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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1996)
Opinion The Clackamas Print Wednesday, January 31,1996 Portrait of the American Housewife Laney Fouse Staff Writer I’ll be the first to admit I en joy watching afternoon soap op eras. But what is it with all those commercials? Are these the pas sions of the American housewife or why women do all the work? Betty’s day starts at 5 a.m. The FiberCon works just like the ad promised. She makes a note to buy Northern bathroom tissue at K-Mart. Stepping into the shower, she reaches for the Lever 2000 bath soap. The shower walls could use some X-14 soap scum remover. She showers quickly, surprised her five-year old is still asleep. He must be tired from playing with the V-Tech Talking Table his Grandma sent. Betty dries off with a towel stained by Clairol Loving Care hair color. She notices her gray roots, wishing it had been as last ing on her hair. Sighing, she rolls her hair around the Remington heated rollers. At 6 a.m., she reaches for the Mentadent buried next to the Crest and Aqua Fresh toothpaste her husband and son prefer. Then she splashes on some Ultima II perfume. It promises to make her too sexy for her shirt. At 7 a.m. the baby cries. Betty races down the hall tripping over the Fisher Price bike. She changes the baby’s diaper, thank ful the Huggies hadn’t sprung a leak. Betty drops the diaper in the pail, then cleans her hands with Lysol antibacterial soap. At 7:15 a.m. she fills the toilet bowl with Lysol cleaner and sprays the bathroom fixtures with Lysol disinfectant. She rakes the upstairs carpet with the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. At 7:45 a.m. she starts the laundry, remembering to pre-treat her son’s shirt with Era detergent. His sitter served him Hamburger Helper without his bib. Laundry started she scoops up her daugh ter and heads back downstairs. At 8 a.m. Betty’s back in the kitchen. She squirts Dawn dish detergent into the Corning Ware baking dish. Sticky remnants of last night’s Rice-a-Roni remains. The family will be lucky to get Jif peanut butter sandwiches and Progresso pasta soup tonight. The phone rings just as she sits down to eat her bowl of To tal. Between bites, she politely explains to the caller how happy she is with her AT&T long dis tance service and doesn’t wish to switch. She hangs up the phone and returns to her breakfast. She checks today’s schedule, noting her appointment at Sears Portrait Studio. Just then her five- year old son races into the kitchen with his Mattel See and Say Storybook. His first request is for a bowl of Kix cereal. She per suades him to have Eggo waffles with Aunt Jemina syrup. After breakfast, she dresses the kids and wonders how her husband is doing. Hopefully he’ll remember to take the Alka Selt zer or the Thera Flu medicine she packed in his lunchbox. His con gestion was getting worse, per haps she should consider buying Sudafed Sinus. At 10 a.m., Betty loads the kids and a diaper bag into the wagon. She climbs in, buckles up and checks her Revlon long-wear ing lipstick in the vanity mirror. Her day, barely begun, al ready had her temples throbbing. Searching through her purse, she locates the Motrin IB and takes the recommended dosage. She peruses her list of things to do and draws a deep breath to calm her nerves. She starts the car, backs out of the driveway and hopes her husband understands why her penchant for passion has paled. Excuse me, Mr. TV execu tive, but do you really believe women are the only ones capable of doing all the cooking and cleaning? Are women more qualified than men to do the household chores? Is it any wonder women joined the work force? Perhaps they wanted to get a little rest. Perhaps they were tired of the commercials telling them to clean this or cook that. Perhaps they just wanted “a little love in the afternoon” without being re minded that the housework still needed to be done. Letter to the Editor: Making parents take responsibility Student looks for answers for their children’s criminal actions Eric Etherton, Columnist Some people say the next big prob lem in our society, if it hasn’t be come one already, is juvenile crime. The question that always comes up about this issue is: who’s responsible, the juveniles or their parents/legal guardians? One “quintessential Ameri can small town” may have a clue as to who and perhaps why— Silverton. For those who may not know, Silverton is located 14 miles east of Salem and is the home of about 6000 people. Two years ago, Silverton made legal history by being the first municipality in the United States to pass an ordinance mak ing parents/legal guardians le gally responsible for their juve niles’ crimes. I’ll call it the “Silverton law” after the Oregon city that’s now the leader in this new area of criminal law, justice and personal responsibility. (Seeing