Clackamas Print
EDITORIAL
jveJue policy needs
| updating, part II
Opinion 3
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
EARLY POLITICAL TRAINING
W weeks ago, this page explored business
i Utilized by other colleges to raise operating
of hiking tuition fees,
le options do exist for us.
these options are simply passive
ing operating funds and generat-
and are important in maintaining
affordable cost and keeping the
ol on abound financial basis.
LE, a number of concerned
brought to this editorial board’s
lack of a definitive recycling pro-
■MWollege.
recycling bins are scattered around
is not a comprehensive system of
sable materials from the mounds of
; Clackamas generates on a daily basis.
to research, an aggressive recy-
progran i instituted on all levels of the
>1 would immediately pay for itself in lesser
ill operating expenses and services.
j^^Bg to universities and “great” activist
t’s Web sites, better than 90 percent of all
i
¡produced by commercial or educa-
I institutions is simple paper or cardboard.
Iso, the hundreds of plastic and aluminum
and bottles disposed of every day each have
'^^■d price that quickly add up.
■jj^Bali fori li a and Oregon schools already
oy the'5-cent deposit value to help fund
a^fivitios or pay for other programs that
Id otherv isc go lacking in funds,
te lowers i ty of Oregon even has an excel-
(^^■iage online that details the step-by-
i^^Hfrom scratch of a campus recycling
ram that co vers every angle.
he dramas ASG would do well to check
iatUa Kon.edu/~recycle/howto_texthtm.
PASSIVE MEANS of saving
ty is the simple expedient of installing flue
nt lights and automatic timers in every office
dassroom
many rooms do have them, enough
>t that it becomes an issue.
gathered from Consumer Reports
«^■ratchdog groups have consistently
ii long-term benefits and savings to both
te consumer and commercial users.
/iffi fluorescci 11 lighting using 80 patent less
icit thin conventional bulbs and including
-icity
•gs from automatic lights, the cost ofinstalla-
lSUaBy pays for itself in ¡ess than a year.
ARMONDO
borboa
O pinion editor
Especially in election years, a popular
American pastime seems to be watching
public figures becoming increasingly out of
touch with reality.
The only challenge to the viewer at home
is wondering which individuals will stick
their foot in their mouth next
Personally, I always bet on the guy whose
lips are moving.
In the real world
ASTLY, with emerging alternative energy
es, fee-loncept of homegrown electricity is
rang more and more common.
lair/ new buildings in the downtown
md area are starting to incorporate solar
s and wind turbines into lheir construction,
,:e advantage of lowered costs of heating and
edwith these technologies,
benefit comes when more power
si consumed. Utility companies
energy “credits” to business and residents
i excess power is salt onto the local grid,
nlya snpnsmgly small number of genera-
H^Mbd in order to start seeing a return
B a solar/wind generator requires a
$300 million for an Alaskan bridge to
nowhere is clearly stupid and a waste of
money, yet some politicians figured it was a
great idea.
Sending out a $600 government tax
rebate check per person to kick-start the
economy is clearly just picking our pockets
and handing us back a tip.
Millifins of taxpayer dollars are spent to
encourage the use of ethanol fuels to reduce
dependency on foreign oil.
Too bad ethanol directly leads to higher
food prices and an increase in greenhouse
gasses. The list goes on and on.
But then again, spending time on planet
Earth with the rest ofus is apparently not
■tial investment the school can itt-
something politicians do on a regular basis.
fcority of costs are underwritten by
If the Hillary show has demonstrated
BmM^grants, state and local solar rebate
nothing else this year, it has at least shown
ams or ex credits.
tire amazing difference between our reality
one of these suggestions are new, radical or
- a normal auport-landing in Bosnia - and
irdofby most people. They are all tried and
the way politicians tell it - a combat drop
deas that have been proven time and again
under sniper fire.
Not that the other guys in this three-
»■is known to be a leader in innova*
legged race are any better.
ndedkfcaiion.
