUO affects any student in any programs funded by incidental fees, as well as any student who takes advantage of the privileges those fees provide. Take the current LTD bill. How many students ride the bus to and from campus, or as their only way to travel around Eugene? It does not make sense for students to ignore the ASUO when popular vote determines the future of many students’ programs and privileges. Unfortunately, the ASUO isn’t as visible as it could be, but it shouldn’t require overly drastic changes to rem edy this. Some candidates for ASUO Exec, mentioned publishing a newsletter in the Emerald periodical ly. Why shouldn't Miner/Unger adopt the idea? Also, another recent editorial in the Emerald highlighted many mishaps of the election process this year. A few minor changes like adding more vot ing booths in different areas of cam pus could dramatically improve voter turnout. Voting for measures and candidates determines where our six million dol lars go. The ASUO does need to make itself more visible and accessible, but it’s more important that we students realize that voting affects each of us. Michael Medlock Political Science It’s up to US This letter is in response to the April 16 editorial regarding the ASUO and the student body. First off, let me reiterate your opinion: "Campus apa thy relates solely to student govern ment. not general activism.” I’m sorry to say that your opinion is a tragic delusion of what apathy is. Your opinion expresses exactly the kind of apathy that has captured this campus as well as this country. Our student government upholds the democratic concept of representa tion of the student body by other stu dents who have been elected to those positions. It has been said that a de mocratic government is only as good as the people it governs. With this be ing true, then your assessment of the ASUO can only be a diagnosis of your own apathy. Your answer to the “problem” of apathy within the ASUO is “genuine reform.” Reform seems to be a conve nient scapegoat for our own problems of apathy. The “genuine reform” you speak of must genuinely occur in all of us — not the system. The system is only what we make of it. If you are unsatisfied with the way things are going, then you have the ability to express yourself through the system. The responsibility of the sys tem to represent me and you ultimate ly lies in our hands. Remember the politicians that rep resent us didn’t get there without go ing through elections. They were cho sen by me and you. The leadership and justice we all desire out of our stu dent government, or the federal gov ernment for that matter, is up to us to decide. John Skalberg Undeclared Enough is enough Over the last couple of months, I’ve heard again and again about how Footnotes is complaining about losing their current space. Well, enough is enough. It seems Footnotes is capable of only two things: whining and un derhanded tricks. Not only have they whined to the EMU Board, but to all the students in the newspaper and around campus. Then there were their actions, which speak much louder than their words. The most recent action was the mis use of the computing resources here at the University. Footnotes decided that they had the power to subscribe thou sands of students to an e-mail list urg ing the support of the ballot measure for Footnotes. This was all done without permis sion or knowledge of the students. I urge everyone to vote against the Foot notes ballot measure and send a mes sage to Footnotes that we are tired of their whining and tricks. I also call for a public apology from Footnotes con cerning their recent actions. Dan Pierson History Brad Smith and Kari Shelton The people have spoken. Our fa vorite comedi ans took in a re sounding 174 votes in last week’s ASUO Executive prima- | ry race. What this says about our student body, we’re not sure, but what it says about the tickets of Osi tis/Terry, 4 Smith/John and Madrid/Sal 2000 j is perfectly clear. Campus history j The five-part cre ative manifesto in the Emerald this week by our very own Dennis Bolt has us all thinking about the past. Univer sity tradition is so important to j allot us,...aw, forget it. I | V Peruvian government Tiie government i raid on rebels who had 71 hostages captive in the Japanese ambassador’s mansion ended the four-month old crisis Tues day. But it also resulted in the deaths of 17 rebels, hostages and soldiers — the first casual ties since the rebels took con trol on Dec. 17. The bloodshed was unneces sary. Keiko The killer whale and Newport resident may be i released to the wild next year...awww, that’s great. Guess what? We don't care.
