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E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Monday, February 9,2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Brad Schmidt
Managing Editor:
Jan Tobias Montry
Editorial Editor:
Travis Willse
EEOITORi AL_
Meth, logging,
sweat shops
are answers
to state woes
With the recent failure of Measure 30 and the subse
quent threat of massive across-the-board budget cuts to
public services and education, the Emerald Editorial Board
would like to humbly suggest to the Legislature some op
tions for future tax revenues:
• Legalize prostitution — Two words: Sex sells. And
when something sells, what do you do? Tax it! Surely we
can all take a hint from Las Vegas and just legalize the in
stitution. After all, Las Vegas has a whole lot of money.
And we need money. Coincidence? We think not. Fur
thermore, because we'll no longer be needing the public
school buildings — because, surely, more days will be cut
from K-12 schooling — we'll just use them as brothels
(minus the kids, of course). Five hundred bucks gets you
the principal's office; five bucks a head for the janitor's
closet (no pun intended).
• Legalize sweat shops — With minors no longer forced
to spend month after month in classrooms, their true po
tential can finally be tapped. What better way to help im
prove Oregon's economy and unemployment rate? With
little Suzy sewing identifying marks on apparel items and
little Johnny making microchips, we'll ensure high-profile
businesses keep pumping dollars into Oregon's tax system.
• Eliminate police — Eliminating the police force will
save us a pandoad of money. We can use part of that to buy
everybody a gun — even the kids. Then, it's everybody for
their own! Of course, the state will have to change that
pesky law saying you can't carry on campus. Oh, and the
whole murder thing might have to be reworked a bit. But
we're positive that the idea will catch on once we all get
used to dodging bullets. (And don't forget that we can take
a cue from Chris Rock and tax the bullets, too!)
• Sales tax — Hello? Duh. Everybody's doing it. And
yes, if Washington state jumped off a bridge, we'd be
right behind.
• Sell the trees — Oregon has an abundance of trees, and
they aren't doing anything but standing there in the forest
and taking our rainwater. What a bunch of freeloaders!
We've gotta chop them all down and sell them for lumber.
Old, new, big, small, burned — it doesn't matter, just as
long as it's made of wood. Plus, everybody is all bent out
of shape about cutting them down. Well, when they're
gone, nobody will have anything to complain about any
more. Problem solved!
* meui uamcKing — i^eis race u, we ve got plen
ty of meth in this state and we're not reaping the potential
benefits. Also, no major corporations can pour billions of
dollars in lobbying money to keep the taxes low. Therefore,
meth is practically an untapped resource for millions of
revenue dollars. Hell, it's easy to make and easy to package!
There's just no end to the possibilities.
• Total overthrow of the government; secede from the
Union — Clearly a unilateral rejection of capitalism and a
reversion to a feudal system of government is the best thing
for Oregon. The market hasn't given us anything but pain
and suffering. We need to be ruled by a supreme overlord
— we're not going to say any names, but current Oregon
Gov. Ted Kulongoski would sound a lot cooler as "Lord
and Savior Kulongoski, ruler of all Oregonians" — who can
bring this state back from its dire economic straits, with just
a hint of classic totalitarianism.
Viva la revolution, comrades.
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.
ITS TIME THE FftS OWE US SOME
HELM SECURITY
do THE MATH")
SWIFT JUSTICE
FbRTHE FMW*S
OF titoHth!!
GW MMESftRS
SEXUAL fTOKTORS
HARD EVIDENCE
Steve Baggs Illustrator
J
Malpractice suits not 'excessive'
A lawsuit was recently won by the family
of a University student who died while at Sa
cred Heart Medical Center with an unexpect
edly lethal illness. A few days later, someone
responded with
an opinion that
the verdict was
unfair and the
defendants were
not guilty. His ar
guments were compelling, but what do I
know? I'm not a doctor and I wasn't on the
jury. All I do know is that when I go to the
doctor or the hospital, and they look at me
for maybe seven minutes, they better have
some real incentive to get it right
Some folks say this suing business has
gotten out of hand — there are too many,
it's mining the industry, it's limiting our
choices. President Bush has declared that
GUEST
COMMENTARY
tort reform is a key part of his "pro
growth" agenda, saying that it "would
have made a difference" to benefit the
economy. But a recent study by the Na
tional Center for State Courts found that
medical malpractice lawsuits per capita
have actually decreased. Fewer cases went
to trial in 2002 than in 1962.
