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.