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?