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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 3, 1990)
Editorial Daily Emerald Violence option to end apartheid Th«* summer’s biggest tour so far came to an end on Saturday .ind il didn't involve the Rolling Stones, the Who. or any other rock group Hut Nelson Mandela packed them in during hi*. 11-day. eight-city visit to solicit money and support for the African National (a ingress President Hush has criticized the ANC leader, who spent 27 years in prison, because of his refusal to de nounce violence in his country as a method of eradicat ing apartheid Hilt Hush didn’t rule out violence when it came to disposing Manual Noriega from Panama Nor did fie. as vice president, question then-President Reagan when IPS. troops were sent to Grenada and then to the Middle Hast in order to solidity I S inter ests. If we read Bush s lips correi fly. they sav that vio lence is alright as long it benefits I !.S. prerogatives. While violence is never a favorable first-choice for conflict resolution, history shows that it is a formida ble response to tending among nations or peoples. The American Revolution was won !>\ armed struggle, not talks at a bargaining table Native Americans did not relinquish their land through generosity, but as a result of armed invasion Treaties and ( barters between na tions. more often than not, come after some form of violent confrontation, not before The United States cannot renounce its history of violent e in achieving its goals Nor can South Africa deny its use of violence to maintain the apartheid sys tem Television has brought U.S. audiences nightly viewings of South African poli( e beating up black pro testers. While negotiations to end the rat ial strife in South Africa continue, the black majority continue to survive without the right to vote or the right to live where it pleases Then1 is only so much talking to he done. Un less talk begets action, pent-up frustration can lead to violence. Therefore, the United States should cease all economic trade with racist South Africa until blacks are afforded full citizenship rights. As one of South Africa’s biggest trading partners, the United States has the economic, political, and so cial clout to demand the abolition of the apartheid svs tem It took the United States almost 400 years to admit that blacks should have the same citizenship rights as whites. As South Africa enters its fifth decade of offi cially-sanctioned racism, hasn't the United States learned anything in its dealings with racial problems? Nelson Mandela was jailed in 1962 in South Africa because he refused to renounce violence as a means to liberate black South Afri< .ins lie was freed earlier this year without disavowing the possibility of using armed struggle to fulfill the prophet v of a truly free South Af rica. Desperate people demand desperate solutions Knotigh people have been killed in South African vio lence Nelson Mandela has expressed the need for in ( teased t' S sain turns to end South Afrit a s repressive practices President Hush read Nelson Mandela’s lips Sever lies u ith apartheid Indore violence escalates beyond control __ Oregon l)uil\ _ « Emerald I’ll K*«\ M<*» Jugrm Oii^on M'-KM The Oregon Daily Emerald <*. published Tuesday and Thursday during the sum met by 1^** O'v ; Da- v £ rruvuUJ Publishing Co at the- University o' Oregon Eu gem?, Oregon Daily publ" abon begins A>th the tail The fmer.ii 1 is upended independently of the University with offices on the th • ; f I tr • t *t M. *i U’’" >d •• a memt;*" ’ th«- A • uli'J P'i-s'. Th«* Emerald is private property The unlawful removal or use of papers is pros -Mutable hy law Editor A •• y\• News Managing Editor •. ; • B i ' Editorial Editor H, : ■ Wr Graphics Editor • Night Editor t' D < Associate Editors Entertainment Hf m f Student Govt Activities Community fW.» • *■ Staff Photographer . Advertising Sales r »“ Production • ‘ ' t *»■ ' '' K * *• * General Staff Advertising Director Assistant to the Publisher Production Manager M Advertising Coordinator Classified Sales P Accounts Receivable Circulation Newsroom Classified Advertising Display Advertising Production Graphic Services ntH'v 346 5511 346 4343 346 3712 346 4381 / t ■'•..'