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Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, November 9, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 PARKER HOWELL EDITOR IN CHIEF SHADRA BEESLEY MANAGING EDITOR MEGHANN M. CUNIFF JARED PABEN NEWS EDITORS EVA SYLWESTER SENIOR NEWS REPORTER KELLY BROWN KATY GAGNON CHRISTOPHER HAGAN BRITTNI MCCLENAHAN NICHOIAS WILBUR NEWS REPORTERS JOE BAILEY EMILY SMITH PART-TIME NEWS REPORTERS SHAWN MILLER SPORTS EDITOR SCOTT J. ADAMS LUKE ANDREWS JEFFREY DRANSFELDT SPORTS REPORTERS AMY EIGHTY PULSE EDITOR TREVOR DAVIS KRISTEN GERHARD ANDREW MCCOLLUM PULSE REPORTERS AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR (.ABE BRADLEY JESSICA DERLETH ARMY FETH COLUMNISTS TI M BO BOSKY PHOTO EDITOR NICOLE BARKER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANE RITE PHOTOGRAPHERS KATIE GLEASON PARTTIME PHOTOGRAPHER JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGN EDITOR JOHN AYRES JONNYBAGGS MOLLY BEDFORD KERI SPANGLER DESIGNERS CHRIS TODD GRAPHIC ARTIST AARON DUCHATEAU ILLUSTRATOR DAWN HELZER REBECCA TAYLOR COPY CHIEFS JENNY DORNER BRYN JANSSON JOSH NORRIS JENNA ROHRBACHER MATT TIFFANY COPYEDITORS STEVEN NEUMAN ONLINE/SUPPLEMENTS EDITOR TIMOTHY ROBINSON WEBMASTER BUSINESS (541) 346-5511 JUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER LAUNA DE GIUSTI RECEPTIONIST LUKE BELLCmi RYAN JOHNSON RANDY RYMER CORRIEN MUNDY DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541) 346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA LE1DELMEYER SALES MANAGER KELLEE KAUFTHEIL JOHN KELLY UNDSEY FERGUSON WINTER GIBBS KATE HIRONAKA DESI MCCORMICK STEPHEN MILLER KATHRYN O'SHEA-EVANS CODY WILSON SALES REPRESENTATIVES BONA LEE AD ASSISTANT CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN Classified manager USA CLARK ANDO AMANDA KANTOR KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER KIRA PARK PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JAMIE ACKERMAN CAITLIN MCCURDY ERIN MCKENZIE JONAH SCHROGIN TERRY STRONG DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Dally 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 private property Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law ■ In my opinion Riots reveal political neglect It took 12 nights. An old man died. Cars burned. Stores were robbed. Police and citizens engaged in gunfights. Bombs were thrown. Now the entire country is engulfed in riots. And, finally, Jacques Chirac does something about it. France is now in an official state of emer gency. This means curfews can be imposed. Police can perform raids without a warrant. This is how order will be restored. “Prevention, while indispensable, must not exclude repression each time it proves to be just and neces sary,” said the Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Repression? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think repres sion is the reason these people are ri oting. I believe it was you, Mr. Sarkozy, who suggested the original neighborhood where the riots broke out be cleaned with a “power hose." And that was before the riots. “He treats us like we are dirt on the car tires. I am not a tire,” said one citizen about Sarkozy. These people are poor. They do not have a lot of opportunity. Unem ployment in some of these French neighborhoods is being reported at levels of up to 40 percent. They com plain that they are French citizens, but get treated by authorities like foreigners. The leaders of their coun tries look down on them. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin called them “raki,” the French word for scum. They do not have a voice, so they bring their condition to the political forefront through violence. And while violence and destruction may not gain the respect from those in power that they crave, it certainly gets their attention. Alec Hargreaves, author of "Immi gration, Race and Ethnicity in Con temporary France” said Monday on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer that this revolution of sorts has been a long time coming. The flaming cars, an ever-present symbol of the riots, were burning long before Oct. 27. In ARMYFETH RHETORIC CHECK fact, 28,000 cars have been torched in France since the beginning of the year, and only about 5,000 during the riots. Hargreaves notes that “These problems are rooted in deep seated social inequalities, problems of discrimination and it should be said, political neglect.” Political neglect. Now that is something we can really wrap our minds around, because lately it has been pretty easy to point out. Re member a few months ago when a big part of America was under water and nobody came to help? Political neglect. The fact that riots could last and grow for almost two weeks also suggests neglect. French leaders have criticized foreign media for giv ing so much coverage to the riots. They say publicity only feeds the flames. Well, I’m sorry France, but when your citizens are revolting, it’s news. It should be reported. Obvi ously, neglecting people turns out badly. These “scummy teenagers” were born in your country. They pay your taxes. They might look a little differ ent, or practice a different religion but they are French citizens, and de serve to be treated accordingly. They are torching cars. Cars are a status symbol, one they feel they will never be able to attain. They are at tacking police officers. But these are not their friendly neighborhood cops; those were all taken out of their com munities to save money. Now the au thority on reserve is being called upon to repress these citizens. Interestingly enough, the “state of emergency" law that is being invoked was passed in 1955 to pro vide a means to curb unrest in Alge ria. That unrest later led to a war that won Algeria’s independence. Of course the riots need to stop. People are getting hurt and there has already been one death. But I hope that France does not stop there. Putting an end to the effect does not solve the problem of the- cause. French officials have admitted that these riots are the culmination of years of failed immigrant integra tion. Chirac acknowledged the “ghettoization of youths of African or North African origin,” and admit ted that current French society is in capable of fully accepting them. That makes me sick. Of course America has a problem neglecting our poor as well, as we saw in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. But at least we live in a country where that kind of behavior is deplored, not ac cepted. We