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Editor in Chief:
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Managing Editor:
Michael J. Kleckner
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Friday, October 26,2001
Letters to the editor
Marijuana convictions not minor
Thank you for printing the well-written article about ASUO Le
gal Services (“ASUO gives guidance for legal problems,” ODE,
9/17). There is one item I should correct about state and federal drug
convictions involving less than an ounce of marijuana. Possession
of less than an ounce is a non-criminal violation in Oregon, not a
(criminal) misdemeanor.
The point I tried to make is that many students view getting caught
with less than an ounce as a minor event because the penalty usually
only involves a fine; yet conviction for possession of even a small
amount of marijuana now includes the stiffer penalty of the loss of fed
erally funded financial aid for at least one year.
We at ASUO Legal Services hope students who rely on financial aid
will accept this warning and not risk their education for drugs, even a
small amount of marijuana.
Ilona Koleszar
director
ASUO Legal Services
Answer to terrorism is justice, not capitalism
You can always count on a capitalist to try to cash in on pain and
suffering. On Oct. 17, Bret Jacobson had a guest commentary (“So
lution to terrorism is industrialization,” ODEJ touting that the solu
tion to the problems in Afghanistan was to open it up for foreign in
vestment, assuming that their problems could be solved if we ‘let’
them make widgets for us.
Simple, right? A few industrialists build factories to cash in on
cheap labor (remember, their industrial base has been obliterated), and
everybody's happy. We get more cheap plastic crap and sports apparel,
they get a dollar for every sixteen-hour workday. Everybody benefits,
right? Has anybody ever considered that U.S. economic imperialism
might be part of the problem?
Here's an idea: What if the U.S. government stopped financing
death squads and dictators and stopped training terrorists? What if
the U.S. shut down the infamous School of the Americas, where it
trains foreign soldiers and paramilitaries in counterinsurgency and
torture? What if the U.S. stopped military aid to genocidal govern
ments? What if we let these people control their own destiny, and
stopped treating less developed countries as a supply of cheap labor
and resources.'’ The fact is that we will have no peace unless the rest
of the world has justice.
Randy Newnham
senior
anthropology and linguistics
Saferide should stay women-only
I feel that the issue of women’s safety on campus, while generally
talked about and verbally supported, is sorely lacking in heart. Many
people talk about how they want their female relations and friends to
be safe, yet it seems when it comes down to it, it’s only talk. Saferide,
an organization truly committed to the safety of women, both physi
cally and emotionally, has taken the initiative to bring about safety in a
way that keeps women from having to walk alone at night.
It deeply saddens me that there are people on this campus who feel
the need to threaten the safety of their female relations and acquain
tances because they cannot abide by the fact that Saferide is not a coed
shuttle service. Saferide was created with women’s safety in mind.
It has been statistically proven over and over again that it is men
who direct the majority of sexual assaults at women. That is not to say
that men cannot be assaulted, and I fully support men who choose to
create an organization geared toward the sexual safety of men. How
ever, as those who are concerned about the sexual safety of women
should agree, combining such a shuttle service would defeat the pur
pose of both Saferide and a male equivalent.
If the goal is to make the said person feel safe and not threatened in
any way, then the goal of said organization should be to remove the
threatening factors — in this case, the opposite gender.
Andrea Pietruszka
junior
cultural anthropology
CORRECTION
In the Oct. 25 cover story “Fitting the Bill,” the caption was unclear about the
history of the mascot. The “Webfoot” was the University’s original mascot,
the mallard was a suggested image that was never adopted, and the duck on
the “0" was the image that preceded the adoption of Donald.
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.
Yesteryear’s news
A Poor Precedent
Echoes are occasionally heard bemoaning the fact that a football coach usually draws a higher salary
than a learned professor — and this on our campus. At California, they pay $12,000 a year for coaches to
whip the Golden Bear into shape. With their enormous student body such a mere trifle is not considered as
extravagance and they little begrudge the expenditure — but they are setting a bad precedent in the West.
Heretofore the west has turned out teams that have been on a high plane, that have even defeated the picked
heroes of the East, with expenditures that are dwarfed by California's salaries. The West
has been able and content to get along with moderately paid coaching staffs. The present
instance is the first radical departure therefrom, although considerable agitation has aris
en in Seattle from time to time over the $4,000 salary of Gilmore Dobie. Eastern colleges
sometimes spend fabulous sums for their coaches, and it seems to be in emulation of
them, rather than through any real need, that California has opened her purse strings to
such an extent. It is this very thing that is disrupting eastern athletics and causing deep
murmurs of protest from the thinking alumni and faculties of many of the great institu
tions of the Atlantic seaboard. On this coast athletics have long been of purer and less
commercial nature. California, a newcomer into the conference of the West, is introducing
an example that is out of harmony with the best interests of amateur spdrt.
University
of Oregon
125th
ANNIVERSARY
Originally
published on
December 9,1969
Marijuana criticism was wrong
Guest Commentary
Andy
Kohnen
I have to admit to becoming some
what infuriated upon reading
“There’s no hope with dope” (ODE,
10/15). The column in question
paints a very inaccurate and unfair
picture of marijuana and its users.
First, the vast majority of users of
marijuana do not become the heavy
users that the columnist discusses. In
fact, marijuana has been found (by
the National Institute of Drug Abuse
of all people) to be one of the least ad
dictive recreational substances —
only psychedelic drugs are less ad
dictive. Yes, even alcohol induces
states of chemical dependence more
often than marijuana.
Furthermore, the negative ef
fects Debenham associates with
smoking weed — principally prob
lems with short-term memory, co
ordination, intake of carcinogens
and changes in diet due to the
“munchies” — are really only a
problem with habitual users.
Marijuana can be looked at as a
recreational activity like any other.
Sure, it can distract the user from life’s
stresses, but doesn’t television do this
as well? If one were to watch TV for
several hours per day (as many do),
would life not seem to lose some of its
worth? Would this avid TV-watcher’s
mind not atrophy from lack of exer
cise? Would this “couch potato” not
miss out on other valuable activities
because of time spent in front of the
“tube”? Despite this, millions world
wide are able to juggle both TV and
otherwise fulfilling lives.
Additionally, other substances —
alcohol and opiates in particular—
are much more apt to numb the
mind and serve as an escape from
one’s problems.
Use of marijuana and recreational
drugs in general are of far more sig
nificance and value than simple di
versions. The issue here is one of civ
il liberty. People should have the
right to control their own processes
of cognition and the internal meta
bolic activities of their own bodies
If a musician thinks marijuana al
lows her to gain a different perspec
tive, coming up with a different set
of ideas from those she would en
counter while sober, then she should
have the right to pursue her art. If a
philosopher believes LSD gives him
a unique cognitive perspective, al
lowing for processes of abstract rea
soning differing greatly from that of
sober reality, then he should be able
to pursue the truth as he deems fit.
Finally, I find the author’s correla
tion of drug use and unpatriotic or
terrorist-friendly activity to be both
factually incorrect and a “blow be
low the belt. ” The Taliban is, in fact, a
regime that is rather unfriendly to
ward the use of recreational drugs
(among other civil liberties). The
United States recently gave $43 mil
lion to the Taliban in reward for de
claring the production of opium ille
gal. The result is hardship for the
peasants who depend on this cash
crop to survive, and little or no
change in the availability of heroin
on the streets of America.
Perhaps some day the United
States’ drug policy will have some
semblance of sanity and practicali
ty. Until then, freedom lovers every
where will need to push for change.
Andy Kohnen is a sophomore in psychology.
Peter Utsey