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Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com Online: www.dailyemerald.com Oregon Daily Emerald COMMENTARY Editor in Chief: Brad Schmidt Managing Editor: Ian Tobias Montry Editorial Editor: Travis Willse Tuesday, December 2,2003 EDITORIAL, Major events around globe do not stop for holidays Ah, Thanksgiving weekend. Every fall, the University grants students four days off at the time in the term when a break is needed most. Students temporarily slough off the yoke of academic obligations, visit with friends and family, and revel in the giving of thanks and feasting upon holiday treats. But, away from the bustle of academic life, it's easy to lose track of the go ings-on in the world at large. So, for your convenience, the Editorial Board has com piled a list of events — some uplifting and some tragic — from Nov. 27-30 (All dates and times are Pacific Stan dard Time). Nov. 27, 6:31 a.m.: Air Force One landed at Baghdad In ternational Airport and President Bush became the first U S. president to visit the embattled nation. While the event was largely a well-orchestrated publicity stunt, the surprise holiday trip was only worth the effort if Bush gen uinely wanted to show soldiers his appreciation (as we sus pect he did). Nov. 28, early in the day: In Casar, N.C., two teenagers and an 11-year-old drove up and down an area road, up setting their friend's father, Ricky Van Mellon, an evidently angry man. Van Mellon produced a 9 mm pistol and fired three shots in a senseless act of violence, killing Jonathan Beck, 16. Nov. 28, 6 a.m.: In an absurd act of moral failure, a bar gain-crazed crowd at an Orange City, Fla. Wal-Mart tram pled Patricia VanLester who was waiting outside the store to grab a $29 DVD player. "She got pushed down," VanLester's sister said, "and they walked over her like a herd of elephants." Clearly the holiday spirit hasn't yet found its way into every American's soul. Nov. 30,2 a.m.: Massachusetts firefighter Martin McNa mara died while fighting a fire in the basement of a burn ing wood frame. While soldiers are hard at work in Iraq, McNamara's sacrifice bids us not to forget that there are civ il servants fighting for the public's safety on the home front. Nov. 30, early morning: A 17-year-old boy was shot at a San Jose, Calif, party, capping a weekend that saw five homicides in what a 2002 FBI report called the safest city in America with a population over 250,000. Nov. 30, evening: Israeli and Palestinian diplomats landed in Geneva, Switzerland for Monday's signing of the so-called "Geneva Accord." The unofficial agreement marks an important step in the peace process, and is a wel come counterpoint to recent years of dramatic violence in flicted by both sides of the conflict. Onlookers should remain skeptical, though. Not only have past similar agreements been largely impotent, but some politicians are distancing themselves from the ac cord, which calls for major concessions on both sides. In less time-specific news, Lynn Wagner of Reedsville, Pa., finished his months-long project of cashing in more than 1 million pennies (more than $10,000) he'd saved in 37 4 1/2-gallon buckets. With the help of family, friends, and even strangers, Wagner's feat reminds us in a stressful time that even the smallest differences can add up in a big way. 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. SPORTS FAN ON STRIKE Legally, I'm not allowed to in cite people into illegal action in a newspaper article But legal is sues have never stopped me in the past so to heck with it! I'm doing it anyway. Sports fans of the world, unite! It's time we took to the streets, started riots! Or, at the very least, we need to go on strike. I'm completely serious about this. When they ask me why 1 started the revolution, I'll just blame my mother. See, after stuffing myself with stuffing this past weekend in Seattle, my father and 1 decided to indulge in a SuperSonics game. I wanted to catch up with my boy Luke Ridnour (I like to pretend we're best friends as I yell at him from seats so high the/re actually above the score board), and my father wanted to see this year's Sonics dancers. (Just kidding, Mom! I love you guys! Buy me lots of Christmas presents!) So anyway, when we got home, we had the inevitable "How was the game?" talk with my mother. We told her about the $25 tickets that were up in the rafters and how the players looked like green-and-yellow bees buzzing around their cen ter-court hive. And we told her that anything closer would have cost us the mortgage on our house and three healthy chil dren to do manual labor around Key Arena. And we told her that a single beer at the game cost as much as a case of Safe way-bought Heineken. We told her these thing;, and she asked a curious follow-up question. She asked how much Luke Ridnour, an NBA rookie, gets paid per year. We told her somewhere in the neighbor hood of $2 million. She went off on the typical motherly tan gent of "Whatever happened to the good ol' days when players played for love of the game and got paid pennies?" Just imagine if we'd told her how much Alex Rodriguez makes. Anyway, we gave the sports fan response, explaining that the high contracts are a product of the system, that if fans didn't go to games and buy merchandise, players wouldn't have money coming out the trunks of their Land Rovers. I think my dad big Game T6DAV SPORTS FAVjL STRIKE^ 1 DAY jjfe # * * 8^v ***> Steve Baggs Illustrator even tried to explain free agency at one point. So my Mom, be