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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2004)
Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, November 29, 2004 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED I’AREN AYISIIA YAUYA NEWS EDITORS PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTER MORIAH BALINCn AMANDA BOLSINGER MEGHANN CUN IFF KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHILINGER1AN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER DAHVI FISCHER AMY LICHTY RYAN MURPHY PULSE REPORTERS DAVID JACERNAUTH EDITORIAL EDITOR JENNIFER MCBRIDE AILEF. SLATER CHUCK SLOTHOWER TRAVIS W1LLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR GABE BRADLEY NEWS FREELANCE EDITOR/ DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER ERIK BISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER BRETFURIWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR ELLIOTT ASBURY CHARLIE CALDWELL DUSTIN REESE BR1ANNE SHOLIAN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BIACKIIELD PAUL THOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMANDA EVRARD AMBER L1NDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SIADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY R1EDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHYCARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER AIBING GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG MALLORY MAHONEY HOLLY MISTELL DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541) 346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON ( AUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDEIMEYER EMILY PII1I.BIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KF.I.I.F.F. KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 IRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA GOWETTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA ^1 HAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAMLET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAirr ANDY HOLLAND DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 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. Bret Furtwangler | Graphic artist ■ In my opinion No room at the GOVERNMENT INN Sudan has been accused of displac ing 1.6 million people from their homes in Darfur. Russia is chided for forcing Chechens in Ingushetia back to Chechnya, where they must now live on the streets. What do these violations have to do with the United States? All three countries are atop the Geneva based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions list of top offenders. Although the U.S. has not dis placed people from their homes be cause of ethnic reasons or forced convictions, the fact still stands that our nation is home to millions of house-less citizens, who are crimi nalized for offenses such as sleeping in public parks. According to the Centre, this violates the U.N. state ment of human rights, which in cludes a standard of housing ade quate to promote health and well-being. There is such an extreme stigma against the homeless that most Americans choose to put the is sue out of their minds completely. Subscribing to the belief that the homeless are dirty drug abusers who live on the streets out of choice rather than necessity makes it easy to ignore the sad plight of our na tion’s lowest class. Unfortunately, the tactic of U.S. policy-makers seems to be one of disregard as well. Where were the campaign agendas to reach your neighborhood can-collector? Both Bush and Kerry fervently cam paigned for education of the nation’s children, conveniently ignoring the 1.35 million children per year who live on the streets. The No Child Left Behind act didn’t just leave these AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION children behind, it left them suffo cating in the dust. Although Bush has put the nation into severe debt through increased wartime spending and tax cuts, his 2004 budget includ ed no new resources for the 3.5 mil lion people living on the streets. Ob viously, with numbers like that, current funding is not doing its job. Accountability is the major problem with funding programs to help the homeless. The homeless are in a cycle in which economics prevent them from seeking out the right to vote, leading to political agendas that do not include their needs and ultimately lead to another generation of home less who will once again not have a voice in the political sphere. On the other hand, giving money back to the rich is easy: They respond with their contributions and their votes. Other harmful cycles which often occur in homeless population relate to drug abuse and prostitution. When children grow up without homes, food and access to education or employment, they will be likely to turn to drugs or prostitution in order to make money. Without access to birth control or sexual education services, young people are likely to become pregnant, beginning the cy cle once again. One argument against policies to help the homeless is the idea that people on the streets are there by their own will, and the government is not responsible for them. Howev er, as seen through the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq, the U.S. gov ernment has no problem putting money into causes for which it was not directly responsible. Also, most homeless people find themselves in their situation because of a previous failing of responsibility by the government. Sixty percent of the homeless are single mothers with children, most of which have turned to the streets as their only alternative to an abusive relationship. About 35 percent of the homeless are mentally ill. Although the government has pledged to help both of these groups of people, they are conveniently ig nored once out on the streets. The U.S. is the richest nation in the world, yet is doing less to help its homeless citizens than over 150 oth er countries. What this nation needs is a strong national agenda against domestic violence, and drug and prostitution policies based on reha bilitation rather than criminaliza tion. Putting tax money back into the pockets of the rich can surely wait. For politicians, ignoring the home less is easy; people on the streets hardly have the capacity to fight back. It is time for citizens in all classes to remember and recognize the experience of the homeless as a harsh reality that needs to end. aileeslater@dailyemerald. com 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. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors 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. ■ Editorial Constructing rockets takes priority over education During his re-election campaign, President Bush talked about returning “fiscal sanity” to this country. It was a statement so shameless that it should have cost him a second term. How did his conscience allow him to say such a thing after nearly four years of two-fisted spending and gasp-worthy federal defects? Congress had to raise the debt ceiling for goodness sake! But this political myth — that Republicans are the best doctors for our nation’s economic health — is an enduring one, but a myth none the less. Case in point: the FY05 federal spending bill. The $388 billion omnibus bill, passed by Con gress last week, is chock-full of pork-barrel proj ects, 11,772 projects at a cost of $15,780,533,623 to be exact, according to Tax payers for Common Sense. Some are pet proj ects, some are corporate handouts and some are just plain stupid. Here are a few examples of the later: $25,000 for curriculum development for the study of mariachi music $45,000 for A+ for Abstinence for absti nence education $300,000 for CyberSeniors, Inc. - Experience Senior Power Program $250,000 for Country Music Hall of Fame But the congressmen and congresswomen did manage to stop some spending. At the 11th hour, House Republicans instituted changes to the bill that the American Council on Education said could cost 90,000 students their Pell Grant eligibility. An additional 1 million could face re ductions in their awards. The change involves using more current tax information when deter mining a family’s level of need. The FY05 budg et also contains language that caps the maxi mum Pell Grant award at $4,050. President Bush has said he wants the maximum to be $1,000 higher. Republicans were clamoring for the change in order to cover a more than $3 billion short fall in the Pell Grant program. And there it is, the fiscal sanity President Bush has promised: Filling budget shortfalls with money meant for low-income students while ensuring corpora tions get their welfare packages fully intact. It is uncompassionate conservatism at its best. What is a more important spending priority to President Bush than Pell Grants, the largest fed eral aid source for college students? Sending a person back to the moon by 2020, of course. Congress took the first step toward accomplish ing Bush’s goal of boldly going where several men have gone before, by passing a larger-than expected NASA FY05 budget ($16.2 billion). But this is just the beginning: The new space craft alone would cost $24.7 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the College Board estimates that students are facing tuitions over 10 percent higher this year. So as tuitions are skyrocketing, Bush is thinking about rock ets. He cares more about sending a person to the moon than sending a person to college. ONLINE POLL THIS WEEK’S QUESTION Do you enjoy holiday shopping? Cast your vote at www.dailyemerald.com. • Yes, it is a good way to show others you care for them. • Yes, there are great deals. • No, I don’t have any money. • No, it is too much stress. • What? It’s the holiday season?
