Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thesday, February 1,2005
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■ In my opinion
Trumping
common sense
Like more than 10 million other
Americans, I tune in every Thursday
night to see who’s going to get the ax
on “The Apprentice. ” I, however, take
my enthusiasm for the show to levels
far beyond the casual viewer — stop
ping just short of obsessive fan-dom,
a la trekkies.
I’ve seen every episode aired thus far
and thanks to the wonders of DVD, I’ve
seen the first season a couple of times.
I’ve also read all six of Donald Thimp’s
books. But most disturbingly, I’ve al
lowed “The Apprentice” to affect some
of my major life decisions.
Last winter term, during the first sea
son of “The Apprentice,” I was begin
ning to absolutely despise school. Like
the agnostic who says, “I love spiritu
ality but hate organized religion,” my
attitude at the time was, “I love learn
ing but hate organized education. ”
In high school, we are indoctrinated
to believe that anybody who wants to
be anybody has to go to college. But I
couldn’t stand the thought of going fur
ther into debt every year for the privi
lege of being part of an unmotivated
mass of adolescents “learning” at the
speed of the slowest common denomi
nator. Perhaps I would have been con
tent to simply hate school, go through
the motions and get it over with, but
“The Apprentice” was about to change
all that.
First-season candidate Ttoy McClain
had developed a successful real-estate
GABE BRADLEY
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
business, became a fan favorite and
went to the inside track to win the
whole enchilada despite having only a
high school education. And then there
was Nick Warnock, the brassy full
commission copier salesman who
brought the floundering Versacorp
team its first win.
Inspired by the antics of these illus
trious capitalists, I summoned the
courage, or foolhardiness, to drop out
of school and get a job as a full-com
mission insurance agent. I took a lot of
flack from friends and family, but life
was good. I worked hard and always
got home in time to catch “The Ap
prentice” on Thursday nights. Perhaps
I would have been content to spend my
life trying to work my street smarts and
sales skills for all they were worth. But
again, “The Apprentice” was about to
change all that.
Episode 12, two weeks before the
finale, TVoy McClain went head to
head with his friend, Kwame Jack
son, whose primary qualification is
an MBA from the Harvard School of
Business. It was the epitome of book
smarts versus street smarts. When the
dust had settled, book smarts won
out, and TVoy was fired.
That was when it hit me: No matter
how smart, skilled or experienced you
may be, if you can’t prove it, you can
only get so far. It’s not fair, but life’s not
fair. I tucked my tail between my legs
and limped back to the University, hav
ing only delayed my graduation by a
term or so.
For the third season of “The Appren
tice,” the Donald has added a new
twist by pitting a college-educated
“book smarts” team against a high
school-educated “street smarts” team.
It’s like revisiting TYoy versus Kwame
every week. So far, “The Apprentice”
has seemed to confirm the glass ceiling
in the business world. Both seasons
have been won by college-educated
white guys in their mid-30s. We’ll see
if this season bucks the trend.
Perhaps in the future they’ll get even
further into the nitty gritty by having a
“useful degrees” versus “useless de
grees.” Who wouldn’t want to see phi
losophy majors and art history majors
face off against MBAs and JDs? Or how
about graduate school versus bache
lor’s degrees? In any case, there’s plen
ty of room for Mark Burnett and Don
ald Thimp to beat “The Apprentice"
into the ground, just like “Survivor.”
gabebradley@dailyemercdd.com
INBOX
PFC's defunding attempts
based on a grudge
In rejecting the mission statement of
the Oregon Commentator, the PFC
demonstrates its complete inability to
reason clearly, apply consistent stan
dards or judge groups in a viewpoint
neutral manner. What’s more, the PFC
attempts to place itself above the law in
deciding what is or is not protected po
litical speech.
It seems the PFC has chosen two
groups notoriously critical of the ASUO
to defund and attempt to silence. Both
publications provide very important
coverage of ASUO shenanigans and try
to make the ASUO accountable not
only to the 4.6 percent of the student
body who put them in office, but also
to the entirety of the student body.
The Emerald does this through often
solid reporting and the occasional
scathing editorial, while the Commen
tator provides analysis, in-depth report
ing and, yes, biting (often callous) hu
mor. Both are vital to the free exchange
of ideas and, in their own way, seek to
expose the major failings of the ASUO
as an institution. Ttying to stifle such
important media outlets because what
they say puts the lie to all of the
ASUO’s lofty rhetoric is shameful,
childish and, moreover, pathetic.
Are the members of the ASUO really
so weak they can’t take a little criti
cism? In 2002 the PFC tabled the Com
mentator’s budget due to the content of
the mission statement. In the early
1990s, the IFC, a predecessor to the
PFC, attempted to defund the Com
mentator for unpopular content. The
PFC’s habit of abusing the two most
important publications on campus
must come to an end. If the PFC is al
lowed to get away with this, the cam
pus environment will be damaged be
yond repair.
