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Managing Editor:
Michael J. Kleckner
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
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Editorial
University;
Sprint can
reach an
agreement
Incoming students may have thought
they were getting a good deal if they
signed up for a cell phone to use when
calling their parents from the residence
halls. However, many of these students
were dismayed to discover they would be
forced to leave the confines of their cozy
rooms in order to use their phones. Sprint
PCS, in particular, doesn’t have adequate
i cell phone coverage to service the cus
j tomers on the east side of campus.
Obviously, the problem of getting more
cell phone reception would be solved by
\ building more cell phone towers. But the
| cnswer is not that simple. There is invari
i i-bly controversy over the placement of
..ell phone towers, and residents located
! . oar 15th Avenue and Villard Street are
i loudly protesting a new tower slated to be
j L'lilt in their backyards.
The tower is expected to be 150 feet tall
j and located only a few yards away from
the new graduate student housing facility.
The tower could also devalue property in
the neighborhood, and some people fear it
could cause cancer.
Speculation that cell towers cause can
cer has not been proved. Although this is
a serious concern, many of the products
we use every day were once the subject of
the same suspicions. More research needs
to be done before we can make conclu
sions about health risks posed by cell
phone towers.
The siting dilemma stems from trying
to balance the concerns of understand
ably angry residents with the real need for
the tower. Since this particular tower
would be utilized mainly by University
students, it should be put on campus.
There is no need to inconvenience or pos
sibly endanger those who happen to live
near the University just so students can
have better cell phone service. And the
campus has many areas where the tower
would not be as obtrusive. The University
is planning within the next six months to
create guidelines on cell phone tower
placement. Sprint should withhold their
application to the city until the University
finds a suitable on-campus site for the
tower.
A cell tower on campus is essential and
a matter of common sense. Cell phones
have nearly become a necessity for many
college students, especially since the
Sept. 11 attacks. But to avoid aggravating
a potentially volatile situation, Sprint
should wait patiently.
Sprint should wait patiently for the
University to solve this potentially
volatile situation.
Letters to the Editor
and Guest Commentaries
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.
Shut up, Mr. Falwell!
In times of crisis like these,
there are those who will dis
sent from the mainstream.
On the one hand, you have
those who are urging restraint in
the conduct of the war, and paci
fists who feel that war is unthink
able and wrong (I’m not referring
to those few “pacifists” who
Payne
Columnist
merely
want to
feel moral
ly superior
orchic by
opposing
everything
the United
States
does).
There is
nothing
wrong
with this
sort of dis
sent when
carried out
in a sensi
tive manner, as it adds to the
tapestry of debate. On the other
hand, there’s the religious right,
who have never added any
thing of much consequence.
Mr. Jerry Falwell (I, from this
point on, refuse to give him the
respect accorded by the title
“reverend’’), on September 13,
not two days after the attacks,
went on the religious talk show
“The 700 Club”and spoke on
the tragedy. Instead of letting
the dust settle and perhaps
finding some words of healing
that any real cleric worth the ti
tle would have given, he said
the following: “What we saw on
Tuesday, as terrible as it is,
could be minuscule if, in fact,
God continues to lift the curtain
and allow the enemies of Amer
ica to give us probably what we
deserve... The abortionists
have got to bear some burden
for this because God will not be
mocked. And when we destroy
40 million little inno
cent babies, we make
God mad. I really be
lieve that the pagans,
and the abortionists,
and the feminists, and
the gays and the les
bians who are actively
trying to make that an
alternative lifestyle,
the ACLU, People For
the American Way—
all of them who have
tried to secularize
America — I point the
finger in their face and
say ‘you helped this
happen’” (emphasis
added).
Let us juxtapose
this with a few pas
sages from a recent
statement by Osama
bin Laden: “There is
America, hit by God in
one of its softest spots.
.. .The least that can be
said about these peo
ple is that they are de
bauched. ... May God
show them His wrath .
and give them what
they deserve.... These
events have divided
the world into two
sides: the side of the
believer and the side of
the infidel, may God
keep you away from
them.... When God blessed one
of the groups of Islam ... they
destroyed America.... And
(Americans) want to wag their
tail at God.”