While Bush claims that "everybody pays
more for health care" due to "excessive liti
gation, " the president of the American Tort
Reform Association said in 1999, "We
wouldn't tell you or anyone that the rea
son to pass tort reform would be to reduce
insurance rates."
Malpractice premiums as a percentage
of all health costs have declined from 0.95
percent in 1988 to 0.56 percent in 2000,
while prescription drugs costs make up
about 11 percent of all health costs,
projected to rise to 14 percent by 2010.
Controlling the cost of drugs will have far
more impact on insurance premiums than
malpractice reform. Despite these facts, the
president and Oregon's senators chose to
support a Medicare bill that would prevent
the Medicare administrator from negotiat
ing lower prescription drug costs.
As is so often the case these days, some
folks try really hard to confuse the issues.
Don't be fooled; don't give up your power.
The president and his friends are not on
your side; they just want your money. They
want to prevent you from getting better drug
prices and they want to prevent you from be
ing wholly compensated when you are in
jured — or die — because of a provider's
mistake. That's what I call "excessive"
Tim Mueller lives in Eugene.
OSPIRG should account for its funds
I write in response to a letter authored by
Arista Hickman regarding OSPIRG's fund
ing for next year ("OSPIRG is major asset
to University community" ODE, Jan. 21).
No one can argue with the fart that the
_ Oregon Student
jpto. n n «r"" Public Interest
m Research Group
COMMENTARY has some posi
-- tive impacts on
the University of
Oregon campus, so what does it say to you
when such a group's funding is called into
question? This is a direct response to hypo
critical and unclear spending habits exhib
ited by a public service group.
About this time last year, a scandal erupt
ed on the University campus when it was re
vealed that OSPIRG felt it appropriate to
take thousands of dollars from its budget of
student funds and send it off to another
major Oregon university. Apparently, the
University was doing its part to start an OS
PIRG chapter at another school. While I
applaud the idea, I cannot stand by and al
low such hypocritical spending to continue
In her letter, Hickman points out that
her beloved student organization has been
involved in a campaign to lower the over
all cost of textbooks. How does OSPIRG
reconcile the fact that it wants to help the
average UO student by lowering textbook
costs, while quietly spiriting away our stu
dent funds and transferring them into an
other school's checkbook?
Furthermore, let's not forget that no one
from OSPIRG has fully explained this situa
tion. Many of my fellow students and I have
waited for a response, yet are always greeted
with "It is complicated" or "Starting other
chapters at Oregon schools is part of having
our own chapter." I say, NO! It is not compli
cated! If part of having an OSPIRG chapter
here on campus means that I personally have
to shell out money, under the guise of stu
dent funds, they need to tell us that. If part of
having an OSPIRG chapter here on campus
means that our school is partly responsible
for starting chapters at other universities, they
need to tell us that. I don't see the LGBTQA,
the College Republicans, the College De
mocrats, The Student Insurgent, Students for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals or any oth
er politically active group on campus re
questing thousands of dollars to start chap
ters at other universities. Why OSPIRG?
Hickman claims that there are more
than 100 OSPIRG members who impact
20 times that many students here on cam
pus. If so many people are involved, why
doesn't anybody know what is going on?
I am not calling for the banishment of
OSPIRG. I am simply requesting that an
organization claiming to help better serve
our campus do exactly that. If you want to
be fully funded, you have to be prepared
to explain why. I commend the ideals of
our OSPIRG chapter, yet am ashamed of
its shady and hypocritical behavior.
Colby Reed is a junior pre-journalism major.
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: Should Genesis Juice be
forced to pasteurize its juice to stay open?
Results: 50 votes.
• Yes - If s the law: 36.0 percent or 18 votes.
• No - It hasn’t had problems in 30
years of business: 30.0 percent or 15
votes.
• Yes—It’s safer for you: 22.0 percent
or 11 votes.
• No — It tastes better unpasteurized:
12.0 percent or 6 votes.
This week: How will you celebrate
Valentine’s Day this year?
Choices: Spending time with friends;
Spending time with my significant other;
Spending time alone... again; I don’t
celebrate Valentine’s Day.