Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, January 13, 2005
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■ In my opinion
Manufacturing murder?
Avoiding responsibility when best
laid plans go awry is human nature.
Whether the motivating factor is
psychological solace or an attempt at
moral coherence, things are just easier
when they’re someone else’s fault.
This problem has likely bugged
humans as long as we’ve been around
to wrong each other (and harm
ourselves) and inevitably point the
finger elsewhere.
But recent years have seen a
grip on American legal consciousness
tighten to nearly asphyxiating propor
tions — not the regular avoidance of
responsibility, but our willingness to
accept it at a cost of clarity of reason,
and more to the point, (relatively)
innocent parties.
Naturally, this shift in lay philoso
phy has surfaced where it is most
profitable: the already waterlogged
legal system. Increasingly, poorly
measured decisions promote a
“compensation culture” that offers in
dividuals compensation for infringe
ment (perceived or real) on their
livelihood, even if those forced to pay
aren’t those who should.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme
Court declined to consider dismissing
a lawsuit that would hold responsible
companies involved in the production
TRAVIS WILLSE
RIVALLESS WIT
and sale of a gun used in a 1999
rampage. Buford Furrow killed one and
injured five at a Southern California
daycare center. The Court’s go-ahead
leaves open a possibility for a bizarre,
dangerous and absurd precedent.
Court records show that the gun in
question, which was sold by the
wholesaler to the Cosmopolis, Wash.,
police department, was later sold to a
gun shop, where it was sold to a
collector, who in turn sold it to Furrow
at a gun show. The convoluted history
of the gun’s ownership, however,
didn’t stop Judge Richard Paez — of
the jurisprudentially loopy Ninth
Circuit Court — from opining that the
manufacturer’s marketing strategy
creates a “supply of post-police guns
that can be sold through unlicensed
dealers without background checks to
illegal buyers.”
Even if police departments sell guns
in a secondary market, and even if
some of the intermediate dealers are
unlicensed, and even if background
checks are for some reason skipped,
and even if the final buyers can’t legal
ly make the purchase, it’s inconceiv
able to hold the manufacturer culpable
for any of this, let alone the final result
of what may be others’ improprieties.
Moreover, if a wholesaler selling a
firearm directly to a law enforcement
agency doesn’t constitute a reasonable
firearm sale, what does?
What actually constitutes causality
— in the world that the courtroom at
tempts to address, anyway — is a sub
jective point, and what makes up
responsibility even more so. But this
ambiguity can walk so far before it ex
its completely the realm of plausibility.
And recognition of this fact is encoded
into law. In his dissent in the circuit
court case, Judge Consuelo Callahan
captured this point, cautioning courts
to be wary of “adopting broad new
theories of liability.”
Our legislature and culture should
do the same, and trade a philosophy of
“broad new theories of liability” for
one of cleaner courts and defensible le
gal and ethical reasoning.
traviswillse@ dailyemerald. com
■ Guest commentary
Embrace biases to reach neutrality
I have noticed issues around race
and racism, among other systems of
oppression, arising in the ASUO
Senate in the past few months. There
will be conflicts in any organization
where people of a wide range of
experiences come together, but I don’t
think we have been doing enough to
examine these conflicts or how
institutional systems of oppression
are influencing them.
Dealing with race and racism can
be quite stressful for those who have
not dealt with it in any significant
capacity before. I have been told by
some white members of the senate
that they have a strong fear that they
might be called a racist. But there is
so much fear around issues of racism
that it becomes a crime to call
someone a racist or to point out the
racism influencing a decision. I recall
several occasions when someone was
called to task for bringing up issues
of racism. The one who points
out racism becomes the target of the
debate for making “inappropriate
personal attacks,” and any racism,
real or imagined, goes unexamined.
Under such a dynamic, we remain
blind to whatever racism may
truly exist.
It is important to recognize that
racism does indeed exist. It’s such a
strong, widespread system that it is
impossible to not be affected by it.
Even having spent years confronting
issues of racism myself, I can still see
where I am affected by it. We need to
start with the assumption that we all,
as individuals and as a student gov
ernment, have been affected by
r
racism. Under such an assumption,
we need to seek out how we have
been influenced by racism and
account for it instead of simply
pretending it isn’t there.
This has important implications for
how we address viewpoint neutrality,
which we are all mandated to
maintain in our work. I’ve seen many
in the ASUO attempt to maintain their
viewpoint neutrality through a simple
assertion that they have no biases and
abstain from voting when they are
paid by the group being voted on.
This concerns me because it is simply
not possible to have no biases. While
being part of a group is a bias, never
having been to that group’s meetings
is also a bias. People are pressured to
reject any specific knowledge they
have in order to attain neutrality, but
that knowledge might be important to
making an informed decision.
