Oregon daily emerald., February 21, 1980, Section A, Page 4, Image 4

opinion
vars
Editor’s note: The Emerald staff
is pleased to receive your let
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and we’re as frustrated as you
are about the existing space
limitations. We are including a
full page of letters when possi
ble so that your opinions will be
published on a timely basis.
We also ask, in the interest of
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cisely as possible. The shorter
they are, the more we can print.
Fallen partner
I did not cry when I heard that
he was dead. The remorse built
up in me slowly, over a period of
days. I wondered why I missed
him; I had not seen him in years.
And we were never close. We
disagreed about goals and tac
tics and everything else. But we
stood together, many times, in
the struggles against the war,
the draft, sexism, racism and
imperialism. They were not easy
times. None of us was perfect.
We learned as we went. We
grew.
“Don’t mourn, organize!"
Like so many of the old radical
catch phrases, that one rings
hollow to me right now. The
years force a certain amount of
wisdom on us, whether we like it
or not. I have to mourn a little.
“Iron Mouth" Joe Schoen
feld, the Emerald once dubbed
him. He had the voice and he
had the endurance to repeat a
message enough times for it to
sink in. This was back in the
days when everyone said “right
on" whenever they heard
something, anything, of which
they approved.
Joe once told me that all of
our University activism was
really bullshit, that what count
ed were the experiences we had
and the things we learned. Later
in life, Joe said, when we left the
University — that is when our
true struggle for the betterment
of human kind would take
shape.
Racism, sexism and imper
ialism are still with us. Even war
and the draft seem to be making
a comeback. Will students be
caught once again in the fore
front of the struggle for justice?
Is there another Joe Schoenfeld
out there, one who has perhaps
not yet held a bullhorn? It was
people like Joe, millions of them
across the United Sates, that
finally forced Nixon and his
superhuman crew to stop draft
ing people and then get us out
of Vietnam.
Right on, Joe.
Timothy Travis
Missed mark
Once again the Emerald
(mis)scores again. One would
think that an appointment to the
deanship of a major university
like the Oregon Law School
would not have to be relegated
to the back page. Is it because
you didn’t have the space else
where, or are you naively feeling
that us “colored folks" still ride
on the back of the bus? You
should be embarassed, but
probably not!! How insensitive!
Edwin L. Coleman
associate professor, English
Peace offer
I find the analogy which Bruce
Yokum (Emerald,Jan 30) at
tempts to make between turning
18, getting married, buying
liquor and joining the military
somewhat amusing. Upon turn
ing this fine age, no one from
any governmental agency ever
knocked upon my door,
grabbed my arm and dragged
me down either to the nearest
church or bar and demanded
that I drink and marry under the
threat of imprisonment.
Yet, when the age of 18 en
tered my life, so did Uncle Sam
and his military machine: My
chances of reaching 19 were
greater through marriage or
liquor then through defending
my country. At least I was able to
exercise a choice with the first
two: The U.S. military system
offered no such choice.
Mr. Yocum speaks of a pa
triotism which he feels is reflec
tive of adulthood. Yet, many
adults have said “No” to
violence and senseless killing,
while many children continue to
hit one another with sticks and
stones in want of some mean
ingless toy.
It is also somewhat ironic that
Yocum has chosen the words of
a man who was banished from
his homeland and branded a
heretic and a traitor In order to
emphasize his point. In 1908, in
a story entitled “The Four
Graves”, Kahlil Gibran first
penned "Ask not what your
country can do for you, ask
rather what you can do for your
country,” a statement mista
kenly credited to the late Pres.
Kennedy. Interestingly enough,
this story is of the oppression of
the weak at the hands of the
strong; the crushing of a peo
ple’s liberty by a tyrannous
authority; the condemning of
innocent men and women by
judges set up in office by cor
rupt hands.
Of this spirit called patriotism,
Gibran also spoke with
eloquence when he questioned:
“What is the duty which separ
ates lovers, and causes the
women to become widows, and
the children to become
orphans? What is this patriotism
which provokes wars and des
troys kingdoms through trifles?
And what causes can be more
than trifling when compared to
one life? If duty destroys peace
among nations, and patriotism
disturbs the tranquility of man’s
life, then let us say, ‘Peace be
with you duty and patriotism.’”
Once again we are chal
lenged to question the patriotic
call to duty which is being
sounded by military warlords
and multinational investors. And
once again we must join
together and say “No” to war,
"No” to violence, and “No” to
senseless destruction, while all
the time beginning to affirm life
and the possibilities resident
therein. It is a choice only we are
able to make ourselves.
Michael Connelly
alumni, ’78
No answers
An important point that Ralph
Nader raised in his Mac Court
speech was that American
childhood and adolescence is a
very long and drawn-out
process. He accused college
students of (more or less) play
ing the role of children at the
age of 20, when others (perhaps
“real” men and women?) of the
same age or less were toppling
revolutionary governments at
the other side of the world.
In a very real sense, I think
Nader was right. But did I ask to
be raised as I was? Did I have
any control over what kind of
society I was to be brought up
in? Did I or any of my generation
have any say in when and where
we were to be born and raised?
It seems that we were all
forced to accept the vailidity of
neirs
MW. [FI (>J OUST 9flH TO tJEW HAMfTJIlHT...'
this original sin in spite of our
inability to cause, influence and
sometimes even understand it. I
woke up one day and took a very
sober and objective look at the
world and suddenly realized,
“By God, I'm 20 years old, in my
third year of college, and, de
spite all my schooling, exper
ience, and education, I really
have no idea what the hell is
going on!” My only solace lay in
the realization that few people
were any more enlightened than
I was.
But now, what I do know, what
I can deduce and place into my
narrow file of certainty, is that
we are truly living in the age of
madness. I thought that surviv
ing college was going to be hard
enough, but now it seems that
me and my generation are des
tined to perhaps die in another
war over issues that we, being
very much still children, have no
clear realization of or
understanding about. I’ve al
ways felt strongly about living
for a worthy ideology, but I have
always frozen in terror at the
prospects of dying for any tech
nology. By God, this is my life! I
have nothing else in the world
but it. I feel no shame in
expressing how much it means
to me. If I should lose my life,
then everything else would
become meaningless...
I must admit that I am nothing
to the universe, yet everything
to myself. Is it fair that I should
one day wake up, barely aware
of this complex and intricate
world, and then be thrust into a
war I never made? It is madness,
and I can only ask if me and my
generation are worthy of this
detestable legacy solely
because it was possessed by all
the other generations before us.
Original sin is forced upon us
without even our acceptance or
comprehension of it. It seems
that “a man is born and at once
he is guilty."
I love the United States and I
am grateful to live here with my
freedom and all the other ben
efits that go along with living in a
democratic republic. Perhaps I
have even grown lackadaisical
and have come to take many of
my blessings for granted. But by
God, these are our very lives
that we are talking about!!
Maybe there is no other solu
tion but eternal war and death
for the problems of humanity.
Maybe it sounds naive and
foolish for me to hope that na
tions might someday renounce
their exclusive ideologies or at
least stop from forcing them
upon the rest of the world. But
damn it all, I never asked for this
kind of a world and I never made
it turn out this way!
I have no solutions, only more
questions. If I was to fight, then I
would feel guilty for supporting
a war I never wanted, made, or
condi ned. If I was to resist, I
would also feel guilty for suppo
sedly "deserting" my country
and condoning the existence of
a repressive regime with an in
tolerant ideology. It would seem
that I and others like me are
forced to confront many seem
ingly insoluble dilemmas and
paradoxes. I wish I had an
answer, but I don’t...there is
only madness.
Eric Malin
pre-journalism