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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
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Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Ian Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Quacks
& smacks
Quacks to the Oregon football team for toppling the
Stanford Cardinal on Saturday. Not only did the Ducks
break a three-game losing streak and jump back above
the .600 mark, they also shut out a Pac-10 opponent for
the first time in more than a decade.
Smacks to the United States government for cozying
up to Saudi Arabia. The nation may be more diplomati
cally palatable than Hussein's Iraq was, but the Saudi
government's miserable human rights record should
draw more fire from American politicians.
Quacks to the disappearance of the ill-conceived (ill
hatched?) alternate Oregon mascot, Mandrake. We don't
care whether he's buried underneath Autzen Stadium or
off in an unbridled love tryst with Benny the Beaver, but
we do care that his grotesque, distorted grin and waves
of Spandex are no longer attached to the University in
the public mind.
Smacks to proposed federal legislation that would
fine universities for increasing tuition by too much. We
dislike massive tuition hikes more than anyone else, but
if the federal government snatches money from colleges,
students will ultimately be the ones who pay the price.
Quacks to the University Bookstore's Duck Stop cof
fee kiosk for collecting tips that will be given to the HIV
Alliance. A single coffee tip might not make much of a
difference, but last year's tips (handed off to the Volun
teers in Medicine Clinic) topped $5,000.
Smacks to overzealous preachers for crass displays in
the EMU Amphitheater. Of course, they're welcome to
express whatever they'd like within the bounds of con
stitutionality, but a protester claiming that "sports nut's
(sic)" and Mormons make him sick only spreads ani
mosity while adding little if anything to the realm of
public debate.
Quacks to the Florida Marlins for overcoming under
dog odds through the division series and World Series to
become the 2003 Major League Baseball champions, de
feating the powerhouse New York Yankees in the process.
Smacks to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for interfering
with the family feud surrounding the possibility of end
ing Terri Schiavo's life. Schiavo's husband, Michael, had
doctors remove the vegetative woman's feeding tube
from her mouth, but her family contested the move, and
Bush ratified a hastily passed bill that had the tube rein
serted. There's room for debate about medical ethics, but
rashly drafted and ill-considered legislation shouldn't be
a part of that discussion.
Quacks to the General Services Administration for agree
ing to change plans for Eugene's planned Federal Building
to include a building-front wheelchair ramp. While the
original plans were legal — and arguably more aesthetic —
a ramp that allows easy access to key parts of the court
house for disabled community members will make a more
powerful statement about the core values of our society
than a slightly differently shaped building front.
And finally, quacks to the Lane Transit District bus
driver who takes trash from Safeway to a recycling sta
tion, making the world a greener place. If more people
were as proactive as he is, Americans wouldn't need to
go through nearly as much preconsumer content.
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
Brad Schmidt
Editor in Chief
Jan Tobias Montry
Managing Editor
Aimee Rudin
Freelance Editor
Ayisha Yahya
News Editor
Travis Willse
Editorial Editor
Money
not well
spent
I love to watch money flush down the toi
let — especially when it's that new, pretty,
multicolored money.
That's why I'm so jealous of the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing. The people there get
to see it happen a lot these days.
To educate the public about the new
$20, $50 and $ 100 bills and their security
features, the agency has launched a $53
million advertising, public awareness and
education campaign.
For the next five years, BEP will dump
roughly $28 million into advertising pur
chases in order to increase awareness of the
bills' security features and to discourage po
tential counterfeiters.
With their fresh-from-the-salon look, the
bills will receive the type of publicity that
many celebrities and product manufacturers
can only dream of. And this product doesn't
have any real competition.
To do the marketing work, the BEP hired
public relations titan Burson-Marsteller. This
firm, a division of WPP Group, has received
a good deal of notoriety as the company
charged with cleaning up the reviled reputa
tions of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agree
ment Big Tobacco, energy companies,
biotech firms and the like.
Aiding Burson-Marsteller in getting out
the news of the new bills are the product
placement whizzes at Omnicom's Davie
Brown Entertainment and the world's largest
talent managers: The William Morris Agency.
Together, these firms have worked quite
diligently to get the ugly little bills featured
in an eclectic jumble of our ever-weirden
ing culture.
ABC Unlimited, a property of the Walt
Disney Company, scored a sweet deal. The
new $20 bill has been a feature on "Wheel
of Fortune," "Live with Regis and Kelly,"
"America's Funniest Home Videos," "Who
Wants to be a Millionaire," "Monday Night
Football," ESPN's college football programs
$55 Million
TAX PAYER
A® CAMPAIGN
R.M MOWEY
L fc<AHT7/
tiuSS wiLt
DO WOMbCRS
Steve Baggs Illustrator
and an extensive list of other ABC shows
and stations.
Pepperidge Farms has a sweepstakes in
which you can win millions with specially
marked packages of its Goldfish crackers —
the crackers themselves are colored to match
the new notes.
Wal-Mart will do a public service ad
dress on their in-house satellite TV net
.drffc,;
Joe Bechard
Cultural obstetrician
work, posters will feature the new bills in
subways, and a huge billboard in New
York's Times Square will advertise the new,
wallet-sized eyesores.
