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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2000)
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 Tuesday April 18,2000 Volume 101, Issue 133 Emerald I don’t want to get shot. I don’t want my friends to get shot. Duh. You would think that these would bp the opinions of most college students (except during finals week). As of Thurs day, however, I think I might have been in the minority. As a companion and I were finishing dinner at the Glenwood, a massive police operation began at the adjacent convenience store. Most omi nous were the police officers — guns drawn — crouched behind cars. ■ According to Sgt. Rick Gilliam of the Eugene Police Department, what I witnessed was a “high-risk car & stop,” in which of H ficers stay behind H cover and try to n talk the suspect Jonathan Gruber stabbed someone in a knife fight ear lier in the evening. The EPD had infor mation that the suspect had a handgun, and yes, a gun was found in the vehicle. But the crowd of students that gath ered in a large semi-circle across the street from the situation must have more general confidence in the aim of sus pects than I do. Undoubtedly these peo ple could see more from their view points. But as a result of their position, the suspect could have taken out some onlookers if he had felt the need to shoot at the police. I can understand why college-aged people generally take risks less seriously than perhaps they should. Many of us don’t have dependents, aside from room mates. And because we have only lived rel atively few years, we’re less likely to have been personally touched by a “freak acci dent” (so we can’t learn from other peo ple’s mistakes). For many of us, if we die, aside from the emotional loss to loved ones and the loss of young potential to society, we don’t strand anyone. But how much sense does it make to risk your life and health to watch a possible shootout? Maybe the crowd figured that if there were any real danger, the police would have cleared the area. Not according to Gilliam. The degree to which police con Bryan Dixon Emerald cem themselves with onlookers depends largely on how many officers can respond. “People stop and look, and they don’t re alize the danger. The police can only con trol so much of the onlookers’ behavior,” Gilliam said. He recommends taking cover or avoiding the area entirely. What’s scary is that some people never grow out of believing they are immortal. Do you notice parents who choose to subject their children to secondhand smoke, both pre- and post-natally, in spite of the known risks? Or, have you ever been passed by a vacation-loaded mini-van that flys by at a speed your car couldn’t reach if you dropped it out of an airplane? I am pretty sure that you can’t say cate gorically that those parents love their chil dren less. Instead, they are simply lacking in general regard for their own safety, something that they just never grew out of. Students can choose to involve themselves in many perilous activities in college. When we survive them all, we can develop a real Superman complex. At the root of such an attitude is the bal ance of costs and benefits. The problem is that our priorities start out screwed-up and only get worse. What exactly were the gawkers, in the situation I observed Thurs day, expecting to see? Imagine that the po lice, for whatever reason, decided to shoot the suspect(s). Do people really want to see that? Though I’m not completely immune to it, that kind of morbid curiosity is dis turbing. Never mind the laws, police officers, safety commissions and safety devices. Ul timately, the control a person has over her or his own safety dwarfs all that. If we could stop and really weigh the costs and benefits of every decision, we would see upon reflection that our imme diate desire is not even what we personally think is the smart thing to do. Getting our instincts in line with our more intellectual decisions will save lives. I say, be selfish. Save your own life. Jonathan Gruber is a columnist for the Emerald. His views do not necessarily represent those of the pa per. He can be reached via e-mail at jgruber@ gladstone.uoregon.edu. Letters to the editor Theater facilities inadequate I was appalled to learn of the existing sub standards in the University theater arts de partment. As a former high school drama teacher, I understand the importance of hav ing proper equipment and facilities to train our future artists. To not have these things is like enrolling computer science students into classes that have outdated computers. It is deceptive and harmful to admit theater art students into such a program. The raw talent is here, and it’s up to us to mold it properly. I urge University President Dave Frohnmayer to make these theater arts improvements a priority this year. Shawn West parent, Lake Oswego Keep LGBT support groups When reading the article entitled “Initia tive seeks to ban school support of gays’’ (ODE, April 12), I was outraged. I do not agree with OCA founder and Chairman Lon Mabon on the issue concerning LGBT rights. Mabon ideally wants to ban public schools and colleges from encouraging ac ceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality. He wants to take all gay support groups out of the school system because to him they are morally wrong, but does not even address the other “morally wrong” actions that schools do support. Who is Mabon to say that homosexuality is morally wrong? Mabon wants to ban LGBT support or ganizations but not the action of supplying contraceptives of those “active teens.” Is teen sex “morally right”? Mabon wants to ban LGBT support organizations, but I as sume he does not want to end continuing the support group D.A.R.E. Is consuming il legal substances “morally right”? Mabon* wants to ban LGBT support organizations, but wants to keep “Abuse Support Groups.” Are abusive relationships “morally right”? Schools have support groups for pregnant teens, drug abusers and relationship abuse because they all want their students to feel safe in the school’s environment, and by having these groups the students do feel safe. When the group is eliminated, the stu dent feels alone. By signing with the OCA you will be go ing against the belief that everyone has a right to be treated equally and you will be shutting doors on the people who need your support most. Sarah Stemach English The Jesus we know Easter, as we all know, is a Christian holi day that celebrates the rising of Jesus of Nazareth. This being so, it raises a question on who Jesus was as a person. Throughout the course of history, Jesus and those who follow him and claim to follow him have had an impact by creating images of how many see him. I think that there can be an interesting discussion of whether the Jesus of the Bible is truly the Jesus many of us have been introduced to. For example: Many of those who have said they were followers of Christ killed people in his name, while He himself nei ther killed anyone nor advocated killing. Je sus was actually killed along with most of his earliest followers. Another example would be the harsh judgments of “Chris tians” toward others, which are apparently made in the name of their Lord, while Jesus himself routinely associated with the out casts, including tax collectors (the most de spised people of their time), Samaritan women and even defended a woman caught in the act of adultery. This being said, my idea is to create this sort of discussion in light of the Easter holi day. The purpose of this letter is not to ar gue the claims of Jesus’ divinity, but rather cast light on the differences of who Christ was. To me the true Jesus of Nazareth seems to contradict many of the false images of Je sus as a finger-pointing judge, who was ac tually a furious lover of all. Carl Sanders history
