Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
NEWS STAFF
(541)346-5511
I FIN SUDICK
EDITOR IN CHIEF
STEVEN R. NEUMAN
MANAGING EDITOR
JARED PABEN
AYISHA YAIJVA
NEWS EDITORS
MEGHANN CUNIFF
PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS
MORIAH BALING1T
AMANDA BOLSINGER
ADAM CHERRY
EVA SYLWESTER
SHELDON TRAVER
NEWS REPORTERS
CLAYTON JONES
SPORTS EDITOR
ION ROETMAN
SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER
STEPHEN MILLER
BRIAN SMTHl
SPORTS REPORTERS
RYAN NYBURG
PULSE EDITOR
NATASHA CLIILINGERIAN
SENIOR PULSE REPORTER
AMY IJCHTY
PULSE REPORTER
CAT BAI.DWIN
PULSE CARTOONIST
DAVID JAGERNAUTH
COMMENTARY EDITOR
GABE BRADLEY
JENNIFER MCBRIDE
AII.LE SLATER
T RAVIS WILLSE
COLUMNISTS
ASHLEY GRIFFIN
SUPPLEMENT
FREELANCE EDITOR
DANIELLE HICKEY
PHOTO EDITOR
LAUREN W1MER
SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
NICOLE BARKER
TIM BOBOSKY
PHOTOGRAPHER
ERIK BISHOFE
KATE HORTON
PARTTIME PHOTOGRAPHERS
BRIT FURTWANGLER
GRAPHIC ARTIST
KIRA PARK
DESIGN EDITOR
DUSTIN REESE
SENIOR DESIGNER
WENDY KIEFFER
AMANDA LEE
BRIANNESHOUAN
DESIGNERS
SHADRA BEESLEY
IEANN1E EVERS
COPY CHIEFS
KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD
PAULTHOMPSON
SPORTS COPY EDITORS
GREG BILSLAND
AMBER L1NDROS
NEWS COPY EDITOR
LINDSAY BURT
PULSE COPY EDITOR
ADRIENNE NELSON
ONLINE EDITOR
WEBMASTER
BUSINESS
(541)3465511
JUDY RIEDL
GENERAL MANAGER
KATHY CARBONE
BUSINESS MANAGER
REBECCA CRITCHETT
RECEPTIONIST
A1BINGGUO
ANDREW LEAHY
JOHN LONG
HOLLY MISTELL
HOLLY STEIN
DISTRIBUTION
ADVERTISING
(541) 346-3712
MEIJSSA GUST
ADVERTISING DIRECTOR
TYLER MACK
SALES MANAGER
MATT BETZ
HERON CAlJSCH-IXTli-N
MEGAN HAMLIN
KATE HIRONAKA
MAEGAN KASER-LEE
MIA LEIDELMEYER
EMILY PHILBIN
SHANNON ROGERS
SALES REPRESENTATIVES
KELLEE KAUITHEIL
AD ASSISTANT
CLASSIFIED
(541)3464343
TR1NA SHANAMAN
CLASSIFIED MANAGER
KATY GAGNON
SABRINA GOWETTF.
LESLIE STRAIGHT
KERI SPANGLER
KATIE STRINGER
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
ASSOCIATES
PRODUCTION
(541)3464381
MICHELE ROSS
PRODUCTION MANAGER
TARA SLOAN
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
JEN CRAMLET
KRISTEN DICHARRY
CAMERON GAITI
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.
■ In my opinion
Making messes with
messages
The Emerald s estimated reader
ship is around 10,000. So for the 9,950
of you who didn’t make it to the Cul
tural Forum’s Queer Film Festival this
weekend, you didn’t miss much.
The documentaries were fine. Pre
dictable, but fine. The few films with
a narrative thrust were disappointing.
As I tried to stay awake during “The
Raspberry Reich” — basically a hard
core porno with tongue-in-cheek neo
Communist overtones — I tried to fig
ure out why I had been so bored
through the films I’d seen so far.
To begin with, the guy-on-guy ac
tion was hardly the best I’ve seen.
But it takes more than mediocre man
love to completely ruin a movie for
me. The main problem, I think, is not
with these particular movies, but with
any narrative film that focuses more
on the message than the story.
Films with a “message,” more often
than not, sag under the weight of their
own self-importance. They substitute
cliches and tired platitudes for the
subtle craft of quality storytelling.
Human beings are storytelling crea
tures. No known civilization has ex
isted without storytelling. Storytelling
exists where the stodgy empirical con
cepts of nonfiction, facts and science
are nowhere to be found.
