-editorial
All we get is abuse
Listen, my name is Jack Wilson, and I’m the editorial
page editor up here at the Emerald. I’m mad as hell, and I’m
not going to take it anymore.
Yes, I’m talking to you, the guy who’s using the
Emerald to keep the coffee on the Fishbowl table from
getting on your sleeves. And to you, lady, the one who uses
the Emerald as something to put under your tires when
your car gets stuck in the mud.
I tell you, we get no respect. Does anyone appreciate
the hundreds of underpaid hours that go into every issue of
the Emerald? Does anyone realize what a tremendous
sacrifice we make just so you can read the news every
single goddamn day? So what, you say. Well, who needs
you?
I’ll bet you never think about poor Tom Jackson, who
at this very moment is neglecting his schoolwork so that
you chumps can learn about the latest county commis
sioners’ shakeup. And what about Heather McClenaghan,
who has to talk to every self-actualizer and political crank in
town?
You can’t imagine what a time Brenda Tabor has
trying to fathom the tangled depths of the ASUO bureauc
racy. You have no idea how hard it is for Tom Wolfe to stay
awake during faculty meetings that are so boring most
faculty members avoid them like the plague.
Nick Gallo writes the best feature stories this side of
the Long Tom, and all he gets from you is grief. Mike
McLain and Mary Beth Bowen are sentenced to six months
in Salem just so that you can get the only genuine student
coverage of the Legislature in the state.
What about E.G. White-Swift? Have you ever tried
reading an environmental impact statement? And Lori
Peterson. Have you ever tried to get an administrator to
say anything but “maybe” to a direct question?
Then there are the management types, who get no
recognition whatsoever. But without Lora Cuykendall,
Wally Benson and Martha Bliss there would be no news
paper, understand? And I’ll bet you’ve forgotten Greg
Wasson, the boss of this sweatshop.
Sure, you know all about our graphics staff, Perry
Gaskill and Steve Sandstrom. You never look at anything
but the pictures anyway, right?
You probably don’t care if our sports editor, Jeff Niel
son had nothing to do but drink himself blind while he was
snowed in at Denver Airport on his way back from the Oral
Roberts game. Nor do you pity Jeff’s sidekick, John Hen
derson, who had to stay in Oregon.
Chances are you don’t even know what the Emerald
night desk does. Well, have you ever tried reading a news
paper without headlines? How would you like it if stories
just ran right off the bottom of the page? Or if we spelled
your name wrong?
Then there are the real proletarians of the newspaper
business, the reporters, who labor for little but their dreams
of praise and recognition. Instead they get abuse.
Speaking of abuse, we get plenty of complaints about
advertisements we run, but does anyone ever write to tell
us that an ad they saw in the Emerald made them rush out
and buy something? Our advertising staff has taken just
about all it can stand.
And by the time you’ve been fast asleep for hours, not
having entertained a single kind thought about the Emerald
all day, our production staff is laboriously getting the paper
ready to go to press. When was the last time you thought
about what a nice, readable typeface we have? When was
the last time you were amazed that the paper comes out
every morning?
Sometimes I get the feeling we’re not appreciated.
Sometimes I think you’ve forgotten how much work and
talent go into the Emerald, that is, if you ever knew at all.
Sometimes I decide you’re nothing but a bunch of ingrates.
That’s right, ingrates. I read the letters that come to us
everyday, and let me tell you, whenever anyone mentions
the Emerald it’s only to throw dirt in our faces. And believe
me, if I don’t find space for those letters pronto, people get
nasty.
So we've decided to call it quits. Let’s see how you like
living without having the old ODE to kick around. I hope you
all feel proud of yourselves. If you ever want to see the
Emerald again you’ll have to apologize for your rotten
attitude. Don’t bother to call or write, we’ll know if your
contrition is genuine.
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Letters
Logical alternative
It shouldn’t be any real surprise
to anyone that the Oregon Educa
tional Coordinating Commission
is predicting more high school
seniors plan to attend community
colleges than state system
schools. It is a highly logical alter
native to paying the forever in
creasing tuition forced upon us.
Hopefully the Legislature will
wake up to this fact and increase
the percentage of state support
received by state system col
leges. If the tuition increases at
the same rate as the previous two
years it will double every six years,
not much longer than it takes the
average student to get out with a
degree.
The Oregon Student Lobby has
taken a good position on this
question and hopefully, with a
small miracle, might get some
thing done. Only the child care
issue is as important as keeping
tuition down and I hope the OSL
concentrates on these two issues.
Jack Condliffe
Sophomore—Business
Epitome of grace
I appreciate all the letters I have
received in response to my letter
to the Emerald. The majority of the
criticisms and/or compliments
were offered without derogatory
comments as to my intelligence or
emotional maturity. I was favora
bly impressed by the quality of
most of them.
