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Oregon Daily Emerald —
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
EDITOR! At
Students have
many common
opportunities
to appreciate
Like every year, the University has carved out a short va
cation — the Thanksgiving holiday — for students, start
ing Thursday. Most of us will get in a car or bus or train or
plane and brave traffic (ground or air) for a four-day week
end to kick back, spend time with family or friends, feast
upon the great autumnal cornucopia and (hopefully) not
whittle away all of it doing homework.
But, wherever our long weekend takes us and however
we choose to spend it, we shouldn't forget that we all — re
gardless of backgrounds, creeds or political beliefs — have
many common things to be thankful for.
Most readers of this editorial are likely college students,
but that is by no means the norm. While more than half of
American high school graduates enroll in colleges of some
kind, only a small percentage of people worldwide enjoy
the many potent benefits of participating in higher educa
tion. Though we might sometimes lament the drudgery of
homework, midterms and finals, at the end of the day we
should be thankful for the opportunity to extend our edu
cation because, after all, knowledge is power.
Likewise, we should appreciate the blessings of living
in America. Not only do most Americans rarely worry
about having enough to eat or how warm they'll be at
night, but we also enjoy more robust civil liberties than
most people around the world and throughout history
ever have. While being thankful for these benefits, how
ever, we should at the same time remember that many
people do not enjoy them — even in this nation, many
will go hungry on Thanksgiving.
Reflection alone, however, will not spare these problems;
accordingly, it is important to fight hunger, disease and
poverty within our borders and abroad.
I here are, on a lighter note, many other things for which
we can give thanks this holiday season.
We should give thanks that the Ducks could remind
Beaver fans of our school's obvious superiority at this week
end's Civil War game. We should give further thanks that
the vast majority of attendees at the Civil War (but regret
tably not all) chose not to dress up as one-man Dadaist art
show Michael Jackson.
Also, we should appreciate having at least one day guar
anteed to be free ofTop Ramen lunches, Kraft dinners, and
Go-gurt desserts.
And finally, not that anyone reading this will forget, we
should all give thanks for the upcoming four days of vaca
tion — or five days, if your rocking professors give you
Wednesday off. We also give thanks that while we're all pre
sumptuously planning to do all our prep work for finals
and bigend-of-term projects, we obviously won't.
> I TO RIAL POLICY
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald
editorial board. Responses can be sent to letters
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commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited
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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
ATTACKED BY FAME
Hey, kiddies! Wanna get famous? Just
get your arm bitten off by a massive
I lawaiian shark!
Ask Bethany Hamilton. The teenage
surfer got her left arm bitten off by a 15
foot tiger shark on I Jalloween, and now
she's more famous than Elvis! She's 13
and she's from Hawaii, but she's been on
talk shows and news programs from
New York to Los Angeles. There's a
Bethany book in the works. She's think
ing about launching a clothing line.
So will all the shirts have only one
sleeve?
I'm sorry, that was a really insensitive
joke. And I don't mean to be insensitive
about the situation as a whole, but it's
sort of a sad statement about our society.
In our stop-to-watch-the-car-crash cul
ture, it's easier to shed a tear for a shark
attack victim than to think about, say, the
fact that 290 American soldiers (as of
press time) have died in Iraq since Oper
ation Iraqi Freedom "ended" on May 1.
You've probably heard Hamilton's sto
ry. Before the attack she was one of the
youngest pro surfers on the scene and
was sponsored by Rip Curl. On the
morning of Oct. 31, she hit the Kauai
North Shore waves with a few friends.
The attack itself lasted three seconds.
1 lamilton's friends took her to shore and
used a surfboard leash as a tourniquet. At
the hospital, a man was about to go in
for knee surgery but gave up his bed for
Peter Hockaday
Today is Hockaday
the 13-year-old. That man was Bethany's
father, Tom Hamilton.
It's a fascinating story, to be sure. And
Hamilton has handled the media crush
with the poise of a 33-year-old, not a
scrub-faced teenager. She told The Associ
ated Press the attack was "God's plan for
my life, and I'm going to go with it." If I got
my arm bitten off by a shark, I'd be using
stronger words. And most of them would
be four letters long.
But at the same time, she and her family
are handling it like a farmer with his hands
on the udders. They're milking it. The fam
ily hired a Los Angeles-based entertain
ment agent to help handle the media blitz.
Besides the book and clothing line, Hamil
ton is scheduled for speaking appearances
and there's even a reality show brewing.
"Joe Disability"?
Again, I'm sorry. That's the last bad joke.
Promise.
I understand she needs some money.
Her family has medical insurance, but it
won't cover things like new prosthetic
arms for the growing girl. So, to a certain
extent, the media assault has a purpose.
But a reality show? A clothing line? And
on top of that, Hamilton has also bene
fited from several fund-raisers. A fund
raiser on Kauai raised $70,000 on Nov.
15, and on Saturday, Rip Curl will auc
tion off 16 signed surfboards to raise
even more money.
Not to mention that Hamilton was a
top pro surfer before the bite and will like
ly remain at the top using a prosthetic.
