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.)
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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.)