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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.