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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, November 11,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Editorial
Republicans,
Democrats need
to compromise to
show leadership
So the election is over, and the pundits have been,
well, pundit-ing with impunity about what a Republi
can victory means. It would be nearly impossible to
factor in all the reasons for a GOP sweep of Congress,
and we won’t try. It’s more important to look toward fu
ture governance.
Be careful, Grand Old Party. Do not assume, as the
Newt Gingrich-led caucus did in 1994, that a razor-thin
margin of victory against favored Democrats in a few
states — in a country remarkably split down the very
middle on most public policy issues — means you have a
mandate. There is no mandate in a 51-49 vote.
Pundits have been cautioning this same sentiment, but
most of them have used “bad strategy” as the rationale. It
would be politically unwise, they say, to force an agenda
with which half of the country disagrees. Doing so could
cause a GOP backlash in 2004.
We have a slighdy different take on this counsel. Repub
licans must not run over the Democrats in enacting ideo
logically driven policy because, very simply, it would be
poor governance to do so. If the populace is to believe GOP
acceptance speeches and campaign messages, then it
needs to govern from a position of moderate compromise.
Here, then, is a shining opportunity for Republicans to
prove they are reasonable, just and enlightened leaders.
As a postscript, we offer similar advice to Democrats,
especially in the Oregon and U.S. senates, both of which
are split nearly in half. Democrats must not hold up all
legislation in parliamentary red tape simply because they
can. Politicians look pathetic when they act surly after
losing. Be bigger leaders, everyone, and help find com
promise for a bitterly divided electorate.
County measures
need voter support
Usually, we don’t keep writing on measures after
their passage or defeat. Yet we feel very strongly about
the defeat of three important county measures that
could have improved public safety. These measures
were not about Republicans or Democrats — they were
about the public good.
Measure 20-59, which would have built a new intake
center with more beds for the county jail; Measure 20
60, which would have upgraded the sheriffs outdated
communication system; and Measure 20-62, which
would have built a new building for the county’s public
health department, were all defeated.
The Register-Guard posited that they were defeated by
voters unwilling to pay a little extra property tax to aid
the common good. For those voters, we ask: If paying
that extra $28 to $47 in taxes is an unbearable hardship,
then what of 4-year-old Kathryn Peters, who died in a fire
in Springfield because the nearest station wasn’t funded?
If apathy defeated these measures instead, then we
hope these measures are brought before voters again
with more focused campaigns. Our guess is that voters
will not be apathetic if the county experiences another
outbreak of E. coli, or if more violent criminals are “ma
trixed” out of Lane County jails because there were not
enough beds to hold them overnight.
County officials should put these measures on the bal
lot again and run strong campaigns. And county resi
dents need not wait for another young child to die before
voting yes.
, '' '
j i' " ' '' ' '
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent
to letters (®dailyemerald.com.
Smoke-filled
logic
As you probably already know,
Ballot Measure 20 recently passed
with overwhelming support, giving
Oregonians a 60-cent tax increase on
every pack of cigarettes they buy. This
measure assumes that smokers can
and should be penalized for choosing
to do something that society looks
down on.
People who smoke cigarettes do
have statistically higher health care
costs than the average citizen. So do
people who overeat. According to the
Surgeon General, obesity is responsi
Die ror ouu,uuu
premature deaths
every year, com
pared to the
400,000 attrib
uted to smoking.
Obesity among
adults has doubled —
since 1980. While
smoking may be
slightly deadlier C-OSQTOVG
right now, if cur- Separate this
rent trends con
tinue, there soon
will be more fatalities from overeating
than from diseases related to smoking.
Type 2 Diabetes increases the risk
of stroke, blindness and may even
result in parts of your body being
amputated. This disease used to be
referred to as adult-onset diabetes.
That term no longer accurately
describes Type 2 Diabetes. In 1993,
children accounted for 5 percent of
the diagnosed cases. Now, nearly half
of new cases occur among children,
with the national total for all age
groups approaching 16 million.
Hereditary vulnerability can be a fac
tor, but this disease is primarily
caused by overeating and poor diet.
The last time I checked, we lived in
a free country. Smoking a cigarette
should not make you any more a tar
get for state-sponsored persecution
than gorging yourself on Twinkies, or
any other way of abusing your body.
Jean Gelman passed away at age
122. The Guinness Book of World
Records listed Gelman as the oldest
human to ever live. She also smoked a
pack of cigarettes every day for 105
years. A beef rancher who lived in the
Himalayan Mountains smoked two
packs a day for 120 years and lived to
the ripe old age of 141.
ATTACK OF THE SlM TAX OrtOMES
Peter Utsey Emerald
Smoking harms your body, but you
won’t drop dead from it after one puff.
In 1914, Popular Mechanics published
a report stating that the element sele
nium, a popular dietary supplement,
could prevent or even cure cancer in
farm animals. In a recent study done
by the University of Arizona, taking
selenium resulted in a 48 percent
reduction of the risk of contracting
lung cancer.
Smokers’ inalienable right to the
pursuit of happiness shouldn’t come
with a price tag. Even if you don’t
smoke, even if you hate the smell of
people who do smoke, standing up
against policies like this one that
infringe on basic rights and attempt to
make quality judgments on people
benefits you, too. Next time, you
might be the object of some overzeal
ous socialist program telling you how
to run your life.
Since before the American
Revolution, our forefathers have
refused to be taxed without represen
tation. If people who smoke cigarettes,
or any group of people, are specifically
and exclusively targeted by a tax, then
they should be given special represen
tation in government.
Will we see a seat in the Oregon
House of Representative designated
for a smoker to help decide how the
money being collected from his con
stituents will be spent? I don’t think
so. Just because “sin taxes” like
Measure 20 are passed by voters does
not make them morally or legally jus
tified. Our state government should
not use popularity contests to vilify
and exploit any segment of society.
Contact the columnist
atmichaelcosgrove@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
20.8 percent, or 16 votes
Yes, at their own expense — 13
percent, or 10 votes
No, the student groups should be
tree to choose — 58.4 percent, or
45 votes
Don't know — 2,6 percent, or 2
votes
Leave me alone! — 5.2 percent, or
4 votes
This week; Should the DEA seize
medical marijuana plants in
Oregon?
Choices; No — Legalize marijuana
use!; No—The feds should stay
out of state searches; Yes —
National law supersedes state law;
Yes — Drugs ruin lives; Don’t
know; Leave we, alone!,...,
Thanks, Harry
I would like to extend my thanks to
Harry Battson — what is an “associate
vice president of strategic communica
tions” anyway? Sounds like a Phil
Knight stormtrooper to me— for “al
lowing” student groups to “associate
themselves formally with the brand of
the University.”
Funny, I thought the University was
an educational institution, but that
doesn’t look quite so spiffy on a T-shirt.
Chuck Slothower
sophomore
.pre-journalism, political science