emerald
Vol. 82, No. 128
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Wednesday, April 8, 1981
Nobelist praises public’s force
oy roirvc nuo i
Of the Emerald
Public opinion is a powerful force that individuals
can use to influence public policy.
That was the message delivered Tuesday night
from a man who, for decades, has been a leader in the
fight for human rights, as well as a distinguished
lawyer, diplomat and communications expert.
Sean MacBride — 1974 Nobel Peace Prize winner,
co-founder of Amnesty International, and chairman of
the International Commission for Study of Commun
ication Problems — expressed both pessimism and
encouragement as he told an audience in the EMU
Ballroom about human rights, disarmament and com
munications problems.
MacBride's prognosis of the times was not a
favorable one.
“My considered opinion is that we are probably
living through the most difficult period in the history of
mankind and certainly the most difficult period since
World War II.”
The reason for this difficult period is “a total
breakdown in public morality and, in some cases,
private morality,” MacBride said. This moral break
down’s roots lie in the murder of six million Jews by the
Nazis and in the abandonment of “the rules that had
guided the conduct of war,” he said.
The deterioration of public morality has manifest
ed itself in the nuclear arms race and in the repression
of human rights, he said. However, American leaders
of the immediate postwar period such as Eleanor
Roosevelt and former Pres. Dwight Eisenhower were
“of a fairly high caliber.
Photo by Steve Dykes
Sean MacBride
“They had lived the horrors of war,” MacBride
said. "They were determined to reorganize society in
such a way that the same sort of thing could never
happen again.”
They tried to do this by working for the principles
embodied in the United Nation’s 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which MacBride en
couraged the audience to read.
“It’s probably the most important document that
the human race has ever produced,” he said
MacBride said “it’s a pity the United States
hasn’t ratified the declaration, which the United
Nations defined during the years from 1948 to 1965.
Complete disarmament was a possiblity as late as
1962 when events such as the Cuban missile crisis
and the construction of the Berlin Wall brought the
disarmament process to a halt, MacBride said.
“Now the world is spending $1 million per minute
to prepare for World War III," he said. "This is at a time
when millions are dying of starvation around the
world.”
While churches traditionally have been responsi
ble for strengthening public morality, MacBride said
they have been unable to keep pace with modern
developments. Therefore, the “one remedy" is public
opinion.
MacBride said public opinion has acquired
greater force than ever because electronic media has
made it available instantly around the world.
Vietnam, Watergate, the Iranian Revolution and
the current situation in Poland are all examples of the
power of public opinion, he said.
“The workers of Poland, informed mainly by
electronic media, will no longer accept a situation
where they cannot organize into trade unions.”
He said radio is the world’s most important means
of communication because it reaches the most peo
ple.
“A man working in the fields in Zambia or Laos
usually has his transistor with him all day," he said.
“He is better informed on world events than his
counterpart walking the streets of New York or Mos
cow or London.”
‘Maiden’ statue adorns art museum again
By GABRIEL BOEHMER
Ol the Emerald
A 22-ton crane hoisted the bronze statue over the 30-foot
north wall of the University art museum Thursday morning
and set it down on a two-tiered platform in the emptied
courtyard pond.
“It’s back and I’m delighted,’’ beamed museum director
Richard Palin.
The “Indian Maiden and Fawn" stood in front of the
museum’s main doors for several years before it was van
dalized last April. The maiden’s left arm was severed, and its
bronze plate was scratched.
The figure was shipped to Blue Herring Foundry in Port
Angeles, Wash., for repair and was returned to the museum
about six weeks ago, Palin says.
State restoration insurance paid the approximately
$5,400 bill, he says.
The Jay F. Oldham Company of Eugene donated the
crane and its operator’s time to lift the several-hundred
pound figure and its concrete and marble base to its new
home in the Prince Lucien Campbell Memorial Courtyard.
About 15 people watched as the statue dangled from a
steel hook over its concrete and marble platform at the west
end of the pond. Griffin and museum repairman Arnold
Canning wrestled the statue into place, unwrapped the choke
of nylon bands around her waist, and the crane hoisted away
the harness.
The water began rushing into the pond as soon as the
figure was in place. It took about 1V2 hours to fill the pond. The
museum's Chinese Koi fish will be returned to the pond today,
Palin says.
The decision to move the statue inside the museum's
walls was made soon after it was vandalized, Palin says.
“Once you’ve been had, you're not going to let it happen
again.”
“Indian Maiden and Fawn” was cast in Italy by late
19th-century Northwest sculptor Alexander Phinister Proctor,
Palin says. It was one of Proctor’s few female figures.
While the figure stood in front of the museum, it served as
a great addition to the facade and as the museum’s estab
lished logo, Palin says.
"It's probably the most photographed object in Eugene,
from all angles.”
Photo by Steve Dykes
Museum staff members look on as the newly repaired "Indian Maiden and Fawn" is hoisted over a 30-foot
wall into the museum courtyard.