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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, January, 14,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor:
Pat Payne
Editorial
ASUO individuals
should have right
to political cause,
personal action
This past week, Rachel Pilliod, ASUO president and
chairwoman of the Oregon Students Association,
weathered a recall challenge hv Bridget Burns, stu
dent body president at Oregon State University. Burns
argued that Pilliod had violated OSA rules by sending
more than one representative to an OSA meeting, by
changing a scheduled meeting abruptly — for which
she later apologized — and, most egregiously accord
ing to Burns, attending and actively participating in
the Oct. 31 McArthur Court rally in support of demo
crat Bill Bradbury’s senatorial campaign.
While the first two were easily explained away, her
appearance at the rally could have proved problemat
ic. Not because of her own political leanings,
but instead because of a semantic question in the
OSA bylaws.
It all stems from Article 1, Statement of Purpose,
which reads: “The purposes of this corporation are to
represent, advocate and further the interests and wel
fare of students in public higher education . . . provid
ed that this corporation does not participate or inter
vene in any political campaign on behalf of any
candidate for public office.”
On the face of it, this paragraph says nothing about
the individual officers of the organization. Bv the let
ter of the law, unless Pilliod asserted herself as being
at the rally in an official capacity as an OSA director,
she had done nothing wrong.
Vet, by virtue of being ASUO president — and she
was identified as such at the rally — she may have in
advertently tied OSA to a partisan political cause. Or
she may have not.
The problem is, the rules are somewhat vague on
what “this corporation” entails. We are heartened that
the directors of the OSA have put together an ad-hoc
committee to study the rules that concern participa
tion in political events. Although the non-partisan na
ture of the organization must be preserved, to forbid
any officeholder from ever espousing a personal cause
is asinine.
We find it ridiculous to expect anyone — especial
ly on a campus with as much of a reputation for vi
brant political life as the University has — to stay
completely divorced from politics 24 hours a day, sev
en days a week while holding such a position.
Certainly, as long as he is not doing it in his official
capacity as University president, Dave Frohnmaver
can insert himself into political debates. The same
should hold for the head of student government.
Editorial policy
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses can be
sent to letters <®dailyemerald.com. tetters
to the editor and guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words
and guest commentaries to 5 50 words.
Authors are limited to one submission per
calendar month. Submission must include
phone number and address for verification.
The Emerald reserves the right to edit for
space, grammar and style.
Editorial board members
Michael J. Kleckner
Editor in chief
Jessica Richelderfer
Managing editor
Pat Payne
Editorial editor
Julie Lauderbaugh
Columnist
Jenna Cunningham
Student representative
Child abuse beyond television?
When Madelvne Toogood
was taped heating her
daughter in an Indiana
parking lot in Septem
ber, the recording was
played on heavy rota
tion on news shows
across the country.
The tape was disturb
ing, no question about
11. It
showed
a 29
v ear
o I d
woman
savage- g
ly beat- 1
ing a »
tou r
y ear
old in a
Kathryn
Petersen
public In other words
place.
The tape showed no one
interfering. It showed a
child defenseless against
the violent actions of her
mother in a public shop
ping area in America.
Because the situation was
made public, questions
were raised about child
abuse in America and how
it is handled. Experts were
asked, people were interest
ed and seemed to ponder
the issue. That lasted for
about a week. Then, the
media directed the public’s
attention to another story
that was more timely or
deemed more important.
People forgot and moved
on.
Fast forward to this
week. A seven-year-old
boy's remains were found
mummified in a plastic
storage container in the
basement of a Newark, N.J.,
home. The boy’s two broth
ers were also found in the
basement. They were starv
ing and living in an environ
ment not fit for any living
being. New Jersey’s Division
of Youth and Family Ser
vices had received 10 com
plaints about the family dur
ing the past 10 years, yet
nothing changed. The chil
dren were burned, starved
and abused.
The media jumped all
over the story. CNN, NBC,
CBS, any and every news
channel had the story in
cluded in its broadcast.
Much like in September,
child abuse is brought to
light. The public is shocked,
lines of communication are
opened and people are
seemingly doing things to
change the way “the sys
tem'' works.
New Jersey Gov. James E.
McGreevev is proposing
steps that could help limit a
situation like this from hap
pening again. Fantastic!
Things need to be changed.
It’s just sad that things are
being inspected and
changed in New Jersey
when all 50 states, including
Oregon, have problems with
this issue.
The Child Welfare League
of America has statistics
from state to state on child
abuse. When comparing
New Jersey and Oregon on
the issue of child abuse,
some interesting figures are
produced. In 1999, 13.6 per
every 1,000 children in the
state of Oregon were identi
fied as abused or neglected.
The same year in New Jer
sey, 4.6 per 1,000 children
were identified as abused or
neglected. What does that
mean? It means that Ore
gon’s child abuse problem is
larger than New Jersey’s.
Thanks to the media atten
tion, the main difference is
that New Jersey is getting a
re-evaluation on how abuse
cases are handled, and
things will maybe improve.
Too bad for Florida, the
home state of the man who
was recently convicted for
locking his 8-year-old step
daughter in the closet and
starving her until she
weighed only 25 pounds. Too
bad for most states that don’t
have the funding to cover the
costs associated with hiring
and maintaining social work
ers to check that individual
cases of abuse are fully real
ized and corrected. Too bad
federal funding of social pro
grams isn’t a priority for our
government. Until the coun
try comes to the realization
that the system that let down
thousands of abused children
needs to be changed nation
S' I
Steve Baggs Emerald
ally as well as locally, horror
stories like these will contin
ue to roll out of towns across
America. Until fixing this
problem becomes a national
priority, the fact will remain
that child abuse continues to
be a problem that our society
mostly ignores.
America needs to realize
that horrible acts of child
abuse and neglect occur
everyday in every city in the
country. They’re not rare
events and they don’t just oc
cur in places like New Jersey
and Indiana. Child abuse in
America is a problem. If peo
ple need to be shocked into
realizing that, they need to
look at the statistics, not
their televisions.
Contact the columnist
at kathrynpetersen@dailyemer
ald.com. Her views do not
necessarily represent those
of the Emerald.
Letter to the editor
‘Voice of the Ducks’
not sporting
I have been following the KUGN de
bate with interest. A few days ago, I
turned on my car radio to the ‘‘voice of
the Ducks” station to hear someone 1
don’t usually hear, Michael Savage.
He was saying (in fervent, angry tones)
that all actors were whores, and, I think,
prostitutes (though 1 am not sure of the
difference, and I may have this wrong).
He was angered because a group of Hol
lywood actors were asking the president
to get U.N. approval before a war. Then
he continued on to say that Joe Mc
Carthy was right when he said they were
a fifth column. He continued by saying
that in case we missed hearing him clear
lv, he would repeat it and did so, even
more intensely.
So this is the voice of the Ducks? Go
Ducks? Hardly sporting comments.
Barbara Nicholls
former English instructor
Eugene
Editor's note: This piece was submit
ted before KUGN’s decision to stop car
rying Michael Savage.