Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, April 14, 2005
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■ 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
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■ 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.