Friday
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
One last round of ‘congrats’ and ‘shame’
Here’s our final, last-minute,
down-to-the-wire
roundup of opinions about
stuff. The Emerald editorial
board has been opinionated about stuff
all year long, and so have our readers.
We appreciate that, and we appreciate
the feedback we received all year, both
good and bad. When you interact with
the media sources that inform you
about your world, everyone is better foi
it. The world isn’t objectively waiting
to be reported on; subjective people
write stories about it. So stay involved,
keep the media honest and keep send
ing us feedback.
Congrats to the Athletic Depart
ment for releasing some of the report
about problems in the women’s bas
ketball program. The part they re
leased was all the gossipy “I didn’t
like her,” or “I didn’t like him” stuff
that we already knew. Now live up to
the congrats and release the real dirt
— the details of the 31 NCAA viola
tions that the law firm found while it
was here. If everyone in the athletic
administration is truly clean and
honest and doing his or her job cor
rectly, then more information is bet
ter, especially at a public university.
Shame on the grass seed pollen for
blowing the community’s collective si
nuses out of its mind. Sneezing, hack
ing, wheezing, crying—abody needs
time to adjust to increased pollen.
Leaping from 15 grains per cubic metei
on May 28 to 502 grains per cubic me
ter on June 1, the pollen level made the
student phlegm level leap from 2
sneezes/coughs per minute in classes
to 18 sneezes/coughs per second. We
can barely hear our professors now. Foi
shame.
Congrats to the state of Nevada for
becoming the ninth state to legalize the
use of marijuana for medical purposes.
State lawmakers voted Monday to ap
prove medical marijuana and to lessen
penalties for possession, thus making
it easier for those seeking medical relief
to possess plants for their own use. Ari
zona, Alaska, California, Colorado,
Maine, Washington, Hawaii and Ore
gon are the other states with similar
laws. It is perhaps telling that denizens
of the West can show caring and com
passion for those suffering from debili
tating illnesses. The only problem is,
the Supreme Court’s ruling last month
may threaten that compassion. Well,
the federal laws should be changed,
and congrats to Nevada anyway.
Shame on the Oregon University
System for beginning a round of
union contract renegotiations with
proposals to increase layoffs, hire
temporary workers and decrease
overtime. The Service Employees In
ternational Union/Oregon Public
Employees Union represents tens of
thousands of university workers all
over the state. These people keep
Oregon’s institutions of higher educa
tion running. They deserve job secu
rity and adequate pay and benefits.
Some of the problem comes from tax
payers, however. Budget cuts to the
OUS because of tax-cutting measures
of years past have contributed to the
standoff. Given that, let’s spread the
shame to the taxpayers, the state and
the OUS. The citizens of Oregon need
to pony up some money if they ex
pect to have any sort of functioning
government.
Congrats to the U.S. Supreme
Court for stopping the execution of
Johnny Paul Penry, who has the mind
of a 7-year-old. Texas was making a
second attempt to execute Penry
when the ruling came down. In 1989,
Penry was sentenced to death for
murder. The Supreme Court ruled
then that Texas juries were not ade
quately accounting for the mental
ability of defendants, and it over
turned Penry’s sentence. But was
Texas done with him? Oh, no. The
state tried Penry again, convicted him
again and sentenced him to death
again. Luckily, the rules for juries
have been changed since the first
Court ruling, so if Texas wants to try
one more time, Penry’s life is pretty
much safe. Thank goodness. But...
Shame on The Register-Guard, The
Washington Post, The Associated
Press and other sources that described
Penry as a “ retarded man. ’ ’ Excuse us?
Get with the program. That demeaning
label was shelved years ago. Call us
idealistic young journalists or overly
PC. liberals, but it’s rude to label peo
ple with terms infused with harshly
negative connotations, especially in
54-point type on the front page of a
newspaper. The Arc of the United
States, “a national organization on
mental retardation” and the official
voice of people with mental retarda
tion, offers on its Web site (thearc.org)
plenty of examples of how to use the
phrase “people with mental retarda
tion” easily and efficiently in sen
tences instead of that other label.
Please, news sources, think before you
go to press next time. Using that label
would be like calling a black person a
“coon.” It’s unacceptable.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses can be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
so long everybody
Giovanni Salimena Emerald
CORRECTION
In the June 1 article “Workers
take on the Oregon University
System,” the article should have
said:
The Service Employees Interna*
tionalUnion/Oregon Public Em
ployees Union Local 503 repre
sents 25,000 classified workers
throughout Oregon.
Pro-ELF views are pure idiocy
Guest Commentary
Brandon
Oberlin
In response to Aaron McKenzie’s
morally and intellectually flawed
column (“May the force be with
you,” ODE, June 7), I have only
one question: How does the Oregon
Daily Emerald hope to preserve what
little credibility it has left by running
garbage like this?
