Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
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■ In my opinion
Seeking unity, peace by peace
Some days are better than others.
Then there are good news days,
which are the best. Take for example
Monday, Oct. 3: Tom DeLay gets in
dicted on a second, more-to-the-point
money laundering charge, Anderson
Cooper finally cracks a smile and
shows clips of Saturday Night Live
making fun of him (and then keeps
the tape rolling when the joke turns
on Geraldo Rivera), and finally,
George Bush nominates Sandra Day
O’Connor’s second replacement. But
Monday was not just a good news
day, it was a really good day, too, be
cause it was the day I got cable. Let
the C-SPAN marathons begin.
There is nothing I love more than
when the president pulls someone
completely out of left field. John
Roberts was such a nominee. Prior to
his nomination and confirmation, he
was relatively unknown. No skeletons
were brought out of his closet; he
seemed like a nice enough family
man. The Republicans loved how he
didn’t really answer a lot of questions,
and the Democrats just sort of took
one for the team. The politicians and
the media makers assumed he would
breeze through confirmation and he
did. George Bush even loved him so
much he bumped up his nomination
to Supreme Court justice. Because, of
course, Rehnquist is dead, and needs
a replacement much quicker than
Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired to
take care of her terminally
ill husband.
I have long thought that Bush’s
Supreme Court nominations were go
ing to be socially moderate, as is the
case with Roberts. I do not think
Roberts will try to overturn Roe v.
Wade or turn gay marriage into a fed
eral issue, nor do I think any Bush
nominee will. I think Bush used these
issues to activate voters who vote ac
cording to what makes them feel
“icky,” and does not really care about
the direction the court goes on social
issues. No, Bush cares about big
ARMY FETH
RHETORIC CHECK
business and how it will fare. He cares
about making his friends and loyal
minions rich and powerful. So while
Roberts was a moderate “nice guy”
surprise, Harriet Miers is the epitome
of the W. appointment. Why this story
contributes to such a great news day
has mostly to do with how it is
being spun.
First off, Miers is — predictably
enough — an old crony of the presi
dent’s. Hailing from Texas, she has
made her way up in the White House,
from Andy Card’s staff to the presi
dent’s staff. According to several news
reports, her latest duty has been to
“regulate the flow of information to
the president’s desk.” Most likely this
includes phonetically spelling out big
words in the margins, attaching
acronym cheat sheets to government
agency reports and deciding which
Bed Bath & Beyond coupons are really
a good deal and which she should just
shred. Miers has no judicial experi
ence, but she has been on the Texas
Lottery Commission, where she fired
two guys and earned herself the repu
tation of being “tough.” She has also
been Bush’s personal lawyer, repre
senting him during a dispute concern
ing his east Texas fishing cottage. I
can see how hooking her up with a
sweet job in Washington is a way to
say “Thanks,” but a lifetime appoint
ment to the highest court in the land?
Who could possibly think this is a
good idea?
Tlirns out Democratic Senate
Leader Harry Reid does. Speaking
with a silent, overly eye-lined Miers
by his side, he declared, ‘Like 39 or
40 or so of justices that have gone be
fore, she has absolutely no judicial ex
perience. I think that’s a good thing! ”
Okay....
There is nothing like unedited
democracy. Reid babbled on for a
while about how unqualified Miers is
and how that totally qualifies her for
the position. Then he started to praise
her character by saying we really need
“someone like her,” without elaborat
ing on what that meant. Eventually,
Reid addressed the rumor that Miers
gave money to A1 Gore when he ran
for president in 1988, adding, “That
makes it better for me. ”
But it was the delivery that was re
ally comical. There were many awk
ward pauses and — I swear this is
true — actual laughter from Reid as
he tried to pump up the tuffet Little
Miss Miers was standing on. In sharp
contrast, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman and Republican Arlen
Specter commented on Miers’ difficul
ty finding a job.
Reid also said he personally told
Dick Cheney to tell the president to
nominate Miers. Reid, who is Mor
mon and anti-abortion, might just be
the kind of guy who could pull off a
compromise with the notoriously
stubborn administration. After all,
Clinton allowed the Republicans to
pick a Supreme Court justice from a
pool he selected as a compromise to
ensure an easy confirmation. It has
come out quickly that Miers financial
ly supported the Democratic Party,
supports the idea of full civil rights for
gays and backed AIDS education pro
grams in Dallas. So while Miers has
no experience being a judge, she cer
tainly has experience being a liberal,
which would explain Reid’s giddi
ness. The immediate fallout of this
nomination is funny, interesting and
constandy developing; maybe the real
good news is what went on last week
to make such a nomination happen.
afeth@ dailyemerald, com
INBOX
Strike for Peace campaign
protests 'deadly priorities'
The action I’m taking is not about
political parties. It’s about deadly pri
orities that have been ruining this
country for 55 years and creating a
world of suffering for those here at
home and our soldiers abroad. In fact,
after all I have learned about foreign
policy, I have come to admire General
Dwight Eisenhower the most among
recent presidents. He was a Republi
can and the only president since
World War II to warn the American
people about the greatest cause of the
many symptoms we suffer today.
