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Wednesday, February 19,2003
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor
Pat Payne
Letters to the editor
Critic needs to get
his facts right
Zachary Vishanoff is certainly entitled
to his opinion (ODE, Feb. 17), but if he
would first get his facts straight, we’d be
more likely to have a useful discussion.
Contrary to his statement, none of my
re-election materials said that my sup
port for a housing code was restricted to
“privately-held” properties.
The only place his statement comes
close to reality is that my voter’s pam
phlet statement said that I was “working
with ASUO to improve the condition of
private-market housing.” The words
“private-market” are there only because
that is what ASUO is working on!
David Kelly
Eugene city councilor
Ward 3
Anti-war protests
do show mercy
In her opening statement about the
impending war on Iraq, Salena De La
Cruz (“Time for action against Iraq,”
ODE, Feb. 17) said, “Blow the bastards
away!” Which bastards is she talking
about? Does she think that bombs find
their way only to the leaders of a coun
try? Or is every Iraqi a bastard because
they live in a country whose ruler’s ide
ology opposes that of the United States?
Secondly, she says that if we don’t act,
American citizens will be “falling to
their knees for mercy and be denied
that small act.” What small act is mer
cy? I would venture to say that most of
the millions of people who protested
against the war last Saturday would say
that their actions were in part aimed at
showing mercy to the civilians in and
around Iraq. This is no small act we are
asking for — millions asked, and we are
still waiting, on edge, for this “small act”
to be considered by our government.
Finally she asks us “what is to stop
them from entering our country and
taking what little we would have left?”
Even on our knees we would still be
the wealthiest country in the world.
Do we really have so little that people
are unable to think about things like
recreation? Almost all of us have cars
for which we trade food for oil with
Iraq. Maybe if we didn’t have so much,
our entire relationship with Iraq
would be different.
Mona Jones
junior
environmental science
Letters to the editor
and guest
commentaries policy
Letters to the editor and
guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are
limited to 250 words
and guest commentaries to
550 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.
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Steve Baggs Emerald
America uiiLL suffer
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when will-the Lies stop?/?
Contain Hussein’s weapons, avoid war
Guest commentary
In the name of protecting the
world from the threat of weapons
of mass destruction, President
George W. Bush is on the verge of
ordering the action which is most
likely to cause these terrible
weapons to be used. Rather than
pursue a policy which could keep
Hussein’s arsenal hemmed in and
contained, Bush is heading toward
a war that could unleash these
weapons on defenseless civilians
both in America and Iraq.
The Bush administration is ra
tionalizing a pre-emptive strike as
necessary in order to prevent a
“future” threat to U.S. civilians, ig
noring the fact that Hussein is ca
pable right now of orchestrating
such attacks. Bush himself admit
ted in his State of the Union
speech that there are bioweapons
against which the United States
has no protection. This is why he
proposed “Project Bioshield” to de
velop antidotes.
According to the American Med
ical Association, botulinum toxin
is the “most poisonous substance
known.” An extremely tiny
amount can kill in six to 24 hours,
usually through respiratory col
lapse. Iraq has already admitted to
previous inspectors the production
of large quantities. The U.S. Army’s
“top biological defense expert” —
Col. Erik Henchal — recently reaf
firmed U.S. vulnerability to several
bioweapons when he described
“serious holes in the U.S. military’s
defenses against weapons such as
the nerve poison botulinum toxin,
plague bacteria and viruses that
cause brain infections” (New York
Times, Jan. 8).
Despite such lack of protection,
Bush still presses for the destruc
tion of Hussein’s regime, which
even the GIA has advised would
cause Hussein to “become much
less constrained in adopting ter
rorist actions ... a WMD
(weapons of mass destruction) at
tack against the United States
would be his last chance to exact
vengeance by taking a large num
ber of victims with him.”
