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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2005)
Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, February 7, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 JEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABEN AY1SHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNJFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BALINGIT AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY KARA HANSEN EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR NATASHA CHIUNGER1AN SENIOR PULSE REPORTER AMY LIC.HTY PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST DAVID JAGERNAUTH COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY JENNIFER MCBRIDE A1LEE SLATER TRAVIS WILLSE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER 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 SHOLIAN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY JEANN1E EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BIACKF1ELD PAU1.TJJOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITOR LINDSAY BURT PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR SLADE LEESON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541)346-5511 JUDY R1EDL GENERAL MANAGER RATIFY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER REBECCA CRITCHETT RECEPTIONIST A1BING GUO ANDREW LEAHY JOHN LONG HOLLY MISTELL HOLLY STEIN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MAT T BET/ HERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE MIALEIDELMEYER EMILY PHILBIN SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES KELLEE KAUFTHEIL AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KATY GAGNON SABRINA GOWETTE LESLIE STRAIGHT KERI SPANGLER KAITE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TAUA HAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LIT ' KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub 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 Free speech vs hate speech How can a liberal defend free speech when it includes the right to speech that is hateful in nature? This is a question that may be plaguing a great many here on the University of Oregon campus. While relevant to the topic, the fo cus of this commentary is not the oft discussed de-funding of the Oregon Commentator; rather, it is the Ameri can Nazi Party’s adoption of roads in Marion County, Oregon. Six weeks ago, in accordance with the Adopt-A Highway policy, this group took on the responsibility of keeping its span of highway clean, and bright green city signs were posted proclaiming that the American Nazi Party had adopted those spaces. Both signs were stolen last week, but they can be replaced if the party wishes. According to a recent Associated Press article, the county decided to approve the Nazi Party’s signs be cause of a January 2005 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Mis souri Ku Klux Klan members to have signs of a similar nature, under free speech rights of the First Amendment. In this case, the court decided that Missouri’s “desire to exclude contro versial organizations in order to pre vent road rage or public backlash on the highways against the adopters’ unpopular beliefs is simply not a legit imate governmental interest that would support the enactment of speech-abridging regulations.” Coming from a Jewish perspective, there are no fuzzy lines in this situa *. AILEE SLATER FURTHER FROM PERFECTION tion. For me, these signs are wrong, pe riod, and should not be posted. I be lieve it is wrong for the state to show any indication of condoning the behav ior of white supremacists, especially when such a group has been empirical ly shown to promote hate and death. This is not just hypothetical harm that such a group might cause; this is real world harm that resulted in the death of over 6 million people. To be forced to look upon the memory of such events on public paraphernalia is distressing, and the county’s decision to allow such signs is indecent and hateful in nature. Coming from a liberal, democratic perspective, however, the boundaries of right and wrong begin to fade, while the blur of confusion becomes 10-fold brighter. I believe that a pro-choice group should be allowed to adopt a highway and post a sign saying so; yet, a road adopted by people in favor of abortion could easily be offensive to cit izens who believe that abortion is legal ized murder. To these citizens, it would certainly seem that the state was con doning homicide. How can the govern ment shut off just one voice without shutting off all? Just as I believe that government legislation shouldn’t be based on Christian morals, I also grudg ingly believe that it shouldn’t be based solely on liberal morals either. Perhaps the most important idea to keep in mind is that hypocrisy is natu ral, and there is not always one right answer. I don’t know what the law should be regarding Adopt-A-Highway signs; for me, there is no solution. If one person cannot even come to a per sonal truth, how can a government of ficial ever find truth that is valid for an entire nation? Maybe more people, es pecially those in positions of political power, need to remember the