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
Wednesday, March 12,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor:
Pat Payne
Letter to the editor
State must fund
suffering education system
Bent over the guillotine, funding for post-secondary educa
tion sits on the chopping block; the blade of the state budget
cuts hovers a mere inch above the heads of students. Once the
current budget plan, recently signed by the Oregon Senate, re
ceives the governor’s signature, more than 3,000 Oregon col
lege students will lose some or all of their Oregon Opportunity
Grant for the next school year. Oregon recendy received an “F”
for affordability by the National Center for Public Policy and
Higher Education, and any further cuts will drastically damage
students’ abilities to attend college.
I know that K-12 education is facing a funding crisis and that
the Education Stability Fund money is needed to keep K-12
schools going. However, Oregon’s colleges and universities are suf
fering their own crisis as well. Oregon needs to support education
at all levels, rather than transferring funds between higher educa
tion and K-12. By maintaining funding and grants for higher edu
cation in the next biennium, students will have the opportunity
to receive a college education, allowing Oregon to reap the eco
nomic benefits of a highly educated workforce in the future.
Tobias S. Piering
freshman
pre-planning, public policy and management
Ending tobacco
sales on campus
will help students
both now, later
Guest commentary
We, the physicians, nurse practitioners and professional staff
of the University Health Center, would like to encourage you to
eliminate tobacco sales on the University campus, specifically
in the Erb Memorial Union. As health care professionals, we feel
strongly about this issue as we see the harmful effects of tobac
co on students.
In an article in the Journal of the American Medical Associa
tion, it was said that, “Tobacco use is common among college
students (22 percent) and is not limited to cigarettes. College
appears to be a time when many students are trying a range of
tobacco products and are in danger of developing lifelong nico
tine dependence. National efforts to monitor and reduce tobac
co use of all types should expand to focus on college students
and other young adults.” Discontinuing the sales of tobacco on
campus would establish and maintain an environment that dis
courages harmful substance use as well as sending a clear mes
sage to students and the campus community.
Our primary mission at the University Health Center is to
enhance the educational process by minimizing health-related
barriers to personal development and learning. Additionally, we
provide prevention, health promotion and education services
that enable students to take full advantage of their academic
experience and serve as the health and medical resource for
the University community. We feel obligated to do what we can
to protect students from the harmful effects of tobacco. It is
with this in mind that we are asking that tobacco products not
be sold on our University campus. Selling a product condones
its use. The American College Health Association has published
standards of practice for health promotion in higher education
and within these standards, we are reminded as health practi
tioners to “advocate for policies and practices that recognize
the interdependent concepts of health, community and aca
demics.” The EMU is a community of interdependent groups
that are responsible for providing a healthy learning environ
ment for our students. The sale of tobacco in the EMU gives the
message to students that profit is more important than the
health of our students.
The University is one of only two of the 29 public or private
colleges/universities in the Pacific Northwest to sell tobacco
products on campus, and one of three of the Pac-10 schools to
vend tobacco. Many universities across the United States have
discontinued the sale of tobacco products on campus, and we
encourage the EMU Board of Directors and the ASUO Student
Senate to follow the lead of the University Bookstore and other
universities across our nation in refusing to sell tobacco.
Dr. Paula Ciesielski and 37 co-signers are doctors and staff
atthe University Health Center.. c c < %"..
Inspectors give false comfort to peacemongers
Guest commentary
Hardly anyone argues that Saddam
Hussein’s addiction to weapons of mass
destruction, his history of aggression,
and his connections to terrorists don’t
pose a grave threat. Yet obvious as these
points are, peacemongers and the lead
ers of France and Germany have man
aged to raise the level of noise over
whether to go to war to disarm Iraq to
such a pitch that reasoned discussion
seems impossible. Still, I’ll give it a try.
At the end of last summer, President
George W. Bush acceded to the requests
of Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac, fol
lowed the advice of Colin Powell and
Tony Blair, and went to New York to get
the United Nations’ imprimatur to dis
arm Iraq. The Security Council unani
mously passed Resolution 1441. Among
other things, it put inspectors back into
Iraq after four long years.
Since then, many seem to have lost
sight of the fact that getting inspectors
back into Iraq was not the objective of
1441 — disarmament was. That the in
spectors have not yet found a “smoking
gun” is evidence in and of itself of Iraq’s
failure to disarm. Iraq has had 12 years to
design its programs so they can proceed in
an environment of inspections, and they
are experts at denial and deception. The
return of inspectors has provided no assur
ance whatsoever of Iraqi disarmament. On
the contrary, it has given false comfort that
Saddam is somehow “contained.”
