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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 8, 1981)
sally hodgkinson even ediors get the blues Quotes are the spice of a story. Those select ed words sandwiched between “. . . and . . . ” are supposed to color a story, bringing technicolor to the black-and-white pages of drab newsprint. A sampling of spicy, colorful, crazy and oth erwise humorous quotes: “Would you like to run a grocery with the Black Panthers storming down the street?” asks Bob Hayes, owner of a campus gorcery store that weathered the ’60s. “How can you sell tuna fish when you’ve got a guy in the store with a machine gun and pistol hanging across his back?” “If they’ve promised you the world, get it in writing,” suggests Josh Marquis, local consumer protection expert. “Talking about music is like singing about football,” says Jackson Browne. On the Reagan administration: “I have rarely seen such a collection of cheerless, drab and intellectually absurd people,” says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. And Ted Kennedy on Ronald Reagan: “He cannot run with his foot stuck squarely in his mouth.” And the crazies’ quotes: “If you refuse to grow while you are here, you will get a re-run,” says Laeh Garfield, reincarna tion and past lives specialist. "I want to have a telephone I can call up a dolphin on — Diaf-a-Dolphin,” says porpoise and isolation tank researcher John Lilly. And a down-home quote from author Jim Hightower: “You can put earrings on a hog, but you can’t hide its ugliness.” The say-it-straight quotes: “Many reporters can’t dig their way out of a paper bag," says local investigative reporter Jerry Uhrhammer. English Prof. Glenn Love’s view of term paper peddlers is simple: “They’re the scum of the earth.” “I didn't think University money was in volved,” says Ron Billingslea, a former assistant coach recently aquitted of theft chages. “Maybe I was a fool.” Yeah. And governor press aide Denny Miles on student protests and petitions: ‘‘You could probably get 200 signatures on a petition to make the sun go down.” The it-isn’t-easy-to-be-an-administrator quotes: “With Texas money and our taste, we’d be the best University in the West,” says Univeristy Pres. Paul Olum. “Students are not the end-all of the Universi ty,” says former University Pres. William Boyd. “Knowledge is the end-all. If all the students went away, the University would still be vital to society.” From Boyd again, “Universities, when they’re properly going about their business, are apt to look subversive.” Tactless Quote of the Year: Higher education board member Edith Green says the $35 difference between a 10 percent tuition increase and a 15 percent increase won’t make much difference to students. Quipped Green, four days after John Lennon’s death, “students may have to buy a few less Lennon albums.” In the words of Olum: “It’s easy to sneer.” vours Correction A typing error was made in a letter in the May 5 Emerald from Beth and Daniel Danforth. The word "unhappy” was inadvertantly typed for "happy." The opening paragraph of the letter should have read: "When we read that the IFC was cutting back subsidies given to the limited elitist campus-centered childcare, and instead spreading that money around to other student parents, we were very happy. Even in the dark era of Ronald Reagan, there are glimmerings of hope ” Bum rap I feel compelled to respond to the letter that requested the expulsion of tran sients from the EMU TV room. The auth or, in addition to insensitivity, also revealed a gross lack of knowledge con cerning transients, making it necessary for me to balance this narrow and in doctrinated stereotype with a more realistic view. There are many reasons why people become transients: getting a piece of the road before settling down, searching for a meaning in life, and problems in their heads which prevent them from func tioning within the prescribed guidelines of society are among the major causes of transient behavior. These people must not be cast out like a pile of garbage, for they are as human as the rest of us and in equal need of consideration and under standing. The widely held belief that transients are "lazy bums" and/or criminals is based on a very small percentage of those who actually belong to these ca tegories and is no more accurate than the labels, "black hoodlum," "cheap Jew" and "hippie pervert," which serve to dilute social consciousness and keep our various cultures at odds with one another. This issue means a lot to me, for I experienced life as a transient for five years and was often the victim of these unfair atitudes. I knew I had something to offer society and that I was doing what I needed to do for my own very good reasons, but is was difficult to overcome indoctrinated prejudices from my low position on the social totem pole In the last four years, due to a combination of my own efforts and the understanding of some wonderful people, I have been slowly building a healthy life for myself in the Eugene community This can happen to other transients as well, but the per 'There was a Tims when anting made SlVENI THE CHANCE, ULD X — BUT | ALWANS KNEW "THAT, CWN GAME.' centage of those who make the change will, to some extent, be a mirror of the attitudes with which society confronts them. Let’s think about these things. Percy Hilo Freshman, CSPA Rave review? Referring to the theater review (April 30), I must congratulate the drama critic, C. Hanson. Her outline of the plot was both thorough and complete It is plea sant to see such a thorough job By the way, when is she going to start reviewing books? I have been wondering about the endings of some new releases. Oliver Neibel Senior, finance & psychology Shelley Smith Senior, psychology Not so (Cre)swell Your reference to Creswell as a "friendly city" in the May 1 issue of the Emerald surprised me. Not that Creswell is unfriendly; I don't know the town. I'm merely somewhat surprised that one too chic to frequent one of Creswell's three restaurants would bother to go there As a commuting resident of Marcola, an unincorporated logging town without restaurants, I’ve heard snide remarks and seen blank looks when I tell people where I’m from. I don't mind the curiosity; being raised in a small town is becoming a rarer experience. But I resent being patronized as if I just crawled out of a Georgia-Pacific log The writers among you will comment upon my lack of appreciation for style. I have heard in my journalism classes that the type of snottiness you displayed May 1 passed for “new journalism" in the 1960s. But your reporter had neither the style of a Joan Didion nor the invention of a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. with which to de scribe Creswell. To flaunt your superior upbringing by reducing a group of hard-working people to “millworkers guzzling coffee" only shows me how little you have to flaunt. As my southern forebears would have said, "Honey, that’s tacky.” It’s certainly less classy than Dairy Queen. What makes it particularly ironic is that your reporter would receive a prompt hand-spanking if those he or she de scribed in Creswell had been black, Buddhist or homosexual The story would have been "discriminatory." To all too many of us, however, what you did on May 1 doesn’t smack of bigotry. It’s merely cute. Gayla Leopard Senior, journalism Editor’s note: The author of the Creswell article is a former resident of Creswell, a graduate of Creswell High School and a former employee of a Creswell restaurants. Ample amplitude Once again there looms before us the spectre of another “William Folk Fes tival.” I use the sarcasm “spectre” due to having been at the thing last year. Can you dig it? A huge stage replete with giant amplifiers set in the grass behind the EMU, for the performance of dul ciner, banjo and harmonica music, spectators respectfully seated a good 75 feet from the musicians. I mean really! Wouldn’t it be a heck of a lot nicer to have these folkies playing at the same latitude as their listeners, with people sort of fanned out around the unam plified sound? Is this a small point, that technology in the form, I repeat, of an imposing stage and pompous amplifiers, is essential to the best interests of a down-home folk show? You be the judge. Paul L. Rubin Rutgers, ’68
