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Natural
Resistance: Deflating Terrorism: We can start
by looking at ourselves.
Viewpoint:
The New Segregation: Talkin' 'bout the ghetto at UO.
Living Out: Homo for the Holidays: What did
we do to deserve this?
Letters:
EW readers sound off.
Deflating
Terrorism
We can
start by looking at ourselves.
Webster's College Dictionary gives three definitions
of terrorism, and they remind us to think further
than al-Queda.
"1. The use of violence and threats to intimidate
or coerce, esp. for political purposes." (Our CIA assassinated Chile's
President Allende and demolished its democratically elected government
on another Sept. 11, 28 years ago.)
"2. The state of fear and submission so produced."
(More than a half million Iraqi children have died as a result of
U.S. economic sanctions, with 5,000 more dying each month. "We think
the price is worth it," Clinton's Secretary of State Madeline Albright
responded on TV when asked about this.)
"3. Government or resistance to government by means
of terror." (An acquaintance of mine told me of a task he was assigned
while serving in the U.S. military in Vietnam: At night, at the edges
of Vietnamese villages, he would play the recordings of people who
were being tortured, over a loudspeaker, to dissolve resistance.)
I can't figure out how war doesn't fit all three
of the definitions of terrorism.
"Here is a list of the countries that America has been at war
with -- and bombed -- since the second world war," writes
Indian novelist Arundhati Roy: "China (1945-46, 1950-53), Korea (1950-53),
Guatemala (1954, 1967-69), Indonesia (1958), Cuba (1959-60), the Belgian
Congo (1964), Peru (1965), Laos (1964-73), Vietnam (1961-73), Cambodia
(1969-70), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), El Salvador (1980s), Nicaragua
(1980s), Panama (1989), Iraq (1991-99), Bosnia (1995), Sudan (1998),
Yugoslavia (1999). And now Afghanistan."
"This is our calling," George W. Bush announced at
FBI headquarters days after he had ordered the bombing of Afghanistan.
"This is the calling of the United States of America. The most free
nation in the world. A nation built on fundamental values that reject
hate, reject violence, rejects murderers and rejects evil. We will
not tire."
Last January, I described "The Blue Mountain Statement
of Essential Values" written by a group of Americans meeting in the
Adirondacks. This group felt certain values were essential to ultimate
human survival: gratitude, empathy, sympathy, compassion, and humility.
They deemed these essential to practice: respect, restraint, simplicity
(of living), and humor.
It is enlightening to search the above statements
of Bush and Albright for ANY of these values. For instance, humility
in relation to the U.S.'s own violent history, or its past funding
of the Taliban. Where is any hint of empathy for young men whose lives
have been wholly inhabited by war? Where is any respect for the international
rights of children?
Within the cyclone of attacks and wars, it can be hard to believe
in the usefulness or power of any of these "essential" values. For
instance, how might gratitude have helped prevent the suicidal, homicidal
flights into New York City's Twin Towers? How can respect contribute
to dismantling the al-Qaeda and other international terrorist networks?
What role can compassion play in avoiding biological warfare?
I believe, however, these values are MOST essential
in times such as these. Ours, al-Qaeda's and the Taliban's terrorism
are all the outgrowth of addiction to oil instead of restraint; strangling
of civil rights instead of respect; religious, gender, and nationalist
intolerance instead of empathy; insular satisfaction instead of sympathy;
and self-righteousness instead of modest humor.
Moreover, rehabilitation of the social institutions
and human conditions that provide for humane lives are not possible
without these values. For instance, restructuring global trade for
local self-sufficiency. Creating local and international economics
for ecological and human caring. Extending civil rights to all people.
Individual humans can shine in the absence of any of these institutions;
but these are the institutions that allow everyone to shine.
Mary O'Brien has worked as a public interest scientist
for the past 21 years. Her new book, Making Better Environmental Decisions:
An Alternative to Risk Assessment, has been published by The MIT Press.
She can be reached at mob@efn.org
Back to Top
There are many types of ghettoes in the U.S. --
the suburban ones, the "gated community" ones, and even the
barrios of Southern California, but today I am talkin' 'bout the ghetto
at the UO. "What say you, homeboy?" Well, I am talking about the cluster
of "minority" groups that are housed in the basement of the ERB Memorial
Union.
Under the umbrella of the Multi-Cultural Center (MCC)
there exist the Black Students Union (BSU), The Native American Union,
Chicano-Latino Union, and The Asian-Pacific Islander Union.
Perhaps the PC UO feels a need for these multi-cultural
groups, even more than the students. I didn't see a great number of
students, as a whole, belonging to any of them; but I see a danger
looming: ethno-racial segregation.
