Crowd blocks train
again
By Shannon Kelley
Of the Emerald
VANCOUVER, WASH. — Forty-nine people,
including 10 juveniles and one Eugenean, were
arrested Friday for blocking the White Train,
which they claim carries nuclear warheads.
About 200 people gathered to protest the
train which traveled from the Pantex plant in
Amarillo, Texas, to the Trident submarine base in
Bangor, Wash. The train gets its nickname from
its white coat of paint, designed to deflect heat.
About 40 protesters came from Eugene.
Seven Eugeneans committed civil disobedience
but only one, Guy Burton of Citizen Action for
Lasting Security, was arrested. The protesters
were arraigned Monday.
The protesters’ goal was not to get arrested or
even to stop the train, said Leslie Hunter of
Eugene. Instead, they wanted to draw attention to
the train and its cargo.
The train has been running for 20 years and
has been stopped only twice before — in Montana
last week and in Portland in February. Officials of
the U.S. Department of Energy, which operates
the train, would not disclose the train's contents.
The protesters said they wished to emulate
Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violent principles.
“We want to change peoples’ hearts about
nuclear weapons,'* Hunter told about 30 pro
testers who gathered at the Eugene Growers’
Market at 4:30 a.m. Friday.
The protesters met later in a park a few blocks
from the railroad tracks, where they held hands
and sang while waiting for the train. Members of
the Vancouver police department, Clark County
sheriff’s deputies and Burlington Northern
security officers were ready and waiting.
Lt. Rex Woodard of the Vancouver police
department told the protesters that the police
would do whatever was necessary to see that the
train went through peacefully. “People who want
to express themselves will be able to do so,’’ he
said.
Woodard would not give his opinion of the
action. “If I was here in civilian clothing, I would
be able to tell you,*’ he said.
When the train arrived at 11:30 a.m., several
protesters linked arms and planted themselves on
the tracks while the police watched. People
cheered, cried, sang and hugged each other as the
train stopped. It backed off. then came again.
This time the police began arresting pro
testers, but there was no violence between the
protesters and the police.
“Hold fast, hold tight, everything is going to
be all right,” the protesters chanted as the police
carried them to waiting buses.
“If I can touch somebody's heart who is try
ing to move me (from the tracks), 1 feel like I’m
being totally effective,” said Jane Waite, a Eugene
Photo by Shannon Kelley
Eugenean Guy Burton was arrested Friday as
he protested passage of the White Train.
protester. “I’m not trying to get arrested; I’m try
ing to be effective.”
“The White Train is a symbol of what is
building up in the world,” said University stu
dent Heather Plate, who sat on the tracks but was
not arrested. “I can feel a train that is more
powerful than me I can’t stop alone, but as a
group we can. I think that symbolically that says
we can stop the arms race.”
“I don’t want them to make the nuclear bomb
and stuff and blow up the world,” said 12-year
old Collin Surbert of Vancouver.
Hunter believes that through non-violence,
the protesters achieved their goals.
“I walked the length of the train and just
cried,” she said. “I tried to communicate with
the people in the guard car. Some people waved
and flashed peace signs.
“It was a nice atmosphere of non-violence. 1
was impressed to see the gentleness shown by the
police. Next time I expect them to be on the tracks
with us,” she added.
Protesters fire at death penalty
By Jacquie Long
Of the Emerald
Oregon ballot measures mov
ing to reinstate the death penal
ty came under fire Sunday as
more than 200 people gathered
for an anti-death penalty rally in
Salem’s Willson Park.
November Ballot Measures 6
and 7 will determine whether or
not the death penalty is to be
reinstated in Oregon.
Measure 6, if passed, will ex
empt the death penalty from
constitutional stipulations
against cruel and vindictive
punishment. Measure 7
specifies what crimes are to be
punished by death and makes
the death penalty a jury deci
sion.
“These measures should be a
major concern of all morally
conscious Oregonians,” said
Claudia Burton, a Willamette
University law professor. “We
must defeat them.”
University law school Dean
Derrick Bell, Calvin Henry,
president of the Oregon
Assembly for Black Affairs and
local religious leaders also
spoke at the rally.
The phrase “an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a. tooth” was a
Oreson Dailv Emerald
common theme at the rally,
mentioned by each of the
speakers as an interpretation
taken too literally from the
Bible.
“How can we adapt this to
mean capital punishment is
right?” asked Reverend Donald
Sevetson of Ecumenical
Ministries of Oregon.
“The Bible also mentions
theft and it mentions greed.
Will we impose the death penal
ty for these crimes as well?”
Sevetson said.
Most of the speakers also
claimed that the death penalty
has been applied unevenly in
the past, with many more
minority, uneducated and poor
people being executed than
those who are rich or white.
“Death Row is made up of
black people, not white — of
those too poor to afford counsel,
not those lucky enough to have
money,” Bell said. “It is made
up of those who have always
been discriminated against.”
Bell then quoted Republican
Sen. Mark Hatfield: "Capital
punishment is never used for
those with capital.”
Several speakers also cited
the recent mass slaying in San
Ysidro, Calif., and the car
driven into a crowd at the Los
Angeles Olympics, comparing
these killings to use of the death
penalty. All murders are alike
in the eyes of God, they said.
“We recoil with horror at the
murder at McDonald’s. We
recoil with horror at the car
driven in Los Angeles,” Burton
said. “Yet we feel no guilt at be
ing the ones to tie the rope or in
ject the poison.”
The rally was subdued in
tone, with moments set aside
for prayer and music by a local
church choir. The rally ended
with a march past the state
penitentiary to the steps of the
Oregon state highway building
IV2 miles away. The walk was
timed to coincide with a minute
of silence by the inmates of the
penitentiary across the street.
“Those inside the walls
understand our cause as no
others can,” Sevetson said after
the march. “We walk to show
others the the significance of
our cause, and this is only the
first step in our long journey.”
Similar rallies will be held
throughout the state between
now and November, but no
times have been set yet, he said.
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