Thursday
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
Protesters are just following the script
A CAULDRON
IDIOCY
aaron mckenzie
In a thousand years, if there’s
History / America’ll be remem
bered as a nasty little Country.”
— Allen Ginsberg
The above is a dooming epitaph for
a doomed millennium, and not only
because this country again fell for a
centuries-old joke and elected anoth
er president. What frightens me is not
the 50 percent or so who did not vote,
but rather the other 50 percent who
showed up to compromise their very
selves at the polls, thinking Nader
would be better than Gore would be
better than Bush.
It’s no great stretch here to argue
that only sheep need shepherds, and
that anyone capable of being presi
dent should by no means be allowed
to do the job, least of all that crafty lit
tle sawed-off pip-squeak who, for the
sake of simplicity, I’ll say won the
election. But if you voted in Novem
ber, regardless of which lever you
pulled, consider yourself implicated:
Voting is not a political action, it’s po
litical acquiescence.
There is some kind of deep connec
tion between these thoughts and the
topic of activism here at the Universi
ty and in Eugene. Excepting, perhaps,
a few anarchists — who, as little more
than caricatures of themselves, could
stand to brush up on their historical
and philosophical anarchism - the lo
cal, so-called activists are perfectly
content to fancy themselves ‘progres
sive’ or ‘alternative’ because they or
ganize a conference on ‘sustainabili
ty’ (insert your favorite abstract catch
phrase here) or because they can af
ford to shop at Sundance Natural
Foods or The Kiva.
Frankly though, when the cold eye
of history looks back on this time, the
idea that consumer tendencies or cir
cle-jerk forums could affect signifi
cant change in a capitalist system is
going to look downright ridiculous.
The last thing this country needs is
another insular academic movement
or politics based on spending money.
But these people are good soldiers
and true believers, and they’re gather
ing some dramatic stories to tell their
children. Our trusty activists will grad
uate from college, find a job with Pep
siCo or a fashionable not-for-profit of
dubious necessity, and they will ulti
mately become a piece of the system
they once claimed to fight and detest.
Should their motives ever be called
into question, they can point to — as
evidence of their open-mindedness —
the time they went to Portland and
chanted anti-U.S. slogans and demand
ed the liberation of East Timor or some
other country about which they knew
nothing. It’s just an insurance policy
against the inevitable future.
Political apathy, however, is no
longer fashionable — to the point that
those who are suspicious of the gov
ernment are also no longer merely
paranoid or subversive. As I write
this, some 20,000-30,000 people with
thorns in their respective asses are
giving a very active finger to the
pompous, flag-waving nonsense of
“globalization,” as it’s so benignly
termed. Then again, the fact that a
multimillionaire oil titan president is
paying less income tgx than most city
of Eugene employees, even while en
ergy prices skyrocket, ought to put a
briar in the butt of more than a few
normally complacent citizens.
But if any one of these thousands of
valiant fools in Quebec City has any
doubts about what he or she is doing,
then that person is on the right track.
It takes at least two teams to play any
game, and the requisite protesters are
merely providing the necessary oppo
sition for the home team, as it were.
Capitalism has been in place for thou
sands of years and this — meaning
the Free Trade Area of the Americas,
as well as wars, treaties and secret ne
gotiations — is the game they play to
propagate their wickedness upon
you, the citizen. In the same vein, and
for the same tens of thousands of
years, people have been holding
protests and rallies as the scripted op
position.
When the orders came down from
above, these good soldiers in Quebec
did as told: They protested. But as
long as people are willing to' work in
sweatshops or for $6 per hour in this
country, none of these protests will
do a damn bit of good, and certainly
nothing will change until we stop
thinking on their terms, in the pre
scribed realm of capitalism.
People en masse will have to
walk away from our present eco
nomic and political system — and
this means putting yourself on
the line, for which organizing a
conference or ‘buying local and
organic’ cannot possibly pre
pare you — before anyone
anywhere can expect a signif
icant concession from the
powers that be.
Aaron McKenzie is a columnist
for the Oregon Daily Emerald.
His views do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
He can be reached at awmcken
zie@yahoo.com.
Bryan Dixon Emerald
Still waiting for 80 acres and a mule
Guest Commentary
Pamela
Hairston
Isay, David Horowitz has managed to stir up a
real stink lately, hasn’t he, preaching his 10
reasons why reparations for slavery are a bad
idea — and racist too.
