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