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