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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1977)
-opinion Peace Corps aids CIA In response to the advertisement that has been appearing in the Emerald regarding the recruiting of Peace Corps volunteers, we, as citizens of third world countries that have suffered and are suffering from the influence of such American organizations, feel that it is our duty to inform the public about the true nature of the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps was created by the late John F. Kennedy with the aim of improving the American image abroad, particularly in underdeveloped countries where the population was growing more and more discontent with the policies of U S. imperia'ism The program was presented to the American public in general, and its youth in particular, as an effort to bring "help" — through leadership and technical know-how — to our "backward coun tries." Due to the idealism of young Americans at the time, the program got successfully started, and its popularity grew with the years, attracting in the process people with other motivations. For some, it represented an alternative to the draft; for others, a paid-for, exciting adventure in exotic lands, etc. The truth is, right from its beginning, the Peace Corps was nothing else than a cover-up used by the American system to perpetuate its imperialistic policies and suppress any attempt of self-determination in our countries. Unpopular direct military in tervention gave way to the proliferation of institutions such as Alliance for Progress, AID, CARE, Meals for Millions and many others. The Peace Corps represented the ultimate and perfect cover-up, due to the delusions of thousands of adventurers re presenting themselves as "goodwill ambassadors out to help their “less privileged fellow humans." These naive instruments of capitalism helped (sometimes unknowingly) to perpetrate at rocities in the minds and the bodies of our people. The Peace Corps, as well as other similar American organizations operating abroad, have been and are plagued with CIA agents and other reactionary elements whose sole purpose is to crush the natural course of our development towards a more just social order. In Bolivia, in 1968, the Peace Corps carried out a U S.-imposed population control program, which sterilized Quechua Indian women without their knowledge or consent. This follows the pattern of other murderous population control prog rams administered by the U.S. in Third World countries, such as the mass-sterilization of Columbian peasants by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In Ecuador, the Peace Corps director is none other than a CIA collaborator exposed by former agent Philip Agee in his book “Inside the Company." Progressive governments in some of our countnes have managed to ban the Peace Corps. But in a good number of places the military puppets and the local watchdogs of American in terests still represent a very strong force Peace Corps volunteers continue to get drugged (as a result of the frustration of dealing with a culture they do not or will not understand) on American taxpayers money, and continue to damage in many ways our most valuable and precious resource; the people. The backwardness of our countries is not a mere result of chance, and neither is the wealth of imperialistic nations. The prodigality of American refrigerators takes place at the expense of the emptiness of our tables, the hunger and oppression of our masses. Years and years of neo-colonialsim have ransacked the natural riches of our lands. This, for the enemy, is not enough Now the Rockefellers of the earth want our lives. The blood of our people shall quench the thirst of the corporations. And they are asking you to join them in the task. To use a paraphrase, he who is not on our side is with the enemy. If you feel it is your duty to help, you are welcome to do so— we need the aid of conscientious people all over the world in our struggle against injustice. But joining the Peace Corps is not the way. Your role is right here, within this society of yours; opposing the imperialistic policies of the U S. government, refus ing to take part in its slick maneuvers to suppress freedom and justice. Submitted by Latin American Students Association I WAS 0V1}€ CIT165 \ if wum lx) ROUS m u)6& APPOIU7G7? I we Aee W^5 a\ \ v WHAT at)6? ’Tf? -rue rot CLUB \\\ , 'CF6Rmm>& THe rot meRsmus coho toeur two m Rioht CORf&RATtOUS COHO MACS THe Boht costnzts \ \ THeW WHV WftX)6 0(0 The f9Stf65? \ Page 4 -Words from Was* Put equity in de system There's an amendment floating around the House Elections Committee that would give all us poor folk a break. It's Rep. Wally Priestly's. D-Portland, proposal to expand the polit ical contribution tax credit program and put a bit more equity in an all too often ine quitable elections frame work. A kind of back door ap proach to public campaign financing, the contribution tax credit allows taxpayers to contribute up to $25 to a political campaign and then get it back from the state at