In January 1950, the United States
had more than 250 atomic bombs and
the Soviet Union had just tested its
first. Without the consent of Ameri
cans, the administration of President
Harry Tinman, a “Democrat,” decid
ed to adopt a military- rather than
people-based economy and launch
the Cold War. Since then our nation
has dependended on conflict, and the
world has suffered numerous wars.
The breadth and depth of the Pen
tagon’s reach in our schools and com
panies, in addition to the fact that the
manufacture and sale of weapons has
been our top industry since 1950,
should stand out in one’s mind when
hearing claims that we are a peace
loving nation or debating the validity
of federal priorities after a poor re
sponse to a hurricane.
The Pentagon is pressuring Japan
to rescind Article 9 of its constitution
The first nation to use WMDs, the
United States, is urging Japan, the
only nation to suffer nuclear attacks,
to re-establish a military and arm it
self with nuclear weapons. The Pen
tagon’s plan for the next 20 years is an
arms race, despite the fact that we are
on top. We are telling the rest of the
world to build up for war because we
are the world’s Wal-Mart of weapons.
Strikeforpeace.org attempts to high
light the dominant role of the military
industry in America’s economy. We
stand for a future of shared resources
instead of a future of resource wars.
The weapons we help the Pentagon
develop in our schools will be used in
such wars unless we step away from
the microscope to see the macro view
and change America’s priority from
war-industry profit to the founding vi
sion of prosperity for all.
Strikeforpeace.org is not anti-re
search or anti-weapons research. We
stand against wasteful Pentagon con
tracts at public expense. Strikefor
peace.org is not anti-nanotechnology.
We believe nanotechnology in a peo
ple-based society can solve many
problems if we stop living like war
riors.
Strikeforpeace.org is nonviolent. We
believe our servants in Washington
should respond to popular demand,
and we seek to broaden awareness to
foster stronger interaction.
Strikeforpeace.org hopes Ameri
cans will recognize the suffering our
way of life engenders in the world.
The American people did not neces
sarily choose this way of life and
should have the knowledge, the right
and the courage to correct it.
If we do not unite to advance
peace, we will perish by advancing
our war technology. The CampU.S.
Campaign focuses attention on statis
tics revealing America’s disordered
priorities in hopes of instigating
change. This campaign will not end
until America adopts a reasonable de
fense and declares an end to the age
of war for profit and the beginning of
an age of prosperity for all.
Brian Bogart
Graduate student
■ Editorial
Radio host's
comments
perpetuate
racist beliefs
Former Education Secretary William Bennett
uttered a disturbing sentiment last week to a
caller on his syndicated radio show.
“I do know that if you wanted to reduce
crime, you could — if that were your sole pur
pose — you could abort every black baby in
this country and your crime rate would go
down,” Bennett said. He then qualified the
statement by saying, “That would be an impos
sible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible
thing to do, but your crime rate would
go down.”
Bennett has claimed that his statement was
not racist because all he did was create an ex
ample of a morally reprehensible situation; i.e.,
he wasn’t actually advocating abortions for
black women, he was just using it as an exam
ple. Bennett added that it was important to
have candor while in the process of getting rid
of extremist hypotheses.
A statement like “You could abort every
black baby in this country and your crime rate
would go down” may be a just metaphor,
meant to help Bennett explain himself to a ra
dio audience, but it is still a metaphor that per
petuates the idea that black people are primari
ly responsible for crime. Statements like
Bennett’s put the guilt of crime on the shoul
ders of black citizens and lead to the unac
countability of everyone else. As a former secre
tary of education, Bennett should know the
“intrinsic” link between race and crime won’t
ever stop being intrinsic until officials such as
himself take racism seriously.
Bennett’s words, based on the notion that
black people naturally commit more crime,
show serious disregard for a national history of
racism. Racial minorities must work continually
to overcome racism, and it was inappropriate
for Bennett to demean and work in opposition
to that struggle with his statement that race and
crime are unquestionably linked together.
What’s more, when Bennett suggests forced
abortions onto black women, he’s hardly sug
gesting a hypothetical situation: Exactly that
happened during the 1960s, when government
paid to sterilize poor, black women.
We doubt that any women appreciated this
statement, regardless of Bennett’s primary pur
pose within the context of the radio show. As a
representative of the U.S. political system, Ben
nett has a responsibility to show respect toward
all people in die nadon; this is especially true of
the people who have not always received such
governmental respect.
As someone intimately acquainted with the
U.S. education system, Bennett should under
stand the role education plays in improving
one’s financial status, which in turn reduces
crime. Perhaps Bennett could better apply him
self to advocating educational improvement
and reform for our nation's impoverished com
munities, some of which include minorities.
The next time William Bennett wants to
demonstrate a hypothetical, morally reprehen
sible situation, he should look to more pragmat
ic solutions rather than hurtful reminders of the
past. As long as a link between crime and race
is created, even in the form of discourse such as
Bennett’s, there will be no hope for a racism
free future.
CORRECTION
Because dan editor’s error, Monday's headline "Boga
rt shuns schodwork for campaign” should have clarified
that although graduate student Brian Bogart is not attend
ing class, he is completing work outside of it.