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Nuclear freeze
Nuclear freeze. The phrase is the rallying-cry of a
popular movement in the United States that is gaining in
strength. The movement consists of an intriguing cross-sec
tion of people with divergent and oftentimes dramatically
opposite political philosophies. From the political right and
left, from the religions of Judiaism and Christianity, from the
lower to the upper classes, from the Ph.D to the high school
graduate, Americans are loudly calling for a freeze (or virtual
halt) in the production and proliferation of nuclear
armaments worldwide.
The Nuclear freeze movement has only just been
gathering momentum in this country. The nuclear arms
protest movement has been seething in Europe for a number
of years. The difference between the movements in Europe
and the United States is that in Europe the call is for unilateral
disarmament of nuclear weapons deployed by the United
States and the Soviet Union.
Representatives of the European nuclear protest
movement were in Eugene last week disseminating informa
tion. Americans, it seems, are taken aback by the extent of
the protest movement in Europe. In recent months tens of
thousands of protesters have massed in both western and
eastern Europe. What Americans don’t understand is the
impetus behind the European protests
A generation of Europeans have been raised squeezed
between the nuclear weapons of NATO (and U.S. military
bases) and Warsaw Pact countries. Those ever-growing
nuclear arsenals are literally at their backs and in their faces
with the possibility for total annihilation all too real. Amer
icans (except during the tense days of the Cuban missile
crisis) have never had offensive nuclear weapons deployed
as close as the Europeans
Recent deployment by the Soviets of multiple warhead
missiles in eastern Europe, and the planned deployment of
cruise and Persching II missiles by the United States in
western Europe has sparked the resurgence of nuclear arms
protests.
There are those who will always argue the necessity for
nuclear weaponry, if only to succeed a balance of destruc
tive capabilty. That, in this hellish philosophy, ensures a
stalemate between adversaries — each side knowing it risks
almost complete destruction if they were to attempt aggres
sion
This nuclear stand-off has spawned a frigid and frail
“peace” lasting thirty years — so far. But, now, with the
amount of nuclear armaments increasing to incredible levels
of destructive capability — and the economies of nations
being squandered more for arms than for the care and
feeding of its citizens — people are justifiably enraged by the
direction their elected leaders have chosen.
A report issued from the Second Congress of Interna
tional Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War held at
Cambridge University last week estimated that in the event of
nuclear war in Europe at least 150 million people and a
majority of suvivors would die.
These figures were reported by Joseph Rotblat, Polish
born emeritus professor at London University, with the
concurrence of Soviet academician M.A. Leonid Ilyin.
Other conclusions reached at the five-day conference
were that in the event of a nuclear war the atmosphere would
be so contaminated as to be perpetually black in the daytime.
Those not killed in the initial attack, and it's estimated that
close to 146 million would be injured, would be unable to
survive for a long period of time. Death due to starvation
would claim millions as farming the contaminated land would
be impossible to farm.
“It is hardly imaginable how the escalation of such
deadly risks can ever be halted,” said Horst Richter, director
of the institute of Psychosomatic Medicine at Giessen, West
Germany, “unless people can one day release themselves en
masse from this induced paranoia.”
The rational approach of a gradual reduction of nuclear
armaments in Europe is apparently the preferred American
position. However, a member of the group touring the United
States put the Nuclear freeze argument in a nutshell.
“The options are non-violence or non-existence.”
gabriel boehmer
So you want to be a journalist?
The Emerald will be hiring its 1982-83
news staff next month Since working for a
daily newspaper while attending school is
contrary to reason, it is important to deter
mine beforehand if you are really cut out to
be a member of the Fourth Estate
With this in mind, I have prepared the
following questionaire:
1. If asked to describe myself in one
word, I would:
A. Stammer
B. Change the subject
C. Look in a thesaurus.
2. As I child I most liked to pretend I was:
A. Jim Thorpe.
B Florence Nightingale
C. William Randolph Hearst
3. Vega Bold is:
A. A new mid-size Chrysler model.
B A recent atronomioal discovery.
C A typeface with moxy
4 When someone disagrees with me I:
A Break out in hives
B Try to keep an open mind
C Write a letter to the editor.
5 I wouldn't be caught without my:
A Umbrella
B American Express Card
C Associated Press Stylebook
6 Some of my best friends are:
A Undeclared
B Unemployed
C. Unpublished
7 I most enjoy talking:
A Over coffee
B. On the phone.
C Off the record
If you chose letter C in each question
above, watch the Emerald classifieds in May
for announcements of staff selection
letters
Magnet arts
I am extremely concerned
about the possible closure or
relocation of Magnet Arts
alternative school, currently
located in the Condon building
on Agate Street. Magnet Arts is
the only public elementary
school of its kind in the state,
and it is appropriate that this
arts-oriented school has been
established in Eugene, a city
known throughout the North
west for its wealth of artistic and
creative talent.
The Condon building is the
only one in the school district
with wooden dance floors (es
sential for the students and
visiting dance troops), and a full
proscenium stage; and both
teachers and parents have
worked hard for nine years to
supply, build and maintain
equipment appropriate to the
school and its program. Be
cause of the interchange of art.
artists and practicum students,
Magnet Arts enjoys a mutually
beneficial relationship with the
physical and human resources
of the University.
It is essential for all University
persons connected with this
unique school to express their
concern to the 4-J School
Board. It would be a disservice
to the comunity to limit the ef
fectiveness of the Magnet Arts
program by moving it from the
Condon building, the location to
which it is most obviously suit
ed
Valeria Foley
Senior, apeech pathology
Injustice
I wish the professors at the
University would have the sen
sitivity to include women in their
language
Is it too much to ask that our
existence be acknowledged?
We are not "man or mankind."
Such terminology subsumes
our existence
This is supposed to be the
intelligencia, is it not? Why con
tinue this injustice?
Janet Brown
fine erta
staff
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