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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1981)
opinion greg wesson a quorum of one Unwilling to let crooks cash in on their nefar ious reputations, the Berkeley student body pre sident nixed the funds for an appearance by convicted Nixon-crony Charles Colson. My favorite fascist, syndicated columnist James Kil patrick, responded by resurrecting the tired ar gument that it's an inexcusable mistake to deny the freedom of speech to anyone. The American system of truth, justice and freedom, Kilpatrick implied, can exist only in an atmosphere of neutrality, where various ideas are allowed to engage in abstract combat so the truth can win. Like most of Kilpatrick’s work, the piece had the tone that “I'm arguing about the process, and that’s larger than you or me. My self-interests aren’t at issue.” C'mon Jim. Your self interests are exactly what you’re talking about. Of course you favor a neutral system because yours is a position of dominance. If the procedure is one of balance, your side will always win given the additional weight it starts with. Don’t give me that jive about arriving at your conclusions free of considerations about who will win and who will lose. Admit that you think the American system is great because it’s always done right by you. It’s natural for people to favor things they profit from, but I’m tired of elitists parading their self-serving deductions as the results of detached reasoning. But, while it's easy to understand how Kil patrick can sit at his Virginia estate and concoct defenses for a system that helps him and his friends, it’s harder to comprehend why John Birchers in Grants Pass, county sheriffs in Reno or the rest of the pigs around the country act as his storm troopers. One explanation might be that they are frus trated by the arrangement but feel powerless to change it. So, to make themselves feel better, they dump on others so they can say, “Well, maybe they’re right when they tell me I'm not so good. But at least I’m better than that nigger over there.’’ And, lest you missed it, Phyllis Schlafly con tinues to muddy the discussion of relations between the sexes. Testifying before a Senate committee investigating sexual harassment, Schlafly contended that women walk with a body language that their male co-workers universally understand. “Virtuous women are seldom accosted by unwelcome sexual propositions or familiarities, obscene talk or profane language.” Right. And guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Against deportation The Minority Law Students Associa tion would like to express its support of the two Turkish students currently facing deportation. However, we would like to make it very clear that this support should not be interpreted as an endor sement of the practices and activities of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade. MLSA has never been affiliated with RCYB and has no desire to do so in the future. Despite RCYB's involvement in this matter, we feel that we must speak out in this obvious attempt by the Immigration and Naturalization (INS) to deport someone because of his political beliefs. The INS has historically used the threat of deportation to prevent immigrants, whether here legally or otherwise, from exercising their rights. We therefore support Turkan and Is met in their struggle, and urge other groups to look beyond the RCYB’s participation and to the equities in volved. Manuel Perez Vice president, MLSA Salvadoran reality As resistance to American policy in Latin America grows, the establishment press tours to bring us the "facts.’’ T.D Allman, an editor at Harpers, prophe sizes defeat for the peasant struggle in El Salvador To give crediblity to his asser tions, he notes his extensive travels, his on-site observations, and his ability to objectively deal with issues Doubters of the analysis are reminded that terrorism works (Maryknoll, Mr. All man says that you are gone for good). Objections to his thoughts on the “inte grated global economy (i.e. the multina tional corporate control of world mar kets) are told that only the romantic left is trying to turn back that clock. With so phisticated wit, he parries those who have hope My hope is that the students in the audience were SKEPTICAL of the reality personally constructed by Mr. Allman. April 30 was the anniversary of the pea sant victory in Viet Nam. Somoza fell in Nicaragua. Mr. Allman, like the rest of us, is limited by his individual belief patterns. He sees what they allow Living with the comfortable in Brooklyn Heights, NYC, he wonders if our good fortune has made us spiteful. Tell that story in the Bronx, T.D., if you dare. Get out of the taxis and into the subways for a new reality check Yes, it is very hard for us, the wealthy minority of the world, to guess where the oppressed poor get their courage and Page 4 aMtt'iiMcwikfe] Siva » iMirttv. i flwcr •dmicktf "W,MS A W4SAGE DR, R£A(3AKi. HE'S PUTTING US ON A STRICT DIET.' strength to continue the struggle. What makes it most hard is that we lack humility. One Nicaraguan prayer, used at the height of the struggle, might be a beginning: "Pardon us for having permitted the death of so many innocent people. Par don us for not having committed our selves to the struggle for liberation and justice Then, let’s forgive ourselves, put aside cynicism, and support our Latin Amer ican brothers and sisters. The people are ahead of you, Mr. Allman. Cynthia Kokis, staff Clergy and Laity Concerned Insidious ignorance Once again the apologists for the sys tem resort to rhetorical cant and person al smear tactics rather than addressing the issues (Jerry Peyton's letter April 28). In the first place, Mr Peyton, the Unit ed States is not a democracy, it’s a republic In the second place, there is only so much room at the top. What happens to all those millions of honest, determined, hard-working people for whom there is no room? In the third place, I have all the ac quaintance with suffering that anyone ought to need to render him/her com passionate to the sufferings of others. That is one of the reasons I am a socialist. No one should be condemned to a life sentence in the shit and/or forced to claw his/her way to the top over the lives of others. In the fourth place, while it is true that theory and data uninformed by exper ience are only more insidious forms of idealism (in the philosophical, not the popular sense of the word), it is equally true that subjective experience unaug mented by objective data and unenlightened by theory is only a more insidious form of ignorance. Cathl Beavers Sophomore, anthropology Bad example The Oregon Daily Emerald has been following the bad example of the Eugene Register-Guard in speaking of “a doc torate degree in computer science .” First, the phrase is ungrammatical, since “doctorate” is a noun and should not be used to modify another noun as if it were an adjective Second, it is redundant, inasmuch as the word “doctorate” means a doctoral degree. Let’s set a good example for the folks downtown, especially in regard to the fine points of our own academic terminology. Lawrence N. Crumb Assistant professor, library 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 Monday, May 4, 1981
