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Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Michael J. Kleckner
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Friday, October 12,2001
Letters to the editor
Registering to vote
empowers students
Everybody plays, everybody wins.
Is it pinball I’m talking about? Good
guess, but try voter registration. Al
though it may sound like a stretch,
it’s the truth.
Through registering to vote, we
empower and validate ourselves as
students and citizens. Sometimes it
may seem as though the student
voice is all but sought after, but reg
istering to vote forces those with po
litical power to pay attention to the
needs of students.
The mobilization of students
across the state just last year is a
great example of student power.
Within the Oregon Legislature, stu
dent power has grown immensely.
By registering over 27,000 students
statewide and over 5,500 students
just at the University of Oregon,
we were the determining factor in
several races last November, and as
a voting group, we demanded at
tention
In the upcoming election this No
vember as well as the governor’s
race in the spring, we must turn out
to vote in the same record numbers
to prove the student vote is a consis
tent power and worth political at
tention. However, the only way stu
dents will be able to demand such
attention is by registering to vote.
Sandra Newton
sophomore
political science
Yearning for a chance to vote
In mv first two weeks as a fresh
man, I have learned two things; pil
lowcases can double as laundry
bags and everyone has an opinion.
The number of students not willing
to vote surprised me.
Ever since my 18th birthday, I
have been yearning for my chance
to cast a vote in an election. When I
vote, 1 imagine I will simultaneous
ly preserve the aspects I treasure in
my community and show distaste
for what I do not. Failing to do so
would undermine the most basic
aspect of democracy, something I
assumed was important to my fel
low Ducks.
I have found many things to be
relevant to the way I live my life as
a citizen of this campus, ranging
frum tuition increases to war. I, for
one, cannot wait to take advantage
of voting as a venue to express my
opinion
Adam Petkun
freshman
political science
U.S. has double standard
for terrorists
Now that President George W.
Bush has declared a “war on terror
ism,” I know of some terrorists he
won’t be pursuing and who are a lot
easier to catch than Osama bin
Laden.
What about Emanuel Constant,
the leader of the Haitian death
squad known as FRAPH, who is
now living in New York City and
would be very easy to apprehend?
Then there are right-wing Cuban ex
iles Luis Posada Carriles and Orlan
do Bosch, who bombed a Cubana
Airlines plane in 1976, killing all 73
people, including all of the Cuban
fencing team.
How about Felix Rodriguez, a
Cuban exile and CIA agent, who op
erated the Illopango air base in El
Salvador where arms were smug
gled to the Contras and drugs back
to the United States?
If the United States didn’t have a
double standard on terrorists, why
couldn’t the Chilean intelligence
agents and Cuban exiles who assas
sinated Orlando Letelier and Ronni
Moffitt in Washington, D.C., be cap
tured with little trouble?
It’s obvious there are two kinds of
terrorists — “ours” and “theirs.”
Those evil people called leftists,
who want things like unions, better
wages, universal health care, and
land reform, can be killed in ex
tremely large numbers with no retri
bution from the United States. The
people who murder them will not
even be called terrorists. However,
anyone who attacks U.S. military or
economic interests will be pursued
to the ends of the Earth.
Gary Sudborough
Bellflower, Calif.
Springfield portrayal
was hateful
I was terribly startled and sad
dened to read the editorial (“Eu
gene healing needs to begin,” ODE,
10/1) about Sacred Heart’s new fa
cility to be located in Springfield.
The level of venom and reproach
was shocking.
No one I know is concerned that
their children will be born at a
Springfield address. Nor does any
one I know think of Springfield as
the redneck haven you have por
trayed. My friends and colleagues
are interested in our Eugene-Spring
field community continuing to have
a state-of-the-art medical center. My
friends choose Sacred Heart as the
place to have their children because
of its Newborn Intensive Care Unit,
not its address.
