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Minoru Yasui’s stand against injustice and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII

From incarceration to a Supreme Court battle and internment, UO Law graduate Minoru Yasui left behind a lifelong legacy of ﬁghting for underrepresented communities – and his patriotism never wavered. M O N D AY, AU G U S T 1 9 , 2 0 1 9 |

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NEWS

JULIANA V. U.S.

A SLOW RACE FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE BY ANNA MATTSON

The Daily Emerald is published by Emerald Media Group, Inc., the independent nonproﬁ t media company at the University of Oregon. Formerly the Oregon Daily Emerald, the news organization was founded in 1900. VOL. 121, ISSUE NO. 2

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“Let the youth be heard”: Eugene students look out in to the crowd of rally attendees in front of them as elementary school-aged students speak to the crowd about the importance of preserving the planet. (Sarah Northrop/Emerald)

our years ago, 21 students sued the United States government for contributing to climate change for decades through carbon dioxide emissions. e case made progress in the court system despite the many attempts to block it by the federal government. Last year, however, it came to a screeching halt, leaving the socalled “Climate Kids” frustrated with the process. According to the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, which represents the young plaintiffs in courts, the government’s decision to use fossil fuels “violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.” e plaintiffs demand that the federal government endorse the reduction of carbon emissions. ey have attended countless trials since Sept. 10, 2015, and the case has gone as far as the Supreme Court. e United States government attempted

to have the case dismissed since its conception, claiming that the constitution did not specify climate conditions as an inalienable right. e Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment. e government requested multiple stays in the case — a ruling to suspend the court proceeding — but they were repeatedly denied until October 2018, when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts put the case on hold. A month later, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken called for an interlocutory appeal on the case, sending it to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Many people involved in the case have become frustrated with the suspension of the trial. Philip Gregory, an attorney supporting the young plaintiffs, has been vocal about his grievances with these setbacks. “Given the urgency of the climate crisis, and here I’m talking about the scientific evidence that is not contradicted by the

federal government, we have an extremely limited amount of time to address this crisis,” Gregory said. “Given the evidence, I am concerned that our courts have delayed addressing this problem.” Kelsey Juliana, a graduate from the University of Oregon, shared that frustration and urgency. “ e process has been taxing on our resources, our time and our energy,” she said. Juliana and her quest for climate justice have been widely discussed in the media, bringing unexpected attention. Many publications, including the Daily Emerald, e New York Times, 60 Minutes and Vogue magazine, have since told this story of youth working for change. “I had no idea that the media would be this involved,” Juliana said. “What this really means is that people all over are seeing the multifaceted nature of climate change.” e magnitude of the media’s involvement was a shock to her, but she said she recognizes the benefits of spreading the word and bringing the issues of climate change to the forefront of the legal system. Juliana is also fighting climate change at the state level in Chernaik v. Brown, a separate case filed against the state of Oregon. According to a press release from Our Children’s Trust, the Oregon Supreme Court will review the case after the appeals court ruled against them in January. e public hearing will take place at David Douglas High School in Portland on Nov. 13, 2019. For Juliana, the outcome of these cases will determine the future of the planet and those who reside in it — as well as the ability to keep those in charge accountable for their actions and inspire young voices that desire change. “I would hope, from the bottom of my heart, as an educator, that young people can be aware of their voices,” Juliana said. “We want accountability from the government — from people who continue to play a part in these decisions.”

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Minoru Yasui was one of the only four Japanese Americans who stood up to the US. government to argue the legality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of more than 120,000 people.