ing the rational being she is, asked a very ra tional question. "So why don't all the fans go on strike?" My Dad and I sat there, dumb rounded. She contin ued: "I mean, if the only way to stop the salaries going higher is to stop the flow of money, just don't spend any, right?" I couldn't believe my ears. My mother was actually right about something to do with sports. We, the sports fans, should protest. Blazers fans, I'm talking to you. No more players who be long behind bars instead of in them. No more parking that costs as much as a bottle of wine and tickets worth the whole vineyard. No more hot dogs so expensive you expert them to come on a gold-plated bun. Sports, as entertainment, is a product. The only real way to re move a defective product from a capitalist marketplace is to stop consuming it. Right here; right now, I'm call ing a National Sports Fan Strike Day. Let's say ... Dec. 25. Oh wait, there're no sports that day. OK, how about today? Dec. 2 shall heretofore be known as National Sports Fan Strike Day. Yes, I did just use the word "heretofore," and yes, I do have the power to decide these things. In my mind. Can't you just imagine a Sports Fan Strike Day? No traf fic by the Rose Garden, stadi ums emptier than Damon Stoudamire's head. Would Rasheed Wallace still argue with the refs? Would Terrell Owens still pull pens out of his socks? Would Mark Messier smile? Would George Stein brenner laugh? Of course, National Sports Fan Strike Day wouldn't apply to college sports. I mean, cer tainly, college sports remain un tainted. A college football arena wouldn't have luxury suites or gourmet food stands. A college athletics program wouldn't spend millions of dollars on seemingly frivolous endeavors like erecting a building-sized billboard in a far-away metropo lis ... Wait a minute... Nope, I don't want to go there. Oregon is in a severely flawed arms race, and that's a different column entirely, but an Oregon game is nowhere near as fan-unfriendly as pro sports are these days. While the Ducks want more fans, the Sonics are practically discouraging fans with high ticket prices. The only "fans" who can afford to sit near the Key Arena court are either re ally rich or got the seats through a corporate license. These "fans" would rather talk on their cell phones than clap for Luke Rid nour. Professional teams are pricing the average fan right out of fanaticism. So, students, enjoy your free tickets while you still have them. Remember that, starting next year, Dec. 2 is National Sports Fan Strike Day. Tell your friends. Aaid if it's just me out there at the Rose Garden, carrying my sign and yelling "Scabs!" at all the incoming fans, that's OK. If that's $25 that doesn't go toward 'Sheed's contract, I'll be a happy man. Oh, and one last thing. Go 49ers. Contact the columnist at peterhockaday @dailyemerald.com. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. warn.—s Peter Hockaday Today is Hockaday PETA has respectable motives This letter is in response to the article "Pre posterous PETA" (ODE, Nov. 14). Early in the article, Travis Willse provides insight into the tragic workings of a culture that has pro duced countless atrocities, of which animal research is only one It is easy (and convenient) to assume — when one is in a position of cultural power — that medical research does in fact increase human welfare. Of course, the opposite is true (as is evidenced by the ever-increasing levels of disease, violence, famine, psycho logical trauma and emotional isolation that have become the modem human experi ence, as well as the abusive and manipula tive use of medical technologies in the glob al South, despite the dedicated science of the monolithic medical research industry), and animal research epitomizes the sorrowful re sults of such assumptions. But that is not what worries me most. Travis' inability to enter into a meaningful and equally rewarding relationship with a subjective and alive nonhuman other (Friskie) is more than symbolic of the fun damental basis of hierarchical and oppres sive power dynamics that have shaped our cultural history. The tendency to degrade the value of others' lives by those who commit, participate in or approve of atrocities has fa cilitated the pervasive expansion of an ide ology of domination and control that has had as its victims nearly every indigenous culture, landbase and nonhuman species. Friskie's life is only Travis' to use when he reduces her to something less than alive and sentient. The same holds true for the victims of slavery, genocide, rape, dear-cutting and factory farming. The truth is, Travis, that you are not more worthy of life than Friskie, you just have power. Sdence and industry have thus far only managed to increase rates of cancer, depres sion, and other illnesses to unfathomable levels. Further research, further control of life, can only worsen this situation — how ever unlikely that may seem to those of us who, in some ways, benefit. If we wish to in crease human happiness, and simultane ously address the atrocities of our culture, we must abandon our attempts to control and dominate, and begin to acknowledge the beauty of meaningful, respectful relation ships; we must return to a life of engaged di rect experience with the natural world. While PETA's actions may seem indefen sible at times, at least they are trying to for mulate a response to one type of atrocity. They are making a first step to recognizing life where so much of our culture only sees tools for human utility. Sean Prive lives in Eugene. . . . .
