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PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Online Edition:
www. dailyemerald. com
Editor in Chief:
Andrew Adams
Associate Editors:
Peter Hockaday
Jeremy Lang
Editorial
UO’s integrity must
\ not be compromised
N
■ow the University
may return the dona
tion.
There should not
be much question in regard to
the $800,000 given to the Uni
versity by Jeffrey Grayson
when he was still at the helm
of the bankrupt Capital Consul
tants. It is money that he
should not have had and it is
now money the University
should not be clutching at.
President Dave Frohnmayer
said in a detached third-person
manner that the “University
cannot simply give away mon
ey without a clear legal reason
to do so,” and that makes one
wonder who the decision-mak
er will be and what he or she
may choose.
Will it be chieflegal counsel
Melinda Grier when she re
turns from her vacation? Or
will the University of Oregon
Foundation decide to give back
some money that for all ap
pearances is rather tainted?
Let’s hope this decision will fi
nally bring some sense to this
matter, and the money will be
returned.
First, those in the University
administration said they will
begin looking into returning
the money. So it should be fair
ly soon when that decision ar
rives.
But at issue here is more
than just the money. It is a sit
uation where the University
has so freely accepted funds
that some of its reputation
may be at stake. One does not
want to look a gift horse in the
mouth, but the University
cannot just open the door to
whomever.
Pandering to anyone with a
large enough checkbook just
makes the University look
more like a fancy showcase
than the pinnacle of liberal
thought it so often tries to
portray itself as. We all speak
as if the “University” is a sep
arate entity, something that
can be criticized or enact pol
icy changes, so we should
therefore not let this fair Uni
versity be sold out to the
highest bidder.
If we do allow the Universi
ty to be sold out, the quality
of experience here will be
subject to the whims of those
few and exclude the desires of
the many whom, the Universi
ty serves.
It is easy to shift the blame
somewhere else. One can say
the state does not provide
enough funding or the Uni
versity has to seek out dona
tions to remain competitive,
but in the end, our adminis
trators and trustees are re
sponsible for keeping this
campus’s reputation intact
and honorable. When it
squabbles over if and when it
should return $800,000 that
was given by someone who
most likely stole it, it just
shows how selling itself out
can place it in some tight
spots.
Protesters put themselves
and their cause at risk
There is something romanti
cally attractive about the mass
es rising up to hurl cobble
stones at the thugs of the elite
from behind barricades. But to
day, as we are beginning to see
from Europe, it is nothing more
than hooded vandalism with
out any direction.
The protests in Italy ap
peared to be nothing more than
just misdirected and misguid
ed violence. They left one Uni
versity student whose friends
and relatives all say is a peace
ful and nonviolent person in
an Italian hospital and under
arrest.
Like many, she seemed to
have gotten caught up in the
activist maelstrom that is
hurling itself at the walls of
the global elite. It is encourag
ing to see folks from all na
tions come together in a col
laborative effort, but it is
highly discouraging to see
that effort go to waste in the
tear gas laid down on unruly
protesters.
This is no argument for
globalism. In fact, there are
several reasons to support
those in opposition to the
forces that conspire to under
mine a nation’s sovereignty.
Rather, this is a critical exam
ination of the black-hooded
folks who put themselves and
their cause at grave risk by
their rashness. A man did not
die in Italy because of the in
herent evil of capitalism and
globalism, but because he
was attacking an Italian po
lice officer. It has happened
in nearly every city in which
these meetings have occurred
and will likely continue to do
so. But those within the
movement should take a long,
hard look at where the source
of all that anger stems from
and try to help stop future
outbreaks of explosive vio
lence.
Those large metal gates that
surround the chief policy-mak
ers are not symbolic of the
walls that keep the people
away from their leaders or the
rich from the poor; they are
there because activists can no
longer be trusted to act respon
sibly in public. For every rock
hurled at some police officer,
activists put themselves and
their cause further from the
realm of reasonable political
discourse.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editor in chief and does not
necessarily represent the views of the
Oregon Daily Emerald.
Media image of protest is skewed
Guest Commentary
Mason
Gummer
A
nti-globalization is what
the protesters of the G-8
conference in Genoa,
JL. Italy, are concerned about.
That’s no secret. I am concerned
about it too. Money equals power.
The wealthiest corporations in these
eight wealthiest countries are mak
ing sure their views are being repre
sented heavily in the policy-making,
and they are also making sure that
the views of the protesters (i.e. the
vastly poorer people) are not heard.
With the violence that occurred
amongst the protesters, the media
would have us believe they are a
bunch of crazy anarchists hell-bent
on smashing stuff. However, there
are reports from people who were
there (versus the corporate mass me
dia reports that are written so as not
to offend their source of profit: ad
vertisers) that the violence has near
ly always been incited by a Black
Bloc group. This particular group
has been observed to pop up in an
area of the protest and start smashing
store windows and property. When
other protesters try to stop them
from breaking things (because they
know this will obviously incite po
lice violence) the Black Bloc mem
bers are violent toward them as well.
