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
March 3,2000
Volume 101, Issue 110
Emerald
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
1 here’s something reprehensible
|| going on in the American econo
my and social fabric today. It is
spreading families thin; it is creat
ing a gap between people “born
equal.”
It’s not racism.
It’s not sexism.
It’s not nationalism.
It’s poverty, the depreciating value
of the American worker.
Let’s throw out some facts:
• Since the 1970s, the percentage of
taxes that the rich pay has gone from
70 percent of a marginal dollar to 30
percent.
• Since the early 1980s, the richest
Americans have gone from paying 50
percent of our taxes to only 28 per
cent.
• CEO pay is up 481 percent since
1960.
• The average worker makes 10
percent less in real dollars than in the
1970s.
• Sixty percent of gains in post-tax
income have gone to the top 1 percent
of wage earners.
• And a family of three living off
the “minimum wage” is 27 percent
below the poverty line.
Do you see a trend?
The rich are getting richer, and the
poor are getting poorer.
You’ve heard this before, but, as a
college student about to go out into
this same workforce, have you really
thought about it?
Citizenship and the future of our
country rest on investigating, being
interested in and caring about our fel
low Americans. This means that not
talking about child poverty, low
wages, attacks on welfare mothers, tax
cuts to the rich and the low value of
American laborers is like committing
a crime against them. We plead inno
cent to the facts when we really just
don’t want to hear them. Because if
we did know the extent to which
poor, working class and middle class
people are being cheated out of fair
wages, and if we didn’t do anything
about it, that would be shame as well.
It’s easy to look the other way. It’s
easy to say people can “pick them
selves up by their bootstraps,” to
think that if everyone paid attention
in school and worked hard that we
would all have an equal chance. But
that’s simply not true. And it takes
guts to say that in a country so bent on
personal success, yet so far from de
veloping a community one.
Republican presidential candidate
Alan Keyes is famous for saying that
“America is in a deep moral crisis.”
Families are less valued, he says. But
have we ever thought that maybe low
wages were one reason? As Wayne
Morse Chair Frances Fox Piven so
bluntly put it in her keynote address
at the “Work, Welfare and Politics”
conference: Maybe family values are
on the decline because mothers are
forced to work full-time at K-Mart just
to feed the kids for whom the mothers
now have no time.
Piven often focuses on the plight of
welfare “reform,” where roll backs in
federal programs and turning over
benefits to the states has meant a de
crease in the amount of people on
welfare. Critics use that statistic to
tout success, but Piven reminds us
that many, many of those now off wel
fare are still below the poverty line.
It’s just that now, they have no safety
net.
And some argue that there should
be no safety net, that people should be
able to take care of themselves, that
corporate CEOs earning millions a
year at their workers’ expense are just
being rewarded for making their com
pany’s stock rise. Well, it sure shows
what value we have placed on Ameri
can life. In such an age of economic
prosperity — prosperity we cannot
help but hear about every time we
turn on the TV or read a newspaper —
why are the people who are really do
ing the grunt work not sharing in the
wealth they have helped create?
The answer is corporate greed. /
But we have hope. Look around,
college campus activism is alive and
well. The Worker’s Rights Consor
tium, anti-sweatshop protests and the
like show that people care. Piven her
self thinks that support for unions and
labor is on the upswing after nearly 20
years of frustration. Local community
activist groups work hard — behind
the scenes every day so that we just
take their diligent work for granted —
to improve the lives of immigrants,
poor people and women right here in
Lane County who want to go to col
lege but who don’t want to neglect
their children in the meantime.
How you can show your support for
American families and American labor
is by joining community groups or just
by paying attention. National media
may not always point out the struggles
of the poor without judging them to
boot; that doesn’t mean honest strug
gles cannot be found. Fight those who
advance the stereotypes of the lazy
poor person or the ignorant welfare
mother who uses her children for cash.
Fight the idea that those with the most
money are the American ideal.
Most of all, pay attention to the
American worker. You’re going to be
one someday.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Get over grievances
In a University setting, one would
hope to find students living and par
ticipating in life. Instead, we find
whiny and complaining “wanna-be”
politicians. For the second time in the
election, C.J. Gabbe and Peter Larson
have to face a grievance (ODE, March
1).
Gabbe and Larson must now be
thinking, why the heck did we host
that coffee hour? Why did we put our
candidacy in possible harm? That
wasn’t the intention. According to
both candidates and people who were
there, Gabbe and Larson came out of
that coffee hour hoping they helped
someone to vote. It has been specifi
cally said that they did not tell the
group to vote for them but simply to
vote.
The students seem to support
Gabbe and Larson. They led the pri
mary with more than 300 votes. They
have worked the hardest at getting
those votes. They and their crew
spent the greater portion of the elec
tion in the public eye.
Obviously they jumped on the cof
fee hour before looking extremely
closely at all the rules and guidelines
of the ASUO elections. But come on
people, they have faced the court and
were waived of the first grievance.
In the end, we the students should
vote according to what we feel is
right. Take a good look at the running
candidates’ issues and what they
hope to get done if they make it to of
fice. This election should be about
what is best for the students' and fhfe'
University, not a coffee hour that hap
pened a month ago.
Michael T. Dippal
sophomore
Gabbe, Larson play fair
At a time when petty accusations
and grievances rule campus politics,
I’m glad that there are two candidates
who have remained fair and honest
through the elections process. De
spite accusations and misrepresenta
tions, C.J. Gabbe and Peter Larson
have stayed true to their issues and
have played a fair game in this elec
tion.
Throughout the past weeks, they
have reminded us that there are some
serious issues on the campus, state
and national levels that need to be
addressed in order to have a safe and
accessible' education. Gabbe and'Liar
son are the best candidates for the
ASUO Executive because they have
years of experience working on these
issues that pertain to students. I am
confident that they will accomplish a
lot next year for the student body be
cause they are qualified, dedicated
and sincere. They’re ready to tackle
these issues and reach out to the stu
dent body to make a change.
Already, they have worked on
such issues as keeping our tuition
frozen, increasing diversity on cam
pus and educating students on their
rights with the police. Still, these are
issues that are prevalent today and
University students need leaders
who are experienced and dedicated
to tackle these issues and make
change.
Jennifer Bums
sophomore, undeclared
To more Internet
conveniences
The Census Bureau
will allow respons
es to thisyear’s
census short form
to be completed
over the Web, with
hopes that more
people will fill out
theonce-a-decade
survey of the face
of America.
To good measuring
The Eugene City
Council opted to
place two good
measures on the
ballot for May. One
would give coun
cilors a long-over
due salary stipend,
and the other
would move the lo
cation of the down
town Eugene Po
lice Department
and fire stations.
The current loca
tions are hot earth
quake-proof, and
we want to be safe
just in case.
pp
To droopy
elephants
It appears that ele
phants in south
Africa are develop
ing a problem with
their trunks where
their appendages
have become para
lyzed and cannot
support them
selves. Floppy
trunk disease, as
the blight is techni
cally named, has
affected scores of
elephants in South
Africa and Zimbab
we.
To not leaping over
the problem
Reagan National
Airport in New
York City experi
enced some annoy
ing Feb2Kprob
lems when
skycaps’ check-in
computers became
confused about
displaying Feb. 29.
Good thing we
spent all that mon
ey... New Year’s
Eve went fine, but
we can’t handle an
extra day in Febru
ary?