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About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1983)
Monologue________________ Drugs, professional sports make unhealthy couple By Doug Vaughan Editor in Chief The least probable place a person would expect drug problems to occur would be on a basketball court, baseball dugout or sidelines. But that doesn’t mean they’re not occurring. America’s so called “pastime,” baseball, along with its other companion professional sports have been infected with their portion of drug scandals. Yes, we are talking about the superstars, you know, all the little kids’ idols. The most recent scandal was in baseball. Three Kansas City Royals pleaded guilty to cocaine-related charges, the wonder drug which comedian Richard Pryor refers to as “Gods way of telling you you’re making too much money.” With plea bargaining, the charges were reduced to misdemeanor status. What has the league done as a result? Nothing so far. Rehabilitation programs have been set up in almost every professional team sport, but that does not seem to aid the athletes. But then why confess your problem, it might just en danger your six, maybe seven, digit salary. The National Basketball Association has finally set up a program that all other sports should make note of. It allows any player to seek help, without punishment, for any chemical abuse problem before December 31, 1983. Same as the other leagues, right? Not quite. After that date, drug involvement can br ing a permanent ban from playing. This was not a management decision, but the players union helped design the program and stood strong behind it. An athlete is not the typical person that drugs are associated with, especially a profes sional. Yet it has hit the best of them, and will continue to until stiffer penalties will deter them. It also is not just limited to one sport, it has hit virtually all of them. Professional athletes are looked up to by more than just kids. They are looked on as the picture of health. Drugs are one thing that should not be associated with them. * ALRIGHT? ALRIGHT? Abe. Lincoln ceas i sanwaif" Rate payers may pay for WPPSS 'whoops' By Shelley Ball News Editor It’s that time of year again. The time when people’s utility bills will skyrocket, due to increased power usage for items ranging from elect rically-decorated Christmas trees to raised thermostats. At a time when there are more raises in utility bills given out than bonuses at the office, most people will be relieved when the winter months pass. But before they do, the people of the Northwest may end up paying an extra 72 cents a month on their utility bills for power they haven’t used. Thanks to the recommen dation of a special committee, appointed by Northwest governors to come up with a solution to the Washington Public Power Supply System’s (WPPSS) financial mess, this increase could become a reali ty for the next 30 years if it receives congressional ap proval. The committee’s recom mendation, one among several issued earlier this month, calls for a 30-year regional sur charge on all Northwest elec tricity sales, including those to California, as a way to help pay off the $2.25 billion in bonds sold to build WPPSS plants 4 and 5, the contribu tion of which was terminated in 1982. Under the committee’s plan the bondholders of plants 4 and 5, about 75,000, will get from 15 to 36 cents on the dollar. In other words, the people of the Northwest are going to be paying for a mistake that was not their fault. Does this sound fair? Hardly. The increase is only 72 cents a month (it had earlier been reported at $2). Gover nor Victor Atiyeh has been reported as “generally favorable” to the proposal, mainly because he was con cerned about the future of Northwest bond sales if WP PSS was allowed to default on its debt. But doesn’t the principle of the thing count, which is the fact that we, the utility payers, are not responsible for the ^THE PRINT, a member of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association^ aims to be a fair and impartial journalistic medium covering the campus com munity as thoroughly as possible. Opinions expressed in THE PRINT do not necessarily reflect those of the College administration, faculty, Associated Student Government or other members of THE PRINT. THE PRINT is a weekly publication distributed each Wednesday except for finals week. Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, u Oregon 97045. WPPSS fiasco? We are not to blame for the failure of com pleting the $24 billion con struction of five nuclear plants, so why should we have to pay for it? WPPSS is definitely one of the biggest “whoops” af fecting the Northwest today. Its previous default is con- sidered the largest in bond history, and even if the sur charge is imposed, it is not known if and when any of the plants will be completed and ready to operate, the system is so far in debt. Because WPPSS is greatly in debt appears to be the reason why a regional sur- charge was proposed. After all, so much money will be needed to wipe away this em barrassing situation that it’s going to have to take a massive effort, hence massive amounts of people with utility in creases, to accomplish it. The things people do for progress. Letter to editor Science, Creation unequal Dear Editor, Regarding the November 16 article on the Creationism lecture by Dr. Chittick: I per sonally don’t care whether students “believe in evolution.” However, I think it is important that they understand that the account of Creation as given in the Book of Genesis is not and can not be supported by science. Science is not “what some scientists think.” Rather, it is defined as “a set of activities and habits of mind aimed at contributing to an organized, universally valid, and testable body of knowledge about natural phenomena.” Since science is limited to natural ex planations, it has no way of dealing with supernatural ex planations. Scientific methods cannot tell us anything (pro or con) about the existence or ac tion of God. I would also like to res pond to Dr. Chittick’s allega tion that “science is dying” because scientists are lying and falsifying data to get ahead. It is true that there have been some scandals in which scien tists were exposed as having faked their data. No enterprise is perfect. However, honesty and respect for reporting the data without distortion is an absolute value in science, and to break this obligation is to show that an individual is completely unfit to do science. As part of the scientific method, any research must be subject to replication by per sons other than the original in vestigator. Since efforts will be made to replicate all non trivial findings, errors or frauds are bound eventually to be revealed. That is why scien tific cheating is so rare, and so notorious when it does occur. If a student is concerned with the Creationism con troversy, I suggest that he or she read the first two chapters of Genesis. These chapters present two different versions of Creation; they both cannot be literally true. If one is literally not true, possibly both are literally not true. I believe that the stories of Creation are to be read for their larger messages—God is the Creator, his creation is good, and man and woman are to be loving companions. Trying to fit the details of the Genesis stories into a scientific framework reduces the grandeur of the stories and does a disservice to both science and religion. Yours truly, Marlene Tufts Psychology Instructor YÛÜ ' 11 I 1 KA Zk bJ / a my S orry thought you WERE ERNIE.. MDÍIAL • Clackamas Community College DOfJT W4T6H too MUCH SES ¿¡MS. 5T/RE ET. Page 2
