Without athletics, it isn’t education
By Rick Obritschkewitsch
Of The Print
All through high school,
students are told by their
guidance counselors that they
should get a well rounded
education.
Not
just
academically, but also through
some sort of extracurricular ac
tivities, and perhaps even a
job.
But with what’s been hap
pening recently, the extracur
ricular activities, or at least
athletics, don’t seem too im
portant to the colleges and
universities anymore.
The four state-funded, four-
year Oregon colleges are con
sidering cutting out all inter
collegiate athletic activities to
balance their budgets, and the
University of Oregon has
already cut its baseball pro
gram.
What has happened to the
well rounded education? Is the
academic portion all that’s im
portant now in the educational
system?
What’s going to happen to
the students who have no
escape from the academic
grind? There are many college
students who, if there wasn’tgn
inter-collegiate sports program,
would simply go to their
classes, do their homework,
and go to work with no time
out for any real recreation.
Sure, there are PE classes, but
they aren’t always enough
because they’re just squeezed
in as part of the. academic
grind.
Enrollment will drop at the
colleges that cut sports. True, a
college is a place where a per
son goes to get academic train
ing to pursue a chosen career,
but the majority of students at
the four-year educational in
stitutions are straight out of
high school, and they would
like to get educated where they
have easy access to athletics.
There are also the students
who would still like to par
ticipate in sports, even if they
are not planning to make a
career out of it.
Maybe inter-collegiate sports
aren’t paying off as much as
they should, or need to, but
does that mean that all of them
should be axed? How about
cutting those that are bringing
in less money, along with
some of the academic courses
that aren’t bringing in quite as
much money as they should?
Perhaps the University of
Oregon had the right idea just
cutting baseball rather than all
sports. If that isn’t feasible,
maybe the four state-funded
colleges should follow in the
footsteps of the Portland high
schools, and combine the in
stitutions to come up. with two
or three whole colleges rather
than four half colleges.
feedback
I.R.A. supporters view approbrium
To The Editor:
After reading the editorial,
“Ireland: Nation of Rebels” by
J. Dana Haynes in the May 20,
1981 issue of “The Print,” I
was not only slightly enraged at
his ignorance, but also at his in
sensitivity to,the Irish problem.
Yes, Bobby Sands is dead,
and other hunger strikers have
joined him, but they are not
fools. Unless it is foolish to die
for a reason, a cause, for the
good of the people as a whole.
Sands is gone now, his death
was a slow,: ugly process, but it
did more for the cause of the
IRA than Sands believed he
could if he lived.
By starving- himself, Sands
put not only his name, but also
that of the IRA in newspapers
throughout the world. He won
attention and support from
people who were otherwise
unaware of the Irish cause. He
knew it was very doubtful his
prison demands would ever be
met, but he did know that
through death springs life; and
from the graves of patriot men
and women .spring living na
tions. His death, and that of the
others, made outsiders face the
problem.
No, Dana, the problem is not
a complex problem, and it can
be answered and pinpointed in
no time at all. The Irish peo
ple are rooted in a past that in
cludes colonial exploitation,
revolt, famine, the splitting
apart of families as migration to
America became institutionaliz
ed. The Irish were and still are
subjugated people who were
constantly reminded that they
were considered brutally in
ferior, racially degenerate, and
Wednesday, May 27, 1981
religiously misled. When
England took control of Ireland
800 years ago (not 100 as your
article states) it was against the
will of all the Irish people.
England considered it a “mar
riage” of the two nations. It
turned out to be one of the
most brutal rapes in world
history.
To most Americans, Ireland
of a hundred years ago con
jures up little sod or rock huts,
a pig or a goat in the field, a
potato field, and a happy, jolly
little peasant man enjoying his
ale. That was far from the
truth, because in 1840 the
poverty and misery of the Irish
appalled the traveler. The
Frenchman deBeaumont
found Ireland to be the extreme
of human misery, worse than
the Négro in his chains; the
German Kohl wrote that no
mode of life in all of Europe
could seem pitable after one
saw Ireland.
All of this misery could
almost without exception be
traced to a single source—-the
system under which the land
had come to be occupied and
owned in Ireland, a system
produced by centuries of suc
cessive conquests, confisca
tions and punitive legislation.
