Oregon Daily Emerald
Thesday, March 29, 2005
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■ In my opinion
As I was furiously studying for fi
nals a couple weeks ago, I looked up
at the TV and saw one of those im
ages that goes straight from the eye
balls to the heart. At the risk of
sounding like a girly man, I don’t
mind telling you that I got a little
teary-eyed. On March 16, Iraq’s first
democratically elected parliament
was sworn in.
I got chills.
We are witnessing the birth of a
new nation — a new republic to be
a beacon of the light of liberty and a
champion for human rights in a re
gion that has recently been enslaved
by fear and fanaticism.
The Iraqi parliament has not yet
accomplished much, but that just
means democracy is working.
They’re arguing, they’re dragging
their feet, they’re struggling to find
compromise in a sea of conflict.
They’re embroiled in the very
essence of democracy. They’re learn
ing that things move slowly in a
democracy, and that building a
coalition takes time.
On this side of the world, we’re
learning something, too, from our
brothers and sisters in the Middle
East. We’re learning that the will to
be free is at the heart of every man
and woman. The desire to forge a
free future transcends any ethnic or
cultural boundaries that may sepa
rate us; it is at the very core of our
humanity. The racist, ignorant no
tion that the Arab world “isn’t
ready” for democracy has been ex
posed as a fallacy.
Is the situation in Iraq stable? Of
course not. Democracy is a destabi
lizing influence; that doesn’t mean
it’s not exactly what the region
needs. After 30 years of sadistic to
talitarianism, I think stability and
preservation of the status quo is the
last thing Iraq needs.
Democracy does not come with
out cost and struggle. Some point to
GABE BRADLEY
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
the bombings in Baghdad as a sign
that democracy is not taking root in
Iraq, obviously ignorant the fact that
our very own White House still has
scorch marks from when the British
torched the place in the War of 1812
— that was 23 years after the coun
try ratified the Constitution. We had
to fight not only to get our democra
cy, but also to keep our democracy.
We too had to defend our capital
city from those who designed to
re-enslave us.
In 1776, Thomas Paine, one of
America’s first best-selling authors,
encouraged the continental army in
“The American Crisis” with these
words: “Tyranny, like hell, is not
easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder
the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph. What we obtain too cheap,
we esteem too lightly: it is dearness
only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper
price upon its goods; and it would
be strange indeed if so celestial an
article as FREEDOM should not be
highly rated.” These famous words
apply today just as they did then.
Over two decades ago, Ronald
Reagan had the courage to dream of
a world without the “evil empire,” at
a time when few could even imagine
the downfall of the Soviet Union.
The fall of the Soviet Union was
destabilizing, but it was good and
necessary. So now George Bush
dares to dream of a democratized
Middle East.
Just try to imagine it. The Middle
East used to be the center for art,
culture and learning in the world.
Out of this desert blossomed poetry
and music the likes of which the
world had never seen. The Middle
East boasts accomplishments in
math, science and philosophy. Also,
the world’s second largest religion
originated here. This is a beautiful
place with beautiful people.
Imagine the oasis it could once
again be if these people are allowed
to reclaim their dignity and wrest
control of their lives from the tyrants
and despots who have been allowed
to determine the region’s destiny for
far too long.
This is the most exciting time to
watch the Middle East since the ad
vent of Israel in 1948. This is a great
time to be alive and a great time to be
a proponent of freedom and liberty.
People argue over which way the
media is biased. The truth is, it’s split
pretty much down the middle. Liber
als tend to dominate newspapers and
broadcast news, while Conservatives
tend to dominate radio and cable
news. In time, though, the day to day
news cycles will fade and history will
be left to tell the story of how democ
racy came to the Middle East.
And while George Bush is too
busy making history to give much
thought to how history will remem
ber him, as a proud citizen of Pun
dit-Ville, I’d like to give imagining
the future a shot.
I believe our children’s children
will not read about a village idiot,
they will read about a leader who
fought for democracy. He will be
compared to Reagan, Truman and
JFK rather than to Johnson and
Nixon. This war will be compared to
World War II and the Cold War
rather than to Vietnam. The history
of democracy will post this one to
the “W” column.
gab ebradley@ daily emerald, com
INBOX
U.S. media coddles
Bush administration
Let’s play a visualization game.
Picture that a few years back, the
Clinton people were letting a male
prostitute into the White House.
Let’s imagine that this hooker was
attending high level meetings and
giving him access to classified mate
rial. Let’s also say that this man was
a fake journalist and served as a pro
pagandist shill with the White
House press core. If Clinton were im
plicated in such a scandal, he would
have been hounded by press cover
age and crucified by Republican
mobs. But this is the exact situation
that was just discovered within the
Bush White House.
