Letters to the editor
Cartoon places blame
in wrong place
We recognize the importance
and legitimacy of cartoon editori
^fi^e4.ucate readers on a myriad
of issues. However, the cartoon by
Steve Baggs in your Wednesday,
March 6 edition entitled “Logic in
Israel” was misleading, biased
and uninformed.
By presenting Israel as strong and
militant and the Palestinians as inno
cent and unarmed, Baggs places the
sole responsibility for the current
Middle East situation in Israel’s lap.
The terrorist war being waged on Is
rael is the result of a strategy adopted
by Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian
Authority even before Ariel Sharon’s
election as Prime Minister.
Israel is not targeting civilians, but
rather being forced into a war of self
defense against terrorists and sui
cide bombers. Laying blame on Is
rael might be fashionable, but it
ignores the larger complex realities
of the situation.
Matt Peltz Sarah Shpall
junior senior
sociology Judaic studies
Troy Grudin AmosNadler
LCC student junior LCC student
math and economics
U.S. citizens need
to examine U.S. violence
I strongly agree with Jason
Stein’s comment, “Violence is the
last resort of the incompetent”
(“Cartoon found not so humor
ous,” ODE, 3/08/02). It’s a poignant
sentiment that is, today more than
ever, worth further consideration.
Regarding the situation in Israel,
Stein says, “When you have a pop
ulation in your midst that is trying
to literally kill you, action must be
taken.” This could be a description
of Yugoslavia as the Kosovo con
flict arose — and many countries
are beginning to feel the same
about the United States.
If violence is the last resort of the
incompetent, we should re-examine
our current administration. The
slaughter we’re committing in Iraq
and Afghanistan, as well as the Yu
goslavian conflict, is horrifying.
Articles regarding the U.S. “Nu
clear Posture Review” describe fur
ther insanity. The review states nu
clear bombs “could be employed
against targets able to withstand
non-nuclear attack,” and “in the
event of surprising military devel
opments.” This means making nu
clear weapons tools of war, not war
deterrents. The countries in the
“Nuclear Posture Review” are all
but threatened with attack. How
ever, if they attempt to defend
themselves in any way, including
building nuclear weapons as a de
terrent, our government under
stands this as grounds for war.
The rest of the world has gone
from chuckling to fearing our gov
ernment. Unfortunately, the re
sponsibility lies in American citi
zens’ hands to attempt what seems
impossible and to bring about a
policy “for the people,” not for
war. The question is: Where does
one begin?
William Moglia
senior
German and international studies
Carleton misguided
Tara Carleton’s Emerald commen
tary March 11 (“Welcome to the
land of forgotten purpose”) is yet an
other example of the hilarious mis
conception about American socie
ty: the belief that Christianity
defines our culture.
In her commentary, Carleton as
serts that non-Christians are anti
American because former presi
dents would be upset to see the
Bible ignored. Freedom of religion,
however, has been accepted for
more than 200 years. Isn’t it fair to
assume former presidents respected
the constitutional right for Ameri
cans to ignore the Bible?
Furthermore, anybody who reads
the Declaration of Independence,
the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of
Rights will find a distinct lack of
Christian integration. Both the U.S.
Constitution and the Bill of Rights
mention religion only in defining
freedoms. The Declaration of Inde
pendence only contains vague ref
erences, such as “Nature’s God” and
“divine Providence.” I challenge
Carleton to effectively argue that the
forefathers used these words to rep
resent Christianity.
Finally, Carleton ends her diatribe
with pro-Christian quotes from great
American leaders. In rebuttal, I also
have a quote from a great leader,
Thomas Jefferson, who once said:
“Question with boldness even the
existence of a god.” I believe this
idea speaks for itself.
Jan Montry
sophomore
journalism
Living in a‘whine culture’
Diane Huber’s March 8 article
contends the Designated Driver
Shuttle can be an uncomfortable en
vironment for female riders (ODE,
“Shuttle criticized for unsafe cli
mate”). It cites an example of one oc
casion in which a woman was actu
ally “hit on” and asserts that drivers
should protect her from such un
comfortable situations.
