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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1979)
emerald Vol 81, No 49 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Tuesday, November 13, 1979 Teach-in studies complexity of Iran crisis By SALL Y HODGKINSON Of the Emerald People did more than shout about the Iranian situation Monday night — they listened An attentive crowd of more than 200 people packed the Monday night "Teach-in on Iran," a quiet contrast to tense Iraman-American clashes in the EMU Mam Lobby Two sociology professors urged Americans in the audience to view the situation in Iran with historical eyes and to get at the facts ' "The outcome of this situation will affect all of us in this room," said Prof David Milton He added that he doesn't approve of students in Iran holding 60 Americans hostage, but the issue raises a "larger question" of how the United States got into the situation and how it can get out of it "We all know that we could send in the Marines and begin a war with the Muslim world." he said, "but there is more in volved than an insult to our American dignity " Recent Iranian protests and marches and American backlash demonstrations "are the stuff that wars are made of," Milton said The crisis "really means a choice between coming to terms with past mis takes or going on to other ones." he said, adding that the issue is tied to U S. Cookie culture 1 ■ Thinh, a 10-year-old Cambodian boy who recently arrived in Eugene, has had to learn both a new language and a new culture — right down to the correct way to eat a peanut butter cookie The "boat people " have come to Lane County, and local families have come to the rescue See page 4. foreign policy in third-world countries “Great world powers don't have to use much force They usually don’t have to,” Milton said Holding hostages is a tactic of the weak, and usually labeled irration al by great powers, but it is a desperate move by ‘‘small people” seeking to be heard. Iranian outrage over American invol vement in Iran has fallen on deaf Amer ican ears, said Amin, a representative from the Iranian Student Union. When the U S government once again “sup ported” the shah by letting him into the country, Iranian rage increased and led to taking the hostages, he said “Small nations have to do a lot of things to be heard," he said. “We hear Americans say ‘we hate the shah,’ but what have they done about that? Ab solutely nothing Now everybody is angry " Milton said the Vietnam War showed the United States it should not involve itself in other countries’ internal wars, a lesson that should be heeded in dealing with Iran. The administration made an ■’enor mous mistake” in allowing the shah to come into the United States, Milton said “We humiliated Iran Now they’ve humiliated us. In a world filled with nu clear weapons, no country should humiliate each other “ Prof Val Barris basically agreed with Milton s stance, saying that although few condone the tactic of taking hostages, "we have the responsibility to try to understand why “ He noted the shah's dictatorship, set up and supported for twenty years by the American government through military and economic aid, topped the 1976 Am nesty International list of repressive regimes in the world, due to intimidation, torture and executions Although Pres Jimmy Carter is an advocate for “human rights.“ the U S foreign policy rarely reflects that rhetor ic, Barris said, adding that Carter has continued to support the shah to the point of sheltering him in the country. The ties of oil companies and other multi-national corporations to U S. for eign policy are strong, and they greatly influence the support of dictatorships in other contries for the profit of those U S companies, Barris said But the American public has slowly grown more discontent with that type of policy and a "fragile humanitarian" feeling is emerging, Barris adds "Students today should also (as in the '60s) be the ones questioning military policy," he said "Just as the Americans have a gun held to their heads," so do people in the countries where a repres sive regime is supported by the American government, he added Iranian students want the shah to be returned to Iran, or at least kicked out of the United States, Amin said, adding that Iranian students who protest the shah's stay in the United States are not hypocrites "We learned the traditional freedom here, not in Iran,” he said "We learned that we could express political opinion without being thrown out, sent to jail, handcuffed or tortured. We re not here to raise hell — we re here to raise questions about things that are being done in the name of the American people " The shah may have serious medical problems, Amin said, but using that as an excuse for staying in the United States isn t valid "If he (the shah) wanted to, he could buy the whole New York Hospital and take it to Mexico," he said Dave Isenberg, a member of the University Veterans Association, said the government had "plenty of warnings" about what would happen if the shah was protected by the United States "It's sad that it takes an act of violence to realize that our foreign policy is mor ally bankrupt and corrupt," he said "How many more Vietnams do we need?" Bomb hoax clears EMU A bomb threat in the EMU Monday sent most of the building's inhabitants scrambling for the doors Shortly before 2 p m. a woman called the EMU administrative offices and said only "A bomb at 2,” according to EMU Director Adell McMillan But McMillan says she didn't expect a bomb to explode "We decided to announce the threat and give people an opportunity to leave,” she says “But we had every reason to believe it was a hoax." She says most people in the building heeded the warning and left, but they returned soon after 2 “Statistically, those kinds of calls are hoaxes," McMillan says “Unless the caller gives information about where the bomb is or who planted it, we give people the opportunity to leave, but with the understanding that we believe it to be a hoax .’’ Oakley Glenn, Department of Public Safety director, says it was a 'pretty meager threat.’’ Although no bomb squad was called, the Eugene Police Department came to the building and the Eugene Fire Department was put on alert "We didn’t send in a bomb squad because it was too short of notice and the building is too big,” he says. "But we do have a (bomb location) plan." Glenn says it would be hard to inves tigate the threat "It's such a non-committal type of thing," he says "It's a pretty meager threat." Any investigating will be done be the EPD, according to Glenn, but he says they probably will not have too much to investigate "How much can you investigate on a four-word threat?" today Mobil Oil's recruiter visited cam* pus Monday, but instead of attract ing potential executives he drew pickets fi’orn four local groups pro testing "oil monopolies" and com plaints from students See page 3. rhe University 's Drug Information Center, long troubled by financial woes, raised almost $2,000 in a jog a-thon last month — not enough to keep all of its staff members.on, the payroll come January See page 7. A sweeping revision of the U S. Criminal Code could subject nuclear protestors to felony charges and make it illegal to distribute pamphlets opposed to a war waged by the Uni ted States Seepages.