McKenzie’s stated premise is that
property destruction is a morally ac
ceptable methodology for causing po
litical/social change. In paragraph
four, he asserts, “To achieve political
change ... a person or group must tar
get some infrastructure.” To his credit,
McKenzie does mention that violence
against individuals should be avoid
ed. He goes on to justify the ELF’s lo
cal and national terrorism with typical
eco-propaganda. I’m sure the title of
McKenzie’s column, “A Cauldron of
Idiocy,” is purely coincidental.
I submit that with this line of logic,
virtually any type of terrorism can be
justified. If we accept that arson and
bombings are an acceptable means of
political expression, then how can
one argue against abortion-clinic
bombings? How about burning
“mom and pop” stores that don’t car
ry environmentally friendly packag
ing? Extend the logic to its final con
clusion, and terrorism against
individuals can also be rectified.
This type of thinking is abhorrent to
any thinking mind and has no place
in a civilized society. This is plain ol’
criminality and should be treated as
such.
Personally, I am delighted with
this genre of wannabe pundit trash
because of the damage it does to the
causes that these idiots embrace. If
they had any common sense at all,
these folks would realize that the
public at large doesn’t tolerate terror
ism no matter how worthy the cause.
Although McKenzie never had any
credibility to damage, the Emerald
does — or used to. Students and facul
ty assume that the campus .newspaper
has some type of standard for deter
mining what is morally and intellectu
ally acceptable. Columns like this call
that assumption into question. You
guys can do better than this.
Brandon Oberlin is a junior biology major.
Editor’s note: The Emerald made
the judgment that discussing opin
ions such as McKenzie’s is morally
and intellectually acceptable. Oberlin
surely agrees with us, as he engages
McKenzie’s arguments on an intellec
tual level. Additionally, while the
Emerald does not endorse McKen
zie’s opinions or the actions of the
ELF, similar acts of property damage
were undertaken on Dec. 16,1773, in
Boston, during some sort of “Tea Par
ty. ” The outcome of this “eco-terror
ism ” was the eventual establishment
of America as an independent coun
try. Those acts of vandalism are writ
ten dowm in history books as “heroic
acts. ’’It’s just food for thought.
Dievendorf deserves support
Guest'Commentary
Scott Michael
Percy
The University of Oregon’s misguided de
cision to remove Linda Dievendorf as di
rector of the EMU Cultural Forum smacks
of all the elements of the Jody Runge dra
ma. Only in this case, Dievendorf has the full sup
port and glowing admiration of everyone that she
has ever worked with. Unfortunately, she is being
pushed out by supervisors who either think they
can micromanage her program better than she, or
who hold an outright animosity toward what she
has successfully built over the last 17 years.
For more than two decades, the student-fund
ed and student-run Cultural Forum has treated
the community to performances by an incredible
myriad of world-class musicians. The quality
and professionalism that have characterized the
“modus operandi” of the Cultural Forum office
are something to be praised for, not fired over! If
the university really valued efficiency over
nepotism, they’d promote her and make her the
director of the whole EMU.
Larger than the issue of removing someone
who is the best at what she does, there looms the
fact that this is a radical move cast upon an or
ganization that is entirely funded by the stu
dents, and yet students have had absolutely no
involvement in the decision. This is an issue of
control. Linda has succeeded with the Cultural
Forum because she runs it by consensus, which
means that decisions have everyone’s support.
Reportedly, her supervisors prefer more of a top
down, “do what you’re told” approach to man
agement, and Linda has found herself in the po
sition of being an obstacle to greater control of
students by the administration.
I encourage everyone to stop by the Cultural Fo
rum to meet the people and check out the huge list
of productions put on by this incredibly vital and
undeniably successful student program. Even if the
Willamette Valley Folk Festival is the only fruit of
their labors you enjoy, beware: It could very well be
the first event cut if administrators are able to re
place Linda. This bodes terribly! In the 12 years
that I’ve been a Eugene resident, the Folk Fest has
become a spring ritual, the beginning of the outdoor
music season and a revisiting of old friends. To lose
it would be a shame.
Please support Dievendorf by calling either of
the administrators involved with her termina
tion: EMU Director Dusty Miller, at 346-6063, or
EMU Student Activities Director Gregg Lobisser,
346-1143. More importantly, please share your
concerns with their immediate supervisor, Asso
ciate Vice President for Student Affairs Anne
Leavitt, at 346-1129. They are currently refusing
to divulge any specifics, ostensibly hiding behind
the mantra of how “inappropriate” it would be to
discuss the details of such a crucial personnel de
cision, because it’s a decision involving “person
nel.” This bit of Alice-in-Wonderland logic is a
lame but not wholly unexpected excuse for pro
tecting the administration’s true agenda. The
more we make them parrot that tired line, the
more obviously thin it will become.
If every person who realized how many of their
best-ever local musical “moments” were brought to
them courtesy of the fine folks at the EMU Cultural
Forum, if every one of them actually made their
voices heard over this, the outcry would be over
whelming and Linda’s job will be saved, for the
good of all of us.
Scott Michael Perey graduated with honors from the Univer
sity’s music school in 1994 and has been a keyboardist with
The Sugar Beets for more than 10 years.