The U.S. media gives the Bush
administration a pass on everything.
It shouldn’t surprise us that the cor
porate military/industrial owned
“mainstream” media, which
receives deregulation and other quid
pro quo deals from Bush, as well as
profiting greatly from his empire
wars, behaves the way it does, but
it is a shame to see the once noble
Forth Estate turned into a
whorehouse.
Gerry Rempel
Eugene
Board carefully considers
student election schedule
As the term begins, students are
blessed with a few weeks of calm
when their school work load has not
peaked and their freshly tanned bod
ies are just easing into new classes.
What better time in the term to hold
a student election, when students are
not as pressured by scholastic de
mands and might actually have time
to attend events that the Elections
Board holds. The Elections Board un
derstands the importance of election
dates, which is why we carefully re
searched and archived past criticisms.
These dates were not picked by “stab
bing blindly at (our) desk calendars”
(“Early ASUO election date leaves stu
dents uninformed,” ODE, March 28)
but rather with careful consideration
of the Constitutional Court and the
Oregon Daily Emerald’s past recom
mendation to keep elections out of
law school dead week and finals. By
considering these dates, the Elections
Board is striving to hold elections in
the best interest of the student body.
In this circumstance, the best interest
of students may not be the best inter
est of the press, and therefore the
elections board will work extremely
hard to facilitate the Oregon Daily
Emerald and all other media outlets.
The Elections Board recognizes that
this timeline could make it difficult for
media outlets to provide the best cov
erage, especially when there is little
time to contact and interview candi
dates. We apologize for any inconven
ience this has provided for the Emer
ald staff, and we are dedicated to
informing students to the best of our
ability given the restrictions on date.
If any student at this university
feels that they do not have the infor
mation needed to understand a
political candidate, we urge you to
e-mail or call the Elections Board.
We are more than happy to put
you in contact with any member of
any campaign.
2005 ASUO Elections Board
■ Editorial
Two words of
advice for
government:
Step off
Terri Schiavo — wait, don’t flip that page just
yet. In the event that you’ve been living under a
rock, the case of Florida resident Terri Schiavo
involves a legal and emotional battle between
Schiavo’s parents and her husband regarding
whether to remove Terri from life-support. She
has been in vegetative state for the past 15
years, and her husband says she never wanted
to live like this, but her parents say she could
recover. The case has been subjected to
overblown national scrutiny, but the political
implications pertain directly to all of us.
Oregon has repeatedly renewed its vow to
keep assisted suicide legal here, but in light of
the Florida government’s brash decision last
year to intervene on behalf of Schiavo’s parents
and prevent the removal of her feeding tube,
Oregon citizens may have reason to fear. In
Florida, the state government sided with Schia
vo’s family, but the decision over Terri’s life is
legally only her husband’s to make. This fact
was ignored. A government overstepping the
wishes of a patient’s legal guardian or next of
kin, such as a husband or wife, based on emo
tional or religious appeal sets a scary precedent.
This is especially true in the context of a highly
contested act such as assisted suicide.
The Republican-dominated Congress severe
ly overstepped their authority in allowing Schia
vo’s parents to move their battle out of Florida
state courts and into the federal government ju
dicial system. The old Republican creed was to
keep government out of personal and state af
fairs; the new Republican creed appears to be
to keep government out of personal or state af
fairs — unless Conservatives have a vested,
usually religious interest in those affairs. Orego
nians surely remember Ashcroft’s attentive and
generally unwelcome concern over our Death
wih Dignity Act.
This issue is weirdly relevant to Schiavo. For
11 days Schiavo’s feeding and water tubes have
been disconnected, and while starvation is
surely not an easy way to die, most medical ex
perts agree it is unlikely that Schiavo is aware
of pain in her present state. Her parents claim
that Schiavo is speaking, or asking to remain
alive, a claim refuted by her doctors who noted
the spastic, unconscious nature of her vocaliza
tions. Still, many who begged for government
intervention have lamented Schiavo’s suffering
as she dies.
If she is experiencing pain, then perhaps the
Schiavo family, and the state of Florida in gen
eral should take another look at their own regu
lations over assisted suicide. In Oregon, Schiavo
might have been granted her right to die with
out lingering on the brink of starvation. In the
end the answer is simple. Michael Schiavo has
made the legal decision that his wife would not
wish to be kept alive, and now that the courts
have overruled inappropriate government inter
vention, a swift death would surely be more
dignified for everyone involved.
The choice over life and death is not an easy
one to make. The government should sit this
one out. As long as the patients and family in
volved are operating under legal pretenses, the
federal government should step aside in most
every case involving a choice, a life and dignity.
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