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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1978)
_-— editorial ----- Begin’s turn to compromise in Middle East If blame can be assigned to any one character in the falter ing peace negotiations in the Middle East, Israeli Prime minister Menachem Begin has become the most likely candi date, particularly after the re cent invasion of Lebanon. Begin’s obsti nance in develop ing Israeli settlements in still disputed areas and his bizarre interpretation of U.N. resolu tion 242 have for the most part caused the breakdown in negotiations — a breakdown that could all too easily break into war, as shown by the re taliatory strikes on Lebanon. Though Begin and the Is raeli government are jusitfiably outraged by Palestinian Liber ation Organization raids on Is raeli territory, their eye, leg, arm and ear for an eye ex tremism has brought a shift not only in U.S. but also world opinion against the Israelis. Begin has shown again and again that he will accept no peace that does not serve the interests of Israel. His resort to the strange argument that the West Bank is really a part of Israel because of ancient ties — even though this is in opposition to the U.N. resolu tion — slams the door to any meaningful negotiations on the West Bank. Begin himself has remained adamant on the West Bank despite pleas by President Carter and key con gressmen to be more reason able. The land-grabbing in Jordan adds another card to the Israeli hand, and that is perhaps a more driving reason for the at tacks on Lebanon than the pure revenge motive. The Lebanon crisis has already changed the face of the negotiations, and what effect it will have on the total outcome is yet impossible to predict, though it can’t aid the chances for peace. It is disheartening that Beain has done very little o date that will aid the chan ces tor peace. Begin, of course, is deeply concerned about the security of Israel’s borders, whatever they rnay be after peace negotiations. With PLO ter rorist attacks against Israeli vil lages a fairly regular occur ence, Begin has a right to be concerned. But his unwilling ness to compromise and his unwise moves such as the Lebanon invation do not bring pressure against the PLO by other Arab sources, nor do they convince the Arab world that Israel’s aims are other than expansionism. Israel’s neighboring states have long viewed Israel in exactly that way, and as long as Begin feeds that notion, peace will be more and more difficult to at tain. Without the willingness to negotiate and compromise, peace may become a mere memory of a hope that once existed. Without peace, as the Lebanon crisis has shown, may be inevitable. And more than anyone else, it is Menachem Begin who must go to the negotiating table with reasonable proposals — proposals which don’t give away Israel's security, but which contribute constructive ideas and sound compromises on that ever-elusive Middle East peace. Letters Return to reason Please allow me to respond to Betty Luginbill’s statement enti tled “Irrational” (3/28/78) that “any view that espouses an ‘infal lible Bible’ for rules of living' is an abdication of personal responsibil ity, and is inconsistent with ra tional mind." The statement merits some consideration, at least, if it were made by anyone other than one who claims a campus ministry as the Director of the Wesley Center. While assuming that Ms. Luginbill has at least a basic knowledge of the Bible, my conclusion was that she either, 1) does not know the purpose of the Bible — to function as an absolute (II Timothy 3:16, 17) in a world characterized by the fallibility of rational thinking and the despondency of moral and so cial compromise or, 2) does not want to believe the Bible in its en tirety, but is willing to “espouse” portions that "conveniently sup port” what she attributes to the “rational mind.” If one cannot claim that the Bible is, indeed, an absolute and is not subject to the whims of man and the times, one’s trust must in evitably return to the use of some thing we all think we have — a rational mind. O. Tacheenl Scott Graduate, Biology Koser listens I am writing in support of Bar bara Koser, Candidate for District 4J School Board, Position #3. I have known Barbara well for seven years and observed her in a variety of work and leisure ac tivities. In my estimation she is an independent thinker, strong in Page 4 leadership roles and willing to ex pand vast amounts of energy to get a job done. Barbara does not take a posi tion on an issue unless she has thought it through. She is ex tremely fair-minded. In thinking through a position, she welcomes divergent opinions and will solicit them. Barbara works well in both group and one-on-one situations. I find her to be direct in her ap proach to people and to problems. If she knows someone in need, she is quick to help. If there is a problem to be dealt with, she fo cuses on the issues of that situa tion and moves fairly and speedily to a resolution. Barbara Koser is a refreshingly honest person. She is warm and personable, with a good reserve of humor. She listens, yet is not afraid to speak out on issues which concern her. She acts, but never haphazardly. She is ac countable for