Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1996)
Opinion Truth, shrouded Mp shadows and half truths The Clackamas Print Wednesday, April 10,1996 It starts .with an assamt- weapons W. oddity tha^dj^n’t add up, al- ban.'andcj^> ban.'andc^^> with th^onfisca- thosconfisca- it! «though Gegrge Atiyeh, former tion of youraead grandlather’s old lei phairman of the pro-wilderness abup Friends of Opal p -jpction bill he liked and he’s not Winchestaairjike the.one Jimmy*- protection Stewart chased Creek, maXhave the senator’s down in the number. He said prophetically last movie of the year that Hatfield’s support of Opal Creek was camouflaged to same name. In Hiron’s hide his true support of timber in view, the foot’s terests. And that’s what the been in the door senator’s legislative behavior in for years when it dicated the last two weeks of comes to wilder March. -TomHirons Before getting into that ness protection. former head of the Oregon Land Coalition And he probably though, don’t be too impressed by doesn’t want Atiyeh’s prophetic abilities. If he Opal Creek slip was that good, he would have an ticipated that his “inadvertent” going to start with Opal Creek. ping an ankle in. That’s why it must sting that logging of timber from Opal Creek It’s a page out of the NRA book of foot-in-the-door legisla Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore. - usu would get him booted as head of tion. Once you let one of the crit ally a friend of the timber folks — the Friends of Opal Creek, which ters in the house (or the Senate), has been a staunch supporter for it did late last year. Back to Hatfield’s late-March they’ll have the run of the place. years of protecting Opal Creek. Hatfield’s support is another See CREEK, Page 4 confines. But i&does want the land | __ I think this comes under the ^ft^e^xemptecyom federal for-^Pc^tegory of “intractable position.” You’d think it would be a no-* -esifc^dlicy ... N®one can agree on .Tom never met a wilderness pro- Damon Fouts News Co-Editor brainer deciding whether Opal Cteek — a hotbed of political con tention between environmental groups, timber interests, local Communities and political entities for the last two decades — should be a protected wilderness area. It should. But nothing quite adds up when it comes to this politically beleaguered slice of wilderness 25 miles east of Salem, home of some of the oldest Douglas Fir in Or egon. Consider this statement in a Jan. 25, 1995 issue of the Orego nian: Oddly, most everyone wants the place protected. The timber indus try has no desire to log within its wnat to do. Egos, intractable po- sitions and politics have held the area in flux for years. Indeed. Contend ing players can’t even agree on what is and isn’t Opal Creek. Estimates of the area’s acre age vary from 21,000 to 35,000. “I question why you should have a special bill for that special group of people,” said Tom Hirons, the former head of the tim ber industry’s Oregon Lands Coa lition, early last year of legisla tion protecting Opal Creek. “-------------- I question why you should have a special bill for that special group of people. Social Security Insurance needs to be privatized Brendon Neal Opinion Editor Social Security Insurance (SSI) is like a black hole. People work all their lives giving much of it up to SSI for their retirements. When they come to the time in their lives when they are done working they look for this money. It won’t be there for retir ees in the near future. During the ‘80s the govern ment found a great supply of funds to help the sagging Federal bud get: there were billions of dollars lying around in America’s retire ment system. The answer became obvious. Why not spend them? Millions of Americans will be retiring in the next decade expect ing all the money they gave to the Federal government to come back plus some (The money is put into Federal Bonds which yield inter est). Studies show that this money will not be there shortly after the year 2000. Currently a plan is being con sidered to revive SSI so that we won’t have to work until the day we die. The plan is based on analysis by the Cato Institute which is a nonpartisan research foundation seeking to broaden public policy. They receive no government funding in order to give credibility to their proposals. The plan consists of two parts. The first is to individualize SSI so that money can’t be re moved except to pay retirement for the person who put it in. Current workers getting to retire might see a drop in their re tirement if any changes were ret roactive. This is because instead of getting money from a pool which is currently larger than the total number of people retiring, they would basically be restricted to the smaller pool of money from fellow retirees. However, I like the The Clackamas Print Staff Editor-in-Chief: Chad Patteson (Ext. 2576) Managing Editor: Amy K. Hanson (Ext. 2576) News Co-Editor: Pamela Sirianni (Ext. 2576) News Co-Editor: Damon Fouts (Ext. 2576) Assistant Sports/Feature Editor: Jon Roberts (Ext. 2578) Sports Editor: Lora Wahrgren (Ext. 2309) Photography Editor: Paul Ulmen (Ext. 2578) Copy Editor: Laney Fouse (Ext. 2578) Opinion Editor: Brendon Neal (Ext. 2309) Business Manager: Cori Kargel (Ext. 2578) Assistant Opinion Editor: Karin Redston (Ext. 2309) Assistant Feature Editor: Brad Zimmerman (Ext. 2309) »»ft» Staff Writers/Photographers: Eric Eatherton, Andrew Beck, Jessica Dvorak, Jack Evans, Brian Ray, Joel Shempert Secretary: Joanne Gale (Ext. 2309) Advisor : Linda Vogt (Ext. 2310) The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, professional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty or The Clackamas Print's advertisers. Products and services advertised in The’Clackamas Print are not necessarily endorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication distrib uted every Wednesday except for finals week. The advertising rate is $4.50 per column inch. All signed letters to the editor will be considered for publication and must be submitted by 1 p.m. the Friday prior to publication. Clackamas Community College, 19600 S. Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, Oregon, 97045; Barlow 104; (503) 657-6958, ext. 2309. E-mail: cccprint@clackamas.cc.or.us basic idea. I would like to see this go into effect, but only affect cur rent and future retirees. The second part of the plan would be to actually privatize the system. This would involve put ting the money into public stocks. The money is currently going into government bonds. Studies of the markets show that govern ment bonds tend to stay steady. They don’t rise or fall very fast. This increases the retirment prob lem by not increasing the money that is still in there. “History shows that the finan cial return on [private financial] instruments exceeds retirement needs at a fraction of Social Security’s cost,” according to Wil liam Shipman, one of thé nation’s leading financial analysts. An example given was if someone born in 1970 were al lowed to invest in stocks of the amount they currently pay in SSI they would receive nearly six times the benefits. According to the same study this amount could be as much as $ 11,182 per month. I like this idea both as a worker and a stockholder. It would give workers a chance to retire with a decent income from their retirement rather than de pending on Government bonds which increase their earnings. I do think the government needs to be involved by guaranting a per centage of the retirement fund. Otherwise, a stock market crash could cause a lot of damage. I think with these two ideas and some further thought the gov ernment can save SSI. I realize that to many college students this may seem a worry for the future. However, some of us are now working or will be working in the near future. Our money is disap pearing into a hole and going into other people’s pockets. Who will pay for our retirement? I will leave the reader with one last fact to consider: the government’s own calculations show that SSI will be bankrupt by the year 2030, but it could also face a financial crisis by as early as 2014. Non-smoker’s rights abused Karin Redston Assistant Opinion Editor threw their cigarettes to the ground and squashed them out. Now there As a non-smoker I try to be were some litter-conscious people. My final pet peeve is people tolerant of those who do. Smok ers do have rights and I do try to who smoke and throw their ciga respect those rights. Unfortu rettes on the ground. I figure nately, I feel smokers do not re people who are that rude probably are the ones throwing trash out spect my rights. As far as CCC goes I feel my their car windows or taking deer rights as a non-smoker are a bit out of season and a doe at that. I compromised. There are almost challenge people on campus to no building entrances I can enter count the number of cigarette butts without going through a smoke on the ground. I figure the num screen. Smokers stand just out ber is in the thousands but I could side the entrances of these build be slightly over exaggerating. ings to smoke. To instill any kind of sensi There are two reasons for this. tivity and consciousness into most The first is where the cigarette re smokers is impossible. To ask ceptacles are placed: around the smokers not to smoke in front of entrances to the campus buildings. the building doors has only This leads to the second reason. brought about an attitude. Don’t These receptacles are placed there dare to ask these people to pick so smokers can smoke and not get up their cigarette butts. rained on as they are under cover CCC should consider build by the entrances. ing smoker enclaves around cam While walking into a build pus where smokers can smoke ing I end up breathing smoke and near their classes but non-smok my clothes end up smelling like ers can get into the buildings smoke. As a non-smoker I find smoke-free. I think smoking this offensive. I should not have should be relegated to designated to breathe other people’s smoke to areas only. That way non-smok attend classes here. I should not ers can easily avoid the areas and have to arrive home smelling like cigarette butt clean-up would be an ash tray. contained. The idea has been in One particularly bad building stilled in airports for awhile now to enter is Streeter Hall. During and there is no reason for it not to class breaks smokers are out there. happen at schools or everywhere. I counted ten one day. What was Smokers do have their right to rather funny was the majority of smoke but I also have a right not those folks I observed failed to use to breathe their air. the cigarette receptacle. They just
