editorial
U.S. must cut ties
with South Africa
Louis Le Grange, South Africa’s Minister of Law and
Order, has declared that the “state authority will not tolerate
any violence, whatever the reasons, whatever the cir
cumstances.’’ Le Grange’s announcement was made after a
police confrontation with blacks at the Crossroads squatters’
camp outside of Cape Town. The result: 16 blacks killed and
231 wounded when police open-fired with shotguns, rubber
bullets, and tear gas on unarmed demonstrators. Apparent
ly, what Le Grange meant was that the government wouldn’t
tolerate any violence towards whites. Blacks, however, con
tinue to be fair game, as the number of those wounded and
killed at Crossroads indicates.
The Crossroads incident, which started when blacks
protested government plans to remove them from a “white
only area” and relocate them in a “black area,” is just one
example of recent events in South Africa. During the last
two weeks, 15 prominent black anti-apartheid leaders were
arrested and charged with treason, meaning possible execu
tion. Other recent events include: the killing of two women
and the wounding of others when police clashed with
demonstrators protesting rent hikes in Soweto; the arrest of
black miners on strike near Johannesburg; the start of a na
tionwide crackdown on anti-apartheid groups, including
police raids on the offices of the Transvaal Indian Congress,
the Natal Indian Congress, the Federation of South African
Women, and the Media and Research Committee.
Why should United States citizens be concerned with
these events? Because U.S. businesses have $2.3 billion of
investments in South Africa. In the words of Bishop Q|s
mond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, “U.S. cor
porations have benefitted from black misery. They have
benefitted from cheap black labor. They have benefitted
from the whole system of apartheid.”
It’s time for Americans to realize that President Ronald
Reagan’s policy of “constructive engagement” with South
Africa translates into a “destructive engagement” for the
black majority of that country. South African jails are filled
with black political prisoners where, according to Amnesty
International, “Torture is almost routine.” In the streets,
unarmed black protesters are shot, beaten, and killed by
police. Why this violence? Because blacks insist on the right
to vote in the land of their birth, they insist on equal oppor
tunity in the work place, and they insist on equal rights in a
land where the concept of racial superiority rules.
During his weekly radio broadcast, Reagan declared
that it has been America’s tradition to help others
throughout the world in breaking the chains of oppression.
But in South Africa, America is failing in its duty. We con
tinue to be military allies with the only country since Nazi
Germany to officially practice racial supremacy. We are
economic allies with a country that denies 25 million people
the democratic right to vote. Most Americans think with
pride about how our country fought against fascism during
World War 13. But today, we are friends with fascism, we of
ficially embrace it in South Africa, and our president
criticizes those people who have demanded that we ter
minate this friendship.
It is in the hands of the South African people, both black
and white, to decide their future. But it is in our hands to
decide whether or not we will give military and economic
aid to a government which officially denies “that all men are
created equal.”
Fight apartheid! Write your legislators and support the
Oregon divestment bill (HB 2001). Furthermore, join the
boycott of the South African-made film, “The Gods Must Be
Crazy,” soon to be shown at the Bijou theater.
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Those words
It's rather unpleasant
claimin' duplicate names
when one dupe's
bellerin’ out.
Whither y’ bury yer 'ead or
reap from 'is fame
folk'll always be askin'.
"Was it you..
and sore or sweet's perhaps
it be.
y' gotta live wid’ those words
that 'e spoke.
Brion Moore
Music/Norwegian
No proof
John Trever (ODE, Feb. 15)
may be an interesting, con
troversial speaker, but he is a
lousy theologian. The book of
Daniel was not written in 165
B.C. but in the sixth century
B.C.
The testimony of the book
itself, the evidence in Ezekiel,
and the support of Christ all
lend credence to 6th century
authorship. The Aramaic of
Daniel agrees in almost every
particular of orthography,
etymology, and syntax with the
Aramaic of the North Semitic
inscriptions of the 7th, 8th, and
9th century B.C. Daniel’s
vocabulary is similar to other
5th century papyri. It would
have been very unusual for a
writer of the 2nd century B.C. to
have had the intimate
knowledge of Babylonian
history presented in the text.
Actually, there are no proven
historical inaccuracies in the
book. In fact, no one questioned
the historicity until the 17th
century — 2000 years after the
book was written.
i
Oregon doily _ _
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A common reason for rejec
ting Daniel among liberal
theologians is that they deny all
prophecy and miracles. “He
couldn’t have foretold the
future!” Why? “Because I don’t
believe it’s possible.” Just
because one chooses not to
believe something doesn’t
preclude it from being true. The
problem of interpretation of
Daniel’s prophecy does not in
itself invalidate the ge
nuineness of the book unless it
can be demonstrated that the
prophecy is inaccurate. No one
has been able to prove this.
Rev. Jerry MacGregor
Graduate. DEPM
Barbaric?
Oregon now has a death
penalty, but the manner of ex
ecution (lethal injection)
doesn’t go far enough. I have,
let’s say, a modest proposal for
doing away with these inconve
niences to society.
None of this hanging, firing
squad, or beheading stuff is
justifiable because murderers
don’t deserve such quick,
relatively painless compassion.
I’d prefer that we tie these
suckers up and lower them into
tubs of corrosive chemicals. No,
not powerful acid (too quick)
but something that will take ’em
a while to die in.
These chemicals should take
several hours to completely
burn the prisoner’s skin off. But
make sure the tub is deep
enough so that during the
prisoner’s struggle, he’ll ingest
some of the chemicals. This will
insure that his lungs and throat
will receive intensive burns. If,
after a few hours, the subject is
still alive and didn’t die of
shock or toxemia, then pull him
out and leave his burned-up
body exposed. After a while
he’ll die of hypothermia; if not,
throw him into an incinerator or
use some other method to finish
him off.
Cruel you say? Unconstitu
tional? Barbaric? Hardly. The
Supreme Court says it’s
allowable to kill a baby after the
second trimester with a pro
cedure identical to the proposal
I’ve mentioned, except instead
of a tub of acid the baby is burn
ed up with a saline solution
while it’s still in the womb.
If such a practice is good
enough to inflict on an innocent
baby, then it’s good enough to
use on murderers.
Michael Cross
History/Political Science
Nice work?
Ya know. I’m gettin' kinda
tired of all this “women" crap.
I’m the kind of guy who likes
to open doors for women, walk
on the traffic side when cross
ing a one-way intersection,
even send a rose for no apparent
reason. I'm the kind of guy, too,
who will let a woman buy me a
night on the town if that's what
she wants to do. She’ll know
that I'll even the score.
I’m even the kind of guy who
picks up a Playboy magazine
once in a while. And ya know, I
even look at the pictures. I think
women are beautiful, and I’ll
bet that there are a few women
who think men are beautiful.
Big deal.
I’ve heard of a group on cam
pus, Women’s Referral and
Resource Service, with some
Romano chick I think. Until to
day, I half respected some of her
actions. However, Women's
Referral has pushed me too far.
If I had accompanied a
juvenile through the EMU on
Tuesday, I would have been
very, very uncomfortable about
being a University student and
having to explain to a six-year
old girl exactly why the crowd
of people gathered around a
display case flaunting defini
tions of pornography . . .
graphic definitions.
Women’s Referral, I wouldn’t
let you lick the sweat off my feet
if you were dying of thirst.
Think about what you do, don’t
do what you think. You say
drama will get attention. Well,
it got mine. It brought me just
the attention I need to complete
ly disregard anything I see or
hear from Women’s Referral.
Nice work ladies.
Vince Adams
English
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