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IS OREGON PREPARED FOR

THE “BIG ONE”? BY LUCY NEUBECK

eople across the Northwest are terrified of the “Big One,” a catastrophic earthquake along Oregon’s Cascadia fault that could occur at any time and is expected to kill thousands of people and cause significant economic damage. Over the 4th of July weekend, three major earthquakes, with magnitudes from 5.4 to 7.1, rocked southern California. A week later, a 4.6- magnitude earthquake hit the Seattle region. None of those earthquakes occurred on the Cascadia fault, where the Big One will take place, but according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, there are small earthquakes happening daily across the Northwest, ranging in magnitude from 0.3 to 2.9. ese earthquakes do not mean that the Big One will happen tomorrow. “Prediction is so hard,” said Dr. Diego Melgar, an assistant professor who researches seismology at the University of Oregon. “We can tell you there’s the fault, it has definitely made earthquakes, it’s been a while since it made an earthquake, but when it will next make an earthquake is anybody’s guess.” e Cascadia fault line lies off the coast and stretches from Northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino, California, dividing the Juan de Fuca and North America plates. Melgar said the Juan de Fuca plate is moving inland at a rate of four centimeters per year, or the speed at which your nails grow, and is slowly slipping beneath the North America plate edge. Major earthquakes occur on this faultline every 300 to 500 years, he said, PA G E 4

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and the last one is estimated to have occurred just over 300 years ago. e Big One, when it comes, is expected to be at least a magnitude 8.0, and Oregon is not prepared for the disaster. Melgar said the first line of defense against earthquakes are building codes, and “building codes mean knowing what level of shaking your building is going to be exposed to and building accordingly.” If building codes are up to par, there should be few collapsed buildings. Scientists didn’t confirm the Cascadia fault line was an active subduction zone until the late nineties, Melgar said. “ at means that any building built before that was built under the assumption that there are no earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest,” he said. Melgar said in California, building codes going back to 1933 are acceptable, and it is illegal to build brick buildings. “Walk around Eugene and tell me how many brick buildings you see,” he said. “Or Portland, or Seattle.” He said California has done things like provide tax breaks for individuals who choose to retrofit their homes. Melgar said one of the most important things individuals can do is inform themselves. “We just need to coexist with earthquakes,” he said. “We just need to understand what they are.” People can also lobby their representatives in Congress to raise awareness that building codes need continued improvement, he said.

But when an earthquake hits, lifelines may get cut off and thousands of people may be in need at once. Earthquake kits are one way for people in Oregon to be prepared. Melgar said he recommends having enough supplies to survive for about two weeks. He recommended having canned goods, batteries and warm clothes pre-stocked in a kit somewhere easily accessible. Amelia Holmes, who at the time of the interview was the Cascades region spokesperson for the Red Cross, said the Red Cross recommends having a “go kit” ready. “We know that we are at risk of experiencing a potentially very dangerous earthquake where we live, and we know that we won’t have a warning when it happens,” Holmes said. She said everyone should have “a set of emergency supplies that is enough for not only you but everyone in your household.” is includes enough food and water for each person in the household for two weeks. In the event of a major earthquake, she said, that’s how long it could take for emergency responders to reach some people. Red Cross also recommends keeping a first aid kit, gas shut-off tool, flashlight, screwdriver and extra clothes in the emergency kit. Holmes said it is also wise to have a kit at your place of work and in your car. “ e reality is a disaster like a major earthquake can happen at any time, and it can happen to anyone,” Holmes said.

ARTS & CULTURE

Portland rapper Smyth is interviewed and performs live on a 14-person bike for Pacific Pub Cycle’s Mic on the Bike. (Marissa Willke/Emerald)

BY FRANKIE KERNER

s long as humans have been creating, people have been inspired by others’ ideas. Since the birth of hip-hop, sampling has been a common practice.. Essentially, artists will take a sound bite or part of another song, movie or other audio clip and use it in their own song, often distorting or looping the bite. is practice has been used as a creative tool to add original flares to other works. But sampling comes with controversies. When using another person’s work — whether it’s a song, movie, or anything else— the artist needs to clear the rights to it. ere is a common misconception that you can use up to 15 seconds of any song in a work without permission. But the law is that even if it’s just half of a second, the rights still need to be cleared, unless the work is supported under fair use. “Fair use” means any use of copyrighted material which transforms the original work, and includes educational use, commentary on the original work, criticizing the work, or parodying the copyrighted work. It’s fair because it doesn’t cause significant harm to the copyright owner, but even then the rules can get tricky. In fact, according to CD Baby, in order to get the track legally, two separate permissions are needed: one license for the usage of the master recording, and one for the underlying composition. e laws have tightened over the years. During hiphop’s inception, artists were sampling a lot because they didn’t have access to much of the equipment and instruments necessary to make a track the exact way they wanted to. Prime examples of this came from groups like De La Soul, Public Enemy and Beastie Boys. By taking guitar loops, drum beats and vocal samples and distorting them, artists found a way to repurpose and recycle these works. Certain lawsuits started to affect hip-hop artists on a greater scale. In 1993, Biz Markie was sued for sampling “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan in a song. As a joking nod to this, he named one of his next albums, “All Samples Cleared!”

