Democratic rally story misrepresents facts
I was very displeased and disagree with the perspective and attitude presented by Jan Montry regarding the Democratic rally at Mac Court (ODE, Oct. 31).
First, the headline of “Scaring Up Votes” with former President Bill Clinton’s picture underneath seems to infer, or could be interpreted, that Clinton used “scare tactics” and fear in his presentation for votes. As usual for Clinton, he was positive and upbeat, and the crowd frequently cheered.
The second statement that I adamantly
disagree with was: “Unlike Kulongoski, Bradbury focused on personally attacking his opponent.” I heard Bill Bradbury briefly state that it would be scary for Gordon Smith to be in office for another six years and discounted Smith’s statement about
being a moderate. However, most of
Bradbury’s speaking was “focused” on
the positive things that he wants to do for
Oregonians, and that he is there to support what the majority of Oregonians want.
My suggestion for the Emerald is: Next time, please have a Democrat do the report for a Democratic rally. The Register Guard did a much better job.

Athena Yemaya

senior

anthropology

Is survival more important than democracy?
The issue of global warming is one that reaches beyond the question of whether or not the atmosphere is indeed heating up due to the long-enduring emission rates of greenhouse gases. Although debate may continue regarding whether global warming is real or not, another issue worth examining, in my view, is whether democratic systems of government are effective in protecting society’s welfare against systematic long-enduring threats such as global warming.
As people may agree, democracy appeared to harness a collective intelligence of a population for the purpose of protecting the population’s welfare. Candidates for political office are elected on the basis of how well they represent the views and interests of the populace.
But just what are the interests of the populace? Are society’s long-enduring survival interests always aligned with the collective interests of a given population?
It appears to me that in the early stages of global warming where no imminent threat appears present to a given populace on earth, regardless of how threatening global warming can be expected to be for future generations, a given populace cannot be expected to democratically elect leadership that mandates sacrifices on the populace for purpose of responsibly addressing the global warming issue. The single lifetime interests of citizens comprising the populace will not be sufficiently aligned with the multiple lifetime interests of the society they live in.

Joe Kinney

Danville, Ind.