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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 14, 2002)
Newsroom: (S4l> 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Tuesday, May 14,2002 Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Jeremy Lang Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Editorial Sexuality should be addressed in housing or some students, getting along with an assigned room mate in the residence halls is difficult. The situation can be made worse when the roommates have opposing views on religion, music or sexuality. And for residents who are not comfortable with their roommate’s lifestyle, a year-long housing contract could be a nega tive experience for both parties. Pairing roommates who have op posing views on each other’s sexu ality is especially disastrous. One possible solution would be for Uni versity Housing to place a “queer friendly” option on its roommate questionnaire form asking potential residents if they are more comfort able living with a homosexual or heterosexual roommate. Currently, the roommate ques tionnaire asks other important lifestyle questions so it can proper ly match future roommates. Resi dents are asked to check boxes in dicating sleeping hours, sound levels, music and smoking prefer ences and their approaches to cleanliness to help make sure roommates are compatible. Adding an additional option concerning the level of comfort with homosex uality would just be one more box to check. For students who would be most affected, this could have the bene fit of creating a safer environment for residents. Gay students should n’t be paired with roommates who are uncomfortable sharing a room with homosexuals, and vice versa. Placing individuals in living situa tions where both parties aren’t comfortable is counter-productive and only encourages intolerance. One way to open minds is to ex pose new students to different cultures and lifestyles through the residence hall experience. But the University needs to recognize that there are ways to improve their roommate-pairing survey. Placing a “queer-friendly” option on the questionnaire is a simple step to ward creating a safer, more com fortable living environment for i hall residents. Editorial Policy This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com. 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. Welcome to the ‘Stale Ideology Amateur Hour Sometimes, when I interview or a speech, I think to myself: “What the hell have I got ten myself into?” Attending Holly Swan son’s speech at Prince Lucien Campbell Hall last week was one of those. Swanson’s stated premise was that the environmental movement had been taken over by the Green Party, which she labeled as “a communist organization.” Politics here in Eugene can be described as “FUBAR” at best. Given the incendiary subject that Swanson (who is the head of “Operation Gree nout” — a group dedicat ed to exposing the hid den agenda of the Green Party — and author of “Set Up and Sold Out”) addressed, it’s little won der that plainclothes De partment of Public Safety officers showed up to Rayn G keep people from Columnist demonstrating—physi Goiummst cally _ their disdain for Swanson’s position. Her main premise (outside of the commu nist allegations, which I still find dubious) resonated quite a bit with me. She alleged that, in many ways, the Greens have become rather manipulative in their practices. This is a no-brainer. The Greens do keep dangling out the specter of total ecological collapse, and do not use this to bring attention to real ecological problems. Instead, they use it to milk votes and memberships out of people in the same way that Pat Robertson uses the shadow of Satan to wring money out of those dumb enough to listen to him. That being said, it was still an evening that left me witS a view of some of the worst sides of both extremes, left and right. Swanson, al though she definitely had an interesting premise that I somewhat agree with, came across as someone who had gotten so lost in her own ideology that she just lost focus. There were things that may have sounded completely logical to her, but were to me just slightly above “I have here in my hand a list of 59 names of members of the State Depart ment. ” By the same token, the large retinue of hecklers came off as being not only closed minded and provincial, but also so assured of their own moral superiority that anyone who didn’t agree with them was automatically a horrid Earth-raper who was personally keeping the entire population of Guatemala penniless. r m HI There were quite a few points in the evening in which both the audience and Swanson lost me with major logical disconnects, proving historian Henry Adams’ observation that “practical politics consists in ignoring facts.” Hank should have replaced “facts” with “log ic.” One of the audience members who actual ly came prepared for rational discussion in stead of flame-slinging, mentioned a passage in her book in which she linked the Nazi-era “green police” of occupied Holland (if you’ve read or seen “The Diary of Anne Frank,” you’ve heard of them) and the Green Party. When he asked Swanson to elaborate, her re sponse in a nutshell was: They both used the color green. This was such a blindingly bizarre statement that it defies belief that anyone could utter it. To basically say that the Green Party is linked with the Nazis because they both use the color green to me was offensive. I Steve Baggs tmerald have no love for the Greens, but to resort to in nuendo like this, with no mitigating facts link ing the two in any rational fashion, is very much the same kind of crass manipulation for which she rightfully criticizes the Greens. Of course, the best her opponents could muster was to say that she had “blood on her hands” merely because she was wearing a gold neck lace implying that she supported some sort of “blood jewelry” market like the diamond traf ficking in Sierra Leone, which in of itself is equally manipulative. What fun. The debate was like listening to a mostly pathetic battle of wits between Sen. Joe McCarthy and Abbie Hoffman. I, for one, am just glad I survived the “Stale Ideology Amateur Hour.” E-mail columnist Pat Payne at patpayne@dailyemerald.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald. Anti-abortion insert offers false data Opening up last week’s eight-page ad vertisement in the Emerald served as a wake-up call to those of us who have yet to realize how endangered a woman’s right to control her own body is. The advertising supplement, “Life is full of surprises,” was paid for by Human Life Al liance, based in Minnesota. I found it peculiar that this anti-choice organization found it had such a strong handle on the social setting in Eugene that it needed to provide us with inac curate information. Perhaps the authors of this insert don’t feel the need to educate them selves with more than hearsay and rumors, but I believe the people of Eugene have a greater understanding of what informed choice is. A woman’s right to choose is not only a personal and private decision, it is also pro tected by the law. Contrary to what the anti abortion movement would have us believe, Wade v. Roe does not give women an unlim ited right to abortion throughout pregnancy, and most states have laws that ban abortion except for health reasons after fetal viability. Despite the emotionally-charged rhetoric of the anti-abortion insert, abortion is a very . -safejnedicai procedure that ha\tfat.f)eq1} Guest Commentary Rachel Pilliod linked by any reliable studies to causing breast cancer or long-lasting emotional dam age. Abortion, as in all surgery, provides some possibility for physical complications. However, major complications, such as a hemorrhage, serious pelvic infection or tear in the uterus are very rare. As for the breast cancer allegations, the most scientifically reliable studies on the subject found either no link between abor tion and breast cancer or only a questionable link to abortion after 18 weeks. Furthermore, recent reviews of multiple studies on the subject, including reviews in the journal published by the American Cancer Society, dismiss claims that abortion is a significant risk factor for breast cancer. Another accusation made in the insert is the suggestion that long-term depression will come about as a result of abortion. Unfortu _ nately, the ip§ert failed to mention that there '/isjfto evidence that women who have abor tions commonly develop long-term serious psychological problems. Additionally, after reviewing the many studies on this subject, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., concluded that the emotional prob lems following abortion are “minuscule from a public health perspective.” When provided with such a barrage of facts and studies based on scientific evi dence, the far-reaching claims of the anti choice insert hardly seem credible. I sincere ly hope that if the insert served any purpose, it was to startle all of us nestled in our open community, with plenty of services at our disposal. Given the amenities that we have, it is of ten difficult to see the peril our comforts are in. I urge everyone to educate themselves and their peers and to remind them of bow quickly the values we revere can be taken away or smeared by colorful ads and emo tionally charged words and phrases. The challenge to protect our bodies and our choices is most certainly upon us — the time to act is now. Rachel Pilliod is a sophomore political science and general science major and the ASUO President-elect.
