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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1997)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL P.0 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 Shannon Sneed AN EMERALD EDITORIAL The tension in the West University area is more complex than police fighting student dunking Get ready for some shocking news: University students drink alcohol. Some of us drink enough to get sick, belligerent or non-selectively amorous. In recent weeks, a few University students have moved beyond that stage and engaged in activities detri mental to the campus-area communi ty. Local police and media have la beled two evenings “riots,” and to some extent the word seems accept able. We certainly don’t want to con done the behavior of certain partygo ers at the two Eugene “riots.” Throw ing bottles, destroying city property and acting stupidly are irresponsible behavior whether you have been drinking or not. In the aftermath of Eugene’s string of uncivil disobedience, the local me dia and University officials have been focusing on the role underage student drinking has played in the situations. There is nothing wrong with trying to combat irresponsible drinking. All University students, not just those under the arbitrary 21-year-old boundary, need to be careful about their drinking habits. Drinking enough to adversely affect your health or judgment is dangerous. Nevertheless, the fact that the me dia chose to highlight college drink ing only after the riots bothers us. One, it indicates an earlier failure on the part of the media to deal with the issue. Two, it suggests underage drinking was the primary factor in the riots. No matter how The Register-Guard and the police attempt to ignore them, the facts indicate otherwise. Many of those involved in the par ties, and many of those arrested by the police, were not underage. More important, the majority of those ar rested in the riots were not Universi ty students. The Register-Guard has consistent ly ignored this in their coverage of the recent campus-area events. Sun day’s Guard provides a perfect exam I pie of the way the local newspaper has covered the situation. In Sunday’s City/Region section, there were two stories that were clearly inspired by the earlier riots. One story, “Key to plan: students’ desire to socialize,” by Cami Swan son, focused on a University-spon sored discussion on curbing on-cam pus substance abuse. The conference is admirable, but the placement of the story and the deci sion to cover it clearly associated concerns about on-campus drinking with the riots. The other story, by Tad Shannon, who regularly covers the University, discussed Shannon’s Friday night. The intrepid reporter tagged along with police and talked to students who were drinking in bars or getting in trouble with the cops. Shannon was undoubtedly hoping he could cover another riot, but he came back with a badly conceived piece of journalism that is indicative of the inaccurate coverage the Guard has provided of the riots and poten tial solutions to the “problem.” Every part of the story focuses on the actions of students Friday evening, from his lead and its discussion of “small bands of students” to his de cision to focus on students drinking at bars and being ticketed for open containers. What the Guard and other local media have missed while covering the story is the reality of tension in the campus area. By casting this ex clusively as a University problem, where drunk students irresponsibly squabble with police, the media have presented the riots as a conflict between students and community. The reality is that the community itself is the source of the tension. Even in the West University area, a variety of groups coexist, often un der less-than-peaceful circum stances. The animosity certain mem bers of the Eugene community feel toward the police stems not from al cohol use but from this ongoing ten sion. From the decision to ban dogs and skateboards on 13th Avenue and close the park on 14th Avenue to the choice to place police between pro testers and tree-cutters on June 1, business owners and politicians have used police to manipulate cer tain groups within the Eugene com munity. Many of these individuals have nothing to do with the University. The fact that most of those arrested in the West University area are not students — not just on the nights of the riots but as a whole — indicates that tension with police is felt pri marily by those who live in the Uni versity area but don’t attend school. The issues raised by rioting in the University area go beyond student drinking or hatred of the police. When The Register-Guard and other media focus only on one aspect of an ongoing conflict, they ignore the re alities of the community they claim to cover. Such reporting, which se lects two groups — police and stu dents — and places them in opposi tion, not only shows a lack of incentive but does a disservice to the community. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses may be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu. Drawing Board FAST TRACK: THE Third rail... 1 Thumbs TO THE NANNY SENTENCE: White a life sen tencefora 19 year-old girl seemed a bit harsh, and white we admit that cer tain facts in the case are debat able, the judge's decision in the Woodward case is unfortunate. There is no reason a person should spend less than a year in jail for killing an infant, especially when that killing was done out of igno rance and by SPLITTING THE 9TH CIRCUIT: Congress delayed for a year dividing the massive U,S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. De spite this delay, during which time the Supreme Court is supposed to discuss the matter, we still object to the Re publican pushto split the district for political rea sons. While the court is by far the largest district, the reason it often runs behind is be cause Congress has been slow in confirming Clin ton’s nominations to fill empty seats. A plan to modify the court needs to be devised, but we reject current pro posals that are de signed to ensure the court, which is currently very lib eral, takes on a more conserva tive slant. , CORRECTION The letter to the edi tor titled “Hunger and homeless” (ODE, Nov. 17) written by Karen Patterson and Bryan Schilling should have said, "These aim to in crease public awareness and to reduce the disturb ing prevalence of hunger and home less.” The Emerald regrets the error.