Sorry, but shouldn't we be raising mon
ey for people who really need it? Like, say,
the 8.8 million unemployed people in this
country? The 8.8 million people who
don't surf for a living and aren't given SUV
sized checks every weekend?
What happened to Hamilton was a
tragedy. But that's how it should be treat
ed. I shouldn't be able to make donations,
using PayPal, on her Web site. 1 shouldn't
have to watch her being treated like a
celebrity on Leno and Letterman.
That's my slant and I'm sticking to it.
Until, of course, 1 get my arm bitten off by
a shark and I become famous. In America,
that's how easy it is.
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Don't disregard practical speech
Yolanda King's speech was quoted
("King inspires, shares dream with Eu
gene," ODE, Oct. 23) saying, "'Because
Rose Parks chose to stand up that day by
remaining seated, she started a move
ment,"' a "movement that had far-reaching
effects for Americans" where those who
give lip service to racial equality are expect
"to walk the walk.'" To stand up and start a
walking movement by sitting down is a
kind of metaphysical acrobatics worthy of
a speech in Eugene. MLK took as a watch
word for the cause Rosa Parks' statement,
"1 was tired," applying it to how blacks felt
in general.
The article recounts, "The city renamed
Centennial Boulevard as Martin Luther
King jr. Boulevard after extensive public
debate on the change." We could have
used more debate on the renaming. It
could run afoul of the courts. MLK's father
visiting Germany was so impressed by the
church reformer Martin Luther that he
changed his name and his son's name to
Martin Luther King. The erosion of sym
bols with religious overtones will likely get
to church reformers and someone will
need a test case. Eugene provides one
ready made as our Martin Luther King Jr.
Boulevard comes right up to the shadow
of the erstwhile cross on Skinner's Butte,
which although was voted by the citizens
of Eugene a war memorial, the courts de
cided was a religious symbol and had to
come down.
__ If we have to
n U WT change the
name of Martin
COMMENTARY Luther King Jr.
-—- Boulevard,
every road in
the nation named for King will have to fol
low suit, and Eugene will get a reputation
of being either the most racist city in the
nation or the stupidest. We bum crosses by
removing them.
In his "Letter From Birmingham Jail,"
King responded to the criticism of his
breaking the law by saying he was in fa
vor of the law promoting school
integration, which a lot of people were
not following, and he was willing to
obey just laws but not the unjust ones.
He admits, though, that breaking the law
is a strange way to promote the law. Well,
the autobiography of Lionel "Hamp"
Hampton has brought out the behind
the-scenes manipulation by President
Eisenhower at the behest of the NAACP,
of the Supreme Court in that ruling
against segregation.
So let's see. Desegregation was the just
law King was following as opposed to un
just ones, but even Eisenhower admits he
pressured the Court in a way he was not
supposed to, and the NAACP who did the
behind-the-scenes number now wants to
honor King, who thought it strange to
break laws to promote them. 1 know that
living in Eugene means that not everything
we do has to make sense, but give me a
metaphysical cross on the hill or seat on
the bus any day.
1 vaguely remember a country song, "1
don't care if it rains or freezes / 'Long as 1
got my plastic Jesus / On the dashboard
of my car.'' Do we disregard practical
ways to please God and relate to our fel
low man, where the rubber meets the
road, just because we have a plastic Jesus
on the dashboard and a King's name on
a road sign?
Earl Gosnell lives in Eugene.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Voter pamphlet is necessary
for low-income individuals
The 2004 election will be the 100th
anniversary of the Oregon Voter Pam
phlet being published and provided for
all eligible voters. The $1.2 million pub
lication cost, which was previously pro
vided by taxes, has first lost funding and
second lost support to become self-sus
taining through boosted fees on parties
and candidates.
While the Internet will have a free Web
site available with the voter pamphlet, all
those without Internet access are simply
out of luck. While national average of In
ternet usage has increased, minorities
and senior citizens will be among those
representing declines in Internet usage.
Those voices of lower income families,
minorities and senior citizens will be
muffled as Internet access stigmatizes the
right to equal representation through ed
ucated voting. As one of the trailer states
in economic stability, and in light of the
S800 tax increase due to be on the next
ballot, Oregon of all states needs to have
this resource because the working and
lower classes need to be heard as tax re
form continues.
If voter turnout decreases, which is in
evitable, our already consumer-oriented
society will hear merely those voters who
are able to pay the Internet bill every
month. Those citizens affected most by
tax cuts and increases will have the least
input on issues that affect them more
than comfortable, high-income families.
The Internet is not an essential require
ment for citizenship, last I checked.
Maybe the University could donate the
necessary funding from the pool of $90
million to $130 million headed for the
new basketball arena.
Nicholas Wilbur
sophomore
pre-Journalism
A reminder for smokers
This is just a little reminder to all of the
students on campus who smoke. There is
a reason why there is a ban on smoking 10
feet from a building entrance, and it is not
so that you can smoke 11 feet from a build
ing entrance.
Will Backner
junior
psychology