Tuesday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL j. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
SAINT AND
PROFITS
ERIC PFIEFFER
Jay Breslow is not your
ASUO president. Jay
Breslow is revenge gone
wrong.
He is fulfilling his role as
the George W. Bush of Univer
sity politics. Someone I
wouldn’t mind going to a bar
becue with, but someone who
takes orders from a shadow
boss.
I don’t question that Breslow
is passionate about student ac
tivism. Most people, upon em
bracing activism, are passion
ate. And single-minded.
For example, dozens of
young fascists who have their
parents buy them $1,000 tents
so they can camp on a lawn
and tell the world how to
think. Or a few dozen anar
chists who decided “breaking
shit” was a movement and
subsequently drowned out
the message that 45,000 union
workers, religious leaders,
students and activists were
promoting in Seattle last year.
Breslow, like most politi
cians and the government it
self, is victim to the special-in
terest lobby.
Jay Breslow was not elected
ASUO president on his mer
its. He was elected by the
backlash to his opponents in
last year’s election, C.J. Gabbe
and Peter Larson.
Anyone who even remotely
follows the ASUO knows this
is the truth. When it was a real
contest, based on political
connections and grassroots
activism, the Gabbe ticket
devastated Breslow in the pri
mary election. Then, fear set
in.
If you do the math, Gabbe
received 834 votes in the pri
mary election, compared to
548 for Breslow. The other
candidates received a com
bined total of 483 votes. Then,
in the general election, Bres
low surged to 1,037, while
Gabbe dropped slightly with
806. Cut to the chase: Breslow
won on a platform of collec
tive hate.
Those voters (myself in
cluded) who did not support a
Gabbe presidency simply
transferred our votes from the
candidates we actually fa
vored to what we perceived as
the lesser of two evils. We
played a childish game, and
now the Karma chameleon
has bitten us in the ass.
Breslow flirted with fas
cism in a Sept. 27 Emerald in
terview: “Student leaders are
student activists, and those
who don’t believe it shouldn’t
be student leaders. ” Transla
tion: Play by my rules or go
home.
Jay, I didn’t get the new
Dave Matthews CD. I don’t
wear armbands to show my
political affiliation (my Dad
did as a Black Panther grow
ing up in Watts, when that ac
tually meant something). And
I don’t base my beliefs on how
many cameras show up. Am I
disqualified from the cast of
WRC Activist, 90210?
Now, put down your soli
darity sticks. This is not an at
tack on ideals. I embrace some
of Breslow’s adopted beliefs.
He seems to be a decent and
relatively intelligent young
man. However, I also believe
that the method is as impor
tant as the message. And his
method is flawed.
If Breslow wants to be an ac
tivist. he needs to realize that
activism is not just a code
word for Worker Rights Con
sortium. The Lesbian, Gay, Bi
sexual, Transgendered Al
liance, the Black Student
Union, the International Stu
Bryan Dixon Emerald
dent Asso
ciation and
90 other stu
dent groups de
serve resources and recogni
tion as well. These are the
activists who fight every day
to preserve their livelihood,
even when the mainstream
media and political circles
look the other way.
The truth is, Melissa Unger
is vour real ASUO president.
She has risen
like a phoenix from
the political ashes to
seize control.
The invasion of the ASUO
by members of the Survival
Center mirrors the Republican
take-over of Congress in 1994.
I’ll tell you what though,
I’m glad Melissa Unger is my
ASUO president. She’s an ef
fective activist. Like her
friends in OSPIRG, she has the
credentials and the chutzpah I
can respect. I just wish Jay
Breslow, the ASUO and the
students knew who really was
in charge.
Eric Pfeiffer is a columnist for the
Oregon Daily Emerald and is cur
rently serving an internship at the
National Journal Hotline in Washing
ton. D.C. His views do not necessari
ly represent those of the Emerald.
He can be reached at epfeiffe@glad
stone.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
The courageous Emerald
It's frustrating to me, really, to see
what’s happening in regards to the Ya
hoo! controversy. Whether or not the Ya
hoo! ads were offensive, I get this feel
ing that people are fighting against the
ads for two reasons: Because the Emer
ald ran them and because everybody
else is arguing about them.
