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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, May 27,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Page Assistant
Salena De La Cruz
Editorial
Abortion
argument
develops
new twist
Laci Peterson and her unborn son
are dead. Nothing can bring them
back. Nothing can take away the pain
of those who loved them. However,
the tragedy has ended up adding more
fuel to the fire in the debate over
whether a fetus is a child.
In light of the deaths of Peterson
and her unborn child, sponsors for
the Unborn Victims of Violence Act
have renamed it “Laci and Conner’s
Law.” The act would make the mur
der or injury of an unborn fetus a sep
arate offense from the murder of a
pregnant mother, according to reports
on the Web site for the National Right
to Life. Laci Peterson’s family has en
dorsed the bill, according to The As
sociated Press.
The bill’s supporters say the act is
not to be used as an “anti-abortion”
measure. In fact, it explicitly exempts
abortions. Nonetheless, abortion
rights activists are afraid this act will
open the door to eventually overturn
ing Roe v. Wade, as they say it is one
step closer to legally classifying a fetus
as an individual with its own rights.
The bill has made it through the U.S.
House of Representatives twice but
failed to reach the Senate floor be
cause of strong opposition from abor
tion rights supporters.
Some individual states currently
have laws with higher penalties for in
juring or murdering a pregnant
woman. Oregon is not one of them.
In recent weeks, the Emerald report
ed on the anti-abortion group Survivors
and the pictures they displayed on
campus. Understandably, many people
wrote in to comment on the legality
and morality of abortion. While we
don’t necessarily want to continue that
trend, it is important that people know
and argue about this issue.
So call your federal elected officials,
write us letters about the act, and ar
gue with friends. Where does the line
begin of an individual life with its own
integral human rights, and where
does the life of the mother, with her
rights and control of her body, end?
Will adding additional penalties to
those already in place for murder de
ter anyone? How can we, as a society,
reconcile the gruesome fate of this
act’s namesakes with individual rights
for all?
The choice is yours.
Editorial policy
This editorial represents the
opinion of the Emerald edito
rial board. Responses can be
sent to letters#dailyemer
ald.com. Letters to the editor
and guest commentaries are
encouraged. Letters are limit
ed to 250 words and guest
commentaries to 550 words.
Eradicating Dane
Putumayo, Colombia. Spring is in the air, but
the farmer’s field is barren. The new pepper
vines he had planted are dead. He is a civilian
casualty of Plan Colombia, America’s newest
“war” on drugs. Few Americans know their hel
icopters and pesticides have wiped him out.
Fewer still have witnessed the devastation
themselves. Annalise Romoser is one.
Colombia is thousands of miles away from
Oregon, but the two worlds are rarely far apart
in Romoser’s heart. She grew up in Eugene, the
daughter of a teacher and a labor organizer. She
attended the University of Oregon, graduating
in 2001 with a degree in Spanish and interna
tional studies.
After graduation, work
ing for human rights was
a natural step. She first
worked for Americans for
Indian Opportunity, a
nonprofit advocacy group
in New Mexico. Direct aid
groups did not interest
her much. Instead, she
said, she wanted to effect
“sustained change” in
policy.
So Romoser joined Wit
ness for Peace, which is
active in Mexico, Cuba
and Nicaragua. But what attracted her was the
chance to work with the group in Colombia,
where she had lived for six months before start
ing college. Witness For Peace organizes two
week educational tours through Colombia. Al
most 400 visitors, from students to
Congressional staff, have gone in the past two
years. They witness what no drug czar has ever
seen. They visit places where members of the
U.S. Embassy cannot go.
That’s because Colombia is in the midst of a
four-decade civil conflict. There are guerillas on
the extreme left, paramilitary groups on the far
right. Both groups are fueled by cocaine mon
ey. The Colombian peasant is often caught in
the crossfire. Literally.
These subsistence farmers are not the bad
guys. Threatened by war and poverty, they
grow what they can. Often it’s the coca leaf that
buys peace from the men with guns. Yet they,
not their drug-dealing landlords, are the pri
mary target of our military might.
Is aerial fumigation effective? Well, yes and no.
Sure, it wipes out food crops and can kill live
stock. It displaces hundreds of farmers, adding to
the country’s one million internal refugees.