should look at France’s treatment of immigrant families as an example of something American values stand against. France needs to do some soul searching, and quick. Villepin has al ready mentioned the need to speed up an urban redevelopment plan that would provide jobs, loans and schol arships to disadvantaged young peo ple. This is a good start. But what re ally needs to change is the collective thinking. If these kids, many of whom are Muslim, do not feel like France wants them, they might look for ac ceptance elsewhere. Villepin said or ganized crime networks are already starting to support the riots, and that he is not ruling out the possibility of Islamic extremists also getting in volved. If this is true, the kids who are rioting today might become terrorists in the future. Why should they feel loyalty to a country that has neglected them? Racism and classism are alive today. This nasty fact about humanity can only be ignored for so long. afeth@dailyemerald.com INBOX Out-of-control football fan behavior is intolerable Please add my name to those who are disappointed and disgusted at the obnoxious and boorish behavior of some of our football fans. This rudeness cannot and should not be tolerated by a well-respected univer sity like ours. When we played the Huskies sev eral weeks ago, I was embarrassed during the entire game at some of the scenes that were demonstrated. They even booed the band! What kind of nonsense was that? I was equally embarrassed when their black drum major tossed his baton in the air, missed catching it, and was then booed for his effort. As an African-American, I was personally proud of him and the entire Wash ington band, because their perform ance both musically and visually was outstanding as usual. They looked like a marching band and played marches — unlike our band who looks like rejects from the Wiz ard of Oz wearing military helmets. The abhorrent behavior of some of these students is out of control, and should not be tolerated. E.L. Coleman Emeritus Professor of English Advertising supplement spreads tired untruths Wow. I hope the Emerald got a good chunk of change for that 12 page we’re-down-with-the-youth culture anti-choice insert in the Nov. 3 Emerald. Just in case the women of the University of Oregon can’t decide for themselves whether or not to continue a pregnancy, we have the likes of David C. Reardon and his Human Life Alliance cronies to help us out. Of course, he proba bly thinks we’re all a little soft in the head for attending a university when we could have done as he did and buy a PhD in bioethics from an un accredited correspondence school (sorry, it’s no longer being offered). The insert cover asks, “Tired yet?” In fact, yes, I’m tired of hearing the same lies over and over from the re ligious right — that abortion causes breast cancer, infertility, depression, cervical cancer, it might even make you left-handed. Spouting this non sense over and over again, even with a lot of pretty pictures and funky cartoons, doesn’t make it so. Jocelyn Warren Research Assistant, Center for the Study of Women in Society 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 verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald. ■ Editorial Congress should pass anti-abuse legislation A new Pentagon directive released today prohibits the U.S. military from using “acts of physical or mental torture.” Mandating that detainees be dealt with in a humane fashion without specifying the meaning of “torture,” it does explicitly forbid the use of dogs in intimidating prisoners. Although the government deserves praise for this policy decision, this directive is not enough. One might suppose U.S. citizens would intrinsically reject the use of torture and abuse as military tactics. U.S. soldiers captured during the Vietnam War endured the horrors of prolonged confinement and torture at the hands of an enemy that readily used such methods. We are fighting an ongoing war in Iraq tor which we need to interrogate combatants to gather intelligence information. Yet, as former prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., points out, “subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence because under torture, a de tainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop” and “mistreatment of our prison ers endangers U.S. troops who might be cap tured by the enemy.” Unfortunately, some members of the U.S. military have repeatedly demonstrated igno rance of such concepts, as demonstrated last year by revelations of prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail. As elucidated by McCain, it should be illegal to abuse detainees. The Senate passed legisla tion last month that prohibits methods banned by Army regulations and the Geneva Conven tions, and the House of Representatives has yet to vote on the matter. President Bush, however, continues to claim that the United States does not need such anti abuse legislation, saying he will veto any meas ure to prohibit the inhumane treatment of de tainees. Bush turns a blind eye to the recent accusations of abuse against Iraqi detainees, stating, “we do not torture.... Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people.” Apparently, Bush believes that punching and kicking detainees is an appropriate means to protect us. While most recent claims of soldier abuse in Iraq remain allegations, Bush should approve an anti-abuse law. In denying the need for legis lation, he turns a blind eye to documented abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Interestingly, Gen. Peter Pace, principal mili tary adviser to the president and the secretary of defense, supports McCain’s legislation. He recently told Jim Lehrer on “NewsHour” that “it is perfectly fine to have the Army field manual for the detention of individuals ... for the sena tor to say that we should be following our own rules certainly makes sense. ” Bush officials should listen to their military advisor and to members of their party who support this legislation. The United States is currently holding almost 14,000 prisoners in Iraq. It is frightening to see the president take a firm stand against protecting their human rights. If the federal government wants to re deem itself from the national horror over Abu Ghraib and similar scandals and continue this “war of ideas,” the House must approve anti abuse legislation. EDITORIAL BOARD Parker Howell Editor in Chief Shadra Beesley Managing Editor Steven Neuman Online Editor Ailee Slater Commentary Editor
