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”?
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• 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
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and they all
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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