Oregon Daily Emerald
Monday, February 7, 2005
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■ 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.