It is irresponsible of you to perpet
uate the idea that ambulances origi
nate from hospitals. Ambulance re
sponse time, as stated publicly by
emergency services personnel, will
not be affected by the hospital’s lo
cation. Ambulances leave from
neighborhood fire stations. The ad
ditional few minutes travel time (for
some residents) to the Gateway site
isn’t a problem for the patient once
in ^ie EMT’s care. Sacred Heart staff
have also stated that a 24-hour ur
gent care facility will be at the
downtown campus. At Eugene May
or Jim Torrey’s request, they are con
sidering an emergency department.
Downtown dwellers will not be left
stranded.
You have done a disservice in
alarming readers of the Emerald by
printing misinformation. You owe
your readers an apology. You also
owe the citizens of Springfield an
apology for your inaccurate and
hateful portrayal of their commu
nity.
Elizabeth Walsh
Eugene
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to
250 words and guest commentaries to 550 words. Please include contact
information. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style.
To find the real enemy; we
need to look in the mirror
Guest Commentary
George
Beres
/ -w*has seen the enemy — and they is us.”
• I That ungrammatical but insightful phrase
fl may be familiar only to those old enough
JLto rank as elders of the University faculty.
They would remember its source, a long-gone syn
dicated comic strip, “Pogo.” It — like the best of
comics — gave us a clear view of ourselves, often
about character flaws we choose to ignore. It came
to mind in the aftermath of the terrible human loss
suffered in the terrorist bombings of New York City
and Washington, D.C.
A public statement of George Bush, the man
seated in the president’s chair, brought it into fo
cus: “Freedom was attacked this morning by a
faceless coward.” He was right; but he didn’t go far
enough. All he, I and our sorrowing fellow Ameri
cans need do is look in the mirror, and we’ll see a
clear unexpected image of that “faceless coward.”
One can’t minimize the evil of those who used
four of our jet planes to kill innocent passengers
and end the lives of thousands whom those
planes struck. The effort to uproot and punish
them is understandable and right. But translating
it into all-out war would compound the tragedy
by killing many other innocents as we seek out
the guilty ones.
Shooting from the hip has enabled us to destroy
targets around the world because we keep them
faceless, denying the truth that they possess the
same flesh-and-blood humanity we try to protect
among our children and ourselves. It is those ac
tions by our government that create the ominous
image in our mirror. The list is long, but some re
cent examples make the point:
• Bombing a Sudanese pharmaceutical firm
and destroying the limited source of medical
help for that Third World country
• Bombing of and sanctions against Iraq that
result in the deaths of thousands of that nation’s
children
• The ongoing slaughter of Palestinian — some
terrorists, but many more innocents—by U.S air
craft and weapons used by the Israeli military
• The traumatizing of Central America by U.S.
military policy in El Salvador, Nicaragua and else
where, where arbitrary policies of slaughter have a
hidden agenda: protecting and maximizing profits
of U.S. corporations.
Tally them up. It’s a long list that helps one un
derstand why Third World countries, seeing no
other recourse for halting our corporate greed, be
come a breeding ground for terrorists who attack
“the land of the free and the home of the brave.” As
the ultimate sacrifice of so many New York fire
fighters and police reminds us, there is selfless
bravery still within us.
But we are not free — not so long as we allow
our government to serve selfish overseas interests
of craven corporations instead of seeking the
health of our people and of all people. As I’ve com
mented before, this will persist for as long as we
tolerate an undemocratic elections system that al
lows big donors to bribe candidates.
When the man in the Oval Office describes the
battle to come as a “monumental struggle of good
versus evil,” he and we, who assume we are the
“good,” need to take a long look at that troubling
image in the mirror before we jump off the edge
into needless war.
George Beres is a former Oregon sports information director,
former editor of the University of Oregon faculty newsletter and
former manager of the University Speakers Bureau. Retired, he
now writes on the history of college sports. He can be reached at
gberes@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Peter Utsey Emerald