Oregon Daily Emerald
Thesday, January 25, 2005
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■ In my opinion
With less than a week to go before
the Iraqi elections, insurgent violence
will no doubt increase. Many Iraqi
citizens will give in to the fear and
stay home. Many people will die.
And in the end, the legitimacy of the
winners’ victories will probably be
tenuous at best.
Meanwhile, back in America —
Pundit-ville, as I like to call it — crit
ics of the elections will point to the
chaos and say, “We told you so.”
These short-sighted feet-draggers ar
gue Iraq isn’t ready to hold elections
until the country is more secure,
which is ridiculous.
There’s no right time to lose your
virginity and there’s no right time to
hold your first elections as a free
people. If you’re going to do it, just
do it — there’s never going to be a
time when it’s easy. If we wait until
Iraq is an oasis of democratic ideals
before holding elections, the U.S.
appointed interim government will
be in power forever. •
Democracy is a journey, not a
destination. For years, minorities
and women couldn’t vote in this
country. Our idea of liberty was
seriously screwed up. But we kept
on holding elections.
As we addressed one problem,
there was always another to take its
place. To this day, our democracy is
rife with problems. We’ve never had a
perfect election in America. The path
to freedom seems to be two steps for
ward, one step back.
GABE BRADLEY
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
In our own history, there have been
those who said America wasn’t ready
for the steps it was taking — those
who have retreated at the first sign of
difficulty. By and large, history has
forgotten their names.
History is shaped, for better or
worse, by those who are willing to
face struggle. If we truly believe that a
democratic Iraq is worth having, then
we have to accept the fact that it will
not come cheap.
Of course, it’s easy for me to
say that as someone who will not
have to directly pay the price for a free
Iraq, just as it is easy for some to criti
cize the elections when their own
right to vote is relatively secure. The
real question is whether the Iraqi peo
ple want democracy — and that ques
tion will be answered on Sunday.
How many people will stand up to
the violence, face the fear, and go to
the polls? I don’t know the answer to
that question; no one does. But come
Sunday, we’ll know for sure how
many Iraqis value their vote enough
to risk death.
Democracy can’t be forced. It must
live in the hearts of the people, or it
will never take root. The Iraqis them
selves will decide whether they are
ready for democracy, and they will
tell the world with their actions on
Sunday. Just as surely as democracy
cannot be forced, neither can it be
stopped once it has taken root. If the
Iraqis are ready for democracy, it’ll
show in the turnout, insurgency or
no insurgency.
We will know whether democracy
has taken hold in Iraq, but it will not
be the absence of conflict that tells
us — democracy is not a smooth
process. Meaningful change is al
ways accompanied by struggle of
some kind.
As for me, I’ll be back here in
Pundit-ville, watching the news and
hoping for success. There have
already been some incredible changes
in Iraq, and I dare to hope for more.
People are getting access to education
like never before. Outlets for free
speech are sprouting up slowly but
surely. And a guaranteed 25 percent of
the members of Iraq’s new parliament
will be women (women make up only
14 percent of our national legislature).
Change has come to Iraq, and it
seems to be sticking surprisingly well.
Is it too much to hope that they can
once again take control of their own
destiny as free people ruled by popu
lar sovereignty? Like I said, we’ll see.
In the meantime, let freedom ring.
gabebradley@dailyemerald. com
INBOX
Many people still in the
dark about pregnancy
In a letter to the editor (“Poetic ge
nius: Anti-Bush advocates chant lit
erary gold,” ODE, Jan. 21), Melissa
flicker asks, “How many kids did
you kill today, pro-abortion liber
als?” With the exception of a rather
strange friend of mine, I don’t know
anyone who is “pro-abortion.” Abor
tion is an awful situation. But it’s a
fact that a lot of people end up there.
That’s why I’m “pro-choice.”
There are obvious reasons for the
need for an abortion: rape, incest
and threat to the mother. Then
there’s misinformation. Yes, kids are
being robbed under the abstinence
only movement, but then there are
people who you’d think would know
how to avoid getting pregnant who
don’t. I was surprised to find my
own mother at age 48 didn’t know
antibiotics render birth control pills
ineffective. Then I found out half of
my friends didn’t know either!
Or how bout this: You can get preg
nant during your period. A lot of
women don’t know that either. Read
the small print on your pill-pack: Dur
ing the first week of pills use a back-up
method. You’d think doctors would tell
you these things but a lot don’t.
In response to the “kill” quote, did
you know that if a baby is born ex
tremely premature and under a cer
tain weight hospitals will not help it
live? Hospitals choose a weight to
determine life. As of now there is no
scientific evidence that fetuses are
“alive.” The only thing that brings
“kill” into the topic of abortion is
religion and morals, relative and per
sonal things.
In an imperfect world where this
is something people have to face, let
them at least have a choice.
