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PAGE 4, KEIZERTIMES, JANUARY 9, 2015 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM We are all Ducks now On Monday, Jan. 12, we will all be Ducks. Even some diehard OSU Beaver fans will probably be cheer- ing for Oregon—if not specifi cally for the University of Oregon Ducks as they play for the national champ- sionship. For the person who has limited interest in such things, this game is huge for all Oregonians. Monday’s game is the very fi rst title game of the Bowl Championship Series. Those with a passing knowledge of collegiate football know the name of Marcus Mariota—our Heisman Tro- phy winner. Regardless of what team one roots for our chests should swell with pride that our college football team has reached the pinnacle. Win, lose or draw, we will have bragging rights forever—we were there fi rst. By 5:30 next Monday evening the streets will clear as eyes will be glued to television screens in Keizer and throughout the state. Fans who bleed green and yellow will have their para- phanelia at hand, ready to take to the streets in victorius celebration. For those who like to live on the edge, spending the evening in Eugene promises to be a raucous time. The championship appearance will be a huge boon for the Univer- sity of Oregon as well. Viewers from across the nation will see advertis- ing for the university, they’ll see the beautiful scenery of our state. This will be a major public relations event for us. Regardless of how the game turns out we are confi dent the Ducks will win or lose like a sportsman, with no snubbing of the other team and cer- tainly no rioting in Eugene or any- where else. Because Oregon is dif- ferent and we’ll show it on Monday night. —LAZ A drug’s cost and value By DON VOWELL This morning’s breakfast—an or- ange, a banana, some cheese spread on a slab of homemade bread, eight or 10 Whopper malted milk balls, a little milk, and one pill worth $133.33. My doctor suggests that I take 60 of these each month to total $8,000. That will cost America’s health industry $96,000 this year. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking all stakeholders collectively if my con- tinued health is worth that much. If you think of the country’s health ex- penditures in total as drawing from a shared money-pit you can easily make the case that I have used far more than my share in the last year and a half. With my usual lack of foresight, I chose a disease that is pretty rare, not attracting research dollars with telethons, marathons, and celebrity support. As of yet there is no under- standing of the causes and, before that gold-plated pill I ate with my break- fast, no effective treatment or cure. My new pill was just cleared by the FDA for use a couple of months ago. Not exactly a guinea pig, I am still among the fi rst patients to whom this drug was made available. If you watch the evening news, you are dulled by a cavalcade of ads shilling new drugs for which you should ask your doc- tor, invariably followed by a recitation of possible side-effects —high blood pressure, bleeding fi ngernails, loss of simple math skills, marital failure, and slow painful death followed by depres- sion. What a curious sales strategy. The only side effects I was warned against were possible nausea and diar- rhea, and those are usually temporary. So far there’ve been no abdominal eruptions. I’m also supposed to be- gin having my liver function checked monthly. Now I feel duty bound to learn what my liver is doing in there after all these years of blissfully ignor- ing its exis- tence. I spent my working life employed by a company that sponsored many good in- surance plans. Now Medicare has also taken me under its wing. My co-pay on the $8,000 monthly will be about $25. Does that make any sense? Based on my retirement income, I could only pay full price for a couple dozen pills in a year. That raises a lot of questions. There will be some who share the same af- fl iction but have no insurance. Should they be denied this expensive new treatment? I can’t make the case that I deserve it more. Some who suffer the same ailment may never be diagnosed if they cannot afford to see specialists. This new treatment does not claim to be a cure. It only slows the progres- sion of this disease. How much post- ponement of the inevitable is worth $96,000 a year? Would that same amount be more ethically spent on exams and wellness care for kids who otherwise can’t afford them? Their whole life is before them. This wonderful pill looks like an ordinary gelcap. How was the price set at $8,000 a month? Because there is so little demand for it I don’t think we’ll ever see the generic version sold at giant discount stores for $14.95. Development and research costs must be recouped, I get that, but looking at the half-full little bottle of caps makes you wonder at the cost. My pedigreed UW specialist seemed astounded that I would even hesitate. Okay. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.. a box of soap (Don Vowell gets on his soapbox regularly in the Keizertimes.) Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com NEWS EDITOR SUBSCRIPTIONS Craig Murphy editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eric A. Howald news@keizertimes.com One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 ADVERTISING Paula Moseley POSTMASTER advertising@keizertimes.com Send address changes to: PRODUCTION MANAGER Andrew Jackson graphics@keizertimes.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon A. Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 BUSINESS MANAGER Laurie Painter billing@keizertimes.com LEGAL NOTICES Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon legals@keizertimes.com facebook.com/keizertimes twitter.com/keizertimes My Rose Bowl experience By ROLAND HERRERA I have always been a big sports fan but my favorite sport to follow is college football – specifi cally Or- egon football. I have been blessed to attend some great Duck games all over the west and even when they lost the opening game of the 2010 season to LSU at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. I had never been to a Rose Bowl game so when the Ducks made it to the inaugural semifi nal playoff game of course I set my sights on Pasadena. As a young man, I still remember the 1968 Rose Bowl when my hero (at the time) O.J. Simpson had a memorable game leading USC past Indiana 14-3. Then there was the 1970 Rose Bowl when Jim Plun- kett led Stanford to a huge win over Ohio State, 27-17. In 2010 the Ducks made their fi rst appearance since 1995 but I couldn’t attend. They lost to Ohio State but redeemed themselves in 2012, beating Wisconsin. After some convincing and us- ing the “once in a lifetime” strategy, this would be the year we make the trip...and following Marcus Mario- ta’s emotional Heisman acceptance speech, we had to be there. The Duck Rally in Santa Monica was u n b e l i e va b l e with more than 4,000 people there to cheer and party with “Puddles” the Duck Mascot, the cheerleaders, the marching band and alumni. There were plenty of Keizer folks there (Martins, Yamakas, Walkers, Morris, Butlers, Santos). It was all about yel- low and green. The best was yet to come. The Rose Bowl stadium is a beautiful sight to see. I thought of all the times I had watched the clas- sic stadium on TV, but here we were taking pictures in front of the fa- mous granddaddy of them all. We had great seats around the 15-yard line and were next to a some very nice Florida State fans. You could feel the excitement and anticipation. Looking around at 95,000 people was incredible. The fi rst half was tense but I had the feeling it was going to be alright. Our section was full of fun people from Oregon having a blast. other views The Ducks scored six straight times they touched the ball in the second half, the last four on Florida State turnovers. Boom! Speed won the day. The Duck defense had a great game, Darren Carrington did nicely, Mariota was Mariota and it was just a matter of time before mistakes ruined FSU’s day. Aloha athlete Thomas Tyner had a good game. After his 21-yard touchdown run, the Ducks were riding high and the crowd was go- ing nuts. The better team won. The whole experience was fan- tastic. If you have the opportunity, it’s well worth it. It is now off my bucket list. Olyvia and I thought it would be a once in a lifetime op- portunity, but here we are ready for the natty (National Championship game in Arlington). We leave on Friday and thanks to my nephew in Texas, we got some pretty good seats. Is this a great country or what? Go Ducks! (Roland Herrera is a Keizer city councilor.) Inaugural games have featured Oregon Although basketball is referenced on the one hand and football on the other, there will occur a most remarkable event should the Uni- versity of Oregon Ducks defeat the Ohio State University Buckeyes in the AT&T Stadium at Arlington, Texas on Jan. 12. There is simply a matter of 76 years that separate these happenings. The inaugural NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament took place among eight teams in 1939. The fi nal game of the tournament had the University of Oregon Web- foots (Yes, their nickname was Web- foots back then) defeating the Ohio State University Buckeyes. It wasn’t a rout but it was a decisive victory. Years ago, it was commonplace for state college teams to count among their players, mainly young men from that state (women’s basket- ball teams did not exist before Title IX). The UO team of the late 1930s had fi ve players from Astoria, three others from Oregon City, The Dalles, Oakridge and Ashland, and three from the state of Washington, includ- ing one each from Olympia, Ray- mond and Longview. As an aside, the UO’s 2014-15 basketball team num- bers 15, only two from Oregon with not one from Astoria. Along the way to the championship for Oregon, the Webfoots had to achieve the best record for what was known then as the Pacifi c Coast Confer- ence, including a best- of-three conference- ending series against the UCLA Bruins held in MacArthur Court on the UO campus in Eugene. Oregon won the fi rst two games and then it was on to the national tournament which started in San Francisco with UO de- feating Texas fi rst, then Oklahoma. The champion- ship game was held in Evan- ston, Illinois, on the campus of Northwest- ern University on March 27, 1939. The fi nal score was UO 46, OSU 33. We move ahead then to the inaugural College Football National Championship to be held at the AT&T Stadium in Ar- lington, Texas. And, just think, if the BCS still ruled the fi nal American football contest it most likely would have been Alabama versus Florida State University, and we all know what happened to them under new terms of play at the Rose and Sugar Bowls! Should UO win on the 12th, it’ll add up to two inaugural wins for Or- egon. Now that’s a special distinc- tion in Men’s Division I basketball and football no other team in the U.S. can claim title to. Not now, not ever. A sad fact about the contest is the ticket costs, as they are excessively high with nosebleed seats costing hundreds of dollars (bring your bin- oculars) and any location within easy gene h. mcintyre viewing the asking price can be as high as $10,000. This is a Division I championship game that should be available to many more students from the two competing schools. The price per seat therefore is so out-of-reach for the average col- lege student that few have the fi - nancial resources to attend without incurring more serious debt. Mean- while, this contest is a contest of amateur players with student fans in school spirit mode and not the Su- per Bowl where making huge gobs of more fi nancial gain for owners, and paying obscene player salaries, is the be all and end all of the money- mad NFL. Although issue is taken with the disgusting degree of profi t mo- tive behind the exorbitant seat prices at the AT&T Stadium, If I were as rich as a Bill Gates, a Koch broth- er, or many another among Amer- ica’s “one percent,” I’d rent the sta- dium in its entirety and run a raffl e at the two schools to select attendees who’d thereby include a proportion- ate number of UO and Ohio State students from poor and middle class homes, not just fat cats and their off- spring as attendees. (Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap- pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)
