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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2002)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union RO. Box 3159, Eugene. OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Thursday, May 23,2002 Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Jeremy Lang Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Letters to the editor Think before you thump All day Tuesday, I heard the thumping bass emanating from the EMU Amphitheater coupled with loud screaming about giving trucks away and how great Joe Romania is. It is annoying for me at work, let alone in class, and I can’t imagine what people closer to the noise felt like. I hope no one was taking any tests. Once I found out that it was a Joe Romania “come try to win your gas guzzler” event, I found myself wondering why the Uni versity, which prides itself on be ing an environmentally friendly campus, would allow a private, for-profit company to come and peddle its not-so-environmentally friendly products. These days there’s loud music blasting from the amphitheater, but hey, it’s spring and time to celebrate, right? Okay, that’s fine. However, when classrooms are being abandoned because of con struction noise, perhaps we could give thought to the class rooms and offices close to the am phitheater and even more thought concerning which mes sages the University is sending. Chris Holman senior international studies Minority party members deserve primary voice Can we really choose our repre sentatives and gubernatorial candi dates? Not if we are members of a “minority” political party, accord ing to elections rules. Those regis tered with a minority party, such as the Pacific Greens, are only allowed to vote for nonpartisan candidates in primary elections if no Greens are on the ballot. How absurd! I am registered as a Green be cause I believe the party stands for environmental and political in tegrity. Not because I want to be excluded from doing my duty as a voter to pare down the field of can didates for the general election. And to those who would suggest minority party members would simply do their best to manipulate the outcome of a primary election, you’re right! May the best candi date always win, whether she or he is a Democrat, Republican or Constitutional Party candidate. Eric Martin junior journalism Bush family linked to Nazis, terrorism What’s all this talk likening the Green Party to the Nazi “green po lice” by conservative fanatics in the May 14 Emerald (“Welcome to the Stale Ideology Amateur Hour”)? If one was interested in getting to the truth of the matter, one would have to look no further than the shady past of the Bush family. The Bush family fortune has been derived from many crooked schemes. On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government under the “Trading with the Enemy Act,” seized the shares of a company called Union Banking Company, of which Bush was a shareholder and di rector. This company helped fi nance the German Steel Trust, which provided iron and explo sives to the Nazis. Another company, ran by Prescott Bush and his father-in law, George Walker Herbert, was seized because it was a Nazi front. “This company was called the Silesian-American Corpora tion and was vital in supplying coal to the Nazi war machine,” according to the Draheim Report from the Dallas Libertarian Post. How much Bush coal was used to fire the incinerators at the Nazi death camps? The Bush past is filled with un savory partnerships with some of the world’s leading terrorists in cluding Saddam Hussien, Manuel Noriega and also bin Laden. Let’s see — if the Nazis could be called terrorists, the Bush family has made a whole lot of money in dealing with terrorists. A simple Internet search query, “Bush Nazi,” will yield results. Andrew Vern Reed junior sociology Take Back the Night needs both sexes to succeed We, as women, were proud to at tend the Take Back the Night rally. It was a wonderful opportunity to gather with others and speak out against sexual violence, sexism and hatred. It was, however, dis heartening that not all supporters were given equal opportunities during both the march and the cel ebration that followed. The crowd was instructed, in no uncertain terms, that the front of the march was reserved for women, and the middle area was to be reserved for “gender queers.” We attended the march together, as women, along with two of our friends, both male, one gay. Given the demographics of our group, we were forced to the back of the march, out of what the leaders des ignated the “safe space.” It is counterproductive to place gender limits within a cause that strives for total equality. We, as women, need to embrace the men that are fighting by our side for equality, liberty and safety. By telling these men that they can not be on the front lines of the battle, we send them the message that we, as women, have been getting for centuries — “You are not strong enough. You are not good enough. We do not need your help.” Until we can accept that every voice, regardless of gender, de serves to be heard, we will never be able to accomplish all that we, as humans, are capable of. Andrea Lipstein junior, family and human services Rachael Osofsky sophomore, psychology Letters to the Editor and Guest Commentaries Policy Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550 wu."’lease include contact information. The Emerald reserves the right to edit fori.: e. grammar and style. Steve Baggs Emerald Launching an idiot offensive In “The Godfather Part 2,” Michael Corleone travels to Cuba on a money-making mission right before the revolution jumps off. In that last scene prior to the chaos, the sun light seems like it’s been turned up to “11” as Michael and his posse of capitalist cronies sit on a rooftop, literally having their cake and eating it, too. Everything seems just a little too perfect, which is how things always seem right before you real ize you’ve been walking around all night with a giant chunk of parsley wedged between your two front teeth. President George W. Bush currently has a large chunk of something stuck in his teeth, but none of his top advisers seem to be telling him. It’s called crow. Perhaps they haven’t said anything because they don’t notice. When you see a man walking around with crow in his teeth day after day, you tend to become desensitized to it. And for Bush, crow has become a set of false teeth. First it was tough talk about an American mili tary plane and its crew held against their will in China, followed directly by his statement.of desire to keep trade channels open with Beijing. Then it was maniacal ravings against the “axis of evil.” Now, in a multi-faceted scheme to distract the public from the fact that he and his administration most definitely knew about the possibility of ter rorist attacks taking the form of airborne suicide bombers, Bush has once again launched an idiotic offensive. Against Cuba, one of the most impoverished countries in the Americas. Cuba isn’t our enemy. Their government is. Of course, that’s exactly what Bush has been saying re cently, in a blatant attempt to pander to Cuban American voters in Florida. Once again, however, what he’s saying and what he’s doing seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Bush has demanded the release of political pris oners, independently monitored elections, free speech fdf opposition parties; arid b new govertf-‘ ment that is fully democratic. I can’t fault him in theory. It really sounds like he cares about the Cuban people. The only problem with this little pipe-dream of humanitarianism is that he’s making these demands while at the same time squeezing the economic vise grip of an embargo that’s been steadily draining the wealth of the average Cuban for the past 40 years. If Bush is so worried about the state of human rights in the world, then what exactly is he think ing continuing to do business with China, or Malaysia, or Saudi Arabia for TenPas Columnist For that matter, that matter? All of those coun tries have committed human rights violations that make Cuba’s look like one of Robert Downey Jr.’s state-mandated trips to a celebrity rehab center. And if political prisoners are causing the president to lose sleep at night, then I suggest he get off his high horse (I’m drop ping clichds like Alan Houston drops mid-range jumpers) and pardon Leonard Peltier, a man who is being held without one shred of hard evidence that he committed any murders, if free and democratic elections are such a point of contention for Senor Bush, why did he seem so eager to wrap up the controversy that surrounded the last presidential election, and get into office? Because it all comes down to the money and the power. It is impossible to punish Castro without pun ishing the rest of the country. And even then, Cas tro will still be in a position of power, and hence capable of remaining relatively exempt from said punishment. End the embargo now. E-mail columnist Jacob TenPas at jacobtenpas@dailyemerald.com ‘His opinibns'do not necessarily reflect those'of the Emerald.
