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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
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Monday, December 3,2001
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
Special tribunals,
evidence must
be made public
President George W. Bush announced Nov. 13 in
an executive order that military tribunals can be
used instead of full-fledged public trials for ter
rorists he believes are linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.
But though tribunals are able to serve justice swiftly,
public trials would lift the veil of secrecy that has
shrouded the investigation thus far.
According to Bush’s military order, he will person
ally select the suspected terrorists to be tried in private
military tribunals. Details of each case, including evi
dence against the suspects, will be kept secret, and the
suspect on trial would be blocked from appealing to
other U.S. and international courts.
By redefining justice for the suspected terrorists,
Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft are keeping
the facts from Americans. We have the right to know
who these suspects are, what charges are being
brought against them and further details of their indi
vidual cases. As Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said last
week: “We stand for a great deal in this country....
[But] when we're talking about setting aside our crimi
nal justice system for something like this, we end up
looking more and more like some of the things that we
are fighting against.”
All secrecy surrounding the terrorist attacks
should be eliminated. This includes any evidence
the administration has gathered against Osama bin
Laden, the al-Qaeda network and its links to other
terror organizations. Although we have been told by
our government leaders that bin Laden and his terror
organization are responsible for the attacks, we have
not yet been allowed to view any concrete evidence
to justify the so-called “war” in Afghanistan since
the bombing began.
If the Bush administration won’t provide the evi
dence, then how do we know evidence will be proper
ly presented to prove guilt in military tribunals? Jus
tice must be served swiftly to those responsible for the
horrific attacks on our country, but the nation must
not compromise its integrity and standards of justice.
Military tribunals would only work if all of the details
of the trials were made public record.
We have been kept in the dark too long. If hard
evidence exists that links certain terrorists to the
September attacks, it needs to be presented to the
public. Continuing without doing so is unfair to
every American citizen.
Letters to the Editor and
Guest Commentaries Policy
Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limited to 250words and guest
commentaries to 550 words. Please include contact
information. The Emerald reserves the right to edit
for space, grammar and style.
Pol! Results:
Every week, the Emerald prints the results of our online poll, which
can be accessed from the main page of our Web site,
www.daiiyemerald.com. We encourage you to send us feedback
about the poll questions and results.
Last week’s poll question; In the spirit of the upcoming Civil War,
what would be a better mascot for Oregon State University?
Results; 152 total votes
Accountants—8 votes, o r 5.3 percent
Cow pies—76 votes, or 50 percent
Banana slugs — 13 votes, or 8.5 percent
Jailbirds—-38 votes, or25 percent
Don’t know — 17 votes, or 11.2 percent
‘Cow pies’ wins, but perhaps well forgo the smart-ass comment
this week. We don’t wantto make the Beavers feel any worse or cry
any harder. •
Protest brings back memories of atrocity
Sometimes it is all too easy to lose
hope in humanity. Sometimes it is
all too easy to forget the suffering
and sacrifices of others.
Although the events surrounding
Sept. 11 have awakened a renewed
sense of nationalism and pride, we also
need to remind ourselves of other
tragedies, some of them even fomented
by our own government.
While walking across the plaza to
the EMU on Nov. 15,1 saw several
students enacting a grisly scene that
brought back a terrible moment of re
ality for me. The students, surround
ed by small white crosses, bearing the
names of campesinos killed in con
flicts in Central America during the
1980s, reminded me of years spent
covering the war, interviewing com
batants and refugees, and witnessing
our own government's involvement.
At first, I had to remember the date
the students were reenacting. It was
Nov. 16,1989, just 12 years ago. Ear
ly that morning in San Salvador, El
Salvador, six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and her daughter were
taken from their sleeping quarters at
Guest Commentary
Dennis
_Dunleavy
the University of Central America
and murdered in cold blood by an
elite military squad of U,S.-trained
Salvadorans.
The still forms of the students lying
out in the rain brought back the reality
of this atrocity. Some of the soldiers in
volved in the massacre had received
training in the United States at the
Army School of the Americas in Ft.
