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P.O. Box 3159. Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Online Edition:
www. dailyemera Id. com
Editor in Chief:
Andrew Adams
Associate Editors:
Jeremy Lang
Peter Hockaday
Take this Fourth of July
to reflect, give thanks
The coming Fourth of July
celebrations will likely be
somewhat subdued this
week as the holiday falls
on a Wednesday. While most will
get that day off from work, the
thought of heading to the office on
Thursday will no doubt make most
refrain from having that last round
of beer or third hamburger off the
grill. But while it is somewhat dis
appointing that we won’t have the
weekend to kick back and enjoy the
heat of the summ er with a barbe
cue, perhaps that is not such a great
misfortune.
Too often the true spirit of holi
days becomes lost in the frivolity of
the celebrating. Few of us can read
ily admit that every Christmas has
been one of spiritual self-analysis,
or every Thanksgiving a day of tru
ly being appreciative of our na
tion’s bounty. The Fourth of July is
no different, and I must admit that
many years previous have wit
nessed myself celebrating the day
in a dizzying run of bulk fireworks,
grilled meat and cheap domestic
beer.
Sure, it was fun, but I don’t think
I truly gave enough thought to what
I was celebrating and why. And
here in a town like Eugene, that is
more important than many realize.
Here, it is often far easier to find
support as a critic of our country
than as a patriot. Quite often our
streets are filled with angry demon
strators pointing to what they see as
serious problems in our govern
ment, society and environment.
Both on campus and off, people
seem more quick to tell you what
they believe is wrong with our na
tion than what is right. To listen to
these folks, one would think there
wasn’t anything right with our na
tion at all. And don’t even get them
started on what they think about
the current administration.
Therefore, Wednesday is an op
portune moment for both a reflec
tive and subdued Fourth of July. I
won’t have the weekend to go wild,
so I know I will make sure to re
member how lucky 1 am to be an
American, and I hope most people
will join me.
Through the rights granted by
the founders of our nation, we can
spend every day complaining
about the United States of America,
so why not spend one day singing
its praises?
Lower power rates good, but
conservation is still needed
It was with some relief that the
Bonneville Power Administration
announced last week that it would
be forced to raise its rates by^rnly
46 percent. This is just another sign
of how bad the energy situation has
become here if we applaud a nearly
50 percent increase in power rates.
But if one takes into considera
tion the even bleaker outlook for
our southern neighbor California,
and the fact that it could have been
a 75 to 250 percent increase, that
puts the news in the proper per
spective. While it will not be totally
clear for a few days what effect the
BPA’s move will have on our local
rates, it is expected to be below 50
percent, and that is more good
news.
The lower rate increase came
through a multi-million dollar buy
out deal by the BPA and aluminum
industry that has some, especially
our congressman Peter DeFazio,
claiming it’s just another example
of the energy industry’s question
able methods and another reason
for more federal control.
But we should all still hope that
despite the small rate increase,
these large energy consumers will
continue to conserve their power
and not pass on even larger rate
hikes to the smaller customers. In
stead they, and all of us, should be
come even more vigilant in power
conservation.
While deals and more deals will
continue, our energy woes will
likely become far worse before they
get better, and so all of us need to
make a strong effort to conserve our
power. There likely will never be
one silver-bullet solution to this en
ergy mess, but as consumers we
can all save the little we can. This
will not only contribute to alleviat
ing the overall energy crunch, but
will also save us some cash as well
Smoking ban another affront to
personal freedom
Well, they finally did it. Despite
a promising piece of legislation
that would have nullified Eugene’s
smoking ban and brought some rea
son to this smoky debate, a last
minute compromise will leave this
city’s smoking ban in place.
We really should have expected
this smoking ban some time ago
from a city that often leans toward
progressive politics that always
claim to be working in your best in
terest by taking away a few small
rights.
Earlier this year, the Eugene Po
lice Department was able to con
vince our city councilors to enact
an ordinance that would leave pri
vate citizens responsible for paying
police officers overtime if the offi
cers broke up their parties. Then,
our city manager decided Christ
mas trees were too offensive of
symbols to be seen on public prop
erty, so despite dozens of angry
phone calls, letters, e-mails and
even a protest by the fire depart
ment, Eugene gave Christmas trees
the boot.
Now our city is kicking smokers
to the curb, literally, by deciding
their habit is too offensive to be al
lowed in private businesses. No
one in his or her right mind could
promote taking up smoking, but
one can argue that it is a person’s
individual choice to smoke or not,
and a city shouldn’t make that
choice for its residents.
I for one spent this past Saturday
night at a colorful drinking hole on
the outskirts of Springfield. While
some friends bemoaned the fact
that they’d had their “last cigarette
at Rennie’s” this weekend, I just
took my business elsewhere.
This editorial represents the views of the
Emerald editor in chief and does not
necessarily reflect the views of the Oregon
Daily Emerald.
Rape is drastically underreported crime
Guest Commentary
lane
]ane
MINIS
fiey met at a New Year's Eve
party and talked on the
phone a few times before
JL their first date. She was a 20
year-old student at the University of
Pennsylvania, he a computer techni
cian eight years older.
