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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1968)
Oregon daily EMERALD Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the Emerald and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the ASUO or the University. However, the Emerald does present on this page columnists and letter writers whose opinions reflect those of our diverse readership and not those of the Emerald itself. RON EACHUS, Editor Associate Editors John Anderson Cindy Boydstun Rick Fitch Chris Hougluni Gil Johnson Linda Meierjurgen Steve Moore Doug Onyon RICH JERNSTEDT Business Manager Kon t>ayior Sally Schippers D. L. Sonnichsen Jaqi Thompson DOUG CRICHTON Advertising Manager BARBARA STONE National Advertising Manager University of Oregon, Eugene, Friday, November 15, 1968 Mac Court Policy Too Inflexible The athletic department, it seems, doesn't trust stu dents. Not at least when students want to use the McArthur Court floor for a dance. A new athletic department policy prohibits all dances at Mac Court fall and winter terms so that the floor won’t be messed up before our basket ball teams play on it. As a result of this policy, the Grateful Dead were mov ed from the court to the EMU Ballroom, which is too small to comfortably handle all the students who wanted to see the group. We wonder how many people they would have stuffed into the Ballroom if the Dead had not been first billed as a concert in Mac Court, if Oregon State hadn’t advertised in the Emerald their Grateful Dead performance as a dance, and if the sponsors. SDS, hadn’t waited until the last minute to switch the show to the Ballroom. According to Norv Ritchey, assistant to the athletic director, it would be impossible to protect the court’s floor during a dance even if canvas mats were laid over it, Dancers, he says, exert much more pressure on the floor than people in chairs. He assumes, however, the dancers would be wearing shoes. The sponsors of the dance said they would make sure that all dancers would take their shoes off before going onto the floor. Ritchey says that would be impossible to enforce. Bull. It would be very easy to collect shoes in the Mac Court lobby, before t ho people go through the doors to the court. But then there’s cigarette smoking. Ashes from cigar ettes actually cause more damage to the floor than danc ing, according to University Business Manager W.N. Mc Laughlin. Yet that doesn't stop the athletic department from allowing lectures and speeches in Mac Court. No one has figured out whether more cigarette smoking oc curs at a dance than a speech, but it would be reasonable to assume that people generally smoke more sitting down. And, at all dances, the EMU employs ushers who have been effective in curtailing smoking. The athletic department is simply being stubborn. It is adhering to a policy it made by itself, without consul tation with students. Furthermore, the athletic depart ment, and the University President’s staff which support ed the policy at a meeting earlier this week, have de monstrated their rigidity. When the next nationally known rock group agrees to perform for a dance here, we hope the athletic department will cooperate with the rest of the University community, and allow the use of the only existing facility which can adequately hold everyone who wants to attend. For What It's Worth “Since we started using chemical sprays we have prac tically eliminated the night stick. It's better than hitting a man over the head.” Police Chief Joseph C. Hall of Asheville. N O. at the 75th annual conference of the In ternational Association of Chiefs of Police. Raison d’Etre Every student needs a campus newspaper. Have you every tried wrapping your garbage in the radio. _from (he University of Colorado Perspective. ll!l!llill)liiilllllillllllllllllllllllilllllli!lllilHill Other Editors Say IIIIIIllllllllllllllHHIIIIIIilliHlil iiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiin Abolish Make Believe Violence Editor’s note: This editorial is reprinted from the Minnesota Daily, University of Minnesota. Opposition to “war toys” has become respect able. Parents who disapprove of their children playing with toy rifles, toy tanks, and toy bombs in the past have been looked upon as kooks. In the aftermath of the assasinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy, however, Americans are beginning to reassess the influence of violence in our society. Responding to a rising mood of disapproval of war toys and to a drop in their sales, depart ment stores around the country have curtailed and sometimes completely ended promotion of war toys. In the Twin Cities, for example, Day ton’s, Target, and Wards are not running ad vertisements for what once were among the biggest toy sellers. Sears Roebuck and Co. and Donaldson’s are closing out their stocks of war toys. But is all the fuss really relevant to the prob lem of ameliorating the climate of violence per ■imuiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiuiillll vading the United States? Hasn’t every American boy always played with toy guns? The answer to the letter is yes, of course, but then this country also exhibits one of the world s highest homicide rates and a history of seeking violent solutions to social problem. Rap Brown s statement last year that ‘violence is as American as apple pie” should have come as no surprise. Research conducted by Leonard Berkowitz, chairman of psychology at the University of Wis consin in Madison, graphically vindicates op ponents of toys of violence. Berkowitz found in an imaginative experiment that a person would be more likely to try harming another person after he had glanced at a firearm. Berkowitz’ results do not dispuite the fact that toys of violence in large part merely reflect our violent climate. But he does show that symbols of violence, such as war toys, also contribute