One defining event was Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films (2005), a court case that examined a sample by ‘80s group N.W.A. After taking a short guitar lick from Funkadelic, the group got sued and that made artists realize the severity of uncleared samples.

“THE FLIP HAS TO BE CREATIVE” – SIROIS

More recent examples include Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” Childish Gambino’s “ is is America” and, of course, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.” Andre Sirois, a professor at the University of Oregon — also a DJ, event producer and father — teaches classes on the subject of sampling and copyright. One of his classes, “Remix Cultures,” delves into the world of copyright law. Students look at originality through a philosophical and practical lens. What does it mean to be original in 2019 now that it feels like every idea has already been taken? How does one use a song in a self-produced short film? Sirois makes it a point to have everything students make in his classes to be content-legal. “If it’s not something they made, it’s something that they’re using because it’s creative commons or fair use,” he said. Creative commons is a nonprofit organization which creates free copyright licenses for artists so they can quickly and freely distribute their work without giving up all their rights to that work.

Sirois, also known as DJ Foodstamp, has been DJing since 1998 when he got started in college radio at Central Connecticut State. Since then, he’s earned bachelors and masters degrees in communication law. In his studies, he’s found a never-ending cycle in which “people react to the law, the law reacts to what the people do, and the culture reacts to the law.” Another college DJ and staple of the Eugene/ Portland music scene, Spencer Smyth, was inspired by Sirois after taking his class. e two were both DJs at KWVA, the University of Oregon campus radio station. Smyth graduated in 2018 and has continued to collaborate with Sirois since then. Smyth’s new album, “Spore Attic,” is stacked with features from Eugene and Portland artists (like Este, Ian Michael Lindsay, Wynne, the Breakfast Boys Leisure League), including cuts from DJ Foodstamp. e album is riddled with old school funk, soul and of course, hip-hop samples from Smyth’s extensive rolodex of music. In the video for “Shrink Rap,” the single from Smyth is shown weaving dozens of album titles into a narrative as he holds up the vinyl for each one. Sampling is a way to show appreciation towards an artist’s predecessors. If done right, it can pay homage to the original work and remix it in a way that brings a new form of creativity to it. When done wrong, however, people can misuse the sample and disrespect the source of the sample. It’s important for artists to show that they’ve done their research in their tracks. “ e flip has to be creative,” Sirois said. “ ere’s a difference between someone who samples something and they destroy it and you have no idea where the original came from, versus taking a super popular song and looping it.”

