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
Thursday, March 6,2003
---Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor:
Pat Payne
Editorial
Terrorism profiles
offer no security;
they Slip ’N Slide
toward fascism
There are times where we almost have to wonder whether the
Transportation Department and the TSA are on the payroll for Am
trak. Many of their attempts to increase security at the nation’s air
ports have ended up hamhanded or worse. Asking mothers to
drink their own breast milk, confiscating miniature rifles from
“G.I. Joe” and strip-searching old ladies was just the tip of the ice
berg. Now, there is a new arena for the erosion of civil liberties in
this nation after Sept. 11, 2001.
Delta Airlines, in cooperation with the Transportation Depart
ment, is beginning a pilot program in three undisclosed airports
next month that should have every American outraged over its po
tential for abuse.
The way the program is supposed to work is that a “profile” (our
first warning bell, by the way) will be created from every passen
ger’s credit and bank account reports (our second warning bell)
and from that, each passenger will be assigned a color code (bin
go!) that assesses his or her threat level. Green-coded passengers
will be clear to fly, yellow-coded passengers will get extra attention
from security screeners — “take off ze shoes!” Red codes won’t be
able to fly at all.
Needless to say, this new initiative from the Transportation
Department worries us and raises a whole host of privacy ques
tions. We are appalled that the government is going to be further
rooting around in our personal lives wholesale. This is not the
police or FBI going into one person’s history to solve a crime —
this is a new security apparatus digging around and pinning the
tenuous label of “potential terrorist” on people who may very
well have done nothing wrong. This is the kind of unfettered ac
cess that the Gestapo, or the Stasi, or the KGB could only dream
about. This is Total Information Awareness Lite — and this
time, there’s nothing that Congress can do about it.
Further, what exactly would trigger a yellow or red code? We
don’t know, and certainly, they’re not going to tell us. For all we
know, not having a credit history could trigger an alert — which
could be problematic then for students and others who may not
have credit cards. Or is it those in debt? Or those with “interest
ing” purchases?
Maybe red codes are given out to college newspaper editorial
boards that write opinion pieces opposing this new destruction of civ
il liberties. Or is it discretionary, left up to the judgment of the officer
doing the investigating and his or her biases? Will a first name of “Mo
hammed” trigger a yellow or red? And is there recourse for those giv
en the scarlet letter if they could prove they’re not threatening?
Finally, there’s no indication how long the information will be
kept by the government, and how secure the info will be on their
end — that sort of personal information concentrated in one
place, especially if it’s not secure enough, could be El Dorado for
information thieves.
We are for security, and we believe that the nation has to do
things to prevent another Sept. 11. This, however, is more of the
expanding government surveillance that will not bring America
any closer to catching terrorists. Instead, it makes us wonder in
what direction this nation truly is headed.
Editorial policy
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Responses can be sent to
letters@dailyemerald.com. 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.
Editorial board members
Michael J. Kleckner
Editor in chief
Julie Lauderbaugh
Columnist
Jessica Richelderfer
Managing editor
Pat Payne
Editorial editor
Jenna Cunningham
Student representative
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Letters to the editor
Hall residents
need to be
less wasteful
When kids come into the resi
dence halls, they learn a lot beyond
their school subjects. One of the
things they learn — or don’t, as the
case may be — is how their presence
affects the world both socially and
environmentally.
Kids in the halls waste hundreds of
paper plates and cups every year, and
many of them don’t think once about
where that paper is coming from or
where it is going. As dramatic as it
may sound, residence hall students
learn to live unmindfully here, and
then they feed into the workforce
and into influential positions, and
still don’t care about their waste.
When I try to bring my own plate
to Common Grounds, I usually get
the response, “It’s a cleanliness is
sue.” If this is a true concern for the
housing food system, then why is it
that a place like the Buzz Cafe is so
accepting of the idea that they give
customers a 20-cent discount for us
ing a personal cup? We need to
change the system in the residence
halls so that those of us who want to
bring our own cups and plates can,
and then maybe we can influence
others not to waste either.
Amy Seidenverg
sophomore
English
Support international
students on campus
We are writing to express our sup
port for University students from
largely Muslim countries who have
been required to register in person
with the INS. We are concerned that
these students are being subjected to
intrusive practices (e.g. fingerprinting,
questioning and photographing) and
have been placed under suspicion for
no other reason than their nationality.
Studying abroad in itself can be a
stressful experience. Just imagine
what it would be like to be thousands
of miles away from your family and
friends, and then to have to travel to
Portland to be interrogated by feder
al officials, knowing that some of
your compatriots have been jailed
for minor visa infractions. Perhaps
we would say the wrong thing. Fur
thermore, we might be reluctant to
seek support from our friends be
cause of the stigma. At the end of the
day, many of us would feel alienated
and afraid.
In acknowledging the position of
students from largely Muslim coun
tries, we in no way intend to dimin
ish the very real stress and hardship
that other students may be experi
encing. We draw attention to this
group because they are among the
most vulnerable members of our
community, targeted for suspicion
and denied legal rights.
In the spirit of creating a safe and
inclusive community, we ask all of us
to be aware of the stressful circum
stances these international students
are facing. We invite students, faculty
and staff to reach out and let these
students know that they are valued
and have friends here.
Edel Davenport, M.S.
Mark B. Evans, M.D.
Robin Holmes, Ph.D.
University Counseling and Testing
Center
Pipe raids waste
of tax money
We must all give praise and thanks
to the great hero Attorney General
John Ashcroft and all those brave
people who worked under him and
spent god knows how much of our tax
dollars to raid the dangerous criminal
masterminds that blow glass.
We can’t afford to fund our schools,
but at least we can prevent people
from making pipes that could poten
tially be used to smoke marijuana
(gasp!), a very evil drug. After all, ac
cording to the DEA, no amount of
marijuana that a person can smoke
or ingest constitutes a lethal dose.
But alcohol, a good and legal drug, is
a poison that can kill you if you ingest
too much, is involved in the majority
of traffic fatalities, and is known to
loosen inhibition, which I’m sure
we’ve all seen lead to a violent out
burst at some party or in some bar.
When was the last time you saw a
pothead do something violent?
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like
they should be spending our tax dol
lars on something more useful, like
keeping our friggin’ state budget
afloat or preventing some wacko
from crashing an airplane into
a building.
But then again, I guess it’s pretty
important to make sure someone is
n’t smoking dope. It could lead to all
sorts of dangerous behavior like
playing video games, eating junk
food and sleeping.
Mason Gummer
senior
sociology
Don’t blame the
high school kid
I was casually reading the editorial
“Sex,drugs, booze at college parties?
Why, we never!” (ODE, Feb. 14) until
the last line, “Perhaps he could have
told us ... and saved everyone a lot of
grief.” Sounds as though the editori
al board was blaming the whole thing
on the high school kid.
Most, I would think, would have
blamed the older, more experienced
and presumably wiser person as the
responsible party. But to get the
school and the star athlete off the
hook, the board chose to go with,
“Perhaps he could have told us.”
Vince Puleo
Eugene