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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1983)
joan herman Concerned optimist L Just as Anthony Lewis was about to sit down for a campus press conference, he playfully remarks, “There should be an actual Wayne Morse chair — and it would have lots of burrs in it, just like the original one.” Lewis is in top form as he banters casually in front of television cameras, microphones and about a dozen pairs of staring eyes. “I don’t write editorials," Lewis remarks rather tongue in-cheekishly, to a reporter's question. “They are the voice of the newspaper and I don’t want anyone to think I’m that. “I’m my own voice.” With a slight New Yawkish accent and a tendency to speak with his hands, Lewis seems more like Woody Allen than the stereotypical aloof intellectual. After graduating from Har vard in 1948, Lewis began writing for the New York Times. Since then, numerous wars, recessions, presidents and even one impeachment have come and gone. The affable human being sit ting several feet away con trasts with the worried, con scientious citizen Lewis por trays in his columns. Until he is questioned on human rights violations. ‘If I think about what’s hap pened to the world since 1948, if I think about all the people killed in Cambodia and Viet nam — for what reason?” In one year of reporting Lewis probably witnesses more than most people do in a life time. And many would deny the existence of much of what he sees. Often placed near ultra conservative James Kilpatrick in the newspaper, the liberal Lewis seems undaunted in ex posing a sometimes “hypocri tical” U S. government. In a recent column he describes an eyewitness’ ac count of the U S. government supported Guatemala), army brutalizing children: “They pick them up by the feet and smash their heads against a wall. Or they tie ropes around their necks and puil them until they are strangled. We heard of children being thrown into the air and bayoneted,” according to one account. Lewis admits 1983 isn't a time “of tremendous good cheer, at ieast for him.” “I just look at problems and don’t see answers. “Everybody who lived through the Vietnam era is much less optimistic about the U.S. government, about op portunities for peace and progress. “I care a lot about the Mid dle East,” he explains. “I used to think there was a compel ling logic in mutual peace in the Middle East. I believed it had to happen. “I guess I no longer think it’s going to happen because human emotions are so il logical. One has to come to ac cept that. International rela tions don’t always work out for the best.” In a debate about guerilla activities in Nicaragua, Lewis overheard U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick in essence say, "Yah, they’re (Nicaraguan troops) trained by the U.S. It’s a hard world. Why shouldn’t we do that?” “But I remember when it was considered we didn’t do things like that,” Lewis says. If he could tell students one thing, what would it be? Lewis leans his head into his hands and is quiet for half a minute. “I hope in this economic struggle, students will retain a certain idealism about the country, because we rely on them for that. I think it’s quite possible idealism can persist even in times of economic dif ficulty, but I can’t blame students for having to concern themselves with their own economic livelihood.” Thirty-five years and thousands of stories since Lewis’ first day at the New York Times, he tells the atten tive group of journalists to day’s world makes it “harder to be an optimist." Perhaps he is less naive. “I’m going to go on because I’m an optimist by nature. I don’t think I could write col umns if I were a congenital pessimist, because you have to believe things can get bet ter or that you can glancingly nudge them in some direction. “But I'm less wishful than I used to be.” r JUSTICE IN ft SttVAPOR. letters Propaganda In his letter of March 31, 1983, Douglas Green ex presses his concern over “humanitarians.. .who panic when we aid an anti communist country.. .yet are “quiet when we give assistance to the com munists.” He also kindly pro vides us with a choice of reasons as to why this might be so. I would like to submit that, as far as humanitarians go, his third choice is the correct one: They are not well-informed as to “what’s going on in the world." But what might be the reasons behind this ig norance? Could it be due to the fact that citizens of the United States are one of the most propagandized societies in the world — propagandized by their own government? For many years the ad ministrations of this country have loudly proclaimed the aid given to right-wing govern ments as necessary to halt the advancing "tide of communist aggression." This “noble” cause having enjoined in stances of atrocities sup ported by this aid are mini mized or not mentioned at all. in the case of communist governments exactly the reverse has been true. So much time has been spent dwelling upon or invent ing the atrocities perpetrated by these regimes, that when II letters Stolen Of the 12,000 plus students enrolled at this university, 99 percent are here for serious study, with the remaining 1 percent