Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2005)
^LAc*AMASprint •] yttitnentuty^^62^ ¡azis haveright to clean up road laura Cameron |fc Clackamas Print »What do you get when people ■lize and steal to prove that ey aren’t a community of big- ■ta> r: a prime lesson in ^■en Marion County put up ^Kns acknowledgingthat the ^■can Nazi Party had adopt- ^■ection of road near Salem, ■dints were understandably ■ After all, nobody wants to Btovcr that there’s a Nazi chap- ■r active in their neighborhood. But the locals’ reactions to the igns were totally out of line. [First were the demands that i| signs he removed; then, that le hfezis not be allowed to par- cipatc in the Adopt-a-Road pro- ram. Finally, when the county used to meet these demands, taeon defaced, damaged and olelthe signs - which will no lubt be replaced, making the boll thing moot. Ht Igoes without saying that ■ this all rather amusing, Bally the man on the news wing that the protests and thefts were an effort to prove that they weren’t “a community of big ots.” Thank you, random man on Channel 8 news. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. The crown jewel of this whole affair, however, is the repeated demand that the Nazis not be allowed to participate in this public program. Here, the laugh ter ends. Indeed, this is the most serious that many of you will ever see me become. First, let me point out that I am not a Nazi, nor have I ever sympathized with Nazis or agreed with their highly skewed beliefs. Having said that, I will continue by saying that I have a much bigger prob lem with whoever vandalized and stole those signs than with the Nazis’ desire to clean up roadside trash. Let’s be honest here: how much damage has the American Nazi Party done by adopting that small stretch of road? The answer is, of course, none at all. The person who stole those signs, however, has done approximately $600 in damage to the very county whose image they are supposedly protecting. OK, so I lied earlier; I haven’t completely dispensed with laugh ing. That last paragraph made me chuckle . But the way I see it, that $600 is the least of the troubles precipitated by this event. There is a larger issue here, one that, if some people get their way, could wreak havoc with the 14th Amendment. You all know the 14th Amendment, ot you should, anyway; it grants us equal pro tection under the law. Many people say that Marion County shouldn’t allow the Nazis to be part of the Adopt- a-Road program. But for what reason? Because the people of Marion County aren’t overly fond of the Nazis’ viewpoint? Well, I’m not overly fond of the viewpoint of over-zealous Christians who attempt to force the love of Jesus down my throat with a hydraulic ram, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be allowed to take part in a pub lic service program. I am going to invoke some language here that is normally reserved for discussions of same- sex marriage: this situations is a “slippery slope.” After all, if the squeaky wheels in Marion County succeed in getting the American Nazi Party blackballed from the Adopt-a-Road program, who else could be banned? Once the precedent is set, who would be next on the list of “banned by reason of unsavory politics?” Basic Rights Oregon, per haps? Planned Parenthood? The NRA? The Baptist church? The Boy Scouts? If the American Nazi Party is banned, how long before only the most easily offended in our society control who can and can not be part of a public program? Surely that possibility is more offensive than a few Nazis picking up cigarette butts and beer cans that some non-Nazi has tossed by the roadside. Mike Navarro shows his opposition to the Nazi sign. His flier reads, “They only pick up white trash.” Associated Press Iraqi elections successful Jeremy Freíd The Clackamas Print ildren are the most susceptible to malaria and need things like and nets to protect them from mosquitoes that may Infect with disease. These starving children are from a village in alaria kills millions hile America stands by many African families aren’t able to get hold of the necessary precautions. Mi 11 ions of children are being infected with it at birth from their The recent tsunami in Asia has mothers being bitten by mosquitoes ¡acted the attention of dozens of while pregnant. These deaths are ief groups and huge amounts of| extremely unnecessary and avoidable, ■dia attention. About 220,000 have unlike most natural disasters. The lethal epidemic is being ignored, d globally from the tsunami that I been said to be the biggest natural over-shadowed by the tsunami that took place because it is something that ■Today there is another disaster tak- happened very suddenly and can be ■ place that has been killing for physically seen. While tsunamis don’t Bars. malaria. Malaria kills close to happen every day and people will stop ■million people each year, roughly being mortally effected by the recent M percent of them in Africa, mostly one very soon, millions will continue Bung children, making malaria the to die of malaria, which is estimated to y 30 seconds. ■ding cause of death in children kil Bder five years old (20 percent). 1 ignored too long, and ■Malaria also makes people more it’s easier and ;heaper to stop infesta- Bsceptible to other diseases rampant tion before it h ppens. We as a country ■the area, such as AIDS and com- should suppor other nations by how ■n viruses. Malaria is not just found much help the r need, not by what is ■poverty but is also a cause of pov- most apparent ar makes us look good in intention. A nation isn’t honored for self defense against malaria Oder a mosquito net. that glorified existentialism but for true tn a dollar to make, but empathy. j Slate ilackamas Prints I think the recent elections in Iraq were a Success. There are many rea sons why I think this, but first I need to clarify just how important this recent election was to the citizens of Iraq. The elections that were held were to decide on a 275-member national assembly that will write a constitu tion and appoint a president and two deputies. The real success though was that the election was held and people did vote. According to CNN, early and very rough estimates on the voter turn out ranged from about 65 to 75 per cent, and this was despite the fact that the terrorists and/or insurgent groups promised that a river of blood would be spilled on election day, Although 28 people died and 71 were wounded, that really is a low number considering just how big this step is. If the elections were derailed, you only had a 10 to 20 percent voter turnout, people were afraid to vote, or many polling places were getting blown to bits, then the terrorists would have been able to at least delay the elections for many months, if not for a year or more. But the river of blood did not hap pen, and in the wake of the elec tions, terrorist groups are threatening to behead a G.I. Joe doll and giving reporters a doctored video “showing” that they shot down a British military transport although it went down in a sand storm instead. There are many speculations as to exactly why “bloody Sunday” (Iraq’s elections were held on Sunday, Jan. 30) did not happen. One reason is maybe that the terrorists/insurgents could not marshal the forces necessary, as conservative estimates hold that in Iraq,’about 15,000 terrorist/insurgents have died in the continued fighting. The elections were a success because people came out to vote despite the, terrorist threats. The elections were’ held on time, with only sporadic vio lence, such as car bombings. Although the process to get a new government on its feet will be slow, the process is now in a position to keep going despite the arguments and disagreements that are bound to come up. The mos,t important thing was that the Iraqi people came out to vote, despite everything, and that Iraq’s own security forces played a major role in making that happen. In fact, one Iraqi police officer threw himself onto a, sui cide bomber so that the citizens around him at those polling booths could take part in the election process. He sacri ficed himself so others could have the opportunity to vote, and that, in my opinion, is the most important reason why Iraq’s election was a success. Internet Photo Shiites bearing posters of Grand Ayaotollah Ali Sistani celebrate on Monday in Bagnaad’s Sadr City following Iraq’s election.
