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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1998)
CONTACTING US NEWSROOM: ADDRESS: (541)346-5511 Oregon Daily Emerald E-MAIL: P.O.BOX 3159 ode@oregon. uoregon.edu Eugene. Oregon 97403 ONLINE EDITION: www.uoregon.edu/~ode EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Mike Schmierbach Let Martin ride \ The PGA needs to admit golf isn V about walking by letting Casey Martin use a cart Some people consider golf an ancient and admirable institu tion, important because of the skill required and the history involved. Others take a disdainful view of the sport, see ing it as a silly excuse to pollute local waterways with chemi cals and fertilizers while whacking a little white ball with a stick. Frankly, it doesn't mat ter. Most of the time, golf is of interest only to a few people who hold something closer to the former view of the sport. In recent days, however, golf has become a political event. Sure, golf has always been po litical simply because too many presidents have de cided to drop too many bombs while out on the links. More recently, though, the golf course has become the latest field of battle for the fight over the Americans with Disabilities Act. Casey Martin is suing the Professional Golf Association for the right to use a cart while play ing on the tour. Martin, who suffers from a rare disorder that affects the flow of blood in his leg, says that walking an entire course is extremely difficult and could worsen his condition. The PGA doesn’t claim Martin can play without a cart. It simply refuses to let him play with a cart. The rea son: According to the association and many of its players, the walk is an in tegral part of the game of golf. Maybe we just don’t understand. Maybe, if we'd been raised in the ap propriate country-club environment, we would see that golf is such a holy sport that using a cart would violate its very essence. As it happens, we don't think golf is defined by the solemn, caddy-as sisted march across the course. Golf, it seems to us, is about hitting a ball into a hole. That may be silly or it may be profound — it certainly re quires considerable skill — but it has very little to do with using or not us inga cart. Under the dis abilities act, reasonable accommo dations must be made to allow dis abled people to use public facilities. A federal court has already ruled that the act does apply to the PGA, saying the tour is a commercial enter prise and the courses are places of "public accommodation,” according to the Associated Press. This means it is now up to the court to decide if allowing Martin to use a cart would unreasonably skew er the playing field. As we said, we CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald don’t think it does. When we think of golf, we think “stick, ball, hole." “Hike” never comes into play. Some players have argued that, even if the walk is not an integral part of the game, allowing Martin to use a cart would give him an unfair advan tage because he won't be fatigued from marching across the course. Many writers and observers have pro posed a perfectly reasonable solu tion: allow all players to use - carts. If members of the tour are so obsessed with the aesthetic of the sport, they can walk. Those play ers who would rather climb into a cart for whatever advan tage it might give them can power up the four-wheeler if V so inclined. It’s hard to resist the temptation to mock the PGA for taking golf so se riously. As it happens, the tour and many of its players take the sport very seriously, though. There lore, at a serious level, we believe the spirit of golf will be better upheld by allowing a player who cares about the game to participate than by ban ning him because he can’t chase after his ball on foot. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial hoard. Responses may lx sent to ode@oregon. uotvgon edit jlPITOB’S HQTi Editor’s note: In previous stories deal ing with the Danta Graham-Preston sexu al misconduct cases, people have been quoted labeling Gra ham-Preston as a “rapist.” The Emerald wants to clarify that Graham-Preston has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct and found in violation of the Student Conduct Code. He has not been charged with or con victed of rape. His cas es have been remand ed to the University Appeals Board by University President Dave Frohnmayer. lETTiBS TO THE EDITOR ‘More responsible choice’ Your Roe vs. Wade celebration ar ticle by Michael Burnham (ODE, Jan. 23) fell short, by quite a bit, from be ing objective, professional journal ism. The pro-abortion viewpoints were given twice the space as the pro-life views. The pro-life space left out our reasoning and explanations and merely stated our objectives. In addition you used the term “anti choice” to refer to our initiative, thus adopting our opponent’s rhetoric as your own. “Anti-choice” is unfair given that our initiative leaves the woman with her current full array of choices for the first three months of pregnancy. In other words, if you get pregnant in June, you have until September to do whatever you choose. Rather than “anti-choice,” you could have said “more responsible choice” or “less barbaric choice.” It is reasonable for a society that allows a mother to kill the child in her womb to require her to do it early, rather than half the way through the birthing process. Only 25 percent of Americans support abor tion in the second trimester or later. A majority of Americans even oppose first trimester abortions if you allow exceptions for rape, incest, severe birth defects and life of the mother. A woman told me how her daughter had an abortion in the eighth month. If she had inconvenienced her life for less than a month longer, she could have blessed that child with life and a childless couple with a baby and charged lives for generations. Barry Williams Communications Director, Lane County Oregon Citizens Alliance The article “Case decision sparks protest on campus” (ODE, Feb. 3) re ported inaccurate information. ASUO President Bill Miner’s quote should have read, “People need to be aware that we have an alleged rapist on cam pus, and we don’t want him here.” Ad ditionally, in the article "Frohnmayer asks board to review cases” (ODE, Feb. 2) Miner’s quote should have read, “I don’t want to ... know that my female friends are walking around on campus with an alleged rapist.” In Hannah Dillon’s column “Book store backbones” (ODE, Feb. 3), Robert Canaga should have been identified as art supply buyer for the Fine Arts De partment of the University Bookstore. The photo of a skull accompanying the story “Remains of the Day” (ODE, Feb. 4) should have been identified as a modern harbor seal skull. The Emerald regrets the errors. Thumbs; To The Register Guard: Eugene, as a college town, of fers many oppor tunities for educa tion about diversity. Not only does the Universi ty strive to teach tolerance and un derstanding, but the Eugene com munity is enriched by the presence of a varied student body. So why is it that editorial writ ers at The Regis ter-Guard consis tently display a profound igno rance of the issues surrounding rape and sexual as sault? In an earlier editorial, we ex pressed our dis gust with the Guard for express ing archaic and de structive attitudes about rape when it suggested that the women who have accused Danta Graham-Preston of sexual miscon duct couldn't have been raped be cause they had pri or sexual contact with him. Now, af ter the Frohnmay er decision, the Guard has re asserted its igno rance. The latest editorial reads, in part: “Both women are accusing the defendant of hav ing sexual inter course with them without their per mission even though each ac knowledges hav ing a prior sexual relationship with the man and hav mg agreeo 10 spend the night in his house.” As be fore, the Guard is perpetuating the myth that women somehow “ask" for rape by putting themselves in close contact with a man. Regardless ofFrohnmayer’s decision or the merits of the cas es, it is crucial that the Guard and oth ers recognire rape as a question of consent. Past sex ual histories or overnight stays do not constitute con sent and should not be used to jus tify sexual inter course if it was un wanted.
