Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1973)
Editorial White Bird needs financial help White Bird Socio-Medical Clinic may very well clo§e Tuesday unless something is done quickly to bail the facility out of a financial hole. The clinic needs about $7,000 to help pay off a $15,000 loan borrowed as down payment on the clinic’s two buildings. If the money isn’t raised by Tuesday, the loan will be paid off by 15 local citizens who each backed the clinic by signing notes for $1,000. Under those circumstances the clinic would be forced to close down—perhaps not all at once—but by bits and pieces until a few months from now nothing would be left. Losing White Bird would have an incredible impact on the community. It is the only agency in the county providing many necessary medical services to people too poor to pay medical establish ment rates. Since county government abandoned its inoculation clinic White Bird is the only agency providing cheap flu and disease shots for children. In addition the clinic provides pre natal care, a much needed venereal disease clinic and a womens’ clinic to deal with the specific needs of community women. But White Bird is best known for its valuable work in fighting drug abuse. The clinic is the only local agency providing a 24-hour bummer squad service, and its drug education program is a model for agencies throughout the Northwest. Many of the clinic’s programs are funded by federal grants. But the grants cannot be used to buy property. So facilities must be paid out of operating fees, and because the clinic charges little or nothing for its services money is scarce. The clinic employs one full-time doctor who is paid $600 a month. That’s pretty - cheap. A number of other professional staff members receive monthly salaries of about $250. That is, the salaries were that high before the current financial crisis. All staff have taken voluntary pay cuts until the loan is paid off. The people at White Bird have done everything they can to raise the money. A local “radiothon” raised about $1,500. Clinic staff have brought in about $800 more. But the community must now respond if White Bird is to survive. Losing the clinic would not only eliminate services currently provided, but would effectively scuttle future plans for White Bird. The heroin problem is growing in Eugene. White Bird will soon establish a heroin de-toxification program—that is if the clinic can survive. University students may not have an immediate stake in White Bird. After all the University health service, such that it is, provides cheap medical help for the University community. But community health is everybody’s concern, and so is the survival of White Bird. Students can’t be expected to shell out very ihuch. But even a little will help at this point. White Bird is located at 323 E. 12th, within easy walking distance of campus. Letters Not generous * (Regarding B. Mitzman’s comments on Mailer’s ‘ ‘Catholicism ”). Barry Mitzman: The aspect of Mailer that you condemn is what’s best in him. You apparently have evidence that “good fucks” don’t “make good babies,” since you saved your wildest insults for that “pseudo-biological hypothesis” of Mailer’s. Before you can convincingly reject this and other sexual-political ideas of Mailer’s, you should be able to dispose of the following observations, which have reported in recent years in medical, biological, and psychological journals: Circulatory patterns are not the same in women who have a capacity for pleasure and orgasms, and those who don’t. Schizophrenia has autonomic and cir culatory correlates. Women who are schizophrenic at the time of conception abort male embryos much more often than female embryos, and if their symptoms appear lata-, male babies are more likely to have defects: male embryos are known to be more sensitive to a variety of unhealthy uterine conditions. Bad uterine conditions can cause defective babies, including small brains and mental retardation, depending on when the trouble occurs, what it is, etc. Improved uterine conditions— presumably the circulation—can improve the percentage of healthy and precocious babies. ’The literature that may be relevant to this question is surprisingly large and aried—surprising, because our culture is ruled by an anti-biological dogma that denies any connection between physiology, emotion, and politics. Your commitment to an abstract, anti biological form of existentialism is fino for a bourgeois literary critic, but to imply that such a philosophy is the best hope for women is not very generous. Ray Peat 200 N. Jefferson Eugene 97402 He’d do it again In a recent letter protesting the “hoax”, said to be perpetrated by Mike Bonner, my name appeared among the accused of the “over-throw” conspiracy. While I don’t deny I know some of Mike Bonner’s friends, I am an independent person who makes his own decisions. I must point to the one-sidedness of the letter, which made no mention of Mr. Zukin’s tactics, so base as to have his cohorts crane to me and state Mr. Bonner to be more or less a blithering revolutionary; Mr. Bonner, whose mad lust for power will destroy the school. A bit distorted? Perhaps. But within my first two months as a Senator, I have discovered the Senate to be too much like “big time” politics, with its mud-slinging, and petty accusations. I believe in freedom as stated in our Constitution. I feel that the Senate was denying Mr. Bonner of his Constitutional right to speak for himself. If I were faced with the same situation again, I would not have changed my vote. Dan “Buster” Heims Sophomore Speech-Broadcast Communications 345-0987 He’s wrong Last week, I wrote to the Emerald protesting its biased reporting of ASUO Senate activities, and explaining my vote against confirmation of Senate President Cliff Zukin. I stated that, along with numerous other Senators, I opposed the rubber-stamp nature of the confirmation process. As a newly-elected Senator (a majority of the Senate was elected this fall term), I wished to have an opportunity to vote for the Senate President in an open election. Unfortunately, that letter was never published. Today (1-16-73), however, a letter from former Senator Roger Wyatt was published. Wyatt claimed that the Senators voting against confirmation of Cliff Zukin, including myself, had somehow been victims of “a tremendous hoax.” Had Roger Wyatt been present at the Senate meeting during which con firmation was discussed, he would have been able to formulate a more reasonable conclusion. Wyatt concluded by stating that “with such close association between these senators ... divergent views are not being represented in the senate ...” He need only visit a Senate meeting to discover how wrong he is. Larry Taylor ASUO Senator Freshman. Political Science A W>ce ro 73. { ¥? { i)ceceeme / A RETURN 1 70 TOM? | ITiOOAi [ VAUU56. MtiO ,rg> (&WS sNam, me. THE STRICT CDUfSTRVCT- < IO0/ST ETHIC. Q* me ftw mr it <snice eenez? mic. a 8 1 C/3 “3 X i i I « s w APATOV me. VEARS.
