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ROGUE NEWS
Fri.. Dec. H. 1172
Think About It!
MOM
Ccitokrric
THE ROQUE NEWS F""
Published bi-weekly, during the school months, by the Associated
Student Body of Ashland Senior High School, 201 Mountain Ave..
Ashland, Oregon 97S20. Subscription cost $2.50 per year.
Editor Rosario De La Torre
News Editor Jeanne lloadley
Editorial Editor Joseph Hawk
Feature Editor Steve Schmelzer
Sports Editor Sharon Hill
Advertisers Peter Dodge, Teresa Fowler, Anita Johnson
Business Manager Jeri Lewis
Photographers Harold Berninghausen, Willie Thompson
Reporters Randy Dew. Jim Roberts, Ingrid Sandberg, Dale
Nelson, Ken Svensen
Sports Reporters Kevin Gandee, Charlie Lewis
Advisor Clifford M. Brock
Printed by THE PRINT SHOP, Ashland. Oregon
Mfieoiigillg
Nixon and the Two-Party System
To make a government run efficiently takes many people who are
willing to get behind the administration and support it in any way
possible. Only through public support will any administration be able
to function in a way that they can do what is needed to get the job done.
A national election was held last month and the elected
administration needs the public support behind it in order to function
well.
National elections often take on the form of a shootout between the
Republican and Democratic parties with the losers bitterly waiting
another four years to pass so they can hopefully sweep the power away
from their opponents. Members of the losing party sometimes won't
support the president. The purpose for this type of action is so that the
other party w ill took bad because it can't get anything done during the
term in which its candidate is president. This childish sour grapes
attitude is surprisingly being encouraged by large party leaders so
that any good programs that the other party proposes won't be passed.
If we Americans are to ever see America the way we want it, then
we are going to have to realize that each party does have attributes
and no one party has a monopoly on good political ideas. Only through
supporting the man in office and seriously listening to the proposals of
both parties will we ever achieve the things we need done. Remember,
it takes support to make a system work, not just criticism.
Comments
Editor:
In the last issue of the Rogue
News there was an editorial
about drug usage at the high
school. I feel that who ever wrote
that editorial was misinformed
about the magnitude of the
situation.
From what was written, it
seemed as if the majority of the
students in the school were
running to the rest rooms be
tween classes to light up. But in
reality, there is only about 20 to 25
students out of 800 who would
even contemplate such an action.
It is obvious to the students that
there are only a few people who
might attempt something as
stupid as what the editorial
suggested. So by writing and
printing an editorial, that was so
blown out of proportion it made
people who didn't know any
better think that all the students
at Ashland High were pot heads.
The writer put a bad image of the
students in the minds of the
readers who didn't know any
different.
I don't know right off hand if
anyone else was upset with this
Hair Length in Sports
The athletic hair code that allowed only short-hatred students to
compete in athletics has been abolished.
The Coaches Review Board voted (5-4) that each coach would
dictate hair length of his athletes.
Under this new rule, a coach can make his athletes shave their
heads. And a few will probably try.
Possibly a few coaches will realize that hair length has nothing to
do with an athlete's performance. Perhaps they will realize that the
old crew cut athlete is outdated.
The World Series champion Oakland A's sport moustaches and
long, bushy hair. Oregon Class AAA football champions Centennial
have several players with shoulder-length hair. And Ashland?
This change in the hair code is definitely a step in the right
direction. However weaknesses still exist. Coaches still have the
power to arbitrarily tell an athlete to get his hair cut.
Ideally, the only reason for a haircut is if the hair interferes with
the athlete's performance. Perhaps this may happen soon. But don't
hold your breath. C.L.
Early Christmas
by Steve Schmelzer
Thanksgiving is past and we are facing the Christmas holiday. It
is easy in the flurry and excitement of the holidays to actually forget
what the purposes of Thanksgiving and Christmas are.
The basic purpose of both holidays is to be thankful for the way God
has met our needs and brought us through the problems we've faced as
a nation. Christinas is to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, the
foundation on which Christianity is based.
Many disillusioned people feel that the holidays are only for the
purpose of gorging themselves on turkey or wantonly buying gifts
because that is the only thing they have ever done during the holidays.
Most people are too busy with the materialistic aspects of life to really
enjoy the holidays in the way that they were intended to be celebrated,
in a spirit of thanksgiving for the things they are blessed with. Let's
not be guilty of taking our blessing for granted.
One poor man was complaining about the way other people had
shoes and he had none at all. He complained for several weeks until he
finally saw a man who had no feet.
As we continue through the holiday seasons let's not take an
apathetic attitude towards the real purpose for the holidays but let's
be thankful for what we have. Let's be thankful for what we have
because there are many more people less fortunate than us.
new false image of themselves or
not, but it bugs me. So I am now
taking the time to ask your
writers to do a little more
research into their topics before
jumping to unprecedented con
clusions. In the future it would be much
The Christmas season has arrived! Unfortunately, walking
downtown in Ashland one could have made that observation a month
ago. Every year the Christmas season seems to come a little sooner.
Catalogs have been out since September, decorations have been up
since the first part of November, and Santa Claus made his first visit
on November 26.
Not that there is anything wrong with Christmas.
