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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1998)
r1 CONTACTING US NtWSKUUM: (541)346-5511 E-MAIL: ode<®oregon. uoregon.edu ADDRESS: Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. BOX 3159 Eugene, Oregon 97403 .nit cui imn. www.uureyuii.euu/~oae EDITOR IN CHIEF Sarah Kickler EDITORIAL EDITOR Mike Schmierbach NIGHT EDITOR Teri Meeuwsen Youth violence requires broad approach No one cause or solution can be highlighted in cases such as the Thurston shooting The storm is passing. With a tremendous roar, the national media and the pundits they like to quote descended May 21 upon Springfield, drenching us with their vision of the “big story. ” Not to be left behind, local media responded in kind — The Register-Guard still dedicates four or five stories each day to the "Thurston tragedy." Now that they’re gone and the collective wisdoir of every hack advocate and lobbyist has departed with them, maybe we can finally think about the situation with a clear head. What an unusual ap proach that would be. We don’t know what would make a student kill his parents, carry three guns to school, and begin shooting random people eating breakfast in the cafeteria. More important, our desire to explain the shooting is limited. The violent events at Thurston are tremendously significant to the community, and many people in the area are probably asking themselves, their fami lies and their children some critical questions about personal views and behaviors. As a newspa per, however, it isn’t our job to dissect every aspect of this particular case or community. What concerns us is what makes this case truly upsetting — not that it was a stunning and rare event that briefly brought the attention of the na tion’s media to Eugene — but that it was part of a common and dangerous trend of youth violence. This violence isn’t isolated to the schoolyard and it usually doesn't receive more than a passing mention in the press. For every Thurston shooting, there are dozens of young people who die in the in ner city. Even as crime rates decline across the nation, levels of youth violence continue to rise. There are many people who are interested in explaining this, and those people were out in full force during the media storm surrounding the Thurston shooting. It shouldn’t take an event such as Thurston for the media to ask for explanations for youth vio lence. Conversely, people shouldn’t rely on events such as Thurston as an excuse to provide explana tions. Too many of those explanations had little or nothing to do with the specifics of Thurston. While we cannot view the events in Springfield as isolated, it's important to recognize that there are aspects of the shooting that are unique to the individuals involved and the community they live in. Those unique aspects were largely ignored by the pundits who weighed in with their profound understanding of why violence happens. Instead, every person had an agenda that went along with his or her answer. Some of those agendas are admirable. The shoot ings could not have happened had the suspect not had easy access to a gun, as gun control advocates are keen to point out. But the gun didn’t leap into someone’s hand and start firing itself— it took a combination of other factors to pull the trigger. Even those groups we support do themselves and the anti-violence cause a disservice by making Thurston into little more than an opportunity for an advocacy lecture. Gun control, improved schools and stronger communities are important for stopping all violence, but none of these factors alone or in combination can adequately explain what happened in Springfield. When advocates rely on isolated events such as Thurston to push their agendas, the debate over youth violence becomes distorted. The majority of violent juvenile crime happens in cities and yet rarely is mentioned. Effective policies for dealing with this crime need to be formed based upon an overall view of the situation, rather than the advo cates’ gut reactions to a media-saturated event. We certainly don’t claim to know what the best approach to solving juvenile crime is, but UMHis HUiUHiNSUN/tmerald we do know it will require a combination of many approaches, most of which will have to be tailored to the community where they are imple mented. Many of the people who threw out ex planations for Thurston made valuable points, but those points are only really valuable when taken in combination with the dozens of other explanations. Dealing with violence requires an understand ing of the problem not as consisting of isolated incidents stemming from isolated causes, but rather as a complex pattern of societal discord that has roots in many underlying problems at the individual, community, family, cultural and national levels. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial hoard. Responses may he sent to ode@oregon. uoregon edu. Drawing Board 5ump>-pto/ Step down !/! w ;op rv. Tjiftuepits' i / «v/*W6«>D' 'WfYW KH.UP Kfnnri/ / Wo*Aat? I .. AMP Tut wewntfM Who low MM. I ***T XPIWSORWOC* ■IS fj-imi a* 'x; PAT’ _Sc«MT*frf SAY A Mtrton storm rw»5 fau. aauio OrjTROY TtlKiOAVWOMKATVW SAY*urrtS ' f Of^TWt MertORS, o Thumbs /] I_ 1 TO A STUDY INDI CATING INCREAS ING SUPPORT OF GAYS: According to a story in The Regis ter-Guard, only 56 percent of people disapprove of homo sexuality, down from more than 70 per cent mere decades ago. While that num ber should be zero, we are still glad to see indications that Americans are be coming more intelli gent, at least on this subject. Also signifi cant, support for many homosexual causes, such as same-sex marriage and domestic part ner benefits, is also increasing. Never theless, it is impor tant to remember that in this case, like many in America, the majorily continues to hold a bigoted hatred of that which is dif ferent. We must con tinue fighting for equality. TO GENDER IN EQUALITY IN HEALTHCARE: As was pointed out in The Register Guard a few weeks ago, medicine con tinues to be a man’s world. The latest in dication of this is Vi agra: The New York Times reported on Thursday that federal’ health insurance programs will pay for the anti-impo tence pill. Mean while, as the Guard story noted, health care services that are important to women still don’t receive funding. Birth con trol and abortion may not "treat” med ical conditions, but they are important tools women useto maintain their physi cal, mental and emo tional well-being. CORRECTION In the article “The iceman cometh" (ODE, May 29), Charles DuPree’s salary should have been listed as $100 a day. The Emerald regrets the error.