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COVER

THE LEGACY OF MINORU YASUI: HOW A UO LAW GRAD CHALLENGED THE U.S. SUPREME COURT BY NOLAN GOOD • TWITTER @ADMIRALHAIRDO

n the spring of 1986, more than 40 years after World War II so forcefully brought them together, two men met in a diner outside of Denver to catch up. One was George Nakata, a second-generation Japanese American who was working at the time in international trade. e other, also a second-generation Japanese American, was Minoru Yasui — a 70-yearold University of Oregon Law School graduate with a lifetime of successful law practice and community service behind him. By that time, his list of accomplishments had grown long and storied. Perhaps most importantly, Yasui had been one of only four Japanese Americans who stood up to the U.S. government to argue the legality of Executive Order 9066. Roosevelt’s now-infamous order led not only to the forced relocation and internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans, but the loss of innumerable family heirlooms, possessions, businesses and property. Most would never be returned. In some cases, whole Japanese neighborhoods within the U.S. gradually disappeared. Yasui was beloved by friends and colleagues in both his professional and personal life, known as a “tremendously generous, kind and engaged” person, according to his daughter Holly Yasui, who would later go on to produce a documentary about his life. So great was Yasui’s reputation that Denver’s government began giving out an annual community service award in his name. To Nakata, however, Yasui was an old friend, one that had been there since the early days of his childhood. When Nakata was just a child during World War II, Yasui was at the beginning of his career. Yasui knew the young Nakata through Nakata’s father, who used his services as a lawyer. In the 1940s, the two men both lived in what was known as “Japantown” in Northwest Portland, a roughly 20 square block area between modern-day Northwest Broadway and the Willamette River. Businesses like small hotels, restaurants, bathhouses and even four newspapers, staffed mostly by families, filled the community. Yasui, who graduated from the UO Law School in 1939, practiced law in Japantown and helped people navigate the tricky landscape of business permits, local ordinances and legal minutiae of living in America as a first- or second-generation immigrant in the ‘40s. Unable to secure an entire office, he worked in the lobby of a hotel and often did his work for free for local Japanese residents in need, Nakata said. “He became friends with my father, who had a small hotel and two markets on Columbia Boulevard,” Nakata said. “Minoru Yasui helped him — helped him get business licenses and all of the legal things that immigrants would not understand.” Before starting his practice in Portland’s Japantown, Yasui had worked at the Japanese Consulate-General office of Chicago doing clerical work and speech writing. He had been brought back to Portland by what Franklin D. Roosevelt dubbed “a date which will live in infamy”: the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Military of Japan.

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Minoru Yasui was second- generation Japanese American. (Courtesy of Holly Yasui)

Yasui was already commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves due to a policy at UO requiring all male students to enlist in the ROTC program before graduation, according to Densho Encyclopedia, a collection of research concerning Japanese Americans funded by the Department of the Interior. When he heard the news of Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he immediately resigned his position at the consular office and reported for duty, hoping to fight for the U.S. military. He was ordered to report for duty at Fort Vancouver, Washington. But when he arrived, the army turned him away — he was not allowed to fight because he was of Japanese ancestry. Persistently, Yasui continued to report: nine times he attempted to take up his post as lieutenant, and nine times he was turned away because he looked Japanese. At the same time, Yasui’s father was arrested as a potential threat to the nation. After that, Yasui returned to Portland and began his law practice, where he first met Nakata. On Feb. 19, 1942, just months after Yasui returned from Chicago, Roosevelt enacted the forceful incarceration of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast. “We couldn’t leave our homes after 8 o’clock p.m.,” Nakata said. “Being a lawyer, [Yasui] knew that that was unconstitutional. You can’t take a single ethnic group and tell those people when they can and can’t leave their home. But America did.” So Yasui decided to challenge the unjust law. On March 28, 1942, he left his home after 8 p.m. and deliberately broke the curfew. For hours, he walked

around without being troubled by the police. According to an article written by Holly Yasui, after some time, he approached a cop and demanded that he be arrested. When that policeman just told Yasui to run along back home, Yasui barged into the police station and asked the cops inside to arrest him. e officers inside arrested Yasui on the spot. Over the weekend, the front page of the newspaper read in big, bold letters: “JAP SPY ARRESTED,” according to Holly Yasui’s article. When he called his mother, a first-generation Japanese American immigrant living in Hood River at the time, she did not scold him or express fear. “I’m not worried,” she said, according to Holly Yasui. “I support you. Persevere!” Yasui planned to challenge the legality of his arrest in court. He was defended by attorney Earl Bernard in a non-jury trial, leaving the decision to the judge. Chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon James Alger Fee decided it was unconstitutional to create or enforce laws specifically targeting a race. He agreed that the curfew enacted to oppress JapaneseAmerican citizens was unfair. Judge Fee did not agree, however, that Yasui was an American citizen, despite having been born in Hood River. According to court documents, Fee declared that Yasui had demonstrated loyalty to Japan by working for the Japanese consulate and revoked his citizenship. Fee sentenced Yasui to one year in prison and fined him $5,000. Yasui was moved to Multnomah County Jail, where he spent nine months in solitary confinement while waiting for an appeal.

