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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1990)
-Editorial King holiday needs ASUO involvement It seems every year the Dr. Martin Luther King Cel ebration grows larger, with more groups taking part in the festivities. Unfortunately, involvement from campus groups and the ASUO has not kept pace. This seems out of sync with a campus that is constantly celebrating an awareness week for some noble cause. While we are struggling to create awareness of hu man and global conditions, it is crucial to remember the efforts of those who initiated the fight. True leaders are hard to find these days. Wo live in a world of distractions designed to fill our time and our minds. With the exception of money, there is little incentive for people to step into leadership roles. Rec ognition is rare for people who reach beyond their own lives to try to create positive social change. Dr King's life is a beautiful example of servitude to humankind. It is distressing that more of the ‘so cially conscious" student groups on campus do not find the King Celebration worth investing their time and money. Both the Black Student Union and the campus YMCA are sponsoring events during the celebration, which is commendable, to be sure But unfortunately, they are the only University groups sponsoring events on the celebration calendar. On the other hand, the Associated Students of Lane Community College are sponsoring many events on the celebration calendar. This year marks the third year of the "Dream Lives" celebration at the Hull Cen ter. The event, sponsored primarily by the ASLCC, is free to the public and has practically filled the Mult ev cry year. Keynote speakers have included Ralph Alxir nuthy, and Martin Luther King III. Yolanda King will be speaking tonight. This event and others are spon sored by the ASLCC. which has a much smaller budget than the ASUO. Eugene and Springfield have developed extensive tributes to Dr. King. People from all parts of the com munity are involved in honoring his memory: high school students, churches, temples, etc. Why then is the University so uninvolved? We are an important part of this community — eco nomically. socially and politically. It is therefore im portant that we take part in community events such as this one. Inside the EMU lobby is a famous quote from Dr. King. Perhaps the ASUO should consider the impor tance of this holiday to the students, and in the future pay him the respect he deserves, instead of just lip ser vice. THE NEXT WALL TO PALL <g iff Students should receive King holiday While today's hirthdax of Martin I.other King |r goes unmarked h\ the \S('() (see above editorial), so will it he just another da\ of i lasses for I 'niversitx students l Diversity administrators will have the day ofl and I hiiversit\ offices will he i losed, of i nurse, as always happens oil each of the 10 federalh recognized holidays Students get only six of those 10 davs off (New Year's I >av. Memorial Oav Independence Day. l,a hor Dav, Thanksgiving and Christmas), mostl\ because time taken oil to celebrate outdated holidays such .is Columbus l)av. President's Day or Veterans' I)a\ is disrup tive to precious classroom time in short aca demic quarters We re< ogm/e this, and so we'll continue grumblinglv to attend classes on those days while the rest of the nation takes time out Hut the advent of Martin Luther King |r. Day is one that should, quite literally, give lls pause. Dr King was, and still is. a figure of enormous inspiration and importance to a great mam students and people on this cam pus. It there is a11\ modern figure who de serves <i dav of remembrance. it is surelv that groat man. King is more than some explorer with .1 dubious ( laim of being the first to discover Amerii a The rest of the nation is coming to a halt to honor him even the hyperactive New York Stock Kxchange is planning a mo ment ot silence Shouldn’t we do the same? In future years, we admonish the IJni versity to give students their king's Birthda\ holiday Because king speaks to this genera tion ot students far more than the struggles ot l‘)20s labor movements or postwar cele brations, it is our belief that any king holi day would become more than the three-dav party weekends Labor Day and Memorial 1 lav have become. A king's Day without classes would al low the ASUO and students greater room to participate in events such as the city’s king Celebration The time spent participating in that event, and in following king’s dream of racial equality, would be as useful to stu dents as any spent in the classroom. Letters Nonpersons Imagini' with