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.