Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1995)
OPINION The Clackamas Print Page 3 Wednesday, April 19,1994 ‘Netiquette’: Surfing with consideration by Patrick Lundstrom Staff Writer The Internet is the longest lasting and widest spread anarchy in history. It has unique qualities that have allowed this to happen and gives it such a wide appeal. It is a neutral environment, where physical bias can be avoided and the free exchange of ideas can take place. The uniqueness also provides a new environment for people to facelessly commit harm to one another. This inevitably leads to contemplation of censorship. Many immediately balk at the mention of the “C” word. They start demanding their first amendment rights, freedom of speech, so on and so forth. If only they would stop to think of the real meaning. The real question becomes: who will restrict information for the greater, or my own good? First impulses say that it would be the government but they have little, or no power to take punitive action against the who must make the decision for The decision must be made “creepy crawlers” that log on from themselves how to use the pow to self-censor, or to give that outside their jurisdiction. ers provided by the Internet. power to someone else. The sheer size of the Net also It is each and every person If people continue to abuse makes monitoring the might of com difficult beyond munication, then reason. it will be left to Next in line, commerce, and or the service provid government, to ers and commer censor. cial products could If people and do offer limi choose the path of tations or controls sensible interact on certain situa tion, reaction, tions. then they may re Prime ex tain their cher amples are several ished freedoms. of the Usenet The problem is newsgroups (nota that not everyone bly Claris) and the is sensible, or al secure data trans ways has control fer programs. of their emotional These have responses. the double-edge That is why an disadvantage of ca journey along will avoid gridlock on the information archies have been tering to a certain superhighway. so unsuccessful economic strata, in the past. and commercial influences in a who accesses the file or sends the That is also why we have de formally educating environment. message that makes the decision veloped the institutions of gov Finally there is the individual of what censorship is, and will be. ernment and commercial capital ism. It must be remembered that an absolute of any of these (anar chy, social structure or monetary interaction) will form a system that is inherently unstable. Only with an integration and balance between the three can there be a stable ground for. hu manity to grow and develop. The Internet is like a huge, sprawling city. It has gridlock (lo cations so clogged with traffic that navigation into, and beyond, be comes difficult), crime (data de struction or theft, sexual offense, libel and slander, etc.) and litter (a lot of worthless stuff to wade through). Like a major city, things are not all bad, there are wonders to behold. There is a diverse popu lace to interact with and learn from. New and unusual things can be found there, well before they would be found anywhere else. There is a pace, a faster tempo, that lets humanity achieve new heights, much faster than otherwise possible. Official language deemed necessary to unify can society. And you know about when in Rome, right? And fourth: historic prece dent. The dual monarchy of Aus town and Plymouth came from tria-Hungary (it existed ‘til 1918) England, bringing the language consisted of different ethnic groups each speaking a different with them. Second, what language did language-also the case with the immigrants learn when they came Ottoman Empire (gone since ’22). to Ellis Island, soon afterward to Millions of people (both cases), become American citizens-Espa- ethnic groups and separate lan ranto? Don’t be ridiculous-they guages. Communication was rea learned to speak English, and that sonably difficult-and what it did being a stepping stone, they for official documents, having to quickly assimilated into Ameri be printed and/or translated into different lan guages. (Transla tors don’t come cheap, especially for official docu ments.) In America, TRFMET we’re heading for HOW TO RIDE a multilingual so ciety, if we haven’t reached that point al ieqc ready, a la these other examples, where we have many languages with few speak ers. The problem with it,is having to write the same ni’AiiH.iA naibioBAHMS thing over and nOK3AAMH H ARTOtyCAMH over, but with dif ' x’ V a « íj Í ferent languages, p Í 4 iKC.i-CÖNCi ■(■w-Mét-SÍ and thus "we break off into splinter groups. Also, since the aforementioned kingdoms were united somewhat loosely, it wasn’t very hard at all sometimes for these splinter Tri-Met’s new bus schedule is one groups to quarrel example of multi-language literature. with each other, Better communications, cost savings cited as potential benefits of change by Eric Eatherton Staff Writer I thought about what all was going on, and I came to a con clusion: in order for us to truly progress as a state, and a nation, my personal belief is that English should be the official language of the United States-at least Oregon, anyway. (Didja realize we’re the only nation in the world without an official language, to the best of my knowledge?) I came up with valid argu ments to prove my point. First: the state will save taxpayers’ money by not having to have official mail arrive in about eight languages. (While I’d taken my brother’s mail, I once received some papers that arrived in languages I never knew existed, let alone saw. There were so many consonants blended together that in English weren’t even in abbreviations together, I knew not what the folks who spoke that language used for vow els. I honestly thought it was gib berish.) You see, there isn’t much in centive for new immigrants to learn the English language, since official documents come in (most likely) their native tongue any way. And thus, we have all these splinter groups with their own languages, their own customs, etc. Second: ease of communica tion. Common sense tells us com munication is easier between people if they speak a common language-and what better lan guage than the one taught almost everywhere in the world? (True story-it is.) Third: tradition. First, the colonists who settled in James Cómo Abordar or maybe outright war would break out. We have the chance to learn from the same mistakes that a common language can foster unity between masses of people, especially in a so-called “melting pot,” where the ties that bind us as Americans are few and far be tween, and people are quick to honor their differences, “honor ing diversity,” as they call it. I once said to a past col league, “In order to be truly united, we must not look at the differences, we must look at the common bonds.” The last thing I want to have happen to the United States is its disunification. Please note: I’m not implying we won’t accept anyone who doesn’t speak English, as it does take time to comprehend. I’m just saying we need a common official language to facilitate communications amongst our 260 million people. Since English is spoken by a majority of Americans anyway, English should be the official lan guage of at least Oregon, if not the United States. Also, I’m not implying that we won’t allow people to learn foreign lan guages. If that’s their desire, let them do it. That’s fine to speak that lan guage to others if you know the language well enough. But I’m saying English should be our of ficial language, since an official language saves tax dollars and lots of grief. (And what about those of us, like myself, that don’t know enough foreign languages to fill a perfume atomizer?) And if English does become our offi cial language, since the majority of us speak it anyway, it won’t be much a transition, if at all. I’m just saying to those who want to become citizens, “If you want to come to our country, we’d like it if you learned to speak Eng lish, so that you may assimilate into our society.” To summarize: English should be our official language be cause it saves tax dollars by writ ing documents in one language instead of about six. It makes communicating with others easier. It was the first language of the general American society. And learning from the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary, having more than one language towrite documents in isn’t; always a good thing. Money For Everyone NATIONAL PARK JOBS. Forestry workers, park rang ers, firefighters, lifeguards, and volunteer and government positions available at National Parks. Excellent benefits and bonuses! Over 25,000 openings! For more info, call: 1-206-545-4804 ext. N60571 FREE Financial Aid! Over $6 Billion in private sector grants and scholarships is now available. All students are eligible regardless of grades, income, or parents income. Let us help. Call Student Financial Services: 1 -800-263- 6495 ext. F60571