But after some destruction has been
caused, the Black Bloc leaves the
area suddenly, and shortly afterward
the police arrive and begin commit
ting violence. In other words, the
Black Bloc is not a group of actual
protesters, but insurgents who are
giving the police a reason to be vio
lent and the media a reason to dis
credit the protest.
Does that sound too far out?
Hoover committed such unconsti
tutional acts of insurgency during
the anti-Vietnam/civil rights move
ment. There is massive documen
tation of the FBI trying to infiltrate,
confuse and destroy those move
ments. Don’t believe me? Research
it for yourself. A very poignant ex
ample is when the Chicago police,
prompted by the FBI, broke into the
home of Fred Hampton, the leader
of the Chicago Black Panthers,
without a warrant and murdered
him with machine guns.
Murder is definitely the word for
it, since he was asleep, and we know
for a fact he was asleep because the
autopsy report revealed that the last
meal he ate had been drugged. A
more recent example is the WTO
protest in Seattle, where again there
were reports similar to Genoa of in
surgents starting the violence and
giving the police a reason (hmmm
... I wonder why I never heard that
on Disney’s ABC News?).
The govemment/corporate
structure has an almost impeccable
history of hiding the truth if it is
profitable to them. Globalization is
certainly profitable to the rich and
decreases worker security for the
poor. Just look at what NAFTA has
done already.
But getting back to Genoa, the in
dependent media there had a lot of
footage of the protests, supposedly
including evidence that would ex
pose the phony Black Bloc. Howev
er, the night of the gymnasium attack
(where University student Morgan
Hager had her arm broken by the po
lice) the police first broke into the In
dependent Media Center across the
street. They raided the place and
broke all the incriminating tapes be
fore they proceeded across the street
to break some human flesh.
This is the basic picture of the G-8
summit that I’ve been able to obtain
through-independent media
sources online. It is, of course, very
contrary to the view presented by
the mass corporate media. It begs
the question: Which one is correct?
Of course, no one can answer this
for sure unless they were actually
there, but we can ask who has more
to lose by telling the truth. Keep in
mind that in the business of corpo
rate media they are not selling news
to audiences, but rather they are
selling audiences to advertisers.
We, the public, are the product that
is manipulated, bought and sold.
Discover the truth for yourself. If
you want, you can start with
www.zmag. org or
italy.indymedia.org, two independ
ent media sites.
Mason Gummer is a junior sociology majorat
the University.
ELF’s methods are effective, necessary
Guest Commentary
Marshall
Russell
juesday’s Emerald editorial
was disappointing to read.
|p Though the discussion of the
JL. popular mythos of adventure
that surrounds the Earth Liberation
F ront was out of the ordinary, the rest
was nothing more than the same tired
(and inaccurate) complaints levied
against the Elves for years.
Let’s be straightforward and start
with the title “ELF’s Violence is an
Ineffective Approach.’’ In fact, the
most recent ELF action in Oregon
was a shining example of effective
ness. On June 1, the ELF destroyed
three logging trucks connected to the
Eagle Creek timber sale outside Port
land. Now, no one is willing to pur
chase the wood from the sale for fear
that his or her company will be tar
geted next. An Oregonian story on
July 13th quoted one defeated log
buyer saying, “It's sad. They're win
ning the battle, and I don't like that.”
Numerous other news stories
have quoted many “genetic engi
neers” stating that they feel com
pelled to get out of the business be
cause what they call their “research”
(really only a combination of prod
uct development and PR cover-ups)
has been set back immeasurably.
Years and years of struggle have
no doubt changed the public con
sciousness toward a more compas
sionate orientation. But has that
consciousness changed the dy
namics of power that allow the
earth and downtrodden people to
be subjected to torturous exploita
tion? No, what cannot be hidden
from the public is lied about.
In case you haven’t noticed, the
ELF bums down empty buildings.
It is the dominant system that de
stroys villages in order to “save
them,” that massacres Indians
throughout the Americas from
1492 to right now, and that made
the Gulf War the most ecologically
destructive military conflict in his
tory. Ironically, those who destroy
machines get called “violent” for
interfering with the destruction of
entire cultures and ecosystems.
That’s what a compassionate—but
ignorant and submissive—public
opinion will get you.
The statements you make are
flatly contradicted by reality; that
“history shows that most political
change came through nonviolent
means,” that “saving the environ
ment ... has been taken up quite ef
fectively by more sensible organi
zations,” and that the time when
“this country’s citizens [had] to re
sort to violent means to pursue
their agenda, thankfully, is behind
us.” Unfortunately, the “agenda” is
now nothing less than survival
with any quality of life intact. A
rose-colored view of reality is of lit
tle use as anything but a coping
mechanism and a smoke screen.
Finally, there’s the matter of this
being a “civilized, rational society.”
If civilization is the fearful domina
tion of wild nature (both ours and
the Earth’s) and rational thought is
the impersonal mathematics of false
objectivity, then perhaps it is the
deadly conclusion of this rational
civilization’s logic that today’s radi
cals are moved to contest.
Marshall Russell is a member of the Anarchist
Action Collective.
Steve Baggs for the Emerald