to this climate. Someday pretended violence may no longer be a staple of every American boy’s childhood; and someday real violence may no longer haunt this country with such great intensity. iUUUIIIIIIIIIillllllllllU Emerald Editor: 5 More for Morse Emerald Editor: Wayne Morse during his years of service as Senator from Ore gon was the sponsor of every major education act passed in Congress. Previous to this, he was dean of the law school here at the University. With this knowledge of edu cation and of the University, we recommend that he be named president of it. Judith Krogh Grad, Bio. Pamela Johnson Sr., Bio. Meg Best Sr., Theater * sj: # Beware the Court In reply to Mr. Farleigh re: student court. If my attack was poorly contrived then your re ply was no less, for you did not answer anything. I said there are no qualifications for stu dent court and from your an swer, I can still see none. Sure, they go through a lot of com mittees but there are no quali fications. As far as the case I wit nessed goes, the defendant could not find the key witness in ques tion so that he might serve him with proper notice — yet the trial goes on. The point is not that such a decision can be appealed, the point is that I am familiar with regular court and such a thing would never hap pen there. I witnessed another session of the court Wednesday and was amazed to see capricious ness of the student court. In particular the defense attorney was not allowed to leave his seat to question a witness. Now I've witnessed a lot of courts and pacing by the defense at torney seems to be a pretty ac cepted thing. Really the pur pose of the court should be to seek justice and not mess around with questions like where the defense attorney should be when he asks ques tions. Perhaps, you might try again to give me another answer, Mr. Farleigh, or else retire to the Senate. Beware student court. Blaine Askley (trad., Pol. Sci. What About Sisterhood? Thursday was another Na tional Day of Resistance during which several thousand "non cooperated" by returning then draft cards, thereby joining that unique group, the Resistance, espousing that unique philoso phy, the "Brotherhood of Man.” As the Resistance “is a way of life,” the new resister will have to re-orient himself in re spect to his fellow man and the world. Claiming "no allegiance to any flag or nation-state." he will not consider himself an American patriot. However, his long-range goal will be to bring about “significant changes in America’s pattern of values, priorities and institutions.” Success to our resistor will be “the liberation of the indi vidual from the fear instilled in him by the nature of the American machine.” Having un selfishly limited his mortal life to this international, humani tarian cause, I hope he will con tinue in the same vein and spend his immortal life reflect ing upon the pursuits of, say, the National Liberation Front and the U.S.S.R. machines he must deem honorable as he makes no mention of future plans to curb their machinery or bring about significant changes in their pattern of val ues. With great foresight, the re sistor will be striving for a society in which “a child could decide if he wanted to go to school,” thereby determining at age six his occupation at twenty six. This same child, having been brought up in “an en vironment w i t h o ut violence, fear or manipulation,” (and very possibly without educa tion), will be “sensitive to life and behavior around him” and will be able “to relate as a free man.” As you can see, the Resistance will breed extraor dinary children. As turning in your draft card seems to be a prerequisite for becoming a member of this in ternational humanitarian effort, I suppose sisterhood is out of the question? C. Jakes Sophomore, Journalism Cub Scouts on Campus Emerald Editor: Strolling cheerfully along on a crisp autumn day, just gener ally enjoying the change in weather, I found myself walk ing between neat rows of sol diers lazily carrying their ri fles and joyfully showing off their shiny helmets. At first I took no particular note, but presently I began to observe this procession more carefully. The cadets were seemingly un aware of the deadly weapons they were displaying. I encoun tered one uniformed gentleman who exhibited little or no re spect for the gun he was carry ing: it seems he was almost dragging it on the ground. A f t e r recovering my wits, I stopped an ROTC man and inquired as to whether the guns had firing pins. I was cas ually informed that the arms were, indeed, equipped to fire bullets. To satisfy my further curiosity and to insure that I was getting the correct infor mation, I asked another charac ter the same question. This time I was shocked and unnerv ed by his reply. Flashing me a broad smile, he said, “Yeah, they have firing pins, and bullets too!” Another incident, which oc curred in the not-too-distant past, also brought to my atten tion the existence of our school militia. On that occasion, I was walking over to the EMU. Just having parted with a young lady, I had my head turned over my shoulder watching her dis appear into a doorway, when I found myself face to face with the muzzle of a rifle. The stu dent who was carrying it was not in uniform and was not even conscious of the way he was holding it: pointed straight ahead! Since, this situation has dis turbed me, surely it has dis turbed others, surely it has in fluenced others. Does the pres ence of an armed militia on campus stimulate free thinking or help people to consider peace ful solutions to the problems of our world? Can we truly seek non-violence in an environment frequented by men exhibiting the symbols of war, violence and destruction? I think something should be done to end ROTC training on our college cam pus, thus, clearing our sur - roundings and leaving us open to choose our own way. Roger Brudno Pre-med„ Gen. Sci„ Freshman 3?