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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1978)
Letters Good satire My thanks to Dan Todd for his beautiful satire on the Fascinating Womanhood course, in which he very deftly demonstrated the diffi culty of using an ancient religious document as a guide to life in modem times. “There are some things in (Paul’s letters) hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). J.T. Sanders Professor, Religious Studies Downright misleading Your reference to Old Town Pizza as “reminiscent of the Hearst Castle at San Simeon” in California is at best misleading. While the decor of Old Town Pizza may incorporate three or four decades in its decor, that of Hearst Castle emobides art ob jects dating back to Roman times. Furthermore, Hearst Castle is os tentatious bordering on the vulgar, if one is charitable. The analogy made by the author of “Old Town & Andy's Station: charm’s the same, food isn’t (which appeared on March 2, pages four and five B) between the decor and furnish ings of Old Town Pizza and Hearst Castle is inaccurate if not down right insulting. Donna Mussog Senior, Journalism Student’s prayer Please, Lord, protect me from the rigors of the test, the dangers of the dorm, Clear my mind of unscholarly thoughts, Keep me from the unctious Lid Man, for he is the dealer of academic failure, Lighten my class load, burden me not with desires of the flesh, Allow me not the bane of pro crastination, for it is the curse of the student, Save me from the nebulous lec ture, the surprize quiz, and the dreaded red pen, Keepeth me from the infantile freshman, for frustration and mayhem shall abound, Leadeth me not to halls where the Devil's Brew flows, nor white powder falls, Leadeth me instead to the sa cred store of scholarly books, where I may seek solace in intel lectual gain, Give me strength to endure the burdensome research paper, the fearsome required readihg, and the heinous T.A. Fadeth not my typewriter rib bon, guideth my fingers upon the keys, Bless my mind during the essay exam, so words will flow as vaca tion days do, Endow my instructors with the virtues of generosity and compas sion, for they can be a short tempered lot, Bless me, Lord, for my life is frought with peril and uncertainty, Glory to Ye, in the name of General Education Require ments, Grade Point Averages, and the tortured souls who have preceded me through the Golden Halls of Knowledge. Amen. Vic Napier , Junior, Psychology Political Science Misunderstood As the members of People for Southern African Freedom (PSAF) who were interviewed in your February 28 article, we wish to extend our appreciation for your extensive coverage of the work being done locally around the Southern African issue. However, we feel that in your effort to provide a contrasting pic ture of what the two groups are doing, your article has created a basic misunderstanding about the —Letters major thrust of PSAF. This misun derstanding is, unfortunately, heightened by the accompanying graphic which simplistically im plies that PSAF is concerned sol ely with “persuasion” and SALSC solely with “confrontation." The emphasis of PSAF, which we attempted to get across in the interview, was the establishment of links with the larger community, especially including members of the working class. Our aim is de cidedly not to “work with the mid dle bureaucrats.” Some of the more visible effects of our work is seen in the way “middle bureauc rats" have voted, as for example, the State Board divestment resol ution and the Eugene City Council Krugerrand resolution. But the real work has been di rected toward developing a grass roots consciousness of the issue so that a constituency is created to demand action on the part of higher level bureaucrats. This was what the petition and referendum were all about last spring. As a result of that work, the State Attor ney General is now squirming about a decision that a year ago no one would have dreamed he would be faced with. Likewise, the City Council opposition to the ad vertising and sale of the Kruger rand was a result of several months of collecting petition sig natures, contacting members of the local Black communityl, testify ing before the Eugene Minorities Commission, and bringing a large number of Eugene residents to the City Council meeting itself. As a follow-up to that resolution being passed, PSAF is now plan ning to leaflet the Oakway Mall to protest the continuing sale of the Krugerrand at the Eugene Coin Gallery. All are welcome to join us between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 18. Regarding our political views, one of us was misquoted as say ing that “There is a difference be tween members of the ruling class and capitalists.” We hope that the statement struck readers as being so absurd as to be an obvious misquote. The “ruling class’ and the “capitalist class” are inter changeable terms. Our comments were directed toward the charac terization of the State Board as consisting solely of members of the "ruling class." We did not agree with that characterization. An analysis of who voted for and against the divestment resolution should verifvy that all three "no votes" came from undisputed members of the ruling class, whereas the eight "yes votes came from upper level profes sionals and bureaucrats whose di rect stake in the capitalist system is at least debatable. To conclude, in our attempt to defend our position we would like to restore some balance to a pic ture of us appearing as engaging in protracted self-congratulation. We certainly do not claim to have carried out single-handedly any of the local victories around the Southern African issue. Not only SALSC but the Black Student Union, the Iranian, Arab and Afri can Student organizations, Clergy and Laity Concerned, members of the religious community, the ASUO, May Day, the New Ameri can Movement, the members of the Minorities Commission and many other individuals and groups from Eugene and throughout the State have worked together to build the Southern Af rican issue to its present high de gree of visibility. We have done this because what is happening in Southern Africa is so stark an ex ample of the type of oppression that is being perpetrated daily on working class people throughout the world. Solidarity around the ef fort to bring an end to this oppres sion is what all of us are striving to create. Bruce Bowers and Colette Postol for the People for Southern African Freedom Full life I feel that it is appropriate to ad dress all my fellow humans as “brother" and "sister” because in my own heart I don’t feel any sep aration from people. I am writing this letter in an attempt (possibly a futile one) of sharing my percep tion of the world and to express what I am finding to be True. I feel that because the purpose of this university (at least as it is en scribed on a wall in the Student Union) is to “Enlighten the mas ses,” it is appropriate to share my experience of Truth. -Letters I am also aware that, generally speaking, people have their opin ions about religion and dogma, ranging from avid belief to ex treme nausea, this letter will not espouse a religious philosophy. But what does Religion actually mean? The root of all religion is true Realization. There is a film being shown around campus these days (I don’t know the title). It is a true story of a man who discovers that he has a terminal disease and that he has not got much time to live. At the moment of this discovery, he had been working in a bureauc racy of an industrial society. But he realizes that he must experi ence his life in a full way before he dies. He realizes that his life was a precious gift, which would only last but a short time longer. At that point, he became detached from the trivia which had once plagued his everyday life, and tuned-in to the love which was naturally in side of him. In this world, in our lifetime, we are experiencing everyday the same battle which humanity has faced for centuries. This battle is not an external one, but it is one of consciousness. It seems that within every human there are two things; a mind, which loves to wander, inventing fantasies about past and future, and imagining fantastic paranoia in the present, and then there is a Source of Love within all of us. Even sustaining the most corrupt, inhuman people is the same source of love. The problem in this world, in this soci ety, and at this school, is that, by and large, people have lost their connection with that source of Love, and the mind is ruling, un checked. The more we work on problem-solving, the more we tend to externalize our own life experi ence. The solution is always within us. And if you don’t believe me, try to stop breathing. You cannot do it, because this force within you will make you breathe. And when the force is gone . . . I appeal to all my fellow humans to experience their life fully, in harmony, in Love, in Peace, and by the Grace of He who is sus taining us, before we die. For the sake of all suffering humanity. Steve Richkind 910 Jackson St., Eugene W( DWHfE?