“If in fact God continues to
lift the curtain and... give us
probably what we deserve,” in
deed. Mr. Falwell, you stated
parts of the terrorists’ case for
them. Quite simply, you have
aided and abetted the enemy.
Were this a more unenlightened
age, you would be on trial for
treason and sedition — quite
possibly fighting for your life.
Feel lucky that the only out
come is the loss of any shred of
credibility.
Mr. Falwell, you and people
like you have said that the at
tacks were our fault because
God decided to lift his protec
tion of this nation for harboring
people who have beliefs and/or
lifestyles you find abhorrent.
How dare you use this tragedy
to push your virulent point of
view and try to justify the mur
der of6,000 people?
Steve Baggs Emerald
Mr. Falwell, before Sept. 13,1
found you to be a distasteful, ar
rogant buffoon. Today, I find
you beneath contempt. And no
partial apologies you care to
make to the nation should be
accepted, much less heard. The
best thing you could do in the
wake of your statements, Mr.
Falwell, is to shut up.
Pat Payne is a columnist forthe Oregon
Daily Emerald. His views do not necessarily
reflect those of the Emerald. He can be
reached at patpayne@dailyemerald.com.
Letters to the editor
War protests help terrorists
On Sept. 11, over 5,000 innocent people
were murdered by terrorists who hate
everything America and the West stand
for: Reason, life, liberty, prosperity and the
earthly pursuit of happiness. We are
presently being terrorized in a vicious at
tempt to murder more innocent people via
anthrax. (And who knows what’s next?)
If this isn’t evil, then what is evil? Noth
ing — according to one of today’s leading
postmodernist professors, Stanley Fish,
dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sci
ences at the University of Illinois at Chica
go. In a New York Times column from Oct.
15, Fish writes, “ ... There can be no inde
pendent standard for determining which
of many rival interpretations of an event is
the true one.” He argues further that there
are no objective standards to judge an ac
tion as good or evil; it’s totally subjective,
hence relative. On this logic, calling the
Holocaust evil is no more valid than call
ing it good.
Thanks to countless postmodernist pro
fessors like Fish, moral relativism is ram
pant in today’s so-called institutes of high
er learning, where many students are
currently protesting America’s war on ter
rorism. Such protests will weaken Ameri
ca’s resolve in winning the war on terror
ism, thereby helping the terrorists. While
the U.S. military destroys the terrorists
and their sponsors, the rest of us should
protest the protesters - and their relativist
professors.
Glenn Woiceshyn
Calgary, Alberta
A new kind of terrorist
I see that several abortion providers
across the nation have received mail re
cently containing a “mysterious white
powder.” Perhaps those wacky anti-abor
tionists have taken a page from the “bio
terrorist” handbook. Funny, though, I
don’t hear any reference to “Christian ter
rorists.”
Bill Smee
University classified staff
' Canada column lacks perspective
The article titled “There's no hope with
dope” (ODE, 10/15) made me smirk and
then laugh out loud. I agree with Deben
ham's initial depiction of the college expe
rience. But that's where our agreement
ends. If college is for learning how to be
free thinkers and a chance to begin taking
a more experiential approach to life, how
can you justify regurgitating inane “facts”
about something you’ve clearly never
done?
You've successfully wrapped every anti
drug campaign slogan and half-baked
rhetoric from the folks on high to con
struct an article which only points to lack
of perspective. I'm not encouraging any
one to do something they object to, but
when you say that buying marijuana in
Oregon “indirectly support(s) these organ
izations,” citing the Taliban, you obvious
ly don't know that Oregon’s number one
cash crop is marijuana. (Above even grass
seed!) At best you might be supporting a
Canadian family farming community. The
marijuana trade in the Northwest is such a
local economy there's little hope for
Afghani hash even making it here.
So I thank you for bringing a smile to my
face and filling in what would have been a
rather blank page. Had the author not dis
tilled Nancy Reagan’s eight years as first
lady into such a moving piece, I might
have had to hear about more of the world’s
“arduous” problems, like anthrax and per
sonal privacy violations.
Shane McCloskey
senior
architecture