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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1978)
Letters Universal Jogging When you think about it the physical is related to everything in life — the emotional, spiritual, moral, intellectual, political and in cluding all of the earth and uni verse. And it seems since these things are physical they are part of the huge, intricate pattern of nature. To experience this subtle but powerful rhythm inside nature takes countless hours of intense concentrated work on the tech nique of your specific task—be it swimming, walking, tennis, jog ging or whatever your physical exercise is that couples your body to intellect. From this perspective of being eventually unified with the uni verse, exercise would in time build the awareness of body and envi ronment to the point of sheer ec stasy—when your imagination has to join your ethereal physical awareness just to stay balanced. One pathway for this old yet rare realm of physiological con sciousness would start on a very difficult day when your body is run-down. And if you can muster enough mental concentration to fine tune on this day you force a new discipline to emerge — the playing with a pain or perfection threshold, and following a far more advanced structure than or dinary hard work. In this way the average morning jogger is temporarily forced to subsume this new path of energy under a new lifestyle in order to stay reasonably comfortable. Yet to establish such a strong foundation is only the beginning —as in the athlete, who, after years of hard, intense work on his discipline and form, is still missing something. He needs a structure to work with that will open his body and mind to the subtle yet power ful kinetic energy in the biosphere and that big room called our uni verse. The athlete can work long and hard to achieve these rare natural occurrences. Still, all too often we dismiss these occurrences as luck, karma or even a miracle ... when a distance runner picks up a sudden stream of energy to kick in the last five laps of a 10,000. Looking back you may curse all those years of wasted potential yet relish the rock-hard foundation you have laid down from which you can start. John Baehr Senior, Fine Arts Bell tolls for thee In response to David Greene’s “Dear protester...” letter of Jan. 30: your premise that "individual choice; individual voice” is the only form of rational protest is, I believe, true... in symbols of ink and in the vacuum milieu of the distant planet simplistic. As much as you and would enjoy reveling in our own individual realm^, we live among, with and for other people. You propose that these “vile” protesters should quiet the Uni versity to ultimately test the valid ity of their convictions. No, Mr. Greene, that’s much to simple. Everyone who owns a car, watches T.V., flies in a plane or uses a calculator to compute de bits and credits indirectly supports South Africa. All of these pro ducts, the quintessence of our Page 4 Section A way of life, contain chromium. This element is not found just anywhere. Because this country lacks a credible amount of chromium, we have to import this strengthening, high-technology alloy from the Soviet Union and South Africa. Please forgive the absence of any statistical data, Mr. Greene; I am not an economics major. Yes, Mr. Greene, life is absurd. But we have to start somewhere. And the bell tolls for thee. Richard Lee Graduate, Fine Arts Courageous protest The members of the Black Stu dent Union commend the protest ers for the courage they por trayed at the sit-in at Johnson Hali last week. Although we don’t al ways agree with the tactics used by the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, we thank them for keeping the issue of the South Af rican divestment alive. Without a display about South Africa every week, the student population and administration seem willing to let the issue lie unattended in the hope that it will quietly disappear. We want everyone to know that the racist regime governing South Africa can not be ignored, and we will not let them rest until they change their brutal policies and re turn the governing of that country to its original owners. Marva Fabien Junior, English for the Black Student Union Can’t flee the issue The apathetic complacency and smug self-centeredness es poused in David Greene’s letter (January 30) ironically found its ally in the “Me First!” cartoon on the same page. To propose ac tivism merely on the basis of self interest is to propose callous indif ference to the struggles of all abused and victimized persons. If, as Greene propounds, one is to refuse to acknowledge any obliga tion to justice and humanity, the prevailing selfishness would exalt Mussolini as hero and totally pre clude the extension of human rights witnessed in the 1960’s. It is folly to challenge the protes ters to leave the university, just as the “If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" philosophy was not viable against the anti-war movement during the Vietnam conflict. Indeed, constructive change never resulted from flee ing a disturbing situation nor any other acts of cowardice. In fact, the effectiveness of opposing a policy from within greatly out weights outside criticism. Perhaps the most vital point to remember regarding such groups is that, despite objections one may have with their tactics and procedures, to dismiss their cause merely on the basis of these ac tions is an unaffordable luxury. Just as the fact that Thomas Jef ferson owned slaves cannot ne gate the premises of the Declara tion of Independence nor can Sir Thomas More’s wealth invalidate his Utopia, it must be recognized that beneath the external issues lies an injustice far more important than having one’s studying inter rupted. William Farrell Freshman, Undeclared opinion U.S. supports Iran’s tyrant mv/fSHMSTON? THIS HERE'S NEW YORK! HBU’W BROKE AGAIN AND IF YOU, 