letters
Vietnam vet
Let me first start out by saying
that I am a Vietnam vet. I think
this needs to be stated in order
to qualify my views.
Ronald Reagan (zap!) and
(puttin’ on the) Fritz Mondale
are both touting the new
patriotism of America, but
neither candidate has even at
tempted to mention any
positive action to return the
2,500 MIA’s from Southeast
Asia. These 2.500 men are our
unsung patriots. They may have
given the ultimate for their
country (death), and yet the
U.S. government has failed to
outline any plan to correct this
deliberate slighi to the men and
women who served their nation
proudly.
This is not the only area of
concern. There are many pro
blems relating to alcohol abuse
and drug abuse among all
veterans of all eras. These are
both physical and
psychological: Where are the
politicians now? What are they
doing to* remedy these pro
blems? They are ritually sweep
ing us‘ under the rug so they do,
not get publicly embarrassed!
Some patriotism!
• • Let this be a. warning to all
voters. When we go to war (and
we will) and the draft is resum
ed (it will be), remember how
our government turned its back
on those w'ho sacrificed their
lives and well-being to preserve
our way of life; and'think how
sweet it will be to rot in a POW
camp while our government
continues to tout patriotism.
Robert Botta .
Graduate, history
Eugene 's poor
All right Eugene. We’re now
a big city. We have our very
own bag lady. She pulls her
belongings around in a cart,
spending the day trying to get
enough money'to get a place to
stay for the night. Sometimes
she makes it. Other times she is
forced to sleep in an alley
downtown. The police have
taken to running her off. Looks
bad, I guess.
It’s nice that we’re all in
school and happily going about
bettering ourselves. It’s too bad
she can’t have our insight.
We’re all survivors, right?
Those people you see huddled
around fires along the railroad
tracks are losers? They don’t
want to work? This is what Ron
nie would have you believe.
Bull. If you give people work,
they will find a sense of pur
pose. Without jobs they are lost.
You judge a nation by the way it
treats its poor. America, you
came a ways in the 60’s, let’s
not let Reagan drag us back.
Vote for Fritz on Nov. 6.
Dan Suire
History
Poor spelling
The publisher of "Oregon
Commentator” should be more
careful about spelling since the
publication is meant to be cir
culated throughout campus.
Reading through the front
page of its Oct. 22 issue, I spot
ted the following errors:
polititcs; descision; politicain;
critism; corespondent;
disarament.
I do come across a misspelled
w'ord or two occasionally in the
Oregon Daily Emerald, but six
misspellings on one page is cer
tainly too much for anybody to
stomach.
• Oregon tlfaitv Eihfctilif
I hope Commentator would
take more pain to avoid such
mistakes in the future and save
its credibility from jeopardy.
Andrew Ang
Journalism
Yes on 2
I would like to speak in favor
of Measure 2. All newspapers
are running scare stories on
what would happen to the
school system in Oregon if
Measure 2 passes. What will
happen to property taxes if
Measure 2 does not pass? They
will continue to rise at alarming
rates and forclosure will again
increase by 61% in Oregon in
1985. Who can afford increased
property taxes? The wealthy
and upperclasses of our society
can. The middle to lower wage
earners and people with fixed
incomes CANNOT afford higher
taxes. •
School budgets must. make
cuts like' all other agencies.
California’s schopl systems did
not go down the tubes when
they i.nacted their property-tax
relief measure. It set fair and
reasonable . rates and forced
districts to stay On budgets'
rather than continuously in
creasing their budgets every
year. .
• The students of this campus
voted to be very stingy last year
in handing out their money.
They refused to finance an alter
native newspaper and just bare
ly funded this newspaper. How
will, most students-vote with
other peoples’ money? I hope
just as stingily. Please take time
to read Measure 2 for yourself,
and if you are still voting no,
ask yourself- two questions:.
Could you afford a $100 a
month increase ‘ in your ex
penses? Will you work for more
efficient allocation of our taxes?
Carlyne Lynch
Business Major
Right to life
Thanks are due to Karl Mohr
for his insightful letter to the
Emerald on Oct. 18. He con
cluded by asking the, new right
“if a mother doe§ not have the
right to terminate the life of her
child, what gives you the right
to terminate the lives of equally,
innocent people?” (For exam
ple. in Central America).
