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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.
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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
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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.
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