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.