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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 10, 1977)
'PTODY 13RX£ MR.NIXON!' Letters Pollution hearing Tonight at 7 p.m. in the Eugene City Council Chambers there will be a public hearing both on the regulation of slash burning and on the establishment of an au tomobile emissions testing pro gram for Eugene-Springfield through SB 1052. This hearing will be before the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Commit tee, and it is important that many citizens turn out for it and support the control of both polluting sources. There are now no controls either of auto emissions or slash burning, except for a smoke man agement program of slash burn ing run by the Forestry Service. According to the statistics of the DEQ, automobiles produce about 74 per cent of the annual 128,000 tons of carbon monoxide in Lane County. Slash burning adds another 13 per cent, mostly during the months of July to September, when the smoke from field burning adds an additional 3 per cent to the annual carbon monoxide load. Slash burning is also a major source of particulate pollution in Lane County, contributing about 13 per cent of the annual 18,000 tons of particles, again mostly dur ing the months of July to Sep tember when field burning adds its particle load to the smoke-filled air. That the slash burners need to be controlled was clearly demon strated last summer between Sep tember 20 and 29, when 366,759 tons of slash were burned without cessation or consideration for the health problem being caused by the burning. During this period, when very little field burning took place, the visibility was reduced to a maximum of 24.3 miles and a minimum of 6.0 miles. Frances Stern Assistant Professor of Art History Obscene calls On Thursday, my opinion of Dave Tyler and the Interfraternity Council appeared in the ODE. That day, the Gay People’s Al liance office received, in a period of 10 minutes, six obscene’ phone calls from a group of giggl ing boys (men?). This is about what I expected. My only com plaint is that they were some of the most boring calls we’ve ever re ceived. My real point is that the callers were apparently supportive of the radst ideology presented in the ‘open letter’ from the IFC, and felt threatened when they were called on it. Had they been offended by the racism and heterosexism, I doubt if they would have bothered to waste their time and mine with such childish antics. The whole issue of the letter continues to interest me. The au thor, Jerry Martens, felt that Tyler represented the interests of the Greeks and the rest of the student body. This statement contains two very controversial ideas that should be considered. First, the question of the interest sup posedly represented by Tyler. It is my belief and hope that the major ity of the student body sees the value of ethnic and cultural minor ity programs, and wishes to see them continued. I would hope that the only interest we have in the racism illustrated by this letter is the desire to see it eliminated. Secondly, I do not see any evi dence that the non-Greeks in any way identify themselves with the Greeks, or believe that their in terests are the same. This is not to say, of course, that many of us do not have friends who are Greeks, or more importantly, that there are no Greeks who are gay. On the contrary! GPA represents about 10 per cent of the student popula tion, as does the Greek system, and in a number of instances we rep resent the same person. How ever, when a group representing 10 per cent of the students comes up with a letter like that, I can only call it like I see it. Weisha Mize Senior-Political Science Rents too high After marching along with 50 or so other residents of the Amazon Housing Project on a cold and rainy day, I felt good that we had shown Mr. Barnhart and the rest of the council that the proposed rent increases weren’t going to be taken lightly. But later that evening I see on a local news program that Mr. Barn hart didn’t believe that we were serious. Surprise, Mr. Barnhart! I and lot of other Amazon residents are quite serious. One year ago I wrote to Married Student Housing and was sent a brochure that stated Amazon rents were $60 a month. Now you want to raise them to $80, which is an increase of 33 per cent. Even if one allows for inflation, 33 per cent is too damn much. And ACT has the figures to prove it. As for your list of considered “improvements,” the most I can say is that you can keep them. I don’t want paved walkways in the lawn areas or a book divider and desk or wall-to-wall carpeting. Up to this time I haven't given ACT much support and I regret L I haven’t seen the housing office do much good for me while ACT seems to be working to keep Amazon liveable and rents down. From here on out ACT has my full support and that starts with the rent strike. My check will be on its way to the main branch of Citizen’s Bank tomorrow. One personal suggestion, Mr. Barnhart. I think you should seri ously consider buying a punching bag for Mr. Lee so that he will have some means for letting off all that anger he carries around. I found his conduct at our discussion in Hamilton Hall appalling. Greg Doyle Graduate-Librarianship Not sabotaged In reply to the completely ab surd letter of April 27 from Mr. Nel son Owusu, we would like to clear up a few misconceptions. First of all, the accusation that the Cul tural Forum ' sabotaged" the ac tivities of African Week is a ridicu lous and regretable thought. The performance of the South African Black ’77 Theatre Project was scheduled before winter term and the contract signed on Feb. 1. We regret the conflict of scheduling, but at the time of booking the event were unaware of any poten tial problem. It is fairly obvious to us that Mr. Owusu did not see the perfor mance Tuesday night. Had he seen it he would not have dared to accuse us of not wanting “South Africans to express their feelings about oppression.” The play was a dramatic, moving, and often satirical portrayal of the humilia tion and frustration of native South Africans trying to live and express themselves intellectually under an apartheid regime. The performers had been through it all and acted with a force and feeling reflecting their own personal experiences. For those who saw the play, it was a