EDITORIAL
Natural world’s life
key to survival
How ironic that America's Environmental Protec
tion Agency administrator finds refusing to sign world
treaties — designed to curb global warming and protect
wildlife and its habitat — a "character-building experi
ence."
Last week’s earth summit brought government offi
cials and environmentalists from 178 countries togeth
er in Brazil to discuss the earth's environmental future.
The huge gup between rich and poor countries was
obvious as representatives -fought ter have their perspec
tive heard. Unfortunately, while many lesser-devel
oped countries spoke up ubout the near-impossibility
of saving the environment when it was all they could
do to food and care for their people, they still seemed
to be striving to catch up to the larger powers that be.
seeing that status as the only one worth achieving.
What they fail to realize is those countries’ bigness
ss what's causing all the problems — the biggest of
fender being the United .States, In order to begin saving
this planet, the plan shouldn't be for everyone to get as
huge, mechanized, industrialized and monoy-ized as
possible: the plan should be for everyone to start scal
ing back.
America now has the lion’s share of the pie, and
we re obviously willing to do anything to keep it that
way. ranging from pretending there's no problem to re
fusing to join international earth-protecting measures
EPA administrator William Reilly spent last week's
meeting defending America's hypocritical arguments
against signing treaties set to slow the earth’s environ
mental decline. Anri as stated, he found it to be charac
ter building Why ddes this man. who supposedly rep
resents the organization designed to monitor and pro
tect America's environment, advocate no protective
measures — eitTfer here at home or abroad?
Well, guess that's easy enough. Money. Progress,
Power. Protecting the natural world and conducting a
never-ending effort to "improve" and develop just
don’t go together. So guess which one wins hero in
America?
Sure, jobs are important. And the new America
was built on innovation — something some people ure
proud of. But as we've stated so many times this year,
without the natural world's survival, there will be no
jobs, no innovation, no nothin' quicker than you cun
say “die." Everything in this world is intertwined with
the environment, even the most advanced technologi
cal toys. All at some point require natural resources; ail
depend upon the environment at the most basic level.
Saving the world's isconomy by saving its natural
resources is far from the pinnacle reason lor protecting
the environment, but if that's the perspective the mon
ied world must take to stop its rape and pillage, so be
it.
Keep the environment, and we keep our economy,
sanity, clean air and water. The natural world's well
being is imperative to humankind's survival; it also de
serves to live in and of itself.
f^I?
Oregon Daily
Emerald
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LETTERS
Communication
In response lo the article of
May 27 in the Em orn Id con
corning rape survivors, I feel
tfi.it we mu-j lie repelled by the
i rime of rape as we would to
ward any assault on a human
lieinn
l-'eellng this. I nonetheless
strongly object to the senti
ments expressed by Heatfier
Collin,m in the highlighted quo
tation ut the top of page four
To me. the statements are slan
derous and sexist
I am certain that there would
be a justifiable outcry raised by
women If the quote had staled,
"livery woman is a potential in
fant killer livery woman is cus
tom-tailored to infanticide
through the media ."
The point is though some
men are rapists, most aren't
just as some woman kill their
babies, not all do blanket con
demnations of either sex serve
men and women not in the
slightest. It's hard enough lo
communicate as it is
Mlltiades Mandros
Architecture
Faith
I would like lo apologize lo
Ur Otto Helweg (lecturer on
Si lentific Proof ol the l-.xis
tence of Clod") and any others
who drew the erroneous con
clusion from my letter of May
I't that, since I find Helweg's
views to reflect intolerance and
bigotry. I conclude that Chris
lians in general are similar in
tills respect This is not at ail
the case'
1 maintain Helweg's presenta
tion wus an example of intoler
ance and bigotry, not because
of his Christian beliefs, but tie
cause of his statements that
those who do not believe in
God should have inferior indi
vidual rights under the U.S.
Constitution to those Christians
enjoy. Moreover, 1 fuel his
claim that the ethics of atheists
and agnostics ure totally lack
ing in validity reflects extraor
dinary intolerance since it dis
misses the moral values of mil
lions of people based simply on
their faith
Although I am not a theist. I
studied theology and philoso
phy for four years at a Jesuit
college. 1 am well aware that
oilier Christians practice loler
11 ii( c in a way that Holweg does
not This includes observance
of sexual freedoms ns well ns
nil other constitutionally pro
tected rights, It includes obser
vance of sexual and reproduc
tive freedoms, it includes free
dam from government-sanc
tioned religious observations A
|une 1 letter to the Lmenild by
Vicki Travis is a good example
of a tolerant, Christian ap
proach that contrasts sharply
with that of Helweg
Peter O'Day
Neuroscience
Violence?
As an berth first! activist, it
is parlit ularly interesting to see
the destruction the Federal
Building's windows referred to
as a violent act I am happy to
see the liegmiungs of an open
debate on what constitutes vio
lence and I'd like to broaden
the discussion.
I hope the following ques
tions will stimulate further dis
cussion of violence vs. non-vio
lence When is there a mean
ingful difference between vio
lence directed toward property
and violence directed toward
living beings' Can you bo vio
lent toward an inanimate ob
ject' Is it a question of what is
hurl or destroyed that dolor
mines violence, or is it based
upon the intent and the emo
tions of the person Involved in
the at l7 I think that questions
such as these can help ouch one
of us come to a better personal
understanding of what violence
means to us
Was breaking those windows
a violent act? it is interesting to
note that Martin Luther King
distinguished violence against
property from violation against
life I feel that this distinction
is basic to any critique of laws,
policies and institutions that
exploit living things and exult
property rights nbovu hu*
man/natural rights.
I personally hope that we
look for the distinction between
property rights and the rights of
living things and discontinue
blurring the distinction.
I think it is important to sub
mit that no one person has a
monopoly on the truth and that
each of us has just a piece of it.
With this in mind, i hope we
can develop our personal work
ing definition of violence.
More importantly, 1 hope we
can open our own definitions
to incorporate others. We need
to find ways to support inten
tions without criticizing specif
ic tactics Finally, I hope we
don’t devote all of our time
philosophizing and criticizing,
because there's a lot of work to
do.
Rebekah Ledwith
Student
Colors
An item that has appeared in
the Emerald for the last couple
of days has given me a warm
feeling inside. It was an an
nouncement appearing In the
classified section depicting a
triangle within a circle
The explanation said that "u
person displaying this symbol
is one who will be understand
ing and trustworthy if a gay.
lesbian or bisexual student or
co-worker needs support or is
seeking a positive environ
ment"
It's so nice to know that any
one wearing the triangle can
spot a homosexual out of a
crowd and give him or her ex
tra-special courtesy. 1 don't
know how many times stran
gers have approached me, say
ing "I'm bisexual Can you
give me directions to Burger
King'" Of course, since I was
not wearing tills new "Safe
Zone" bodge, 1 rudely brushed
them aside
Now. homosexuals every
where will know who to avoid
based simply on whether or not
a person is wearing the symbol.
Kind of like Block Homes for
children
As rny part. I will not bothur
those wearing the badge with
my silly, unimportant hetero
sexual concerns
Hem's an idea: How alxiut a
system where heterosexuals ap
proach only strangers wearing
blue triangles Bluck students
should only approach those
wearing red triangles, and Chi
cano students should avoid
anyone not wuaring a purple
triangle. This way. all minority
and special Interest groups
would have their own color.
1 think this would make cam
pus a much nicer place to live.
Tadd Van Cleve
Student