opinion
sally hodgkinson
even editors get the blues
It seemed like a good transportation deal: One
small moped, good price, great gas mileage. I
bought it, ignorant that the life of a moped owner is
filled with ridicule and despair.
“Heard you got a moped,” a friend said.
“Yep,” I said proudly, launching into a well
rehearsed speech on the Three Virtues of Owning
a Moped — high gas mileage, low insurance, easy
and cheap transportation.
“Huh,” my friend answered. “Sounds like a
lazy-man’s bicycle to me.”
Mopeds are the oppressed minorities of
transportation. Car drivers hate them because
they’re in the way, bicyclists hate them because
they go faster than bicyles do, and people who use
their feet for transportation don't like the noisy
lawnmower engine.
Springfield cops also have a less-than-enthu
siastic response to mopeds. You would think a
tough Springfield cop would feel a tad bit
embarassed about pulling over a small moped for
a little thing like no license plate, but it didn't seem
to faze the three officers that stopped me within
one week.
So I decided to get a license. One small
moped. One big pile of paperwork. One medium
sized $18.50 fee. Liability insurance at $3 per
month. Cheap and easy transportation became a
budget headache.
Mopeds are also good for a laugh. Hitchhikers
wave their thumbs at moped riders with a knowing
smirk on their faces. One night a friend and I went
out in the pouring rain to pick up some dinner at
Wendy’s. ‘‘You should have seen the look on
people’s faces when you pedaled that thing to
start it and then came back and waited for me to
hop on,” he said.
It is also embarassing to have a moped break
down Once, as I trudged along Franklin in search
of a gas station to fill my three-quarter-gallon tank,
a bicycle rider whizzed past yelling '‘get a horse.”
People also seem to think my nice quiet little
moped is just one step away from a Harley 1200.
As I walked into the office one day, helmet in hand,
one of the associate editors started singing “Born
to Be Wild.” I’ve been asked countless times when
am I going to get a leather jacket. And if someone
calls me “Moped Mama” one more time, I’ll run
them over.
The low point came Wednesday after I spent
the day running around trying to get insurance, a
title and a license plate for my mechanical beast. I
also ran out of gas that day and tore my pants
literally skidding out of a gravel driveway.
I began to doubt the wisdom of owning a
moped — cheap transportation isn’t easy.
Then my five-year-old friend Carlos ran up.
“Can I have a ride,” he asked with wide eyes,
clutching a Spiderman airplane he got at his
birthday party that day. He put down his prized
possession without a backward glance and
climbed on.
“Wow! We’re going fast, aren’t we,” he asked
as we whizzed around the block at 15 miles per
hour. "We sure are,” I said, grateful that someone
thought my moped was cool.
Carlos, you can ride on my moped anytime
you want.
vours
Sports cuts
The elimination of the
gymnastics and swimming
teams presents two problems.
First, unless we readjust our
priorities there is no telling
where the hacking will end
Without a change, the budget
cuts offer only temporary
stability. Second, with every
cutback student participation is
reduced, whether it is the
elimination of a sports program
or an academic course.
I can't understand why the
University would eliminate from
its sports department those
teams that have a consistent
winning record over the past
few years. I am amazed that our
administrators have even con
sidered cutting these teams
from our sports program When
one has a large leak to fill it
makes little sense to use a small
plug to cover it. Unless of
course the idea is to begin using
several small plugs: library
plugs, professor plugs, cur
riculum plugs, etc. How many
programs will need to be cut in
the future to support a football
team?
“But,'’ you say, “our
gladiators stimulate the Alumni
pocketbooks, bring prestige to
our Alma Mater, inspire school
spirit; we must keep them ever
in the public eye."
Since when has scandal
inflated school spirit and loosed
the community pocketbook? If
this is true maybe all of us,
students and faculty alike,
should outdo one another in
perversion to keep the public
eye.
“Are you attending the
University of Oregon?” "Why
yes, I'm working on my doc
torate in buggery.”
Seriously, though, I'm
concerned. The recent admin
istrative decisions that cut
library funds, increased in
cidental fees to cover football
deficits, represented a seeming
lack of scruples in response to
recent scandal, and that are
now eliminating competitive
and winning teams in order to
pay for a football stadium do not
convince me this institution is
furthering social ethics. If the
continued existence of this
University depends on the
success of our football team,
which is what these decisions
seem to infer, then I would
question the validity of its con
tinued existence as anything
more than a local job market.
Your library inscription says the
truth will make me free — if your
truth comes through the com
promise of integrity I don’t want
it.
If the administration needs a
savior I would suggest the time
enduring qualities of academic
integrity
Michael Kurpjuweit
Sophomore, philosphy
Ribbon day
Unofficially, the United States
began its war in Indochina in
1954 with its support of the
French colonial occupation for
ces.
Officially, the U S. terminated
its military involvement in Indo
china in May of 1975 Unof
ficially, that conflict goes on for
Americans today in every state,
in every city of this country.
A war that caused over 57,000
dead Americans has left 4.2
million living casualties we call
Vietnam era veterans. These are
the veterans America has
refused to forgive for fighting a
war it began, then ordered car
ried out in a way repugnant then
for veterans and only afterwards
to Americans. These are the
veterans America has used as
scapegoats for its illegitimate
and immoral "noble cause.”
They have been classified
and categorized by all of us:
disabled veterans, Agent
Orange victims, bad discharge
veterans and delayed stress
victims. These are the men and
women who are beginning to fill
our psychiatric wards, jails and
prisons.
Those studying problems of
Vietnam era veterans estimate
that at least 500,000 suffer from
post-traumatic stress disorders.
Meanwhile the Reagan
administration is seriously con
sidering restructuring, possible
even abolishing, a nationwide
network of storefront
counseling centers that use
“rap groups” to help psy
chologically troubled Vietnam
era veterans. In fact the
Veterans Administration
recently announced that it is
eliminating the Vet Center that
was due to open here in Eugene
because of the hiring freeze im
posed by Reagan; another
casualty of getting “the
government off the backs of the
people."
On Sunday Vietnam era
veterans groups and sup
porters, all along the West
Coast, will be holding events in
support of National Green Rib
bon Unity Day. These events will
be to announce the wearing of
the green ribbon as the symbol
of support for Vietnam era
veterans.
We ask people to join us in
demanding that the Reagan
administration extend the vets
centers program past its
expiration date in September
We ask veterans, veterans'
representatives, and the
families and friends of veterans
to begin to wear green ribbons
— the common color that binds
us all together irrespective of
race, sex, or region of birth.
David Isenberg
University Veterans