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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 1993)
COMMENTARY New right movement offers dangerous solutions By Kit Elaterhold hero is an incredible dan ger on the horizon to free .X. dom in this nation." began Dr. Mel White, an innocuous looking, middle-aged man. his receding hairline accentuated by the lighting arrangements of the "60 Minutes" camera crew. "This is not just a gay and lesbian issue." Having worked for years as a ghostwriter for such new right television evangelist bigwigs as Pat Robertson and Jerry Kalwell. ho had come out of the closet, quite gay. quite distressed and ready to tell all about the new right and its agenda for subvert ing civil rights in this nation. "The entire nation should be staggered by what is happening out there... they don't believe in democracy... they don't believe in the First Amendment, they want the shelves of our nation's libraries stripped of our authors our rallies shouted down, our churches closed..." He had come to Eugene because he felt the people here were at the forefront of a nation wide ideological battle. With the recent passage of Ballot Measure 20-(lH right next door in Spring field, and with the recent narrow defeat of state Ballot Measure 9. homosexuals, and no small num ber of concerned "straight" peo ple have been set on edge. They are anxious about the rising intol erance in the present political cli mate, a tense atmosphere exac erbated by growing, seemingly insoluble economic problems, and a feeling among the nation's electorate that America is adrift, without national purpose, "We declare war on homosex uals (and their) godless, humnn istu scheme to destroy America's traditional moral values..." says Dr. White, describing the head line of a recent new right mailer that he had received The homo sexual community, ho explained, was being targeted as a scapegoat for the rest of America, in a polit ic al witc hhunt that has a litany of historical precedents From time immemorial, fringe elements of society have served in scapegoat c apacity for the frtis trillions of societies in times of duress, providing an evil "oth er.'' n personification of their fears and u loc us point of hatred from which political opportunists call unify a divisive people Christians were fed to the lions amid a collapsing Roman Kmpire. and millions of lews (and no small number of homosexuals) became fodder for Nii/i death camp ovens after Hitler had marked them, and their depraved lifestyles, as licmg the root cause of the woes of a depression wracked (iornumy. "I'm not hysterical., "asserted White "I'm convinc ed that the gay and lesbian communities are being set up to be sacrificed we re being marginalized in preparation for what they have to do to get this economy rolling again." And these are hard times for America Plagued with such problems as debt, drills, govern ment corruption and a rotting educational system. America seems lost in. as Time magazine put it. a "morel morass " People want answers, they yearn for direction and the new right is only too ready to provide these for them. “Would you like the church to be forced to hire queers to teach your little bovs7" those from the new right prod us They tell us they have found the cause of our woes, something concrete to nltai k Witclu raft prai tu ing fem inists are trying to destroy God and Family with their unholy agenda for an Kqual Rights Amendment This must fie stopped The slovenliness of drug oddii !s is ruining the economy as thev cowardly hide behind the te< finicalities of the Hill ol Rights Some of these rights must go. as should the special rights of the homosexuals." which they wield in their "militant agenda" to sub vert our children and the of fee tidiness of our armed forces While the minorities the new right attiM ks are disparate, the net effect of its crusade is i hilltnglv i onsistenl Subversion of (all of our) i ivil rights to further empower a government that the new right aspires to mold into its own [lersonal theocrai \. from our city councils all the way to the White House "When I was working with |er ry Falwoll." White explained, lit> never let a (las go by when he didn't call two congressper sotis and one senator on the phone. " And they would call turn In his first name. "Hello. Jer ry." 'Jerry." Reagan had said at the beginning of his multi-trillion dollar (nuclear) arms build-up back in 19H1, "I sometimes believe we re heading very fast for Armageddon, right now." They both (relieved in an immi nent nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union, one that would herald Armageddon, in fulfill ment of the Scriptures "There is sin and evil in the world and we are enjoined hv Si ripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it. should deterrence fail said Reagan "Time is running out said Weinberger Pat Robertson predic ted the nukes would go off by The doomsday dm k hit two minutes to midnight Iluring the final days, and across -tot) television and T>t)() radio stations nationwide. Pal well spread the good news to his flock 1 cm "don't have to worry." lie told them. Jiec ause all God fearing {heterosexual, regularly donating, anti-feminist) dims turns would be lifted up into Heaven, |tist before the warheads hit. in the Holy Rapture, while the rest of the scum (fags, femi nists. potheuds, Buddhists, i.e. the rest of the planet) would be blown to kingdom come in tens of thousands of thermonuclear fireballs Ka-blooey! The final solution. Everyone who doesn't agree with members of the new right dies. It warms the soul to know that they are that fond of the rest of us. Their imploding, self-destructing world view "raises frightening memories of Jim Jones ami David Koresh," Dr. White warned point edly. But the massacres at Jonestown and Waco were isolated inci dents, microcosms. The narcis sism of the religious rigJit's infec tive patliologv is shared by tens of millions of red-blooded God fearing Americans living all over the country, who must now fig tin? out some other way of deal ing with the rest of us, seeing how their blessed nuclear holo caust never arrived. Anil this is why the Oregon Citizen's Alliance is back, more subtle in its semantics ibis time, in an effort to win over those pre i ions percentage points that stood between them and victory last year. So if you have tiiken the time to read this far, I urge you to oppose this measure I urge you to gel involved Because the log k al culmination of this way of thinking is to deny (lie legitimo i v of our existence, of anybody's existence, which doesn't cximport with tlte narrow world view of the new rigjit, and to deny us our right to live in pence with one another on this planet. kit Eistarhold is a political sci ence nui/or nt the University -i Exercise your brain with THE MALLARD MAULERs] | THE SODA QUACKERS If you know four students (or if you are four students), sign up now to compete with other wild and crazy adventurers in College Bowl, the varsity sport of the mind! It's an exciting game that tests your knowledge in everything from literature to science, from music to film. Two teams with four players each square off in fast-paced rounds dedicated to making you look either extremely intelligent or extremely embarrassed. You might end up representing the University of Oregon regionally and even nationally! So. get a team up (name it anything you want - the wilder the better) and exercise your brain! Register: October 25th-29th. All dormitory teams sign up with your RA, everyone else sign up at the EMU Rec. Center, or call 346-3711. Preliminary Rounds: Wednesday, November 3rd. Campus Finals: Wednesday. November 10th. Cost: $3 per person or $12 for a team.