Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Michael J. Kleckner
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Tuesday, November 20,2001
Editorial
Federal screeners
will ease travelers’
sense of fearfulness
(U-WIRE) NORMAN, Okla. — Thanks to a late
deal between the House and Senate that passed
Thursday, airline security will be improved drasti
cally. The Department of Transportation will provide
security personnel to screen all bags. By 2003, all
checked bags will be scanned for bombs. As it is,
only about 10 percent of bags are now screened for
bombs.
It’s about time Congress came through with a pack
age of some kind. While Congress has found enough
time to give enormous cash giveaways to giant cor
porations and chip away at our civil rights to facili
tate the Justice Department’s investigation, it could
n’t figure out a way to keep knives, guns and bombs
off airplanes.
The two houses had been too mired in bickering to
notice that security at the nation’s airports was —
and is — in exactly the same condition it was on
Sept. 11.
The public is scared. If it turns out that Flight 587
was anything other than the accident it appears to
be, the airlines will start seeing more empty seats.
The Thanksgiving holiday is crucial for the airline
industry. If people don’t fly over Thanksgiving, the
airlines really will go under, and no amount of con
gressional gifts will keep them in the sky. It’s all
about confidence.
Even if we can never be completely safe, travelers
need to feel as safe as possible. Only if they feel safe
will they get on airplanes. And only if they get on air
planes will the airlines recover and help the econo
my take a step away from recession.
Oklahoma Daily (U. Oklahoma)
Crossing the Red Line
The American Red Cross has been
taking hits one after another
since Sept. 11.
First, President Bernadine Healy re
signed, effective the end of this year.
Her resignation was part of an ongo
ing dispute over the disposition of
hundreds of millions of dollars col
lected by the humanitarian agency in
a special account known as the “Lib
erty Fund.”
The money was believed to be in
tended completely for the families of
the dead in New York and Washington.
Apparently, only a portion is. The rest
was being spent on other Red Cross
programs — all worthwhile, but not
what the donors thought they were
ponying up for. Now, the organization
is allowing donors angered by the mis
expenditure of their money to request
refunds of their donations.
However, money is only half the is
sue. While there is a rightful anger
that financial donations meant to aid
the families of the victims have been
mismanaged, a more precious dona
tion seems to be on the line as well.
I’m talking about the hundreds of
thousands of pints of blood donated
in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Here and abroad, people poured their
hearts out, literally, in hopes that their
blood might have kept survivors of
the attacks alive. Now, we’ve been
told that at least 10 percent, and per
haps more, of that blood will not be
used to help anyone.
Being unable to secure freezer space,
much of the excess blood was left out
until it had passed its maximum 42
day shelf life. Now the organization
has been forced to destroy what it
couldn’t freeze. The Red Cross claims
that less than 10 percent of the
platelets (the actual red blood cells that
transport oxygen to cells in the body)
have been destroyed, and none of the
plasma, which is the liquid portion of
blood that keeps for much longer at
higher temperatures than whole blood.
However, the local collection centers
are telling a different story, according
to the Washington Post. They claim
that quite a bit more, both platelets and
Steve Baggs Emerald
plasma, has been destroyed. Now,
apart from the obvious public relations
maneuvering to make the loss look
much better than it most likely is, the
fact is that the Red Cross is wasting
perfectly good blood that could very
well have been employed to save lives
somewhere in America.
The Red Cross’ largest mistake in
this situation was allowing the dona
tion centers to remain open even
though they had more blood than they
could safely handle. Yes, they didn’t
want to turn people away when those
hundreds upon thousands wanted to
do something to help. Yet it’s worse to
be told, “Well, we never intended to
use your blood donation and left it to
rot,” than to come out and say, “We
can’t take any more blood, please give
at a later date.”
But by taking the blood and doing
nothing with it, until it now has to be
destroyed, they wasted their own time,
the time of their volunteers, large
amounts of money and another chunk
of the goodwill of the American people.
