editorial
South Africa —
a land of pain
During the last four weeks one of the world’s most
repressive governments watched silently as its police force
killed over 60 people during anti-government demonstra
tions and injured hundreds more.
Hospital officials reported that victims were brought in
with skull fractures, dog bites, whip bums, ruptured
spleens, and gunshot wounds. The place was South Africa.
The victims were black miners and students.
Tensions came to a boiling point again in South Africa
in August when protesters took to the streets over a new con
stitutional law that allows Indians and“Coloureds” political
power in the government, but denies such power to blacks.
Police responded to rock-throwing protesters with guns,
whips, clubs, tear gas, and attack-dogs.
The protests spread quickly and led to the largest black
uprising in South Africa since the Soweto riots of 1976.
Nearly 40,000 black miners staged an illegal strike, deman
ding the right to unionize. Over 100,000 students boycotted
classes and fought with security forces in the streets.
If these incidents had occurred in the Soviet Union or
Poland {such as when Solidarity dock workers confronted
police in Gdansk), United States politicians would be
screaming about police brutality and government-sponsored
oppression. But South Africa is not Poland and is not com
munist. Instead of criticism, the Reagan administration has
been silent.
Yet, in South Africa 22 million blacks don’t have the
right to vote because of the color of their skin. They are not
citizens in the land of their birth. They are forced to carry
identification passbooks wherever they go, and they are sub
ject to arrest without reason and can be jailed without triaV
Black South Africans have also been subjected to one of
the largest mass removals of people in peace-time. Millions
have been evicted from “white only” areas and resettled in
to black homelands called “Bantustans,” where unemploy
ment and disease are rampant.
At the end of August of this year, South African security
forces detained 572 people, more than the total for all of
1983. That figure does not include the 600 political de
tainees taken into custody during the last three weeks. This
is all part of apartheid, a system of repression, exploitation
and separation of peoples based on their race.
Reagan has not been totally silent on the subject of
South Africa during his presidency. He praised South
Africa’s leaders for striving toward democracy. He called
South Africa one of America’s greatest allies and friends in
the struggle against the evils of communism. He invited
South African Prime Minister “Pik” Botha to the White
House for “constructive talks.”
Americans hear a lot from Reagan about the “op
pressive” Sandinistas, the “evil” Russians, and the
“dangerous” Cubans. But during the past four weeks, when
hundreds of people protesting for freedom and equality in
South Africa were beaten and shot by government forces,
Reagan remained silent.
It is a terrible kind of silence, for as the blood of black
Africans struggling for freedom flows in the streets of Johan
nesburg, Reagan’s America looks the other way.
Wrap it up!
Walking by the science
building yesterday, I was struck
by how strange a building looks
wrapped in blue plastic. I also
realized that it looks a lot better
all wrapped up.
Without the plastic wrap, the
building is very conventioal in
appearance, except that in front
of all the outer windows there
are hideous giant asbestos
covered “X’s.”
The building is currently
wrapped in plastic to remove all
the asbestos from the X-shaped
supports. I think that instead of
removing just the asbestos, they
should also remove the “X’s”,
or just leave the building
wrapped.
Better yet, we can claim it as a
work by the obscure self
proclaimed artist who simply
calls himself “Cristo!” He’s the
one who has wrapped coast
lines, valleys, and islands in
plastic and other “artistic”
materials and made money do
ing it. The idea of keeping the
science building under wraps
and making money at it seems
very appealing.
Gregg Davis
Eugene
Protest moans
Re: Vincent Stickler’s diatribe
“Reagan must go” (ODE, Oct.
3rd), I would point out that Mr.
Stickler shows how little he has
been keeping up on politics
lately when he makes his wild
accusations against our
president.
First, Reagan has not, as
Stickler claimed, been avoiding
the issues. Actually, during the
last four years, his outspoken
views on various issues have
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letters
been the catalyst for the ex
cessive ranting and raving
we’ve been hearing from the left
— who are usually just 60’s
holdovers with nothing better to
do than protest, moan, and
groan about Reagan.
Reagan sleazy? Hey wait a
minute! It’s the Democrats now
supporting the registering of
convicts in prison. They’re
counting on their vote. Also,
I’ve been to a couple of Mondale
speeches (one during the con
vention in San Francisco) and
they only let their staunch sup
porters get near their beloved
liberal saviors.
I’ve also been to a couple of
Reagan events (one here on
campus in 1980) where hecklers
made it near impossible to hear
the speaker. It should also be
noted that Reagan has con
demned heckling at Mondale
rallies no matter how much
Mondale deserves it.
Michael Cross
Political science
Real fact?
Oh com’on Gerry Rempel.
Anyone presenting Reagan as
being against human rights
should look at the Carter/Mon
dale record and see how
hypocritical that liberal ad
ministration really was.
Carter and Mondale claimed
to be champions of human
rights, but generally ignored the
plight of religious and political
dissidents persecuted for their
beliefs in the Soviet Union. And
what about the enslavement of
some five million persons in
Soviet “Work” camps?
And boy did Jimmy and Fritz
teach the Soviets a lesson for
their genocidal destruction of
innocent men, women, and
chldren in Afghanistan. They
imposed draft registration.
Wow! That sure showed ’em
who’s boss. I’ll bet a couple of
politburo members died from
laughing themselves to death.
Carter and Mondale’s ad
ministration didn’t say much
about Marxist madman Pol Pot
when he killed over three
million Cambodians.
Remember — that’s nearly half
the number of Ukrainians killed
by the Soviets since 1933. Pol
Pot did this in only a couple of
years.
Carter and Mondale were very
selective in their morality. They
condemned little anti
communist countries for repres
sion (whether it was sponsored
by the particular government or
not) but never did too much to
get the Marxists mad. This is
true even though at least 95% of
all human rights violations
world-wide occur at the hands
of left-wing death squads either
in power or trying to take
power.
Dan Goulet
Journalism
Compassion
It made me extremely angry
when I discovered the
Democratic National Committee
endorsed a national voter
registration drive for prison
convicts. Obviously the so
called "party of compassion"
cares nothing about crime
victims!
According to articles in
Human Events (5/19/84) and
U.S. News (5/14/84) the
Democrats expect several hun
dred thousand inmates to
register and vote this year. In
Human Events, Lee Wood of the
Committee to Abolish Prison
Slavery — the group organizing
the drive which the DNC has en
dorsed — states, “It is generally
thought that ail incarcerated
persons have lost their right to
vote. . .this assumption is inac
curate." In our state, prisoners
with final felony convictions
still maintain the right to vote.
I guess the Democratic leader
ship hope these inmates will
prefer Mondale over Reagan
because Reagan would appoint
pro-victim judges. Despite
Laura Romano's article "Is this
compassion?’’ (Oct.4) it’s
Reagan who would appoint
judges who are more sym
pathetic to the victim's rights
than the criminal’s treatment.
The criminals know this, the
Democratic power elite know
this and it's no surprise the
DNC endorsed CAPS’s prison
registration drive.
I wish these power hungry
liberal Democrats would crawl
out into the real world and visit
a hospital emergency room fill
ed with rape and assault vic
tims. Better yet, maybe they
could brag about their "com
passion" at a funeral service for
a murder victim.
No way do I want a
Democratic president appoin
ting judges to the courts. In
light of the DNC’s activities I’ll
vent my rage towards their
audacious actions at the polls
pn November 6!
Lori Parkman
Eugene
Friday, October 5.