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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 1987)
ANOTHER MOTHER About ISO protesters, primarily test site employees anil their families, lined the road near the t attle crossing. Mother happily spends Mother's Day protesting nuclear testing I didn't hang around home this Mother's Day. waiting for my children to fix me dinner and shower me with flowers and nicely wrapped gifts. This year I did something completely different. I got arrested. Reporter's notebook and photos by Karen Irmsher I’m sure 1 could have found some simpler way to do it right hen* in Eugene. Hut instead. I traveled nearly 1.000 miles to share my first ar Irest with 745 others, more than half of whom were mothers, under the hot sun of the Nevada desert. Four other University women also wen; ar rested: Margan-t Stalnaker. a junior studying political science; l.isa Page, a senior studying sociology: Pat Bryan, a graduate student in linguistics; and Charlotte Richardson, a freshman studying comparative literature. Another University student. Sharon Bosser man. a senior journalism major, attended the demonstration hut was not arrested. Julia Ward Howe, the founder of Mother’s Day. would have Imhmi proud of the 2,500 to 3,500 people, more than 00 |>ercent women by my estimate, who gathered in the sweltering heat 05 miles northwest of I.as Vegas, Nev. And she especially would have been pleased with those of us who crossed the cattle guard or crawled through the barlred wire fence to risk certain arrest. Several of the day’s speakers pointed out that it’s the sort of thing Howe had in mind when she founded Mother’s Day. Her original Mother's Day proclamation, written in 1H70. urged | women to stand together and demand an end to ! all war-making and preparations for war. Were ! she still alive, she’d have been crawling through that barbed wire with us. At least 60 Oregonians, including 15 people from Kugene, were among what organizers believe was the greatest number of protesters to gather, thus far. near the entrance to the Nuclear Test Site. The IJ.S. Department of Energy continues to explode a nuclear device about once every three weeks in underground tunnels inside the site. The United States is clearly the front-runner in this race. Since 1945 our government has ex ploded 837. The Soviets trail with 606. Stalnaker said she found it exhilarating to be there with such a broad range of women. All ages, lifestyles and geographical regions of the United States were well represented, along with a sprinkling of women from other countries. “Women are mothers, and they feel a strong connection with life." she said. Mary Payton, a 54-year-old Salem housewife, had never participated in anything like this before. She asked her husband (yes. ask ed) if she could do anything she wanted to celebrate Mother's Day. After he innocently con sented, he was shocked to find out what she had in mind, she said. That stretch of desert has never before been exposed to such a sea of concentrated female energy, undulating under colorful waves of flower? and ribbon-decorated, broad-brimmed hats. No official figures were available, but from the show of hands, I estimate mothers made up more than 60 percent of the gathering. And at least 10 percent were grandmothers you'd never expect to see in such.a setting. One petite grandmother. Frances Crow. 67. of Northampton. Mass., told me that this was her 21st arrest. Hut she said most of the women she spoke to told her this was their first time. The vast majority of the women I asked also said this was their first. All of the first-timers said they had been thinking about doing it for a long time and that the appropriateness of choos ing Mother's Day to make a strong statement in favor of a nuclear test turn had grown increasing ly appealing the more they thought of it. I was surprised to hear my own thoughts reflected so consistently. The women, most of them in while and pastels, created a striking contrast to the approx imately 50 camouflaged and brown-uniformed sheriff’s deputies and security officers, some of them women, waiting with guns, riot sticks and clusters of white plastic handcuffs on the other side of the fence. A helicopter circled overhead throughout the rally and arrests, and helmeted men in camouflage uniforms waited, ready for action, tucked in among the cactus and sagebrush. In camouflaged vehicles that wen; a cross between dune buggies and jeeps. All the organizers for this event were women, although some men did fill support roles. AII-women groups crossed the line to get arrested first, before any male female groups. Then later, when the mixed groups crossed the line or climbed through the barbed wire, the women in these groups went l>nfon; the men. I was told by organizers that the decision to operate in this way was made to force women to assume leadership roles, something they are often more reluctant than men to do. before anyone crossed the line onto IXJK land, a spokesman for the Nve County Sheriff's Department informed organizers that the buses wouldn't be able to hold all the protesters in the past, those arrested have been bused 60 miles farther from Las Vegas to the tiny town of Beatty for booking and release there. But this time then; were too many, so four buses wen; repeatedly filled and driven two miles into the test site, where 15 deputies in a temporary trailer office issued citations. Then we were reloaded on buses and driven back to near the rally site. alMiut a quarter mile outside the fence As it was. the arrests and processing stretch ed from 11 a m. until after :i p in. Some pro testers recrossed the line and were rearrested several times. Watching the 0 p.m. news coverage of the event from our hotel room at the Colden Spike that night, we were heartened to hear the com mentator comparing the escalating numbers of arrests at the test site to the time period during the Vietnam protests, just before the tide ol public opinion liegan to turn. Only time will tell if the analogy holds true. In our non-violence training on Saturday. APT organizer and one of its founders. Nancy