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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR
Mike Schmierbach
NIGHT EDITOR
Shannon Sneed
Don’t give China
COLD SHOULDER
AH EMERALD EDITORIAL
The United States has no reason to start a new cold
war with China, especially given its oivn behavior
The Cold War is over. Long
live the Cold War.
For the past seven or
eight years, there have
been some very nervous policy
makers scurrying around Wash
ington and their other haunts. The
Soviet Union is gone. The “Iron
Curtain” has fallen. The Warsaw
Pact is being swallowed by
NATO, and the corruption of cap
italism has replaced the corrup
tion of the Communist Party.
This has left a lot of people
scrambling to justify their jobs.
Foreign policy pundits, whose ex
pertise relied upon a dichotomous
world view, have taken to grap
pling with the many-fronted New
World Order. Arms suppliers and
the Pentagon have begun to argue
that the United States needs to be
prepared to fight two separate
wars at the same time, all in the
interest of continuing to build
massive stacks of weapons.
Nevertheless, nothing has re
placed the glory of the Cold War
years, when throngs of Americans
willingly swallowed every piece
of anti-Soviet propaganda shoved
down their throats.
Enter China.
It isn’t hard to determine why
desperate policy-makers have set
tled upon China as the enemy of
choice. Not only does China have
a sufficient population to provide
a realistic opponent for massive
warfare, but it has fought directly
and indirectly with the United
States in the past. With China as
an enemy, there is no need for
multiple-front scenarios and tales
of terrorists with poison gas; Chi
na alone provides all the justifica
tion the Pentagon needs for its
hundreds of billions of dollars
worth of toys.
Moreover, China is still a nomi
nally Communist state despite on
going reforms designed to force
fully plunge the Chinese people
into the world economy. China’s
"Red” status means we don’t even
have to rewrite our old paranoid
rhetoric about evil empires and
the great Red menace.
The media have been all too
willing to help create a monster
out of China and its president,
Jiang Zemin, who recently toured
the United States on a diplomatic
visit. President Clinton heroically
stood shoulder to shoulder with
Jiang and denounced Chinese
abuses of human rights in a scene
disturbingly reminiscent of the
kitchen debate, and the press
greedily snapped up the camera
ready footage.
Why Clinton wasn’t obsessing
about China’s prison labor and
rights policies earlier when China
once again received Most Favored
Nation trading status, remained
unasked by the media.
China certainly has committed
an assortment of human rights
abuses. Complaints have been
raised about the excessive number
of Chinese citizens who have been
sentenced to death. Notably, the
United States during its recent
anti-crime fervor added a long list
of capital crimes to the federal law
<s>
books.
Perhaps the biggest concern is
China’s use of prison labor. Ac
cording to an article by Carl
Riskin in the Nov. 10 Nation,
however, China’s prisons produce
less titan one-fifth of 1 percent of
the Gross National Product. More
significantly, as Riskin notes, the
United States has long used
prison labor to manufacture a va
riety of products, paying those
prisoners far below minimum
wage.
Even as Americans complain
about tfie use of poorly treated
Chinese laborers, they continue to
purchase clothing and other
goods made in sweatshops do
mestically and abroad. In all the
scandal over Nike’s use of Viet
namese labor, no one has suggest
ed Vietnam’s leader is the next
Stalin.
China’s biggest problems have
little to do with Communism or
its president. Like many develop
ing nations in the region, China is
experiencing the pain of unre
strained global capitalism. The
workers are suffering more from a
polluted environment and a grow
ing inequality of wealth than they
are from the teachings of Mao.
The United States doesn’t need
to fight another Cold War. If we
are concerned about human rights
and the fair treatment of labor, we
should start by worrying about
our own actions and the actions of
those nations we prop up with
foreign aid and investment.
Neither the Chinese citizens
nor the people of the United
States stand to gain from high
minded talk about prison labor
and government suppression.
These issues need to be addressed
on a worldwide level but not in
such a way as to deliberately cre
ate conflict.
The only people who will bene
fit from the current, confronta
tional approach to China are those
same policy-makers who are now
wandering aimlessly, hoping for a
new enemy to justify their
salaries.
This editorial represents the opinion
of the Emerald editorial fxxird. Re
sponses may he sent to ode@ore
gon.uoregon.edu
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Rioting lacks reason
Since when was rioting vanguard at par
ties attended and facilitated by University
students? Yes, I’m the nerdy student who
screamed, “Listen to the voice of reason,”
and: “Don't hurt yourselves. Be careful!”
