Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 2001)
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 The ODE thanks our illustrators for helping readers draw their own conclusions ■h \ / Surrounding illustrations by Giovanni Salimena / \ A year in review |or a year now, the Emerald editorial board has clever JL our readers through the minefield of confusing issues and complex policy decisions. OK, maybe not intelligently and not always so cleverly. But we hope that we’ve made readers think, that we’ve made readers disagree with us and that we’ve made readers really pissed. It was a fun year, and the edito rial board gained depth and breadth, thanks to our communi ty representative. Each term, we asked a member of a student group to join the editorial board and help shape our editorial poli cy. It was a fantastic experience, and it will be continued next year. We extend a sincere thanks to those three people for making our judgments that much more thoughtful. Well, we’ve spent ourselves this year, so there’s not a lot left to say. We decided to let readers guide the direction , if not the ac tual content of this final editorial. For the past week, the poll ques tion on the Emerald’s Web site asked readers to choose the top story of the year. So here’s a run down of the year’s hottest campus stories as of press time, according to you, with our final thoughts ly and intelligently led about the stories added for your mental pleasure. 9. UO wins two NCAA track titles Hurrah for track! Even though Tennessee and Southern Cal won the team titles, it was great to have two individuals win titles on their home field, right here in Tracktown, U.S.A. It was a shame, however, the attendance was low for Lorenzo Santiago’s win in the decathlon. Perhaps next year the community can muster a better turpout. Santiago and John Stiegeler deserve con gratulations for being the only Ducks to take an NCAA title this year. By the way, congratulations are also in order for the club vol leyball team, which took the na tional title. 8. WISTEC/Autzen Stadium controversy We’re very glad that the Uni versity and WISTEC were able to come to an agreement that keeps the museum open. WISTEC is a treasure for our community, and the University should work on developing a closer relationship with this asset that is right in our backyard. Perhaps students could gain internship experience from working at WISTEC, or spe cial curriculum could be devel oped to partner with the muse um. One thing was made crystal 1 clear through the whole contro versy, however: The city of Eu gene, Lane County, the University and any other governmental bod ies that do business together need to clean up their intergovernmen tal agreements (IGAs). The maze of IGAs that had to be negotiated in order to pull off the Autzen ex pansion and the WISTEC deal was mind-numbing. Please, City Council; clear this up. 7. Problems at the Department of Public Safety Much progress has been made since the beginning of the year at DPS. But the department should take note: Be careful, your actions are being watched. Now that DPS has commissioned officers, the onus of actually being peacekeep ers is ever greater. There was more to the DPS story that the Emerald could not report on this year. All we can say is that we hope DPS takes care of its internal affairs in the future, in order that its external affairs can be success ful for the officers and the com munity. And P.S.: Please take care in hiring Marte Martinez’s re placement. This position over sees all patrol officers and is criti cal to the success of DPS. 6. (tie) Presidential election / Turn to Review, page 3 Hypocrites, get over it* DIARY OF A NTENT MICHAEL J. KLECKNER So the end of the year is here at last. It was a long, strange trip for sure, my friends. From unex pected pitfalls and a series of “the readers love me” and “the readers love me not” moments to the joy of talking to angry letter writers, I had a great run. I hope I did right by every one. I certainly tried to engender dis cussion and get as many different viewpoints on the page as I could. I hope no one is too mad at me after this year, because I owe it all to you, the readers. I wasn’t sure at first what to fill this space with, but then I realized there are three topics still digging at the back of my brain (or is that the crack I’ve been smoking? Ha ha.)'and they almost pro vide a summary of my message. There is sort of a thread connecting the three, but I’ll let you pick that apart. The point is, be yourself, and get over your self. Be true to what you... aww, forget it. Just read. First, homosexuals cannot be “con verted” by therapy to heterosexuality. I don’t care what some doctor-with-an agenda thinks he found recently in some terribly skewed study. In all my dealings with human beings, I have ev- ^ perienced an enormous spectrum of sexuality. Some people may he at one extreme or another of that spectrum, • but most people are somewhere in the vast middle. Most people I know expe rience their sexuality in a much more fluid manner than the “nurture” ver sion offered by proponents of these therapies. It seems that “nature” is in volved along with “nurture,” and no one person experiences sexuality quite the same way. It may be possible, then, to brain wash and threaten people into repress ing their homosexual feelings and be haviors, but no one can be “fixed” or “cured,” whatever that might mean, by conversion therapies. All humans (even very conservative Christians who believe in these therapies) lust af ter and/or love other humans for many different reasons, and hardly any of those reasons are based on biblical dic tates. Most humans’ desires are based on reality. So get over it, right wing. Second, Eminem freakin’ rocks. I don’t care how unpopular this might make me with certain segments of my LGBTQ community. The Gay and Les bian Alliance Against Defamation re cently sent me a plea for money, along with some words taken out of context from an Eminem song. The words al legedly show that Eminem is a dirty, evil misogynist and gay-basher. I’m supposed to be outraged by these 10 or so words and give GLAAD money to Turn to Kleckner, page 3