her actions and posi tions and demands accountability from others. As the mother of two children, myself, there is no one I would rather see on the school board of a district in which my son and daughter attend school than Barbara Koser. Linaya Leaf Clark 1001 Laura St. Springfield Give me a break I am writing to explain a com plaint by J.T. Sanders of the Re ligious Studies Department con cerning the ASUO course guide, The Guide " Sanders is complaining be cause The Guide omitted one course in this spring's edition and also one in the winter edition. — Letters Letters I would like to say to Mr. San ders and any other professors or department heads at the Univer sity that I don’t randomly or routinely drop courses from inclu sion in The Guide. In the practical business of put ting together a publication it at times is necessary to make adap tions to changes, sometimes un expected changes. The Guide is printed on news print and to accomplish our laying out of the course guide we must either add or subract the size of our publication by increments of four pages. To be honest, we didn’t have enough copy to ex pand by another four pages. The same thing happened last winter and I had previously exp lained this to the teacher of the Marxism/Leninism class. The realy nitty gritty of what’s happening with the course guide is that it’s a new publication with an entirely new direction and out look. I don’t want to say that any excuse will do for dropping a course; for the fall issue we will hopefully have received all re sponses for that issue by the end of Spring term and thus be better able to ascertain the size of the fall issue. The Guide was expecting, as in the past, that the response from the professors for spring term would be smaller than the re sponse for fall and winter. But this complaint brings our an interesting fact: now, the course guide is being taken more seri ously, so mistakes glare out. Give me a break, will ya? I think the young people who work and sweat for practically nothing (and no thanks) on this publication de serve better than that. But from a simple letter to the editor must come the promise of better accuracy. We are human and in the same boat. Let’s all be a little more Christian Rich Riegel Editor, The Guide For LCC board A public vote will choose three members of the Lane Community College (LCC) Board of Educa tion, which determines class offer ings, tuition and pay levels, among many other important things. University of Oregon stu dents, staff and faculty members can help keep up community edu cational standards and do a favor for your counterparts at Lane by voting in the LCC Board elections. The LCC Student Senate en dorses the following: Catherine Lauris has a warm, personal concern for the people of Lane Community College and is a highly dedicated public servant whose knowledge leadership is much needed. She really stood up for the rights of LCC work-study students when they were prema turely laid-off a year ago. Leslie Hendrickson is em ployed as an administrative evaluator for the Eugene School District. His expertise and keen mind will be a valuable asset to the Board as it tries to cope with utliz ing the college s limited resources in the fairest possible way. Charlene Curry has a back ground which includes student government, education legisla tion, teaching at the University of Oregon, serving on the LCC Board and a committee, the men tal health field, the Oregon Women's Political Caucus and the League of Women Voters. Your polling location can be found out by phoning 687-4234 Please vote on April 4 for Catherine Lauris, Leslie Hen drickson and Charlene Curry. - _ Tom Ruckman LCC Student Body President Wrong paper Actually, it wasn't the New York Times that headlined "Ford to City: Drop Dead ', as your March 30 editorial indicated. It was the New York Daily News The dis tinction is roughly the same as that between the Army Times and Army Laffs. A rule of thumb your editorial writers might wish to '•emember when attributing headlines to New York dailies: if the words contain less than five letters, its probably the News. Mitchell Shannon Graduate, unclassified Mine is to obey... I believe in an omnipotent, om niscient and personal God. I further believe God chose to communicate to us corporately through the Bible. In both the Old Testament and the New Testa ment we are instructed to obey God’s word (e.g. Palm 119:2 and John 14:15). I look to the Bible for my rules of living. My personal re sponsibility is to obey. To choose to disbelieve the Bible is to place some other source (such as my intellect, modem psychology or contrary teaching) as an authority above the Bible. The omnipotent, omniscient God is capable of pre serving for us His commandments and teachings (i.e. the Bible). Accepting His Word as the guid ing light for my life is neither an ‘ abdication of personal responsi bility" nor “inconsistent with a ra tional mind" as asserted by Luginbill (Emerald letters, March 28). Rather, it is the height of ra tionality to humble oneself before the Creator. God sums it up rather well in Proverbs 3:5,6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall di rect thy paths.” Robert Bowman Assistant Prof., Accounting Monday, April 3, 1978
