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
Monday, December 2,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Letters to the editor
University needs Measure 28
Do you want your tuition to be raised #10 per credit hour?
The answer to that question should be simple. Yet if the Jan. 28
ballot measure, conveniently titled Measure 28, doesn’t pass,
we all will pay a tuition surcharge for winter and spring terms.
This would equate to #360 for a student taking 18 credits
each term, in addition to the existing amount each of us pays.
And it’s important to note that this tuition surcharge wouldn’t
even cover all the cuts our school would face if the measure
doesn’t pass. It would only cover #4 million of the estimated
#6.5 million that we will be forced to absorb, and it won’t even
cover that much if students drop out because of increased costs
and loss of services, which will likely happen.
Why am I writing this now in November? Because the time for
students to organize and do something about this measure is
now. When we get back from winter break, you will only have
two days to register to vote and only three weeks to educate
yourself and tell your friends and family what exactly is at stake.
I’ll leave you with this: six to nine percent of courses being
slashed, a severe loss in library collections, the termination of
most tutoring services, and widespread cuts in staff and facul
ty. .. that’s what could happen if this measure doesn’t pass.
Get educated, educate others, register people to vote and
vote yes on Measure 28 come January.
Eric Bailey
senior
PPPM and political science
ASUO student senator
KUGN airs no disclaimers
So the listeners of the Michael Medved Show and the “Sav
age Nation” (Michael Savage) are worried their voices might no
longer be heard? Too bad.
Now you know a little of what it is like to be a minority in this
country, or a woman, or gay. I am an employee of KUGN. I am
also a student at the University. I strongly disagree with the cur
rent programming on the station and support the ASUO coali
tion on diversity in their opposition to KUGN as “the voice of
the Ducks.”
I want to clear up a statement attributed to University Presi
dent Dave Frohnmayer in the Nov. 16 edition of the Register
Guard. The article reads, “But he noted that the station airs dis
claimers. ...” I’ve worked here four years. We have never aired a
disclaimer. Not once.
This may seem minor, but the issue actually turns on this. If
Frohnmayer believes the station already airs disclaimers, he
may not see any need to support the ASUO’s stand — that these
shows are offensive is not in question.
Similar statements to those quoted by opponents are made
every hour, every day that these shows air. They are not only
racist. They are misogynist and homophobic, and if you are not
gay, a minority, or a woman, don’t worry, you haven’t been left
out. Simply attending the University makes you subject to their
diatribes. I’ve heard both hosts equate a University degree with
brainwashing, and Savage repeatedly calls students and faculty
perverts and sexual deviants.
I am a Duck, but that is not my voice. That is not my home.
Timothy Sutton
graduate
community education program
Blame the Treaty of Versailles
Although I disagree with Zachary White’s praise toward
Bush in his letter (“Bush shows heroism in stand against Iraq,”
ODE, Nov. 19) I do not wish to dispute it.
I am arguing, rather, about the historical inaccuracy in his
statement. I think that if there were a Bush-like figure in the
1930s who had enforced the Treaty of Versailles, then perhaps
Adolf Hitler would never have been able to launch World War
II, and thus 50 million people would not have died.
As a student of history, I would guess that White would val
ue historical accuracy. It was not the lack of enforcement of
the Treaty of Versailles that laid the framework for Hitler, but
the harshness of its vengeance against a humiliated and im
poverished German people.
After suffering the loss of 1,773,000 people, and under the
threat of invasion, Germany was forced to sign under Allied
terms. The treaty demanded: disarmament of only Germany,
a land grab of German territory by other nations, reparations
at an estimated #120 billion, and to add insult to injury, the
turning over of German leaders such as Kaiser Wilhelm as war
criminals. This treaty did nothing but utterly devastate an al
ready war-torn economy, ripening the opportunity for Hitler
and the Nazi movement to prosper.
After World War II, we learned from this mistake by imple
menting the Marshall Plan. Let’s not repeat the mistake of Ver
sailles through our ignorance of history.
. . . Kevin Curtin
*.V.\ sophomore
.*.political science
Pfeter Utsey Emerald
VJ.S. COMSTlTWtlOM
Yemen, ndv. 3 -
Ct A DROHE PUAMe
0OMB6 CAB. W*TH
SIX SUSPECTED
AL-&AEDA OPERATIVES
IN IT, INCUUPlMO
OWE O.S. CITIZEN.
UO ignores students’ KUGN concerns
Guest commentary
I find it extremely frustrating that
many of the commentaries and letters
being printed about KUGN are focused
on issues unrelated to the objective of
concerned University students and facul
ty. I attended the last public meeting
about KUGN, and there was not one per
son who voiced a desire to censor any of
the people on the station. Rather than
censorship, for many, this issue has to do
with the University’s “Affirmation of
Community Standards.”
