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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 14, 2000)
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 SCRIBBLES OF SANITY JAYNA BERGERSON he other day I wandered over to the children’s section of the Eugene Public Library. I briefly glanced at some of the titles. A few were familiar; most of them weren’t. Then I reached the “S” section. As I turned the corner, my eyes widened in surprise at seeing two entire shelves devoted to one of my favorite children’s book authors: Dr. Seuss. As I skimmed over the many familiar titles, I remembered all the hours I spent reading Dr. Seuss books as a child. I couldn’t resist the temptation to take another peek at the stories I remember so well. I imagine I looked pretty silly. There was no way I passed for an elementary school student, and the undignified way that I sat cross-legged on the floor with a huge grin on my face, flip ping through each book, probably gave away the fact that I am not a parent. But I didn’t really notice any strange stares. I was too busy enjoying the stories. And as I sat there reliving my childhood, I realized with amazement that the nonsensical fantasy stories of Dr. Seuss are actually wonderful fictional guidebooks on life. Seuss handles such serious topics as equali ty and justice with light-hearted prose but heart-touching insight. He wrote in “Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories,” “I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights.” And in the end, “...all the turtles are free. As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.” The story of the Lorax deals with how we should treat and care for the environment. In this story the environment is destroyed by a greedy business that chops down all the Truf fula trees and pollutes the clean water. And the Lorax explains, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Public issues are not the only areas that Seuss cleverly addresses in his books. He also provides insight into life in general. The wis dom Seuss uses in his books almost seems more profound then many self-help books. For instance, the story “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” encourages self-discovery and decision mak ing. “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go,” he writes. When facing adversity, just remember these lines from “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?”: “It’s a troublesome world. All the people who Ye in it are troubled with troubles almost every minute. Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more ... oh, ever so much more ... oh, muchly, much-much more unlucky than you! ” So, if you ever need some insight And you haven’t got a clue. Take a small dose: The Doc knows what to do. Jayna Bergerson is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emer ald. Her views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. She can be reached at bjay@gladstone.uore gon.edu. Letters to the editor Electoral College brings candi dates to Oregon If we lose the Electoral College, we can forget about candidates vis iting Oregon ever again. In fact, can didates will only have to go to the largest cities in America to win the election. So whatever it takes to win the big cities is what will be prom ised, and forget about everyone else. Perhaps the Electoral College could be modified. I am not fond of the winner-take-all system — too many people are then left in the cold. Just think of all the millions of voters who voted for the loser in each state; all those could be called wasted votes. Politics needs to be more inclusive. It will help if we can get beyond the politics of fear. Jay Van Orman undergraduate French Boycott NORPAC We are members of the Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry. Last April, our group began studying the NORPAC boycott. This week our group endorsed the boycott of NORPAC products. NORPAC is an Oregon growers’ collective producing frozen and canned foods. Unjust labor condi tions exist on NORPAC farms. Minimum-wage laws are violated, and workers have been required to pay “right-to-work” fees. Workers are exposed to pesticides, and when they demand protection re quired by law, they have been threatened and fired. Low wages do not provide adequate housing, and labor camps continuously vio late state housing laws. Kraemer Farms is guilty of all of the above violations and was fined for child labor violations. Oregon farmworkers’ rights to collectively bargain are not pro tected under the law. The demo cpatically elected union (PCUN) called for the boycott of NORPAC in 1992 after exhausting all other options. NORPAC will not recog nize the union. With such economic prosperity, it is unconscionable that our sisters and brothers who labor to get food .td puaaWeqi'etrpaWlhis way, As Christians, we must stand with farmworkers in their struggle for basic human rights. We encourage the campus community to support the NORPAC boycott. NORPAC foods include FLAV-R-PAC, SAN TIAM, WESTPAC, Pasta Perfect, SOUP SUPREME, canned goods with codes beginning with “E” and bagged frozen foods with codes be ginning with “5.” "... what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 Jeb Shehan Jacob Meyer Just the facts, please It’s great to see that the Oregon Daily Emerald has begun publiciz ing sensationalism rather than facts. As one who has worked tirelessly since before fall term to ensure stu dents’ voices were heard through voting, I find your thoughtless pan dering of unsubstantiated rumors (''Enlisting Distrust,” ODE, Nov. 13) is what actually fosters distrust in government. We’ve come to expect such journalism since the national Jhq^ia’ .^ssajl^d. Flpfifip.td, s,p4wn controversy 24 hours a day during ballot re-counts. The ASUO is a student govern ment; we’re not perfect. However, we worked more than one 16-hour day registering student voters, ed ucating them on the issues and motivating them to mail their bal lots. We held our job in the utmost regard. The voter list for Yale’s study NEVER “slipped” from the ASUO. No one outside of the ASUO contacted names from this list. This is fact, not the fiction that litters your paper like a tabloid. To borrow your phrase, it’s a "sorry state of affairs” when the ODE spews controversy rather than congratulates the thousands of students who took part in our democratic processes. Students made a difference in this election. To those students, interns and volunteers who registered the most students ever at the University of Oregon (only the University of Cali fornia at Berkeley and the Universi ty of California at Santa Barbara reg istered more students), THANK YOU. Your dedication and hard work is valued. I only hope that next time, your hard work will be appre ciated by the Oregon Daily Emerald. Brian Tanner ASUO director of state affairs Editor’s note: After talking to Bri an Tanner, we want to correct and clarify the ASUO voter database information presented in Mon day’s editorial. Originally, a data base was established of all the vot er registration information that the ASUO collected. Some of these voters were not students, as the ASUO’s voter registration drive ex tended beyond the campus. Many of the names on the list did not have phone numbers. This data base list was mistakenly given to a student outside of the ASUO and a portion of this list was printed by a student senator. This was the data base list from which partisan phone calls were made. This origi nal database was then sent to Yale, Yale filtered through the names and sent back a smaller list to be used by the ASUO for the study. According to Tanner, the filtered Yale list of voter information was not compromised and was seen only by Tanner and ASUO Legisla tive Organizer Melissa Unger, in connection with the study.
