Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Friday, October 18,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Editorial
Evil debt monsters
lurk along the path
to the magical place
There once was a boy named Dick, who graduated high school and
was ecstatic when he was accepted into the University of Oregon.
But alas, Dick was unaware of the terrors that come with college life.
Dick’s mom cried and said, “Gall if you need anything.” Dick’s dad
patted him on the shoulder and said, “Take care, son.”
Dick arrived at his residence hall, 18 years old and ready to take
on the world. But little did Dick know that monsters lurked be
neath the shadows, waiting for him to say, “I have no money. What
can I do?”
That day soon came when all of Dick’s newfound friends told him
of the parties, the pizza and the fun — but it took money to get to
these magical places. What could he do?
Dick’s friend Sam took him aside and said, “It’s easy. All you have
to do is sign your name.”
Well, Dick was in awe, and he agreed when Sam said he knew of a
person who could help. They met in the Pioneer Cemetery. Sam in
troduced Dick to Damian, stammered his goodbye and ran. Damian
asked what Dick needed. Dick said he craved access to the magical
place of fun.
Damian twiddled his bony hands. “Excellent.”
Damian took out his blood-red clipboard with a long piece of
parchment on it. Tiny, illegible writing was scrawled across the bot
tom. Instead of reading what it said, Dick signed it.
With that, Damian handed him the key to the magical place. From
then on, Dick was hooked. Dick couldn’t stop. He couldn’t get enough
of the magic. He found himself overwhelmed and was never heard
from again.
The moral of the story? Don’t get “Dick-ed.” Learn to stay in con
trol of your finances and credit.
You can follow a few simple steps, as documented by
StudentMarket.com.
• Pay on time.
• Stay within your credit limit to avoid fees.
• Limit the number of credit cards you apply for. Don’t get sucked
into the “free stuff’ world.
• Set money aside for emergencies or savings.
• Use credit wisely.
• Read everything before you sign. Pay close attention to terms
and conditions and tiny print.
• Review your credit report periodically, to make sure there are
no discrepancies.
• Be honest. If you can’t pay your bill on time, call the creditor and
make arrangements.
We understand being a college student can be rough. Students are
often strapped for cash and starving just to pay rent. We’ve been in
those situations. Yes, even the editorial board members.
And once credit is established, it can be even harder to stay in con
trol. But students should heed our senior advice: Don’t go on “thera
peutic” shopping sprees to deal with the fact that you’re so far in debt
you can’t make minimum payments.
For more tips on budgeting and maintaining credit, visit www.stu
dentmarket.com. Also, a debt management team is coming to cam
pus to counsel students who get in over their heads. For more infor
mation, contact Sue Jenkins at 346-3215.
Michael j. Kleckner
Editor In chief
Jessica Rlchelderfer
-Managing editor
Salena De La Cruz
: {Editorial editor
Pat Payne
Editorial editor
jersna Cunningham
tudent Representative
0(4CE NITRATE
..
Peter Utsey Emerald
War of ideas comes to total standstill
For weeks, the Emerald commen
tary page has served as a soapbox for
anti-war propagandists. And for
weeks, I’ve waited for someone to
write in with a rebuttal. But none has
arrived, and I feel it necessary to share
the more rhetorically persuasive and
intellectually honest position — that
war in Iraq can’t be avoided.
It should be obvious to most ob
servers that charges leveled against
the Saddam regime are — as concerns
arsenals of genocidal weaponry —
true. If Saddam Hussein was a mur
dering tyrant in 1991, it stands to rea
son he is still a murdering tyrant to
day. Certainly the Iraqi people have
not benefited from his extended reign.
From a humanitarian standpoint,
war with Iraq would be an opportunity
to the turn the tide against despotism
in the Middle East. Relativists often ar
gue that other Mideast countries are
just as guilty as Iraq of promoting ter
rorism, which, true or not, doesn’t jus
tify Iraq’s actions. Two wrongs don’t
make a moral neutrality.
If the United States is to be a global
citizen in good standing, we cannot
look the other way while people suffer
under a megalomaniac who’s shown a
propensity toward aggression. We
cannot fiddle while Rome bums, aigu
The story "Art, culture and
tango bingo” (ODE, Oct. 17)
should have said that Michae
Moore performed at the EMU
The story “Artist draws^
Oct. 17) should have saidthat
the name of Nelson Mandela’s
ing over timetables while Iraq subsi
dizes suicide bombers in Israel.
Once Iraq is a free democracy, we
can decide whether the theater of
war should be taken to other coun
tries. From an international security
standpoint, war with Iraq is also jus
tified. One of the conditions of end
ing the Gulf War was that Iraq agreed
to disarmament and compliance
with weapons inspection.
In failing numerous times to hon
or this agreement, Iraq has violated
a series of U.N. resolutions. These
resolutions are international law. In
this light, war with Iraq is hardly a
discarding of international law. It
would show the United States’ dedi
cation to sustaining it.
How do we know Iraq is develop
ing weapons of mass destruction?
We don’t. But it’s hardly a roll of the
dice to assume nefarious intent.
And even if the evidence were set
before us in a court of law, it would
n’t deter the same voices of “dis
sent” who argued against military
action in Afghanistan.
The left in America is currently
engaged in a campaign of anti-anti
terrorism, a position of cowardice
hidden behind sophistication. It
should come as no surprise that this
illogical crusade has found safe har
bor in college campuses, where stu
dents are often taught not merely
passivity in the face of evil, but admi
ration of it.
The Islamic Fascists who wage
their jihad with human bombs rep
resent everything a good liberal
should oppose. They are religious fa
natics, brutal, anti-Semitic, misogy
nist and homophobic. They oppose
free speech, freedom of religion,
freedom of association and freedom
of conscience.
And yet the campus left continues
to spin them as sympathetic third
world revolutionaries fighting
against globalization and other West
ern-promoted evils. “Blood for oil,”
they say, ignoring the fact that the oil
resources of the region are perma
nently vanguarded by a sadist who
wouldn’t hesitate to spill his own
people’s blood to protect it.
Nobody can guarantee a success
ful war in Iraq — but that is not rea
son enough to avoid conflict. If war
in Iraq will bring more terrorism to
the United States, will acquiescence
bring less? Ask the people of Bali.
Pete R. Hunt is a senior journalism major
and editor-in-chief of the Oregon
Commentator.
Letter to the editor
Beer’s a threat, too
Curtis Taylor’s commentary has
it half-right. Milk is indeed more
harmful than beer as its health
consequences, animal suffering
implications and effects of addi
tives overwhelm drinking a beer in
moderation.
Yet his claims of “mounting evi
dence” of health benefits of beer
are outrageous.
The alcohol industry funds many
of those studies, and beer is a toxic
poison that can never be used “re
sponsibly.” Its effects can be mini
mized, but responsible behavior in
volves positive modeling and
positive product choices.
A beer or two may not have a no- >
ticeable effect, but it is not healthy,
and promoting it hurts the credibili
ty of a very real threat from both al
cohol and milk.
Mike Meyer
junior
family and human services