Monday
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
Fall term 2000: This was your life, for better or worse
Why would anyone on cam
pus want to re-live the fall school
term? The Emerald editorial
board certainly doesn’t care to
slog through the entire 10 weeks,
so here we offer synopses of what
we consider to be the top five sto
ries of the term.
The never-ending election
A1 Gore? George W. Bush?
Let’s just appoint Dan Quayle to
the president’s office for the re
mainder of December; after the
last month of legal and political
wrangling, the American people
need a laugh or two. At the cam
pus and local level, the ASUO
busted tail to get scads of stu
dents registered to vote, and sani
ty prevailed in just enough Ore
gon voters’ minds to defeat
Measure 9, the anti-gay directive
put forth by the Oregon Citizens’
Alliance. Overall, however, it’s
the national election that will be
discussed and dissected by fu
ture generations.
FLA vs. theWRC
University President Dave
Frohnmayer signed on with the
Fair Labor Association in mid
September, then he took a big
step back from the Worker Rights
Consortium in late October
when the University refused to
pay dues to the group, a decision
based on some vague legal is
sues. Students, faculty, adminis
trators and alumni chimed in
with their various opinions and
one request seemed to arise from
all parties: Make a friggin’ deci
sion already, Dave! If the WRC is
n’t a viable labor monitoring
group in your opinion, then pull
out completely. If the FLA is your
choice, tell us. Oh yeah, and we
recommend that you let your de
cision come from the heart and
mind, not the wallet.
Oregon football
The Ducks are headed, appro
priately enough for this particu
lar Emerald issue, to the Holiday
Bowl. That news is actually a dis
appointment in some ways, fol
lowing a near-miraculous nm the
Ducks had toward the Rose
Bowl. A loss in the Civil War
smashed those plans, though,
and put the hated Washington
Huskies in Pasadena. Oregon
State—apparently in a deal with
Satan himself — is headed to the
Fiesta Bowl, to play God’s team,
Notre Dame. All in all, the 2000
football season should go down
as one of the most exciting in
Oregon history.
Police response fee
The Eugene Police Party Pa
trol issued its first batch of re
sponse fee warning notices this
past weekend at two campus
area gatherings. Good to see that
the response fee isn’t geared to
ward students, right? Of course,
the City Council and EPD have
both stated all along that the fee
is not, repeat not, biased toward
the student population. Yet,
when was the last time that the
Party Patrol cruised the South
Hills or the River Road area in
search of an unruly crowd? Ku
dos again to the ASUO for at
least softening the burden on
those residents who are hit with g
a fine.
Flu vaccine shortage
Health centers across the land,
including the Uni
versity’s, are facing
a severe shortage
of this year’s in
fluenza vaccine
due to problems
vaccine manufacturer
Wyeth-Ayerst had devel
oping one of the new flu
strains. The shortage has af
fected the campus and the com
munity, leading to a nervous
medical community that hopes
for a delayed cold season. If you
haven’t yet received your shot,
and would be considered at-risk,
i.e. suffering from diabetes,
asthma or a weak immune
system, among other ail
ments, get it now, before the
holiday break.
This editorial represents the opinion
of the Emerald editorial board. Re
sponses can be sent to
ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
Use the Golden Mean to make
this holiday break less stressful
VOICE IN
DIE WOODS
BRET JACOBSON
Aristotle had a neat little notion when
he described the Golden Mean.
Maybe it’s an idea that should be
practiced a bit this holiday season,
instead of die normal amount of insane chatter
and anxiousness that too often invades what
should be the merriest time of the year.
The main thrust of the theory, of course, is
to tackle every situation by avoiding both
excess and deficiency in one’s behavior. Not
a common notion nowadays, when sensa
tionalism is worshipped as the national reli
gion and television magazine shows pull in
more ratings than real, hard news.
Time and again during the last year or
two, the idea of blessed moderation has
been tested, and although too often ignored,
it was ultimately vindicated. There was the
Clinton- Lewinsky scandal that divided the
country, the ridiculous events surrounding
a little Cuban refugee and the unnecessarily
heated debate during the current presiden
tial election snafu. All these events should
have been dealt with in a calmer, more rea
sonable manner. Instead, they were allowed
to boil over into divisive nightmares.
The same processes apply during the hol
idays. All too often, moms and dads bloat
Turn to Jacobson, page 3A
Looking ahead to the sights and
sounds of this Christmas season
JAYNA BERGERSON
SCRIBBLES OF
SANITY
For some people, Christmas is not
Christmas without a funky-looking
plastic snowman or Santa Claus
perched on the front lawn glowing
at everyone that passes. Several strings of
blinking lights twist around the house, drip
from the eves and engulf the bushes. There
must be a fragrant wreath on the door and
an evergreen tree buried in bulbs, lights,
tinsel and bows in the living room. Oh, and
the music. The soft melodic sounds of
Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby play endlessly
on the sound system. Then it is Christmas.
A Christmas that lasts until everything is
taken down and stored away in boxes until
the next year.
“What about presents?” squeals another
large portion of the population, mainly
composed of kids. Those brightly colored
packages with the huge bows that sit calmly
beneath the tree. They wait for that day
when they will be ripped open and their
contents spilled onto the floor to be viewed
Turn to Bergerson, page 3A
Christmas past has more to do
with Romans than reindeer
ENSIBLE
So, you think you know the whole
story of Christinas, do you? All
about how Santa Claus (tm), in a
sleigh pulled by eight tiny sheep,
followed the Star of the North Pole to give
frankincense, myrrh and three golden wise
men to the Christ child, while he lit the
eighth candle on the menorah and a bit of
incense to Saturn and ...
OK, so maybe I was a little off on the ac
count. Sue me. But what that fractured fairy
tale is supposed to illustrate is that Christ
mas didn’t just come, fully formed, with ei
ther Christianity or commercialism. Not by
a long shot.
Christmas, the holiday as we know it, ac
tually dates from the fourth century A.D.,
when Pope Julius I decreed that Dec. 25
would be the official celebration of Christ’s
birth. But why the 25th day?
This brings us into a tale of competing re
ligions amid the disintegrating Roman Em
pire.
By the 300s, the Empire was officially Chris
tian after the conversion of Emperor Constan
tine I. Of course, even though the emperor had
converted, much of the empire worshipped
the old polytheistic religion of its ancestors.
Turn to Payne, page 3A
It's tough to say'bah humbug'
to all the December celebrations
MICHAEL J. KLECKNER
DIARY OF A
NTENT
Originally, this was supposed to be
a “bah humbug” column. I wasn’t
just going to write the usual rant
about overconsumerism or the in
crease in drunken driving incidents and fa
milial dysfunction during December. I
wanted to demand a little understanding to
ward people (myself included) who don’t
partake in holiday festivities and who resent
it when others say they’re scrooges.
I still think a little less pressure to cele
brate would be nice. I don’t want to be
looked at funnily when I explain that I’m
not sending cards or going to parties or mak
ing cookies. But my emotions get tangled at
this time of year.
It goes something like this: None of the
holidays in December are for me. It’s not my
spiritual style to focus my goodwill on one
month, and Norman Rockwell depictions
are not my aesthetic. But I get a warm feeling
whenever I hear Bing Crosby singing “Come
Turn to Kleckner, page 3A