I want to make it clear, however,
that none of the preceding is meant to
dissuade you personally from donat
ing to or volunteering at the Red
Cross. Even though it has made some
missteps since the terrorist attacks —
and destroying blood is a pretty egre
gious error — the Red Cross is still in
dispensable in disaster relief efforts
the world over.
Pat Payne is a columnist for the 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
University should recognize ASL
I was pleasantly surprised by the editori
al demanding American Sign Language be
accepted as a second language at the Uni
versity (“Needing a decision on ASL now!”
ODE, 11/05). This means two years of ASL
would satisfy the language requirement for
a Bachelor of Arts degree.
ASL is a three-part sequence taught by Jo
hanna Larson-Muhr. Each year, she has sev
en beginning courses with 35 to 40 students
each. Communication Disorders and Sci
ences offers one section each of intermedi
ate and advanced ASL. Larson-Muhr has
waiting lists for all classes.
The greatest obstacle to adding more
classes and making ASL official is the Uni
versity administration's ignorance. The ad
ministration doesn’t feel this language has
a culture.
I make a distinction between the words
deaf and Deaf. The former word denotes
the physiology of an absence of hearing.
The latter represents the community, eti
quette, history, politics and language that
constitute a distinct cultural identity.
Physiology is one component of Deaf cul
ture. The other three are linguistic, politi
cal and social. Being deaf doesn’t automat
ically make one part of the Deaf culture.
According to the University’s mission
statement, it is dedicated to “an accept
ance of true diversity as an affirmation of
individual identity within a welcoming
community.” Our academic community is
n’t very welcoming when its leadership re
fuses to acknowledge the existence of a
Deaf culture. Making ASL an official lan
guage of the University would be the first
step toward affirming the true diversity
among deaf, hard of hearing and hearing
individuals in this community.
Kent Neal
senior
sociology
Ashcroft’s actions show cowardice
I am appalled at Attorney General John
Ashcroft and Sen. Gordon Smith for effec
tively stating that the wishes of Oregoni
ans aren’t worth a bucket of spit.
Ashcroft made an injunction that makes
prescribing lethal doses of federally con
trolled drugs illegal, nullifying the assist
ed suicide law that voters in Oregon
passed twice. Sen. Smith was also quoted
in the Oregonian saying that he supports
Ashcroft’s actions and is willing to risk
his political career to stand by them.
Ashcroft shows cowardice by using
these actions at a time when the nation
is preoccupied, and Smith is showing
that he cares more about himself and his
party than his constituents. Oregon has
vowed to challenge Ashcroft’s injunc
tion to the Supreme Court, and I hope
the Court will realize that it’s not the
federal government’s job to curtail the
power of a state, even if it doesn’t like
the state’s policies.
Smith says he is willing to risk his po
litical career for his belief, and I will hold
him to that by not voting for him in the
next election.
David Piper
freshman
political science
Get behind our ASUO president
It’s ironic that our campus’s main source
of news warned Nilda Brooklyn and Joy
Nair that they better shape up or they’ll suf
fer on the public relations front. It’s also *
ironic that the Emerald’s main criticism,
that the two fail to conduct visible cam
paigns, fell on a day when an ASUO elec
tion voter’s guide was nestled in its pages.
Perhaps few readers recall ASUO mem
bers as the most vocal students in opposi
tion to the Emerald’s sexist, insensitive ad
vertising for Yahoo! last year.
I guess some media outlets choose not to
“get behind our president,” even if the pres
ident is elected democratically.
Maybe the Emerald could report on the
ASUO’s quest for a fair housing code in Eu
gene, or how our student government is
fighting the “energy” fee, or take a stab at
the real number of people who attended
“Weaving New Beginnings.”
Who’s fighting for campus democracy at the
University? Seems like it’s our student gov
ernment, our president and vice president.
The giant election box was for the nation
al presidential election voter registration
drive, not an ASUO election. Get your facts
right, please.
Jeff Klein
graduate
planning, public policy and management