Deep meaning often comes as a
natural byproduct of a good story. Un
fortunately, a good story rarely comes
from a starting place with meaning.
Yet so many of these movies begin
with a message and then tell a story,
as if it was an afterthought.
When a film is really moving, the
audience member discovers his or her
own meaning of the story, inspired by
_Mk_
GABE BRADLEY
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
the layers of meaning buried by the
filmmakers, often subconsciously.
Skillful filmmakers start with the story
and let it lead to the message. When
filmmakers start with a message and
then come up with a story to fit, the
story often suffers.
Moreover, since the message is so
explicit, the audience is robbed of the
joy of personal interpretation. As
such, some audience members will be
unable to connect with the message
while others will feel their intelligence
is being insulted. Too often, message
movies only end up resonating with
people who were already tuned to a
particular message and fail to appeal
to any sort of wider audience —
preaching to the proverbial choir.
And this goes for all message
movies across all agendas, not just
those I saw this weekend.
The Mormons have terrible mes
sage movies. Take, for instance: “The
Book of Mormon Movie, Volume I,”
“The RM,” and “Charly.” These are
but a few of the LDS movies that oc
casionally show at Cinema World at
Valley River. I have yet to be im
pressed by one.
The Protestants have terrible mes
sage movies. Take, for instance, the
“Left Behind” movies starring Kirk
Cameron, any Focus on the Family
production, and that “Apocalypse”
movie with Mr. T.
And from the Catholic camp comes
the granddaddy of all message movies
that suck: Mel Gibson’s “The Passion
of The Christ.”
The same holds for other forms of
storytelling, not just movies.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the
Rings” is one of the most over-ana
lyzed novels ever written. In his fore
word to the second edition, he makes
clear that his epic is not a giant, com
plicated allegory. He didn’t start with
a message about drugs, nuclear ener
gy, the environment or the military in
dustrial complex. He started with a
story that seized his soul and stirred
his imagination. Then he wrote it
carefully and faithfully to the spirit of
adventure that had come upon him.
Classics are rarely written with the
idea that they will become classics.
They are thrilling tales first, and
works of great cultural import second.
This is one of the reasons why I
think “The Vagina Monologues” is a
wretched play (for more on this, see
“Vagina Monologues Misspeaks,”
ODE, Feb. 15). In reaction to the col
umn I wrote on the subject, some
have called for my resignation as pres
ident of the vagina fan club. Howev
er, since differing tastes in theater is
neither a high crime nor a misde
meanor, I shall serve out the remain
der of my term as president.
The same goes for my term as sec
retary-treasurer of the guy-on-guy ac
tion fan club.
gabebradley@dailyememld.com
INBOX
Students should prepare for
an imminent military draft
A military draft: ominous words of
our collective collegiate destiny or
merely conspiracy theory? Six months
ago I felt draft rumors were the result of
savvy political campaigning; scare the
college kids to vote liberal. However,
the election has now passed, the ru
mors remain, and an alarming amount
of evidence is surfacing that points to
Congress re-instituting a military draft.
So, what evidence is there? First,
Congress took under advisement in
2002 three different scenarios that
could trigger the re-issuance of a mili
tary draft. The first scenario entails a
prolonged war with Iraq; the second in
volves expanding U.S. military involve
ment beyond Iraq and Pakistan; and
the third scenario entails another major
terrorist attack upon American soil.
What is most alarming is that any of
these scenarios could easily confront
the United States in the near future. It
seems the line that separates us from
being college students and activated
military personnel is thinner than one
would like to think.
There exists further evidence for the
re-issuance of a military draft. In Janu
ary, a letter written by the powerful and
influential think tank, Project for the
New American Century, advised lead
ing members of Congress to “take the
steps necessary to increase substantial
ly the size of the active duty Army and
Marine Corps. ” This increase in mili
tary personnel far exceeds the total
number of new incoming recruits. Said
another way, they are requesting Con
gress to re-issue the draft.
A community organization in Eu
gene is taking steps to help people of
draft age (18-26) to prepare against be
ing drafted. The Community Alliance
of Lane County has increased its
staffing of draft counselors and will
hold a Draft Education Forum to edu
cate students on ways to prepare for a
draft. The meeting will be held
March 3 at 5:00 p.m. in Esslinger 116.
CALC also offers free drop-in counsel
ing every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
at its office located at 458 Blair St.
