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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 1978)
Letters Cycle power University students all seem to be worried about major world problems, such as South Africa or finals, and some of the more trivial problems of everyday life seem to be overlooked. At the same time, some seemingly trivial problems have the potential to grow into serious ones — and yet with some minor actions could be easily nip ped in the bud. Such a problem is the autocratic and unethical behavior of the Campus Security Deartment with regards to bicycles. Sometime in the past, a problem was identified: some cyclists were parking in doorways or on ramps used by handicapped students. Rather than indicate these areas, perhaps with yellow striping, and ask cyclists not to park there, Campus Security’s dictatorial sol ution is to insist that all bicylces be registered (“so that they may be traced if they are stolen” — fat chance), and then ticket anyone parking in the still unmarked and sometimes imaginary hazardous zones. Anyone who refuses to register their bike, according to the 17 May ODE, risks impoundment. Cam pus Security, according to the ar ticle, employs three people on its bicycle patrol, and “hopes when students hear of their friends’ bikes being removed...they will (register) their own bikes.” Signs marking the no parking zones? An adequate number of bike racks? Safe bike parking such as pay lockers? Maybe sometime in the future. For now — beat their heads in. Let’s avoid the outrage which will undoubtably occur the day that 50 unregistered bikes are im pounded, and take some action now. I encourage all cyclists who are into civil disobedience to take the following simple steps: 1) Don’t park in front of doors or on ramps for handicapped stu dents. It will only encourage them. 2) If you haven’t registered your bike, don’t. They can’t trace it. If you have, rip off the sticker or use -opinion Reflections on the end of school Submitted by Ronald Fuchs Senior, Journalism In a few days my undergraduate days will be over and I thought that before I leave, I’d write you a few words. The University has been quite an experi ence. I could probably write for hours on the many facets of my three years here. When I left the Navy to come to school here at Oregon I thought that eventu ally I would walk away with an education that would be mostly gained in the classroom. Well nothing has been further from the truth. No doubt the many hours of studying and lec tures on everything from the relevance of aboriginal economics to the mystery of journalism have been important in my development. But, the place where I gained most of my education’ has been out of the classroom and on the campus itself. Among the headstones in the cemetery, in the vaulted chambers of the EMU and in the Pit along with 10,499 other deranged idiots. Who can forget the Mock Democratic conven tion where hundreds of students bickered and ban tered over menial political considerations when Ron nie Lee was the people s choice? Then there has been the many causes and or ganizations, each trying to get more publicity than the other. The RSB (now the RCYB) has been one of my favorites! I’ll never forget the day they sold cookies to sponsor the revolution. Of course organizations such as the Gay People's Alliance and the uncountable other groups have also been famous for wasting reams of paper to cultivate their ideas in the form of handouts. I’d venture to say that their heavy use of paper has kept at least two janitors in the EMU em ployed! Seriously though (I can be serious), I admit a certain admiration for all these poeple. Their dedica tion may eventually pay off. I only wish that each group would occasionally read the large (and tar nished) plaque hanging in the EMU main lobby. Listed on it are numerous names of former Oregon students who gave their lives so we would have the right to speak out on any issue we choose. I could hardly leave without saying thanks for the Oregon sports program. Who could ever forget the Kamikaze Kids? I must have been nuts (deranged) to have slept out to insure a good seat in the pit, but then after the Ducks burned the Bruins I would have been crazy to have not endured the pavement. Ronnie Lee and Greg Ballard, along with the others, will always be a strong and warm memory. The football team has also been a memory which some might call a night mare. I must admit, I have enjoyed football at the University. Reggie Grant and Jack Henderson gave all they had and sadly we can’t say the same about the Oregon fans. And then of course my pet issue. Everyone has one at the University. AFROTC is leaving. Now, some of the campus liberals will stand up and cheer this move. I think, however, the loss is the University's. The campus will lose an important part of our education. The variety we now have on cam pus will be reduced. No longer will students have blue uniformed students to stare at every Thursday. Perhaps many disagree with what we believe in but we are as entitled to believe in American and apple pie as others are to believe in Communism, Socialism or apathy I will enter the United States Air Force later this year, and I will do so with a liberal education, obtained not in the classroom but in the campus atmosphere. I will do my best, and die if I have to, to insure that all future Oregon students have the same right to speak out as we have had. I only hope that more people would read that tarnished plaque that hangs in the EMU. indelible ink to obliterate the number. 