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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1981)
opinion ken sands even editors get the blues "They'd just love to see us lower everyone's salary by 5 percent. They've always thought we could go on with less. ” — Paul Olum, talking about the state Legislature and faculty salaries. Education is becoming a privilege, not a right. The Legislature is likely to continue cutting higher education’s budget, and the bottom line is that only the privileged will be able to attend in the future. It’s not that people think college is useless — it’s just that money is tight. The Republicans are blaming the ’’spendthrift’’ Democrats for the poor economy. The Democrats are blaming the Republicans for axing necessary social programs. But it’s always the “little guys” who get screwed in the end. And around here, a lot of students are feeling the thrust of this financial sodomy. As tuition rose about 10 percent this year, Basic Educational Opportunity Grants were cut $50 and fewer National Direct Student Loans were given. The governor is predicting 15 percent tuition increases in each of the next two years, coupled with a “dramatic” rise in out-of-state and graduate tuition. Reagan economists believe philosophically students should foot 100 percent of their educa tion bill. Government hardliners already have made cuts in the federal food stamp program — a source of income for many University students. The fact that enrollment has risen this year to near an all-time high (about 17,000) is misleading. Frankly, many students are on the verge of finan cial exigency. One typical Emerald editor makes about $200 a month, and has about $200 a quarter in BEOG funds. Obviously not enough to pay rent AND eat, let alone pay for school. “If I can get through the month on 17 cents and then get a GSL, I’ll be fine.” Similar tales of woe abound throughout this office and across the campus. It seems as though those students who are not independently wealthy are being squeezed out of the institution. As tuition increases and financial aid decreases, enrollment will decrease. And as state funding for the University continues to decrease, the quality of education will decrease. Unless this regressive spiral is reversed, higher education as we know it is in trouble in this state. You can’t blame unemployed mill workers for not caring about higher education, and you can’t blame the legislators for wanting to put the precious tax money where it is best spent. And higher education’s benefits to society are harder to define than their benefits to the in dividual. But the benefits do exist. The University is Eugene’s biggest employer, and students pump millions of dollars into the local economy. College graduates generally earn more, and pay more taxes. Also, they tend to be employed in ’’clean” industries. California thought enough of these benefits that it instituted a network of free-tuition community colleges, and relatively inexpensive state univer sities. Unfortunately this session of the Oregon Legis lature isn’t likely to come up with any progressive funding for higher education. The future of higher education will become bleaker the longer this regressive spiral is allowed to continue. vours Land control My husband and I farmed on 80 acres near Vale for 30 years, dairying and row cropping. Five years ago, my husband became ill and not being able to work any longer,. we sold the farmground and kept the farm home with one and a half acres of land and continued to live there. A neighbor bought the farmground, but did not need the farmhouse. About one and a half years ago, we decided to move into town to be closer to medical facilities etc We then sold our home for $57,000 but the Planning Com mission would not allow the sale to be consumated. They insisted that the farmer that owned the farmground buy the house, but he didn't want it. The house was empty for one and a half years. After my husband died 10 months ago, I appealed to the County Court and with the citizens of Malheur County put en ough pressure on local Planning officials to allow me to sell the home. However, after having an original offer of $57,000 (one and a half years ago) my home devaluted to $48,000 due to recession and high interest rates. There is no law in the United States that denies an American the right to sell their home, so I consulted with an attor ney to sue the state of Oregon to recover my losses. My attorney advised me that it would cost me more money to sue than I could recover. Mr. Wright of Noti, Ore., initiated a lawsuit in the District Court at Eugene, Ore., and I joined with hundreds of other people with the hope of keeping our expenses at a minimum, and also looked forward to having the whole concept of Rural Land Planning brought out into the open where all the pros and cons would be available to the good people in Eugene, Salem and Portland, so that they might better understand and hopefully help the farmer remove this oppressive entrapment that farmers are facing The District Judge imformed me that I would have to file a separate complaint in his court to pursue the case and that our common cause lawsuit had been dis missed. The case was dismissed and I, along with the other individuals cannot afford to go it alone. Won't you please study the issue thor oughly before agreeing to having land control? L. S. Kinsey Vale, Oregon Many gods Long, long ago people were so religious that they had many gods — which was reasonable because no one god could be expected to manage everything The Romans had a very old god named Saturn, who was in charge of agriculture His festival, a thanksgiving for the har vest, was celebrated under the Caesars Dec. 17-23. Because in mythology he had reigned over a prehistoric Golden Age of peace, freedom and equality, ucy /mam, i GotTor You<<• mmris fLAT, anp gum7 Page 4 ok, tii m I Pont There ake Those OFusmoww 'pjwou.p wiper i r / (MAM warfare was suspended, people ex changed gifts, and masters served slaves as they feasted and drank together (of fice party). We derive the “peace on earth, good will to men” spirit and gift giving from the Saturnalian “season to be jolly.” Then came the winter solstice, cele brated throughout Europe on the Roman Dec. 25, when our divine Sun was reborn after his long decline in strength. The rebirth of our Father, the Sun, was cele brated with lights on evergreen trees, as here and now Of many sun gods the greatest was the Persian Mithra, “the Invincible Sun,” worshipped throughout the Roman Em pire for centuries. Like Christianity, Mithraism was, in a disintegrating civilization, morally severe and promised happiness after death in another world. Mithra was a savior, born as a human baby in a cave, 'worshipped by shepherds. By the fourth century C.E. (Christian Era) the Roman Catholic Church had become powerful enough to suppress Mithraism and to award Mithra’s birthday to Jesus — whose birthday was not recorded in the Bible and was first as signed to May 20 (in Egypt about C.E. 200). How do I know all this? Because it once occured to me to look up “Christmas" in the Catholic Encyclopedia. L.F. Hawkins Eugene Cars vs. bikes Another letter concerning cars vs. bicycles and pedestrians: Bicyclists and pedestrians have a great advantage over car drivers at dusk and dawn in that they can see moving objects as well as in daylight, and they can see into the distance. On the other hand, the vision of a car driver, during those same periods, is greatly (danger ously) hampered by the glare of oncom ing lights, lights reflected in the rear view mirror and side mirrors. Therefore, as far as a car driver is concerned vision-wise, it is the middle of the night. Those of you out in the open please have pity on those of us surrounded by a profusion of light, who cannot see as well as you. Les Rouzaut Clerk College of Business Administration Friday, January 9,1981
