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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2004)
EN GARDE ..I Tim Bobosky | Photographer Tuesday afternoon, junior Robert Teel and senior Evan Cooley fence to attract more students to the Fencing Club and demonstrate the sport. 019774. Tired of paying too much for inkjet & laser toner cartridges? Reuse your empty cartridge! Save 40-70% Drop Box Locations on Campus • U of O Book Store • Digital Duck • EMU Visit one of our three locations or use any of the over one hundred Drop Boxes around town. 830 Willamette St. Valley River Center 1925 River Road 3570 West 11th 541.334.4465 541.345.4465 541.689.3513. 541.686.4651 www.RapidRefilllnk.com Measure 36: Students may decide outcome Continued from page 1 measure that I thought precluded that,” he said. If the measure passes, Clark said it would “effectively moot about three fourths” of the current case before the Supreme Court, although it would not change the status of the marriage li censes already issued to same-sex couples. Vetri said the amendment leaves unresolved the question of the nearly 3,000 gay couples whose marriages were upheld by the appeals court, and the court will have to decide how to rule on the validity of those exist ing marriages. “We have a really sort of bizarre sit uation where the court could conceiv ably say those 3,000 are declared married but no other couples can get married after (Measure) 36,” Vetri said, adding that opponents will chal lenge the measure on constitutional grounds if it passes. Some advocates also say same-sex marriage, if Measure 36 doesn’t pass, would open the door to other forms of unions. “The argument raised in the Supreme Court is not that the sky is going to fall and that we will be over whelmed by polygamy ... ” Clark said. “The question is: Where do you draw the line legally?” Clark said it won’t be legally feasi ble to say that any two people can marry but not allow three people to marry or allow people who are closer than cousins to marry. “There can’t be a line,” he said. “The reasoning that would apply to same sex couples ... would apply to a number of other concepts of mar riage. ” Vetri disagreed, calling it “crazy” that same-sex marriage would open the door for polygamy. “By that theory, we should never take a step forward on anything,” he said. “There’s no logic behind that slippery slope-type argument.” Michael White, executive director of the Defense of Marriage Coalition, said the campaign for the measure is not designed to reflect negatively on any family arrangement, including same-sex marriage, but is meant to uphold the traditional definition of marriage, which is key to supporting children. “The issue for us is that kids do best and deserve the opportunity to live in a household with both their mother and their father and we think marriage contributes to that,” he said. White added that legalizing same sex marriage will affect what children learn about marriage in classrooms. Elise Self, co-chairperson of the Eu gene chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, agreed that families are important, but said members of same-sex marriages can be just as good as heterosexual par ents. “Lots of different family situations can be good homes,” she said. Self, who said she has a straight son and a lesbian daughter, said she worries about the message Measure 36 sends to children of existing same sex relationships. “They hear that not only are their parents not OK and there’s something wrong with their parents, but that their household is doing wrong,” she said. “It’s very painful to live in a soci ety where you have to fight so hard for your rights.” Self also said the measure “will hurt real Oregon families” by limiting gay couples’ access to medical treat ment and benefits, lifesaving medical treatment decisions and inheritance rights. White said opinions vary among campaign members about civil unions for same-sex couples. He said supporters are “sympathetic and un derstanding” of people in same-sex marriages that want benefits, such as the right to hospital visitation, but that supporters of same-sex marriage tried to force change. “If this thing had started in the leg islature, let’s say as civil-union legis lation, rather than in the courtrooms trying to change marriage, our coali tion might not exist,” he said. Self added that the measure would legitimize discrimination against gays. “I have lived in Oregon for over 30 years and I can’t believe something is going into the constitution that would treat my two children differently,” she said. “This is our constitution, and it’s meant to protect people, and putting this in the constitution is discrimina tion, no matter what they say.” Spokeswoman for the No on 36 campaign Rebekah Kassell said peo ple are looking to the Oregon measure because it is a closer race than in oth er states. She added that students, many of whom she said support same-sex marriage, will helped deter mine the measure’s success. “It may very well be young voters who decide this issue in the election,” she said. However, in reference to the Yes on 36 campaign, White said weekly polling has revealed that “support from young people is surprisingly strong. ” “Young people may be a lot more accepting of homosexuality, but so far what we’re finding is that they still appreciate the value of marriage,” he said. “That’s something that’s been pretty encouraging to us. ” White said his organization is opti mistic about the measure’s success because “every Oregonian, regardless of how bad their family life may have been, had a mom and a dad, even if they didn’t live with them or know them. “It’s that kind of personal stuff that gets right to the core for a lot of peo ple. They can’t imagine life any other way,” he said. parkerhowell@ daily emerald, com Ape yon feeling a draft? Army recruiters can't fill their quotas. Re-enlistments are plummeting. Soldiers are being forced to stay past their contracted time. Meanwhile, Iraq is a quagmire that's only going to get worse. With America's armed forces already stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan, where are tomorrow's troops going to come from? Oh yes, President Bush insists he won't bring back the draft. But remember: this is the same president who swore that Iraq had As college students today, we ought to seriously consider that question. weapons of mass destruction. That Saddam was linked to 9/11. And that Iraqis would welcome us with open arms. He was dead wrong every time. With George Bush stubbornly determined to go it alone, our allies won't join us. American troops will still be 90 percent of the "coalition." And 90 percent of its dead and wounded. And the volunteer military will be a casualty of war. So unless you like the idea of graduate school in Fallujah, we need to pay careful attention to what our president is saying, versus what it really means. Now do you feel that draft? MoveOn. Visit www.moveonstudentaction.org MoveOn Student Action is a project of the MoveOn.org Voter Fund and Click Back America. Studcntf^ fvr Wi'y »' ■A.— Hftl
