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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2000)
Letters to the editor GAP sickens students Justice For All wants to try again to completely disturb and disrupt its fellow students by bringing the Genocide Awareness Project back to campus next year with the intention of making it an annual event. Did JFA not learn its lesson and realize how damaging and threatening the GAP presentation was? They do not realize that students were not only mentally and emotionally troubled by the graphic display but were also physically ill and unable to attend their classes. The GAP presentation also inconvenienced University child care because of the inappro priate location of GAP: in the mid dle of campus. Is this really some thing JFA wants to inflict onto its campus, again? The tactics of GAP did not work to get people discussing the issue of abortion, as JFA claimed it would. Instead, it simply enraged people. And furthermore, the GAP presentation was not even a factual presentation of abortion, but it was instead a far stretch of attempting to correlate the atrocity of genocide with a woman’s right of obtaining the legal and safe medical proce dure of abortion. I strongly encourage JFA to re consider its plans of bringing GAP back to campus. Wasn’t the stu dents negative response to GAP last fall proof enough that the dis play should never come back? The presence of GAP on campus creat ed a lot of division and hostility. This tension on campus has done nothing but prevent further educa tion on the issue of reproductive health. An education, after all, is why we are at the University. Corina Alexander political science, women’s studies Christians wasting energy I appreciate the recent eagerness of Ryan and friends to share with us the faith that they hold dear to themselves. And I too honor Jesus Christ (balanced, of course, with a sense of Buddhist ecofeminism). However, I am at direct odds with post-modern Christian faith. I contend that the term “Christ ian Right” is paradoxical. A profit driven economy cannot be openly supported by the values of loving God. Too much life is being ex ploited by the system that many Christians willingly adhere to. I have heard no loud Christian voice resisting the timber industry, genetically modified foods or sweatshop abuse. All of these are cases of the profound rampant everyday exploitation of “God’s creation.” Christians now waste energies fighting homosexuals and abor tion, while entire cultures are be ing eradicated by globalized capi talism. We have the responsibility of challenging, and even jeopard izing, our status (mostly middle class white Americans) for God’s will. It is all too comfortable to point fingers at things that do not directly effect our d^ily lives. Our efforts would be best directed at defying the military budget, not teenage mothers. It is a sacrifice to defy a regime. Our lives are at stake when we do so. It is weak to accost a child. Christ was revolutionary. He challenged the fundamental na ture of the system he was born into by devoting his life to spreading a message of simplicity, humility and faith. He challenged the greed of the Roman Empire and was cru cified for it. Society today is equal ly repressive. Resist; Christ did. Nick Vaughan music University is political Until now, I have personally de cided to stay out of the fray regard ing the University’s recent deci sion to join the Worker Rights Consortium and Nike CEO Phil Knight's announcement that he was no longer going to “donate" money to the University. However, I must respond to one phrase that has been used repeatedly in re gard to this issue: “The University should not have assunied a politi cal position in this matter ...” I wonder if any people who have used this phrase in their letters and/or comments have actually taken the time to sit down and think about what they are saying. Regardless of what position the University would have taken in de ciding whether or not to join the WRC, that decision would have re flected a political position. If, ac cording to the anti-WRC crowd, the University would not have joined the WRC, then we would not have this “problem" now. Granted, but would we rather bear the guilt on our shoulders with the knowledge that we are being irre sponsible with our privilege by simply ignoring the mistreatment of others? Do we really want to pimp out our University to the highest corporate bidder? Support ing the status quo is a very politi cal position to take. Christina Humbert sociology, political science Frohnmayer insulted Knight I got a kick out of your editorial (ODE, April 28). I agree with you, I do not blame the students for their decision. However, here is my big problem. Why does a state-funded institution have the right or reason to join a political group? What is the University going to next? En dorse political candidates? Why does the University feel it needs to join the Worker Rights Consortium? The University is not privately owned; it is supported by taxpayers, alumni and boosters. For this reason, it should be strict ly apolitical! If students want to protest or join the WRC by them selves, then more power to them. But the University, unless private ly owned, should not be involved in politics or religion. And one last thing I found very funny: Because of University Pres ident Dave Frohnmayer’s busy travel schedule, he regretted not being able to contact Nike CEO Phil Knight prior to his decision to join the WRC. Hasn’t Mr. Frohn mayer ever heard of a cell phone or e-mail? This lame excuse is nothing more than a slap in the face to Mr. Knight. The truth would have been better. Christopher R. Pellico University graduate, 1983 Figures incorrect When it comes to understanding the concerns of sweatshop workers (i.e. barely subsistence living, forced birth control and abortion, constant fatigue and harassment, two bath room breaks during a 14 to 16 hour work day and relentless political, so cial and mental oppression), we, liv ing relatively cozily in Eugene, are all naive. The protesters outside of Johnson Hall as well as other stu dents, faculty and administrators across the United States understand the complexity of this issue and have been doing considerable re search (including the reform poli cies being carried out by Nike) in drafting their various licensee codes of conduct. I have personally learned first-hand (during a trip to Indonesia in September of 1999) from Reebok and Nike about the hardships they face. I have shared my experience with the Licensee Code of Conduct Committee and many students. One letter claimed that, “COV ERCO does monitoring for the [Worker Rights Consortium]” and the University membership to the WRC will cost us “$50,000” (ODE, April 24). If the author would have looked more closely at the WRC Web page, he would have noticed that COVERCO and the other mon itoring bodies are listed there for readers to do further comparison research if they so desire; these or ganization do not monitor for the WRC, however. The annual WRC membership fee for the University is $3,000. Agatha Schmeadick Licensee Code of Conduct Commit tee and Human Rights Alliance member Music world changing Oh what a sad, black day that a musician would have to play a live concert to receive a paycheck. How obscene to deny Capitol, Virgin, even Def Jam their eternal skim mings of profit. Intellect is proper ty, and property has owners and owners must be paid to own. The Internet provides an exciting venue to distribute and sell for the marketeers of the brave new capital ism. Unfortunately, there is no store door to lock, no security guard to watch the thief/customer, no cash register to collect the purchases. Distribution becomes dissemi nation, and soon the printed word is freed from the page, then the recorded event is freed from the confinement of the recording. For every Napster that is destroyed, 10 million Nutellas are born. My ad vice to the recording/software/publishing world is finding a new way be cause your day is nearly done. Gary Malcolm CIS