■■t? Air. Forum Homosexuality not a moral issue By Deborah Frisch in tile / rnera/d \lii\ 17 \\ ii Ham Moore explained win lie. •is a Christian is opposed to homosexual its In his < losing stnlument Moore encourages an open discussion ol tile dd terenl ideas and issues in volved in tile i ontroversv .ihout sexual orientation I would like to contribute to this dm ussion h\ addressing the question. How I an w e tell w lift lift something is a moral issue " I would lust like to suggest that we often i onfuse "different with ' wrong” and then ex plain win I don't think sexual oriental ion is a moral issue Commentary People | ms sell HU luded | seem to have diffu lilts making the distinction between Irehas iors that are morels ditterent from conventional ones and those that are s\ rung lor example when ms grandmother who is left hand od ss as ill elemental s si llool tier te.u heis toned her to write ssith her right hand presum aids because it ss as "wrong" to lie It'll handed As a set ond ex ample mans linguists (and other people) used to think that him ks had poorer grammar than svhites until one research er showed that "him k Knglisli' is perlectlx grammatii al it just has a different grammar tli,m ' white hilglish I’here are lots ot examples that make the same point, naniels we liase a teildeni s to assume that (list hei atise some thing is ditterent. it's wrong ()t course some things are dit terent or unconventional are svioilg. tor example < llild abuse so the question is "It something is different how can sse decide it it is wrong’" Sim e questions of right and wrong 1 oil down to questions of mornktx another ssas ol sas ing this is | low i an we de I ide il something is .1 moral is Sill"’" Moon* believes homosexuali l\ is wrung t)i*( iiusi* il "violates tin* design ol out bodies and tlie intent ol our sexuality I assume th.it what he means is that (hid designed our bodies and intended tor sexuality to he used solely lor reproduction t )thei < liristians may disap prove bet ause they believe that the Hible sa\s homosexuality is wrong both ol these views tie fiend on the assumption that morality is delined in terms ol (aid's will It something is dit terent from whal the Hible < on dunes, then it is w rung In ordei to refill, to Moure’s arguments you have to accept his assumption that the Hible is the ultimate authority about moral issues Several people have done this in letters to the I nifmltl. h\ presenting nlterua live interpretations of quotes troll) the Bible I don’t sub scribe to Moore s view of mo rnlitv and so I really don't have am response to his com mentary My i ommenls are ad dressed to those people who are open to the possibility that questions of morality can he ad dressed without making refer elite to '(iod's will" or the Hi hie I would like to suggest a dif terent way of dec iding whether something is a moral issue Mo rnlitv only applies to situations where one s at lions have an et fee t on someone else I am us mg the phrase "someone else" verv broadIv. to inc lude other people animals, or even the environment When a person's ni lions have an ettec t on oth ers then it s a moral question This means that homosexuality isn't the sort of thing that < an he right or wrong because it doesn't attec t other people. Moon* is afraid that it we give up the belief that moralitv is defined in terms of what the* Hible savs. we are lelt with to tal subjectivity and chaos He sav s that it sexual orientation is seen .is ,i matter ol personal taste that doesn't have anything to dr) with right or w rong, then "not onlv tan homosexuality he drained as'normal.' hut so < an am arts, im hiding brutal and destrm live ones I’ll is isn't true at all Since a per son s sexual orientation has no ellei t on other people, it isn’t a moral issue. In contrast, child abuse involves one person im posing his or her will on some one else, and therefore is a moral issue Some of vou mas be think mg Yeah. well. I'll bus ss hat sou're saying but when two men or two women start tour h mg oi holding hands in publn . that does nffet t me it makes me sii k, and so bs sou're deli nitlou. noss it's a moral issue because it's affecting other people " Well, it's hard to knoss where we draw the line between behaviors that alfet t other people, and behaviors that don't The bottom line is. homosex uality is not a moral issue Am nial rescan h and the logging debate are moral issues bet ause llies involve conflii ting inter ests between ilitferenTpeople or animals The i am er patients' interests are in conflict svith the resean h animals' interests What's good for the timber tn dustrs is not necessarily s\ fiat 's good for future generations ot inhabitants of the earth In sum. it a person's behavior doesn't affect anyone else then it isn't a moral issue It doesn’t make sense to ask whether ho mosexualits is right or wrong ()t course, you personally may find it offensive, unappealing, or w hatever That part is a mat ter of personal taste No one i an convince you to like it. but whether vou like it or not. it isn't right or w rong It gist is Deborah Frisch is <in assistant professor of psvt bo/ogi a I the t 'niversitv