__Oregon Daily_ w
Emerald
Friday, December 9, 1988
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 90, Number 71
_Inside_
• Architecture reviews, Page 4
• PPPM program, Page 4
• Entertainment, Page 7
• Ski Club action, Page 12
Shelter offers an alternative
Homeless mothers find place to
stay at new Opportunity Shelter
By Greg Hough
Emerald Reporter
At H am. Thursday, the new emergency Op
portunity Shelter in Eugene began another fasci
nating day.
Staff checked in at the makeshift office near
the makeshift dining room and makeshift bed
rooms. One could see small, rambunctious chil
dren sporting about, their mothers, armed with
admonitions, bearing down on them.
The shelter opened on schedule the day be
fore Thanksgiving, at the site of the old Opportu
nity Center owned by the Eugene -t ( School Dis
trict. It is the result of a whirlwind effort among
city and county administrators in Lane County,
plus a number of area businesses, to deal with a
recent serious shortage of space for homeless fam
ilies.
The emergency Opportunity Shelter is budg
eted to run through April, with reassessment due
in March, according to Don Kostur of Eugene
Emergency Housing.
Two basketball hoops face each other above
the dining room area, apparently remnants of the
Opportunity Center days. At breakfast time moms
and kids pour themselves bowls of cereal. A pile
of 20 single mattresses rests in one corner of the
room, near a Douglas Fir that's beginning to look
like a Christmas tree. On a nearby table are toys
for the children.
"Which mom dumped the cornflakes here?,"
one mom yells from near the refrigerator and mi
crowave. “That’s gross!”
Some of the kids in the shelter have gone off
to school, and things are relatively quiet at this
moment.
"Dinner's a lot noisier." says one mom.
The building is warm and dry and clean
enough, and a general feeling of goodwill and co
operation seems to pervade. The shelter, accord
ing to director Yaqirn Sliwinski, is "a miracle.”
Hut Sliwinski, who came to the shelter after
working as an advocate counselor for Eugene
Emergency Housing, warns of public complacen
cy toward the shelter.
"Every family here is in crisis,” he said.
Photo by Tim \>fl
Marylou Long and her daughter Arleen have
stayed at the Opportunity Shelter since
Thanksgiving, after a year of moving from
shelter to shelter in various cities.
"The process of becoming homeless does damage
emotionally and physically, especially to the
children. It’s easy to pass by here and think how
great it is that we’ve pulled together to do some
thing about the (homeless) situation. But the
work doesn't end when they come in here; it only
begins.”
Many of the mothers have come with their
kids to the Opportunity Shelter after running
from a shattered domestic situation, according to
shelter resident Marylou Long.
"We're people who’ve been in the same
boat," Long said. "They all know what I’ve been
through and I know what they’ve been through.”
What Long says she's been through is not
Turn to Shelter, Page 11
HEafiSm.'. ..
Wagon Train
Elizabeth Alcott, Ho Boucher. Billy Martin and Genna Shershun set out with their
classmates from the Early Childhood Center to help move the center’s belongings to its
new location.
Photo by James Marks
Cologne ad sparks
protest campaign
By Frale de Guzman
Emerald Associate Editor
"It reappeared last year —
a bottle of Mexicali Musk
Cologne buried for over a
hundred years. And inside,
they found the grinning,
sombrero-ed worm known to
the people of Mexicali as
‘Loco Louie.' The worm
with the mystical power to
drive women crazy.
Some say Loco Louie de
scended from ancient Aztec
gods. Some call him 'Don
Worm,' believing he is the
re-incarnation of the Latin
lover Don Juan.
But all agree that no wom
an on earth can resist Loco
Louie. Or the man who
wears his Mexicali Musk Co
logne. ''
— The Legend of Loco Lou
ie. Mexicali Musk ad
This seemingly innocuous
ad for Mexicali Musk, a new
cologne for men, is gaining
widespread attention and is
the source of a letter writing
campaign.
According to Maria
AnaChristensen, director of
the Chicano/Latino Student
Union (MEChA). the Mexi
cali ad promotes numerous
racial and derogatory stereo
types offensive to women
and members of the Latino
culture.
The ad promotes the mis
conception of the Mexican
male machisimo.
Christensen said. It appears
to state that "Mexican males
are more sexual in some
ways.”
In addition, the ad cam
paign's emphasis on the
powers of a mythical worm
makes it seem like I^atin
men have ties to the occult,
she said.
It prominently displays a
photograph of a white male
nailed to the wall by overly
excited women "unable to
resist the scent of Mexicali
Musk" and also features
Loco Louie, a "grinning
sombrero-ed worm" with
mystical powers.
“It’s racist and stereotypi
cal Christensen said. And
"the references made to the
latino culture is mocking
and derogatory."
Turn to Campaign, Page 11
Photo bv Tim Neff
Student for the Ethical Treatment of Animals members turned
out in force at Johnson Hall to protest animal research at the
university.
Students protest animal research
More than 50 people bearing
placards and signs turned out
Thursday in front of Johnson
Hall for the first in a series of
animal rights protests.
“This is just the beginning,”
Students for the Ethical Treat
ment of Animals (SETA)
Coordinator Brigette Leach
said. "We’re not starting off
very big. but we're hoping it
snowballs.”
The protest stems from the
University’s refusal to answer
allegations about it’s animal re
search program, put forth by
the People for the Ethical Treat
ment of Animals (PETA) to the
National Institute of Health.
According to Leach, SETA is
lobbying for three concessions
from the university. In addition
to getting the University to re
spond to PETA's allegations,
SETA wants a student to be put
on the University’s Institution
al Animal Care and Use Com
mittee, and a primate currently
in the research program to be
released into a sanctuary.
The sanctuary request is in
memory of the macaque mon
key Martha, according to a
SETA release. Martha was
killed, according to SETA, “ ...
at the University of Washington
pursuant to a secret agreement
with the University of Ore
gon.”