While this policy statement commits to
“promoting a culture of respect” and “re
jecting bigotry and discrimination,” our
“voice of the Ducks” is clearly being asso
ciated with conflicting opinions. If the Uni
versity decided to use disclaimers when
airing our sports games or chose to end
our affiliation with the station when the
present contract ends, Michael Savage
and other talk show hosts from KUGN
could and would continue their shows un
affected. Yet the University could proudly
say that they are upholding the commit
ments stated in our “Affirmation.”
University President Dave Frohnmay
er responded to this issue by saying, “I
am not convinced that anyone believes
the University has any connection with
KUGN programming” (ODE, Nov. 18).
Who is anyone? Who am I then? If the
president of my university truly means
this statement, then he has failed to ac
knowledge the large number of students
who do believe the University has a con
nection to KUGN and have made that
opinion very clear.
Maybe he has failed to look at the
KUGN Web site at www.kugn.com, which
is green and yellow and says “the voice of
the Ducks” on its opening page. I have lis
tened to the station on numerous occa
sions recently, and I feel embarrassed and
afraid because the University is OK with a
racist, sexist, university-bashing com
ments being played only seconds before a
commercial promoting it as our “voice.”
I am not saying that the University
games being aired on an extremely leftist
anarchist station would be acceptable ei
ther. I am only saying that I am a Univer
sity female student of color and I am
horrified that my opinion, along with
many others, can be so easily ignored. If
this is the reaction of the administration,
I highly suggest that the policy state
ments of the University are changed so
marginalized students don’t have a false
sense of security.
Nicole Sangsuree Barrett is a senior theater
and women's studies major.
Anti-war movement enables violence
Guest commentary
Sometimes the truth hurts. We all
want to love and support the families
we’re bom into, but too often family re
lationships bind and shape us into dys
functional patterns. When you’re in such
a situation, it’s important to be honest
about it.
The anti-war movement seems trapped
in a dysfunctional paternal relationship
with America but won’t admit it. We be
lieve in empty promises and refer to inac
curate memories of cfur past as a way to
deal with current — horrific — realities.
As University of Colorado professor Vine
Deloria Jr. says, “Of course you can trust
the government; just ask an Indian.”
We were birthed within the most geno
cidal, ecocidal society in the history of the
planet. According to the World Wildlife
Fund, given current resource consump
tion, the earth will be unable to sustain
human life past 2050. Such consumption
is driven by America and our dominant
values. Do we have the courage to con
front the dominant values that are de
stroying us? Do we have the courage to
confront dysfunctional families and rda-* >
tionships? Do we have the courage to .be. *.
disloyal to America? Or will our co-de
pendent patterns silence us?
The developing anti-war movement is
being dominated by arguments that
America, at its core, is not about war and
should be a force for peace. A change in
priorities, perhaps even legal reform, is
advocated. Mistreated by the greatest
body of authority in history, some oddly
appeal for even greater authority, like the
United Nations, international law or
world government.
This camp could be called “the loyal
opposition.” They try to play an opposi
tional role, but are basically loyal, still
waving flags and crying over the “eroded”
constitution.
The other end of the same continuum
was well represented by a recent speak
er on campus, Kevin Danaher. Danaher
criticized the U.S. alliance with Saudi
Arabia, where “women aren’t even al
lowed to drive,” but he advocated a re
turn to the “liberty and local control” of
America’s beginnings. He even thanked
Thomas Jefferson!
Doesn't America's original as well as
contemporary relationship with women,
Indians, blacks, queers and debtors (just
about* everybody) make-this-alHa'nce'*of
jUanahensjust^s offensive as-contempo-«
rary America’s alliance with sexist Saud
is? I don’t know why anybody would
yearn for the days when America began.
To do so is like ignoring the family’s
“dirty little secrets.”
Meanwhile, the political right is being
far more honest. Powerful think-tanks like
the American Enterprise Institute, the
Project for a New American Century and
others are explicitly calling for the United
States to colonize the rest of the planet.
PNAC calls U.S. troops abroad “the Cal
vary on the new American frontier.”
Invading Iraq wouldn't just be one
more war, it would occur within a strate
gic context. Will the anti-war movement
step up to the challenge? Or will it con
tinue to enable perpetual violence by
hiding the “family’s secrets” under the
guise of peace?
Waving flags, validating politicians and
pleading for violence to stop does noth
ing to confront the illusion that needs to
end. Admitting the depths of our dys
function can be hard to do, but the con
sequences of continuing to accept this
paternal relationship are severe.
Marshall Kirkpatrick is a sophomore,
drrthrqpologymajcrr and Co-di/ector
. of.the Survival Center.. I. ,