The three firms have also pitched ideas to
the hot propagandists dramas on prime
time television. '"The West Wing," "Law &
Order" and "CSI: Miami" have all been ap
proached to help with the campaign. Look
how valuable they've been with promoting
fear and the war on terrorism; maybe they
can help us scare away counterfeiters.
Luckily, most of the media hype is com
ing with the initial launch campaign, but the
new 50s and 100s — to be released in 2004
and 2005 respectively — will still be fol
lowed by some buzz.
In response to this frivolous spending,
Congressman Ernest Istook, R-Okla„ chair
man of the U.S. House Appropriations Sub
committee on Transportation and Treasury,
called the publicity campaign a "waste of
taxpayers' money.”
According to a press release from Is
took's office, the BEP operates on a re
volving fund generated from funds it re
ceives for manufacturing products and
performing services. Whatever money
the agency doesn't spend should be sent
to the Treasury's general fund.
"Every dollar wasted on this ad campaign
is a dollar that does not go to the Treasury
and doesn't help us reduce the deficit.
Maybe introducing the new currency isn't
free, but it shouldn't cost $53 million," Is
took stated in the release.
The slogan of the ad campaign goes:
"The New Color of Money: Safer. Smarter.
More secure."
It sure would be nice if they'd talk about
our tax dollars like that.
Contact the columnist
at joebechard@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Students must speak against cuts
GUEST
COMMENTARY
I would like to thank A. Sho Ikeda
("Funding reduced by $ 15 million for Uni
versity," ODE, Oct. 21) for bringing atten
tion to the un
_ fortunate and
dire state of
funding for pub
lic higher educa
tion in Oregon.
Amazingly, tu
ition and fees for Oregon in-state under
graduates surged 15.7 percent from the
2002-03 academic school year to the 2003
04 year. For out-of-state undergraduates, the
rise was 6.89 percent (Taken from "Estimat
ed Expenses — Cost of Attendance" at
http://financialaid.uoregon.edu.)
In a September statement from the Office
of the Chancellor at Oregon University Sys
terns, the president of the State Board of High
er Education remarked: "The growing share
of college costs that students are bearing
should be a major concern to all Oregonians.
In 1999-2001, students and the state split the
cost almost 50-50... for 2003-05, students are
covering 64 percent of the cost of education."
(http://www.ous.edu/news/ press/091903).
Say what? Last 1 checked, the idea of pub
lic education was that it was publicly fund
ed, but the reality is that the majority of the
burden is now on students. Now, the stu
dent community may have to brace again
for another hike
In Ikeda's article, Vice President for Acade
mic Affairs Lorraine Davis said that the ad
ministration will explore "all possibilities"
in dealing with budget shortfalls. Praytell,
Ms. Davis, does "all possibilities" mean deal
ing with outdated facilities and buildings?
Higher student-faculty ratios? Smaller or ab
sent pay increases for deserving faculty, staff
and graduate teaching fellows that work so
hard to give us a quality education? Does
this mean another tuition surcharge? An
other tuition increase of nearly 16 percent? If
"all possibilities" includes any of these op
tions, I can resolutely say that I, and many of
my fellow students, will be paying more
money for a poorer-quality education.
I implore my fellow students to become
involved in resisting tuition hikes. Galvanize
your disdain for budget shortfalls and speak
up; after all, it's our money running this
place. Our voices must count for something
because money talks.
Bliss Newton is a senior studying
sociology, women’s and gender studies
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Country, religion can be
criticized separately
Libby Bottero, Sol Hart and Matthew
Peltz, whose letters to the editor were
published Oct. 21, have confused a car
toon critique of Bush's support for Ariel
Sharon's murderous policies and reli
gious fundamentalism with anti-Semi
tism. Many Jews, and indeed many Is
raelis, are appalled by Sharon's blatant
statements (and according policies) to
incorporate the Occupied Palestinian
Territories into Israel, no matter the cost.
Far from hinting at a worldwide Jew
ish conspiracy, Baggs is commenting on
the fact that Bush cannot criticize Israel's
inflammatory military tactics because of
their similarity to his own tactics in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Opposing the
"anti-terrorist" policies of the United
States and Israel (especially as these two
states kill more people than the terrorists
they are fighting) does not amount to
anti-Semitism. Under this logic, any po
litical criticism of Bush, who is Christian
and leads a mostly Christian country,
would be anti-Christian. Criticizing the
leader of a country does not equate criti
cizing the religion of that country, even
if that country's chosen political symbol
is the same as its religious symbol.
Furthermore, the notion Peltz pro
motes — that you should only write
about a conflict if you have visited the
area and speak the language — is idiotic.
With so much of our tax money going to
Israel, Americans deserve to have an
opinion on its use.
Casually throwing around the word
"anti-Semitism" ultimately devalues its
meaning for when we use it for someone
like Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, who really deserves the label.
Jackie Prange
senior
biolog/ and political science