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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1987)
Slick talk In response to Nina Johnson (ODE. Feb. 25); may I take issue with your attitude toward the importance of an education that underlies the purpose of your letter? In that letter you described the producers of the TV series “Amrika” as “...sick, dangerous and uneducated....” I doubt those responsible for a nationally televised mini-series are what we would think of as being uneducated. And what about being “uneducated”? Is there a con nection between being sick and dangerous and being uneducated? Remember that educated minds are capable of being sick and dangerous. Perhaps you feel the producers are uneducated because they aren’t as enlightened about Soviet culture as yourself, in which case “ignorant” might be the word you were looking for. Lest I get carried away with an inherently trivial matter, I would like to pose yet another question. Nina, you call for us to educate ourselves respon sibly. What constitutes a responsible education? Judging from the content of your letter, you believe it in vloves the understanding of other cultures as well as critical analysis of things such as pro paganda. I, too. believe this has merit. Unfortunately, an elitist at titude and the use of slick phrases and hard language discredit you observations. John Rutledge Geography Thought wrong While 1 am not a RheCom ma jor. Mr. Olfert (ODE, Feb. 25), I can certainly recognize irrele vant. straw man and ad hominem arguments, par ticularly when they are all roll ed into one. I think you pro bably knew better, but just couldn’t resist. I E S All Day Every Day Mon.-Fri. 8:30-8:00pm Sat. 10-6pm Print America 519 E. 13th 485-1940 Recycle This Paper Pro-lifers are constantly at tacked for not accepting Socialist economic theories. If I fight to save someone’s life, does it follow that 1 become responsible materially for their sustenance? Must I "guarantee” them a safe and healthy life? These arguments are irrelevant to the abortion question and could just as easily be used to justify infanticide. The abortion argument hinges upon one question. Can social conditions justify the destruction of innocent human life? Olfert has chosen the "quality of life" defense for abortion. The idea that death is preferable to a "low quality" life was very popular in Nazi Germany and is enjoying a resurgence in our society. I would hope everyone would feel uncomfortable with the no tion that one person can somehow judge another life to be not worth living. Olfert contends that social situations "dictate" that un born babies be killed. This bleak view of man’s ability to over come adversity is inconsistent with reality. It is this line of "reasoning" that has brought us to the point of legally sane tioning the killing of handicap ped infants. As to your last presumption. I certainly do not mind being called “anti-choice.” I am pro ud to be fighting to deny women and men the choice to kill their children. You thought wrong. fefT Hoyt Accounting Go to work We the people have heard enough about the credibility of our president. I have never once questioned the performance of President Reagan. He has con sistently shown credibility in his every action. The greatest question that I pose is that of the credibility of the congressmen that challenge our president’s every move. 1 own a small business here and often see people that re mind me of the honorable con gressmen aforementioned that are so insucure with their own actions that they are constantly pointing a finger at someone else. They live by the premise: If everyone is looking at Ronny they won't be looking at me. Since the beginning of the arms deal President Reagan has been more honest than any man that I know. He has gone to great lengths to perform the duties of his job. Meanwhile, congress has allowed the na tional media to manipulate it in to a hype that has crippled the progress of our nation. Our system was established with several checks and balances. 1 do not recall that congress was to do nothing but grandstand any piece of dirty laundry that they could find. 1 am quite satisfied with three separate bodies of government. A fourth would be a typical governmental immoderation. Gentlemen, please get back to work and at least try to ac complish something good for this nation. l.arry Farris Business management Good lesson I suppose there are some peo ple who believe low replace ment birthrates are desirable. Well, that’s not the case. Ac tually, one of the best observa tions I’ve seen on the true value of children comes from a Soviet publication. Victar Perevedentsev, in the December 1984 issue of New Times, stated: “The problems facing the countries with a negative population coefficient remain latent for the time being; what's more, shortcmings often appear as advantages to the uninitiated. The less children, they reason, the less money has to be spent on food, clothing, schooling and other needs.” He continues, “Within two decades, however, a new-born child becomes a worker, a con sumer becomes a producer who promptly pays back all the ex penses involved in his upbring ing (in the broad sense of the word) and gives society much more than it has spent on him. In other words, the child is a profitable investment whereby national wealth accrues in the longrun." (miging form some of the at titudes and trends in today's society, there’s a few things we might actually learn from the Soviets, this is if we value our future more than short-term selfishness. Michael Cross Graduate, political science GRAND OPENING at Franklin Center 2001 FRANKLIN Across from Joe Romania /Food Value PRECisiON "SPECIALISTS IN CUTTING HAIR" Friday, Saturday & Sunday March 6, 7 & 8 ALL HAIRCUTS SPECIAL... (Regular $8) FREE... Product Samples, Pepsi, Balloons, Drawings CONVENIENT HOURS: • ADVANCED TRAINED HAIRSTYLISTS • FREE SELF SERVICE BLOW DRY • NO APPOINTMENTS t 2001 Franklin (Across from Food value) rv»onaay-i-riaay y 10 y Saturday 9 to 7 Sunday 12 to 5 484-3143
