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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2005)
Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, January 24,2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 IEN SUDICK j EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABF.N AYISHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH RALINGrr AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY KARA HANSEN ANTHONY LUCERO SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CJAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER ARLAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHIL1NGERLAN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER AMYUCHTY RYAN MURPHEY PULSE REPORTERS CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST DAVID IAGERNAUTH EDITORIAL. EDITOR GABE BRADLEY JENNIFER MCBRIDE AJLEE SLATER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMF.R SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER ERIK BISHOFF PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST KIRA PARK DESIGN EDITOR DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE BRIANNE SHOLLAN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKF1ELD PAULTHOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMANDA EVRARD AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS UNDSAYBURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SLADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541) 346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST NATHAN FOSTER A1BING GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG HOLLY MISTELL HOLLY STEIN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)3463712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIA LEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINASHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA GOWETTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KAnE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA Cl HAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAMLET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT JONAH SCHROGIN 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. ■ In my opinion Focus on the §^Y SpongeBob SquarePants and Wes ley Snipes are having a long conver sation about gender roles, and the male youth of this country are watching intently. Focus on the Family, a Christian or ganization designed to “preserve tra ditional values and the institution of the family,” has recently come out in protest against a video being pro duced for children in schools featur ing a number of animated characters, including SpongeBob. According to the Focus on the Fam ily Web site, SpongeBob’s best (male) friend, Patrick, is pink. The two char acters have also been spotted holding hands. A founder and chairman of Focus on the Family then goes on to say that a video promoting homosex uality should not be shown in schools. To his credit, Dr. Dobson claims to applaud the idea of increas ing diversity (well, some diversity); the issue for him is that children will think teachers are endorsing a homo sexual lifestyle because the term “sexual identity” is used when listing issues that deserve tolerance. However, the division of church and state would surely mandate that the educational system has no reason to listen to the requests of this group. As a public institution, schools are doing their job by promoting diversi ty, period. Imagine instead an extrem ist group who didn’t believe in racial diversity because of their religion or culture, and therefore claimed that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should not AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION be recognized or discussed in an ed ucational setting. Schools would not even consider such a request, and Fo cus on the Family has a lot of nerve to deny the need for diversity tolerance in relation to sexuality or gender. And then there’s Blade. The furor surrounding a chatty sea sponge be came scarier after my late night view ing of Blade: Third Times The Ah Hell Let’s Just Kill Everything. This film provided an unfortunate example of what the current masculine gender identity has spawned into: He has re ally big muscles, a sword and about five lines of dialogue. Is this what culture wants the boys of our nation to become? A positive role model of male-to-male bonding that doesn’t involve an elaborate vampire plot should be lauded, not made into headlines for being im moral. If boys grow up believing that to be feminine is to be gay, and to be gay is wrong, male aggression results. The idea that two men holding hands is an automatic signal for homosexu ality signifies so much of what is problematic about rigid notions of gender. Fear is instilled into young men of becoming gentle, sympathetic people who develop platonic yet inti mate relationships; surely our world has realized by now that machismo only leads to men committing nine times more murders than women. Statistics such as these are not giv en any significance. It is expected that normal men commit aggressive acts; the nation utters a communal “boys will be boys.” There has been no large-scale effort to uncover the rea son why men commit so many acts of violence and, until there is, this ag gression will surely continue. Disgrac ing a feminine icon for male children only entrenches the message further that men who hold hands with friends are going to Hell, so go load up that AK-47 and we’ll shoot our selves some loose women for dinner. If men committing murder is accept able, but holding hands with your best male friend isn’t, groups such as Focus on the Family need to evaluate this fallacy. The Christian right (or wrong) has surely realized the frailty of its own belief system if it fears that an ani mated yellow sponge has the power to brainwash children. Will kids see a sea sponge holding hands with a (pink) starfish and think, “Yeah, sleeping with people of the same gen der is a good idea!” That’s almost as ridiculous as claiming that some laws set down by god-knows-who over 2,000 years ago could still hold true today. aileeslater@ daily emerald, com INBOX LTD contract used for revenge against employees About four and a half years ago the management and the union workers at Lane TYansit District negotiated a contract. Ken Hamm was the general manager at that time. Both parties agreed to and accepted the contract. Then about halfway throughout that contract Ken Hamm changed it by making the employees pay part of their health insurance. In the contract, health insurance was paid for by the employer. The employees took LTD to court and Ken Hamm lost the decision. Now the contract is up and Ken Hamm wants to punish the employ ees for standing up for their rights. Revenge is no way to run a public transit district. Vernon Bell Springfield ■ Editorial PFC attacks students by censoring publications Attention University students, faculty and staff: Your student leaders are currently abusing their authority over incidental fees in order to settle personal scores with campus journalists — and dismantle your freedom of speech — by simultaneously trying to de-fund the two most visible student publications on campus: the Oregon Commentator and the Oregon Daily Emerald. It is no coincidence that both of these pub lications serve as student government watch dogs and have a history of exposing the ille gal, unethical and just plain stupid behavior of University elected officials. As principled journalists, it is sometimes unfortunately our responsibility to bite the hand that feeds us. The Emerald did just that by aggressively covering the recent Sunriver boondoggle and the ASUO’s laughably in complete self-punishment process. Rather than adequately punish themselves by return ing the $3,000 in misused incidental fees, they are engaging in a misguided and pathetic at tempt to punish us for reporting on them. The Emerald is an independent publication — unlike many university newspapers — so we are impervious to direct censorship from the ASUO, the University or anybody else for that matter. Instead the ASUO and PFC resort ed to backdoor censorship by attacking our budget, using a mountain of flimsy rationales, inaccurate information, fuzzy math and faulty logic to justify their actions. The Emerald escaped total de-funding by a single vote: 3-4-0. In the end, the PFC voted to approve the Executive recommendation of a $8,415 decrease; this is not only the greatest decrease the PFC has handed out so far this year, but it is greater than all other decreases combined. The Emerald provides students and cam pus groups with the opportunity to have their accomplishments recognized and their opin ions heard by the majority of their campus peers. Furthermore, the Emerald provides a substantial reduction in advertising cost to University organizations. These groups might have their advertising budget explode, cover age of their group slashed and campus partic ipation in their events dramatically decreased if the Emerald is not funded. An attack on campus publications is really an attack on all students. In light of these disturbing developments, the Emerald editorial board has decided to publish a week-long series of editorials out lining why the Emerald and the Commenta tor deserve to be fully funded, the history of censorship at the University and the unprece dented lack of professionalism demonstrated by this year’s student leaders. Now is the time for the student body to fight for their First Amendment rights here in Eugene. The first step is to write the Emerald a letter to the editor. Do you agree with the PFC decision to decrease our funds? Or are you concerned about the PFC’s decision? Please send us your opinion and make your voice heard. OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and grest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to ietters@dailyemer3kl.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.