Hale. said. “We have a very rich history of using this kind of action to make the kinds of changes that make us proud of the country we art! today." The arrests from this action were half as many as all the test site arrests in the past to years. People have been getting arrested then! since 1057. As of the end of March, the Nve County sheriffs had made more than 1.571 ar rests, according to an information sheet prepared by the organizers of this action APT. the Nevada Desert Experience, I.oretto Disarmament-Economic Conversion Committee and Women's International league for Peace and Freedom. In fact, the flood of arrests has so overloaded the Nve County court and jail systems that at the •Mid of April the county commissioners voted to discontinue the; prosecution of trespassers. Charge's have boon dropped against the 4:tH ar rested in February and probably will lie dropped. or possibly never even filed, gainst Sunday’s protesters. At the tNittoin of my citation is a place for the "complainant" to sign Nobody signed it All of the people in one affinity group from Portland gave their names as Benjamin hinder, after (he young engineer from Portland recently slain hy the Contras in Nicaragua Their names warn not contested The arresting officers just kept mov ing people through as fast as possible. But I do know I tell strong and alive, smell ing the sagebrush crushed beneath our shoes as my friend Dorothy and I holding hands, sidestepped the clumps of cactus and walked toward our camouflaged arresting officer I have a feeling flowers, gifts and the pro mise of dinner are going to feel like a mighty poor excuse for Mother's Day from now on. Deputies remove a couple who tied themselves together and sal down in the mad to Mm k a hus removing p ml esters. ^ROSES x12k)«*699 fcpwi lap# ***** I Dandelion* Flo*ef$ m i.»'c cim»« •«**»' TAN 10 visits $25 Faal Convenient Retaking Afto'dablv SunShower on campus wiui'vn im unv* »i «—>»» —UQ Bookstore^ You can’t beat our low, low photo prices I Film & Photo Processing . Guwuudeed Lowest Prices Wo’ll match or baa I tha prica ol any local photo coupon. One Day Service In by 4 p.m. — back by NOON tha naxt day (C41 color print Him). Enlargements, Reprints & Slides Qraat aarvlca and prtcaa In your full aarvlca Photo Oapt. "m Your full service Photo Dept. II UO Photo Contest ENTER AND WIN May la National Photo Month t>tr» & KtncjMd M F t 305 JO SAT 10004 00 MA4331 Judiciary committee urges Senate to approve divestment bill By B.|. Thomsen t M I hr tmrrelri SAI.KM A bill that would divest state funds from South Africa and Namibia came one step closer to becoming a reality Tuesday. Legislative issues The bill, I IB 2001. was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee during a work session to the full Senate with a do pass recommendation and a subsequent recommendation to refer the bill to the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Frye, I) Cottage Grove. made the motion to recom mend referral to the budgeting committee. A split vote followed with some com mittee memt>ers reluctant to send the hill to ways and means for fear that it would not make it out of committee before the end of the session Sen. |an Wyers, D-Portland. said he voted for the motion only because he said he knew Frye had gotten assurances from ways and means that the bill would la moved quickly out of that committee. "I know that many of us would be quite upset if the bill is in committee for more than a couple of days." Wyers said. A similar bill was vetoed twu years ago by then-Gov. Vic Atiyeh. Gov. Neil Goldschmidt, however, has promised to sign this legislation if passed by both the House and the Senate. The bill breezed through the House late last month on a vote of 51-1). Steve Nelson. ASUO president, attend ed the work session and afterward ex pressed disappointment that the bill wasn't moved to the Senate without the recommendation to send it to ways and means for consideration. He said he was confident the hill would be passed by the Senate and be signed into law b*!f«tn- the end of the session laite last month the State Board of Higher Education voted unanimously to support divesting higher education funds from South Africa Nelson testified before the House Human Resources Committee in support of the bill lust month. “Students .it the University of Oregon and in the State System of Higher Kduca lion in general have a long history of sup port for divestment," he told the committee. "We find it hard to believe that people who have endowed our educational in stitutions in this stale would want their dollars used to deny the most basic rights to people based on the color of their skin." hu said. Nelson noted further that "as taxpayers in this state, most students... do not want their dollars used to give power to the on ly government in the world where racial separation and discrimination are written into the constitution ami the laws." Thu divestment issue at the University dates (kick to f‘J77, when University students passed two ballot measures seek ing to show disapproval of the policy of apartheid through economic sanctions. The first measure denied companies in volved in South African business ventures tilt! rivhl to recruit on the University cam pus. The second usked that the Slate tioard and the University's development fund divest funds from any corporation involved with South Africa, A 1*178 opinion from the Oregon at torney generul's office said the State Hoard, which already had voted H :t to divest funds from South Africa, could not lega ly do so. r poppi'/ G REEK TAVERNA Real Creek Food Imported Beers. Greek Wines and Daily Specials NOW’ Free Delivery on Campus Call for information 675 East 13th, Eugene CloMxl T ucsilay 343-0846 _ J r l l I I i l l ! With this coupon you can buy a set of GUITAR STRINGS for 1/2 PRICE ( oopua npim 5/JMB lmw! 1. 380 East 40th. Eugene open evenings till 6 Locally onne</ for .10 years I t.. RESUMES Give your resume a professional look, by hav ing it typeset at Letter Perfect Graphics. 400 [ MU. 6H6-5511 10 - 2 Mon-Fri Second Hand Cbthmg NEED CASH? 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