But at least McCain really did get the
it’s lead by example.
crap beat out of him in a Vietnam prison for
five years; there is no doubt about that hap
I
fackamas Print
Clackamas Print
JO Molalla Ave.
gon City, OR 97045
•657-6958, ext. 2309
Editor in Chief: Megan Koler
Copy Editor: Colleen Watkins
News Editor: Lydia E. Bashaw
A&C Editor: Emily Walters
Sports Editor: Andrea Simpson
Feature Editor: Kyle Steele
Photo Editor: Kayla Berge
Opinion Editor: Armondo Borboa
Photo Associate: John Shufelt
News Associate: John Hurlburt
pening whatsoever. Go, John.
So why don’t most politicians get it?
To paraphrase Arnold the Gubemator
when he was running for office in
California, “Most of these guys have no
idea what it is like to sign on the front of a
check”
What the Terminator was trying to say
actually does contain a fair bit of wisdom.
Most public figures we see on the eve
ning news, with their 30-second sound bites
and “talking points,” have no clue what it
takes to run a successfill and profitable com
pany, something many private citizens do
everyday.
Most of them have no idea what makes
an economy work or how to keep the unions
happy while keeping a business in the black
Most of them have no clue what moti
vates a workforce to create new ideas or
technologies.
and cope with the occasional Godzilla attack
This idea isn’t as far-fetched or silly as it
might seem at first
After all, modem fighter pilots spend lit
erally hundreds of hours jacked into simula
tors before they ever go up in a real bird.
Same thing goes for Wall Street stock
market traders. They spend countless hours
and days going over charts, graphs, econom
ic models and real-time reports before they
ever input their first real buy order.
Doctor^ lawyers and military officers
have histoncaliy always been considered
professionals, and they all have stringent
requirements that must be met in order to be
allowed into lheir ranks.
We require proper training and licensing
before we allow people to be trusted with our
money or our safety.
Why should we trust our society’s well
being to anything less?
What to do
Cyber-nerds to the rescue
Although a very broad generalization,
a large majority of so-called “career politi
cians” are lawyers who passed tire bar exam
and then only held down a job long enough
to run for public office.
Funny enough, the only careers consid
ered more despicable than politics are attor
neys and news reporters.
So what is a possible solution?
We could require our elected officials to
first successfully prove themselves in the
boardroom before they can attempt to run
our economy.
But then again, self-made millionaires
Mitt Romney and Ross Perot both spent
plenty of their own dollars and still didn’t
win their respective races.
Personally, I like the idea of requiring
anybody holding public office to fest qualify
on strategic population simulator programs.
Think of this as playing “SimCity” or
“Civilization” in expert mode.
To even qualify to run for office, they
would have to not only keep an approval
rating better than 70 percent, but also stay
within a budget, deal with natural disasters
With modem technology growing smart
er and smarter each day, simulator games are
becoming as close to the real thing as you
can get without actually being there.
Anybody who has ever played a strategic
sim game knows what happens when you
raise the tax base without increasing your
resources first-common knowledge to any
gamer, but apparently a totally foreign con
cept to our elected officials.
Your population gets unhappy and soon
goes somewhere else to live.
The same concept is true for projects and
public works that do not serve the needs of
your population.
You blow all your gold, you get no
bonuses and again, the people leave.
If teenage gamers can master archaic con
cepts like budgeting, resource management,
population expansion, supply and demand,
forms of government and military strategy all
by sitting on their butts playing video games,
then anybody can do it
Is it too much to ask for people who are
playing witii our real lives and tax dollars to
do the same?
A d M anager : Meredith James
P roduction A ssistant :
Mallory Bashaw
S taff W riters / P hotographers :
Kenton Benfield, Robert
Crawford, Matthew Garrison,
John Petty, Lisa Sellars, Jess
Sheppard
D epartment A dviser :
Melissa Jones
D epartment S ecretary :
Pat Thompson
G oals : The Clackamas Print aims
to report the news in an honest,
unbiased, professional manner.
The opinions expressed do not
necessarily reflect those of the stu
dent body, college administration,
its faculty or The Print. E-mail
comments to chiefed@dackamas.
edu.