Minoru Yasui was one of only four Japanese Americans who stood up to the US. government to argue the legality of Executive Order 9066. (Courtesy of Holly Yasui)

Eventually, his case made it to the Supreme Court. e Court decided that Fee could not revoke Yasui’s citizenship, but also said that restricting the rights of U.S. citizens during a period of war was constitutional. Instead of being released, Yasui was moved more permanently: to the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. A site that many, Nakata included, refer to today as a concentration camp. “Minidoka was in a sea of sagebrush,” Nakata said. “It was a land where coyotes and wild dogs would roam. Groups of rattle-snakes and scorpions.” It was there that the then-teenage Nakata met with Yasui once more. e wide, desert space was filled with 44 blocks, each block containing six tar paper shacks for living and a handful of facilities. e rapidly-built facility would hold 13,000 people over the course of the war. In 1942, interned Japanese Americans were packed in six families to each block in the uninsulated cabins and would suffer temperatures as high as 104 degrees and low as negative 21 degrees, according to the Minidoka Irrigator, a newspaper run by people inside the camp. e complex was surrounded by barbed wire and guard stations at every corner; M1 rifles pointed inward 24 hours a day. e bad living conditions and inhumane treatment of internees Yasui was subjected to during the war deeply affected him and became the subject of much of his life’s work and writing. After two years at Minidoka, Yasui left the camp in 1944 and moved to Denver. In 1945, he took the bar exam in Colorado and passed, but was denied acceptance because of the criminal record he had been given after his breaking of the Portland curfew in 1941. After an appeal, he was accepted. He spent the rest of his life working in Denver. “His career was his life,” wrote Holly Yasui in an email interview with the Daily Emerald. In the 40 years after the end of the war, Yasui continued the legacy he started when he sued the government over its curfew policy by defending marginalized groups like African Americans, Native Americans and Latin Americans. He also traveled around the country to attend meetings, speak to politicians and give speeches.

Minoru Yasui, who had been the first Japanese American graduate of the University of Oregon Law School in 1939 (Courtesy of Holly Yasui)

“YOU CAN’T TAKE A SINGLE ETHNIC GROUP AND TELL THOSE PEOPLE WHEN THEY CAN AND CAN’T LEAVE THEIR HOME. BUT AMERICA DID.” – GEORGE NAKATA, referring to the 8 P.M. curfew for Japanese Americans in 1942, after their internment was ordered.

“When he got up in front of a crowd to speak, he was transformed from a small, Asian man into a giant of sorts, fiery and passionate, using old-fashioned cadences and gestures to express his feelings and ideas,” Holly Yasui wrote. Over the years, Yasui’s faith in America did not waver. Despite the U.S. Government’s mistreatment, Yasui chose not to leave the country at the end of the war after regaining his freedom. He devoted himself, instead, to a lifetime of service within the nation of his birth. “I don’t think my faith in America has diminished one wit,” Yasui said in a profile produced by KUTV of Salt Lake City in 1983. “I think my idealism, a little tired perhaps. But if I were a youngster 26 years old, you bet I’d do it again.” According to Holly Yasui, her father’s experiences during the war were never a taboo topic. Rather, he spoke often about the time, and hoped others could learn from the injustices perpetrated against Japanese Americans during WWII. “He expressed great outrage for the affront against the principles of democracy and equality, but not personal anger and not bitterness,” she wrote. Holly Yasui would later write that her father lived by a simple motto: “We are born into this world for a purpose: to make it a better place for our having been there.”

In his work after the war, Yasui lived in accordance with that motto. When Nakata met Yasui at that diner, Yasui, now an old man, was three years deep into another battle with the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1983, he filed a motion attempting to convince the court to reverse his 1941 conviction and agree that the conduct of the U.S. Government was unconstitutional. e court did not agree to any of his claims. After eating and catching up, the two parted ways and went back to their lives. Yasui passed away only a few months later in 1986. He died while waiting to be heard in an appeal court, which was dismissed after his death In 2015, 29 years after his death, then-president Barack Obama posthumously awarded Yasui the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian honor in the nation. “Today, Min’s legacy has never been more important,” Obama said during the ceremony honoring Yasui. “It is a call to our national conscious. A reminder of our enduring obligation to be the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”

