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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, October 27,2003
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EDITORIAL
Boxcutter
placement
misguided,
benign act
In mid-September, Nathaniel Heatwole sent an e-mail
he will never forget. The 20-year-old student — a political
science and physics major at Guilford College in Greens
boro, N.C. — dropped the note to the Transportation Se
curity Administration, letting them know that he had
planted box cutters and other items aboard Southwest
Airlines jetliners, according to an FBI affidavit.
Now, such a message should attract at least some im
mediate attention. But, the first response from any level
of government came weeks later: Only on Oct. 20 did fed
eral authorities charge Heatwole with carrying a con
cealed weapon aboard an aircraft — a felony.
Critics like U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio, who called
Heatwole's actions "foolish* in an interview with CNN,
blasted him for needlessly endangering others. Heatwole
and his supporters have denied his wrongdoing, charac
terizing his actions as justifiable — if not responsible —
civil disobedience.
The last time an act of "civil disobedience" hit the na
tional news was when misguided, self-styled "human
shields" traveled to Iraq and camped out around strate
gic targets in an effort to deter U.S.-led coalition bomb
ing, implicitly threatening the government with severely
negative media attention for (inadvertently) killing Amer
ican civilians in the attacks.
But these claims make the present a good time to re
view what legitimate civil disobedience actually entails.
Civil disobedience does not include exposing others to
undue harm. Heatwole claimed in his affidavit that stow
ing in airplane lavatories the same kind of weapons used by
the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was "an art of
civil disobedience with the aim of improving public safety
for the air-traveling public." While an otherwise merely dis
gruntled passenger likely wouldn't be nudged into an im
promptu hijacking of a plane just because he or she found a
knife in the mile-high bathroom, such a passenger could
use the weapon to rather dramatically infringe on a fellow
passenger's life, liberty or happiness while granting the vic
tim (obviously) little opportunity for escape.
While Heatwole's ends don't justify his means, his ac
tions have drawn the media's spodight to the difficulty of
filtering the countless suitcases, duffel and messenger
bags, purses, wallets, compacts and keychains that make
their way dirough now federally managed airport security
checkpoints. Moreover, they illuminate just how far the
TSA is from totally protecting the modem air traveler in
American airspace.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Virginia, echoed these grave sentiments
in a letter to TSA chief James Loy: "Despite significant seizures
of prohibited items from passengers going through TSA se
curity checkpoints, this week's events highlight possible weak
nesses in the system which need to be addressed."
Heatwole's point about America's difficult adjustment to
burgeoning threats to the civilian flier may have been illus
trative and illuminating, but it was also illicit, illegal and ill
conceived. In any case, his acts were clearly not malicious, and
thus is likely no further material threat to society. Accordingly,
should he be convicted, the government should not incarcer
ate him. Rather, we propose that he be sentenced to tag along
with an airport security checkpoint team for a week.
Perhaps sorting through piles of dirty laundry, holey socks
and other unmentionables isn't as easy as it looks.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Brad Schmidt
Editor in Chief
Jan Tobias Montry
Managing Editor
Aimee Rudin
Freelance Editor
Ayisha Yahya
News Editor
Travis Willse
Editorial Editor
* *' #V ••••••• **
4"i>cOT^
Tt> fcATC...
Steve Baggs Illustrator
Time well spent
Rumor has it that it takes two to tango,
three to make a crowd and a village to raise a
child. I am convinced it takes just one bu
reaucrat to ruin a perfectly wonderful idea.
Take, for example, Daylight Saving
Time. It's not a bad idea; it's a good idea
poorly implemented.
We probably owe our changing clocks to
that venerable old fellow Ben Franklin. The
idea of changing the clocks to take advan
tage of the changes in sunrise and sunset ap
pealed to his frugal nature — that is, the
more natural light you have available, the
fewer candles you will bum. Of course, dear
Ben suggested that church bells — and, as
necessary, cannon fire — be used to inform
the citizenry of sunrise. He posited that if
you "oblige a man to rise at four in the
morning... it is more than probable he will
go willingly to bed at eight in the evening."
He obviously never met undergrads.