3) If you see bikes with tickets, rip off the tickets, and mail them via campus mail to Campus Sec urity. If the owners of the bikes have not registered them, they will not be fined, nor will they be in timidated into registration. Randal O’Toole Graduate, Economics Make your stand We need the help of the Univer sity community. The budget committee for the city of Eugene has recommended that one of the three Eugene Human Rights Specialist positions be dropped. Specifically, they wish to cut that position (now held by Kent Gorham) which works with the Eugene Commission on the Rights of Minorities. Indeed, if that budget cut is carried out, it will put the very functioning of that minor ity commission in jeopardy. The budget recommendation will be voted on by the City Council at their luncheon meeting on May 31, at the King’s Table Restaurant (Oakway Mall) from 11:30 to 1:30. We are asking all of you who can possibly make it to attend that meeting as a show of support for maintaining Kent Gorham’s posi tion. Also, please help up spread the word: please tell your classes, friends, and organizations. We need to show the City Council that even (in fact, especially) in the wake of the recent repeal of the Human Rights Ordinance the citi zens of Eugene are still con cerned that the rights of all its citi zens be protected. Many of us who have worked on such issues know from experience that in the current economic crisis that exists in this country, administrations everywhere tend to first cut ser vices for the powerless, the invisi ble, and the silent members of our society. We cannot afford to be either silent or invisible in our stands on such issues if we are not also ultimately to be powerless I in the society at large. Please make your stand felt by your pres ence at this meeting. Madronna Holden Director, Ethnic Studies Program Hardly religious So now it’s time to blame the passage of Eugene’s ballot measure 51 on the “unbridled stupidity’’ of Christianity, as one letter writer did in the May 26 Emerald, is it? Although many people, the Anita Bryants and the anti-Anitas of the area, have made the issue seem to be a religious issue, it's hardly one. First of all, the measure passed by a 62-38 margin, despite it being voted down 2-1 at campus pre cincts, as the Emerald reported Friday. Thus, the margin among the Eugene non-student popula tion was about 75 percent in favor of passage. Is this to say that 75 percent of Eugene's general population voted Yes on Christian grounds? That’s hard to believe. Second, throughout the cam paign there were both groups and individuals urging Yes votes with out mentioning Christianity but giving other personal reasons for wanting passage. There were also groups and individuals urging No votes as the Christian thing to do. Neither side had any majority of Christian or non-Christian sup porters. opinion Remember martyrs Submitted by Shagerd Shariati, Sophomore, Physics Today the Iranian people, in the midst of a decisive battle with the forces of the enemy, are com memorating the 15th anniversary of the nation-wide massacre of the Iranian people by the Shah and his American and Israeli advisers. One the historic day of June 4, 1963, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah), this stooge of the United States, murdered 15,000 innocent people whose fault in the eyes of the regime was their belief in free dom and a decent life, and their support of their true leader, His Eminence Imam Khomeini, who tried to fight against the shaky foundation of a clear US-Shah conspiracy called “White Revolu tion”! This was a plan designed by the Kennedy Administration to stabel ize the Shah’s utterly unpopular and shaky regime in order to transform Iran into a strong mar ket place for U.S. goods, and at the same time facilitate the total political and economical depen dence of Iran on the West. Savak, the Shah’s main organ of repression established “in 1957 with the help of American C.I.A. and the Israeli Intelligence" (Washington Post), expanded rapidly and intensified its brutal operation. On the other hand Imam Khomeini, reflecting the as pirations of 93 percent of the op pressed Muslim people of Iran, and who was the most vocal position personality, strongly con demned such neoclonoialistic re form. After having made several re volutionary sermons, he was ar rested in Qum (religious city near Tehran, known for her historic die-hard opposition to the re gime), early in the morning of June 4, 1963. Within several hours a crowd of protesters, carrying the (man’s portraits, poured into the streets, and by 10:00 a.m. the Shah ordered ‘shoot to kill” (UPI)! During the three days of violent rioting, which soon spread to many other cities, thousands of unarmed protesters were killed and wounded. Since 1963, the movement has gone through qual itative changes. Many guerrilla organizations, committed to con front the violent regime by re volutionary violence, have con tinually emerged. With the purchase of billions of dollars of weapons and the sta tioning of thousands of the U.S. military personnel in Iran, the Shah thought of his regime as omnipotent and “in control of everything!” His kingly illusions were to be shattered soon. Mass riots and public demonstrations of an unbelievable scale for a period of six months surfaced in every city of Iran. This time the people of Iran drew the line very clearly. From the streets to the Mosques, and from universities to bazaars, people are calling for the over throw of the Shah, the symbol of the monarchical system, and put ting an end to the foreign domina tion of the “right" and “left” im perialism, and the establishment of an Islamic government! “The portraits and the taped speeches of His Eminence Imam Khomeini (exiled since 1963) are seen and heard in every organized gather ing throughout Iran” (Eugene Register-Guard). The Koran states, “...Believers are those who honor their promise to God. Some have already hon ored it and others are waiting." The Iranian people have risen up with courage and determina tion, and until they get their rights and rid this country from the inter nal and foreign enemies they will not rest. “Where ever there is repression there is resistance and struggle, and where ever there is struggle there is victory and defeat, but in the end victory belongs to the people”! .1 What this shows is that the ma jority of people didn’t vote on Christian grounds, but by their own consciounces. If anyone is going to call the passage a case of stupidity or other names, then it should be directed at the “yes” voters in general, not at Christian ity. Steve Geiger Senior, Journalism