England’s attitude was summ
ed up by Macually as he ad
dressed the House of Com
mons in 1844, “How do you
govern Ireland? Not by loOe but
by fear.. .not by the confidence
of the people in the laws and
their attachment to the con
stitution but by means of armed
men and entrenched camps.
Maybe my Irish blood runs
thicker than yours, Mr.
Haynes. Maybe the fierce
loyalty to my ancestors
homeland is stronger. Maybe I,
too, love a martyr (which br
ings me to add, Joan of Arc
was also a victim of the
English’s fear!), but I know that
grave injustices have been
done. I’m realistic enough to
know that as long as the British
try to rule any of Ireland, the
IRA will survive, because*
Ireland unfree shall never be at
'peace.
Susy Ryan
To The Editor:
I often wondered why
Americans are hated around
the world. At first, I assumed
the hatred stemmed from
jealousy, but .after reading the
article by Mr. Haynes on the
Irish problem, the realization of
sheer American stupidity
comes leaping off “The Print.”
To be ignorant of world af
fairs is quickly becoming an
American past-time and Mr.
Haynes rqay be the leading
scholar. Ireland is two separate
countries, and Northern
Ireland is the center of the
“troubles.” To call Bobby
Sands and other IRA prisoners
fools is obviously the mark of
an uninformed, simplistic
clown. The British government
has decimated, destroyed and
practiced controlled genocide
for over 300 years on the Irish
people.
Thè Irish are the English nig
gers. No other word can
describe their place in English
history. But the Irish are acting
ridiculous. Terrorism is quite
un-cricket, by-jove. It appears
those Irish croppies have team
ed how to humble those stiff
upper -lip limeys, right Mr.
Haynes?
-If you care to know, read
“Barricades in Belfast,” by a
noted English writer Max
Hastings. It was in 1968 when
the Ulsterman attacked the
Derry Bogside and the Falls.
The IRA didn’t even exist at the
time. Finally, Irishman refused
to lay down and now are
fighting the only way to
guarantee freedom.
This Irish problem is political.
The Irish are demanding civil
liberties and freedom. To fight
for freedom is quite foolish.
And slavery is not worth dying
for. Then again we always
knew about the drunken Irish
Sods. John Bull will pay for his
mistake and Ireland will- be
free. The Irish people are pro
ven survivors and. they possess
an unconquerable spirit to per
sist all indignities. “Fools,”
hardly, we defend banana
republics in South America,
chase those communists in rice
paddies but as a proclaimed
defender of freedom, the
United States remains stoically
silent about the interned
Irishmen. Then again, look at
our cities, Detroit, Watts or the
South Bronx. The English nig
gers live in Derry and Belfast.
Maybe you’re right Mr.
Haynes, those Irish people are
fools, but at least they’re not
cowards.
Tommy Silence
To The Editor:
The article, “Ireland, Rebels
Without a Cause“ (May 20
issue of “The Print”), has
aroused my intelligence. I don’t
support terrorism nor do I
believe there is such a thing as
a good war or a bad peace. But
Mr. Haynes’ simplistic ap
proach to the Irish problem is
irresponsible journalism. Nor
thern Ireland, not the Republic
of Ireland, is engulfed in civil
strife. To attempt to delineate
thè “troubles” would take
revealing 400 years of past
history. But to label Bobby
Sands and fellow comrades as
fools is disturbing. It clearly
shows an uninformed, insen
sitive outlook by Mr. Haynes.
One fact remains above all:.
Ireland has been cruelly and
stupidly administered, her peo
ple shamefully persecuted,
with every sort of indignity
brought to bear. The Irish have
been denied every human and
material right. The great famine
which deposited those seven
million Irish-Americans on our
shores was little more than a
subtle exercise in “gentleman’s
genocide.” The past .is dead,
what of Northern Ireland?. It is
the only British province where
the Special Powers act and in
ternment is actively used.
These infamous special acts
allow the counts to arrest, in
tern and hold $ny one
suspicious of undermining the.
British Empire.
To die for civil rights—the
right to vote, to equal housing
and jobs—is surely a foolish
thing to starve over, isn’t it, Mr.
Haynes? It’s a pity we
Americans are complacent
about freedom, then again,
what’s so bad about slavery
and injustice? The Irish should
be happy, stripped of their
language, culture and land—at
least they can always celebrate
St. Patrick’s Day, right, Mr.
Haynes?
Ed Coyne
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