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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1971)
Debate needed to solve University problems The Emerald, through its editorials, tries to encourage debate, and hopefully action, on the many problems the University and the people connected with it face. Often the Emrald takes positions that disturb many people and this is how it should be. Out of the debate and reactions to the columns and editorials printed here comes alternatives and counter proposals, and the process of criticism and analysis is carried forward. To further that end, the Emerald maintains an open letters and columns policy. Certain limitations must be put on letters and columns because of legal reasons as well as concern for those reading the Emerald. Letters will be printed in the order they are received. They must be typed and double spaced and no more than 250 words. The Emerald editors reserve the right to edit letters with regard to grammar, punctuation, and potentially libelous content. Columns should be no longer than seven hundred fifty words, typed and double spaced. Columns concerning current topics in the news will be given preference. Again the Emerald reserves the right to edit any columns with regard to libel, punctuation and grammar. The Emerald does not necessarily subscribe to any views presented outside its editorial columns. Writers, whether faculty, staff, students or members of the com munity, should feel free to express any view they wish—left, right, up, down, chauvinist or liberated. It is only through free discussion that alternatives to the present state of affairs can be brought forth for discussion. Please write. No deposit raise A story in Wednesday’s Emerald in dicated there has been some talk among State Board of Higher Education members about raising the student breakage deposit to cover damages for “riots, fires and bom bings” on state campuses. This trial balloon should be shot down right now, even before it can be discussed seriously. It will serve no useful purpose and can only serve to cause more trouble than exists now. Reasonable campus, legislative, and board leaders have time and again stated that the majority of students do not support and do not participate in campus violence. To penalize this majroity through higher deposits for the actions of a few is wrong, to say the least. Chancellor Lieuallen had the right idea when he indicated to a Register-Guard reporter he will not move on the unfounded assumption that any students have been involved in campus destruction. There has never been any information brought forth showing that students have had anything to do with any bombing or arson on campus. A hopeful thought: that the State Board lets this foolish and unfair idea die. They won’t be doing anybody any good if they don’t. Footnotes I found the University . . . clean and noble, but I did not find the university alive. I found the American university had this ideal as phrased by a professor in Chicago University: ‘The passionless pursuit of passionless intelligence’—clean and noble, I grant you, but not alive enought . . . And in the reflection of this University ideal I find the conservatism and unconcern of the American people toward those who are suffering, who are in want. Jack London 1906 Letters Ridiculous Can you think of anything more ridiculous than sitting a 23 year old man with no legal experience on the bench as a judge in a court of equity, allowing him, in that capacity, to only hear one side of a case, then asking him to make a fair decision? 1 can think of a considerably more ridiculous situation That is for a 23 year old man with no experience in foreign affairs to go to a foreign country for a few days - listen to only the opinion of one side of a confrontation and then come back as an expert to advise his fellow citizens on what to do. There are several questions I would like to ask you publicly. If all these peace loving North VietNamese people want is a unified and independent North VietNam why have they invaded Cambodia and why are they supporting underground forces in Thailand? If, as you say, all they want is a unified VietNam, why have they not agreed to free elections and unilateral withdrawal of their troops, as well as our troops'' It is a tragedy that civilians have been injured in North VietNam, but did you ask the North VietNamese why they had fired rockets into the residential areas in South Vietnam, killing and maiming literally thousands of South VietNamese citizens'* It is alleged that U S. forces have, in at least one instance, been brutal in killing several hundred South Viet Namese citizens. The people responsible for this action are presently being tried and, if convicted, will be punished. There have been literally hundreds of cases reported where North VietNamese troops have massacred thousands upon thousands of South VietNamese citizens and yet we have yet to hear of one case where the North VietNamese government has any intent of punishing the people responsible Why have the North Viet Namese supported the Cong that it is reported beheads members of families supporting the opposition and then puts the heads on stakes in villages as examples” To the best of my knowledge not one South VietNamese soldier or American soldier has invaded North VietNam. Yet it is a proven fact that North VietNam forces have invaded South VietNam and Cam bodia. It has been said that it is immoral for the United States to help