Perhaps it is due to the fact
that 1 consider myself stranded
between the new right and the
old left that 1 am not able to. see
either of these options as deser
ving of my approval.
For example, even after
travelling extensively in Latin
America and speaking with the
people who are being oppressed
there, 1 am not certain of the
policy alternatives which
would ameliorate the situation.
I am, however, clearly convinc
ed that the taking of innocent
lives in those countries must
cease.
Likewise, on the abortion
issue, 1 have listened to the
rhetoric of both the right-to
lifers and the pro-choicers and
listened to their fine-line
distinctions between embryos
and babies. Each time 1 do, I
find myself less certain of my
position on the issue than 1 was
when ignorant of the facts. It is
only when 1 consider the very
nature of the act that I realize
something must be done.
Though Mr. Mohr appears to
take issue with those of us who
are attempting to live as Chris
tians, he seems to have a firm
grasp of the basic tenets to
which we would retreat when
bewildered by the difficult
questions which confront us in
this complicated world. Life is
certainly too precious a gift to
be viewed in the shadowy light
of party platforms and socio
economic doctrines. It is only
through a love which is more
concerned with others than self
that we can transcend such bar
riers to true compassion.
Rick Moore
Eugene
The real issue
Robert Coles, Harvard
psychologist and freeze-nik,
recently disclosed (reluctantly)
his findings that only the
children of the liberal and af-.
fluent are much concerned
about nuclear war. This conclu
sion upsets many who,.in their'
zeal to make nukes the only sub
ject of controversy, regularly
ascribe feelings of near-hysteria
over imminent annihilation to
all kids.
This disclosure of a limited
interest in nukes among the
young can remind . us * that
assuredly, there is vastly more
to concern us all. In fact, those
■ who insist on addressing only
such excesses of- power rein
force the lie that everything else
is basically fine.
While the model-citizen
peace activists weakly imitate
what had become — by the late
1960’s — boring and impotent
protest rituals and polite
“dialogue” with cops and
Marines (becoming livid when
anyone acts a bit impolitely
toward these friends of theirs),
“dissidence” gets defined in
just this narrow sense. The
deeper “cause,” of course, is
the fact that daily life is a scan
dal of generalized depression
and strangulation.
In this barren set-up, wherein
human activity is utterly col
onized by the imperatives of
working and buying, “issues”
deflect anger from the real
issue: the way we live — or
don’t live. .
John Zerzan
Eugene
Bonzocrats
I don’t presume to speak for
Dr. Brettauer, but 1 can’t ignore
the fishy effluvium emanating
from Ron Munion’s "Red Her
ring” (ODE 10-19-84). When he
accused Dr. Brettauer of
avoiding the issue, he took the
fish out of my mouth. Red her
ring indeed!
What could be more of a red
herring than this brouhaha over
a little guerrilla theatre? The
Marines seem to have taken it
well enough. If any “interested
students” were deterred by a
few people putting their bodies
where their minds are, I can’t
imagine them making it as
Marines. As for the idea that
“the protestors lost any
legitimate rights that they once
held,” the chilling implications
need not be elucidated.
Enough on this non-issue. I
was disappointed that Munion
chose to address only one of Dr.
Brettauer’s statements, the
question "whether the youthful
Reagan followers at least have
brains.” Ignoring the primary'
point and picking at a weak link
in phraseology is not vigorous
argumentation. Why not tackle
the deeper question posed in
the professor's next sentence:
whether the Bonzocrats are able
"to make the logical connection
between the militarism
assiduously promoted by
Reagan’s puppet masters and
the futility of their intense
search for the “good life”?
What better way to vindicate
their challenged perspicacity?
When they’ve tuned their
minds on that poser, perhaps
Mr. Munion will be prepared to
expand their worldview beyond
the EMU and to take on the real
issues of the '80’s: military
madness and nuclear
nightmare.
Larry Taylor
Linguistics
Debate talk
The final debate is over and
judgement on how it went can
be made. A look at issues can be
stated also.
President Reagan won, and
little debate on this was ap
parent by both sides (or so- it
seemed from my vantage point).
