“GO!” yelled the Oregon students, from the balconies of their apartments on Patterson Street in Eugene.
“DUCKS!” replied the residents of Barnhart Hall, bedecked in Duck jerseys, from their dormitory windows.
“Go!”
“Ducks!”
“Go!”
“Ducks!”
Video evidence reveals some happy and passionate students, on both sides of the street. Cars drove by, honking their horns in encouragement. A “U Honk We Drink” sign, hastily made, encouraged more honks. And beverage consumption.
When the clock struck zero at the Civil War, Oregon walked away a 37-20 winner over Oregon State. The next day, the Ducks were officially invited to play in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game against the undefeated Auburn Tigers.
It’s a great time to be a Duck. And, though many Oregon State fans will disagree, it’s a better time to be an Oregonian.
The Californians and Washingtonians and Alaskans and students from other parts of the United States and the world may not feel the same connection. Still, through undergrad and grad school, they are at least honorary Oregonians. They can share in the state’s joy. And its pain.
Oregon, at more than 3.8 million people, was the 27th-most populous state in the union as of 2007. It has grown by about 400,000 residents since the turn of the century. The 33rd state in the union has not had its best 2010.
Its residents have struggled mightily. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October was measured at 10.5 percent; only six other states fared worse. Unemployment had been as high as 11.6 percent the year before. This comes at a time when Oregon’s state government must make up a $560 million budget shortfall for the 2009-11 biennium. Deep cuts will be made.
The median household income was $50,165 in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s $2,000 off the national average. As of 2009, more than 534,000 Oregonians were living at or below the poverty line, or 14.3 percent of the state; that percentage falls in line with the national average, and it’s likely to get worse.
On Nov. 26, a man named Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested in connection with a terrorism plot involving the annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. Mohamud, a 19-year-old Oregon State University student, packed a van full of dummy explosives bought off undercover FBI agents with the intent to set it off during the ceremony.
In an apparent retaliation for the thwarted attack, a Corvallis mosque that Mohamud worshipped at was set on fire on Nov. 28. A person of interest in the arson case has been named, but no arrests have been made as of this writing. Potentially irreparable damage has been done to relationships with Muslim community members in Oregon and around the country, and the state’s reputation for tolerance jeopardized.
In Salem, Bruce and Joshua Turnidge have been sentenced to death after they placed a bomb outside a Woodburn bank. The bomb exploded just outside of the West Coast Bank branch in December of 2008, killing two policemen and wounding a bank employee. The chief of police in Woodburn lost a leg in the explosion.
Kyron Horman, a 7-year-old Portland boy, was abducted seven months ago at his elementary school. Horman’s case remains unsolved as the sordid relationships between his mother, father and stepmother have come to light.
Meanwhile, in Oregon’s most rural counties, unemployment hits home at a much harder rate than the state average — aggregated at 12.3 percent in 2009 (per the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Rural Oregonians are increasingly less likely to graduate from high school, much less college, and are more likely to live below the poverty line. Whole communities face some form of extinction.
These are real-world problems demanding real-world solutions that cannot be solved by football. Nevertheless, as we work to solve them, we ought to celebrate the accomplishment that is a national championship game appearance and a perfect season. For once, Oregon received some good news. News that can — despite a bitter in-state rivalry — bind us together.
Go.
Ducks.
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Husseman: Championship game a bright spot on otherwise gloomy year
Daily Emerald
January 6, 2011
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