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___T_ ___'•'*“7
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jenni Schultz
I hursday, June 27,2002
Editorial
Oregon mustpay for services
Wiui me uregon L.egisiaiure s
third special session getting
closer to a finish, Oregonians
are once again being treated to a ridicu
lous show of impracticality, partisan
fighting, and flat-out denial.
A group of senators is apparently
working on a plan to replace the “no
new taxes” bill defeated Tuesday.
We’re glad that bill, which included no
new ideas as well as no new taxes, was
stopped in its tracks. Now someone
needs to stop the new “compromise”
being worked on — and someone real
ly needs to find a rational way to fund
Oregon public services.
Surely Oregonians realize that if
they want schools, police and a safety
net for the most vulnerable popula
tions, they have to pay for it. And sure
ly no one believes that there’s much fat
left to cut at state agencies; those agen
cies have been trimmed and cut re
peatedly in recent years, and they’ve
become more efficient as a result.
So perhaps it’s just our legislators
who don’t realize that a stable solution
is needed for Oregon’s budget woes. In
the long run, a more equitable system,
which taxes businesses and individu
als evenly (instead of relying more
heavily on individuals, as is done cur
rently), should be the goal of state law
makers.
r or now, nowever, uregon neeas a
tax plan that doesn't simply rely on ac
counting tricks (shifting payments into
the next biennium), failed attempts to
raid the state’s education endowment
fund (the recently defeated Measure
13) and singling out the 20 percent of
Oregonians who smoke (why choose
cigarettes and not hair dye or DVDs?).
Here’s our solution: Legislators
should gather all their internal forti
tude and pass a two-tiered sales tax.
Forget referring it to the voters — let’s
just have it and balance the budget.
The first tier should be fairly low and
be for products ranging up to $10,000
in price. The second tier could be a
much higher tax rate for products cost
ing more than $10,000.
With a two-tiered system, some of the
flat tax sting on lower-income residents’
pocketbooks would be eliminated. Big
ticket luxury items will cost more, as
well they should. But the state could
then reap the benefit of taxing tourists,
who currently pay too little for the
pleasure of visiting our fine state.
Perhaps the political will doesn’t ex
ist in Salem for a tax that has failed at
the polls so many times. But legislators
need to find some political will — any
political will — and raise taxes now,
before our state services are forced into
bankruptcy.
Judges are supposed to judge
ongratulations are in order to the
ASUO and students who testified
V—Jjune 10 to the Eugene City Coun
cil regarding fines for furnishing alco
hol to a minor or allowing minors to
drink on one’s property.
City staff proposed changing the law,
in what they called a “housekeeping”
measure, to remove the possibility of
diversion programs or community serv
ice and instead creating mandatory sen
tences of fines and jail time.
Mandatory sentences for anything
are a bad idea. Judges exist specifically
to judge, and when we remove their
ability to weigh circumstances and of
fenders’ history, we might as well just
use a computer to come up with the
sentence.
In this case, University students or
ganized by the ASUO testified about
the value of diversion programs, and
with Ward 3 Councilor David Kelly’s
support, the City Council dropped the
mandatory minimum wording from the
proposed changes.
This victory, however small in the
scheme of things, should be lauded be
cause it shows that when students get
involved in policy decisions, they can
make a difference. It also shows that
Kelly is standing up for students’ inter
est, as he promised during the May
election.
Concerned community members
should take note, however: The battle
may not be over. City Council will be
revisiting the issue of changes to city
ordinances during a special Monday
meeting. Whether you support or op
pose this specific change — or other
changes to city law — the opportunity
exists to make your voice heard.
Students should take HIV tests
|oday is National HIV Testing Day,
and students need to follow the or
JL ganizers' advice — “Take the Test.
Take Control.” This is the eighth year
that the National Association of People
with AIDS has organized the event, and
it is more critical now than ever that peo
ple find out their HIV status.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control, people under age 25 are esti
mated to make up half of all new HIV in
fections occurring in the United States,
and HIV remains a leading cause of
death among young people.
A study published by Kaiser Perma
nente shows that 40 percent of Ameri
cans who are HIV-positive don’t know
about the infection until they are about
to develop AIDS. The study found that
this is often 10 or more years after the
person was infected.
That’s 10 years of potentially infecting
sexual partners. Ten years that could
have been spent getting treatment to
boost the immune system and learning
to live with the virus.
College is often said to be a time of ex
perimentation and learning to find one
self. Often this time of “growth” in
volves sexual encounters — and they’re
not always safe.
Students should now take the time to
experiment with needles: Go to a clinic
or doctor’s office, get a blood test and
learn your HIV status.
Then, regardless of the results, follow
it up by taking control. Cut down on
high-risk behaviors, such as having un
protected sex and sharing needles used
to inject drugs.
As of June 2001,41,093 people under
age 25 had been diagnosed with AIDS,
according to the CDC. Nobody knows
how many more are HIV-positive, and
that number will skyrocket if people
don’t take the test. Do it today.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Oregon Daily Emerald. Responses are welcomed and may be sent
to editor@dailyemerald.com.