In fact it is probably the most enjoyable holiday we have. The
trouble is that it is possible to enjoy it only so long at a time. It is a little
difficult to get into the Christmas spirit before one has even begun to
think about Thanksgiving. If one manages to get into the spirit, it has
probably worn off long before the anticipated holiday has rolled
around.
Why the public cannot be spared the celebration of Christmas until
at least the first of December is beyond comprehension. It might even
be a reasonable proposal that the holiday be moved up two or three
weeks to compensate for the excess amount of time devoted to the
Christmas season by the Chamber of Commerce and the merchants of
the nation. JLH
Editorial
Nature
How many days will we be able to listen to the singing
of the birds, the gurgling of water and the rustling of the
breeze over the trees?
The days of good unadulterated nature are swiftly
drawing to a close. Many of the species are rapidly
approaching the point of total extinction. Unless something
is done quickly we may as well give a goodby party for such
species as the whooping crane, peregrine falcon, polar bear,
bald eagle and many others. For instance recently in
Wyoming the poisons the ranchers use to kill predators not
only killed the predators but also the eagles that ate the dead
predators. Very little has been done to halt this mass killing
of the eagle.
Consider the plight of the polar bear. Hunters have
almost exterminated them by shooting them with high
powered rifles. Of course they give the bear a real sporting
chance, it can try to hide from the hunters who hunt for it on
snowmobiles or in helicopters and motorboats. And of course
the bear always has the opportunity to dodge the bullets.
The water we drink and the air we breathe is being
poisoned, not only threatening nature but also our own
existence. The ironic fact of the matter is that man is the sole
cause of the problem. That means we as individual are part of
the guilty corp of polluters.
Each individual ignorantly asks, "What can I do to save
our environment?" The answer lies in the fact that it takes
individuals to make up any group. If we as individuals join
together in a determined union to save our environment,
then something can and will be done.
First of all we must realize that it's not more asphalt
covered shopping centers we need, but more open fields,
wooded hills, clear running streams, clean air, and the return
of the wildlife. Once we make this decision then we can hope
to save nature through a consistent resistance of the so
called "industrial progress" that persists in killing us and
our environment.
The Literature of Imagination
by Dale Nelson
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah' nagl fhtagn!"
Translated into English, this quote from the Old Tongue means
"In his house in R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming." And that quite
well indicates the contribution of H. P. Lovecraft to the realm of the
fantastic horror story.
Lovecraft blended science fiction and horror story elements to
develop a unique kind of story. Where horror stories usually concerned
ghosts, witches, werewolves, or vampires, Lovecraft wrote tales
which portrayed the menace of cosmic beings which scarcely cared
about the existence of humanity. On occasion they appeared or
manifested themselves in these stories, confronting human beings.
These beings (whose names included Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth and
Hastur) and the menace they embody shows how that in what is
supposed to be an age of science it was necessary to create horrors
from "Outside," for the idea of ghosts and the like did not frighten
readers too effectively any more. Lovecraft had the insight to see this
and developed a more effective type of weird tale.
The stories themselves when considered as a whole are somewhat
repetitive, but they started a trend towards a new form of horror
fantasy.
appreciated if you didn't classify
all the students as idiots even
though a few of us are.
Casey A. Dale S.B S
As a concerned alumnus. I read
with interest the "Drugs on
Campus" editorial in the Novem
ber 22 issue of the Rogue News.
It seems unfortunate that, at a
time when government seems to
be taking amore enlightened
view of marijuana use, the Rogue
News editorially endorses an
uninformed and unfashionable
marijuanaphobia. It is a striking
paradox that while a Presidential
commission suggests de
criminalization of marijuana, a
student newspaper urged offi
cials to "crack down" and "show
force."
It may be that drug use has a
negative impact on one's aca
demic performance. If so, this
hurts no one but the individual
student. (Here it should be noted
that, from my vantage point,
most high school "academic"
matter has little or no application
anywhere outside of high school ) .
If a student does have a serious
drug problem, it should be dealt
with by counselling rather than
punishment.
I might further suggest that
Ashland High's many adminis
trators should have more im
portant business to attend to than
patrolling the school's "dens of
iniquity." If there really isn't
enough red tape to keep the
administration occupied, staff
cutbacks may be in order.
In closing, I urge that the
suggestions in the "Drugs on
Campus" editorial be actively
ignored. We can only hope that
the days of incarceration for use
of a harmless weed are coming to
a rapid end. Larry Taylor
Class of '72
To the editor:
We would like to suggest to Joe
Hawk that he heed his own
imperative "Open your eyes!"
Honestly, we cannot see the
great holocaust of pushers and
junkies descending on the school
quite as vividly as Mr. Hawk can.
The way his article was written,
it appears that all Mr. Hawk
cannot take is the smell of
cigarette smoke in the bath
rooms. Somehow we just do not
consider cigarette smoking
enough of a serious drug problem
to be worthy of the journalistic
abilities of Mr. Hawk.
Our only objective in writing
this letter is to advise the staff of
the Rogue News that if they
haven't got enough copy to print a
newspaper, they shouldn't write
and publish totally false scare
stories.
Amy McNair
Laurie F. Jones
Jay P. Yancey
Priscilla Reynolds
Carol Christlieb