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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
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Tuesday, January 13,2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EDITORIAL.
Registration
deadline is
impending
for voters
In recent weeks, ASUO has cranked up its perennial voter
registration drive in preparation for the upcoming Feb. 3 spe
dal election, wherein voters will decide whether to approve
tax hikes that supporters say are essential to state services.
And the Emerald Editorial Board, with the maintenance of
your civil responsibilities and empowerment in mind, is re
minding you that today is your last day to register to vote in
that election.
Measure 30 is a complicated creature with a hefty price tag
— the measure seeks to collect some $800 million through
various tax increases. The proposed temporary tax changes in
dude a graduated income tax surcharge that will be added to
2003-04 tax liabilities, the rate of which scales with income
Single filers making less than $ 10,000 annually will pay no
additional money; those making over $ 120,000 will see a 9
percent increase in their state taxes this year. According to the
Oregon secretary of state's Web site at http://www.ore
gonvotes.org, a family earning $41,000 would pay an addi
tional $36 in income taxes this year.
Opponents of the bill say that tax increases like Measure
30's are unfair and fly in the face of popular sentiment:
"There were a lot of governors (from various states
who) were turning to taxes when that's not the prob
lem," Citizens for a Sound Economy spokeswoman
Brenna Hapes said in an Oregonian interview. "People
don't want you to raise their taxes. They want you to start
spending their money more efficiently."
But the measure's proponents argue, the various costs are
not only worth it but are quite essential to maintain "certain
levels of service in public education, senior services, public
safety and other areas, and to avoid budget cuts."
The election is important for many reasons: Most imme
diately, ifvoters reject the measure, the state would see $544.6
million in budget cuts for the 2003-05 biennium, as mandat
ed by existing law, including $14.3 million in higher educa
tion cuts (which, in turn, includes about $2 million at the
University alone).
More broadly, this measure is nationally posed to act as a
referendum on the expansion of state taxation, not to men
tion the anti-tax movement. Some similar efforts in recent
memory have failed, including February 2003's Measure 28,
which was rejected by 55 percent of the voters, and a $ 1.2 bil
lion increase proposed in Alabama last year, which failed by a
2-1 margin.
No matter how you come down on this issue, the im
portant thing is that you register and vote. The Oregon Uni
versity System has about 82,000 students. The state com
munity college system has thousands more.
Across-the-board student voting mobilization would no
doubt draw more of Salem's attention to student voters,
granting even more lobbying and legislative power to a
group that traditionally hasn't taken advantage of its num
bers in the political realm.
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
Travis Wiilse
Editorial Editor
Jennifer Sudick
Freelance Editor
Ayisha Yahya
News Editor
It was P.T. Bamum who said, "There's a
sucker bom every minute." Lately I've been
throwing off the curve, because I'm just a
sucker every minute
When I see a Hummer H2 climbing over
a mountain on my television screen, I want
to drive that H2. Now. While eating a Grilled
Stuft Burrito and screaming, "Can you hear
me now?" into my cell phone Is that bad?
Is it bad that I stand in the shampoo aisle
and buy Suave for Men solely because their
commercials challenge my manhood
("You're not a woman, don't use a woman's
shampoo.")? Or that when I empty my beer
glass at a bar I tell my friends, "I can't taste
my beer!" just like that stupid-funny Miller
Lite commercial?
We're coming up on the shiniest jewel in
the advertising crown, the Super Bowl, and it
suddenly struck me today how many of
those commercials will be targeted directly
at me. I'm young, I'm impressionable and I
watch too much television.
And most of all, I have an odd, sick crav
ing for name-brand products. Given a
choice between generic detergent and Tide
at the grocery store, I'll take the Tide 18 times
out of 19. Maybe it goes back to high school
when I never wore North Face and my
generic fleece just didn't cut it. Now I'm
making up for it. I'm cool, really! I buy
Cheerios instead of the generic O's! I'm hip!
Of course, this is exactly what
Peter Hockaday
Today is Hockaday
Weiden+Kennedy want me to think. The
Portland-based advertising agency, which
creates campaigns for Miller Lite, Nike and
ESPN, is the master of subliminal advertis
ing. Instead of just telling me Nike is cool,
Weiden+Kennedy, over the years, have made
me feel like Nike is my life Like wearing Adi
das is a lifestyle choice along the lines of be
coming a transvestite: No way would I want
to take such a drastic step.
They get into your head. Advertising is
everywhere That Coke being sipped by your
favorite actor is a product placement.
And don't even get me started on pre
movie advertising. Seriously, I don't want
your Bod. You know the day is coming
when "Harry Potter XIV: Retirement Home
Magic" is interrupted for commercial breaks.
By then, movies will cost $35 and your ticket
will come with 18 different popcorn dis
count coupons.
The thing I hate the most about living on
Planet Advertising is that I can't do a single
thing about it. We could revert to commu
nism, but that's as drastic as wearing Adidas.
We could stop patronizing the big advertis
ers, but then we wouldn't be able to eat or
have clothes to wear. So that's out.
Until we can figure out a way to stop ad
vertising, I'll just keep drinking my Miche
lob Ultra. It has low carbohydrates, and I'm
trying to watch my figure Can you hear me
on that?
Contact the columnist
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
Radicalism responds to capitalism
Scott Austin's Nov. 26 guest commentary
("Prevailing American sentiment supports
iron fist," ODE,
<&*** m m Nov. 26) makes
Cai UP SZ. S3* 1 much of other
COMMENTARY p-pJ* p^
_ sumed illiteracy.
That Austin has
gotten as far as he has while remaining so
culturally illiterate is no less alarming. His
letter is a perfect object lesson of the maxim
"Repeat a lie often enough and it will be
believed as truth." As a self-described "fas
cist" ("New Campus Rebels," Eugene
Weekly, Nov. 20), I assume Austin is at least
historically literate enough to be aware of
this tried and true method of Goebbels'.
The myth of Islamic "backward "-ness
Austin believes and promotes is betrayed by
the fact that places like Jerusalem, Damas
cus, Alexandria, Moorish Spain and, more
recently, Beirut were long considered to be
models of religious and cultural pluralism.
Centuries of Christian crusades, Western
colonialism and, in the case of Lebanon, in
tervention by Israel, have put an end to
this. In short, the kind of Western imperial
ism which Austin dismisses, not abstract
but manifested daily in the form of human
and cultural poverty and death, has gone a
long way toward creating the heinous situa
tion that the United States and its few allies
now face. Indeed, the problem with Islam
is not its backwardness, it is its very
modernity. Contemporary scholars, like the
late Edward Said, point out that the Islamic
radicalism currently being embraced by
some is a thoroughly recent development.
It is a reaction to the devastating, atomizing
effects of industrialism and capitalism that
have shaken the foundations of traditional
societies worldwide. As such, Islamic radi
calism has much in common with the con
servative-Christian radicalism Austin him
self embraces. They complement each
other perfectly as evidenced by Austin's
own goose-stepping, flag-waving creed as
well as the sentiments of Toby Keith that
Austin defends.
Jason Maas-DeSpain lives in Eugene.