For the past two years or so, I’ve been follow
ing this often heated and controversial issue,
and across the nation, most white folks are ve
hemently against reparations of any sort. Hell,
you mention a mere apology for slavery and
their shorts get all knotted. I truly believe that
there would be another Civil War if the U.S.
government ever considered this measure.
Please, let me share with your readers why I’m
still waiting on my 80 acres and a mule.
On Jan. 1,1863, President Abraham Lincoln
signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the
slaves. On that very same day, the Homestead Act
of 1862 was enacted. Under this act, the U.S. Con
gress literally gave away 160 acres of land per per
son or family, free.
Foi more than 100 years, more than 2 million
white Americans received more than 270 million
acres of land, and the only stipulation was that
they had to “homestead” the land for five years
and it would be theirs. Imagine that: 160 acres of
land, free. And the settlers didn’t even have to be
U S. citizens to qualify; they only had to be work
’ ^coming citizens. This act, the Home
v of 1862, was, to my knowledge, never
homestead act, possibly
known as the Southern Homestead Act, was also
enacted by Congress. It stipulated that public
lands in the states of Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida be disposed of
according to the stipulations of the Homestead
Act of 1862. There was no distinction for race or
color. Settlers were to receive no more than 80
acres. This act was part of Reconstruction. Some
ex-slaves did indeed receive a few Southern
acres, which were eventually returned to the par
doned Confederates. In 1876, this second home
stead act was repealed. America preferred to keep
the freed slaves, my ancestors, as sharecroppers
for another 100 years. The rest is history.
The U.S. government could give away 160
acres of land — free, even to noncitizens — but it
could not give 80 acres, as enacted, to a people
who provided them 200-plus years of hard, free
labor. Instead, they gave my people 100-plus
more years of hate, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws,
the KKK, lynchings, segregation, oppression, mis
cegenation, poverty and more hate. I ask you,
would black America — no, would America as a
whole — be a better nation if we’d gotten our
acres, as promised? Hell, right now, I’d take an
acre and a chicken.
P.S. I realize that my chances of you ever print
ing my letter are about as good as me turning
white, but like my dear old father used to tell me
(God rest his soul), nothing beats a failure but a
try. And besides, I get sheer satisfaction out of
knowing that some young, white American on
the other end will indeed read this. Peace and
love, my fellow Americans; we are all in this to
gether.
Pamela A. Hairston lives in Washington, D.C., and has been a
research er.at the libracy.of JOWiS.'.
Letters to the editor
Janitors are human beings first
An incident happened Sunday evening that concerns and appalls me. A fe
male student came to the door of Grayson Hall at about 10:50 p.m. wanting to get
in but discovered it was locked (the building normally locks at 10 p.m. — much
later than most).
She saw a custodian, a classified worker on this campus, and asked him to let
her in. He told her that he couldn’t let her in (as is policy), and then was about to
explain that she could use the outside phone to contact DPS to let her in. In an
angry tone she replied, “you f—ing a-hole,” flipped the custodian off and then
said, “Enjoy cleaning your toilets, loser!”
This behavior is completely unacceptable. By dehumanizing this human be
ing, she made herself feel better. When will we learn that people are human be
ings first and that the job they do is not who they are? Did she know anything
about him? Did she just walk away? No, she had to dehumanize him first.
Please, remember this the next time you look at someone working on campus
or anywhere else. They are human beings above all else.
Cheri Smith
University classified worker
Office Specialist I
We shouldn’t subsidize Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is being touted as the new economic driver for our
state. On April 20, the House of Representatives began considering House Bill
2941, a $150 million lottery bond measure to build a baseball ,stadium in Port
land. This bill will divert money that could be providing rural infrastructure
across Oregon, offering jobs where they are sorely needed. What’s more, the bill
doesn’t provide decent jobs for Portland residents whom it is supposed to help
— selling peanuts doesn’t pay the rent.
Portland and Oregon should not be sucked into baseball’s sales pitch. Com
munities across the country have spent millions of dollars subsidizing sports
teams only to realize no return on the investment. What is worse, the teams of
ten threaten to leave once the government has built their infrastructure.
In fact, no baseball stadium project has ever returned more to its subsidizing
government than it cost. An independent study from Lake Forest College found
that of 30 cities, 27 of them experienced no significant economic impact from
new stadiums, while three experienced a negative impact. Those are not win
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