Benning, Georgia.
The School of the Assassins, as it is
often called, has been the target of a
growing movement to close it down.
The civil war in El Salvador (1980
1992) claimed more than 75,000 lives,
mostly civilian. It displaced well over
a million people. El Salvador is a
small country, about the size of Mass
achusetts, and has a population of
only several million. During the war,
the U.S. government poured in more
than $4.6 billion in military aid to
stop what it considered communist
aggressiorn’ln reality, this conflict was
a people’s war against hunger, disease
and abject poverty.
How could I forget the horror and
destruction of this and many other
conflicts around the globe? Will the
cry of the poor and the oppressed
ever be heard? But hope persists.
Now, in the middle years of life, I
have stopped to witness a new gener
ation of individuals of conscience —
people who act out of empathy for the
oppressed of the world and out of
anger against errant U.S. foreign poli
cy. I am grateful for these students’
idealism. I am grateful that they take
the time to reflect and care. But I am
also ashamed of myself for not having
joined them.
I am saddened that I did not take
time to quietly lie in protest and soli
darity on that cold rainy day in No
vember. I am saddened that I didn't
take the time to think of the dead and
to dream of peace.
Dennis Dunleavy is a graduate student
in journalism and mass communication.
Letters to the editor
To each his own values
I’ve traveled extensively, and I’ve
studied in the United States for three
years. I’ve learned about Americans’
culture and values. Americans share
values, but individuals differ in how
they practice them in society.
Coming from Kuwait, I love history,
poetry and practicing traditional meth
ods of eating, greeting others and play
ing music. I can’t find friends with
these interests in this society. Everyone
wants to be “modern.” What does
“modern” mean? People always an
swer “to be cool.” When I ask those in
my age group what “cool” means, the
answer differs, based on identity.
My identity hasn’t changed. I’ve
practiced things like praying and play
ing my favorite sport. While staying
with an African-American host family,
I practiced an old traditional Arabic
method of eating off the floor, using
only three fingers of one hand. The
family was surprised. They asked me to
eat at the table. I responded, “This is
my culture; this is where I come from
— a society where we feel warm using
the floor for eating.”
I feel free to pray, play my Arabic
musical instrument and wear tradition
al clothes at home and other events.
In all the countries, my friends ask me
to teach them my behaviors, but not the
values. The host family tried to teach me
both the behaviors and the values. I like
that. However, I don’t identify with
American values. I have my own ,
which characterize my identity. But I do
behave like a “normal” American to
show respect for their values.
Khaled Al-janai
junior
political science
The definition of real fans
Is that all we get?
I’m glad that the football team appre
ciated the efforts of students who spent
Monday waiting in line for Civil War
tickets, and I appreciated the article
that the Emerald ran Monday about the
student fans. However, I was disap
pointed to open the paper Tuesday to
find the only mention of the thousands
of students who spent their Monday
waiting for tickets was from the team’s
perspective. - .
My disappointment turned to of
fense when I saw the last page of the
Emerald, a full-page Nike ad featuring
Coach Bellotti and the slogan, “The
definition of a true fan.” After being at
Autzen on Monday, I’d like to add a
few more definitions.
How about “Camps out Sunday
night to get a good spot Monday morn
ing and still waits in line five hours”; or
“Misses an entire Monday of classes to
wait outside in the middle of Novem
ber”; or “Bonds with fellow linemates
as they chant ‘Cutter!’ to anyone at
tempting to join the line midstream”; or
maybe “Spends the last two hours of
the line squeezed between barricades
like a can of sardines”; or “Hobbles
away from the ticket window eight
hours later, feeling as victorious as the
football team will Dec. 1?”
No offense, Coach, but I tljink we
know who the real fans are.
Rachel Seay
junior
music
Real war involves suffering
I'm confused about the sports head
line appearing on the Nov. 27 edition
of the Emerald. The second line reads,
Turn to Letters, page 3