frailty of their own belief systems. Perhaps then, seemingly absolute ideas such as God or life or choice could be re-evaluated once in a while. Accepting that noth ing is absolute is essential to finding the best solution rather than the “right” solution, especially when mak ing decisions that affect billions. Possessing conflicting personal and political views is okay, even important: It means the ability to see the other side of the story. I’m never going to be lieve that the American Nazi Party should have a public street sign, and I’m never going to believe that a pro choice group shouldn’t. And maybe, somewhere between the things I know and the things I can’t resolve lies an answer. I guess I’ll just have to keep on knowing and not knowing and won dering and searching. aileeslater@ dailyemerald.com INBOX Sometimes activists' extremes get results In response to David Jagernauth’s commentary article on Feb. 4, 2005,1 happen to agree with a lot of what was said in his column (“Welcome to ac tivist theatre”). I like the idea that some “actions” are becoming “more arbitrary and less consistent.” However, I feel that many “activists on the left” are very deliberate in their actions. They also get results. The time has come where conventional forms of protest are largely ignored. Many of these actions take place after an issue has been ignored in the institutional realm, so the necessity of “theater ac tivism” becomes an expression of the actor’s lack of satisfaction with the dominant power structure. “Theater activism” is a tactic important for expressing ideas without having to de pend on mainstream media. Saying that we should narrow the targets of our actions, I can agree with. But suggesting that we narrow the scope of our disobedience is ex actly the opposite of what needs to happen on a very, very large scale. Creativity is revolutionary. Ray Cole Eugene ■ Editorial Kid-friendly Super Bowl ads escape controversy As about 78,000 fans gathered at Alltel Sta dium on Sunday to watch the first Super Bowl ever held in Jacksonville, Fla., more than 100 million viewers positioned themselves in front of television sets awaiting the most-watched sporting event in history. Broadcast on the FOX network, this battle between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles also brought the much-anticipated grab for consumer dollars, and at a hefty price. At about $80,000 per second of commercial advertising, big-name companies such as An heuser-Busch and PepsiCo, who together bought seven-and-a-half minutes of advertis ing, faced off with smaller companies such as FedEx, which took a 45-second piece of the 59 30-second commercial units offered. FOX is expected to rake in an estimated $140 million in advertising revenue, according to The Associated Press. In a conservative swing to avoid an inci dent akin to last year’s “wardrobe malfunc tion,” which had CBS saddled with a $550,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission, Super Bowl organizers booked ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, 63, for 12 minutes of good, clean, half-time entertainment. “It’s a great honor to do this,” McCartney said at a February press conference announc ing his intention to perform. “People may have concerns of another wardrobe malfunc tion, but I can safely tell you that I won’t.” Advertisers have followed suit. According to a New York Times report, the Ford Motor Company on Wednesday withdrew a com mercial after receiving complaints that it made light of the recent string of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases. The commercial showed how a girl’s prank caused a member of clergy to be tempted by a Lincoln pickup. A Lincoln-Mercury spokeswoman told the Times that the company wanted the attention to be focused on the truck, not on possible parallels to the controversy. Although much of the Super Bowl commer cial content (which can be seen online at dyn.ifilm.com/superbowlads/) was overly watered down with child-friendly ads featur ing the Muppets for Pizza Hut, M.C. Hammer for Lay’s potato chips, a stable full of Marvel superheroes for Visa and the Jolly Green Gi ant for MasterCard, there were some highlights. Our favorites: FedEx’s “ten items needed to come out on top” featuring actor Burt Reynolds and a dancing, talking, groin-kicking bear, hit all the notes to be the best commercial of the Super Bowl (as promised). The tongue-in-cheek mockery of the Super Bowl’s advertising in sanity was refreshing and disturbingly accurate. Ameriquest Mortgage Company’s tagline “Don’t judge too quickly. We won’t.” was per fectly paired with a set of hilarious ads that put innocent people in situations easily taken out of context: A girlfriend walking in on a boyfriend holding a clumsy cat and a large knife over a spilled saucepot of tomato sauce was a winner among this company’s champions. Diet Pepsi, like FedEx, was at it’s best when in self-depreciation mode: When singer Sean “P. Diddy” Combs arrives at a premiere in a Diet Pepsi truck (after his own slick car broke down, of course) the vehicle soon becomes a must-have commodity, and Carson Daly makes an appearance playing up his reputation as a poseur.