Saving daylight hours and the correspon
ding resources is a perfecdy reasonable idea,
particularly when it means that every year
each and every one of us gets issued an extra
hour for our very own. The problem is that
some narrow-minded bureaucrat decided
that it would be better for all of us if we took
our extra hour at the same time and on the
same night. Then they made it worse by
placing our extra hour in the wee small
hours of the night.
After pondering, 1 came up with just three
things I could do with an extra hour between
1 a.m. and 2 a.m.: sleep, have sex, or watch
two extra episodes of Mister Ed on late-night
television. It's not that these are particularly
bad choices, it's just that there would be so
much more scope for the imagination if we
structured this time business differendy.
Imagine, for example, having an extra
hour at lunchtime Wouldn't that be a nice
place to start? Instead of bed or television,
you would now have a wealth of options:
food, errands, manicures, oil changes, the
gym, et cetera. All the places that are stub
bornly closed for business at 2 a.m. would
now be open and available for you to pa
tronize during your extra hour. We might
even be able to stimulate a flagging econo
my this way!
If not lunchtime, how about an extra
hour in the evening? Families could have
more quality time, and I'd love to be able to
Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson
Huh? What? Really.
come home after a long day of school and
finally be able to watch a rerun ofBufly the
Vampire Slayer without thinking that 1
should really be doing my reading for the
next day. In this case, an extra hour in the
evening wouldn't really change my habits,
but it would relieve a lot of guilt.
By far my favorite idea is to have each of
us issued our very own extra hour to use
when we like, how we like. Those of us with
punctuality problems could take it in 12
five-minute increments. Finally, we'd know
what it feels like to arrive on time Perpetual
procrastinators could save theirs to take right
before a major term paper is due Of course,
those rare souls without time management
problems might feel at a disadvantage but I
propose we allow them to save their hours
up. After just two and a half decades, they
could have an entire extra day!
I see just two problems with this more
flexible approach. First, we'd have to create
the GTAO — General Time Accounting Of
fice — to keep track of everyone's hours. Af
ter all, there would be some unethical folks
out there who would try to take more than
their allotted hour. And given our free mar
ket society, I can easily see a day where peo
ple trade their extra hour for economic gainT
So, the GTAO would probably require us to
fill out time forms to document when,
where, and how we spent our time. Rules1
would be implemented to govern the hows
and whys of our extra time to keep people
from investing in time shelters. Eventually,
the Time Code would rival the Tax Code and
we'd spend three hours trying to document
how we spent our extra hour.
The second problem is spring. You see,
while we are issued an extra hour in Octo
ber, it's more of a loan than a gift and, come
April, we're supposed to give it back. That
would seem to be a formidable problem.
The solution, however, is simple: deficit
spending. The current administration has
convinced me that deficit spending is the
only way to go. Balanced budgets are the
hobgoblin of little minds and Democrats.
So, between now and next October, I urge
you all to consider when, where and how our
extra hours should be spent. Me? I'm going to
go nap. I was up late watching Mister Ed.
Contact the columnist at
jessicacolehodgkinson@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
ONLINE POLL
Each week, the Emerald
publishes the results of the
previous week’s poll and the
coming week’s poll question.
Visit
http://www.dailyemerald.com
to vote.
Last question: What
happened to the University
of Oregon’s alternative
mascot, Mandrake?
Results: 52 votes
Flew south for the winter, along
with the football team’s talent:
52.0 percent or 27 votes.
Waiting in Phil Knight’s freezer
for Thanksgiving dinner: 19.2
percent or 10 votes.
Kidnapped by OSU mascot
Benny the Beaver: 9.6
percent or five votes.
Took a year off to run for
California governor: 9.6
percent or five votes.
Went to a party with one of
the football players and is
still walking home: 9.6
percent or five votes.
This week: Do you support th
distribution of free condoms ir
the residence halls?
Choices: No, students will
abuse the privilege; No, if
you can’t handle asking for
condoms at the University
Health Center, you shouldn’t
be having sex; Yes, it will
increase my chances of
getting laid; Yes, it will
e prevent disease and
i overpopulation; Maybe, will
this increase my chances of
getting laid?