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
February4,2000
Volume 101, Issue 90
Erfierakl
Trophies and
TRIALS
While this University is moving
leaps and bounds toward bet
ter recruiting classes, athletes
all over America are becom
ing more violent, and we need to
make an effort to make sure our
players are good citizens.
There are a lot of professional ath
letes being charged with violent
crimes recently, raising the question
of whether it isn't partly society’s
adoration and willingness to trade
victory in the arena for less civilized
behavior. And the problem is proba
bly being started at universities who
make athletics a big business.
Athletes haven’t had a positive
reputation for quite some time, but
in the present there are a disturbing
ly high number of incidents in a
very short period of time.
The NFL has been particu
larly hit by violent crimes. i
Directly after the Super
Bowl, NFL All-Pro line
backer Ray Lewis of the V.
Baltimore Ravens was X \
charged with the stab- / ^
bings of two men at a /
party following the /
game. This comes within 10 weeks
of Carolina Panthers receiver Rae
Carruth’s charges of masterminding
the murder of his girlfriend.
Those are just two of the most vio
lent and recent incidents of football
player violence, but there are plenty
of smaller incidents that could be
easy to forget yet important to take
notice of. Jets linemen Jumbo Elliott
and Jason Fabini were in a bar-room
brawl in July, and during the season,
Steve Muhammad of the Colts was
charged with beating his wife, who
died days later from labor complica
tions attributed to a car accident.
It’s hard to prove that today’s
players are indeed more violent than
their predecessors, but whether they
are or not, perception is reality. The
appearance is that our sports heroes
are more violent
than ever, a no
tion attributed
to the
pedestal our
victorious
got
gladiators are raised upon.
The process of glorifying athletes
as societal heroes begins from the
time they are in high school and are
recruited to college, where sports are
a huge business. The occasions of
wrongdoing by coaches to get play
ers, such as Washington’s Rick
Neuheisel’s infamous breech of a re
cruiting quiet period, offer the idea
to incoming athletes that it’s accept
able to circumvent rules if the end
goal is victory.
One wonders what kind of prac
tices this University uses to get re
cruits here.
Right now there are a lot of excit
ed Duck football fans buzzing about
the signing, and all that such an
event portends for the future, of ju
nior college running back Maurice
Morris. In the past, Oregon hasn’t
been able to obtain such notable and
talented players, leaving cynics to
wonder if the athletic program had
to make any offers beyond a good
education and good education facili
ties to land such a talented athlete.
While the Ducks haven’t had any
big-time recruiting scandals, Eugene
loves its football so much that one
can see the high reverence football
players receive from the community.
And a lot of reverence can lead to
very little discipline.
While discipline
and antisocial prob
lems can start at
the college
level, the
signs of
trou
bled individuals show themselves
constantly but receive little attention
or are dismissed in the name of suc
cess. Former Rams, Dolphins and
49ers running back Lawrence
Phillips showed violent and irre
sponsible tendencies from his days
at Nebraska, but teams kept taking
the risk —- and getting disappointed
— just because they were looking for
any competitive edge and they saw a
bit of talent.
Because many athletes, though of
course the minority, are showing
more and more tendencies to act out
their aggressions and violent tenden
cies, it is important to make sure
they keep level heads and their feet
firmly on the ground. While the de
sire to elevate sports heroes to an
ever-higher stratosphere grows, the
best way our University can help
prevent athletes from becoming vio
lent is to take seriously the signs
they show early on and deal with
those issues through discipline and
counseling.
So while we all cheer for our ever
improving teams, we should all ex
pect our-athletes to be responsible
and safe citizens.
This editorial represents the view of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
Letters to the editor
LGBT should be more inclusive
Molly McClure’s letter (ODE, Jan. 31) indicates a
desire to “... create new ways to make our commu
nity even more inclusive.” By “our community,”
she’s referring to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgendered) community.
In general, the way to make any community
more inclusive is to include those who have been
previously excluded. Thus, the best and most thor
ough way to make the LGBT community more in
clusive is to include those who have been exclud
ed: heterosexuals and asexuals. Who else is there
to include?
One may argue that the LGBT already welcomes
these groups. But if that’s the case, then why are
their first initials not included in the LGBT
acronym? Aren’t they likely to feel marginalized
and excluded by this .omission? By discriminating
, | | * i i » « * • I * * * * » < ‘ ‘ ' * 1 ‘ * 1 ' * 1 * 1 M 1
against heterosexuals and asexuals, isn’t the LGBT
community engaging in a form of the very practice
it tries to eradicate from society?
Inclusive communities include everyone. Thus,
it would make more sense to create an organization
that explicitly includes all sexual orientations not
just the non-heterosexual. Perhaps we could call
some generic name and open it to everyone who
does or doesn’t have sex, independent of their gen
ders or the genders of their partners, whether real
or imaginary.
Common sense dictates that the more divisions
created in our society, the more divisive it will be
come. A group that states a desire to be inclusive
but that engages in exclusionary activities and poli
cies is being counterproductive to its stated desires
and to the fostering of peaceful, inclusive commu
nities.
Mark Stevens
, . . . , graduate,in communityand regional planning
Art misrepresents life
I am outraged and sickened by the artwork that
was used for the perspectives article entitled
“Dorm Defenders” (ODE, Feb. 1). It was a very
racist depiction that only continues to perpetuate
stereotypical images of native peoples and is not re
ality. This type of imagery is harmful and unneces
sary. The artwork used had nothing to do with the
story, and I question why the Emerald found it ac
ceptable for print. When this mostly white Univer
sity and state continuously tell everyone that we
are accepting of diversity, here is just another ex
ample that “we” do not practice what “we” preach.
It may seem like just a way to catch the readers eye
or have a little fun, but why is it being done at the
expense of people of color? I have to say I’m gradu
ating in June, and it makes me ashamed to know
that I’m getting my degree from such an intolerant
and racist institution.
Julie Love
* .. ..ethnic studies*
Thumbs
To underdogging it
Both major party
front-running can
didates faced seri
ous competition
from their under
dog opponents in
Tuesday’s New
Hampshire prima
ry, with Senator
Bill Bradley post
ing a very close
showing against
Vice President Al
Gore and Sen. John
McCain, destroying
the front-runner
George W. Bush by
a margin of 18 per
cent.
To handling a crisis
the best they could
Alaska Airlines
faced a human
tragedy with excel*
lent public rela
tions and a sincere
attempt to explain
the crash of Flight
261’scrash into
the Pacific Ocean
on Monday. The
attempt to gather
information and
console the vic
tims’families was
more helpful than
the delayed reac
tions of some oth
er recent crashes.
To the judge with
poor judgment
Judge AlbinNorb
tand was arrested
for drunken dri
ving. The Marion
CountyCircuit
Court judge will be
arraigned in his
own courthouse
and cannot hear
DUtl cases until his
own is concluded.
To bad water for
workers
Inspectors found
thatthreeoutof
five water systems
that serve nearly
10,000 migrant
workers in Wash
ington fail to meet
public health stan
dards. Nearly 20
percent of tested
camps found dan
gerous levels of a
dangerouschemi
cal.