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Wednesday, January, 22,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor
Pat Payne
A call for peace
When I was asked to join the University
group “Students for Peace” when they went to
Washington, D.G., to protest the war against
Iraq, I must admit I was hesitant. “Don’t peo
ple get arrested at demonstrations?” I asked.
Although I am firmly against the war in Iraq, I
was hesitant to show up at a rally that would be
slightly more radical than
comfortable with.
However, at the last
minute, I decided to go,
and have not regretted it.
Certainly, there have
been marches in history
that have been filled with
violence, and though vio
lence was not supported
by most in the march,
the mainstream media
angled their coverage
(whether purposely or
not) to exclude much of
the message of the
marchers, and focused instead on the destruc
tion of private property. I was afraid that this
would be the case in D.C.
Thousands were expected to protest the
president’s foreign policy, and I was not sure I
wanted to be connected to the radical left,
whom I thought the demonstrators would be.
A handful of the counterprotesters were think
ing along the same lines. Among some of the
smaller pro-war groups was one with most inter
estingly, if not ridiculously, named MOVEOUT
(Marines and Other Veterans Against Outra
geous Un-American Traitors). One man yelled
out of a passing SUV, “Get a job!” while another
had a sign reading “Hippies Go Home.”
This image of the hapless, dirty and worth
less pacifist hippie is the prototypical activist
many pro-war partisans believe make up the
anti-war movement. On the contrary, the
protest consisted of people from all races, of all
ages, and even a trio of well-groomed business
men who carried a sign proclaiming, “Main
stream white guys against the war.”
During the rally, there was electricity in the
air; street vendors hawked T-shirts, scarves,
hats and gloves to the unprepared, and politi
I thought I would be
Meghann
Farnsworth
Just think about it
cal groups were selling anti-war signs .to carry
in the march. The media was hungrily circling
the demonstrators, pulling over one or two for
interviews, and rapidly photographing the rest.
While this was not my first time in D.G., it was
the first time I had been to the Capitol, and,
when I looked back onto the Washington
Memorial, was unable to see where the throngs
of people ended.
When the march began and I took my place
next to the other University students, I could
not help but join in some of the chants. Some
reminded me of the Seattle demonstration’s
chants, “Whose streets? Our streets!” and
“The people united will never be defeated.”
While these were slightly tired, there were
plenty of call-and-answers that I had never
heard. Even when there was a lull in the chant
ing, there was plenty to look at and to do. One
man wore a television around his head with his
hair slicked backed in the traditional “talking
head” style and was announcing, to the laugh
ter of those around him, that we were on
fuschia — no, pink — no, lime-green alert!
There was only one slight hang-up in the
march, which I was later to discover was the re
sult of two University students climbing on top
of a building along side the march and waving an
inverted flag to the cheers of the people below.
As the police dashed up, they scaled down the
back wall and, while we were nervously looking
around for them, rejoined our ranks further on.
While I attended the rally with some initial
hesitancy, I came out of it fully convinced in
the righteousness of our cause. Death and de
struction does not become us, and we cannot
be distracted from the pain and suffering here
at home by a war abroad. On Sunday, I went to
the Vietnam Memorial and walked slowly down
the thousands of names engraved on the wall. I
would like to take Bush there, and make him
read each and every name — one by one —
and have him think about the potential conse
quences of his war.
Contact the columnist
atmeghannfarnsworth@dailyemerald.com.
Her views do not necessarily represent those
of the Emerald.
Steve Baggs Emerald
Bush administration perpetuates ongoing war against women
Guest commentary
With the impending war, budget
ary woes and the upcoming MLK
holiday, one could easily forget that
Jan. 22 is the 30th anniversary of the
Roe v. Wade decision. One might
overlook the peril this decision faces
in 2003, and frankly, one might not
fully take in the Bush administra
tion’s ongoing war on women.
You might be tempted to think of
the above statement as hyperbole, so I
would like to take you on a short jour
ney through the decisions this admin
istration has made that affect women.