Just like the protests and outbursts of
before, there are just a vocal few who are
swaying the opinions of many more:
“Hey! Did you see this horrible ad in
the Emerald? Let's write them a nasty
letter in protest!”
“The ad wasn’t that bad, and I think
you're blowing it way out of proportion. ”
“But you don’t like the Emerald.”
“Good point, let’s get pissed at ’em!”
I was happy to read Ms. Reynolds and
Ms. Hilles’ letter, as they say what I’ve
believed all along: You shouldn't argue
just because you can.
I support the Emerald running the
ads. I've seen the ads, and while they’re
not in great taste, they created enough
debate that people will remember it.
And that was probably Yahoo!'s inten
tion. I don't blame the Emerald at all for
running them and believe that it took
more guts to run these ads than it did to
not run them.
Jake Ortman
Class of 2000
Bend, Ore.
Funds should support Pedi-Cab
The leasing of police-style cruisers by
the Department of Public Safety is most
certainly a misuse of funds. Not only
does this decision violate law and capi
talize upon students’ (and community
members’) fears of flashing blue lights,
but the cruisers take funding away from
programs that DO build a campus com
munity.
Instead of spending money to operate
vehicles that may be illegal, why not
fund programs such as Bicycle Taxi — a
program that is not currently running
due to “accessibility problems”? Odds
are that for far less money than it costs to
operate a fleet of illegal cars, we could
BRING BACK THE PEDI-CAB!
Ben Andrews
geology
HRA not truthful
Why does the Human Rights Alliance
see fit to lie in its commentary in the
Emerald (ODE, Oct. 4)? Specifically, I
am referring to its statement that “there
is no democracy on this campus.” This
is quite absolutely not true. This cam
pus is rife with democracy at nearly
every level. The most obvious case is toe
annual ASUO elections, which recent
ly supplied the HRA with a “mandate”
from students — and, by the abhorrently
low turnout, simultaneously demon
strated that most students are here for an
education, not for social policy debates.
Another lie by the HRA was the state
ment that “students, faculty, staff and
other campus constituencies have a
voice only if President Frohnmayer al
lows it.” Perhaps the HRA is unaware
that the Oregon Legislature provides the
University with much of its funding as
well as helps influence policy decisions.
The Legislature receives its revenue
from Oregon taxpayers and its mandate
to govern from Oregon voters. Students,
faculty and staff have a voice: Vote for
the legislative candidates who support
your views — the University does not
operate inside a vacuum.
Perhaps the HRA really wants to re
place the current democratic system
with its own local oligarchy. Creating
such a quasi-autonomous, non-govern
mental organization would have two
possible outcomes: Either take policy
decision power away from the Oregon
Legislature, voters and taxpayers, or
lose state funding and sit back as our tu
ition rises to the levels of private col
leges.
Dustin Preuitt
graduate student
computer and information science
Quoted
“I had fun at
Yale. I got a lot
of great friends
out of Yale. And
I didn't pay at
tention.”
—George Bush,
in The Washing
ton Post on July
23,2000.
“Every time we
tried to do
something, Al
would catch us
and say, Tm
telling! I’m
telling! I'm
telling Dad!’He
was an egre
gious little tat
tletale.’”
—Barbara
Howar, child
hood friend of
Al Gore’s sister
Nancy, in The
Washington Post
on Oct. 10,
1999.
"He is a caring,
sensitive, good
parent."
—Eminem's
lawyer, Harvey
Hauer, in Peo
ple magazine on
Aug. 25,2000,
speaking of the
rapper, who is
due in a Michi
gan court today
on charges of as
sault with a dan
gerous weapon
and carrying a
concealed
weapon.
“Our men are
really manly
men!”
—a crowd of
protesters in Ta
balosos, Peru,
chanting in re
, sponsetoaTV
I report that said
drinking water
i from a river that
unsthrough
he town of
4,000 has
umedthemen
into homosexu
Is, as reported
n www.advo
ate.com'sOct.
9,2000 issue.