Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, May 27, 2005
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H In my opinion m O
Maintaining AfllCflCtl
TVvo-hundred eighteen years ago this
week, the Constitutional Convention
began in Philadelphia. Fifty-five of the
best minds of the day, including those
of Alexander Hamilton, James Madi
son and George Washington, met dur
ing a sweltering Pennsylvania spring to
design the most profound governing
documents known to man.
These statesmen managed to syn
thesize the entirety of Western polit
ical philosophy, from Plato to John
Locke, combine it with experience
and forge a workable framework for
self-governance.
I bring this up as a reminder of what
makes America special. It’s easy to for
get, in this age of Guantanamo Bay and
the PATRIOT Act, that we’re more than
200 years into a unique and wonderful
experiment in republican democracy.
No one was sure this experiment
would work. Madison feared the mass
es would overwhelm the aristocracy
and establish a sort of peasant dictator
ship. Thomas Jefferson worried the
presidency would become a monarchy,
leaving us no different from England.
Happily, the fears of neither man
came true. In 2005, we can pro
nounce the American experiment a
resounding success.
Sure, it’s had some rough spots:
slavery, genocide of the continent’s
original inhabitants, isolationism,
imperial warfare, economic exploita
tion, McCarthyism, Watergate, Pauly
Shore. But no nation, great or small,
has maintained a perfect human
rights record.
America is an extremely special
place. Not only can we afford mate
rial excess beyond the wildest
dreams of citizens of less fortunate
nations, past and present, but we
can criticize our government with
out fear of official retribution.
Thousands can march on the na
tion’s capital without being mowed
CHUCK SLOTHOWER
TAKING ISSUE
down in a state-sponsored massacre,
unlike in, say, China circa 1989 (and
things there haven’t improved as much
as many people maintain).
We are not forced to idolize our
leader or his father, unlike those in
North Korea.
In America, my mother and sister
can drive, vote for all their representa
tives, own property and — gasp! — ex
pose their elbows in public, none of
which is possible in certain Middle
Eastern theocracies. These thoughts
occur to me when people excuse and
rationalize, in the name of cultural sen
sitivity or “diversity,” the repression
perpetrated by those governments on
their own people.
But I digress from my thesis: The
United States of America is awe
some, the Cadillac of the free world.
This can be difficult for Americans
to appreciate, given our proximity to
the subject and the deafening ca
cophony of the reflexively critical
Left and the blindly uncritical Right.
Thus it helps to read the some
what foreign perspectives of writers
such as Thomas Paine, Alexis de
Tocqueville, Bernard-Henri Levy and
Christopher Hitchens. They remind
us that America is the world’s semi
nal force for freedom and the only
nation to make libertarian principles
its founding self-justification.
Those principles need their defend
ers, now as always, from enemies both
foreign and domestic. I won’t belabor
to point out our foreign enemies, the
fanatic religious fundamentalists who
prefer a joyless existence devoted to a
twisted sense of morality, because they
can only affect American liberty inso
far as we let them.
But I will belabor to point out the do
mestic enemies of liberty. Some are fa
natic Christians whose moral outlook
has much in common with that of the
fanatic Muslims who so audaciously
attacked us. Really, the John Ashcrofts
and Osama bin Ladens of the world
maintain that dancing, drinking and
gambling represent horrible sins; that
abortion of fetuses violates the sancti
ty of life, while the execution of full
grown adults is A-OK; and that God
tells them to reform the world accord
ing to their personal moral dictates.
Fear these people. Fear them, and
fight them.
A more subtle and less identifiable
danger comes from Americans who
value security over liberty. These peo
ple, whom Benjamin Franklin
warned us about, have enabled such
abominations as the PATRIOT Act
and the detention of American citi
zens without charge or access to
counsel. They reside in both major
political parties and cannot be
lumped together by race, class or po
litical ideology. There’s a simple ex
planation for that: Valuing security
over liberty isn’t a political position so
much as an indication of cowardice.
The damage the two aforemen
tioned groups have done to America
is incalculable. Just as some rose to
defend liberty against the Palmer
raids and later McCarthyism, we
must all recognize what is happen
ing in our midst.
We have built an amazing country.
Let’s keep it that way.
chuckslothower@dailyemerald. com
■ Guest commentary
The key to relationships: Relate
I applaud the book “He’s Just Not That Into You,” dis
cussed on Monday’s commentary page (“Removing man
from woman,” ODE, May 23), for its approach to female self
worth as not reliant on a romantic interest. This is called self
esteem, and it is something that many women, and many
men, suffer from a lack of. Clinging to a person to make you
whole is called dependence, and kudos to yet more advice
trying to get people off that addiction. However, the book’s
problems weigh more than the praise it deserves.
The book’s ideas lower a woman’s role in a relationship to
one of extreme passivity, telling women only to react rather
than act. It fosters mistrust rather than trust and encourages
assumption rather than communication. It fosters an indi
vidualist ethic rather than an ethic of relationship. I’m not
about to say the book isn’t right to advise leaving a guy if
he’s cheating, stringing a girl along or generally being a bad
example of masculine and relational ethics. The book,
though, assigns the same approach to every relational hur
dle, from calling to dating to meeting parents to marriage.