tax time The catch under the current system is that someone who doesn't owe the state at least $25 worth of personal income taxes can't get the money back from the state Priestly would make it so any voter required to file a tax return (right now that means anyone making over $600 a year) would be eligi ble for the program, tax lia bility or no tax liability "This amendment," exp lains Priestly, "would make rich and poor stand equal in their claim on the General Fund (the state's money cache) for making a political V contribution and receiving a tax credit.” Priestly tried to put his rider on a bill the elections committee sent to the floor Friday, but fell a little short of the support he needed, ending up on the wrong side of a 6-1 vote. This doesn't mean everyone else on the committee opposes the idea; in fact the committee chairer, Gratten Kerans, D-Eugene, co-sponsored the same legislation last session But Kerans was a fraid to burden the bill being sent to the floor (a motion to make contributions made to political action committees eligible for tax credits) with Priestly’s plan. There’ll be other bills we can use,” Kerans said Let s hope so. Kerans should, and probably will, make sure the amendment finds another vehicle for the ride to the floor In effect, with the current system the state is saying those rich enough to pay taxes can use state funds to help their political causes, but those that aren't can t If our tax system has been established fairly, a point open to question, the money in the General Fund has come from those most able to pay Why should the rich have access to that money to the exclusion of the poor? To Priestly, the answer is simple and unjus tifiable One thing I've learned in over 12 years m Salem, explains Priestly, "is that this is the place where the established interests come to establish their interests. Systems like this one are set up to maintain the cur rent political power struc ture.” The members of the elec tions committee, and the rest of the Legislature, should do what they can to rock those established in terests Priestly's motion of fers a chance to do a little rocking Letters HEP changed life I am a HEP student here at the University. I am almost through here, so I thought that I would write a letter to the people I have met and haven't met. I came not knowing what was going to happen Now that I am going to leave in about a week, I have got my future planned out ahead of me And who do I have to thank for it? HEP and the Univer sity. They have changed my life here at the campus When I came here I was a little prejudiced about the color of peoples' skin But now after knowing the staff and the students at HEP and the Univer sity, they have changed my way of thinking to the better I have met students from Peru, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, Mexico and Ethiopia. Just from talking to them I have learned more about them and that tends to help me see how prejudice is really ignorance' Now I don't have one ounce of pre judice left in me To me. prejudice is someone who is just jealous Also when I first came here I thought that I might be able to go to college, but it was still a distant dream. Now it is a reality Larry Davidson HEP Student Helpful program I am writing in reaction to Neil Jacobsen's criticism of Dr. Peter Lewinsohn's depression program I also participated in this prog ram in Fall, 1976, although in a different treatment condition than Mr Jacobsen. I found the program quite helpful. It was my experience that my therapist filled her re quirements as a participant in the research process, but went beyond that in conveying to me a sense of real concern for me as a person. She, working with Dr Lewinsohn and other staff, refer red me to another agancy for necessary help It is indeed unfortunate, as Mr Jacobsen points out, that approp riate (and affordable) help is so limited in availability for the poor and for students. Waiting lists seem interminable, and there are times (particularly with severe de pression) that waiting is not really feasible It is pertiaps unfortunate, but necessary, that the depres sion project place first priority on its research requirements. Its mission is not to fill the need in this community for a treatment facility that would serve the needs of those of us unable to afford even short term private therapy. They do have a respon sibility not to place their "subjects at risk, and I found that they went well beyond this requirement in treating me with consideration Certainly their concern in my case did not end with my simply provid ing them with computer fodder Daisy M. Reed Grad uate—Education Check out HEP Randall Miller’s concern does not seem to be for the victim, Ricardo Villalobos, but rather for the HEP. It is evident that he is not aware of HEPs purpose or that he has ever come in contact with the program or its students Who is he, then, to suggest an examina tion of its validity? I suggest that he pay a visit to the program and see for himself. A M. Frietze Freshman—Political Science Monday, February 21, 1977