Shortly after taking office, Presi
dent Bush reinstated the Global Gag
Rule. The rule denies funding for
ru v/Aiuo care ana contraception to
any organization that refers needy
women to abortion services, even if
U.S. dollars are not used for those
services. This was followed by deny
ing #34 million to the U.N. Popula
tion Fund, even as youngsters from
around the world imperiled by
AIDS/HIV begged for that help. The
Bush administration opposed our
country signing on to The Conven
tion on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), despite the widespread
support of this convention by the
rest of the world. This administra
tion denied #200 million scheduled
for programs to support women and
to address HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan.
Shifting from their international
etiorts to national ones, the Bush ad
ministration, through Ashcroft’s De
partment of Justice, threw their
weight behind an effort in Ohio to
ban certain abortion procedures.
This was followed by legislation to
increase fetal rights through the Un
born Victims of Violence Act and
provide fetal health care through the
CHIPS program. The mother, on the
other hand, is denied both prenatal
and postpartum health care.
Appointments made in this ad
ministration, at the agency and the
judicial level, are consistently anti
choice. The recent appointment of
Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA’s Re
productive Health Drug Advisory
panel would be laughable if not so
painful. He has published books that
advocate prayer as the first line ol
women’s health care. All the nomi
nations for the circuit court bench
es that were turned down because of
their biased positions on abortion
are now going to be recycled, and
will no doubt be confirmed.
Finally, government Web sites are
now tain ted with biased information
based on little to no scientific evi
dence. An example is the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s
“revised” fact sheet on condom use,
which supports the Bush administra
tion’s opposition to all forms of con
traception. And, of course, the NCI
Web site suggests an unproven link
between breast cancer and abortion.
Three major decisions have been
paramount to the full enfranchise
ment of women in our country: The
right to vote, the right to contracep
tion and the right to choose. All of
these decisions acknowledge that
women have the right to make deci
sions regarding their own bodies,
and can be trusted to make deci
sions that are in the best interests of
their families and society. The real
meaning of Roe is our national confi
dence in the wisdom and compas
sion of women. We all need to stand
up and speak out in support of this
revolutionary decision and its key
role in the health and well-being of
American women.
Kitty Piercy is the public affairs director
for Planned Parenthood Health Services
of Southwestern Oregon.
Letters to the editor
People should spend less
on sports hype
Picture a Eugene where the masses donate
510 each toward scholarly needs at the Uni
versity and forgo their usual purchase of gim
micky polyester Duck flags on their cars.
Less trinkets and plastic crap and more
mindpower should be the University’s New
Year’s resolution.
Canceling expensive sports-hype bill
boards around the country could keep tu
ition costs down. Diversity, culture and
mindfulness are not a priority at the Univer
sity — in-your-face jockism reigns. Prevent
ing students from burning down their neigh
borhood is teaching them to be smart, not
overspending on rock-video-style sports
hype TV commercials.
Zachary Vishanoff
Eugene
There’s plenty to forgive
Forgive: 1. To excuse for a fault or offense:
pardon. 2. To renounce anger or resentment
against. 3. To absolve from payment of (e.g., a
debt) -vi. To accord forgiveness.
While I agree that shouting forgiveness
from the mountaintops will do little to curb
terrorism, I think that there is more to what
Sill had to say in “Forgiveness may prove
more successful than war” (ODE, Jan. 8). My
interpretation is that perhaps Sill thinks that
America should accept the Muslim majority's
apology for what some illegitimate radicals
have done in their name. We could forgive
and not take on a narrow view of Islam and
discard vague stereotypes like “those coun
tries that preach hate and murder against the
United States on a daily basis.”
Or maybe America could take a more re
sponsible approach to eliminating passive
support for such atrocities by not attacking
everyone except those terrorists who have
America in their crosshairs.
We missed bin Laden, so Hussein is next.
And then, Kim Jong II? We could “forgive”
the debts that we have somehow transferred
out of al-Qaeda accounts and into Iraq’s.
Instead, we’ve externalized the effects of our
actions and driven the accounts of the peoples
of these dark, hateful places further into the
red. Maybe we should ask for forgiveness from
the very people that have quite conveniently
been kept from achieving the very things that
we, the great blue-eyed beacon of democracy,
have prescribed for them.
Surely, with the way things are going
now there will be plenty of forgiveness to
go around.
Chris Holman
senior
geography/international studies