Men should certainly treat women well, but every time a
man doesn’t call for a while or act in a relationship the way a
woman expects and assumes he should, the advice the book
gives is that he must not be that into you, so get out and
move on. This is not reality.
The reality is that people have different ideas of what a re
lationship is, how it progresses and the appropriate role of
each person in it. We all have different wants and needs. Go
find a man who meets your standards, whose wants and
needs are similar to your own.
An underlying assumption the book makes about a man
is that he knows the exact what, who, when and how for a
relationship. One hundred percent of men surveyed for this
commentary agreed they are, at times, uncertain, even about
people they really like. The authors haven’t heard of uncer
tainty, social ineptness, timidness or insecurity. These traits
and others can lead to behavior that someone might not ex
pect from a person who is “into” them. If these traits are rea
son enough for dumping someone, then so be it. It’s up to
individuals to praise, condemn and forgive what traits they
wish within the rest of us.
So, how do we overcome different wants and needs? How
do we continue having relationships when uncertainty is a
part of emotion? The answer is that each individual must
find a way to relate, or the relationship inevitably ends. The
how, what, when and where of this relating is ultimately the
responsibility of the individuals involved, and that is why
self-help books on relationships often fail miserably; one per
son, or two, or even three writing a book cannot usually
have perfect advice for particular situations.
My advice to women and men alike is to avoid like the
plague anything given to them that tries to make relation
ship decisions as simple as the authors of "He’s Just Not
That Into You” do. Human beings are complex creatures,
and they deserve to be treated as such.
Ethan Firpo is a junior at the University
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■ Out loud
“We’re excited to have windows.” — Direc
tor of Health Education Paula Staight, on the
plan for University Health Center renovations
and expansion.
“I would just advise them to listen, and ... I’d
advise them to seek out students who might be
concerned with an issue ... and seek out every
side of an issue.” — Former ASUO President
Adam Petkun, giving advice to new President
Adam Walsh and Vice President Kyla Coy.
“I want to thank Adam Petkun for his serv
ice to the University of Oregon and the kind
of leadership he’s shown.” — Eugene Mayor
Kitty Piercy, speaking at Monday’s City
Council meeting.
“There are very few people who drive alone
every day.” — Georgeanne Cooper, director of
the teaching effectiveness program at Academic
Learning Services, which won the “One Less
Car Competition,” an inter-department contest
to see which could log the most miles without
members driving solo.
“ (Panova) is pretty much one of 10 girls in the
country who can win it all.” — Oregon head
coach Nils Schyllander earlier this season. Ore
gon senior Daria Panova made her third consec
utive appearance at the NCAA Women’s Tennis
Championships on Monday.
“I’ve talked with many (women in the com
munity), and they all feel that this policy threat
ens their sense of privacy and safety.” — Mike
Jaskilka, a pastor at Berean Baptist Church in
Eugene, speaking out against a city code revi
sion that would allow transgender people equal
access to bathrooms.
“There’s no physical bar at the entrance of
bathrooms.” — City Councilor David Kelly,
responding to arguments against the city code
revision, pointing out that members of the op
posite sex can already enter any bathroom
they want.
“Burning changes the DNA in your skin
cells.” — University Health Educator Ramah
Leith, on tanning and the risk of skin cancer.
“I’m a big homo and so are all my friends.”
— Sophomore Steph Hyde at OUT/LOUD, a
queer women’s music festival held May 20 and
21 at the WOW Hall.
“If we try to write in black and white what
‘officer discretion’ is, we no longer are having
discretion.” — DPS Interim Director Tbm Hicks,
on the policy change that gives DPS officers dis
cretion for issuing citations when responding to
calls for assistance involving alcohol poisoning.
“Beliefs about what defines race are, to
some extent, malleable.” — Psychology grad
uate student Chuck Tate, speaking during a
“Community Conversation” May 20 in which
the Campus Climate Research Interest Team
presented the findings of a two-year study on
the University’s cultural climate.
CORRECTION
In "Love Your Body Day takes place today," which ran on
Wednesday, the Emerald reported that Students fof
Choice was hosting a free event Wednesday that included
guest speaker Eve Ensler, free massages, a body
message board and music in the EMU Amphitheater. The
event was also to Include a speaker panel in Friendly HaB
that evening.
The events did not happen Wednesday, and a spokes
woman for Ensler contacted the Emerald and said Ensler
was never slated to speak at the event.
Students for Choice Co-Director Hana Binder said Thurs
day that a combination of speaker cancellations and toe
inability to get equipment left toe group with only a few
events, so toe group canceled “Love Your Body Day.”
Binder said students planned to read from one of Ensler's
works, but Ensler was never slated to speak.
The information for toe original report was obtained from
a flier produced by Students for Choice and an interview
with group Codirector Sarah Craemer.
The Emerald regrets the error.