Oregon daily
emerald
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 85, Number 50
Monday, November 14, 1983
1
Organizers pleased
with week of events
If the success of a five-day event can be measured by the hap
piness of its organizers, then the "Week of Education" co-sponsored
by Students for a Nuclear Free Future and the Faculty Arms Control
Group last week was a triumph.
"We achieved what we wanted,” said Terry Teitelbaum, one of
SNuFF’s organizers of the event. "We involved people who other
wise stay away from things political."
The program was designed to inform people about the nuclear
arms race and SNuFF co-organizer Sherri Schultz and Brad Passenger
agree with Teitelbaum.
'We're reaching new people'
— Terry Teitelbaum
Activities and events focused on the psychic numbing effect of
thinking about nuclear war, children's points of view and deploy
ment of nuclear missiles in Europe, as well as moral and religious
views and the history of nuclear weapon construction in the United
States.
"A lot of the complacency people have about the arms race is
because of ignorance,” Teitelbaum said. "The week served to inform
people of what's out there.”
Passenger estimated that at least 1,500 people either witnessed
or participated in the activities while thousands more learned about
it through media coverage.
''We're reaching new people,” he said, comparing this year s
crowd with those of the previous two years.
Schultz said representatives of many other organizations in
town, including several high schools, have approached her about
getting information on the arms race.
Of the many events last week, the two to draw the largest crowds
were a Monday peace parade and a Friday "die-in.”
The two events were designed to attract the attention of
onlookers and the media, Passenger said.
Surrounded by TV cameras and hundreds of student observers,
the parade ended in a half-hour silent "circle for peace." The "die
in" ended with a speaker describing the effects of a nuclear bomb
being detonated in Eugene while dozens of people pretended to die
and hundreds watched and listened in silence.
"The die-in was a metaphor for the whole week," said ASUO
Pres. Mary Hotchkiss.
While dozens of people played dead Friday during the die-in in the EMU courtyard, members of
Coalition for Peace Through Strength staged a protest against the nuclear freeze movement
Arms protesters stage EMU 'die-in'
Several dozen nuclear blast victims pretended to
die in the EMU courtyard Friday, while a speaker an
nounced that 98 percent of the population within a
2.1 mile radius of the University had been killed
instantly.
Meanwhile, five onlookers hoisted a banner that
intimated a real blast could be the result of a nuclear
freeze.
The activities were all part of a week of student
protests against nuclear arms.
In betweert chants of “freeze now, fry later,"
Doug Green of Coalition for Peace Through Strength
and the College Republicans said there was a fun
damental difference in philosophy between the
Coalition and freeze proponents.
Green said he favors a build-down approach. He
said the Soviets can’t be trusted to be faithful to a
mutually agreed upon freeze.
"The genie's out of the bottle," and people have
to learn to live with the technology, Green said.
Many freeze proponents, on the other hand,
view a freeze on nuclear arms research and produc
tion as but the first step in eliminating nuclear
weapons altogether.
Sherri Schultz of SNuFF said her organization
does not take an official stand on a particular solu
tion to the nuclear arms race, but "we all agree we
need some alternatives."
Schultz did rule out one course of action.
"We don't need to keep increasing the
technology," she said.
Schultz said the intent of the "die-in" was not to
promote any specific alternative, but to promote
awareness of the effects of nuclear war.
Likening nuclear weaponry more to a Frankens
tein than a genie, she said, "if we're intelligent
enough to devise space weapons, we're intelligent
enough to control the technology."
Schultz said a nuclear build-down would be
nothing new, that the United States has historically
made a practice of replacing old weapons with new
ones.
Postcards
protest aid
amendment
Members of the ASUO Friday
displayed postcards and a friend
of-the-court brief intended to
show student opposition to the
federal Solomon Amendment.
ASUO Vice President Kevin
Kouns presented the 900 anti
Solomon, s t u d e n t - s i g n ed
postcards to Nancy Dizney from
U S. Rep. Jim Weaver's office, dur
ing a press conference. The
postcards, which also were ad
dressed to Sens. Mark Hatfield
and Bob Packwood, both Oregon
Republicans, show that “students,
for one of the first times in a long
time, are actually doing
something about their opposi
tion," Kouns said.
The Solomon Amendment re
quires students to register with
the Selective Service or certify in
eligibility or exemption from
registration before receiving
federal financial aid.
In addition, University Student
Advocate Bill Kittredge announc
ed the filing of a friend-of-the
court brief supporting conten
tions of six anonymous Minnesota
students who oppose the amend
ment in a case currently before
the Supreme Court.
The Solomon Amendment “is
asking people to certify they have
not committed a crime in order to
get financial aid for which they're
already entitled," Kittredge said.
'Expo' shows
■t MHIv liimiiMIH WT~—MWWWMM
the future of leisure
This youngster appears a little reticent about making friends
with a robot — one of the many symbols of tomorrow's world ex
hibited during 'Future Expo,' held this weekend at the Lane
County Fairgrounds.
Photo by Ken Kromer
By Michele Matassa
Of the Emerald
The future holds more in store
for us than public space-shuttle
rides and widespread computer
use, judging by the exhibits at this
weekend's Future Expo, held at
the Lane County Fairgrounds.
Many of the displays did feature
robots, lasers and computer
models. But a large number of ex
hibits focused on the future of
leisure life.
Advanced stereo systems with
six-foot speakers, sunken
whirlpool baths and video casette
recorders all are in use today, but
their inclusion in the expo seem
ed to point toward expanded use
in the future.
"We tried to mix the high-tech
— the computers and electronics
— with leisure, which also is part
of the future," said Bill Snyder, an
expo coordinator.
"We certainly couldn't include
everyone who is involved in the
county, but we tried to get a
showcase. We broke up the
monotony of trade shows that are
narrow in scope," Snyder said.
About 75 businesses set up
exhibits.
The University chemical physics
institute drew a large crowd with
its laser demonstration, which us
ed the special light to pop a red
balloon inside a white balloon
without popping the white one.
One booth displayed an
"ultralight" aircraft, a lightweight
plane with a five-gallon gasoline
tank. Its engine runs for one hour
on only two gallons of gas.
Snyder and the other expo coor
dinators, )ohn Noell, Robert Fous
and Carl Watkins, hoped to attract
20,000 people to the free event. By
Sunday morning, 12,000 to 15,000
people had wandered through the
exhibits, Snyder estimated.
The “Invent the Future" contest
was Saturday's main attraction.
About 25 grade school classes
from around the county designed
table-top displays depicting the
year 2001. The three displays judg
ed as winners received computer
systems donated by local
business.
Kennedy Middle School's sixth
grade, led by teacher Wally Peter
son, won the grand prize, an Ap
ple disk II computer system
donated by Team Electronics.
About 15 students worked after
school for more than a month
designing the six-tier project,
which tested the possibility of
electric photosynthesis.
The second-place display, built
by Madison Elementary School's
sixth grade, stressed energy sup
ply, featuring solar, tidal and
steam energy generators.
Many of the displays used the
color green, showing a desire to
preserve the environment, said
Alice Carnes, director of the
Willamette Science and
Technology Center. WISTEC
sponsored the contest.
"We're getting a message. The
message is keep it the way it is,
don't trash it. Use technology to
keep the world liveable," Carnes
said.