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.”