Uninformed does not equal neutral.
The belief that one can have no
biases is the most dangerous bias of
all. We cannot leave our biases at the
door. It is only when we identify our
biases, acknowledge them and
account for them, that we can achieve
viewpoint neutrality. Accounting for a
bias may mean abstaining from a
vote, but it could just as easily mean
acknowledging that we’re not the
experts in a certain area.
An unfortunate event that
happened recently highlights the need
to acknowledge we all have our own
biases. A member of PFC, Mason
Quiroz, was confronted during his
office hours about his supposed
conflict of interest regarding voting on
the Multicultural Center’s budget. The
official rules set aside for addressing
conflicts of interest only apply when
someone is receiving financial com
pensation from the budget they are
voting on. Quiroz was still accused of
having a conflict of interest, even
though he doesn’t, and never has,
worked for the MCC. His supposed
conflict wasn’t even that he held an
official capacity there. It was solely
based upon the fact that he has been
associated with the communities that
organize around the MCC.
From this perspective, the only peo
ple capable of being neutral toward the
MCC would be those who have never
attended a meeting, never been to a
meeting of any student union and have
no connection to campus communities
of color. Essentially, the only neutral
perspective is the white perspective.
That is what happens when we do
not seek out and address our own
biases. We try to achieve a “neutral”
perspective without examining exactly
what “neutral” consists of. Yet, when
taking race into account, it becomes
apparent that there is no neutral race
and there cannot be a "race neutral”
perspective. Race will influence any
perspective, but we must explore how
it influences our perspectives and
account for that, instead of simply
pretending it has no effect. There is
much more to explore around
maintaining viewpoint neutrality. As a
student government, and as a campus
population, we need to be engaging in
this conversation.
Toby Hill-Meyer is a student senator
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■ Out loud
“I’ve taken some comfort at the thought
that the public’s memory is short.” — Uni
versity Vice President of Administration
Dan Williams, speaking to the Public
Relations Society of America monthly
luncheon at the Downtown Athletic Club
about issues concerning University devel
opment and community relations.
“This is a 60,000 square-foot building
jumping around like it’s on a pogo stick.”
— Community activist Zachary Vishanoff
on the uncertainty of the future location
for the Oregon Nanoscience and Mi
crotechnologies Institute, previously slat
ed for the Riverfront Research Park.
“A student who is threatening suicide
every night actually is creating a crisis in
the community around them.” — Vice
President for Student Affairs Anne Leavitt
on students who show suicidal behaviors.
State legislation has been drafted in re
sponse to a proposed University policy de
signed to shift the “mandatory leave” de
cision from health center personnel to the
Division of Student Affairs.
“Get some devastation in the back.” —
U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist,
R-Tenn., to a staff photographer during his
recent trip to tsunami-ravished Sri Lanka.
Is this what they mean by compassionate
conservatism?
“I wouldn't call it a tragedy. ... We
shouldn’t be spending a nickel on this.” —
More tsunami-inspired compassionate
conservatism, this time from radio host
and Satan mouthpiece Michael Savage,
on why America should only spend tax
payer money to kick ass.
“Don’t cheerleaders all over America
form pyramids six to eight times a year? Is
that torture?” — Guy Womack, attorney
for accused Abu Ghraib prison abuse ring
leader Charles Graner, equating the piling
of naked, shackled prisoners to a dance
demonstration.
“If there was, I wish someone would tell
me what it is or show it to me. I’d like to
see it.” — U.S. Rep. Howard Coble,
R-N.C., a Republican and close ally of
President Bush, referring to the post-Iraqi
invasion strategy that he wrongly assumed
the administration had when he voted to
give the president sweeping war-making
powers. Coble is now calling for the United
States to withdraw from Iraq.
“What the hell are we doing in Iraq? No
one can explain to me in a reasonable
manner that I can accept why we’re there,
why we went there, and why we’re still
there.” — Mel Gibson, giving middle
America a collective heart attack, describ
ing why he feels a “strange kinship” with
fellow filmmaker Michael Moore.
“I will remove judges from the Supreme
Court quickly, and their successors will re
fuse to sanction the attacks on religious
faith.”— God, speaking through his earth
ly vessel Pat Robertson, offering a heav
enly ultimatum. Justice Rehnquist was
only the beginning.
— Gathered from The Associacted Press
and Oregon Daily Emerald news reports
CORRECTION
The graphic “Under Construction" on page one of
Wednesday’s paper was inaccurate. The graphic list
ed the amount of state bonds for the Health and
Counseling Center as “$1,350,000" and the amount
for the EMU heating ventilation air conditioning sys
tem as "$9,080,000." The figures were reversed.
The Emerald regrets the error.