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Tuesday, April 29,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Page Assistant:
Salena De La Cruz
Editorial
Rick Santorum
goes beyond gay
slurs; he’s lost
hold of reality
Once again a Republican senator has spoken his mind
about a group of people, and once again tongues are wag
ging, calling for some sort of sanction.
Rick Santorum, R-Pa., earlier this month told The As
sociated Press, “if the Supreme Court says that you have
the right to consensual sex within your home, then you
have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy,
you have the right to incest, you have the right to adul
tery. You have the right to anything.”
Santorum is referring to a Supreme Court case cur
rently under review challenging a Texas law against “de
viant sexual intercourse.” In the case, Houston police re
ceived a false report of an armed intruder, entered a
home, found two men having sex and arrested them.
Gay rights groups, many Democrats and two Republi
cans, so far, have called Santorum’s comments discrimi
natory, have said Santorum should be removed from his
No. 3 post in the Senate GOP leadership, and have said
the comments do not reflect the views of the Republican
Party, respectively. Santorum defended his comments
and told CNN they “were taken out of context.” Actually,
they weren’t. Read the transcript at
http://www.cnn.eom/2003/ALLPOLITICS/04/22/santo
rum. excerpts. ap/index. h tml.
Those challenging Santorum’s comments have fo
cused on the quote listed above. And yes, those com
ments are discriminatory. The difference is that sanc
tions against bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery
apply equally to everyone. The Texas law, a throwback
to zealous religious rule, can be applied to anything be
yond vaginal-penile intercourse. But it isn’t.
This law isn’t used to punish heterosexual couples
found doing dirty things. It’s used to pass judgment on
homosexuality and punish gays. Such witch hunts
shouldn’t be allowed, and Santorum’s words ignore the
distinction and keep bigotry alive.
There are more interesting bits in Santorum’s inter
view, though. He actually blames the Catholic Church
sex abuse scandal on liberals. Here’s the quote:
“You have the problem within the church. Again, it
goes back to this moral relativism, which is very accept
ing of a variety of different lifestyles. And if you make the
case that if you can do whatever you want to do, as long
as it’s in the privacy of your own home, this ‘right to pri
vacy,’ then why be surprised that people are doing things
that are deviant within their own home? If you say, there
is no deviant as long as it’s private, as long as it’s consen
sual, then don’t be surprised what you get.”
Wait a minute. It sounds like he’s saying that when
Catholic priests used their authority to force boys to
have sex with them — it was consensual? Here’s more:
“In this case, what we’re talking about, basically, is
priests who were having sexual relations with post-pu
bescent men. We’re not talking about priests with 3 year
olds or 5 year olds. We’re talking about a basic homosex
ual relationship.”
No, actually, raping minors is not a basic homosexual
relationship. And mainstream America recognizes that.
The interview shows that Santorum doesn’t simply hold
bigoted views about gays — he’s way out of touch with
reality. Forget sanctions; the GOP should cut its losses
and drop him entirely.
Editorial policy
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N0V>3 BE &00t>
LITTLE FISHIES
AHb EM" NO^R .
CAntH^THIN!
Steve Baggs Emerald
A fish of a different co or
Something is fishy in the state of Oregon.
The other day, I went to Safeway to buy
salmon. Before I picked up the “Atlantic
Salmon Fillet,” I noticed two words, in
very small type:
COLOR ADDED.
Hmm. Then I saw a
special deal on the
“Salmon King/Chi
nook.” No warning
label. But at the
counter was a dis
claimer on the spe
cial. It read: “FARM
RAISED-COLOR
ADDED.”
I asked a butcher
about the color. He
didn’t know they
added color to farmed salmon until re
cently, when he saw a TV special on it.
“They were spraying this stuff with a
hose,” he said. “It was a vitamin supple
ment.” I asked if it was natural. He
thought it was, but seemed unsure. He
was nice and helpful, so I did not grill him
anymore. But I decided to find out how
my salmon got its color.
Even in the Northwest, most of the
salmon at our supermarkets is Atlantic
salmon. All of the Atlantic salmon is farm
raised, often in British Columbia. Wild Pa
cific salmon get their orange-pink color
from eating krill and other crustaceans.