valuable insight into the situation in South Africa, and the struggles of a people to overcome their op pression. We strongly resent the accusation that those who went to see the performance were “aiding and abetting apartheid.” As for the Forum denying funds for the OAU Ambassador, may we remind you that the Cultural Forum is not a bottomless pit of funds. The money from our meager budgets is crften commit ted to various projects before the middle of winter term. Each pro posal must be submitted with suffi cient time to allow us to evaluate the nature of the proposal and the amount requested. The Forum tries to accomodate all groups within the limits of our funds. We do not play games of “sabotage.” So please, before accusations of this sort are directed against the Cultural Forum, it would be ap Opinion Rural life ro anticized I’ve been reading a book. It seems to me to describe the type of life that the great majority of Oregonians idealize. The setting is rural, the life is agricultural. The families are in dose, daily contact with the earth: they grow their own food, and live among trees and undomesticated animals. The foods they eat do not contain pre servatives. They do not drive an automobile or tractor; in fact, the air they breathe is crystal pure with the traditional odors one usually finds on a farm. The simplicity of their lives is not shattered by the complications of technology. They are not part of the consumer culture; they are largely self-sufficient (except for the need to purchase seed and fertilizer) and are free from depend ence on exploiting corporations and criminal multi-nationals. There is plenty of hard work for all; even the women carry their I’ve been reading “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee (photographs by Walker Evans). They describe a reality forgotten by Oregonians. The families wake more tired than when they went to sleep: hard work does not cleanse the soul but only drains the body. There is no plumbing; every drop of water must be carried 150 yards by hand to the house. The lack of electronic communication limits the vision, imagination and hopes of these people: they do not see or comprehend anything beyond the confines of their farm. Life is dull and repetitive and promises no hope for change or variety. Nature is not a friend to be preserved, but a capricious miser that does not willingly yield anything. An utter lack of security permeates the whole of life, for mysterious diseases or merely bad luck may strike at any time. Finally, as in all agncultural societies, the society is nierarcnicai, ranging from the blacks on the bottom rung up through the tenant farmers to the landowners. Social equality is a product, after all, of the Industrial Revolution. I am from out of state, from the South which Agee describes. I come from a culture that is attempting to leave these bad dreams behind. In Oregon, I arrive in a culture that strains to recapture that which simply never existed. Oregonians have a knee-jerk reaction against any technology, particularly more sophisticated forms. They do not realize that their protestations come from a profoundly conservative, nay, reactionary attitude: they wish to turn the clock back further than Mettemich ever hoped to. Kissinger’s hero and Oregonians both share a deep revulsion with modern life, a revulsion and delusion that is possible only when one fully benefits from the life one hates. Oregonians would not be so enamored with rural values if they were forced to forsake weekend trips to the ski lodge or if the federal government did not provide its myriad forms of social security. I only wish to suggest for the edification of my fellow citizens that they look to nations and societies that do not share our highly developed, technological and abstract society. Except for the shockingly inhuman government of Cambodia, every nation is straining to tap the cornucopia of man’s creative capacity, realiz ing it is only through science and its sister, technology, that life becomes something more than mere survival. Matthew Ellenberger Graduate Student-History V. predated if the accuser would have all the facts. These are strong accusations and totally un founded. Not only do we resent the slander against the Cultural Forum, but even more, we resent the ignorant slander against the fine group of South African per formers who did the best job we have yet seen of making people aware of the tragic situation of op pressed blacks living under an apartheid regime. Linda Carmichael Martha Boersch Ed Reed Sue Nordquist Shane Tappendorf EMU Cultural Forum members Librarians needed There seems to be a bleak pic ture regarding the hiring of lib rarians in the Eugene area. Presi dent Boyd has based his recom mendation to dose the School of Librarianship partly on this perhaps false picture. Differing attitudes exist in this state, however, and these at titudes are more optimistic and supportive of libraries. One example of this is in our own State Legislature where SB 23, or state aid to libraries, has a reasonably good chance of pass ing. With state aid we can expect some libraries to hire additional staff. Some North Oregon counties have good reason to be optimistic. One of these is Washington County, where last May voters approved a new county coopera tive library system. The county now has five new small libraries and expects to hire from five to eight additional librarians within the next two years, according to Donna Selle, who heads the sys tem. Then there is Clackamas County, where local support indi cates a good possibility that voters will approve a library serial levy on May 17. If the levy passes new positions will open also in Clack amas County. The above counties, in addition to experiencing library growth, are also experiencing population growth. Since the projections for Oregon indicates continuing population growth, it does not seem unreasonable to me to ex pect continuing growth in library needs and services as well. If the University of Oregon closes the School of Librarianship it would, in effect, not support lib raries. This seems ironic when legislators are supporting libraries in SB 23, when voters are support ing libraries by passing serial levies, and when library services are growing in parts of this state. Dorothy Swanson 9300 S.W. Washington St. Portland, Or.
