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Thursday, January, 16,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor
Pat Payne
Editorial
SUV ‘terror’ ads
detract from real
point of message
Over the past few decades, the United States’ love af
fair with the automobile has become more and more an
addiction to the pump as it is anything else. One of the
main causes is the rising importance of what was once a
niche vehicle: the sport-utility vehicle, or SUV.
The auto industry, seizing on the “flavor-of-the
month” status that the Chevrolet Suburban enjoyed, has
produced ever larger and less fuel-efficient SUVs. With
more and more SUVs on the roads, the need for the
pump is greater than ever, to the nation’s environmental,
social and political detriment.
Conservative commentator Arianna Huffington has tak
en a stand against increasingly unnecessary SUV use, al
though we think she’s using the wrong tactics. Advertise
ments that she helped create are now playing in the
nation’s largest car markets, claiming that driving an SUV
is tantamount to supporting Osama bin Laden. Her argu
ment: America buys oil from mostly foreign sources, in
cluding Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and these sources have had
links to terrorist groups, such as Hamas and al Qaeda.
Ergo, to buy oil from these sources is to fund terrorism.
While we believe that U.S. dependence on foreign
— and all — fossil fuels should be diminished signifi
cantly, we also believe that Huffington’s ads oversim
plify a much more complex problem. While it is true
that some wealthy Saudi Arabians have funded terror
ism, it is often from their personal wealth and not
directly from oil profits.
Secondly, at least some of them give their money not
to directly sponsor the killing of innocents by suicide
bombers, but instead into more benign purposes that
these groups, unfortunately, provide. Either out of politi
cal opportunism or genuine concern, groups like Hamas
actually provide education, food and clothes to the peo
ple under their purview.
The Huffington SUV ads were designed to parody the
overplayed Ad Council/Partnership for a Drug-Free
America ads (“It’s only harmless fun. ... I helped kill a
family in Colombia”) that try to link marijuana with ter
rorism. Both ad campaigns are very misleading, and
instead of trying to foster a discussion of the issues, they
use scare tactics to disguise the truth.
In the anti-marijuana ads, the argument is reductive
to the point of ridiculousness. All drugs do not come from
countries that support terrorism, and even if they did,
following the money back to any one specific source or
act of terrorism is nearly impossible. Substitute “oil” for
drugs” in the preceding sentence, and the same point is
true of the SUV ads.
Instead of offering the average citizen falsehoods to dis
cuss around the nation’s water coolers, as these ads do,
why not take an informed look at how much of the total
U.S. oil imports come from which nations; how much
U.S. fossil fuel consumption is because of SUVs; and then
put that information in front of the public and let them
think about the issue?
We applaud the fact that people are starting to wake up
and realize that an overbearing dependence on fossil fuels
is dangerous. However, the tactics Huffington is using are
counterproductive to a real discussion of the issue.
Editor in chief
Jessica Richelderfer Julie Lauderbaugh
Managing editor
Columnist
Jenna Cunningham
Student representative
■■HU
Counting in all Christians
YOU Rfc RIGHT. I DO
SENSE SOME RACIAL HOSTILITY.
[VlH tTE
northwest
CHRISTIAN
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RNANt|4L
A shadow has been cast on the campus
and community of Northwest Christian
College. With a new label, “racist,” which
is far from “Christian,” this small reli
gious college is facing a controversy over
recent events con
cerning the firing of
Associate Dean of
Education and
School Counseling
Betsy Clewett.
As reported in
the Emerald on
Monday ( “NGC
dean qustions rea
son for dismissal,”
ODE, Jan. 13), the
firing of Clewett has
raised awareness of
Sarah
Spellman
Spin cycle
how the institution treats minority stu
dents, leading a few students and staff to
believe the school is unjust.
Clewett was fired from her position at
NCC in December for what she and her sup
porters believe was having a voice for the
minority students of the community. As a
result, three other faculty members have re
signed, including Cloe Veney, NCC’s only
black faculty member in its history, and law
suits may be filed against the college.