Why? Mondale appeared ner
vous (especially the first half),
he clearly stated he would not
negotiate with . the Russian
Leadership until he built up
conventional forces so that he
could negotiate a “verifiable
nuclear freeze” in a position of
strength and he DEBATED with
President Reagan on Reagan’s
dream to, somehow, end the
“MADness” (on this point
Mondale advocated reducing
the number of nuclear arms on
both sides which 1 find comical
because it only takes 400
warheads to “destroy” the
world and the world has 65,000
nuclear warheads!!).
1 believe Reagan is on the
right track in this respect and at
least he verbalized this fantasy
that we all must have, whereas
Mondale TOOK issue with
him!!
I have deep respect for Dr.
Helen Caldicott’s theme when
she states she is a “conser
vative;” she vsfants to conserve
the world for future genera
tions: Where 1 disagree with her
is in her choice of leaders for
1984. If Mondale is elected we
will have to wait at least five
more years to get to the table. I
do believe Reagan will get us
talking.
One last point. There were
many debate parties around
town and one of them played a
cassette tape titled “Reagan and
the Prophecy of Armageddon"
after the debaites. The way I see
it, Reagan successfully quelled
this fear and Mondale left peo
ple wondering?
Brian Lewis
Political Science
Animal instinct
I recently conversed with
Captain B.J. Toynbee, the chief
recruiter for the Marines in
Eugene and sometimes in the
EMU building.
Our talk uncovered some
basic philosophical differences
between him and me. I believe
in the ability of humans, using
their conscious intellects, to
communicate, cooperate and
achieve solutions and com
promises to problems. Toynbee
whole-heartedly believes in
“survival of the fittest.” After
further discussion, Toynbee
responded that he admittedly
feels he has more animal in
stinct in him than human
higher consciousness.
And so, for Toynbee, the law
of the jungle makes more sense
than human attempts at
cooperation. He indicated an in
tense connection with the ac
cumulation of material goods
for he and his family, and a
dependence upon these objects
for his well-being.
I related to him my feeling
that peace, true happiness, and
contentment come from
within — from our inner
spirit—and may be independent
of material possessions. He feels
it is necessary to use his
animalistic, survival-of-the
fittest capabilities to defend,
maintain, and increase his
material well-being. The im
plications of this philosophy of
life are quite contrary to a hope
of universal peace, sharing and
cooperation.
Apparently, this is what
military also stands for (as
Toynbee is a representative of
that institution). Unfortunately
our institution of “higher” lear
ning deems it necessary to in
clude them in our educational
process. I hope for the day when
our campus and town do not
allow military recruiters to take
our young people away for
fighting" and dying in rich peo
ple’s conflicts.
Steve Faiman
C Peace Studies
0
Telling it wrong
Here is wtfat candidate Jesse
Jacksorf actually said in his
reacliing-out mission to
Havana: "Long live Cuba. Long
live the United States. Long live
Castro. Long live Martin Luther
King Jr. Long live Che Guevara.
Long 4ve Patrice Lumumba.”
Here is how the rough-and
tumble president, speaking to
university students in Illinois,
chose to misquote Reverend
Jackson: “Long live Cuba, long
live Castro, long live Che
Guevara.”
He’s been trying to rid
himself of his rose-garden, pat
sy image; how would the great
mis-communicator respond to a
class action libel suit? Or were
these just lapses of memory?
Who is it that’s voting for this
clown?
Keith Bowen
Eugene.
Cause for alarm
Returning toOregon after two
years abroad, I am alarmed by
some of the changes that have
taken place in the meantime..
That someone like Page Mc
Callum would begin to cite
Adoif Hitler’s ‘good’ points
(ODE Oct. 22) is a particularly
blatant example which signifies
the sickening development tak
ing place in our society. As for
McCallum’s ‘essential’ VW bus,
I think ‘college life’ would pro
bably be better without it.
The emergence of Neo-Nazi
and other ultra-right groups is
the cause of so much alarm and
worry in the democratic Federal
Republic of Germany of today.
Why aren’t the same perverse
tendencies abhorred here in the
traditional leading democratic
nation of the earth?
The ‘ME syndrome (that is:
my job, my career, my im
mediate surroundings) has
reached a putrid high: Isn’t it
time to think about the others
(that is: the rest of the world
beyond the USA) as well as
ourselves?
When 1 really think about
how the 1980’s will be seen 100
years from now (as Reagan pro
posed in the last debate) then I
am ashamed.
Casey Mathewson
Senior, Architecture
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