Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2004)
NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR 1ARED PABEN AY1SUA YAMVA NEWS EDITORS PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER MORIAH BALINCIT MECHANN CUNIFF KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO CANELA WOOD NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHILINCERIAN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER DAHV1 FISCHER AMY LICHTY RYAN MURPHY PULSE REPORTERS DAVID JAGERNAUTH EDITORIAL EDITOR JENNIFER MCBRIDE AILEE SLATER CHUCK SLOTHOWER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR GABE BRADLEY NEWS FREELANCE EDITOR/ DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN W1MER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER ERIK BISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHICS EDITOR KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR ELLIOTT ASBURY CHARLIE CALDWELL DUSTIN REESE DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY 1EANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD PAUL THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDI TORS AMANDA EVRARD AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY R1EDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRHCHETr RECEPTIONIST NOAH EVENS )OHN LONG MALLORY MAHONEY HOLLY MISTELL XAVIER XIONG DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER ALEX AMES MATT BETZ HERON CALISCl I-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN ELISA JESSOP MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA COWETTE LESUE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA SLOAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR )EN CRAM LETT KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAITT ANDY HOLLAND DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon. Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law ■ In my opinion Affirmative mis-action No other nation has a racial mix ture quite like the United States. It provides a continuous source of fac tion and friction, the inevitable result of past subjugation and the equally in evitable demands by the subjugated for their rights. America is so concerned with race that decision-makers routinely use the laudable goal of racial equality to justi fy employing unequal criteria to eval uate everything from job hiring to col lege admissions to construction bids. They call this program of unequal treatment “affirmative action.” Affirmative action constitutes Amer ican society’s most significant attempt to alleviate four centuries of slavery, segregation, lynching, poll taxes, bru tal child murders, rape and fear perpe trated on behalf of a morally indefen sible system of racial supremacy. Affirmative action began in the 1960s and gained momentum throughout the rest of the 20th century until it reached today’s level of quiet acceptance. The term itself bears some evalua tion. It sounds great. Not only does it imply action, but it includes the posi tive-sounding word “affirmative.” Of course, the term “affirmative action” gives no hint of what it actually means, so let’s call it what it is: Race-based preferences. Certainly, blacks could still use some help from society. On average, black Americans have dramatically lower incomes and lower levels of edu cational attainment, home ownership and employment than society at large, according to federal statistics. They also have higher rates of teen pregnan cy, violent crime victimization, HIV in fection and a lower life expectancy. However, the black students who CHUCK SLOTHOWER TAKING ISSUE gain admission to good colleges aren’t the ones affected by the poverty that generates the above statistics. This is what John McWhorter, a black profes sor at the University of California at Berkeley, called the "... deathless lie: That most black students come from disadvantaged circumstances.” Most black students at good colleges, in fact, come from solidly middle-class back grounds. As McWhorter wrote in The Ameri can Enterprise magazine, in the last year that Berkeley employed race based admissions preferences, more than 65 percent of the students came from households earning at least $40,000 per year. Similarly, a 1989 study found that among 28 selective universities, only 14 percent of the black students came from households earning $22,000 per year or less. Clear ly, race-based preferences aren’t help ing poor blacks. Nothing can make up for what black Americans went through, and we should stop trying to erase the memory of their oppression by helping people who never suffered from it. No student on campus today won their freedom through the Emancipation Proclamation or suffered the humilia tion of poll taxes and the three-fifths compromise. While racism has faded dramatically from the public and private scene, the class structure has only strengthened. In 1973, the wealthiest 20 percent of households accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to The Associated Press and U.S. Census Bu reau. In 2002, their share rose to 50 percent, while the poorest 20 percent of American households lost ground. President Bush’s policies have fur ther solidified America’s class struc ture. His signature tax cuts, especial ly the elimination of the estate tax, have overwhelmingly favored the wealthiest Americans. While the wealthy enjoy their tax cuts, the poor struggle with high unemploy ment, and the administration does nothing to help the millions of poor Americans who lack health insur ance. Given the historical trend, one can expect income inequality, and other measures of the class gap to continue to worsen. The class gap deeply marks higher education, which should act as a lev eling influence but more often perpetu ates familial privileges. This is a prob lem of class, not race, and race-based preferences are a poor tool to address it. A white kid who grows up in an Al bany trailer park has drastically less hope of getting a good education than a black kid from upper-class Lake Os wego. It’s time to stop pretending that the color of one’s skin is the primary barrier to getting a quality education; it’s money. The University, the federal govern ment and especially the state legisla ture need to do more to help poor students break out of their circum stances. Race-based