South Viet Nam defend itself from invasion but why isn't North Viet Nam ever accused of being immoral for invading? You made one statement tonight over television that I must admit really upset me. That statement was that the U.S. had wasted a decade. This decade the U.S. has “wasted” has seen some of the greatest developments in the history of mankind. It has seen the U.S. conquer all sorts of diseases; train medical people and technicians from all over the world to improve living conditions for all people. In the ten years from 1958 to 1969, according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures, we have seen the percentage of people living under recognized poverty conditions in the United States cut in half and we have seen the greatest strides made in the history of this country toward equal op portunity of employment for all races, color and creeds. We have seen the people of the U.S. give more freely of their time, of their talents, of their abilities and resources to the betterment of mankind than any people at any time during the entire history of the world. We have seen the only nation in the world that has enough concern, really attack the problems of pollution, population, con servation, education, and the other basic problems of the world. We have seen in dustry, professional people, the working man and the student really apply them selves in a constructive way to make life better on this earth What other country has a Peace Corps, Vista or Care organization? Even greater possibilities are in front of us in the 70’s. Yet, you say (because you obviously have been listening to some misguided intellectuals and have become an expert on foreign affairs with a few days in North VietNam) that the U.S. must wake up by May 1 or there will be massive civil disturbances. May 1 suggest that you first prepare yourself with maturity and true education for what you want to do. Then, be sure you listen to both the plaintiff and defendant, getting all the facts, before you make a decision as to what is right for mankind. No, I have never been to North Viet Nam or South VietNam, so I don’t qualify as an expert on foreign affairs and there’s probably only one thing that I can think of that’s worse and that is for an immature person to spend a few days there and then come back believing he is qualified as an expert. Civil disturbances you referred to on television tonight can only lead to one thing and I think it was very aptly put by Publisher Charles L. Gould of the San Francisco Examiner, who said, and I quote, “... to destroy the only nation in the world still capable of giving people hope.” Lew E. Whealy 2425 Quince Street Eugene, Oregon 97402 Nice Try but.... Mr. Ron Eachus, the University of Oregon student body president, was no doubt well-intentioned in going to Hanoi to negotiate a peace treaty with the North Vietnamese students. He could have saved himself the effort and the $1500 cost; which he does not have. It is a foregone conclusion that the North Vietnamese students will not be allowed by their totalitarian government to come up with anything which differs from Hanoi’s official bargaining position. The North Vietnamese’s final peace agreement will be a pragmatic com promise with their nationalistic xenopholic drive rather than the unselfish altruistic goal of the communist utopia. They will have to decide how much it is worth to them to lord it over generally hostile South Vietnamese. Montagnards. Cambodians. Laos, and Meos. I pointed out in a letter to the editor (The Oregonian) in 1961 that our g overnment was wrong in believing President Roosevelt s assumption that France had milked Indochina for a hun dred years. Actually Indochina has always been milking somebody. Mr. Eachus must have seen that anything worthwhile in Hanoi was either built or preserved by the French, at great cost in men and money to the French people. I believe that an expenditure of $100 billion .t,and a list of 40 thousand American dead have led the Nixon administration to a correct appraisal of the Indochina situation and that President Nixon’s or derly armed withdrawal should be sup ported by all of us including Mr. Ron Eachus. Remy W. Fulsher, M.D. Portland, Ore. The North Slope I am contacting many colleges in the country asking for a massive petition and letter writing campaign directed at the Interior Department asking it not to issue the permit for the pipeline on the North S lope of Alaska. Are the young of this country going to shape their destiny or are they going to be just another generation of obedient consumers? Recently millions of signatures were sent to Hanoi over the POW issue. Our government says Hanoi will not recognize them. The shoe is on the other foot. Let us see if our government will recognize its citizens when they petition for principle, conviction, and truth. Kenneth Quade Star Route Box 54 Pembine, Wisconsin 54156 NOTE All letters and columns submitted to the Emerald must be typed and triple spaced and signed with the writer's name and major or in the case of faculty members or staff with their position and department. Maximum length for letters is 250 words and for columns 1,000 words. No copied or reproduced matter will be accepted. All letters will be printed in the order of their submission Publication of columns is dependent upon their timeliness and quality. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter or column in respect to grammar, punctuation or potentially libelous content.
