Wednesday, March 10, 1993
[—_____ —..........
r, .
..... ...... ■■..... '•......... '......... —----
Opinion
A
The CladflEnas Print
Pg. 3
On The World Beat: St. Patrick's Day
If you’ve been seeing a lot of
green things lately, I guess you
know that St. Patrick’s Day is
\approaching... and spring is right
on its heels. This is the day Ire
land takes off, as St. Patrick is the
patron saint of that which is called
the “Emerald Isle.” (To be tech
nical with you, the colors of the
flag of Ireland are green, white
and orange). In a roast to ol’ St.
Pat, I, having been named St. An
thony’s, would be semi-qualified
to give you a partial list of “Where
You’ll Find Green,” and “Where
You Won’t Find Green.”
WHERE YOU’LL FIND GREEN
♦An environmentalist’s mind
♦On Nickelodeon (green slime)
*On R.E.M.’s album (one is titled
“Green”)
♦Emeralds
♦Jade sculptures
*Your wallet/pocketbook (most
of you carry a dollar bill or two)
♦Seattle (it isn’t called “The
Emerald City” just for its health)
♦Golf Course {though it would
have to be called “St. Andrews’
♦Denver
*Winter
♦Vince and Larry, those crash
test dummies
Day”)
♦A jealous per
son’s face ("green
with envy”)
♦Bits of potato
chips (Believe
me!)
*”Environmen-
tally-correct”
products (Green
Cross, perhaps you
might have heard
of that)
♦Oregon forests
(and those in the
Northwest in gen
eral)
WHERE YOU WON’T FIND
GREEN
♦Los Angeles
♦New York
♦At night
♦A desert
♦Chicago
♦Caves
♦A toxic nuclear waste dump
♦A nuclear reactor
wishes (or is the wishes part from
another story?). Anyway, March
17 is the day one might even
havethe“Luckof
the Irish.”
Oh, by the
way, did I forget
to tell you what
the flag of Ireland
represents?
Thanks for re
minding me. The
orange is for the
Protestants of the
north side of the
island, the green
for the Catholics
that dominate the
south side of the
This St. Patrick’s Day ought
to be a doozy. The Leprechauns
are gonna come out in full fence
(pot of gold being part and parcel
of the Leprechaun gig) and run
amok trying to elude the people
who either want the gold or the.
island and the white is for the
harmony and peace that they have
shared over the years.
And just to prove I’m not
geographically stupid, I’ll even
tell you about the Isle.
IRELAND
Indigenous
name: Eire
Population:
Close to 6.5 million
Capital: Dublin (population close
to 1,000,000)
Continent: Eu
rope
Official Languages: Gaelic, Eng
lish
Became inde
pendent: 1931
Other cities: Cork, Limerick,
Waterford (just to name a few)
Ireland, one of the British
Isles, is known in legend for its
leprechauns, in music for U2 (their
hometown is Dublin), in poetry
for limericks (supposedly named
after the city of Limerick), and
largely for its Waterford crystal,
amongst the finest in the world.
Politically, for a long time, Ire
land was conservative because of
the Catholics who were govern
ing the nation up until a few years
ago.
Ireland is a young country
demographically, as about half of
its people are under 27 or so. Irish
people, as arule, are friendly folk.
Being bombarded with strange visions
Finding it difficult interpreting commercial messages
by Zach Kreinheder
Staff Writer
In our society, media are-
constantly bombarding us with
strange visions and messages,
which can be perceived an inter
preted by the consumer in several
different ways.
Most of the time the message
is pleasant and very subtle. How
ever, sometimes we are confronted
by an advertisement that doesn’t
sit well. Call itappalling, disturb
ing, or hatefill; the choice is yours.
The best example of this
would be the infiltration of the 1-
900 hot-lines. These fiber-optic
fornicators use their air time to
sell a vision of lust and luxury to
some unwary consumers.
It doesn’t stop there. Sex
seems related to just about every
thing. One vision comes to mind,
though, over all others.
One night, not too long ago,
I was overcome by something
unexpected while watching tele
vision; an ad for an adult video
store came forcefully at me. The
image of a young woman in leather.
“I like pleasure,” she boasted
while exotically snapping her whip
onto the floor below. She walked
towards a display case filled with
phallic symbols and toys made
for pleasure and pain.
All the toys were in clear view of
the camera. I found myself sit
ting in front of my television in
complete and total awe. I hadn’t
ever seen anything like this be
fore. I got the message clearly.
The next commercial was
even more disturbing.
Picture this. A quiet night at
home, family sitting at the coffee
table and discussing their child’s
(gender undisclosed) plans for the
night. They are conversing about
a gay nightclub which offers af
ter-hours dancing for all classifi
cations.
The child states that (s)he is
not gay, but “all my very best
friends go there.” Hie mother
(who is black) does not like the
idea. The father (who is white)
finds no problem dealing with
this situation.
I find no problem with the
race mixture in this advertise
ment. It's the way the message is
sent that bothers me. The crea
tors are not condoning interrela
tions among races, rather just going
for shock-value with the black/
white and hetero/homosexual
combination.
At this point I didn’t know
what to think. But just when I
thought there was no hope, I was
saved by a anti-hate commercial.
The scene was of a man walking
home late at night, when out of
the darkness came out a shout,
“Hey faggot! ” This was followed
by three men who emerge from
the shadows and begin chasing
the man. The three aggressors
are transformed from men into
ferocious canines. The frame
then freeze and a caption appears
atthe bottom of the screen: “Hate
is not human.”
These three commercials
seemed to fit well together. They
all seemed to send a message of
anti-hate. Although, I’m not sure
of the real relevance of them.
Again, I believe in the message
Today
Kate Gray
at
and
NOOn
Pau^ann Peterson
Gregory Forum
but not in the way it was por
trayed. I don’tbelieve these type
of commercials should be used
in educating the general public
Is this the means of teaching the
ideals that we thought we were
protecting when we declined the
“anti-gay” initiative?
against hate and discrimination.
It may have been late at night,
but a child might have witnessed
these segments. How would they
perceive the message? How would
their parents feel about the child’s
final interpretation?
My question to you (the
reader) is: Would this type of
advertising be allowedbefore the
defeat of measure nine?
If this is true, then I can’t
help considering the short com
ings of our Democratic system. I
don’t feel that colors should be
separated or that sexual prefer
ences should be discriminated
against. Unity should be taught
through not through hate but
through love. And in a way that it
can be perceived as helpful, not
perverse.
Two
Women
Poets