They spent the evening of Jan.
17 socializing in a Center City
club and went back to his third
floor apartment on Ellsworth
Street about 1 a.m. She had drunk
about half of a glass of wine when
he offered her a small white pill.
"If you take it while you’re drink
ing, it enhances the effects of the al
cohol,” she remembers him saying.
She took it and fell asleep 10
minutes later.
Next thing she remembered was
waking up in his bedroom, his
body on top of hers. He was hav
ing sex with her, but she couldn't
move, couldn't focus, couldn't
keep her eyes open long enough to
recall later how the bedroom
looked. Finally, he drove her to
within a block of her dorm, and
she walked home shakily.
There are two notable aspects of
this incident. First, the white pill was
Ambien, a powerful prescription
drug that is used to treat sleep prob
lems and may cause memory loss.
Philadelphia prosecutors and police
say that they've never encountered
Ambien used in this way and fear it
may become another date-rape drug.
And, unusually, the female stu
dent agreed to prosecute the case.
The police and district attorney
call her one of the few brave ones,
willing to move from the gray,
cloudy area of self-doubt and
blame into the light of accounta
bility. It's a choice women often
choose not to make.
Rape is the most underreported
of crimes, especially in the com
bustible atmosphere of a college
campus, where young adults with
their first taste of freedom share
dorms, bathrooms and who knows
what else. Stoked by alcohol, drugs
and the ambiguous rules of contem
porary social life, it's not always
clear whether rape occurred, and if
so, who is to blame.
As a result, experts believe that
the sexual victimization of college
women is grossly undercounted.
Educational institutions are re
quired by federal law to report all
crimes on or around campus annu
ally, but those data represent a frac
tion of the crimes that actually occur.
"There's always going to be
much more than the police know
about," says William T. Bergman,
who ran the Philadelphia Police
Department's sex-crimes unit and
now is vice president for opera
tions of campus-safety services at
Temple University.
This disparity was highlighted
in a study released in December
by the National Institute of Justice
and the Bureau of Justice Statis
tics. After a confidential survey of
4,500 women attending two- or
four-year colleges and universities
with a student population of at
least 1,000, the authors projected
the rate of sexual victimization.
Their conclusions are startling.
For every 1,000 women students,
there may be 35 incidents of rape or
attempted rape in a given academic
year. "For a campus with 10,000
women," the authors estimate, "this
would mean the number of rapes
could exceed 350."
Apply that formula to some of
the region's largest campuses and a
span of doubt wider than the
Delaware opens up between pro
jected rapes and those actually re
ported. Penn reported two rapes in
2000; given the number of female
undergraduates—5,886—there
could have been as many as 206.
• Even if the formula is wrong by
half, the gap is enormous.
"The kids don't come forward,"
says Pat Brennan, director of special
services for Penn's Division of Pub
lic Safety. "They fear the social isola
tion, especially when the offender
comes from the same community.
The initial response of most of our
victims is to blame themselves."
Gina Maisto Smith, the assis
tant district attorney who prose
cuted the Ambien case, says
young adults have a natural aver
sion to admitting a mistake.
"You're at Penn. Your parents are
proud of you. You don't want to
tell because you don’t want peo
pie to go around and think any
thing less of you."
Especially when, according to
the victimization survey, nine out
of 10 offenders are known to the
victim. The stranger grabbing a stu
dent on the street is more the excep
tion than the rule. Most offenders
are boyfriends, classmates, friends.
Or first-time dates. The young
woman in the Ambien case ac
knowledges that it would have
been much harder for her to pur
sue prosecution if her assailant
had been a Penn student.
It was hard enough as it was.
"Originally, I wasn't going to tell
anyone about it," she recalls while
sitting in Brennan's softly decorat
ed office. "I took a pill. I thought it
was my fault."
Eventually she told a friend, then
her resident ad viser, then a hospital
worker, then the police. She's re
markably clear-thinking. "People
would rather try to forget about it
than face all the challenges involved
with coming forward," she says. "But
there's no way you can foiget about
something like this."
The case never did go to trial.
Last month, the computer techni
cian tearfully pleaded guilty to in
decent assault and a drug charge,
was given two years' probation and
ordered to undergo drug testing
and counseling. Considering how
difficult these cases are to prove,
the resolution satisfied everyone.
"He will probably never admin
ister Ambien to another woman
again," Smith said. "She walked
away with her self-esteem."
And with a resolute desire to
embolden other women to come
forward. No surprise that educa
tion here is essential.
Every year, Joanne Wszolek,
Temple’s campus police service
coordinator, holds a safety orien
tation for incoming freshmen, try
ing to educate them about respon
sibility, boundaries, reporting.
"They got real quiet," she said of
one session last week. "There was
n't one question, one comment.
But I noticed the females nodding
their heads, making eye contact. I
felt they understood where I was
coming from."
The silence may be breaking.
© Knight-Ridder Tribune, 2001
Chan Lowe Tribune Media Services