Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 28, 2002)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Ttiesday, May 28,2002 Editor in Chief: Jessica Blanchard Managing Editor: Jeremy Lang Editorial Editor: Julie Lauderbaugh Assistant Editorial Editor: Jacquelyn Lewis Editorial Americans deserve to know the truth behind warnings of terrorist acts With charges flying against the way the Fed eral Bureau of Investigation treated pre Sept. 11 threats, Americans are concerned about our government’s role in the terrorist attacks, and rightly so. While we don’t believe any govern ment official would deliberately and consciously withhold information about a homeland terrorist attack, we don’t understand why certain terrorism warnings were ignored. Congressional lawmakers are demanding addi tional answers to what happened to FBI correspon dence from agents in Phoenix and Minneapolis pri or to Sept. 11. Minnesota FBI Agent Colleen Rowley wrote a whistle-blower letter to the head of the FBI, charging her own agency with obstruction of justice. And it was recently revealed that Attor ney General John Ashcroft thought hijacking warn ings were valid enough for him to switch to flying on private chartered jets instead of commercial planes during the three months prior to Sept. 11. It is instances such as these that provide evidence that the government should have been anticipating a terrorist attack. Rowley wrote a 13-page memo accusing the FBI of hindering the Zacarias Moussaoui investigation, among other obstruction charges. A congressional inquiry is now reviewing Rowley’s allegations against the FBI’s handling of the Moussaoui case and why Minnesota field officers were denied a warrant to check the so-called 20th hijacker’s com puter records. FBI Director Robert Mueller defend ed the denial to Congress, citing insufficient proba ble cause to grant the warrant. Americans may want to take Rowley’s comments with a grain of salt. But the FBI needs to give us an explanation nevertheless — we need to find out why certain information was ignored, to prevent the same mistakes from happening in the future. We also need an explanation of why Attorney General John Ashcroft began flying on a chartered government jet in July 2001 because of an undis closed “threat assessment” by the FBI. Normally all Bush Cabinet appointees fly on commercial air lines, with the exception of Interior and Energy nominees. And Ashcroft’s predecessor, Janet Reno, routinely flew on commercial airlines. If Ashcroft’s FBI security detail knew something was brewing in the skies, they should have warned the American people, not just the attorney general. Although we don’t know all of the special circum stances surrounding Ashcroft’s situation, the FBI needs to define what it saw as a “threat assess ment.” The FBI and the Justice Department need to be as forthcoming as possible with information about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. To squelch rumors and conspiracy theories, the government should hon estly tell the Americans why field reports from FBI agents were ignored, why the warrant to search Moussaoui’s computer was denied and why Ashcroft chose to fly on a chartered jet. After so much heartache in the wake of Sept. 11, Americans deserve to know the truth. Editorial Board Members editor in chief Jeremy Lang managing editor Juiie Lauderbaugh editorial editor Jacquelyn Lewis assistant editorial editor Peter Hockaday newsroom representative Jerad Nicholson community representative So much for Lately I’ve been thinking: If I had a nickel for all the bonehead things done out of good inten tions at public schools across the na tion, I’d be a millionaire. A female vice principal at one high school in Payne Columnist Foway, Cant., or ders all women go ing to the prom to raise their skirts in front of her to make sure they’re not wearing thongs. Nine-year olds across the na tion are being re moved from school when they, in the same spirit of children since time immemorial, play “cowboys” or “cops and robbers” on the playground and point at anoth er student as if they had a gun. A high school junior in Fort Worth, Texas, is nearly expelled because he forgot to remove a bread knife from his truck after helping take some of his grand mother’s belongings to Goodwill. Now there is yet another addition to my “nickels from numbnuts” account. District C, a sub-school district of the Los Angeles Unified, has enacted a new policy, which again was made with the best of intentions. They have said that from now on, if students in high schools in Van Nuys, Woodland Hills and parts of the San Fernando intentions Valley want to participate in their gradua tion ceremony, they must declare that they’re going on to college, trade school or the military. This is social engineering, pure and simple. In effect, District C is saying: “If you’re not going to college, you are less of a person than those who are, and even if you are the valedictorian of your class, you’re not worthy to par ticipate in commencement.” This is not subtle, nor is it encour agement. This is punishing students because they’re not acceding to the wishes of the administrators who wrote up this policy. I find this sort of manipulation, even for such a worthy cause, unacceptable. Telling students that they won’t be able to celebrate one of the seminal moments of their lives with friends and family if they don’t “play ball” is horrendous. Look at it this way: Let’s say the vol untary eco-responsibility pledge here at the University goes ahead. So far, everything’s kosher. But let’s say a few years down the road, the college says either students sign the pledge, or they don’t participate in commence ment. If you don’t care too much about the pledge, wouldn’t you feel angry about being denied your day just because you exercised your free dom of choice? District C would like to point to the results: Before the policy, only about half the students in the district were going to college. Now, they brag that 95 percent have decided to go. My, the way they advertise this you’d almost think they were gunning for some sort of special bonus for having large amounts of students go to college. All this shows is that the administrators manipulate well, and doesn’t show how many students actually wanted to go to college instead of being goad ed into it. I think this bespeaks to a problem in education more than any triumph. Students don’t care about education in this country, and nobody is show ing them why they should care. Jocks are routinely “waved through” class es with good grades at the insistence of coaches who want to win the sea son. Parents are often MIA, either too busy or indifferent to help their children succeed. If District C really wanted to make an impact, maybe it, and every other school across the nation, ought to make sure that all high school gradu ates can read before trying to ramrod them all into college. E-mail columnist Pat Payne at patpayne@dailyemerald.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Emerald. Letter to the editor Environmental issues need to be prioritized Most Oregonians might agree that water is one of our most precious natural resources. We need water to irrigate crops, to wash our dishes, to drink — and we enjoy water sports as recreation. Our fresh water provides habitat for countless na tive species of fish, birds and other animals. The Willamette River — where 70 percent of Oregonians live and upon which tens of thousands of Oregonians rely as a source of drinking water — is unfortunately the most polluted river west of the Mississippi. In December 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency declared Portland Harbor — where the Willamette meets Oregon’s other mighty river, the Columbia, in the midst of our state’s largest city — a Superfund site, identifying it as one of the country’s most dangerous and polluted areas. Fish found in this area and up and down the Willamette have been shown to contain toxins such as mercury, arsenic and cadmium. It’s time Oregon took these threats to public health and safety and these insults to the natural wonders and re sources in our backyards seriously. Oregon, led by Gov. McCall, restored the Willamette from a similar state 30 years ago, and we can do it again — I urge the next governor of Oregon to make cleaning up the Willamette a top priority, to set an example for other parts of this nation dealing with similar issues and to acknowledge that it is unacceptable in every way to treat our homes in this way. Lea Goodrich junior environmental science Poll Results: Every week, the Emerald prints the results of our online poll and the poll question for next week. The poll can be accessed from the main page of our Web site, www.dailyemeraid.com. We encourage you to send us feedback about the poll questions and results. This week’s poll question: How will alcohol-free greek houses affectthe University? Total votes: 108 - Mo effect—8.3 percent, or 9 votes Eventual alcohol-free campus—7.4 percent, or 8 votes Parties will move furtheroff campus—59,3 percent, or 64 votes Decrease in binge/underage drinking — 10.2 percent, or 11 votes Don't know—4,8 percent or 5 votes Don't care — 10.2 percent, or 11 votes Next week's poit question: What is your favorite song by Erik Brashers, the campus "banjo mao'? The choices: “Stairway to Heaven" “Year of the Witch” “Desperado" “Layla” “-Freebird” Don’t know/Don’t care i
