| Commentary |
INBOX
Understand Scientology
before dismissing it
Hey Ryan; chill out. (“Who
asked Tom Cruise for advice,” ODE
June 30).
First of all, Cruise is not the one
making the media circus — he’s an
swering reporters, and he does not
control what they ask.
And he has the right to an opin
ion. You can listen to it or not.
When Oprah spoke out against
the beef industry, she got attacked.
When Martin Sheen spoke out
against the Iraq war, he got at
tacked. When Cruise speaks out
against Big Pharma, he gets at
tacked. Why? Simple. Because these
celebrities threaten multi-trillion
dollar industries.
And no, I don't believe that natu
ral vitamins are the only solution to
postpartum depression. But consid
er the case of Andrea Yates, mother
of five who drowned all of her kids
while under the influence of Paxil.
Or the case of the Australian mother
who strangled her daughter while
on Paxil. Or Chris Pittman, the 12
year old who killed his grandpar
ents while on antidepressants.
By the way, Ryan, in terms of Sci
entology auditing: It ain't that ex
pensive. My wife paid about 60
bucks an hour for auditing to over
come her postpartum depression,
and overcome it she did, in less
than 15 sessions. She became her
radiant self again, and no drugs
were involved.
Ryan, it’s no wonder you think
that Scientology is a load of BS —
considering all you know about it is
what you’ve clearly read at anti-Sci
entology sites. All you know about
it are lies and distortions. That’s not
research, that's just a quick fix of
bigotry and hate.
So chill out. Nobody's telling you
that you have to agree with Tom
Cruise or embrace Scientology.
But get educated. You have a
readership, which means you
have a degree of accountability and
trust. Don’t let your readers down
by ranting about something you
don’t understand.
Greg Churilov
co-creator of the Scientology resource
page liveandgrow.org
Failure to define "cultural
competency" is disturbing
As a University of Oregon alum
nus, I read with some disquiet
about the University’s Five Year
Diversity Plan.
The most disturbing aspect of this
plan is the purposefully undefined
notion of “cultural competency.”
John Shuford asserts that this vague
concept was left so because it
“would not be appropriate for the
drafters of the blueprint to impose a
definition because that might have
led to adverse responses by some”
(ODE, June 30, “Diversity plan
sparks controversy with faculty”).
What? In other words, they didn’t
define the governing idea of their
plan because someone might not
like their definition? This, at a large
university, is the actual response of
a salaried member of the adminis
tration? They didn't do something
that needed to be done because
somebody might not like them for
doing it? Good God.
The authors of the diversity plan
are going to govern a large part of
CORRECTION
A graphic that accompanied “Diversity plan sparks controversy with faculty," (ODE, June 30)
stated that Joe Wade was fired from the University in 1999. He was not fired. His position was
changed from Director of Academic Advising and Student Services to Associate Provost of
Student Affairs.
CLARIFICATION
In the same graphic, it says the University hired Elson Floyd to assess the racial climate of the
University. This action was mandated in the court case Wade v. the University of Oregon, et al.
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University life based on an unde
fined concept, which they will
get around to defining — if ever
they do — at some equally unde
fined time down the road, if and
when everyone promises not to
get mad at them? No wonder the
faculty is rebelling.
The unspoken effect of leaving
this hinge concept undefined is to
create a kind of loyalty test. The im
plication is, if you don't know what
constitutes “cultural competence”
you must be culturally incompetent.
As a person whose politics by and
large would be considered liberal
and progressive (though never
Progressive, which is liberalism
without the inconvenience of poli
cy), would I have to trot out my
Jewish wife in order to achieve “cul
tural competency”? Or would her
Jewishness be considered of insuffi
cient minority authenticity under
this plan?
Would I be forced to put her aside
and marry — pardon me, “partner
with” — a Palestinian woman? A
black man? Would my long-stand
ing affection for the poetry of Garcia
Lorca and Gwendolyn Brooks no
longer be enough to establish
my “cultural competency”? Would I
be forced to proclaim, with a
straight face, that Nikki Giovanni is
a great poet?
If the people behind this plan —
which for all I know may be a
fine plan if done properly — cannot
find sufficient steel in their spines
to go out on a limb and define
.“cultural competency,” they have
no business writing the plan in the
first place.
Less and less, in society as well as
in the University, are there people
willing to take principled but intel
ligent stands on issues of impor
tance. To do so requires careful
thought, a mind willing to keep
alive a little doubt in every certainty
and, above all, the willingness to be
wrong. If you don't define “cultural
competency,” you don’t ever have
to risk being wrong about it. But if
you are not willing to take such a
risk, you need either to excise the
concept from the plan, or turn it
over to someone who is willing to
take the risk.
Curt Hopkins
1991 Honors College graduate
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