Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Friday
January 14,2000
Volume 101, Issue xx
Emerald
Rememberin
words
u
I
’ have a dream.”
You can’t deny
that these words
. are some of the
most powerful ever spoken.
They resonate with double
meaning. They resonate with
the voice of the man who
spoke them. They resonate
with a certain shared feeling.
They still resonate today.
On Monday, we celebrate
Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Some would say that after 37
years, the message of King
and of the Civil Rights Move
ment has had its day — that
the country is a better place.
Some would say that we’ve
not gone nearly far enough
that the country still faces
the enormously complex is
sue of racism. Both are true.
What King would say,
however, we know for sure.
He already said it. So on this
weekend before we get the
day off from school we
might take a moment and re
member the words he really
spoke. And the most famous
occasion on which he articu
lated his ideas, his philoso
phy, his expectations and his
goals was the “I Have a
Dream” speech on the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial on
August 28,1963. Here are
some highlights.
“When the architects of
our republic wrote the mag
nificent words of the Consti
tution and the Declaration of
Independence, they were
signing a promissory note to
which every American was
to fall heir. This note was a
promise that all men would
be guaranteed the inalien
able rights of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness,”
King said in the first few pas
sages of his speech. Today,
this issue of inheritance is
still with us. All Americans,
whether just off the boat or
bred by native-born parents,
deserve the rights guaranteed
to them by the constitution.
Yet every day we sjee cases
where immigrants working
in this country with full
citizenship are labeled
“outsiders.”
King himself was labeled
an outsider at the time, but
he resisted such jabs because
in the struggle for attaining
equal rights and respect,
King knew that conflicts
would arise. A good leader
anticipates hardships and
obstacles. Later in the
speech, King addressed this
issue of keeping a cool head
and a warm heart: “In the
process of gaining our right
ful place we must not be
guilty of wrongful deeds. Let
us not seek to satisfy our
thirst for freedom by drink
ing from the cup of bitterness
and hatred.” What powerful
words what powerful
words. In this, what we call
the new century, bitterness
and hatred run rampant. Peo
ple seem angry at life in gen
eral: at their economic situa
tion, at the government, at
their social status. We need
only reflect back on
Columbine to see what this
anger sows: two young men
who did drink from that cup.
In putting forth ideals
about what is promised to us
and what we should do to
cultivate that lustrous
birthright we call citizen
ship, King begins one of the
most famous passages in his
tory: “I say to you today, my
friends, that in spite of the
difficulties and frustrations
of the moment, I still have a
dream. It is a dream deeply
rooted in the American
dream. I have a dream that
one day this nation will rise
up and live out the true
meaning of its creed: ‘We
hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men
are created equal.’” For all
the talk today about whether
the American Dream is still
alive, the answer is that it is
still alive in its truest sdhse,
as King explained some 30
years ago. The American
Dream is not necessarily that
we can all rise above each
other, from rags to riches, to
make a name for ourselves,
but rather it is the notion that
we all have the ability, the
talent, the worth, the grace
and the innate humanity to
succeed. The dream is held
within ourselves, and it is
promised to us merely by our
walking on this soil.
In the most powerful
proclamation of the whole
speech, King finally artic
ulates his most personal
wish: “I have a dream
that my four children will <
one day live in a nation
where they will not be
judged by the color of
their skin but by the con
tent of their character.”
And this is one dream
that we are still working
on. For every stereotype, for
every racist joke, for every
deceiving statistic, there is a
person in pain. People laugh at
the idea of a utopia, of an Aca
dian place where everyone
gets along. As long as people
believe that dreams can never
become reality, they won’t.
King’s dream won’t. Exam
ples of tragic crimes such as
the Texas dragging death of a
black man, the beating death
of Matthew Shepard, the
New York City Police De
partment’s murder of an
African immigrant with the
force of 41 bullets and even
the workplace violence that
has erupted in Seattle and
Atlanta over the last six
months bring emphatically
to our attention that anger ex
ists in all facets of our lives.
On that note, the master of
turning the forces of anger
into forces of peace ends his
speech with a note of hope
and joy for what the future
can bring. Take the words to
heart because they are just as
poignant today as they were in
the throws of the Civil Rights
Movement:
“When we let freedom
ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every ham
let, from every state and
every city, we will be able
to speed up that day when all
God’s children, black men
and white men, Jews and
Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words
of the old Negro spiritual,
‘Free at last! free at last!
thank God Almighty, we are
free at last!’”
