editorial
Give your support
to African relief
Hunger in Africa is a topic that Americans have heard a
lot about during the past year. Newspapers and magazines
have carried a succession of stories about the need for food
aid to help relieve famine victims in Africa. On television,
scenes of human misery in places like Ethiopia and Sudan
have become commonplace as aid organizations seek dona
tions, and news stations show footage of refugees searching
for a place to find food.
Faced with such a crisis, many Americans have been
left stunned as they try to comprehend what starvation
means. Many become overwhelmed by what they see and
hear about the victims of starvation. Some people have been
overcome by a sense of helplessness, brought about by the
feeling that nothing can be done for the 10 million people
now facing hunger and starvation in Ethiopia.
But something can be done, and in a small but extreme
ly important way, University students are doing it. Groups
like the International Studies Association, the Foreign
Students Organization, the EMU Cultural Forum, sororities,
fraternities and others have all joined in campus efforts to
. aid famine victims in Africa. We should be proud of these
groups, and of those individuals who have contributed their
time and money to such an important cause. As a Universi
ty, we should continue to do as much as we can to educate
ourselves about the problems of hunger in the world, and to
support famine relief and indigenous efforts at grassroots
development in places like Africa.
One aid organization that deserves all of our support is
Oxfam America. Unlike many government-sponsored aid
organizations, Oxfam supports indigenous programs in
underdeveloped nations aimed at growing more food, ob
taining better health services, and stengthening economic
self-reliance at the grass-roots level. They have especially
focused on the needs of women, many of whom are the
poorest of the world’s poor.
During the current African Relief Week on campus, we
all have a chance to contribute towards Oxfam and their
ongoing efforts to bring assistance to the world’s poor.
When you pass by the Oxfam table in the EMU lobby, give
whatever donation you can afford. Furthermore, learn about
the problem of hunger in Africa and elsewhere by attending
the educational events being held as part of African Relief
Week. On Saturday, there will be a benefit dance at the
W.O.W. Hall, located at West 8th Avenue and Lincoln Street.
Two bands, Shumba and the Balafones, will be there to pro
vide good dancing music, with the proceeds from the event
going towards an important and urgent cause: famine relief
in Africa.
There are many reasons for poverty and hunger in the
world today. Social, political, economic and natural events
all play their part. But we do not live in a world that is fated
to hunger and starvation. On the contrary, with ad
vancements in technology and science made during the past
two centuries, humankind is in a position as never before to
eradicate starvation from the planet. Solutions to the pro
blems of economic distribution and political cooperation
between nations will not come overnight. It will take years
of joint international effort to work through our social dif
ferences for the common good of all people. But technology
has provided humanity with the ability to achieve abun
dance on all levels: food, clothing, housing, medicine etc.
We must now find a way to share this abundance, placing
human need beyond profit motives and political objectives.
A good way to start is by taking the time to learn about the
issue of world hunger, and by supporting African Relief
Week to help those for whom tomorrow may be a day too
late.
Oregon doily
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letters
Strong case
I believe I should elaborate
that an overwhelming case for
the passage of the Community
Right-to-Know Bill was built
during the public testimony,
which the Emerald did not stay
to cover in its story (ODE, Feb.
20). Over 20 different people,
including toxic victims,
citizens of communities with
toxic waste dumps, medical and
health agencies, and groups
such as OSPIRG and Oregon
Fair Share built an alarmingly
strong case in favor of the
passage of this bill.
A few examples: Morris
Sweet, a toxic victim from
Molalla, Oregon developed
lung damage as a result of ex
posure to Pentaclorophenol us
ed to treat lumber where he
worked.
Paul Pather, a railroad worker
in Troutdale developed cancer
of the bladder due to the use of
245-D, 245-T, and diesel oil to
kill blackberry vines forty feet
from the sides of the tracks. The
first two chemicals are the ac
tive ingredients in Agent
Orange, a chemical which in
jured numerous American ser
vicemen during the Vietnam
War.
Finally, Dr. Phillip Levee, a
physician and toxicologist from
Molalla claimed to have
diagnosed some 40-45 cases of
pentaclorophenol poisoning in
the Molalla area alone, a
number which he believes is the
largest in the world. Levee
referred to numerous cases in
which toxic victims were told
by ignorant doctors that their
problem was "psychological”
or that it did not exist at all.
These are but a few of many
cases. It is clear from such
testimony that a Community
Right to Know Bill should be
passed.
Sean Nelson
OSPIRG
Far enough?
The Women’s Referral and
Resource Service obviously
hasn’t pushed you far enough,
Vince Adams (ODE. Feb. 22).
Your knee-jerk response to the
pornography display indicates
that a lot more work, which you
call “women crap,’’ is needed.
While you may have a strong
case against the displaying of
pornography in the EMU lobby,
name calling and attempting to
degrade the work of the WRRS
is hardly the way to get your
point across. I find your
disclosure about reading
Playboy and your argument
about juvenile exposure to por
nography quite interesting. Por
nography is all around us, on
movie advertisements,
billboards, and in magazines.
Those magazines are often
found at very low levels in
grocery stores, drug stores, etc.
Any curious child has ample ac
cess to pornography in our
society. And while the connec
tion between consumption of
pornography and sexual assault
is continually denied, it is
children who often suffer the
brutal consequences of this
connection.
Hiding pom magazines bet
ween the spring and the mat
tress doesn’t change the fact
that pornography has violent
implications, particularly for
women and children. People
are shocked and revolted to see
pornography displayed in the
full light of day, but it is an
aspect of our darker side that
needs exposure. Condemning
the WRRS for exposing what ex
ists only contributes to the con
tinuing unwillingness of socie
ty to deal with this important
issue.
Pat Dixon
Eugene
Clean killing
It strikes me as strange that
when the Marines, the smallest
of the Department of Defense
armed forces, puts up a
recruiting table in the EMU,
everyone of the radical chic per
suasion raises holy hell about it.
But when the Navy trucks in a
big, blue tractor-trailer, plunks
it down beside Friendly Hall,
and keeps churning its motors
to maintain an air-conditioned
and sophisticated recruiting sta
tion, no one bats an eyelash.
Maybe students like the idea
of killing the neat and clean
Navy and Air Force way:
thunder from offshore eight and
sixteen-inch naval guns; the lat
ter which, in a single salvo, can
blast an entire square kilometer
free of the enemy, rice paddies,
desert villages, dogs, cows, and
children. Better yet, witness the
magnificent aria, as Randy
Floyd called it, of an air strike
by Navy Fighter-bombers; their
graceful peregrine dives follow
ed by lovely orange and black
blossoms. Or best of all, watch a
B-52 strip-bombing mission.
Picture the air crews from miles
high, safe, clean, and above all
else so serenely disassociated
from what they do, silently rain
ing thousands of bombs,
eradicating square miles of
earth.
How clean it is, being able to
kill so indiscriminately, miles
away without having to face
your enemy or your actions. But
let's not worry about that.
Those big, bad Marines kill the
old-fashioned, dirty-handed
way, and we just can’t have all
that mess lying about. So let’s
kick those crew cut Prussians
off the campus, right?
Michael Peterson
Graduate
International Studies
Letters Policy
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fair comment on topics of interest to the University
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Letters to the editor must be limited to 250 words, typed,
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