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ARTS & CULTURE

SERVING THE PUBLIC:

UO LAW STUDENTS PURSUE NONPROFIT WORK WITH OLSPIF BY HUNTER REED

Robert Mellinger worked at Our Children’s Trust on the Juliana vs. U.S. case. (Hunter Reed/Emerald)

any people face unequal legal representation for reasons such as ethnicity, financial status or criminal background. Some law professionals focus on bringing justice to those who are at risk of facing unjust consequences. But that often doesn’t bring much financial success. For law students who want to serve the public interest, interning at nonprofit firms representing cases such as environmental law, criminal justice or worker’s rights, for example, is integral to their careers but often is unpaid work. Students need to balance student loans, bills and other costs of living. Taking these unpaid internships is not feasible for many students. is is why the Oregon Law Student Public Interest Fund was created: to provide students with financial stability while taking on these unpaid public interest positions. “For a lot of law students, you’re on your fifth, sixth or seventh year of student loans and taking an unpaid internship isn’t possible,” said Chase Dreher, last year’s co-director of OLSPIF and a 2019 recipient of the stipend. “ e stipend really helps with that.” OLSPIF is a nonprofit, student-run organization that hosts an annual fundraising auction in February. e money received from the auction provides law students pursuing careers in public interest with $4,000 stipends. Applicants find internships at organizations that emphasize serving people, communities and social issues. e applicants then pitch their idea to OLSPIF and, if accepted, are granted the stipend. e OLSPIF stipend allows recipients to put all of their efforts into their internship. In past years, it’s been difficult to source funding for all applicants. is year, the OLSPIF auction raised a record-breaking sum of money and was able to fund each of the 15 students that applied.

Casey Dreher was the co-director of OLSPIF and worked at the Public Defender Services of Lane County. (Hunter Reed/Emerald)

e 2019 recipients worked in fields such as public defense and environmental law, serving underrepresented communities, as well as many other avenues of public interest. “ e work done through OLSPIF directly benefits students, but it also indirectly benefits the communities that they represent,” Dreher said. Sarah Osborn, an OLSPIF recipient, interned at the Northwest Workers Justice Project as a law clerk. Northwest Workers Justice Project represents lowwage, immigrant and contingent workers who are faced with unjust labor practices. “By receiving this scholarship, I was able to work with a dream organization,” Osborn said. “If I hadn’t received funding, I may not have been able to work in a summer position that was related to my law school education.” Other recipients, like Robert Mellinger, were able to be a part of high-profile cases. Mellinger assisted attorneys at Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit focused on environmental law. At Our Children’s Trust, Melligener worked on Juliana vs. U.S., brought against the U.S. government by 21 students for allowing and encouraging activities that emitted greenhouse gases.

“It’s almost impossible to work in nonprofit without a stipend,” Mellinger said. “[OLSPIF] made it possible for me to do public interest work in the first place.” OLSPIF equips its recipients with a unique opportunity. e nonprofit sector of law allows students to have more hands-on experience with their practice. For students like Dreher, working a corporate position where an intern would be tied to a desk only sorting through paperwork was of concern. In Dreher’s experience, he was able to meet with clients, shadow lawyers and actually speak in court. e experience provides insight into which sector of public interest they may want to pursue. “It helped me narrow my focus,” Dreher said. “Before this, I was looking at 10 different fields. I really believe OLSPIF changes lives. It changes career paths.” Student members of OLSPIF are already planning next year’s auction. OLSPIF’s 2020 auction will be in the EMU Ballroom on Feb. 7. Donors, professors, participants and alumni are regular attendees, but OLSPIF student members encourage fellow university students to come to the auction and see what it’s about.

