Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Thursday, October 6, 2005
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/ten
tues.
I
College is
Different...
When your daddy
is paying for it.
Aaron Duchateau | Illustrator
■ In my opinion
College students need
to go with the flow
and roll with it
Once upon a time there was a rock
and roll band called Oasis. Oasis once
made a song called “Roll With It,”
which, as cheesy and cliched as this
is going to sound, is actually kind of
inspiring. The reason for this inspira
tion might seem obvious, but let’s
look at the reason why nonetheless.
Fact number one: You are a college
student. That means by default you
have a lot on your plate. A harsh regi
men of classes with a few extra hours
of homework tacked on to boot. If
that isn’t enough, it’s entirely likely
you have a job somewhere that is eat
ing up even more of your time and
putting added stress on your shoul
ders. Factor in a thriving social agen
da, like any good college student
would have, and you’ve made a high
tension, high-stakes cocktail of life.
Fact number two: Life is now. They
say that elementary school is prepa
ration for middle school, middle
school is preparation for high school,
and high school is preparation for col
lege. College is preparation for what?
Life? Take a good look around: Your
life is happening right now. It would
be nice if college was just another
form of preparation, but let’s be hon
est, there’s just too much going on.
The game has already started and the
clock is running.
Fact number three: There isn’t a
written manual that tells us how to
do this. You’re never going to find a
carefully laid out diagram that ex
plains what a good life looks like and
what you can do to achieve this mys
terious goal. And, what is that
achievement? Do you get a gold star
to wear on your lapel with the words
“Great Person”? The bare fact of the
RICHARD PRYOR
LEFT OF THE MIDDLE
matter is, we don’t know what a good
life looks like, or how to lead one. If
that doesn’t creep you out just a little
bit, I don’t know what will.
So, with all this in mind, it’s safe to
say things can look pretty grim at
times. You and everyone you know
has got a tough life going for them
selves, that’s just how it is. Life is
never as easy as you’d like it to be
and you’re always going to get tossed
curve balls that you don’t know what
to do with. That’s where the song
comes into the equation. You just
gotta roll with it.
The whole thing sounds painstak
ingly cliched, believe me I know, but
some cliches exist for a reason. The
sun is going keep coming up every
morning, and you’re going keep wak
ing every morning and having to live
your life. None of that changes when
the chips are down or things are
stacking up. The only way to get by
is in learning to deal with things
as they come.
This one I know applies to some
one out there: Suppose your girl
friend or boyfriend decides to dump
you the night before a big test. You
have to show up to that class and
take the test. If you had a really bad
night and you don’t want to go to
work early the next day, you gotta
just show up and make it happen. It’s
probably the advice everyone wants
to hear the least, but it’s the honest to
god truth.
Now, for the benefit of everyone
reading this article, I’m not standing
on a literary pulpit trying to preach to
you that I have all the right answers,
and that in this article I am going to
impart to you my wisdom. If I know
anything in the world, it’s that I don’t
know the “right answers” any more
than anyone else. Anyone could have
come to this exact same conclusion;
I’m just trying to get people to think
about what’s going on around them.
We all get dealt the difficult hand
once in a while, and I’m sure anyone
could have just as easily have figured
this out, but sometimes we need a
wake-up call. Sometimes we need to
have someone grab us by the shoul
ders and give us a good shake and
a rude awakening. Figuratively
speaking, of course.
This is your wake-up call, world.
Things are tough and they’re just go
ing to get tougher. What are you go
ing to do about it? Quit? No chance.
You’re going to keep putting one foot
in front of the other and get from here
to there. You’re going to show up and
do the things you have to do. No
body’s coming to save you; you’re
here to save yourself.
All that said, you can take the ad
vice, or you can call me crazy. Either
way, it’s something to think about.
You never know, maybe all it takes is
for someone to just go with the flow
and roll with it.
rpryor@dailyememld.com
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■ Editorial
Sex acts for
money are
never OK
The Oregon Supreme Court last month over
turned a state law that banned live sex perform
ances. It simultaneously struck down a Nyssa,
Ore. city ordinance that required strip club pa
trons and performers to maintain a distance of
four feet from each other.
The Oregon Constitution has a guarantee that
“No law shall be passed restraining the free
expression of opinion, or restricting the right
to speak, write, or print freely on any
subject whatever.”
As members of the press, we value this protec
tion. In fact, Oregonians are fortunate that our
state law goes above-and-beyond the U.S. Consti
tution, protecting expression that other states
deem illegal because it’s “obscene,” even if it
offends a portion of the population.
In its rulings on these complicated cases, the
court elaborates on a long-standing legal debate
about just how far this constitutional protection
extends today. It does so using a legal framework
set forth by State v. Robertson (1982).
In essence, Robertson requires the state to de
fend laws restricting the freedom of expression by
proving that the Oregon Constitution’s framers
intended for that restraint to be an exception.
In this case, the court assumed, for the sake of
argument, that U.S. law generally prohibited live
sex shows at the time the constitution was adopt
ed and afterward. Yet the court decided anti-sex
show laws were designed to protect the viewer
from a certain message rather than prevent harm
to individuals or groups; the court points out the
law in question criminalizes sex acts “only when
they occur in an expressive context, i.e., in a ‘live
public show.’”
Because the law was aimed at expression, the
court held that the state must prove the framers
wanted sex shows to be an exception to expres
sion rights. Ultimately, the court found there was
not sufficient evidence to warrant an exception.
After careful reading of the case, we don’t dis
agree with the court’s legal reasoning. The ruling
is clear and logical; we agree the laws were in
tended to prevent the message of live sex shows
based on certain societal values of the period.
Yet we, like many Oregonians, were initially
shocked by the ruling. We oppose the legalization
of live sex shows or other sexual acts
involving payment.
The court’s ruling is also something of a cop
out; we’re fairly positive that the document’s au
thors were not considering the issue of girl-on-girl
mutual masturbation when they crafted our con
stitutional right to “free expression of opinion.”
Moreover, requiring someone to prove the
framers were or were not thinking about strippers
performing oral sex on one another is an
unfeasible burden.
The real issue in this debate should be the po
tential harm that can arise from live sex shows.
Business managers at clubs argue that those
involved in sex shows are consenting adults who
deserve their rights to free expression. Yet such a
viewpoint ignores the slippery slope from nude
dancing to prostitution.
In a strip club, dancing on stage gamers less
money than a lap dance, which gamers far less
money than a private sex encounter with a John
in a motel room. Such monetary earning patterns
partially explain how strippers become gradually
more comfortable with the idea of prostitution.
As long as prostitution remains morally objec
tionable in Oregon, the legality of live sex shows
should not be validated by the court. The Oregon
Legislature should address this issue by crafting
laws that specifically prohibit the exchange of sex
for money.
The court’s decision to authorize private sex
performances is in compliance with neither the
values of constitutional framers, nor with the
values of most Oregon citizens today.