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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2005)
Oregon Daily Emerald Thursday, April 14, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 |EN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR IARED PABEN AYISHA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BALING1T AMANITA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR (ON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY LICHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA LINTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST A1LEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMAR1E KNEPPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER HM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORT ON 7ANE RITE PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEESLEY IEANN1E EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY B1AC.KF1ELD PAULTHOMPSON SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BILSLAND AMBER UNDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GF-RW1CK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541) 346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATI !Y CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER IAUNA DF. GIUSTI RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN JANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541) 346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CAUSCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE HIRONAKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHEIL MIA LEIDELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORA1.YNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA HAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LET KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 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 pnvate property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law ■ In my opinion money I love a good urban legend. S< when a friend told me that some gm was threatening to kill a bunny if hi didn’t get $50,000,1 thought it was , great story. And when I went to savetoby.com it appeared to be a true one. An ex cerpt from the “welcome” page: “Welcome, Toby is the cutest littl bunny on the planet. Unfortunately he will DIE on June 30th, 2005 if yoi don.t (sic) help. I rescued him severa months ago. I found him under itv porch, soaking wet, injured from wha appeared to be an attack from an alle cat. I took him in, thinking he had m chance to live from his injuries, bu miraculously, he recovered. I hav since spent several months nursin, him to health. Toby is a fighter, that’ (sic) for sure. Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005 Toby will die. I am going to eat him. am going to take Toby to a butcher t< have him slaughter this cute bunny, will then prepare Toby for a midsum mer feast. I have several recipes unde consideration, which can be seen with some pretty graphic images, un der the recipe section. I don’t want to eat Toby ... Howev er, God as my witness, I will devou this little guy unless I receive 50,000! USD into my account from donation or purchase of merchandise. You cai ANNEMARIE KNEPPER WORKS ON PAPER 1 help this poor, helpless bunny’s cause 1 by making donations through my ver / ified PayPal account by clicking on t any of the Donate buttons on this site, / or by purchasing merchandise at the r Savetoby.com online store. ” t The balance, at press time was ? $24,515.62. I I don’t know who this person is, 3 but I do think he or she is brilliant. Already the ransom-seeker is almost , halfway there and with two-and-half I months to spare. The marketing ge ) nius continues with a very profes I sional looking online store from which one can buy T-shirts, sweat r shirts, camisoles and hats, posters, , mugs and baby bibs, all with the “hopeful” image of Toby emblazoned across the front. Toby and his captor got national r attention Monday when NBC News i quoted the anonymous pet owner: 3 “It's very serious. If we don't get r $50,000, we are going to eat the rabbit.” Animal advocates also weighed in on the “serious” issue, making all right-to-bunny-lifers look stupid with their misplaced outrage. With even casual research (looking at the bottom of the Save Toby Web page) one can see that it is powered by CafePress.com, a “marketplace” where you can buy, you guessed it, T-shirts, hats, and mugs with such in spiring messages as “Hillary for Presi dent” and “I HATE TAXES.” The Cafe Press, “the voice of the people” as the Web site claims, offers products ad vertising anti-Bush sentiment, fast food, release of the Great White, and ... animal cruelty prevention. And if the image of Toby looks fa miliar, that’s because it has appeared on the now extinct savefluffy.com, among other phony rabbit-killer sites, according to the myth debunker Web site snopes.com. So the whole thing is really just a scam to sell cheesy apparel. And not since the “Marilyn Manson is really the guy who played Paul on the Won der Years! ” or perhaps “Little Mikey of LIFE cereal fame died from a Pop Rocks/Pepsi overdose!” have I been so amused by an urban legend. Bravo to whoever created saveto by.com. You got us all — for a minute. annemarieknepper@dailyemerald. com University activists fail to react to pornography Where are the protests and ac tivists that the University prides itself on? With Playboy's shameless re cruiting of campus women, I would have thought that University femi nists and other activists would be up in arms. I hope I am not the only per son who is disturbed by the fact that a pornographic magazine is not only recruiting University women, but also that it is being advertised on Universi ty property and in the Emerald. Pornography is degrading to all parties involved; it reduces women to objects of lust, devalues them as hu man beings and in doing so it creates in men a distorted view of women. On a campus which works hard to prevent sexual assault and in a society where we value healthy relationships between the sexes, I simply am baf fled at why we are seemingly celebrat ing Playboy's campus recruitment. I am not arguing against Playboy's right to do business in a free society, but I find it insidious that a maga zine is so successful in undermining the values we (hopefully) hold in common here: that women are not mere sexual objects, and degrading anyone to satisfy our base urges is simply wrong. I also find it equally baffling that some obscure incident can happen on the other side of the world and the entire campus “activist” commu nity is on the streets marching, yet when women are being devalued and