50NT saap we A Big,tat relief check at once, i'w Gonna hang wtself.'5 Submitted by Shagerd Shariati for the Muslim Student Association On Monday, Jan. 9,1978, once again the Shah and his international terrorist allies (U.S. and Israeli military advisors) aimed their guns toward thousands of innocent demonstrators in Iranian cities. On this bloody day, the police attack left 162 killed (among them 80 students), 400 wounded, and a thousand arrested in Qum; and 5 killed, a hundred wounded and some 400 arrested in Mashhad (The Washing ton Post, Jan. 11, 1978). According to the most re cent news from Iran the number of people killed in this blood bath has exceeded well over 1,500, mostly because of government’s refusal to allow the criti cally wounded people to be accepted into the hospi tals! This is certainly the bloodiest brutality by the Shah’s police since June, 1963, when more than 15,000 peaceful demonstrators were killed in the streets by the Shah’s American trained and sup ported army. The recent cold-blooded murder took place after two days of public boycott, sit-in, and peaceful de monstrations by men and women protesting the crim inal and widespread suppressions of social, civil and human rights in Iran and demanding the return to Iran of the great Muslim leader, his Eminence, Ayatollah Khomeini, the consistent supporter of human and civil rights and liberation of workers and peasants, from his 13 years of exile in Iraq. It is significant to note that this bloody violence and shooting of peaceful demonstrators at Qum and Mashhad, which was also accompanied by mass closure of stores and universities all over Iran took place: 1) At the dose of President Carter's trip to Iran, after which he praised the Shah as being “deeply concerned about human rights, and that in some aspects of human rights Iran has experienced con siderable progress over the last 20 years!!" (The Washington Post, Jan. 11, 1978;) and 2) Just before Farah’s (Shah’s wife) trip to New York to be entertained, as a “Guest of Honor" by some of the most powerful U.S. capitalists and politi cians (The Washington Post, January 13, 1978)!! Condemning such murderous operations by the Shah’s notorious dictatorship, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) calls upon all freedom loving people of the United States to demand that their government stop aiding this puppet regime’s con tinual mass murder of Iranian people who are bravely resisting his Fascism. Particularly, demand that President Carter (the smiling hypocrite) explain whether such brutal viol ence by his so-called “powerful ally” is the result of an agreement between the Shah and his administra tion during his recent visit to Iran?!!! Does this rep resent Mr. Carter’s human rights policy in Iran?!!! We strongly condemn the communist camp’s shameless and opportunist silence, and hence aiding the barbaric regime of the Shah. Along with the desire of the poeple of Iran, the MSA demand that the U.S. Government censure the exiling of his eminence Ayatollah Khomeini, and the recent violent attack, as well as all the Shah’s furious and gross violations of the human and civil rights of the Iranian people. Down with U.S. Imperialism! Down with "Red” Imperialism! Long live the heroic struggle of the Iranian peo ple against the neocolonialism of the East and West! Victory is near! Shagerd Shariati The Muslim Student Association (Persian Student Group) Eugene Chapter Parallel process? It has been brought to the atten tion (Emerald, Jan. 31) of the R.C.Y.B. that the State Board plans to increase tuition for the umpteenth straight year. It is our informal legal opinion that they lack the authority to do so. Whereas the increases in tuition are making college attendance more and more a question only for the wealthy, and whereas the Uni versity has systematically butch ered minority programs and elimi nated minority recruitment, we feel that their “legality” should be questioned. The next step is for the State Board to spend two months draft ing a letter to the R.C.Y.B. posing all possible questions concerning the legality of the proposed tuition increase. Then our legal research staff will spend two to three months thoroughly researching the matter so that we can present our formal legal opinion. Meanwhile, the State Board must cancel all plans to raise tui tion — just as they jumped at the chance to stall their divestiture of the Southern African stocks. Jonathan Draper for the Revolutionary Com munist Youth Brigade Right to life I would like to criticize the Emerald for its biased reporting of the recent decision by the Legisla tive Emergency Board not to use state funds for abortions in Oregon. The prevalent attitude of the ar ticles in the last few days has been "Isn’t it terrible that lower income women can’t have the abortions they want.” The arguments used by the proponents of abortion funding have been horrible. They stress that it’s cheaper to provide abortions than to pay welfare for a woman and her baby or to put the child up for adoption. Have we sunk so low that human life is measured by state dollars? It is always easier to exterminate life than to sustain it. The same argu ment can be used to put away the old and the sick who may no longer be contributing economi cally to society. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, the state cannot prohibit abortions during the first trimester. How ever, the state does not have a duty or obligation to expend state funds to further abortion. Rather, state funds should be utilized to promote life by encouraging and developing adoption services. No person has an absolute right to control his or her body or life. By its decision, the Emergency Board preserved “human rights’’ for thousands of unborn human be ings. Let us hope that our state legislature will also vote to limit abortion and choose life. Rob LeChevallier Third year Law Wednesday, February 1, 1978