consigned eternally as “yic yacks.” To the latter category I would nominate the “genius” who stole a worthless broken zippered case and a plastic bag containing computer runs for a master’s thesis from a the student Health Center waiting station. The research involved represents over a month's work in compilation, and Is useless to anyone but the owner. Since there was neither money nor pot In the case, the motive for the theft is difficult to fathom. Hopefully, somewhere In that disordered mind there may be yet the shred of decen cy left to induce the offender to turn in the purloined material to the EMU Lost and Found. The case may be kept as a token of my esteem for "honesty" in the modern inter pretation of this value. Thomas Johnston Eugane they are provided with aid by this country (usually for strategic reasons) the ad ministration takes special care not to mention this fact too loudly, if at ail. This is not to say that op pression doesn’t occur under communist governments, nor that there are no persons who blindly support these goverments despite this op pression, just as there are those who blindly support fascism. The true human tiarians despise all forms of oppression whatever labels oppression may try to hide behind. Do not make the mistake, Mr. Douglas, of confusing uninformed humanitarians with communists, as our cur rent right-wing and less-than humanitarian administration would have you do. Hiawatha graduate, music and philosophy Pornography I appreciate the Emerald’s coverage of Wednesday’s workshop on pornography in the April 7 edition ("Women pan pornography"). I would like to clarify some of the statistics and quotations that were i.(accurately reported. Specifically, the Supreme Court s 1973 ruling does not allow individual states to "write their own pornography laws," but rather, allows local communities to ?dop» their own standards of defining por nography based on a threefold test handed down by the Supreme Court. Furthermore, it was not the “Court’s" but the 1970 President's Commis sion on Pornography and Obscenity that supported the "Cartharsis Theory," not the "Caustic Theory," as reported In the Emerald. Statistics about the in Oregon doily . m emerald The Of ton Qaiiy Emerald >a published Monday through fnday *«cept during •■am week and vacations, by I ha Oregon Dally Emerald Publishing Co at the University o< Oregon. Eugene. on. 97403 Tha emerald operates independently oi Ilia University witn of fleas on I he third floor of the Ert> Momonai Union and is a member of me Associated Press Editor Managing Editor N*wi Editor Assistant News Editor Editorial Page Editor Pt>oio Editor Sports Editor Associate Sports Editor Entertainment Editor Night Editor Higher Education Departments and Schools Student Government Features Poetics Student ServiceatCommuniiy Allairs General Slatt Advertising Manager Ctaaeltted Advertising Production Manager ^ — Srntlar IrOAIWtff Harry E slave John Heaiy Marian Green Cort Fernald Joan Nytand Bob Baker Mike Riplinger Paul Danger Jonathan Siegle Dane Ctaussen Sandy Johnstone Frank Shaw Richard Burr Sean Meyers Michele Matassa Aieta Zak Darlene Gore Sally Oltar Victoria Koch Jean Ownbey crease in pornography were also reported inaccurately. I was quoted as saying that “in 1973 there were no porno magazines, but by 1981 there were 265." In actuality, I was citing a study which found that the number of pornographic magazines available at newstands has grown from zero in 1953 to 40 in 1976. Later, I referred to another study which counted 265 dif ferent pornographic maga zines in 1981, many of which cannot be obtained at public newstands. The article also claimed I drew a correlation between rape and pornography and us ed a "recent" nationwide poll of police chiefs who claimed pornography contributed to violent crime against women. The study was conducted by the Commission on Por nography and Obscenity in the late 1960s, and was cited as an example of data ignored by the Commission in their Majority Report. Furthermore, I, nor the study, drew a correlation be tween pornography and rape; rather, the study revealed a majority of police chiefs believe pornography con tributes to violence against women. Another Emerald statement claimed that a study found "soft core” pornography readers to be less compas sionate toward rape victims. The study concerned por nographic films, and certainly does not include all views, or “readers," as the Emerald coverage implied. It was also reported that I said por nography can serve educa tional purpose in art, science, etc. In actuality, sexually ex plicit material, not por nography, has its value in education, art, science, and literature. Finally, total elimination of all pornographic material, in the context as printed by the Emerald, ignores the defini tion of pornography as discussed in the workshop. I did not, nor do I advocate total censorship; rather, I argued that the weight of the evidence I presented warrants legal and social concern and control. The issue of pornography is controversial enough without confusing the data, I urge the Emerald to strive for more ac curate coverage. Rebecca Taylor graduata, rhatoric and communication