objectified in front of our faces, INBOX nobody makes a move. —Zachary White Junior Financial aid eligibility laws discriminate against poor Emily Smith’s report on the conse quences for reselling prescription am phetamines (“Student arrested for sell ing prescription drugs,” ODE April 12) mentions that students with felony drug charges are not eligible for finan cial aid. This is true. However, students in Oregon should be aware that the law extends beyond felony violations. According to the Drug Provision of the Higher Education Act of 1998, a student convicted of any drug offense will be penalized not only by the crim inal justice system, but through the fi nancial aid system too. Individuals with one possession conviction are in eligible to receive aid for one year. If they have two possession convictions, they are penalized for two years, while three convictions lead to a per manent aid ban. Students lose aid for two years for one sale conviction and permanently for two convictions. These penalties stick, regardless of whether the convictions were misde meanor or felony. Because the law only hurts students who need financial aid, it is discriminatory against the poor. Be cause minorities are convicted of drug offenses at disproportionate rates, it hinders African-American and Latino students, also at disproportionate rates, from getting an education. So far, over 160,500 students have lost aid because of this policy. Thank fully, Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon has said he would like to introduce legislation to repeal this law. Universi ty students should visit www.RaiseY ourVoice.com and contact him to en sure that all students have equal access to education. —Brian Dolber Outreach Coordinator, Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform, Washington, D.C. Scientists make another 'unfortunate mistake' In an April 12 Emerald letter, Mr. Bai ly quoted Paul McHugh's scientific jus tification that transgender identity is a mental illness (“Students need to exam ine science behind transgender”). I would ask that we remember the Nazi's “scientific” justification for ethnic cleansing. I would ask that we remember “scientific” justification for female inferiority around the world. I would also ask that we re member scientific racism in America when scientists “proved” that African-Americans and Hispanics were inferior to Whites. There was even “scientific” proof that the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the earth. Today, no reputable scientist would support these outdated and tragically bigoted hypotheses. Perhaps in 20 years, McHugh's re marks will also become another un fortunate mistake of history, and yet another oppressed group will be able to live without fear and judgement. —Elizabeth Mounts Senior OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for venfication The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald. ■ Editorial Nationwide libraries burned by budget cuts Anyone who cares about the future of Ameri can commerce, politics, science, art, music, film or about our future as a society should take a mo ment during this week, officially “National Li brary Week,” to reflect on the unfortunate state of the American public library system. With the ease and speed of the Internet, it is easy to discount the public library as a home to musty plastic-covered books, a relic of the past. Today, the estimated 16,421 public libraries in the U.S., often no longer valued as symbols of civic pride, have come under fire. When citizens reject local taxes and bonds, libraries and cultural programs are the first to go on the chopping block. The community of Salinas, Calif., home of No bel laureate John Steinbeck, provides an excellent example of the dismemberment of this great American legacy. In November, Salinas voters re jected two measures that would have added rev enue to the city’s budget. By December the city council moved to close the city’s three libraries and lay off 33 employees because of lack of funds. Only after protests involving unions, na tional library experts, local schoolchildren and read-ins by celebrities was the community able to raise enough funds to keep the three libraries open, with a skeleton staff and minimum hours, until the end of the year. According to the American Library Associa tion, projected and announced library funding cuts nationally have topped $111.2 million in the past 18 months, resulting in the “reduction in li brary funding ... cuts to operating budgets, limit ed hours, reduced materials budgets, hiring freezes or elimination of personnel and reduced library programming. ” The ALA’s “anecdotal reports” on budget funding contain the most up-to-date statistical data available, supplementing the most recent comprehensive federal data, which lags by two to five years. This speaks volumes about how our society has come to rank the importance of this public institution. Libraries may seem old fashioned, but given proper funding, more libraries could offer audio books for iPods and connections to the all-impor tant Internet, in addition to traditional book loans. For many citizens living in poverty, libraries provide the only possible access to e-mail corre spondence, worldwide news and many other on line services. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found in 2004 that 23 percent of adult U.S. Internet users, close to 30 million people, have gone online from a place other than home or work. While some used the Internet at school and friends’ or neighbors’ homes, 26 percent used it at libraries. Twentieth century historian Arthur Meier Schlesinger said, “The public library has been historically a vital instrument of democracy and opportunity in the United States. ... Our history has been greatly shaped by people who read their way to opportunity and achievements in public libraries.” We couldn’t agree more. Eugene has been graced, relatively recently, by a new and grand public library that has become a point of pride for its citizens. It has become a bea con that speaks to the importance of education in our community, and we hope it remains as such for many years. We urge the majority of this na tion to take another look at local libraries and give them the funding they deserve. CORRECTION Wednesday's article “Waterless urinal takes a trial run in rest room” said the Eugene Water and Electric Board charges $0.87 to $1.99 per gallon of water. It is actually $0.87 to $1.99 per 1,000 gallons of water, and the University pays 95.9 cents per 1,000 gallons of water as a “general service" customer. The Emerald resets the error.