“THE WORK DONE THROUGH OLSPIF DIRECTLY BENEFITS STUDENTS, BUT IT ALSO INDIRECTLY BENEFITS THE COMMUNITIES THAT THEY REPRESENT.” – DREHER

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GROWING UP IN AN ERA OF

OPINION

DOMESTIC TERRORISM

BY LIZZY PALMQUIST

Illustration by Laura Grigorieff

n Dec. 14, 2012, I came home from my seventh grade class’ field trip to OMSI to learn that an elementary school in Connecticut had been attacked by a shooter. Twentysix students and teachers were dead and many more were injured. It was a horrifying thing to hear about at just twelve years old. My parents talked to me about what happened and showed my brother and I extra love and attention that evening. e next day, we went about our lives normally, and it never crossed my mind that something so horrific could happen again. Unfortunately, it did happen again. And again. Sites of mass shootings became common knowledge as the shootings became more and more frequent. A few of them stood out in my mind. Roseburg. Aurora. San Bernardino. Parkland. Orlando. Las Vegas. In high school, my classmates and I were introduced to lockdown drills where we would prepare for an active-shooter scenario. We locked the doors, closed the blinds, turned off the lights and hid in the least visible areas of our classrooms until the principal would announce over the PA system that we could resume class. After one lockdown drill, my friend texted me, saying she had just had a panic attack in the girls’ locker room because she thought an active shooter situation was actually happening. She never got the memo about the drill. Today I am 19. In my lifetime, there have been roughly 83 mass shootings in the U.S, including this month’s shootings in El Paso and Dayton. Nothing seems to be stopping these horrific acts of violence. Meanwhile, death tolls keep climbing and the lives of victims and their families continue to be affected. It has become normal to turn on the news in the morning and hear about another shooting. It does not alarm me as much as it used to, and that terrifies me.

Lack of action has led to familiarity in situations of domestic terrorism, and that needs to change, starting with the laws that allow such events to occur. Currently, only six states and the District of Columbia have banned the sale of semiautomatic weapons, like the ones used in the recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton. In spite of the fact that more mass shootings continue to happen in states with less restrictive gun laws, the U. S. and its leadership continues to ignore the issue at hand by doing little to enforce gun control nationwide. To decrease events of domestic terrorism, the U. S. needs to take responsibility for the impact of the sale of semiautomatic weapons and ban them altogether, while also enforcing background checks for the sale of all firearms. e U.S. has failed remarkably to take national legislative action in favor of protecting its citizens from domestic terrorism. Consider New Zealand; after the March 15 shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand’s parliament voted almost unanimously to change gun laws and ban assault rifles in the nation. At a national service for the victims of the Christchurch shootings, prime minister Jacinda Ardern condemned the racism which fuelled the terrorist attacks and encouraged citizens to make New Zealand “the place that we wish to be.” “Racism exists, but it is not welcome here,” Ardern said at the service. “An assault on anyone who practices their faith or religion is not welcome here.” Unlike Ardern, President Trump has failed to constructively comment on the racism which fuelled the attack in El Paso. While he did condemn the racism and bigotry behind the attack, he failed to acknowledge the impact of his own influence on the El Paso terrorists’ motives. In a manifesto posted just 19 minutes before the Walmart shooting, the shooter argued that white people in America were being replaced by foreigners

and that getting “rid of enough people” would make Americans’ way of life more sustainable. e shooter also took the stance on immigration that has been supported by Trump that immigrants are taking American jobs. Instead of commenting on the way his anti-immigration sentiments influenced the shooter, Trump largely blamed violence in video games and in the media for perpetuating domestic terrorism. Meanwhile, according to psychology professor Douglas Gentile of Iowa State State University, studies have failed to find any link between violence in the media and violent crime. As for the need for legislation addressing stricter gun control, Trump tweeted “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying with desperately needed immigration reform.” It is positive that Trump acknowledged the need for the instatement of background checks for purchases of fire-arms. However, the attachment of immigration reform to gun control legislation obscures the real issue at hand. In the case of the El Paso shooting, immigrants were not the terrorists. e shooter was explicitly targeting immigrants. e immigrants were the ones who were in danger, and stricter gun legislation might have prevented that. Immigrants were not the problem; the shooter and his easy access to a gun were. Generations of Americans are currently growing up in a nation where their safety is threatened. Normal outings like going to a movie theater for a late night showing, stopping at Walmart to pick up snacks, or even walking into a school building hold the potential for danger. As a nation, we owe it to the future generations of Americans to protect them from events of domestic terrorism. And to do that, we have to take responsibility for our lack of action against mass shootings and move forward to create legislation that can prevent them. M O N D AY, AU G U S T 1 9 , 2 0 1 9 |

