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
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Surrounding illustrations
by Giovanni Salimena
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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