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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1978)
opinion__ ours_ Lane County fumbles CETA program CETA: The federally funded Com prehensive Employment and Training Act program has fallen on hard times in Lane County. The expensive program was de signed to encourage creation of new jobs in which the long-term unem ployed could be trained and subse quently absorbed into the private economy. Instead, under the administration ot the Lane County Board of Commis sioners, the program has become a political football, carried all too often by CETA employees into dead-end low level jobs that ease the budget prob lems of government and traditional non-profit agencies. In past years, CETA funding has supported growth in Eugene’s dynamic, but chronically underfunded artistic community and innovative en vironmental projects Chief architects of CETA's new de sign are county commissioners Archie Weinstein and Bob Wood, and like minded members of the Employment and Training Advisory Committee who supported their own mainstream agen cies at the cost of the “alternative” proposals. CETA thus has ended up as an ex pression of Weinstein's contempt for what he identifies as ‘‘hippy” ideas, Woods own political projects (particu larly an economic-development group to replace the Lane Economic De velopment Council) and their mutual interest in financing county jobs with federal dollars. The answer to these problems is clear, but difficult to implement: oroaueumy memuersnip on c i mu ana giving administration of CETA to a more open-minded agency. Possibly an outright ban on government use of CETAs should be implemented. The City of Eugene has indicated in terest in taking over administration of the program, but encountered difficul ties in meeting federal standards for sponsoring agencies. Hopefully, they will continue efforts to qualify for the task. It’s clear the pre sent sponsors have fumbled CETA, to the detriment of Lane County. One more time “There's no accounting for taste,” a venera ble aphorism assures us, but Jackson County's legal officers substituted their own cinematog raphic tastes in place of students at Southern Oregon State College recently. Using a vague legal suggestion that trans lated into a clear threat of action, the district attorney's office this week squelched an Ashland campus showing of the X-rated “Deep Throat.” How long, O Lord, how long? Despite the movie's explicit and almost unin terrupted portrayals of sexual congress (the true body politic?), which some viewers find more clini cal than erotic, the film offers a bit of light-hearted, social satire usually absent in the traditional, grainy X. And even if “Deep Throat” had been filled solely with the unrelieved tedium of couplings that haunt run-of-the-mill, hard-core porn, the Jackson County DA — a self-appointed protector of morals — should fret over more substantial matters than a discreetly shown skin flick. The University of Oregon has endured sev eral screenings of the same film — to sell-out crowds — several times over the years without suffering any noticeable decline in moral stan dards. But the broader issue remains a constitutional one : Little effort is required to realize that display and admission-only attendance at a movie, how ever prurient, must be considered private rights protected by the First Amendment. Jackson County’s legal protectors — and their counterparts everywhere — should resist the political allure of suppressing pornography for more substantial legal issues. Picture imperfect Here's a scary tidbit brought to you from the office of Lane County’s misanthropic commis sioner Archie Weinstein. At a Tuesday night organizational meeting of persons supporting a Weinstein-recall campaign, a volunteer from Weinstein’s office showed up and photographed several speakers and the audience in general. Since some of the campaign backers are county employees, the threat to their jobs seems scarcely veiled. Even if no direct use is made of the photos, the chilling effect on a legitimate political activity remains obvious. Weinstein's chief aide had no comment for reporters on the purpose of the picture-taking. Weinstein himself rarely answers questions from the press. This McCarthyesque scare tactic represents just another example of Weinstein’s political style that prompted the recall effort. The Emerald has supported and will continue vigorously to support the campaign to rid the Lane County Board of Commissioners of its biggest lia bility: Archie Weinstein. WKH30N IF )M STFENfi BCU5HINTUE NATKm R3US TO 9lY 'NO' TO THE RR<-Bm ISLE.' yours Be forthright with sexual titles The new non-discrimination policy statement of the university includes the nebulous clause “extraneous consider ations." In 1971 there was faculty legis lation which set forth a non discrimination policy prohibiting dis crimination on the basis of political be lief, sexual orientation, and other areas now covered by Section 504 of the Re habilitation Act. It was all coined under the term "extraneous considerations '. It seems inconsistent today that sex ual orientation be closeted within that term and not be specified precisely. If we are trying to provide seme protection from discrimination for gay people as well as others, it can’t be done by con tinuing the silence surrounding such terms as homosexual, gay, sexual pre ference. or sexual orientation. It is the subject still so delicate that we must not jar the sensitivities of the stu dents, employees, and employers on campus? Maintaining silence over the subject merely continues to inhibit gay people and others from participating in the academic freedom and freedom of academic inquiry to which they entitled. How many gay people feel free to dis cuss gay issues in class, write term pap ers or give talks on gay topics relevant to their courses? How many gay master's and doctoral students would write their thesis or dissertation on a gay subject? How many straight people are comfort able discussing these issues? How is Johnson Hall going to provide this freedom for everyone if the adminis trators themselves seem to be so hesit ant and fearful of even putting the term in print in their policy? I think that one way of helping to break the silence barriers is by getting the words out of the closet and written into the policy statement. Gay people are here and many will not be silent any more. Many will not just lay back and accept a crumb when they deserve a whole loaf. Placing “sexual orientation’’ in the closet term “extraneous considerations’’ is the same as telling gay people to stay in the closet themselves. This doesn't sell well any more. Yvonne Parkinson, Equal Education Specialist, Affirmative Action Anne Harbaugh, Administrative Data Processing Spirit of the hunt I’m sorry Greg Wasson has left his “hippie days’ and his resentment of the hunting season behind him. (Tabled In definitely, October 3) My own example is not a vegetarian one: I still resent this annual sporting event, but if there’s a good buy on ground beef at Safeway i’ll grab it. I “Carnivorous behavior," Wasson writes, “requires a certain amount of ar rogance: My sustenance and/or eating pleasure must be worth another creature's life." He misses the point. The very nature of the world consists of living things using up other living things to bear forth the whole unknowa ble process of evolution. Creation and destruction, over and over again. I'd like to suggest, however, that the act of taking to the woods to shoot down a deer is the truly arrogant act, since one’s weekend sporting pleasure must now be worth another creature’s life. Whether this act is accomplished by a native of the wilderness whose protein source is these animals or by a visitor who just digs killing his meat and eating it, too, is far from an academic point. The former, I submit, is within the Tao; the latter is not. Personally, I find great joy in simply being in the woods without a target to hold my civilized attention. Something more is definitely at issue here than the pros and cons of eating dead meat, as beautiful a lifestyle as vegetarianism might be in this day and age. The issue concerns our spiritual path. And even the most eloquent rationali zation by the hunter does not alter the fact that he (or she) remains a hunter — be it of deer, whales or other humans. David Grober, Junior, Journalism
