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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 1982)
Monday, February 22, 1982 Eugene, Oregon Oregon daily Volume 83 Number 107 emerald Marchers stride for world peace They’re 1 link of pentangle bound for UN By Katherine Merrill Ofth» Em»rakt 'When the minds of the people are defiled, so is the land, when their minds are pure, so is the land " Four monks and eight other World Peace marchers — who stopped in Eugene on Friday and Saturday — have put shoe leather on this maxim, walking the land to change people's minds about the arms race The monks left San Diego on Jan 1 and the others joined them along the way They hope to reach the Trident nuclear plant near Seattle by March 1 in order to attend a peace pagoda and participate in Nuclear Free Pacific week (March 1-7) Next they proceed to Montreal before arriving in New York Photo by Brian Bubak The marchers included four monks of a small sect called Nipponzan Myohoji, founded in 191/ by Nichidatsu Fujli. Photo by David Corey World peace marchers on their way from San Diego to New York passed through Eugene Friday enlisting support for nuclear disarmament. June 7 to support the United Nation's Second Special Session on Disar mament. "Today, without stopping the danger of nuclear annihilation, we human be ings can not have security. In order to stop this mass murder, we have to gather huge voices of all people in the world,'' said the Rev Hiromitsu Kizu, one of the monks on the trip The marchers who visited Eugene are one of five links in the World Peace March. The groups are marching from various points across the country to the special session. Along the way, they’re collecting petition signatures supporting the session and an end to the arms race. Marchers do drive part of the distance, but average 10-15 miles of walking per day NON-ALIGNED AND THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES called for the special ses sion The group hopes the June session will result in a program of complete dis armament, with deadlines for each step. The monks belong to a small sect called Nipponzan Myohoji, founded in 1917 by Nichidatsu Fujii The religion involves walking daily while chanting and beating drums to call attention to militar ism' and the "insanity of the nuclear age." Kizu has walked in Europe and Africa for his cause, in addition to hikes in Japan each year "As long as my life lasts, I'll keep walking,” he said. The sect does not look for inner peace as much as world peace; they work for peace in the world by walking with people, they said. "We do not stay in temples because our temple is everywhere. Wherever we are, we are in our temple. A house or a highway is our temple. We can be in a temple anywhere, anytime if we keep our practice and faith," said 98-year-old Fujii, the sect's founder The group stops at all places that contribute to the arms race. They hold vigils and pray at military installations, nuclear labs, plants, component man ufacturers and storage facilities. Although they are often given meals or floors to sleep on by churches and other organizations, at times they've had to “backshop" in trash bins behind super markets or fast for awhile. While this group has encountered few major problems, other peace march par ticipants crossing the Midwest are hav ing difficulty finding food and places to stay. The severe winter — with tempera tures dropping as low as 80 degrees below zero — has also hampered the Midwest marchers. “We have to take a risk with our lives in order to solve this problem,” Kizu said. THE JOURNEY is spiritual as well as political. One marcher, Jim McMann, joined the walk sooner than he expected when severe flooding near his home in Santa Cruz, Calif., killed twenty people on Jan. 4. That day, he went with the monks instead of to work. Describing tiimself as apolitical, McMann is taking part in the expedition in order to deepen his spirituality, he said, and because he is concerned with the future of the earth and the effects political "power trips" may have on the planet. McMann claims the earth has energy points, similiar to accupressure points on the body, and he wants to pray at these points. McMann, a sculptor, gathers stones along the way and uses them to create an art project mapping out these points. He will give it as an offering at the peace pagoda near Trident. Cuts may close clinic’s crises program By Marian Green 01 the Emerald White Bird Clinic may receive less than half its present funding for crisis intervention services, says the clinic's director The Lane County Mental Health Ad visory Board has recommended that the county revenue sharing funding portion of White Bird's $60,000 crisis intervention budget be whittled from about $23,000 to about $11,000 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1982, ac cording to board chairer Linda Bolton. The same amount would be shaved from the state Mental Health Division’s portion of the budget, with the remain ing balance coming from private fund ing sources, she says. That cut could pose dire con sequences for the program, says Tod Schneider, clinic director. “There's a good possiblity that it will close our crisis program,'' Schneider says. Instead of offering the wide range of crisis counseling services — 24-hour walk-in and mobile crisis counseling, medical and legal services — White Bird may offer only a “very limited amount of mobile intervention ser vices,” he says "It really limits what you can do," Schneider adds The budget reductions also may require staff reductions or higher fees for White Bird’s related programs, such as its medical clinic The crisis team operates with four supervisors and about 40 volunteers at any one time About 100 volunteers per year go through White Bird's training program, the only program in Oregon licensed by the state Department of Education White bird has not been singled out to take the brunt of funding cuts, Bol ton says “The whole mental health program is going to be cut,” she says. Programs such as alcoholism education and prevention received al most zero funding, she says Schneider complains that the county advisory board isn't responding to the needs of Lane County residents who, because of the poor economy, need the 24-hour general crisis service more than ever "If you call at 2 a m from Springfield, broke and unemployed, we re the only agency that will come out there If you call the county, you’ll get a tape recording," he says. “We deal with any kind of crisis.”
