Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1977-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1989)
OPINIONS THE PRINT February 15,1989 Page 3 Racism not an excuse for brawl at Cougar match In the wake of the Jan. 25 brawl at the Clackamas-Chemeketa basketball game, the word “racist” popped up again and again. Why can’t people believe that a dis agreement or fight between white and black people be caused by a difference ofopinion rather that the color of somebody’s skin? Curran's Corner Christopher L. Curran In the Jan. 27 issue of Courier-4, the student newspaper of Chemeketa Com munity College, their article on the inci dent features the quote, “Qackamas is racist” [by a Chemeketa student. Let’s keep in mind that Clackamas has one black member on the men’s basketball team and two on the women’s squad, not to [mention a black Associated Student Gov ernment president. The ironic thing about the idea that the brawl stemmed from a racial stand point is that it comes just nine days after the pation'celebfated the birthday of Dr. Mar kin Luther King, Jr., the noted civil rights I activist who fought against that way of think ing. Let’s also keep in mind that it was a Chemeketa fan who triggered the brawl itself. It’s safe to say that if Antione Miller would not have walked out onto the court to protest a foul and challenge the Cougar team, then the following fracas would not have occurred. When two teams are vying for playoff positions, as these teams were Jan. 25, the competition level can reach an incredible level. It’s that competition level that is to blame for the brawl at that Jan. 25 madcap. The big question now is what, if any thing, will happen during the course of tonight’s game when Clackamas travels to Salem to contend with Chemeketa. / If nothing out of the ordinary occurs tonight, will anyone blame that on racism? Definitely riot. COurier-4appears to support the view, in editorial comment, that-the brawl was racially motivated. That kind of thinking is blatantly incorrect. Those who believe last month’s inci dent was race-related are foolishly not lookingat the entire picture! Just as racism won’t pose a factor in tonight’s game. St. Valentines Day: Just what is love? Valentine’s Day is here again. It’s the time to think of lovers and hearts, of cards [and flowers. I find myself becoming very pensive this time of year. What do most people really know about love? And ex actly what is love? Domestic Issues Tammy Swartzendruber I think that today’s teenagers really ¿now very little about love. Almost any time of day you can walk through the Community Center and see couples curled tip on the couches, kissing and caressing. If ?ou would ask any of these couples why [hey are carrying on in this manner, they would probably be quick to tellyou that hey are “in love.” i Letme tellyou: this sort ofbehavioris lot love; it is immaturity. Real love does mot degrade or cheapen the other person. Making out” in public does exactly that. Love does not flaunt itself in this manner. Real love is something that grows deep inside an individual Love cannot be rushed. It must be allowed to grow slowly if it is to last. Its roots need to grow deep so storms will not harm it. Love is a deep commit ment between two people that allows them to share their innermost feelings without fear of rejection. Love is being able to forgiveand forget when you think you have been treated badly. Sex is not love and love is not sex. Sex is the deepest expression of love, but both sex and love are cheapened when they become synonymous terms. The act of sex becomes a sacred and hallowed experience when it is done out of a deep lasting love that has been tended carefully through the years. Thebedroom then becomes a cathe dral where two people can reach depths of spirituality and oneness that is beyond an everyday level of understanding,, Love is security and understanding. Love is quiet walks in the starlight, a squeeze of the hand, and a gentle kiss. Love is a language without words. Love is indeed a wonderful thing and because of this I am glad for Valentine’s Day. Next week in The Print: - Two ASG senators resign; Government positions barely half full - Condom machines installed in Community Center restrooms First smoke teaches valuable lesson Surgeon-General Koop has made some definitive statements about the evils of inhaling tobacco smoke, first and second hand. Clinics and devices are being touted to free addicts of the compulsion to “Strike a light to light a Lucky Strike.” Daily papers and magazines are full of warnings and ways and means “to kick the, habit.” In spite of all admonishments, cigarette smok ing is on the rise, especially among young girls. Very confusing. bits of wisdom arose with the smoke into the warm July night. A shrill trill reached our ears from the direction of my home. She, whose voice must be heard, my mother, was calling me home for my regu lar Saturday night bath. In the tub, in the buff, I heard my mother sniff suspiciously. “Jody, have you been smoking?” At that period of my life I had not yet learned to lie, to prevaricate, to, twist the truth. I mumbled some sort of an admission. “THWACK” it came as a thunderclap The Laugh on my bare skin, more sound than hurt. Clinic ® ! Slap, slap. A few more attention-getters to underscore the original thwack statement. I remember standing on the toilet-seat Joseph Patrick lid being dried. Whimpering, simpering, Lee tearful-filling this tragedy. What enormity Let me tell you my stoiy. Bruce Alguirre had I committed to bring my dear, sweet, and I were young men of the world, con loving mother-friend to such and ogre-like stant companions. One soft, July Saturday transformation? evening we were in conference in our board Through the crying and tears, I gath room on the steps of the First Presbyterian ered into, my consciousness that smoking Church, a half block from my home in cigarettes was bad, bad, bad. My mother’s words were graven on my memory, yea, into Superior, Wisconsin. The year was 1916. Five year old yuppies we were, discuss my DNA and chromosomes. “Don’t you ing affairs of currency in the neighborhood ever smoke a cigarette, again. Do you and the world as we saw it. Germany was at understand, Jody?” I guess you might say I got the message. war with the world and our country was preparing to enter the ruckus (we didn’t Deep inside my being, I know.that tobacco is bad, smoking it is bad, inhaling it is bad, know why). A 1915 Super Six Hudson Cabriolet on the first hand and the second hand. So much for behavior modification, a ¿pulled up to the curb in front of the Rectory next door to the church. An older guy, phrase my mother never heard in all her about 19, got out and walked toward the life. But in my case, thanks to my mother, minister’s house. He flipped a half-smoked it worked. To this day, except for a few Sweet Caporal in our direction. Bruce occasions, I have never smoked. The pic Alguirre, the agile, the quick, sprang from ture of me that Saturday-night looms large his seat on the step and seemed to catch the and vividly the big screen. Thanks, Ellen Mahony Lee, you were a cigarette on the first bounce. Then he and I began to finish off the butt, passingit back real friend. and forth like the toke of later years. Sage