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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1981)
opinion va-rs Viva transients! Bring on the transients! Who cares? Why bother to keep the transients out of the EMU TV room? Just because their hair doesn’t have body and they don’t sleep in pretty little fur nished apartments is no reason to trem ble at their presence. A few scruffy faces and smelly sleeping bags shouldn't be cause to avoid using the room. Person ally, I am far more repulsed by cigarette smokers and by women who have watched too many "Charlie” commer cials and actually believe perfume pollu tion is attractive, than by harmless peo ple using public space to get out of the rain. I believe the transients are doing a great service to our university communi ty by keeping students out of the TV room. The stale and dingy atmosphere of the room is well-suited to the mindless non-creative advertising medium too many Americans blindly accept as reali ty It has been said of television, "Once you turn it off, there are an infinite number of channels to choose from." So leave the TV room to the transients and go discuss politics or human relation ships with a friend, or read a book, or go to a lecture, or write yourself a letter. Don’t stagnate. Grow with Spring! Bruce C. Phillips Senior, sociology KEZI and gays After reading David Lerner’s letter of April 27 explaining that KEZI omitted Gay Pride Week from its 11:00 p.m. news program because “the story about Gay Pride Week was unusually long," we still have the following questions: • How long was the story, and what made the story’s length unusual? • Why wasn’t the story shortened, instead of dropped entirely? • How does Mr. Lerner decide which stories from KEZI's 5:00 p m. news should be shortened and shown at 11.00, and which should be omitted in the 11:00 program? • Does a story's significance to Eugene area residents figure in Mr. Lerner’s decision to run it, edit it, or drop it? • In Mr Lerner’s opinion, are stories concerning Eugene s gay community "news”? I <BK?8I STAR. % 'Of ®UPSE,'|bute ALL VfcUOME TO OWE BACK ONCE THE 03UNH?r"S TURNED ROUND.' • What standards of newsworthiness led him to conclude that his program had time for “several other shorter stories, including a feature on the Primate Re search Center in Portland," but not for mention of Gay Pride Week in Eugene? We have sent these questions to Mr. Lerner in the hope that he will answer them in a future issue of the Emerald. John Holtzapple 914 East 18th Avenue Terry Hutchinson Senior, biology Greekless cleanup On April 23 staff members and volun teers of the Survival Center, and members of the Circle K community ser vice organization plowed through the muck and mud of the Millrace Canal, removing the accumulated refuse and piling it in the adjacent cross-streets for removal by the City of Eugene. I would like to personally praise and thank all of the workers who participated in this very worthwhile project. Unfortunately, the Emerald ran a large photograph of the Millrace on Friday rrt BCStOH 61C6£ and they all SORT OF LIVED happily EVERAFTER. SNOW VMIITK WDlIKKI ITTI Kim \KKS April 24 with the caption, "Members of Greek houses bordering the Millrace joined volunteers for the annual Millrace cleanup.” To my knowledge, and that of the other individuals who cleaned up the Millrace, there were no “members of the Greek houses" who aided in the cleanup effort. Rather, to my dismay, members of the houses adjacent to the Millrace jeered and hooted at us as we worked at our rather distasteful task. Considering the fact that we were attempting to make the Millrace a more pleasant canal for those individuals to live beside, as well as attempting to promote awareness of the environment and what individuals can do to preserve its quality, I found it to be very disheartening to witness the total lack of concern that the Greeks showed for our efforts. We attempted to enlist the help of the Greeks by inviting several representative members to a meeting at which we out lined our plans for the Millrace cleanup. Apparently they were just too busy with other more important activities such as harassing the individuals cleaning up the canal to bother to join the effort. I must state that I am very disappointed, but not surprised Barbara G. Powell Assistant director Survival Center Racism real While I was discouraged and angered by the racist letter received recently by the Black Student Union, I was amazed and insulted by Vincent Bilotta’s re sponse to the Emerald's coverage of that letter April 27. Two possibilites occurred to me: Giving Mr. Bilotta the benefit of the doubt, one would have to assume that he is genuinely ignorant of the degree to which racism is a very real and very serious problem in this country. (That's assuming that he's read very little Amer ican history and has been completely cut off from the mass media for the last couple of years in particular.) Not giving him the benefit of the doubt, one might assume that he is simply registering his chagrin at having his personal reality ruffled for a few moments by being hit in the face with the fact that racist attitudes actually do exist "right here in River City.” "An unsigned letter is no letter at all," says Mr. Bilotta One wonders how he would feel if he personally received a letter of such manifest hatred, a letter obviously meant to instill fear in it’s recipient? According to him, the ODE’s decision to give coverage to the letter was "short-sighted,” a decision that “sets us all back." I disagree, Mr. Bilotta. I think it is you who are socially myopic (as well as cal lous). Attitudes such as yours are what threaten to set us all back — back about a hundred years to the post-Reconstruc tion era. Cathi Beavers Sophomore, anthropology Racism awareness The letter which arrived in the office of the Black Student Union April 22 served a better purpose than to “anger black students." The purpose it served was to make many more students and faculty aware of the racist mentality which is surfacing more and more frequently in recent months throughout Oregon. As a black student, the last emotion I felt upon reading that letter was anger. Each student who read the letter found at least some parts of it humorous because it was a perfect example of the un educated racist letters which surfce at times of economic instability and social change. Letters of this type surprise few of us in the black community. I personally felt a sense of relief in the knowledge that racism in Eugene is coming out of the closet so it can be dealt with. Becoming aware of the problem is often the first step in solving the problem. Patricia A. Stuart Freshman, psychology etters policy The Emerald will accept and at tempt to print all letters containing fair comment on issues, ideas and topics of interest to the University community. Letters must be limited to 250 words. Each letter must be signed and the author's field of study or faculty or staff status noted. Each should • be dated, and must also include the address and phone number of the author for verification prior to publication. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length, style or content. Publication of letters is dependent upon available space and can not be guaranteed
