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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
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Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Friday, April 19,2002
Yesteryear's Editorial
No ordinary
bench...
B:
etween the art museum and Su
san Campbell hall is an old,
green, dilapidated bench. Tra
dition reserves that bench for only
those students who have attained the
rank of senior. It is their privilege, and
theirs alone, to make use of the bench
which has seated seniors since 1910.
It was in that year that the graduating
class decided its gift to the University
should be something just especially for
all graduating classes — a bench reserved
for their use. At one time it was placed
under the “nicotine” tree. Later it was re
moved to a shady spot in front of the old
library, now Fenton hall. As far as we are
concerned the bench’s journeys were
completed when it was moved to the
present site back of
University
of Oregon
125th
ANNIVERSARY
Originally
published on
April 19,1945
the art museum.
Now to some it
may seem to be just
an ordinary old
bench not worth all
this fuss made
when a couple of
underclassmen
were caught enjoy
“ ing a siesta on it.
But to the seniors that bench is a symbol
of having reached that last mile — the
last stretch before graduation. It belongs
to them. And next year it will remain in
the same role for the class of ’46.
Misuse of the senior bench, we think,
sums up the whole question of loss of
tradition on this campus. We are hop
ing such a violation doesn’t happen
again because in future years some of
our best memories of the Oregon cam
pus will be the long standing traditions
that governed our way of life.
Do not dismiss that sacred bench
with a mere flip of the hand for it repre
sents four years of hard, unceasing
work. Many have been the seniors who
have made use of its spacious, although
hard, seat. Let’s keep it just for them.
This editorial was taken from the April 19,1945,
edition of the Oregon Daily Emeraid.
Letters to the Editor and
Guest Commentaries Policy
Letters to the editor and guest
commentaries are encouraged.
Letters are limited to 250 words and
g uest commentaries to 550 words. Please
include contact information.
The Emerald reserves the right to edit
for space, grammar and style.
Editorial Board Members
Jessica Blanchard
editor in chief
Jeremy Lang
managing editor
Julie Lauderbaugh
editorial editor
Jacquelyn Lewis
assistant editorial editor
Jerad Nicholson
community representative
Audrey Sheppard
community representative
PelerHockaday
newsroom representative
Noblesse oblige found alive and well
(U-WIKE) EVANSTON, 111. —
I had an epiphany on Thursday.
I was sitting in Northwestern Univer
sity’s Fisk Hall listening to left-wing
British journalist Robert Fisk, a veteran for
eign correspondent in the Middle East,
when it came to me ... but more on that in a
moment.
First, a little background on the esteemed
Mr. Fisk. He first came to my attention in
December when he wrote a column for his
newspaper, The Independent, headlined:
“My beating by refugees is a symbol of the
hatred and fury of this filthy war.”
According to Fisk’s account, a mob of
Afghan refugees in Pakistan savagely as
saulted him. The men beat him with their
fists and large stones. One young boy even
tried to steal his bag — which held his mon
ey, credit cards and passport.
Fisk fought back and managed to get
away with the help of a good Samaritan, a
Muslim, who stepped between him and the
attackers and probably saved Fisk’s life.
A harrowing tale, but not all that unique.
Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street
Journal, was kidnapped and murdered by a
group of Muslim extremists after being
forced to record statements denouncing
America and Israel.
Fisk was lucky. He survived. Yet in an al
most Christ-like act of forgiveness, Fisk par
doned his attackers. According to him, their
violent behavior was not their fault. It was
America’s.
“The Afghan men and boys who had at
tacked me, who should have never done so,
but whose brutality was entirely the prod
uct of others, of us,” he said.
I asked Fisk if he would have found the
attack justified if the roles were reversed, if
it had been an Arab journalist attacked by a
group of grieving American relatives of
those who died in the World Trade Center.
What he said surprised me. In Fisk’s
view, Americans were too educated and too
civilized to ever do something like that. Fol
lowing this reasoning to its logical conclu
sion, the Afghan refugees who attacked him
were little more than savages.
Aside from the obvious fallacy that Fisk
makes in assuming that one needs a college
education to know the difference between
right and wrong, his statement shows a kind
of colonial mindset of noblesse oblige that I
thought had long since been buried but ap
parently is still alive and well in the dogma
of the modern leftist.
This is the epiphany I spoke of earlier.
Many of the liberals whom I have en
countered on this campus seem to be moti
vated in whole, or in part, by this ideology
of noblesse oblige. They are comfortably
middle- and upper-class — secure in
wealth, education and social privilege.
They are superior to the general population,
and they know it.
Of course, that superiority brings with it
guilt. This leads them to tear down the very
institutions that gave them their privileged
positions, while at the same time, they try
to raise up those hopeless “savages” who
cannot achieve success on their own.
Fisk made that very clear when he ex
cused the Afghans who so brutally attacked
him because the “Great Satan” made them
do it. So pathetic were those people in his
eyes that they lacked even a rudimentary
moral agency.
Fisk, like so many other liberals, pities
those whose causes he champions. There is
no respect or compassion — only pity moti
vated by guilt.
Noblesse oblige, indeed.
This column is courtesy of Joshua Elder of Northwestern
University’s campus newspaper, the Daily Northwestern.
Letters to the editor
Hot water and heating
restored as fast as possible
In response to the article “Residence halls
lose heat during weekend” on April 17,1
would like to personally apologize for any
inconvenience to hall residents during our
brief and limited loss of hot water in the
Hamilton Complex and of heating in H.R
Barnhart. While some of the content of the
article was factual, the hearsay was mislead
ing, prompting me to draft this letter.
On April 13, a hot water heater in Hamil
ton failed, causing there to be no hot water in
Tingle, McClain and Cloran halls. Since we
store replacement water heaters, we were
able to install the new one in record time.
Normally, reordering this equipment takes
up to three months, but planning and coordi
* TfaMcF dffoffS Matte If pkfsSibte* fbf hotwaterqo *
be restored by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16.
On April 10, the heating system malfunc
tioned at H.P. Barnhart. The replacement
part was due to arrive on Friday, April 12
from Illinois, but did not arrive until Mon
day, April 15, at which time the repair was
completed. Unfortunately, the large, seven
story building takes up to 10 hours to warm
back up, so some residents may not have felt
the heat until Tuesday.
Maintenance of older buildings presents
many challenges throughout the year, but I
am pleased to say that our staff rises to the
challenge daily. Although this situation was
beyond our control, any amount of time
without heat or hot water is truly an incon
venience, and I again sincerely apologize to
our residents.
Mike Eyster
Director of University Housing and Assistant
**••'** * • Vice President for Student Affairs
Safety measures should
be tempered with caution
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, and with all
the publicity concerning an alleged increase
in campus crime, there has been much de
mand for greater security at the University
(with the Emerald’s editors in the forefront).
I would urge caution here, and remind
the community of what Benjamin Franklin
once said: “They that can give up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety de
serve neither liberty nor safety.”
The Founding Fathers knew the dangers
inherent in submitting to the dubious pro
tective instincts of authority. We, too,
should be aware that the goal of any govern
mental power structure is not so much to
protect its citizenry as it is to maintain its
position at the apex of the status quo.
BillSmee
University staff