Pledge used to have meaning
CC T pledge allegiance to my flag and the
Republic for which it stands, one na
X tion, indivisible, with liberty and jus
tice for all.”
— Original pledge of allegiance, written by
Francis Bellamy, 1892
It was these 22 words, written by minister
Francis Bellamy, that have sparked a run
ning national controversy. Wednesday, the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francis
co ruled that the pledge of allegiance, per
haps more recognizable in its current form
— “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America, and to the repub
lic for which it stands, one nation, under
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all” — was unconstitutional in its current
form, because the words “under God” con
stitute an establishment of religion. If the
ruling is upheld, it will mean the end of a fa
miliar morning ritual at schools around the
country.
The value of the pledge as a sign of love of
our country should not be discounted. I am
not against voluntary recitations of the
pledge. I am against saying the pledge before
class every day in public schools, only be
cause it becomes a matter of “teacher said to
say it” rather than a thoughtful reflection on
the sacrifices made for this country by so
many people. Further, the climate in schools,
both today and in the ’50s, when the pledge
mandate was made widespread, is not con
ducive to thoughtful reflection.
Schoolchildren, both in the 1950s and to
day, have no conception of what the pledge
really means or what this country is about. In
the Eisenhower Era, about the time that the
words “under God” were put in the pledge,
we were in the middle of the Cold War. Sena
tor Joseph McCarthy was conducting his
mostly chimerical hunts for Communists in
government to further his own political ca
reer, people were building bomb shelters in
their backyards in anticipation of the day that
Soviet planes would blanket the entire coun
try with H-bombs, and the average American
either saw or was told of hidden Communist
intrigues everywhere.
Guest Columnist
Pat
Payne
Into this climate, the pledge was intro
duced into schools. This was not the right
time, as I believe it was installed in the spirit
of paranoia rather than love of country. It was
perhaps not so much a tool to foster patriot
ism as it was a hope that “If he says the
pledge enough times, little Johnny won’t be
come a Commie.”
Further, there was a mindset that “America
can do no wrong.” Slavery, the Trail of Tears
and even our own civil war, were simply
swept under the rug. All of these things
should have reminded people of how pre
cious and fragile the ideas behind the pledge
are and how far we have come in our own
history, instead of being ignored.
Today, however, we have just as little a
grasp on the meaning of the words. Whereas
in the ’50s, children were given the pledge
and then told that “America can do no wrong
— ever,” in some cases, there is a tendency in
academic circles toward “America has never
done, and can never do, right.”
On college campuses across the nation,
students are attending classes with profes
sors who, far from presenting an unvar
nished, “warts and all” view of America, are
in many cases depicting American history as
only greed, war, genocide and racism. Future
teachers will be bringing to elementary and
high school a view of the United States that is
as much divorced from reality as the view in
the ’50s. Children will be no more prepared
to realize the meaning of the pledge than
were their forebearers.
Perhaps some day there can be a place for a
voluntary affirmation of the pledge, without
the words “under God.” But for that to hap
pen we are going to have to change our
schools and strike a balance between white
wash and self-flagellation.
Pat Payne is a freelance columnist. His opinions do not
necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
UO shouldfightfor professors
I am deeply dismayed to hear about the
departure of one of my professors,
Makiko Nagae, from the University of
Oregon. Not only because she is a won
derful teacher who I count among the very
best I have had the pleasure of studying
under, but more distressing is the nature
of her departure.
Professor Nagae is a Japanese citizen
who has lived and taught in Eugene
both in high school and at the college
level for more than 10 years. Yet the
nature of her visa requires that, in order
for her to secure a green card and con
tinue teaching, she is reliant on the
University to provide her with a state
ment of support. Yet for some reason
this support was not forthcoming, leav
ing her with no other option but to leave
the country and return to Japan.
I do not claim to be an expert in immi
gration law and its various complexities,
but if the problem is that Professor Nagae
is only under a nine-month contract rather
than a one- or two-year contract that is
standard for such statements of support, it
seems to me that the University would
and should take whatever steps necessary
to retain one of its top instructors.
If anyone were to inquire about
whether Professor Nagae is indeed one of
the best teachers at the University, I
think they would find no shortage of
people to attest to this fact.
It then comes as a huge disappointment
Guest Commentary
James
Squires
to me that the University would be
unwilling to lend its support to her, espe
cially in light of a highly charged political
climate in which "non-Americans" are
being harassed and deported seemingly
arbitrarily.
As a student who has been on the Dean's
List every term I have attended this
University, and as one who values what
extraordinary instructors like Professor
Nagae have to offer, it makes me wonder
why I am supporting an institution of high
er learning that will not extend this same
support to its faculty. Regardless of what I
decide to do with my education in the
future, I know that many of my fellow stu
dents echo my sentiments.
I would like to leave you with one
final thought: No university, no matter
what it may believe to the contrary, has
the luxury of losing not only quality
teachers but more importantly, quality
human beings. The loss of even one is
one too many, and it is something that
should cause all those involved to reflect
on what a great loss it is for all con
cerned.
James Squires is a junior Japanese major.