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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 12, 1981)
daily emerald Vol. 82, No. 119 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Thursday, March 12, 1981 Ukrainians celebrate folk traditions By JIM GERSBACH Of the Emerald While people all over the country rediscover ethnic cus toms that were sacrificed to the melting pot, one group of Oregonians prides itself on having never lest touch with its ethnic heritage. Lane County’s Ukrainian community celebrated the sur vival of its vibrant folkways Tuesday night in Gerlinger Alumni Lounge. They also came to see a young Maryland woman present a slide show documenting their traditions. Sandi Serling’s presentation "A Celebration of Ukrainian Folk Traditions in Lane County" culminated 14 months of re search into the folkways of Lane County's 1,000-member Uk rainian-American community. ‘‘People aren’t aware that they’re even here," says Serling, a University graduate teaching assistant in folklore and ethnic studies. Ukrainians first came to Lane County from North Dakota dur ing the early 1900s. They'had left the Ukraine, in southwestern Russia, only a few years earlier to escape poverty. More Ukrainians arrived in Lane County following World War II. Immigrants in that second wave were mostly refugees who left the Soviet Union to avoid Stalinist oppres sion. Despite the relatively small size of the community, folkways brought over from the Ukraine, such as colorful embroidery, Easter-egg painting and elabor ate wedding ceremonies — like the one portrayed in the movie “The Deer Hunter” — have sur vived. “These people feel very strongly about preserving their traditions,” Serling says. "They have been oppressed for cen turies, and they have had to fight just to maintain their eth nicity.” That fight continues in the modern Ukraine, where the Soviet government is attempt ing to assimilate Ukrainians into Russian life, Serling says. Traditional Ukrainian folkways are repressed. Consequently, the traditions practiced by Ukrainians in Oregon are more traditional than those still living in the Uk raine, says Serling, whose study was funded by the University’s Russian and East European Studies Program and the Oregon Committee for the Humanities. “The younger generation is very much interested in the Uk Photo by Dennis Tachibana Traditional Ukrainian music is but a part of the culture that immigrants from the Ukraine have brought to the United States, and Lane County in particular, since the turn of the century. rainian traditions,” Serling says. For example, despite a high rate of intermarriage with non Ukrainians, many young Uk rainian-Americans insist on traditional Ukrainian weddings. The survival of Ukrainian customs in Lane County en riches all residents, says Serling, who is not of Ukrainian descent. “Oregonians have a lot of pride in their state and people,'' Serling says. “It would make Oregon more rich if Oregonians knew more about the ethnic groups that contributed to Oregon's development.’’ Food Op offers students organic alternative By STEPHEN KNIGHT and BART JONES 01 the Emerald University students wanting to fight the evils of agribusiness — and get a 15-cent bagel on the side — may find the Univer sity Food Op to their liking. The Food Op tries to pur chase only unprocessed, organically grown food, ex plains Jill Sideras, a collective member. On the other hand, most foods processed by large agribusinesses contain pes ticides, chemicals and non-nu tritious additives, she claims. While the selection at the Food-op is limited — no meat is sold in the store — good deals seem to abound. Nancy’s Yogurt costs 44 cents, green cabbage sells for 19 cents a head and Tillamook cheese costs $2.45 a pound Prices are low because the store is a non-profit organiza tion — as Sideras explains, “We’re not out to rip people off.” Yet the Food Op has strug gled just to keep financially afloat in its six years. It began as a food-buying club, serving mainly University fraternities and sororities, with a $12,000 boost from the Incidental Fee Committee. But the Food Op ran into a string of management prob lems. “Everytime a student (manager) left, the store would be in a crisis,” says Brad Op permann, another collective member. "So to circumvent the dependency on one person, we decided to go collective.” A collective has more com mitted people, he says. That commitment apparently has paid off. Now without IFC funding, the Food Op has man aged to "stay out of the red" for the past year, but Oppermann says the store needs IFC funds for capital improvements. Oppermann argues that the store deserves the money because it serves mostly students, but he says the IFC considers the store a business Cortez sentenced to life — twice Convicted murderer Manuel Cortez was sentenced to two consecutive life terms and will have to serve at least 50 years in the state prison before he is eligible for parole, Lane County Circuit Court Judge George Woodrich ruled Wednesday morning. Cortez was convicted in November of two counts of first-degree murder in the December 1979 torture-murders of Ashland girls Deanna Jackman and Rachel Isser. ‘‘No one better than I recognizes what happened that night, and no one is more sorry than I," Cortez said in a soft, shaky voice before Woodrich sentenced him to the max imum penalty under Oregon law Although Cortez said he knew his year-old Christian faith would have no effect on the sentence, he claimed his conversion is “true, genuine and sincere" and that he is a different man than when he killed the two 11-year-old girls. “The man who walked that day has died,” Cortez said. “He has been crucified with Christ.” The sentence was handed down after a day of testimony from defense witnesses who emphasized the sincerity of Cortez's conver sion and prosecution witnesses who said there is little hope of treating Cortez with available psychological programs. On Tuesday, Jackson County District At torney Justin Smith argued that Cortez is “using religion to manipulate people. “The citizens of the state should never take the risk that Manuel Cortez will be on the streets again,” Smith said. Defense Attorney Harry Carp agreed that Cortez is dangerous, but argued that sentenc ing him to two consecutive life sentences when he has only one life is "ridiculous.” In his ruling, the judge said he was con vinced Cortez's conversion is sincere, but because of public safety and the lack of treat ment for sexual sadists, he had to impose the maximum sentence. If the death penalty had not been struck down by Oregon’s Supreme Court, Woodrich said he would have sentenced Cortez to death for the murders. Also Wednesday in Lane County Circuit Court, Judge William Beckett sentenced Lion etti Haynes to 20 years in prison with a min imum of seven years to be served before parole. He also ruled the three years she has spent in jail can be applied to the sentence Haynes was convicted of manslaughter in the stabbing and dismemberment murder of Pamela Bruno of Springfield that should support itself. The Food Op collective does receive IFC funds for education progams on alternative food sources. However, Oppermann co-teaches a Food Op spon sored three-credit Search class entitled "Food, Hunger and You,’’ which "addresses the socio-political backdrop of food distribution and how it affects hunger." Other projects include a "Food Education Faire" scheduled for the EMU next term. The fair’s theme will be food and community self reliance, Sideras says, specifically "the various food resources available to us in the Willamette Valley ” The fair will include a speech by Jim Hightower, author of "Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times," and other talks on gardening, nutrition, world hunger and col lectivism. Local worker-owned collectives will be discussed as alternatives to "huge oligopoli tic agribusinesses," Sideras says. The Food Op plans to plant a garden behind the store to demonstrate the feasibility of urban agriculture, Oppermann adds. The Food Op is located at 1535 E. 15th Ave in the alley. The store is open 9 a m to 6 p.m. weekdays, 10 a m to 6 p.m.. on Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
