opinion_
Castration won’t solve rape problem
Pat Horton has high hopes of deterring po
tential rapists.
Second-offense rapists should be made in
capable of raping again — surgically, says the
Lane County District Attorney. Such definitive
action, Horton insists, would stop repeat of
fenders and deter potential rapists.
Welcome to the Horton theory of rape
prevention.
While efforts to deter rape should be ap
plauded, resorting to an inhumane method to stop
a violent crime is both foolish and unrealistic.
Rape is a violent crime. And like other crimes
of violence, it should be treated as violence — not
necessarily sexual desire.
“Society needs to understand that rape is not
a sex crime,” says Marcia Morgan, crime preven
tion specialist for the Lane County Sheriff’s office.
“Rape is a crime of violence — motivated by a
desire to dominate.”
Surgical removal of the desire for sex will not
remove violent tendencies. And while we doubt
that the incidence of rape would decrease, the
violence and hatred would only be transmuted
into other violent crimes.
We seem obsessed with treating the symp
toms that manifest themselves in violent'action —
Oregon’s death penalty statute, recently ruled
unconstitutional, didn’t deter violent crimes.
By resorting to a surgical deterrent to rape we
again would be treating the symptom.
Neither the death penalty nor the Horton
method treat the cause. Both respond emotional
ly, not logically, to the problem.
Like the “Off with Their Rocks” stickers that
were posted on campus last year, Horton’s sug
gestion of castration doesn’t offer a real solution
to violence.
The Biblical “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth”
adage should not be the basis of modern efforts to
deter crime. Most criminologists would admit the
adage doesn’t work.
Instead, we need to stop the crime before it
happens. Education and community cooperation
with local law enforcement agencies are the keys
to crime prevention.
Police suggest that a woman secure her
home, display a confident attitude and be willing
to fight back. In addition, children should be
taught at an early age how to prevent sexual
attacks, and the violence and inhumane nature of
the crime should be stressed. And society must
perceive rape as the violent, heinous crime it is.
The justice system must be dedicated to the
quick prosecution and incarceration of offenders.
Courts could impose longer sentences and design
more stringent parole guidelines.
But castration isn’t the solution.
va jrs
For college students
The Peach Fuzz Humor contained in
the April Fools’ Day Immorald was defin
itely entertaining. There were some
chuckling postdocs in my lab.
In any case, the Emerald is supposedly
written for college students, not college
presidents or district attorneys. What
other faction of society can poke such
fun at authority?
Keep pulling the lion’s tail. Someone
needs to
Eileen Raymund-Wooten
Griffith Lab Secretary
Institute of Molecular Biology
Immorald failed
As a student and teacher of satire for
16 years on this campus, I am respond
ing to your request for reactions to this
year's "Daily Immorald." Great satire is
often coarse, even obscene. But it is so in
concert with a firm moral vision. It is also,
ultimately, funny. This year’s "Immorald"
fails on both scores. It is unleavened by
wit or purpose. It takes no risks, except
with the reputation of the University,
which unfortunatlely must suffer unjustly
for the paper’s indiscretions.
If the "Immorald" aims are less lofty
than satire, can it be regarded as mere
humor? I think not. It isn’t funny. With few
exceptions, the "Immorald” is a bore,
inconsequential, dumb — about on a
level, intellectually, with two six-year
olds trying to out-toilet-talk one another.
Secure in the legal proof of the first
amendment and the warm benevolence
of the academic community, the "Im
morald" smugly makes its little mess
which the rest of us are left to clean up,
insofar as that is possible. There is a real
world out there, however, in which the
paper’s writers will soon find themselves.
I doubt that any of them will be sought
out by "Mad” or “National Lampoon" let
alone "The New York Times” for their
abilities.
And having seen all the dirty words
used up, what will next year’s writers of
the “Immorald" do? Try, perhaps, to
make it on talent? Wit? Dare they be so
bold?
Glen A. Love
English Department
Love it or leave
I would like to address these com
ments to David Isenberg and those who
share his views that he owes this country
absolutely nothing and should use every
loop-hole to avoid military service. It is
too bad Mr Isenberg can’t spend his time
and efforts attempting to help the gover
ment, instead of helping commie sissies
find ways of avoiding service to their
country.
I would like to know how they think
we’ve come to live as we do in the U S.
today—we're here because our fathers
and grandfathers fought in the armed
forces. If Mr. Isenberg is so interested in
"international studies” and sherking his
responsibility as an American, why
doesn’t he go to Russia or the like—these
governments shoot people for letters like
he wrote to the Emerald.
I can see Isenberg standing on the
graves of American fighting men and
cheering the cowards returning from
Canada via Ford’s pardon They had
every right to leave if they felt that to be
their cause-but those who were afraid
did not have the right-and none of them
had the right to return. These are the
same people who stand and watch
someone beaten-to-death and too afraid
to help stop it. Mr Isenberg should have
the chance to live as many of the world’s
repressed people live; I hardly think he
could survive. He might then understand
the need for armies and well-intentioned
(if not always perfect) government inter
vention. The army would certainly allow
him the experience to grow up and
realize that the world isn’t an extension
of Sesame Street where the forces
of evil automatically succumb to
good guys in white hats.
The U S. isn’t perfect by a long shot
but it's time the American people got
behind her 100 percent. We live better
than people anywhere in the world and
yet all people like Isenberg can do is
complain. Go to the USSR David and see
how far your crying and moaning gets
you. In the mean time, I feel sorry for
anyone so unsure of what they're made
of and those who are afraid they don't
have the guts to do what American men
and women have done throughout his
tory to help the repressed and keep our
country great! I don’t know who said it
first, but I would like to see it adopted by
those afraid of themselves: “you need
not know defeat when the inner braces
are strong."
James D. Miller
Junior, psych-vet
In left field
There is a long practiced inequality in
the distribution of labor which needs to
be brought to the public’s attention. It is
discrimination between the right and left
hands, the right hand getting by far the
greater proportion of skilled jobs. But if
the left hand had proper training, it could
do the same jobs too.
Our laws need to be changed. Where
they read, “No left turn,” they should
say, “No right turn either,’’ or be
repealed.
Let us campaign for a change We
need to start with our ingrained habits of
speech. When a speaker makes a strong
point, shout out, "Left on!" When you
-—-J
come home late from the campaign and
your husband asks, “What’s for dinner,
honey?," reply, "Rightovers.”
The worst example of this inequality is
the latest proposed constitutional
amendment, which uses biased
language—The Equal Rights Amend
ment. What about lefts? They need
amending too.
Earl Gosnell
1293Vi Tyler Street
Supports math
In the University Senate debate on the
math requirements, a statement was
made that architecture students often fail
the structural and mathematical sections
of licensing exams. University of Oregon
graduates have a better-than-national
average success rate on the professional
examination. Two-thirds of UO
graduates taking the ‘‘design tech
nology" section of the exam pass, and
virtually all UO graduates pass the
"environmental analysis" section (1
failure among 35 examinees in 1979).
I support the mathematics proficiency
requirement for the B.S. degree and for
majors in architecture. Meanwhile, our
graduates apparently are obtaining en
ough technical and mathematical un
derstanding to have success in these
areas of the professional licensing ex
aminations.
Robert S. Harris, Dean
School of Architecture and Allied Arts