My letter was an emotional re
sponse versed in some rather
rash terms. I apologize for any im
plied or so-construed insults and
specifically for any unintended in
ference that Ballard and Murray’s
talents were merely unrealized
potential. However, my central ar
gument remains unchanged.
Since a poor choice of words may
have confused my point I should
like to restate my position.
My knowledge of basketball
may be naive, but my opinions I
believe to be valid. I have never
previously been a sports fan be
cause I felt that most of the energy
exerted by spectators was mis
guided and misplaced. I became
interested in basketball because
in its more perfect form, it is the
epitome of human grace, timing,
strength, coordination and ulti
mate beauty. I feel that when
competition moves one to realize
these qualities within one’s self,
then it is a constructive force. The
reason I personally object to the
style of game coached at Oregon
is it is contrary to the finesse and
beauty I perceive as being intrin
sic to the finest of basketball. I re
gret seeing this style adopted by
other coaches and schools.
Furthermore, when competition
— in whatever realm of society—
becomes compulsive, then it is
driven out of its proper perspec
tive. At that point one begins to
rely on extraneous and alternative
actions to achieve one’s goal.
When a sporting event holds such
high emotional stakes then there's
a higher probability for nasty inci
dences to occur. There is some
concurrence among the letters I
received that distasteful scenes
have occured at the Pit.
There is one other point I’d like
to clarify. In the first draft of the
letter I sent previously to the
Emerald, I explained specifically
that it was not the Bruin loss that
perturbed me. However, I deleted
that section because I really felt
that no one would reduce my ar
gument to that level. I presumed
too much. I feel totally that when
any sport is played by fine players
then it is irrelevent who wins. My
‘advice’ was that a team needs
only to concentrate on expressing
the talent it has to be a fine team.
When it does, then I feel it will be
highly respected when it meets its
opponents.
Again, I’d like to thank all those
who’ve kindly written me. How
ever, I have finals in 10 days, so it
may take me a few months to reply
to everyone. The majority of these
letters indicate what a fine student
body attends the University of
Oregon. Especially considering
they elected such an intelligent
and perceptive vice-president as
Michael Connelly. He is a great
benefit to your University.
Thank you for allowing this ex
change of thoughts.
Jackie Smith
Senior—UCLA
Clear the air
This Thursday, March 17, at 7
p.m. in the Eugene City Council
Chambers there will be a public
hearing on the impact of open field
burning on the health of residents
in Lane County. All citizens con
cerned about this problem should
plan on attending the hearing, and
those who have health problems
caused or aggravated by open
field burning should testify. The
hearing will be chaired by State
Sen. John Powell from Halsey and
attended by other members of the
Senate Agriculture Committee,
which is dominated by a majority
of pro-field burning legislators.
This committee has sponsored
Senate Bill 535 authorizing open
field burning of an unlimited
number of acres and the repeal of
Senate Bill 311. (According to SB
311, the maximum number of
acres to be burned in 1977 is
95,000, and the maximum for
subsequent years is 50,000
acres.)
Research into the development
of alternatives to open field burn
ing is being carried out on a piti
fully inadequate scale, both be
cause of underfunding and a lack
of willingness on the part of the
majority of the grass seed growers
to experiment with these alterna
tives. Last summer, for instance,
field sanitizers (field burning
machines) were only used on a
total of 1,014 acres in Oregon.
Crew cutting (the physical re
moval of the straw from the fields
instead of its removal through
burning) seems to have only been
attempted on about 350 acres in
Lane County. In contrast, 165,712
acres in Oregon were sanitized
during the summer of 1976 by
open field burning.
The message from this data is
clear — alternatives to open field
burning will not be developed until
this is necessitated by legislation.
Should SB 311 be repealed and
an unlimited number of acres be
permitted to be burned, there
would be no incentive whatsoever
for the growers to assist in the de
velopment of field burning alterna
tives, and residents in Lane
County could look forward to an
unending succession of smoke
filled Augusts and Septembers.
Frances Stern
Assistant Professor —
Art History
Dangerous tests
The Wednesday, March 9, Re
gister Guard contained an article
titled “Years later Army learns
‘harmless’ germ test a threat."
The test of the aritcle explained
how the Army has waged secret
and “presumed harmless” germ
tests on American targets for two
decades.
Oh, but now these "presumed
harmless” germs have been sus
pected to be the cause of 11 cases
of pneumonia and one death in
the San Francisco Bay area
where one of the tests took place.
And this information is information
the Army itself released.
This kind of news is not new to
many of us. I only wish to remind
people that things do go on behind
our backs. That some of us will
find ourselves in positions to in
itiate tricky little things like this. I
pray we keep some of the idealis
tic values we hold as youths and
* take care to prevent the human
race from continuing to deceive
and misguide themselves.
Kim Defenderfer
Senior
International Business
On record
I wish to go on record as being
one whose most fundamental re
sponses to Burt Kornegay are re
pugnance, amusement and con
tempt. Donald Leon Taylor
Senior—Accounting