Timothy Dreier
2003-04 editor in chief
Oregon Commentator
Yellow ribbon removal
protects free speech
Are you joking? “Nice job throwing
those obscure bureaucratic rules back
in the face of that patriotic sucker ...
If ever there was a time when the
rules were meant to be broken, this
was the time ... Sometimes common
sense and decency must trump the
letter of the law” (’’Yellow ribbon
complaint — code red free speech
threat,” ODE, Jan. 26).
That obscure bureaucratic rule
you’re referring to is actually the same
First Amendment that you claim to so
honorably uphold in your paper. Every
taxpayer in this state contributed, how
ever incrementally, to the purchase and
maintenance of the truck. Should we
all get to pick a magnet to put on it? In
this instance we protect everybody’s
right to free speech by keeping the
truck in its original, politically, morally,
patriotically silent mode.
I wish as much as anyone that the
“patriotic sucker” could have his mag
net on the truck. But then we would
have to let the unpatriotic sucker put
his magnet on the truck too. One day
the Ku Klux Klan sucker would show
up with his magnet. Everybody would
get mad and say that he was out of line,
that nobody wanted his magnet on the
truck. Yet, we would have to let him,
because we had let everybody else.
The alternative the Emerald editorial
board proposes with its “rules are
meant to be broken” brand of advice is
to designate some lucky fellow to be
the arbiter of what magnets are accept
able. I’m not sure who is so enlight
ened as to be capable of that, but the
editorial board seems to be feeling up
to it. Maybe they know something that
constitutional law scholar and Univer
sity President Dave Frohnmayer does
n’t, but given the board’s sophomoric
understanding of the Constitution,
journalism, and so-called common
sense, I’m hesitant to support that.
The Emerald’s credibility would be
enhanced by choosing not to engage in
such self righteous diatribes. Better yet,
you could handle your business like
business, and not resort to misguided
First Amendment arguments every
time you need to get your funding ap
proved. Get off the soap box, go get a
new readership survey and please stick
to the news.
Ben Strawn
Eugene
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■ Editorial
Apathy in
youth sets
dangerous
precedent
One day after the people of Iraq took a col
lective, courageous, inspiring step toward
democracy and freedom, a disturbing study
shows that Americans may be taking a giant
apathetic step backward.
A survey of 112,003 high-school students by
the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
has found an extreme lack of awareness and
even contempt for the rights and freedoms
they enjoy everyday.
Only 51 percent of high school students sur
veyed said they agreed with the statement,
“Newspapers should be allowed to publish
freely without government approval of sto
ries. ” In other words, half of students believe
(or simply don’t care) that the government
should be allowed to censor news reports;
they do not believe in, or are apathetic to
ward, free press.
It is even worse than that: 83 percent of
high school students surveyed agree with the
statement, “People should be allowed to ex
press unpopular opinions.” Or 17 percent of
students feel that if a belief is “unpopular,”
you should not be allowed to legally express
your belief. In other words, 17 percent of stu
dents do not believe in freedom of speech.
When we only count students who have
never taken a media class in high school, the
number who don’t believe in freedom of
speech leaps to 33 percent!
How is it possible that high schoolers could
be so indifferent about basic freedoms, the
very foundation of what makes America
great, the very thing the government says so
many young Americans are dying to try to
spread to the rest of the world? Are these the
beliefs of the incoming freshmen and sopho
mores to this University?
It is not just the beliefs of these students
that are scary. When high-school teachers
were asked whether high-school newspapers
should be allowed to report on controversial
topics without approval from school authori
ties, only 39 percent said yes. And only
58 percent of teachers believed that musicians
should be allowed to sing songs with offen
sive lyrics.
These are the teachers who are responsible
for instilling an appreciation of the First
Amendment in their students. Even 30 per
cent of Americans feel the First Amendment
goes too far. No wonder our young people are
incapable of outrage about government intru
sions in their private lives. No wonder our
young people sit quietly as their freedoms are
shaved away.
■ Out loud
“I didn’t hear any shooting. Suddenly, I
heard Norhan screaming. Then she fell down.
I looked at my hand and saw blood.”
— Aysha Khateeb, an injured classmate of
Norhan Deeb, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl
who was shot in a Gaza schoolyard Monday.
The circumstances of her death are unclear.
“He has joined the more than a million Ital
ians who have come down with the flu.”
— Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vails
on 84-year-old Pope John Paul II. The illness
led the Pope to cancel scheduled audiences
Monday — the first such cancellations in
more than a year.
— From Associated Press reports