Although President James Womack
claims the dismissal of Clewett was not on
the basis of race, I still feel that the handful
of students have a right to be concerned.
Glewett and supporters claim that the
treatment of minority students at the col
lege was not up to par compared to that of
white students. They said this often re
sulted in minorities having difficulties re
ceiving help from the financial aid office,
difficulty with housing and mistreatment
of the black basketball players and other
students of color from both staff and peers.
As a former student, it saddens me to
hear of the recent events of this college
that is so dear to my heart and has
helped shape the person I am today. As I
first read of this controversy in The Reg
ister-Guard earlier this month, I was
shocked to hear the news.
Although I have never witnessed this
kind of behavior from students and staff, I
do not doubt that this goes on. I do recall a
few instances where race was discussed
between my peers in the rug room (a com
monplace for students to gather), but I
thought it was in good fun. Although I was
not involved, I feel for the students who
believe they were persecuted.
This behavior doesn’t surprise me
much, however, on the basis of the de
mographics of the institution. Within this
small community of 500 students, NGG
reported in 2001 that minorities com
pose only 10 percent of the student body
(which is typical of small Christian col
leges). Also, a typical trend I have noticed
in the composition of the campus is that
Peter Utsey Emerald
many students seek the “small-college”
atmosphere because they, too, come
from small towns and communities, and
often have not experienced such cultural
diversity before.
I hope that this situation will bring
something positive to the students and
staff of NGG. I hope that NGG can contin
ue to be a loving community, and only
expand from here, integrating more cul
turally aware programs to help change
the demographics of the school.
On Aug. 28, 1963, the powerful mes
sage from Martin Luther King Jr. rang
through Washington, D.G., as his “I Have
a Dream” speech was delivered from the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I can only
hope that nearly 40 years later, it can
make an impact at NGG as well.
As he said: “All of God’s children, black
men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to
join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
To use King’s words, I hope the minority
students can feel comfortable at their col
lege again and not be treated differendy on
the basis of the color of their skin, but of
the content of their character.
Contact the columnist
atsarahspellman@dailyemerald.com.
Her views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Letter to the editor
Republican does not
mean racist
Thursday’s editorial, “GOP needs to
use action, not just words, to heal racial
divisions” (ODE, Jan. 9), simply perpet
uates that tired shibboleth of die left that
republicans are racists.
Republicans don’t have a former Ku
Klux Klan Kleagle, like democratic Sena
tor Robert Byrd of West Virginia, in their
ranks. Only last year, Sen. Byrd, in an in
terview with Fox News’ Tony Snow, re
ferred to “white niggers.” Byrd quickly
apologized, but he wasn’t criticized by
democrats or forced to resign his Appro
priations Committee chairmanship.
During debate over the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, Byrd spent 14 hours and 13
minutes in an unsuccessful filibuster. He
voted against the bill along with 20 other
Senate democrats. Only six republicans
voted against the bill.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party
panders to minorities with racial quotas,
preferences and double standards. This
is especially true at colleges and univer
sities, dominated as they are by the left.
Consider the University of Michigan’s af
firmative-action admissions policies: Ac
cording to the Center for Equal Oppor
tunity, the odds ratio favoring admission
of a black applicant with identical grades
and test scores to a white applicant is
174 to one. The implicit and utterly
racist message here is that black stu
dents must be held to lower academic
standards than everyone else.
It is republicans, not democrats, who
punish nostalgia for racism in their par
ty. It is democrats, not republicans, who
perpetuate racial stereotypes and preju
dices, or to use President Bush’s memo
rable phrase, “the soft bigotry of low ex
pectations.”
Sean Walston
sixth-year graduate
physics
CORRECTION
The final sentence of molecular biology Professor Franklin W. Stahl’s letter to the editor (“University should review
involvement with Nike,” ODE Jan. 1 5) was printed incorrectly and had a different meaning than Stahl intended.
The sentence should have read: “It is not good for the University’s image, not to mention its truth-seeking mission,
to lie with the liars.”
The Emerald regrets the error.