Southern Utah University Student Newspapers | 1996-03-25 | Page 8

OPINION c.J. EDWARns 1 COMMENTARY A modest proposal for campaign '96 Ready or not .. .its an9ther election year. And the campaigns are just getting warmed up, wi th the party conventions still months away, we have a lready been exposed to hundreds of political surveys and countless attack ads. And as usual, come November, voter turnout is likely to be around half of what it should be. Why arc so many Americans failing to take advantage of their constitutiona l right to vote-to choose the government under which they are going to live? The re arc man y possibi lities, for apath y in the American electorate, from ignorance of the issues and candidates, to a feeling that their vote doesn't really count-a feeling that is especially pronounced am ong Democrats here in Utah, where President C linton placed third in 1992. Regardless of the reason, I have no doubt that come election day people a ll across America will be findi ng reasons not to vote, whether they have to work late or they're watching Ricki Lake, record numbers of people will, again this year, find an excuse not to vote. Too often deciding which candidate you arc going to vote for-if you are going to vote at all- is seen as trying to pick the lesser of two evils. Is this because everyone who runs for political office in this country is inherently corrupt or incompetent? Or is it because we are inundated with negative campaign ads every time we tum on the television for months before the election? Maybe, and this is just a thought, the people seeking election this year should consider "running for office." That is they should try to sell themselves to the American electorate. Show us why we should vote for them; why they are the most qualified person for the job. Not why allowing the other candidate to take office will · lead to the apocalypse. Didn't it seem a little bit ridiculous when Steve Forbes dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, and gave his full support to Senator Dole? Steve Forbes, a man who apparently felt so strongly about Senator Dole's inadequacies that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, of his own money, trying to discredit him; now believes that Senator Dole is the only possible choice for President of the United States. Is it just me or does that seem a little odd? If the candidates will take the time to show us why we should vote for them, what makes them the person we want in whatever office they are running for. Maybe, just maybe, more Americans will take the time to go out to polls and vote for someone they believe in this November. Curry Edwards is political science major and the opinion director for the University Journal · ·U ·~'IT. ..., .~· T0 · ·E.. :~ ·~ :YEj ~~ . ~~~ I . S~UTHERNtrrAH PROFESSIONAL STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: Editor Larry Baker 586-775 1 Campus Editor Jim Robinson 586- 1997 Consulting Sports Editors Neil GarJner 586-7753 Brett Jewkes 586-7752 Kellie S. Leeman 865-8045 Assi,tant to the Editor Jennifer Morley 586-7759 STUDENT STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: Associate Editors JoAnn Lundgreen 586-8226 • Randy Herget 586-7750 Opinion Din,etor C urry EdwarJs 586-7757 AP Wire Editor Nicole Lui 865-8225 Photo Editor Lonnie Behunin 586-7757 Sports Editor Tim Muwell 586-5488 Arts Editors Heather C hil ton & Ann Marie Taylor 586-5488 Advcni, ing Manager Trevor Clements 586-7758 Cbssifitd Ad Ass't Laquctta Carpenter 586-7759 The Universit y /ournol is published cvtry Monday, Wednesday :ind Friday of the academic year as a publi cat1on of South ern Utah University, Its department of commu nicat ion and the SUU Studtnt Association. 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PLEASE RECYCLE nus CO PY. I SARA ECKEL COMMENTARY Hillary Clinton et al: Scorned women unite Hillary Clinton was done for when she posed for a New York Times Magazine cover captioned "Saint Hillary." She should have known better than to let anyone put her on a pedestal. She should have remembered that basic principle of physics-that what goes up must come down. Despite the fact that there has been no evidence of financial misconduct on the first lady's part, the Whitewater hearings have exacerbated the already hostile feelings that many Americans have toward Mrs. Clinton, making her one of the most despised figures in American politics today. She is, at least, in good company. For the. history of women in America has been largely a history of hated women. And so, in honor of women's history month, here's a rundown of America's great scorned women. Thanks to authors Kay Mills !From Pocahontas to Power Suits), Margaret Truman !Women of Courage), Celia Morris Eckhardt !Fanny Wright: Rebel in America), Dorothy Sterling !Ahead of Her T ime), Elizabet h Anticaglia (Twelve American Women) and Lynn Sherr (Failure Is Impossible) for their valuable resources. Susan B. Anthony- When the famous suffrage tte published the first issue of her n ewspaper, The Revolution, The New York Tim es sugges ted s he get m arried and have children. During a speaking tour, editors at the Oregon City (Ore. ) W eekly Enterprise " wished that she had been more fortunate in her younger days." The Utica (N.Y.) Evening Telegraph cut to the chase: "Personally repulsive, she seems to be laboring under feelings of strong hatred toward male men, the effect, we presume, of jealousy and neglect." Alice Paul-Along with Susan B. Anthony, Paul led a group of women who were imprisoned for tryin g to vote. She was lat er sent to a psychopath ic ward, despite the fact that the psychi atrist authorities had commissioned deemed her mentally stable. Elizab et h Blackwell- Th e first wom an admitted to a medical school in the United States soon discovered that her remarkable achievement would bring her much grief. Her admittance prompted the scorn and jeers of male colleagues, and the townspeople believed that any woman who studied anatomy must be immoral. The implication of wantonness also made it nearly impossible for Blackwell to rent space for her practice." Anne Hutchinson- Though she was not one of the unfortunate souls killed during the Salem witch trials, Hutchinson was considered a "devil" by the 17th-century Puritan establishment. She was banished to the New England wilderness for "her intolerable 'gender insubordination.' The Bay Colony indicted her because she was an inspiration to other women to become more of a 'husband than a wife,'" says Anticaglia. Fanny Wright-Wright was both the first woman in the United States to speak out publicly against slavery and the first woman to speak to a large, mixed-gender audience. For this she was loathed. "Fanny had become the symbol of most things women should not be," says Eckhardt. In the words of one detractor, she was " this petticoat advocate of agrarianism, this antagonist of the marriage contract and vilifier of the scriptures." Abby Kelley-This 19th-century abolitionist and women's rights crusader was called everything from a "Jezebel " to a "man-woman" to a "servant of Satan " for daring to enter the public arena. Hillary Clinton is arguably not the great figure that the above women were, and considering the time in which s h e lives s he's not nearly as radical. But any woman who can make a rightwing politician' s m oth er u se th e b-word on national television .. .well, s he must be doing something right Send comments to Sara Eckel in care of this n ewspaper or send her e -mail at [e-mail].