Maybe I screamed for the rioters to stop for
my own conscience (in case someone was
hurt), or I really do care about the student
body and consequences. Living for today is
fun and games until a van is rocked over and
crushes a student, right? We can sit back and
revel in thrills the Halloween parties
brought, but think about the what ifs. What
if one of your friends was blinded because
glass splinters hit their eyes? Have we be
come so bored that blood is the only solace?
Would social connections and true humani
ty reveal its face if a student had been
crushed? If blood made an appearance, we
could reach out to our friends and pull them
close to cry for the injustice.
At the University we can alter this cliche
from, “If you don’t have something nice to
say, don’t say it” to “If you’re bored and out
of beer, don’t riot.” What kind of precedent
and example are we setting for juveniles and
children that look up to University stu
dents? There can be long term consequences
for the rioting on Alder Street and 17th Av
enue. The Univeisity was partly established
to teach students to ask questions like these
of themselves.
What are the reasons for this growing bore
dom and resulting destruction of public and
private property? Do we need a famine or
slower economy to appreciate the things we
take for granted — food, clean water and
housing? Appreciate the excess and take ad
vantage of your wealth by spreading it
around. Halloween is over! The holiday sea
son is beginning, and I urge students to use
their extra energy and spare beer money to
do the world some good. Be a part social
change, whether it be altering the justice sys
tem or giving an old winter coat to the Salva
tion Army. Do not destroy what others have
diligently worked for because you’re living
the good life. If anything, listen to Otis Red
ding and “sit on the dock of the bay watch
ing the tides roll away.” Axl Rose’s “Ap
petite for Destruction” will lead us down
insufficient paths and end in dissatisfaction.
Sara Bartley
Journalism
MEChA most helpful
On behalf of the students and staff at
Kennedy Middle School, we would like to
express our appreciation for the wonderful
role that University MEChA students have
played in the lives of Latino students at
Kennedy. Through the Ganas Project, these
MEChA volunteers have shared their life sto
ries, their goals and dreams, their tutoring
and their affection and support for our stu
dents.
Week in and week out during the past
school year, MEChA students have devoted
hundreds of hours to teaching these stu
dents about the positive aspects of theircul
ture and history, about the need to be suc
cessful in school, about their potential to be
college students and about the need to be in
formed and active members of their com
munity.
Role models play a key role in the world
of a middle school student. Far too often our
students are presented with negative and
self-destructive role models and media im
ages. The MEChA students have served as
powerful role models of productive, positive
and caring young adults. The University
community should be proud of the long-last
ing contributions by these MEChA students.
Our sincere thanks are also extended to
Ganas initiator and guiding spirit, Jim Gar
cia, acting director of the University Office
of Multicultural Affairs. Valuable support
for Ganas has also been provided by Univer
sity Associate Vice President Jim Buck.
Their recognition of the potential of this dy
namic University-Kennedy program has
been essential to its success.
Kay Mehas
Principal, Kennedy Middle School
Kevin Boling
Assistant Principal, Kennedy M.S.
and one co-signer
International honor society
I wanted to draw your attention to a very
special group of students omitted in your ar
ticle on “Students to carve jack o’ lanterns
for children, elderly” (ODE, Oct. 28). This
group is the Golden Key National Honor So
ciety in which several of our members par
ticipated in Sunday’s event in conjunction
with the Mortar Board Honor Society. In
fact, the success of the event would not have
been possible without their enthusiasm, as
well as the donation of several very large
pumpkins by growers from the Eugene Sat
urday Market.
Golden Key National Honor Society is
now an international junior and senior hon
or society, boasting of active chapters in all
fifty states as well as in Canada, Australia
and Malaysia with continued global expan
sion and cooperation as a major goal. Our
school has 250 current members and will be
holding a reception for this year’s initiates
in December.
Though in the past our group has not
been widely known, I believe that the suc
cess of our first event points to a positive
change in this trend. It is also interesting to
note that the idea for “Pumpkins for Pedi
atrics” came from the accidentally e-mailed
meeting minutes of the Golden Key chapter
at Dartmouth. Therefore, not only does the
success of this service project demonstrate
people’s willingness to help, but that coop
eration between honor societies is both a
must and a positive, and that utilizing new
technologies can dramatically increase our
outreach to others in need. Most important
ly, it proves that the children’s smiles made
it all worth our efforts.
Sincerely and thanks to all of our partici
pants from both groups.
Tiffany Helleson
President, Oregon Golden Key Chapter