I strongly encourage University stu
dents to take advantage of this Draft
Education Forum and the free drop-in
counseling provided by CALC. I am
sure for many students it is hard to
believe they would be drafted. Many
Vietnam vets thought the same thing,
but many were drafted. And when
drafted and forced to fight in Vietnam,
many thought they would never get
hurt, but many were injured or never
came back. It is incumbent upon the
students to take actions to protect
themselves against succumbing to a
similar fate.
Rodney Yoder
Eugene
Commentator treatment
balances hate with hate
One needs leave the University for
no more than a fortnight to gain an in
valuable perspective on the sheer
imbecility and shocking audacity of
its leadership. Perhaps living in Asia
has given me an even more striking
comparison to the volume of stupidity
that seems to permeate the halls of
our sacred institution of learning.
Given the venom and acid of the
words spoken and written by
PFC member Mason Quiroz, there
can be little doubt, at least to anyone
looking from the outside in, that there
is little, if any, love lost between
Quiroz and the Commentator. Yet no
one seems courageous enough to
challenge him on his hatred of the
group. So, let me see if I have under
stood this correctly: It’s okay to hate,
as long as you hate the right group.
The danger in that thinking is so
obviously apparent as to flabbergast
the reasoned mind; and yet, as is typi
cal of the intellectual elite at the Uni
versity, hatred and intolerance is
nonetheless encouraged toward
groups that refuse to fall in line with
the most recent PC hyperbole. What
you are saying, in essence, is that it’s
quite all right to hate conservative
groups because they hate, and hate
for hate balances out. How enlight
ened. Students at the University
should be frightened not of the sarcas
tic humor of groups like the Commen
tator, but rather at the ease with
w'hich those who govern their re
sources are willing to collar speech
and expression when it doesn’t suit
their fancy.
Scott D. Austin
Luodong Town, Taiwan
■ Editorial
PFC lacks
more than
money for
programs
The students in charge of distributing inci
dental fees in a timely and viewpoint-neutral
mariner have made an appalling mess of the
budget and now must find a way to recover
the tens-of-thousands of dollars already prom
ised to student groups.
Apparently nobody at the ASUO Programs Fi
nance Committee bothered to keep track of the
money they were dishing out — we are hardly
surprised — and now the unthinkable has hap
pened: They are scrambling to find a way out.
Making matters worse, the PFC has wasted the
entire month of February dealing with injunc
tions and launching inappropriate attacks on
free speech, and now they have less than a week
to submit and implement a solution.
Many suggestions were batted around dur
ing Friday’s brainstorming session, none of
them ideal, many of them potentially destruc
tive. One suggestion was to take 2 percent
from every group’s budget, a problematic so
lution that could have left certain line items
under-funded. Programs that deservingly re
ceived small increases should not have their
budgets decreased just because the PFC gave
generously to one of their pet projects.
The second suggestion was for the PFC to
blindly sign off on all ASUO Executive recom
mendations. That PFC members would even
contemplate shirking their responsibilities, af
ter failing to do their jobs in a spectacular dis
play of incompetence, is beyond comprehen
sion. Why have a PFC if it is going to
rubber-stamp the Executive recommendation?
Why have months of hearings? Why even al
low student programs to make a budget re
quest if the PFC is simply going to “listen to
the controllers,” as embattled Vice Chair Ma
son Quiroz suggested? The members of the
PFC need to do their jobs once and for all and
stop passing the buck.
The third suggestion — and the one accepted
— was to rework the stipend model. If the PFC
were to figure out a system, it could potentially
fill the funding gap without sacrificing program
ing. Of the three imperfect solutions on the
table, this is the one the PFC wisely chose to ex
ecute. If a group is unable to find energized vol
unteers and poorly paid leaders then maybe
that is a group that doesn’t deserve student
money in the first place.
The Emerald has additional suggestions.
First, all PFC members should have their
wages garnished as punishment for their
criminal ineptitude. Second, they should issue
a formal apology to every student group for
wasting their time over the last several
months. Third, they should issue a second
formal apology to all University students for
treating their money like it was a game of Mo
nopoly. Fourth, they should hold a town hall
style public meeting so they can answer stu
dent questions and hear student criticism.
The Emerald has already called for an out
side facilitator to conduct PFC meetings in the
future in order to ensure that its members un
derstand and follow rules on viewpoint neu
trality. Perhaps another outside facilitator is
needed to help PFC members count.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Jennifer Sudick
Editor in Chief
David Jagemauth
Commentary Editor
Steven R. Neuman
Managing Editor
Shadra Beesley
Copy Chief
Adrienne Nelson
Online Editor