Farmed salmon don’t eat krill. They eat
pellets containing canthaxanthin or as
taxanthin, synthetic additives that give
them the “right” color.
Canthaxanthin? Astaxanthin? Sounds
Philip
Huang
A different light
like biological weapons. In a way, they
are. Found in plants and algae, a lab-made
version is used in fish feed. Natural color
is important to many people. Without the
additive, farmed salmon flesh is dull gray.
I might not buy gray. And, fish factories
fear, neither would millions of health-con
scious consumers.
Fish farms claim the additives are es
sential for healthy fish. But the European
Union’s Scientific Committee on Animal
Nutrition disagrees: “Canthaxanthin is a
cartenoid pigment used as feed additive
for the sole purpose of colouring food. ”
The Food and Drug Administration sets
an allowable daily intake of these addi
tives. Canthaxanthins cause a buildup of
pigments in the retina, which could dam
age eyesight. In January, health concerns
prompted the European Union to cut the
color additives allowed in fish feed to less
than one-third of former levels. We still
follow the old levels.
Since 1995, the FDA has required su
permarkets to label individually packaged
salmon that had synthetic colorants. But
the food safety division of Oregon’s De
partment of Agriculture was unaware of
this requirement, The Oregonian report
ed on Thursday. And — if we give them
the benefit of the doubt — so were most
supermarkets. Now, someone’s making
the supermarkets take notice. Class-ac
tion lawsuits were filed against Kroger,
Safeway and Albertson’s last week.
Color isn’t the only concern. The pel
lets are made of wild fish taken from
countries like Chile. Canada doesn’t al
low its own fish to be ground into meal.
It’s stealing, but worse. Stanford Universi
ty researchers calculate 2.4 pounds of
wild fish are needed to produce one
pound of salmon. Fish factories are wast
ing nature’s bounty.
Fish farms pollute. Anyone who has had
a pair of goldfish knows they poop a great
deal, and they leave a lot of uneaten pellets.
What about 1 million tons of farmed salmon
worldwide, as The Seatde Times reports?
That’s a lot of raw untreated sewage.
Farmed fish are polluted. Last year, the
peer-reviewed scientific journal Ghemos
phere discovered that farmed salmon
contained 10 times as many PGBs as wild
salmon. Farmed fish also get lice. Sea lice
spread quickly in crowded fishpens, and
escape to infect wild salmon. Many
farmed salmon also escape, compete with
Pacific salmon for food and take over their
habitat. Finally, these farms devastate
fishing communities and families that
harvest salmon for a living.
Eating salmon seems like a dubious
prospect. But here are three simple rules
for consumers to follow. First, use rep
utable sources to find healthy, sustainable
seafood. For example, the Monterey Bay
Aquarium Web site lists certain seafood
to avoid. Farmed salmon is one. Second,
unless the package or menu says “WILD,”
it is farm-raised and artificially colored.
Third, spread the word. Eat wild. Don’t fall
for the dye job.
Contact the columnist
at philiphuang@dailyemeraid.com.
His opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Letter to the editor
Be kind to animals;
go vegetarian
Bravo to Joseph Bechard for his column,
“Vegetarians curb fecal conditions, immoral in
dustry” (ODE, April 22), which very accurately
described the cruelty and contempt with which
animals in the agriculture industry are treated.
Ten billion cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys,
sheep, goats and other animals are slaughtered
each year in the United States for human con
sumption. The majority of them are raised in mas
sive factory farms, usually confined in extremely
cramped stalls or cages, most never going outside.
They are routinely forced to undergo barbaric pro
cedures performed without painkillers, including
castration and the partial amputation of tails, toes
and beaks. Their abbreviated lives typically end
violently in slaughterhouses, where they are dis
membered, sometimes while still conscious.
There is a vast array of great-tasting, environ
mentally friendly foods on the market free of meat,
eggs and dairy products. By switching to a vegetar
ian diet, each one of us can practice compassion
by not contributing to the suffering of animals.
Barb Lomow
Eugene
CORRECTION
Monday’s story about
Korea Night ("Eugene
meets Korea ODE, April
28) used the wrong
word when describing
thefoodserved.lt
should have read, 'The
main course consisted
of light teriyaki chicken
or bul*go-gi, a Korean
beef dish.”
The Emerald regrets
the error.