Editorial
Climate is right
for weapons ban
Last month President Ronald Reagan lifted an 18-year
moratorium on U.S. production of binary chemical
weapons. This is an unnecessary and dangerous move that
only condones the act of chemical warfare. Instead of pro
ducing more chemicals, Reagan should negotiate a mutual
ban on chemical weapons with the Soviet Union.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is eager to reach such
an agreement. He proposed a ban on the weapons, and to
show good faith, he presented statistics on stockpiled
chemical weapons in the Soviet Union.
The prevailing argument for continued U.S. production
is that the weapons are needed to prevent an attack on
NATO. The U.S. believes the Soviet Union has more
chemical weapons than the United States. In the notification
of the moratorium lift, Reagan said the weapon "is
necessitated by national security interests of the United
States and the interests of other NATO member nations."
The statistics shown by the Soviet Union contradict this
belief. According to the Soviet Union, the two countries
have equal amounts of weapons. But if the U.S. produces
more weapons, the Soviet Union will be forced to follow
suit. A ban would maintain the equality and the mutually
assured destruction theory behind it.
Binary chemical weapons are shells filled with two fair
ly harmless chemicals that become deadly when released
from bombs. The bombs produce a gas that attacks the cen
tral nervous system. One can kill hundreds of people in
minutes.
fn the age of nuclear weapons, these weapons are not
necessary. Neither the United States or the Soviet Union
should perpetuate this warfare.
Education adviser position
has potential for benefits
Gov. Neil Goldschmidt appointed Reed College Presi
dent Paul Bragdon as his education adviser yesterday.
Bragdon, who is planning to retire as president in June, will
assume the post in July. The new advising post can be
beneficial, but it should not come at the expense of state
autonomy.
The State Board of Higher Education and the Chancellor
of Education already are responsible for regulating and
overseeing Oregon’s universities and colleges. The adviser
should not interfere with these positions. Instead, he should
maintain an outside role, updating the governor on issues.
According to Floyd McKay. Gov. Goldschmidt s press
secretary, the post will retain an advisory stance on “all
levels of education." Bragdon will review education in
Oregon and prepare a master plan for Oregon education. He
also will direct the Office of Education Policy and Planning.
McKay said the advisor will not focus on a “specific,
single issue.” Bragdon’s qualifications in higher education
will benefit the universities and colleges. The state board
perhaps should consider him a candidate to fill the
chancellor position.
The adviser position will prove to be an important post.
But it should not be abused. With the proper understanding
of Oregon’s education system. Bragdon and Goldschmidt
can fulfill many of their goals.
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CM YOU BEAR TO WATCH
THE SENSELESS SLAUGHTER
OF All ENTIRE SPECIES ?
Letters
M.U6E warn to
KTEKOE
'MMS WW'
i
Time of crisis
Once again, GTFs are facing
taxation of tuition waivers.
Once again, we also are faced
with a decision-making process
proceeding behind closed
doors.
Despite the fact that legisla
tion to end the sunset clause of
the tuition waiver tax exemp
tion is on the agenda in both
houses of Congress, and despite
the fact that this legislation
almost certainly will pass, the
state board is preparing to stay
in bureaucratic lock-step and
begin withholding taxes on tui
tion waivers from january's
paycheck.
This preparation has been
pursued in a fashion similar to
the Oregon State Board of
Higher Education's firing of
Paul Olum: The voices of those
most effected have been
ignored.
The taxing of tuition waivers
is a matter of dire significance
for most GTFs. Not only will all
of us have our already poverty
level incomes substantially
reduced, but those of us on low
income housing and food pro
grams will lose these means of
survival as tuition waivers
become taxable.
Furthermore, international
GTFs will be especially hard-hit
by having to swallow further tax
liabilities on strictly imaginary
income.
The taxing of tuition waivers
only can mean three things to
this institution: the ruination of
GTF personal lives, the destruc
tion of the reputation of the
University's graduate programs
and its overall educational ex
cellence and the continuation of
the trend toward bureaucracy,
short-sightedness, and anti
democratic decision-making by
those in control of higher
education in Oregon.
The Graduate Teaching
Fellows Federation calls upon
members of the community to
support GTFs in the coming
period of crisis.
Michael Dawson
GTFF President
Write me
My name is Thomas J.
Karnes, and I’m 20 years old. I
am writing this letter in hopes
of corresponding with some of
the students at the University.
I am doing time in a Kentucky
state prison, and by writing this
letter I will help people to
understand what it's really like
to go to prison. Maybe even pre
vent it from happening to so
meone else.
My address is Thomas J.
Karnes, number 99000, K.S.R.
3004, W. Hwy 146, Lagrange.
KY, 40032.
Thomas |. Karnes
Kentucky
Another view
The letter by James Fletcher
Baxter represents the kind of
xenophobic, myopic tradition
in the thinking of right-wing
bigots that never fails to in
furiate me ("Cause and Effect,"
ODE. Jan.8).
Baxter's thesis revolves
around that archetypal New
World anthem of the God
blessed uniqueness of American
freedom, as opposed to bot
tomless wickedness of any other
system, particularity that of the
abhorred Red Menace —
collectivism.
With a complete lack of
cultural relativity, Baxter
unabashedly maintains that un
til every other political system
came to define human nature in
“Jeffersonian terms,” which are
“the only natural, Biblical
terms,” any reforms made in
these systems remain nothing
but deceptive, worthless ploys,
and the people under them con
tinue to live in the dark
nightmare of a freedomless,
Orwellian state.
Conveniently. Baxter ignores
the fact that Western ideas can
hardly be called the only
natural ones; very different
views on the proper balance bet
ween individual and collective
rights have been — and still
continue to be — a central part
of the Oriental ideological
heritage.
Similarly, the Biblical
message concerning individual
freedoms is certainly open to a
variety of different interpreta
tions; one only needs to think of
John Calvin and the doctrine of
predestination, a tenet hardly
compatible with the Jefferso
nian belief in the supremely free
individual.
With all due respect to Bax
ter’s right to express his opi
nions, I would nevertheless like
to suggest that it would serve all
of us well to realize that our
own values are not the only
possible ones; a variety of dif
ferent possibilities exists, and
all value judgments about
qualitative differences among
these possibilities are subjective
opinions, not some natural in
fallible truths.
The British empire came to
realize in time that God, after
all, probably wasn’t British, and
it’s high time for the lunatic fr
inge on the extreme right of the
American political stage to
realize that God certainly is not
an American either.
Pertti Ahonen
History
Wednesday, January 13. 1988