Saddam is playing to type, giving just
enough here and there to appear to be
cooperating, all while hiding his
weapons. Yet Blix, backed by Chirac and
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder,
calls this progress: The number of Iraqi
minders per inspector has been reduced
from five down to one; Saddam has al
lowed seven of the 3,896 scientists listed
as having a role in Iraq’s weapons pro
grams to be interviewed, albeit in down
town Baghdad where they and their fam
ilies may be subject to torture and
execution; and Iraq finally passed a law
banning weapons of mass destruction.
These were Blix’s best points. Incred
ibly, he even downplayed the discovery
of 17 “empty” chemical warheads.
What Blix failed to mention is that emp
ty is the only way to store these
weapons as they were not designed to
store chemicals for long periods.
Resolution 1441 clearly states that this
is Iraq’s final opportunity to disarm. When
the United Nations makes a statement like
that, it puts its credibility on the line. To
understand what’s at stake, it’s worth re
calling the history of the League of Nations:
After the invasion of Abyssinia, the League
collapsed because member states were not
willing to back up their declarations with
consequences. That lesson was summed
up by Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie
King who declared “collective bluffing can
not bring about collective security.” The
question is whether the world has learned
that lesson.
You can’t rationalize people out of
things they didn’t rationalize themselves
into in the first place: If for the sake of
peace at any cost, France is determined
to veto any resolution to disarm Iraq by
force, and in the process allows the U.N.
to become an ineffective, irrelevant de
bating society, so be it. Either way, Bush
and the nations that are willing to help
must enforce Resolution 1441 and dis
arm Iraq militarily because the risks of
inaction are simply too high.
Sean Walston is a graduate student in physics.
Americans must end support for oppressive Israeli rule
Guest commentary
The swastika is a sign of hatred, mur
der and imperialism. It is a horrible sym
bol of man’s inhumanity toward man.
That is exactly why it was drawn in the
street next to “Bush=Hitler.” Today, Pres
ident George W. Bush is on the brink of
invading a nation, and has used national
ism to appeal to the fears of an ignorant
population. Hitler used nationalism to
appeal to the German population.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
spoke of possibly using nuclear weapons
in Iraq. That would create a Holocaust
times 10. Bush supports a brutal regime
in Israel that ruthlessly murders Pales
tinian civilians. Every morning, you
wake up and check to see that you still
have a head. Then you check to see that
your family is still alive. You do this every
day if you are Palestinian. More than
45,000 Palestinians have had their
homes bulldozed, and are left homeless.
Many times, they have been left with
out drinking water because Israeli
troops will bathe and urinate in the wa
ter tanks. Tens of thousands of Pales
tinians have been imprisoned, and
thousands have been tortured in their
own land. Israeli tanks and soldiers are
everywhere, and they shoot with no
discretion. Young Palestinian boys who
throw rocks at tanks are popular tar
gets. Last week, a pregnant woman and
a 13-year-old boy were bulldozed to
death in their house. In the past year,
the Israeli military has killed 2,500
Palestinians. Israel has 600 casualties.
The United States is the reason this
can take place. Washington supplies Is
rael with everything they need to occupy
Palestine. The United States gives billions
of dollars each year to Israel, #6 billion in
weapons alone. The United States gives
more money to Israel than is given to all
other countries combined. The Ameri
can media has a one-sided portrayal of
Palestine, and will not focus on the thou
sands of Palestinians being brutally
killed. The media choose to focus on the
retaliation by Palestinians, who are exac
erbated by oppression murder and 36
years of brutal occupation.
Stand up and be a drum major for jus
tice. Speak out, or blood is on your
hands. Do not be like a Nazi citizen, just
standing by and letting the Jews inciner
ate. Hitler wouldn’t have come to power
if these people didn’t support him. It is
ironic, though, after all the Jews endured,
that they would turn around and oppress
the Palestinians. We must want peace,
but there can be no peace until we have
justice. Justice means a free Palestine.
This starts in the United States with you
and me, demanding the withdrawal of
U.S. support for Israel.
While the Palestinians are in refugee
camps, the United States prepares to in
vade Iraq to kill hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis. A million and a half Iraqis have died
because of sanctions imposed by the Unit
ed States. The swastika was drawn next to
“Bush=Hitler” to remind people to stand
up and say “no” to war, racism and oppres
sion before it’s too late. As Thomas Jeffer
son wrote, “I tremble for my country for
justice does not sleep forever.”
Paul Atanasj^a.senior,religious studies major.