“But coca plants grow like weeds,” Romoser
said. She showed me two photographs of a field.
She took the first soon after aerial spraying.
The second photo, taken a month later, showed
stalks of bright green. Manual eradication is
Philip
Huang
A different light
Steve Baggs Emerald
preferable, she says.
Witness for Peace also opposes aid to Colom
bia’s military because of their terrible record,
including torture and other human rights vio
lations. Not all the units receiving military aid
have been “vetted” by the State Department,
Romoser points out.
Not all U.S. aid is the search-and-destroy
kind. Plan Colombia tries to promote agricul
tural alternatives to coca. Witness For Peace
also advocates on behalf peasants who grow
“legitimate” crops. The pepper farmer was one.
He had traveled all the way to Bolivia to buy
pepper plants. Those plants were destroyed
with weapons from the same country that en
couraged him to buy them.
Witness for Peace strives to achieve another
goal: promoting democracy. Romoser works with
labor leaders, who are often targets of right-wing
violence. Plan Colombia offers them bulletproof
vehicles, vests and armed guards. But such aid is
bogged in bureaucracy, and when accepted, of
ten makes them a more prominent target. One
labor activist Romoser knew was killed while
waiting to receive American protection.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our
society expects its young to achieve the Ameri
can dream through thrift, caution and ambition.
But Annalise Romoser seems to embody the
opposite values — those of generosity, courage,
and love of truth. Her example defies expecta
tions. Yet her work in Colombia will make it pos
sible for others someday to hope and dream like
we do. People in Colombia also wish to live in lib
erty and happiness, free from want and terror.
Romoser is a realist. She has no illusions that
our policies, or the civil war, will end tomorrow.
The knowledge gained, the injustices wit
nessed, the goodwill created — they will bear
fruit a generation from now.
The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote:
“Caminante no hay camino, el camino se hace
el andar.” It means, “Traveler, there is no path,
the path is made by walking.” In other words,
forget the road less traveled. There are no
roads, only travelers. And in our American
journey, we can inspire either hope or fear in
our neighbors to the south. I like the choice Ro
moser has made.
What would she say to students at her alma
mater, I ask?
“Come, see, learn,” she said. “And have an
experience that changes your life.”
Contact the columnist
at phiiiphuang@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
Online poll
Each week, the Emerald publishes the previous week’s poll results
and the coming week’s poll question. Visit wwwJailyemerald.com
to vote.
Last week: Should a fetus be recognized as an entity separate from
its mother for legal reasons?
Results: 90 total votes
Yes — 44 A percent, or 40 votes
No — 52.2 percent, or 47 votes
What is this about?— 1.1 percent, or 1 vote
Leave me alone! — 2.2 percent, or 2 votes
This week: Have you experienced harassment on the University of
Oregon campus?
Choices: Yes, because of my sexual orientation; Yes, because of my
ethnicity; Yes, because of my gender; Yes, because of my age; Yes,
other; No; Leave me alone!
CORRECTION
The cutline for the photo accompanying Friday’s story “On a peaceful
mission" should have identified University volunteer research
associate jette Foss as Frank Stahl’s partner.
The Emerald regrets the error.
Letter to the editor
Lawmakers and media spread harmful,
incomplete information
The only people more uneducated than our school children
lately seem to be our lawmakers and our media. As Eugene con
tinues to be a national leader in research, educational and social
welfare issues are being ignored.
We have growing evidence that increasing class size, closing
schools and eliminating social services is costly and damaging to a
society. Where are these studies in our media and policy making?
As our institutions instead focus on unproved theories of se
curity and well-being, including tax cuts for the rich, military
buildup and usurping retirement benefits, it’s more than our
conscience that’s lost.
Collective intellect is also missing. Our increasing knowledge of
the benefits of drug treatment along with educating, stimulating
and nourishing children is now futile. Newspapers and television
underreport this information and lawmakers refuse to abide by it.
So what’s the use of proving the benefits of nutritious meals
on learning or tobacco education? Let’s instead make counter
productive policy with unethical, “neutral” reporting about it
by leaving out the proven damage it will cause.
Mike Meyers
junior
. family and human services