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PAY FOR PLAY

CALIFORNIA’S FAIR PAY TO PLAY ACT COULD FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THE STRUCTURE OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS BY BRADY LIM

Oregon Ducks outfielder Haley Cruse (26) at bat. (Devin Roux/Emerald)

n May 2019, the California state Senate approved Senate Bill 206, a bill better known as the Fair Pay to Play Act. While the approval doesn’t mean the bill is a state law just yet, the potential ramifications of the bill would fundamentally change the landscape of college athletics under the NCAA. If passed, the bill would allow student-athletes at California’s 24 colleges and universities to be paid for “the use of their name, image and likeness.” In other words, student-athletes at these schools would be allowed to sign endorsement deals, sell their autographs to sports memorabilia stores and be represented in video games, among other things. What they will not be able to do, however, is sign direct contracts with universities in exchange for their athletic services. Although the NCAA is not subject to state laws, the bill would make it illegal for the NCAA to restrict or punish athletes for seeking these kinds of agreements. Despite this, NCAA president Mark Emmert has threatened to disqualify all California schools from competing for national championships if the bill passes, citing the potential uneven playing field that the law would create. If the bill is eventually signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, it would take effect on Jan. 1, 2023. “We are very clearly opposed to any type of payfor-play system,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said at the conference’s annual media day. “Notably, the federal courts in the 9th Circuit have also weighed in now on multiple occasions to say they do not support any system for compensation for studentPA G E 1 0

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Ducks center Bol Bol (1) attempts a free throw. (Ben Green/Emerald)

athletes that’s not tethered to education. I think we’d be opposed to the type of system you described, and it would certainly be a violation of NCAA rules.” While this potential law would not affect University of Oregon student-athletes directly, the school’s association with the Pac-12, which includes four California-based members (USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford), would guarantee ripple effects across the conference. Disqualification of these schools from national championship contention would hurt the Pac-12’s profile, and in turn, would hurt the University of Oregon. All else equal, the ability to be compensated for their likeness could be the deciding factor between a high school athlete choosing to play at a California school as opposed to a non-California school elsewhere. “It’s going to have to change all across the nation,” Oregon football player Troy Dye said on the issue. “You can’t exclude UCLA. You can’t exclude USC. You can’t exclude Cal and Stanford from the Playoff. Not to mention San Diego State, San Jose State, Sac State, all these other schools that are Division-I programs who won’t be able to play in a bowl game because they’re getting what they deserve. I think the NCAA, over these next couple years, is going to have to do some real deep thinking and really change some of the things that they do.” e changes made under this potential law would be undeniably positive from a student-athlete’s perspective. Being able to profit off their own likeness would open financial avenues that otherwise aren’t present for a lot of the NCAA’s underrepresented

sports, most notably, women’s sports. Take University of Oregon softball player Haley Cruse for example. Her personal Twitter account has over 42,000 followers, thanks in large part to her personality and marketability outside of her athletic talents. e National Pro Fastpitch league, the highest professional level a softball player can reach, has just 63,000 followers on its official Twitter account. Another example: former men’s basketball player Bol Bol. He has over 900,000 followers on Instagram, while the official Oregon men’s basketball account has...64,000. He got injured as an NCAA athlete and fell to the second round of the NBA Draft as a result, costing him millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the Duck Store profited off the sale of his official, NCAAlicensed jersey - complete with his number - without his name on the back. “All players believe that they’re their own personal brand,” Oregon State football player Isaiah Hodgins told the Daily Emerald. “I believe that if they want to build themselves, their name, that [law] could help a lot.” It’s clear that there’s a market for these athletes beyond the sport itself. Under this potential law, everything that goes into building a personal brand as a college athlete would be properly compensated. “It’s long overdue,” Dye said. “I think everybody can agree with that. e numbers don’t lie.”

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