preferences aren’t getting the job done. chuckslothower@ daily emerald, com INBOX Listening to Bush's bumbling is 'hard work' Thursday's presidential debate confirmed what many of us already suspected: John Kerry is a strong, ar ticulate statesman, while George Bush is a bumbling, smug, arrogant phony who had no business even dreaming of being President. Former Republican congressman and conservative commentator Joe Scarborough called Bush's perform ance “embarrassing” and suggested that the President “doesn't have a long enough attention span to focus for 90 minutes.” Right-wing columnist and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said that Kerry “won this debate go ing away” and Bush looked like he’s “in way over his head.” Kerry came prepared to present his plan for the future of our country, while Bush came ready to “give sound bytes,” according to Buchanan. Perhaps most insightful was con servative pundit Tlicker Carlson’s ob servation that watching Bush speak was like “watching a drunk man cross an icy street." The most revealing Bush quota tions were his 12 variations of the phrase “it’s hard work.” The job of President, is, I’m sure, difficult. This is why it should be taken on by a capable, intelligent, brave, strong leader like John Kerry. Jared Mason-Gere Eugene U.S. troops pay the price for Iraq's realities The Bush administration has had a year to train Iraqis to assist our troops. Bush mislead the American people in a national debate when he said 100,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage testified to a House Appropriations subcommittee that many trainees have received nothing more than a three week course in police procedures — what Armitage referred to as “shake and-bake” forces. Only 8,000 of the total are police who have received a full eight-week course of training. Because of the lack of trained re placements, Defense Secretary Don ald Rumsfeld told senators it might not be possible to conduct elections in some parts of Iraq. In a more shocking assessment, Jordan’s King Abdullah has said it will be impossi ble to hold fair elections in the cur rent state of chaos. President Bush has failed to acknowledge the realities in Iraq, and now our service men and women are paying the ultimate price. Major Robert Tormey U.S. Air Force, Ret. Escondido, Calif. The Bush administration has planned for a draft When Howard Dean tells Oregon students that a draft is “likely” if the current administration retains power, he enjoys a tremendous amount of evi dentiary support. The degree of preparations that our government has taken for a draft since the election of 2000 is breathtaking. From tightening the border with Cana da to a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act requiring schools to give the federal government contact infor mation about individual students, the infrastructure for a draft is now in place starting in June 2005. Recently, The Atlanta Journal-Con stitution published an article question ing how Bush's military strategy of pre emptive regime change can be sustained without a draft. A growing le gion now sees a fundamental inconsis tency between Bush’s foreign policy rhetoric and his claim that a draft is not needed. Any more regime changes must entail conscription, as the troops will not fall from the sky. Steve Ramirez Topeka, Kan. ■ Editorial Foreign aid should come in the form of forgiveness The Bush administration renewed its call this weekend for the world to forgive Iraq’s $120 billion in foreign debt, during a three-day meeting of the World Bank. United States offi cials were met with opposition from France, which is advocating only 50 percent debt re lief for Iraq this year. We support the President’s effort to free the people of Iraq from under the crippling weight of debt payments. But we remind him and the other members of the G7 that Iraq is not the only country in need of forgiveness. Between 1970 and 2002, African nations re ceived $540 billion in loans from global lending institutions such as the World Bank and the In ternational Monetary Fund. Despite servicing their debt to the tune of $550 billion in interest payments, these African nations still owe $295 billion, according to a United Nations report en titled “Debt Sustainability: Oasis or Mirage?” re leased Thursday. The report concludes that there is an urgent need for a total cancellation of Africa’s debt to foreign investors. The Bush administration seems to agree. “We are prepared to go to debt forgiveness of up to 100 percent,” Treasury Secretary John Snow told the World Bank. Despite this pledge, the meetings disbanded on Sunday without an agreement. Rather than wait while the international community lum bers towards consensus — which won’t hap pen until next year at the earliest — we be lieve a wise first step would be to place a moratorium on future debt servicing for the poorest and most heavily indebted countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This is hardly a new idea. We know it will work because it has worked in the past. Can cellation of international debts under the Mar shall Plan helped to rebuild post-war Europe and Japan. More recently, debt relief in Mozambique and Uganda produced good, if incomplete, results. We are aware that debt forgiveness alone will not solve the problems of worldwide poverty and disease. But tying even partial debt relief to health services could save hundreds of thou sands, if not millions, of lives by freeing up re sources necessary in the fight against, for exam ple, the AIDS epidemic. We often hear about the religious virtue of forgiveness in our country. Debt forgiveness is also an issue of virtue. Are we a virtuous people? If so, then we need to stop talking about debt forgiveness and do what it takes to make it happen for those in the world that need it most. EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Editor in Chief David Jagemauth Editorial Editor Steven R. Neuman Managing Editor Gabe Bradley Freelance Editor Jared Paben News Editor OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald,com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Let ters are limrted to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Au thors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald.