On Monday, we are not in
school. Sure, you can sleep
in. But if you do, be sure to
dream.
This editorial represents the opin
ion of the Emerald editorial board.
Responses may be sent to ode@
oregon.uoregon.edu.
Media merger helpsfriendly people annoy us
Bret
Jacobsen
• K ► * f k % t *. *
/v coupie or seemingly unrelat
ed happenings conspired recent
ly to show me the future of a con
nected world, and it isn’t pretty.
First, America Online
merged with Time Warner, cre
ating a dazzling offer of fast con
sumer Internet services with
tremendous content synergy
available in the very near future.
It had some dreaming about
a wonderful new opportunity
for consumers to enjoy the
splendors of a gluttonous soci
ety. It had others shaking their
fists at the sky admonishing us
to be wary of a competition
starved market of behemoth
conglomerates ready to squash
the little entrepreneur at every
opportunity. But while there
are extremes on both sides, the
general sentiment seems to be a
conclusion that we’ll all pull
through relatively unscathed
and ty^t a grp^tp^ gqnqeptiqq fq ,
*, t * MU M lis» t M » 1 M • ‘ i i
*s ( Ui H f n H « * m
those around us will improve
life for all of us.
Not so! Say I.
A few hours after the merger
I sat down at my computer to
pretend to do homework. I
clicked on my AOL Instant
Messenger to distract myself
from more pressing tasks. And,
as is my punishment from the
gods of interconnectivity, I was
contacted unsolicited by som
well-intentioned pubescent girl
seeking to broaden her base of
friends.
It will suffice to say for this
purpose that I am not huge on
weaving a tapestry of small talk
with complete strangers and
that I would rather venture into
a liberal’s manifesto than kill
that much time with one per
son with whom I will never
share any real bond.
And that interruption indeed
, itst^ rub,qf% p^rcpnpqqtpd ,
* I fc « v * » * » f t f • ? > ♦ } i * i t | f
» t * * % > * t f I « t » I > » I t 4 j f f * t :
world the mass media believes
is the greatest thing since free
high definition television
broadcasting rights.
However, even those who be
lieve there are plenty of ways
to tailor the Internet to one’s
own interests must admit there
are a lot of ways to be bothered
by outside influences, such as
advertisers and dubious char
acters, which are smarter and
better equipped than ever before.
But they’re still not the greatest
danger to those like me.
It’s the teen-age girl from
Tennessee who wants to get to
know other people and holds it
to be self evident that all Net
users are created equal and
want to chat. And so, with a
glassy-eyed wonder she will
plop down in front of her infer
nal contraption to meet some
one new. She’ll find a random
^rppn name, pray for glory and
i I Ik '
thrust an invitation and person
al information upon some un
suspecting misanthropic young
adult too jaded to realize others
outside their normal sphere of
influence could possibly be
worth their investment of time.
I don’t want this connection
to bog me down with unduly
friendly people just because I
have a desire to communicate
with longtime friends who live
across the country. So here’s a
lesson to the wise: next time a
media conglomeration partner
ship accelerates the rate of in
terconnectivity, ask yourself
what's in it for those who wish
to have a little quiet time on
line.
Chances are, nothing good.
Bret Jacobson is an editorial editor for
the Emerald. His views do not neces
sarily represent those of the paper. He
can be reached via e-mail at
bjacobso@gladstone.uoregon.edu
Thumbs
To voting at 2 a.m.
in your underwear
The ASUO Elec
tions Board has de
cided that all vot
inginthe
upcoming ASUO
elections will be
done over Ouck
Web.
To persistence
paying off:
In perhaps the fun
niest "Campaign
2000” of the year,
David Letterman
tried for weeks to
convince First Lady
Hillary Rodham
Clinton to appear
on his late-night
talk show. She ap
peared on the pro?
gram Wednesday
night to discuss her
run for the New
York senate seat
and tell some
canned jokes.
To letting dictators
off the hook:
The British govern
ment decided
Tuesday that for
mer Chilean dicta
tor Gen. Augusto
Pinochet is too ill
to be tried on hu
man rights
charges. About
3,000 people died
or disappeared in
Chile during
Pinochet's 1973-90
rule. Too bad we
can’t ask those
peopled he’s “fit”
to stand trial.
To cruelty to
animals:
A 3-year-old ele
phant intended as
a gift to the Japan
ese government
was paralyzed on
one side during
her four-day jour
ney across India.
The animal was
kept in a truck for
two days without
being able to move
and apparently fell
down and could
not get up.