Senate rejects
nuclear freeze
The Senate, on October 31, rejected
58-40 a resolution calling for the United
States and the Soviet Union to reach an
agreement on a mutually verifiable freeze on
the testing, production and deployment of
nuclear weapons.
The proposal, introduced by Mark
Hatfield, R. Ore., and Edward Kennedy, D.
Mass., came to Congress after hundreds of
local organizations gathered petitions and
raised money to get the idea taken seriously
in Washington.
A similar resolution, opposed by
President Reagan, was passed by the
Democratic controlled House of Repre
sentatives earlier this year. The non
binding proposal declares that the U.S.
and the Soviet Union should “ pursue an im
mediate and complete halt to the nuclear
arms race."
The following is the text of the nuclear
freeze proposal:
“The Congress finds that:
"The greatest challenge facing the
Earth is to prevent the occurrence of
nuclear war by accident or design;
"The nuclear arms race is dangerously in
creasing the risk of a holocaust that
would be humanity's final war; and
“A mutual and verifiable freeze
followed by reductions in nuclear
warheads, missiles, and other delivery
systems is needed to halt the nuclear arms
race and to reduce the risk of nuclear war.
“ As an immediate arms control objective,
the United States and Soviet Union should:
"Pursue an immediate and complete halt
to the nuclear arms race;
"Decide when and how to achieve a
mutual, verifiable freeze on the testing, pro
duction and further deployment of nuclear
warheads, missiles, and other delivery pro
grams; and
“ Give special attention to destabilizing
weapons whose deployment would make
such a freeze more difficult to achieve.
“ Proceeding from the freeze, the United
States and the Soviet Union should pursue
major, mutual and verifiable reductions in
nuclear warheads, missiles and other delivery
systems, through annual percentage or
equally effective means, in a manner that
enhances stability."
Packwood nuclear
freeze vote
"alarm ing"
Oregon House Speaker Grattan Kerans
said last week that Oregonians should be
alarmed at U.S. Senator Bob Packwood's
vote against the nuclear freeze resolution.
Kerans said Packwood’s vote showed a
"callous disregard" for the work of people
seeking to end the arms race.
Packwood also voted against the wishes of
Oregonians who heavily endorsed a nuclear
freeze advisory resolution on the statewide
ballot last November, Kerans said.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
holiday a reality
While Coretta Scott King, widow of the
slain civil rights leader, and hundreds of
others looked on, President Reagan signed
into law a bill designating the third Monday in
January a national holiday commemorating
the birth of Martin Luther King Jr.
The bill, signed on November 2, which will
take effect in 1986, had been passed two
weeks earlier after more than a decade of
struggle against right-wing opposition. Most
recently, Sen. Jesse Helms. R-N.C., attemp
ted a filibuster in the Senate to thwart passage
of the bill. Ironically, Helms' birthday is also
the same day as King's, as well as the birth
day of Confederate Civil War General, Robert
E. Lee.
After signing the law, Reagan suggested
Fungus
may trigger AIDS
A fungus with some properties like cyclo
sporin — a soil fungus that acts as a potent
immunosuppressant — was found in three
patients with acquired immune deficiency
syndrome.
The results of research, as reported in the
New England Journal of Medicine, has led
that each year, when Americans mark Martin
Luther King Day, “ Let us not only recall Dr.
King, but rededicate ourselves to the com
mandments he believed in and sought to live
every day: Thou shalt love thy God with all thy
heart Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’
Coretta Scott King called the holiday the
highest recognition the nation could bestow
on King, who, she said, "symbolized what
was right about America, what was noblest
and best."
“America is a more democratic nation, a
more just nation, a more peaceful nation be
cause Martin Luther King Jr. became her
pre-eminent non-violent commander," she
said.
government scientists to hypothesize that a
fungal infection may trigger the killer disease.
Cyclosporin is now administered to trans
plant patients to suppress their immunity
system and help them avoid organ rejection.
Doctors from the National Institutes of Health
said the failure of the immunity system in
AIDS patients resembles in some aspects the
im m unity suppression brought about by
cyclosporin.
The doctors reported that the discovery of
fungus in the blood of the AIDS patients
m ight indicate that AIDS may not be caused
by a virus as has been the current theory.
Instead, according to the research, AIDS may
be caused by or at least intensified by a fungus
with properties similar to cyclosporin that
suppresses a victim ’s immunity system.
Key West elects gay mayor
Despite opposition fears that "if a gay got
elected mayor, then it would get in every
paper in the nation and it would bring even
more of them down here," Richard Heyman,
a gallery owner and city commissioner who
also happens to be gay, was elected mayor of
Key West, Florida, by 54% of the votes cast.
Heyman's opponent, Richard Kerr, a self-
confessed “ family man," denied that making
an overt appeal to anti-gay sentiment would
be an important issue in a town where
hundreds of gays have invested in homes
and businesses. Kerr's campaign featured a
Archbishop
Hunthausen
Vatican investigating
iS
picture of himself and his family with "Richard
Kerr — Family Man" headlining the ad. “Your
vote will help set the MORAL TONE for our
COMMUNITY:' the ad said.
Heyman also faced strong resistance be
cause he is a "new" resident — he moved to
Key West ten years ago from Toledo. Ohio.
Heyman was elected to the five-member city
commission four years ago and was a stead
fast opponent of the old boy political system
that relies on favoritism and patronage
As a commissioner Heyman was frequently
on the short end of many 4-1 votes. He re-
Reactionary Catholic groups opposed to
Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen's views
on nuclear war and homosexuality have
prompted a Vatican-ordered investigation of
the Seattle prelate.
A spokesman for the Seattle-based
Catholics United Against Marxist Theology,
said his group and others like it knew of as
many as 30,000 petition signatures and let
ters that had been forwarded to the Vatican in
criticism of Hunthausen.
Hunthausen, Western Washington arch
bishop since 1975, presides over an
estimated 360,000 Catholics. He opposes
peatedly called for a performance audit of
City Electric System, which is plagued by
chronic blackouts and has the fourth-highest
rates in the nation. He urged more hiring of
women and other minorities at City Hall and
established a task force to investigate the city
sewer system, which continues to dump m il
lions of gallons of raw sewage into the ocean
each day.
Everybody knows Heyman is gay, said a
local politician, “ but nobody calls him a bad
politician.”
the MX missile system, and has participated
in peaceful demonstrations aganst nuclear
weapons. Hunthausen also withholds half the
taxes on his $9,000-$10,000 annual income
in protest of the nuclear arms race.
According to a Vatican official the investi
gation need not result in punishment of
Hunthausen. “ Hopefully, the visitation vindi
cates a bishop rather than points a finger at or
deposes him," the official said. No one would
specify what disciplinary actions might be
taken against Hunthausen if the Pope decides
the criticism was warranted.
Just Out Nov 11 -Nov 25
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