How can anyone expect to live
anywhere if they are so devoid of so
cial skills and confidence as to be
unable to deal with being “hit on”
by a drunk guy. Maybe the woman
who lodged this complaint should
develop the basic social skills that
help the rest of the world deal with
these situations without having to
call for help.
The drivers of DDS do a great job
and contribute more to campus than
the much-touted but totally laugh
able Saferide and Night Ride pro
grams. In fact, I don’t know of any
campus program that directly con
tributes to the safety and livability of
both the campus and the communi
ty besides DDS.
Why would anyone attack such a
clearly valuable program? It seems
apparent that,’ in trying to make
everyone believe we live in a “rape
culture,” what has been created is
a “whine culture” of people who
have been mislead into believing
they should never have to deal with
uncomfortable situations in their
lives. The Emerald has certainly
done its part to convince people the
real answer is to find someone to
blame, rather than taking the time
to learn how to deal with these situ
ations yourself.
Walker Hanlon
sophomore
economics
Let’s be careful with ourtoys
Some toys are dangerous. As ul
tra-light as an airplane is, it is more
or less a toy. It has different pilot li
censing requirements from regular
aircraft and different allowed flight
paths. It will glide well if the engine
fails and can even employ a para
chute in an emergency. Neverthe
less, people have been killed in
them.
Take model rockets: Permissible
launches are different from those of
full fledged military, commercial or
NASA rockets. The little guys have
their own inherent dangers. But if a
launch of a model rocket caused a
military alert, the rocketmen might
have cause to complain, saying it
was only a toy, why the fuss?
An amateur radio operator un
plugs his high voltage power supply
and shorts out the filter capacitor be
fore working on his transmitter. At
dinner, his wife complains he
spends too much money on toys.
Douglas Termans novel, “Free
Flight,” set in a post-Holocaust
America, tells of the tribulation of
the survivors: “Trade off the coffee.
He wouldn’t need the .22 caliber.
Roberts would sell his old lady for
three boxes of shells and the
toy pistol.”
In circumstances where firearms
are actually needed, a .22 pistol
might be considered a toy, and a BB
gun a joke. We just need to remem
ber that some toys are more danger
ous than others.
Earl Gosnell
Eugene
Cartoon depicts the truth
I’m writing in response to Jason
Stein (“Cartoon found not so humor
ous,” ODE 3/8). He was upset over an
Emerald cartoon that depicted Israeli
artillery firing into a Palestinian
refugee camp. He stated, “There is vi
olence in Israel, a lot of it, but noth
ing like what the cartoon shows.”
Unfortunately the cartoon was all
too true. It depicted a face of the Is
rael-Palestine conflict that most
Americans are unaware of because
mainstream American media
downplays or often omits Israeli
atrocities while focusing on those
committed by Palestinians. Accord
ing to Robert Fisk, perhaps the
world’s leading journalist on Mid
dle East affairs, “When the Israeli
army goes on a shooting spree in the
refugee camps and kills 16 Palestini
ans, among them two children, the
U.S. calls for ‘restraint.’ When a
Palestinian suicide bomber murders
a crowd of Israelis in Jerusalem, in
cluding two babies and a 10-year
old, the U.S. boldly blames Yasser
Arafat for not ‘stopping terrorism’ by
locking up the bad guys.”
Neither Israeli nor Palestinian
atrocities are defensible. Yet some
how Palestinian violence is part of
the “Axis of Evil” while Israeli vio
lence is self-defense. Never mind
that Israel has continually annexed
Palestinian land over the past 30
years, or that they give Palestinians a
minuscule weekly water allotment,
while Israeli lawns on formerly
Palestinian land are kept green with
sprinklers. I’m not defending the ac
tions of suicide bombers, I’m just
pointing out that Israel’s hands are
far from clean in this affair.
Mason Gummer
junior
sociology
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
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