the effectiveness of that ordinance, other municipali ties have since that time adopted “Silverton laws” of their own.) The question about the “Silverton law,” therefore, is: do I support it or do I oppose it? The answer is I support the “Silverton law” without question. The reason I do so goes as fol lows: parents need to supervise their children’s behavior. And parents influence their children’s behavior more than most other in- fluences—especially when it comes to the values of right and wrong. , More often than not, law gen erally represents such values as they establish parameters of ac ceptable behavior—and it rem edies behavior that falls outside them. Another reason I support this law is that there are two things some parents may do that I can see generating a problem with their children: neglecting to su pervise their children’s behavior and setting a bad example for them. Not that juvenile offenders aren’t responsible for their crimes—in fact, they are, and need to be held, very responsible—but the parents need to live up to their responsibilities as well. Therefore, in answering the question of responsibility for ju venile crimes, I’m saying that both parties are responsible. For me to say that the “Silverton law” is a panacea for juvenile crime would be menda cious on my part. However, what I will say is that this law is a fresh and forward-thinking step to wards the solution, one that would take another factor into account. The great people of the city of Silverton—which I’m not too far from, as Molalla is 11 miles to the north and east—have taken bold new steps with this law, and I for one am glad they decided to do so. I’d doubt such a law would be effective in cities like Port land, Los Angeles or New York, large cities with splinter commu nities in them, inhibiting them from developing communal bonds as a truly united municipality. But in Silverton, in my mind a close-knit small town (but aren’t most small towns like that?) where most of the people know most everyone else, such a law would not only work, but perhaps have healthful side effects—like the enhancement of the family unit. I think the people of Silverton are to be commended—no, ap plauded—for their effort. I also would like for cities, towns and municipalities of every size across our state—ahh, make that our na tion—adopt their own “Silverton laws.” (A few states adopting “Silverton laws” would be nice, too.) In short, in the problem of juvenile crime, responsibility falls on both the juvenile for commit ting the crime, and the parent/le- gal guardian for either setting a bad example for the juvenile or neglecting to supervise the juvenile’s behavior. With already existing laws against the offender, the “Silverton law” places res ponsibility on the parent/legal guardian. Though it will not solve the problem entirely, it will make inroads toward the solution. The recent article regarding John Garvison should provoke outrage in us all. Not necessar ily for what was in the article, but rather for the questions not asked of administration and fac ulty. Surely any real guardian press seeking to serve student body and community needs would ask the questions that scream to be asked: Did a fac ulty member propose and/or dis cuss the possibility of grading down Garvison for exercising free speech? If so, who was it? What is being done about it to protect students from this kind of academic harassment in the future? The ignoble title of "lapdog journalism" is truly befitting a mealy mouthed press that fails to ask the pertinent and obvious questions of institutional author ity. A truly guardian press would have had the guts to ask the dif ficult questions. Instead, the Clackamas Print cowered to the deafening roar of institutional arrogance despite the power it has to defy institutional intimi- dation. Linda Vogt spoke of respon sibilities. What about her respon sibility? She and others at the faculty meeting in question have a DUTY to be forthcoming with the truth about what was said in that meeting. What about the re sponsibility of the person who ut tered the offense? That person has a DUTY to admit to the wrong and guarantee to us ALL that the practice of grading stu dents down for things that occur outside of the classroom remain in the domain of absurdity, never to be tolerated. This offense, even if re maining a mere suggestion, is far worse than Garvison's innocuous e-mail that sparked the rebuke from faculty. As a student of Clackamas Community College and mem ber of this community I demand accountability. Steven Moore 20975 S. Gould Ct. Oregon City, OR 97045 503-655-1791 f QUESTION AND ANSWER 1 Writer’s Contest Update session W ith Each cover page also needs a phone number and mailing ad dress SENA TORIAL CANDIDA TE Three copies of each work are to be submitted Fudrnj, Fet. 2*td, K mh U I p.Ht. U CCI27 CoHee cookie* wiK le oemd » Harrjt Lonsdale