President Bush is poking an ex
ceedingly venomous cobra. Hus
sein has had ample time to set up
a retaliatory plan. With his brutal
history, does anyone really ex
pect him to “go quietly?” It is not
only Bush’s fingers that may get
bitten. Bush is gambling with the
lives of large numbers of Ameri
can and Iraqi civilians.
A huge story is not getting out.
Lack of media investigation has led
the public to believe that the war
will be “over there.” In the little
time left, this state of denial must
be overcome and hard questions
asked, such as “what remedy will
be offered to people in Portland ex
posed to botulinum?”
America is faced with a mo
mentous choice. Will it choose
the path almost guaranteed to un
leash these demonic weapons, or
one that can keep these weapons
bottled up? The return of inspec
tors has already been a remark
able success. Hussein’s weapons
are under a microscope, his arse
nal essentially hemmed in. To
keep it pinned down indefinitely,
the temporary inspection process
could be expanded into an ongo
ing, long-term weapons monitor
ing program administered by the
United Nations. The world can
choose to “contain” Hussein.
There is still time to step back
from this abyss.
Jane Cramer is a professor of political
science. Gary "Spruce" Houser
is a co-producer and writer
for a documentary on accidental
nuclear war broadcast on public TV
stations prior to the 1991 Gulf War.
Voter Power seeks marijuana law reforms
Guest commentary
On Feb. 10, the Eugene City Council ap
proved a fine increase for marijuana posses
sion, despite protests from the medical mar
ijuana community. Citizens raised concerns
that the fine increase would affect patients
who could not afford the $150 registration fee
required by the state medical marijuana pro
gram. Patients who cannot afford the $150
fee are forced to obtain marijuana illegally
and will become subject to the increasingly
severe fines if caught. The effect may be to
force patients who need marijuana to ease
medical symptoms into a treatment program
they do not need.
However, recourse may be available. On Feb.
8, Voter Power, a local nonprofit organization,
held a signing party for OMMA2, an initiative to
amend the state’s medical marijuana law. If the
initiative gathers the required signatures and
makes the ballot, Oregon will be able to vote to
decrease the cost of Oregon’s medical marijua
na program from $150 to $20. If the initiative is
successful, all Eugene residents who require
medical marijuana will be able to afford it. This,
in effect, will counteract any problems posed to
marijuana patients by the recent fine increase
by the City Council.
Yet the initiative is more ambitious still.
Some of the changes it will make include pro
tecting medical marijuana users from losing
their jobs because of their marijuana use; cre
ate dispensaries, so patients do not have to ac
quire marijuana on the streets; protect out-of
state visitors who are legally recognized to use
marijuana by their own states; and increase the
number of plants patients are allowed to per
sonally grow from seven to 10.
Though ambitious, each change the initiative
seeks is a change based on problems arising out
of the original medical marijuana initiative
passed in 1998. Several patients have been fired
from their jobs for their lawful use of marijua
na. Some patients cannot harvest enough mari
juana to treat themselves from the seven plants
they are allowed to grow. As well, patients are
currently unable to legally obtain marijuana un
til their plants mature, a process that takes sev
eral months.
The initiative offers a timely opportunity for
Oregon to reassert its support of medical mari
juana. The Bush administration has made it a
top priority to shut down medical marijuana
dispensaries in California and has been harass
ing patients and providers with excessive feder
al raids and threats of legal action. Currently
Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, Montana,
New Mexico, Vermont and Wyoming are con
sidering legislation to allow medical use of mar
ijuana. If each bill passes, medical marijuana
will be legal in 15 states. By reasserting their
support for medical marijuana, Oregon voters
can join these states to force the Bush adminis
tration to respectfully address this situation.
Voter Power formally filed OMMA2 on Friday.
Medical marijuana patients and the citizens of
Oregon will have to gather some 100,000 signa
tures to ensure enough valid signatures exist for
ballot placement. To contact Voter Power, visit
its Web site at www.voterpower.org.
Kevin Feeney lives in Eugene.