ini', it vmi w ill. Ilial »f .ire living in tl"' Iasi century Thu Supreme Oourt li.is |usl dec lareil that til.it ks (annul he considered "per suns'1 tor legal purposes You argue that this is wrong lil.it ks are people, not am mats Proponents of slaverv londemn vou as ,i meddler No one is Ion mg you to own slaves What 1 do on m\ land with my propertv is im busi ness." Id s move forward now to the hegmmng ol this i entuiA A neighbor has been severeh beaten h\ her husband You summon the polite The court upholds his "right" to main tain order in his home Ontsid eis have no business interfering in the private affairs ol this fartiih Sound familiar? Shouldn’t you have been sat isfied simply not to ow n slaves vourself ? ()r not to beat up vour own wife? Shouldn’t vou have left others to make their own choices, without seeking to "impose your personal morali ty on them?" The answers are obvious Page 2 The fat t tlt.it these prai tii i", are legal and socially accepted does not matter; human beings were mistreated and denied pratet lion and justii e It would have been wrong not to defend them The term "proa hou c" on plies that .1 legitimate < hou e is there to he made This simply is not so ( dinosing to abort 11\ ing i hildren is no more a moral option than was owning slaves or heating women We do not gel to choose whether abortion is moral; onl> whether we will respond to this issue (anil these voting lives) with integrity and compassion William Moore • Start, music Not thankful (direful reading of 77ie Ke g/slerf •u.inl '.s Thanksgiving Day editorial page dost ribing President Lincoln’s prm lama lion establishing Thanksgiving as ,i national holidav (IHb.t) leaves one less than thankful for its promotion of irrational theist i oncepls Then existing "Reasons of State" rather than personal the isl convic tion die tilted Alira ham l ine oln's invoi ation oi an inexistnnt "(»od.” using reli gious strut.igi'iu to bind the wounds of .1 (.nil War while providing balm the South ( uuld and did use to assuage its guilty ions, ieui e ill defeat I'o suggest otherw ise is to be lieve I inr oln a lawyer and master of rhetoric tailed to tin derstand that the Hible i learly unei|uivoi abK i ondoned sla\ ery Southerners (like the Uriel's of South Africa) turned to l.eviti i us z < 44 4(> m The iuigiisn Hi hie King lames Version to liiul psvi bologii al justification from "God" for enslaving liu mans from whence the "Hi ble Hell " Readers must e\um me tile Hible used between Hi 1 1 lH7f» to gain that clear III) derstanding Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you. of them shall ye buy. and of their families that are with you. which they begat in your land: and they shall be vour possession And ye shall lake them as an inheritance for your children after you. to in herit them for a possession, they shall lie your bond-men forever Doth thy bond-men. and thy bond-maids, which thou shall have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ve Inn bond men and bond-maids " (The Knglish Bible king James V ersion. I.evitic us L'"> 44-4(0 Modern Bible revisions make it difTk ult or impossible to es tablish the many i ontradii lions and inconsistencies ot the "in errant Bible" that led main ot our Founding Fathers to rejec t the anthropomorphic "God" of scripture Bert Tryba Fugene On sucking Lately I have noticed a dis turbing trend, not only among the c ontributors to this column, but among my own friends and acquaintances as well It has to do with the increasingly popu lar expression. "You suc k I have always found the ori gins of words fascinating. I have discovered that many common expressions are hold overs from old racist or other bigoted phrases I know that main people who still use such expressions are only doing so out ol ignorance, not bigotry but it is important that you know how uncomfortable (and unsafe) you make others feel w hen you use such language Now what do you suppose the origins .ire of the phrase. "N on suck".’’ (,'ould it be some tiling like this "You suck (and are therelore a disgusting tag got)." Whether you intend it that way or not. many gay people out there do not like the iuipli ( ations ol this language You see. main ol us do suck (literally), and We think tb.it sucking is a good and fine thing, furthermore, there are plenty of non-gay people who suck, and I'll bet you don't de value them, do you? I would maintain that using the verb "to suck" is a negative context, is probably homo phobic. and certainly offensive to many If you care about hu man rights at all. please try to jettison this bit of bigotry from your vocabulary. Tim Hughes Student Monday. January 15, 1990
