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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1995)
1 I? i KgMMI IBS til HP M SHk M j v? *EwPOIN EDITORIALS. OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Race on campus: It’s time to start talking ■ OUR OPINION: To remove racial barriers, we must examine what and where they are in real terms Big-city racism. Watts. East I.os Angelas. Atlanta Now York Columbia U.C. Borkoloy. Univorsily of Southern Cali fornia MIT Division .Separation Anger, Poverty. Brutality Guilt. Bigotry, Prejudice. Mat rod. Amnric n's ugly wound just ( an t seem to hnal. And it seems tin- infection has not es< apod our generation. Almost ;to yoars after the civil rights movement, race on c ampus has again become the issue of the day. Collegiate baby boomers thought they had disman tled 200 years of rac ism. Yet now. on c ampuses around the country, students are fat ml with racial walls that were built m the shadow of politeness and politically corns t vocabularies. But this time, it's not c lear what, if anything, we intend to do almut it. Here. In this largely white community, yvo speak of racial tension in abstract terms Wo watch our televi sions and read our newspa pers. We cluck our tongues and shake our heads "What a shame." wo say. We are so lucky we don't have that problem here.” Or do we? More has been done to enhance rat ial diversity at the University in the past decade than at any other time in its history. New stu dents this year are required to take two multicultural courses, and the number of non-white students on this campus has continued to rise. And \vt> all seem to to WHAT 00 YOU THINK’ What do you think about race relation* on eampui? Please tubmit you' lattef to the Fme'aJd ottice* at Suite 300 m the l MU o' send us you' thought* via e mail at ode^o'egon uo'egon edu t etteis on this issue wat be published Nov 6 exist in this friendly, if not distant, atmosphere Yet, a giant e around cam pus on any given day illus trates that we may not be as unified as we like to think we are. Most students, it seems, prefer to socialize with peo pie of their own ethnic group, and rarely do we see groups of students of vary ing skin colors silting around a table studying or laughing together This arrangement, if accurate, seems t omfortable for every one involved. After all. these are just choices we've made based on personali ties Our friends just happen to he (insert race here) Hut when the rac ial prob lerns of the big cities are thrust into our laps when boatings and verdicts and marches and hiss linger Hall flyers speak to us of "other people's" problems, the col or line that cuts across this campus begins to material ize. It is up to us, now. to decide how we are going to close the gap. Multicultural ism cannot take place only in a classroom. It is time to open a forum on this issue and really talk and listen to one another We are the future of race relations in this country, and the sooner we under stand the wall, the sooner ssi1 can dismantle it Perma nently !'m Va»» Mr («<um n (MMnAM *A Aa >u» * -r/sr> »*•*«*• vfvu rM> WW lrrratr llwildry &3t**Q «M iutarm &| t'ts vVrjitr- I\rr» t nww) lvo6fcl?»»3 Co ■'% »' r«r trmM/rtdft ct L>n^u I Jjn» iv«0»! A »w(» -d tt» AuaiMM (*I«B M t -TB»»! ,v«am wJuMnamiJt H 9m iw*Mn* . **. 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Mtii *i>m m (xa • ufwi A.e.£ VOO CO*WU?I»JO mf TC) w£^. i oon r Sff *wyrw»N6 sgour \ WOMEN IN Kf $£ Tonight, real Witches won’t ride brooms Wiii.hi's and Halloween havo always gone together. it seems. But real Witt lies don't have green f«cM, long pointy nt>ses and warts. After all. I'm a Witt h. and I don't have any of those things Did you ever wonder what real Witches were like and what they do on Halloween’’ Halloween has always Imen one of my favorite holidays As a child. I loved Halloween for all the traditional reasons trick-or-treating, haunted houses and dressing up as anything I wanted to lie. Besides. Halloween was one of just a couple of holidays my morn really got into, and I mean full-throttle Pink Silly String spider's wet* hung (hick on the front porch under a black light, and scary sound effis ts blared from our eight-track player We had beautiful hand made clown costumes (even though my mother proliably couldn't have sewn anything else to save her life), and she spent 45 minutes applying OPINION professional- quality flown makeup. 1 wax taught to live for Halloween 1 ry as 1 might. I still can't make a decent spi der's weh out of that t anned string, hut at least si ,ir\ sound effot ts sound Iwfter on a C'D player And I still love to dress up One of the In-st things for me at Halloween, though, is that it s one of the few religious holt - days the rest of Amenta acknowledges with me Yes, for Witches, Halloween is a religious holiday. In fad. it s one of the most important of the eigfit holy day s Witches celebrate each year. A lot of mist Deceptions float around about Witches, so I'd like to clear up some of them Witcht raft (more formally known as Wicca) is a religion, legally recognized in this and other countries Actually, the U S Army's chap lain's manual has an excellent entry on Wicca. even though it hasn't stopped all military dis crimination against Witches Hut that’s another story. Witches do not sacrifice children or other small animals, nor worship (or even believe in) Satan. Witches also do not cast love or revenge s|h*11s on people, so don’t write to me and ask me to do any s|H»lls for you. You'd he surprised at the things people ask me. Witches do believe all life is sacred. Birth, love, sex. death — the driving forces of life are sacred to Witches Witches worship a goddess and a god. and many Witches worship several goddesses or gods We believe every thing in nature is both sacred and alive: animals, of course, but also rocks, rivers and trees We celebrate the full and fit Witches do not cast love or revenge spells on people, so don't write to me and ask me to do any spells for you 33 new moons because the moon is both sacred to and symbolic of the Goddess. Witches do believe in magic We don't ride brooms — stop being silly. We have one law: If it harms none, do what you will Witi lies do not believe one religion is right for everyone, so each Witch's beliefs and prac tices vary. These are the common denominators of witchcraft Halloween, Samhain (pronounced sow een or sow in) to Witches, is the Witches' New Year and the feast of the dead. Death, as a part of life, is considered sacred. Death is an end, but Witches believe in reincar nation, so death also signals a new beginning as the dead go to the Underworld to rest and pre pare for rebirth Samhain is a time when Witches say. "The veil between the worlds cs thin " The barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead, of spirits and of the unknown is most easily traversed at this time Samhain is the time lor remembering and honoring our ancestors and people vve know who have died It is also a traditional time for divination the art of staling into the future using tarot cards, crystal balls or other tools So what do real Witches do for Halloween? 1 II dress up and play my scary-sound-effects CD for the trick-or-treators. I'll take my kids, who are 7 and •». trick-or-treating, and then we ll go to the East Campus Haunted House. Of course, typical Halloween depictions of Witches abound, so I'll talk to the kids for the umpteenth time about the difference between real Witches and fairy-tale witches. When we get home, we ll have a special Samhain dinner, and we'll set an extra place at the table to remember the dead. We ll light can dies in remembrance of our ancestors and friends and family members who have died I'll explain to the kids the religious significance of Samhain I'll read tarot cards And 1 11 (all my mother (who's not a Witch, but who knows that 1 am), and I'll ask her one more time how to g«t Silly String spider's webs to hang properly. lean M Bond, a junior majoring in journalism, is a columnist for the Emerald.