Sermin Yesilada
Senior
OSPIRG provides solutions
for textbook woes
I bought my books this term and I
was appalled; prices just keep going
up, seemingly without reason. A
recent report done by OSPIRG shows
that publishers add “bells” and
“whistles” to inflate the price of
textbooks. These bundles come
Saran-Wrapped with additional
materials like CD-ROMs and work
books, but more than 65 percent of
the faculty surveyed say they
“rarely” or “never” use these materi
als. Textbook publishers put new
editions on the market frequently,
usually with very few content
changes, making the less expensive,
used textbooks obsolete.
As a student of the University who
relies on financial aid, reading this
report made my blood boil, but there
is a solution available for us students
in the form of OSPIRG’s Affordable
Textbooks campaign. As I write this
they are working to put direct eco
nomic pressure on the publishers,
are making it impossible for the pub
lishers to ignore students, and are
working with the University Book
store to set up alternatives for stu
dents to buy and sell their textbooks
(visit www.uobookstore.com for
more information).
It is time for publishers to pay
attention to us and stop ripping us off.
Lynette Hieber
Eugene
Protect McKenzie River
forests from logging
As some of you know, the Forest
Service currently has over a dozen
mature and old growth timber sales
planned in the McKenzie River wa
tershed. These timber sales encom
pass over 2,000 acres of the most
beautiful, pristine land found in Ore
gon. The McKenzie River not only
provides Eugene with drinking wa
ter, but also offers amazing recre
ational opportunities.
The trails networking through
this area provide world-class hiking
and mountain biking. People
come from all over the country to
take advantage of the natural beauty
found in Eugene’s backyard. This
influx of eco-tourists has helped
diversify the economies along the
McKenzie River by supporting
guiding outfits, bed and breakfasts,
and other local shops. The logging
slated to take place along the river
will degrade the natural beauty
that is responsible for drawing so
many people to the region. It is vital
that we protect the last 10 percent
of Oregon’s old growth, our
recreational areas and the economies
along the river.
Logan Berner
Eugene
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 tire Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic
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■ Editorial
Budget cut
contradicts
an ASUO
contract
The ASUO Executive recommendation for the
Emerald’s budget, which the Programs Finance
Committee eventually passed, represents the low
est student subscription rate in at least 20 years,
when factoring for inflation.
To deserve such a historically low budget
you might think the Emerald did something
horribly wrong. Did our fundraising level fall
off the map? Did the amount and quality of
our coverage suddenly decline? Just the oppo
site is true. The Emerald’s fundraising, in the
form of advertising, is the highest it has been
in years, covering almost 85 percent of our
costs. And we are providing more original and
professional content than ever, to a growing
number of students, in the face of skyrocket
ing printing costs. In short, the Emerald has
been doing more with less all year long.
So why are we being punished with more
than $8,000 in cuts ($13,000 less than our
request)? The ASUO believes the Emerald
prints too many papers and is concerned that
students are being charged for newspapers
read by University faculty and members of the
Eugene community.
According to a two-year-old readership survey,
81 percent of students read our paper at least
once per week. Any freely distributed paper
would be envious of this level of saturation. But
readership is not the only measure of the Emer
ald’s impact on this campus. Of those students
that never read the Emerald, how many are in a
student group that receives discounted advertis
ing in our paper? How many have been featured
in an Emerald story? How many have written a
letter to the editor? How many have been in
formed about an issue or a story from a friend
who read it in the Emerald?
Everyone on campus, whether they read
the paper, is touched by the Emerald and the
work of its dedicated student staff. That is
why the bulk student subscription fee, which
allows for distribution of the Emerald to the
student body free of charge, has never been
based on the number of copies read and
distributed. In fact, in a contract signed last
year by ASUO President Adam Petkun
and ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour,
it expressly states, “The parties agree that the
payment amount ... is not related to the
number of newspapers to be distributed ... in
that it is not based on a cost per distributed
paper figure. ”
In the past, attempts by the ASUO to
impose such a formula have been met with
skepticism and rejected by the PFC. This year,
a far more incompetent PFC completely
ignored past precedent and approved the
Executive recommendation without bothering
to discuss the issue.
Not only that, nobody on the PFC felt it was
necessary to inspect how the Executive ar
rived at its recommendation figure. The only
person at the table who understood the com
plex equation was Mike Martell, who con
ceived it. If the PFC had bothered to inspect
the math, it would have discovered that it was
nothing more than a series of inaccurate num
bers cobbled together with arbitrary calcula
tions to arrive at a meaningless total.
The Emerald would have refuted the
numbers if we had been given our Executive rec
ommendation before the meeting as
originally promised. In a November e-mail to all
student groups, Ravassipour wrote, “The execu
tive recommendation will be completed 72 hours
prior to your hearing. ”
The Emerald didn’t receive notice 72 hours
beforehand nor did we receive it 24 hours
EDITORIAL, page 3