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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 2002)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union RO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 Email: editor@dailyemerald.com Online Edition: www.dailyemerald.com Friday, October 11,2002 -Oregon Daily Emerald Commentary Editor in Chief: Michael J. Kleckner Managing Editor Jessica Richelderfer Editorial Editors: Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne Using God as football for politics The gesture has gone little noticed and for good reason. It was meaningless. The U.S. House came out in favor of God the other day, by 401-5. Presumably he is tickled. Or she is. Nothing was more certain in this elec tion year than that, once a federal appel late court had judged the “under God” part of the Pledge of Allegiance in viola tion of the Constitution’s separation of church and state, politicians would hustle to line up with the deity. The only wonder is that it took so long. The 9th Circuit court ruled in June. Con gress, on a gimme like this, usually goes from zero to 60 mph in about two seconds. Few lures, short of cash contributions, are more appealing to your average work ing politician than a crack at a little inno cence by association. And never mind that the associate stands mute on the issue. The resolution passed by the House is pointless. For one thing, it is non-binding. For another, most legal experts expect the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate ruling anyway on the grounds that any harm from the godly pledge is minimal, slipping in under constitutional radar. The Senate already has passed a simi lar resolution, including, while it was at it, support for the motto “In God We Trust.” The House’s new wrinkle is an instruction that hats are to be removed for the pledge and held on the left shoulder by the right hand placed over the heart. The Senate no doubt will concur and maybe even raise the ante with further instructions for pantomiming piety. Just a wild guess, but here’s betting President George W. Bush will sign the resolution. Poor God has been a political football in this matter from the start. The pledge had been an unexceptional bit of civic liturgy for years when Congress in 1954 hammered God into it. The Cold War was at its worst about then, professional hysterics were seeing Commies under every bed and the idea was to dramatize the difference between God-fearing America — God-loving nev er entered into it — and the godless So viet Union. The point hardly needed to be driven home. Ideologically atheist, the Soviets themselves were proclaiming their god lessness with evangelical zeal. This is one of those church-state mat ters that even many strict separationists don’t give much of a hoot about. The is sue wasn’t pressed by the usual civil-lib erty suspects but by a lone father with a beef about his second-grade daughter be ing subjected to what he figured was low grade proselytizing. He has a point, but the point is in the “Yeah, but...” range. Nine members of the House upheld the democratic end of things, making sure not even God could get a unanimous vote. In addition to the five who voted no, four voted present. All had one overarch ing, unifying intellectual principle in common. Safe districts. Tom Teepen is a columnist for Cox Newspapers. t » n I H M M H 4 U ( M M M H H i H I f M I M M I M M I t I « t < I + I I | I f < I'H SORRY I JUST NEED \50MC MORE LEMoN iXl JUICE. 5£vekIT!STS HAVE Foumd THAT Lemon Juice kills SpeRfA anp Hiv* * AS R.tpeR-tep BY CNN, \tl/i0/t>2- _ Peter Utsey Emerald Letters to the editor No such thing as free lunch This letter is in response to Ruth Duemler’s letter on Oct. 7, concerning Measure 23 in the upcoming election. Measure 23 is being proclaimed by its sup porters as health and dental care for everyone, no matter what your income level. This is true, but the taxpayers must stop for a second and think where all the money is going to come from. Right out of the taxpayer’s pock et! The harsh truth is that Measure 23 will force the average Oregonian to pay about dou ble the income tax they do now. Measure 23 is also one of the biggest job killing measures Oregon has ever seen. Within two to four years, virtually everyone in Oregon working for health care providers and related businesses will be out of a job. This measure will also hurt businesses in Oregon, small or large. Measure 23 will impose an 11.5 percent tax on employers in addition to the taxes they already pay on employees. The result: Established businesses will leave Oregon, and new businesses will go elsewhere because of Oregon’s unfavorable business tax es, slowing growth and increasing unemploy ment even further. . Essentially, Measure 23 is putting every Oregonian on the Oregon Health Plan. Orego nians deserve the right to choose their health care plan and how much they want to pay. Vote no on Measure 23 to keep your freedom of choice. Brian DeLaGrange senior business administration Act quickly to vote With less than a week left to register to vote in November’s elections, we as stu dents need to act quickly in order to make sure that our peers are registered to vote. Oregon’s current budget crisis makes this fall’s election crucial to students throughout the state. A variety of important state services — in cluding tuition subsidies — are on the chop ping block, and the only way that we can pre vent these cuts is. to send Oregon’s legislators a clear message at the ballot box. It is imper ative that students register to vote and en courage others to do likewise. Tim Johnson senior political science and history Congress acted wisely in arming airline pilots DALLAS (KRT) — In the year since the horrific terrorist skyjackings of September 11, 2001, Air Force jets have forced a num ber of passenger planes to land due to suspi cious actions taken by passengers. Most recently, on Sept. 11, 2002, the an niversary of the world’s worst terrorist as sault, a plane flying from Las Vegas to Mem phis was forced to land in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Thankfully, no more planes have been taken over by terrorists — thus far. But, what if they had? Or, what if they are in the future? At the present time, our final line of de fense is for the U.S. Air Force to shoot down skyjacked jets, passengers and all, before they are turned into manned missiles. Re * 1 i 4 » * i < if * / 1 i i ;; i « »■ * f i' ii i « i < ii ,r * i , ( I I t M t < i < M 4 « « M « • « « < M 4 < M M < t i < t cently, Congress acted to prevent this terri ble and avoidable scenario by voting to arm pilots, even though that should have been the first response to the threat of terrorism. It’s good that Congress finally got on board because, while increasing security at airports is a good idea, no system is perfect. Over the 2002 Labor Day weekend, for example, re porters from The New York Daily News car ried a variety of knives and other weapons through checkpoints at 11 U.S. airports. Airline pilots are among the most highly trained and carefully screened professionals in the world. About 55 percent of the na tion’s 114,000 pilots are former military per sonnel with extensive firearms training. Each pilot is daily entrusted with aircraft valued at many millions of dollars, carrying both thousands of gallons of extremely volatile jet fuel and thousands of passengers. Their job requires them to make split-sec ond, critical decisions, sometimes in life-or death circumstances. America should not, and need not, suffer through another day like Sept. 11, 2001, ever again. Arming pilots is not only the best response to keep both airline passengers and people on the ground safe from terrorist as saults in the sky, it also the most likely to prevent terrorist acts altogether. People al ready trust pilots with their lives — it’s time to trust them with firearms. H. Sterling Burnett is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. « Mt.tiMH'OHtOH »VmVm '»»•*»* *»**••>*♦»**#* »*»».#»
