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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1997)
COHTACTIHG US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL: P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon. uoregon.edu Eugene, Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: darkwing.uoregon.edu/~ode Perspectives EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Kickler editorial editor Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Mike Schmierbach Legislature tails to respect voters’ wishes By sending Measure 16 back to the voters as Measure 51, the Legislature has insulted the decision-making ability of Oregonians. Once upon a time, there was a city called Athens. In Athens, they had a system known as democracy, in which all the male citizens got together and voted on the fate of their community. Time passed. Athens got conquered many times over for reasons historians still debate. Eventually, a bunch of guys got tired of paying taxes, so they revolted. The results of that revolu tion were a new nation, the United States, and a new system of government. This system has at times been called a democra cy. It is not. The United States is in fact a republic, in which the citizens elect representatives. These representatives then vote on the fate of their com munity. In Athens, people voted for whatever suited their needs. In the United States, representatives vote for the needs of whomever gives them the most money. Both systems have their flaws. In many Western states, an attempt to compen sate for these flaws has been made — the referen dum. In a referendum, voters decide upon legisla tion themselves, rather than trusting the legislature to screw it up for them. Oregon, as you probably know, is one of these states. Recently, however, it seems the Legislature has decided that, if the voters make decisions themselves, corporations will give less money to the representatives. Or not. Regardless, the Oregon Legislature has directly altered or contradicted the wishes of the voters by “fixing” laws passed by the initiative process. One such bill, Measure 47, was placed back on the ballot as Measure 50. The measure was a new and improved tax cut, one less likely to flunk a constitutional test and more likely to conceal the real cost of the ignorance of Oregon’s voters. Worse, the Legislature further insulted the voters by changing Measure 50 after it had already been placed on the ballot, essentially proclaiming that the voters were little more than a rubber stamp for legislative needs. Now, the Oregon Legislature has topped itself. In 1994, the voters narrowly passed Measure 16, which legalized doctor assisted suicide. At the urging of Gov. John Kitzhaber, among oth ers, the Legislature took up the issue. The idea was that it would do to Measure 16 what it did to Mea sure 47 — fix some of the questionable language while, in theory, leaving the voters’ intent intact. Instead, the Legislature decided we hadn't done our homework and sent Measure 16 back to the ballot as Measure 51. A yes vote on 51 would over turn 16, maintaining the status quo in Oregon, where assisted suicide is currently illegal. Regardless of the merits of assisted suicide (which will be addressed in Tuesday’s Emerald), we think Measure 51 should be rejected as insult #>0' AW EMERALD EDITORIAL _Part 1 of 2_ ing to the voters of Oregon. If the Legislature was concerned with ambigui ties contained within Measure 16, it should have addressed those concerns differently. Either by lobbying during the initial vote or by recommend ing changes in the wording of the measure, the Leg islature could have improved the law without vio lating the wishes of Oregon’s voters. Instead, Oregon’s official lawmakers have decid ed to bar all those without an office in Salem from participating in the legislative process. The prece dent set by the Measure 51 fiasco is frightening; each time a law passes that the Legislature does not favor, it can simply send it back to the voters. The situation is rather like a teacher standing in front of a classroom, asking her students questions: "Does anyone here have an opinion on assisted suicide?” "Yes, I’m in favor of it.” Sorry, Timmy. That’s wrong. Let’s try again.” The voters of Oregon did their homework in 1994. Despite being overwhelmingly outspent, the proponents of Measure 16 won. Assisted suicide should be legal by now. Instead, all the citizens of Oregon have received is another insult from their representatives. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald ed itorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregoti. u Oregon. edu. Drawing Board X?U CAN’T buy US, _ JUST RENT us/ ».umoh...<An A Customer ^HARfiE U$ AlATEFff? Thumbs /I TO PORTLAND: The city already has a taw requiring alt its agencies to treat people of every sexual orien tation equally. Now it has proposed ex panding this law to include businesses contracted to do workforthecrty.lt makes no sense to allow companies to treat employees differently because of whom the em ployees sleep with, and Portland has taken an important step in expanding common sense. TO CASSINI: The probe, which will explore Sat urn, contains more than SO pounds of plutonium. NASA insists this plutoni um is perfectly safe and there is no risk of it conta minating the Earth. This is the same NASA that insisted the space shuttle could never blow up. It is also the same NASA that has seen two rock ets explode on the launch pad or shortly after liftoff in the last couple years. The risk of radiation from Cassini maybe very low, but the scientific need to send a probe to Saturn is even low er. Why risk the entire Earth for a little planet watch ing? TO THE ADD DROP DEADLINE: While we agree with administrative concerns about getting into class es after two or three weeks, we don’t think a week is long enough to get a clear idea of how a class wilt af fect your workload or what a profes sor will be like. If students are hav ing a hard time getting classes, policies concern ing wait lists and expanded class sizes need to be re fined and clarified.