A university, by its very nature should be a fruitful ground
for divergent opinions, courses, and
intellectual skateboarding. Some might take this idea as a polemic,
or a multicultural backlash, but I hope the various "identity groups"
at the UO don't take it that way.
I, more than any backlasher, know that monoculturalism
is essentially an anti-intellectual coalition. It says we shouldn't
learn this, we shouldn't study that, we should only speak English,
etc., but maybe what is happening on the UO is only self-esteem exercises.
"Well, holy chicken wings, brother, are you saying
that we can't have our chitlins, tacos, and Kung Pao dishes in the
campus cafeteria of knowledge?" Absolutely not. I am saying that all
of this post- ethnic thinking puts today's young students in an awkward
position. For years their '60s and '70s parents fought against segregation
and were for inclusion, yet keeping one's identity.
UO students, as well as the country as a whole, should
be chipping away at rigid notions of ethnicity.
In a recent art show at the UO, the Oregon Daily
Emerald's headline said, "EMU Recognizes Work of Minority Artists"
-- no shit. Although the artists were Chinese American, Mexican
American and African American, they would never characterize their
work as "minority art."
All of this post-ethnic chic might be hip-hop
doggy dog, but it could easily end up being yet another exercise in
control from above. Should the UO be a base, or put in the basement
of the EMU segregated campus colonies, controlled by predominately
white student funds (ASUO)?
What exactly is gay art, black art, women's art, and Chicano art?
I've always thought of art, or art making, as
a universal feeling, if it is art at all. The labels might seem cool,
but art and culture should not be fashion conscious. What exist today
at the UO is more fuel for inter-ethnic, interracial, internecine
conflicts between gender, race, class, and sex.
The mainstream media seems to love all of this, and
yet there is little diversity on their own staffs. The multiculturalists
are only talking to themselves or rainbow surrogates -- liberals
who keep them marginalized. "Campus correctness" does not bring all
the parties to the table, and brother and sister, I want to party
with everybody.
Is not there enough eurocentric myth making? Should
we bring on new myths that divide an already divided America? "Minorities"
are doing a precarious balancing act at the UO, and in the U.S. as
a whole. Minorities fight hard to retain their culture, but know that
they live in a society dominated by white power. This is their balancing
act, shaken by the capitalist concept of divide and control.
Students housed in the basement of the UO seem like
freaks in a side show -- a clear perspective of neo-segregation
-- a casual, covert, liberal racism that extends from the top
of the university system. Do we want a University of McEthnics, where
one gets fat on pseudo-culture and graduates with plastic credentials?
What lies ahead? Well, if we continue in this vein,
an unmovable force of racism will prevail. I have no vested interest
in a particular given identity. My passport doesn't say African American.
It says, Nationality -- American. I might come from the ghetto,
but sometimes I eat at Red Lobster.
Jerry Harris is a Eugene sculptor and writer.
Homo
for the Holidays
What
did we do to deserve this?
"I'm staying home this year with my lover."
"My God, Sara, must you use such obscene language?
Your father's on the extension for chrissake!"
"I'm just saying that Angie and I want to be together
this year."
"You're always together. Would it kill you to pry
yourself away from your friend long enough to let your poor mother
have a look at you?"
"She's more than a friend, Mom, you know that. We're
life partners. When we finish school we're going to start a family
of our own."
"Your father and I worked hard all our lives so you
could have an education at that fancy schmancy college. You can't
do this one little thing for us?"
"I appreciate all you've done, Mom. But Angie and
I have our own home now. I want to stay here with the woman I love."
"Oy, Morris, did you hear? Again with the language?
She's trying to kill me. Listen, Sara-leh, everyone's expecting you.
Grandma Ida's coming in all the way from Miami. I put fresh linens
on your day bed. I even took Martina to the groomer's for you."
"Aw, thanks. How's my old girl doing?"
"Don't ask! With that walker, who thought she'd ever
meet anyone? But, there's a nice man in the condo next door. Single.
A widower 10 years already. A big shot from the appliance business.
He brought over fresh-baked bran muffins. Is that a sign or is that
a sign?"
"No, Mommie, I meant Martina. Have you been taking
her to the park? The vet said she needs a walk every day."
"That nice young man down the street takes her. He
already has two poodles of his own, so one more is no problem, he
says. Why such a handsome boy would still be a bachelor I'll never
know. Both of them, so good looking. It's a shame. But what is it
my business if they want to dig in the dirt like beggars, planting
flowers when they could be out meeting nice girls? Go figure."
"Mother, get a clue. Steve and Adam have been together
15 years. They're lovers."
"Oy, Morris, again with the language. What did we
do to deserve this? Are we such terrible parents? Where did we go
wrong?"
"What do you mean? I turned out fine. Angie and I
love each other and we're happy together. Can't you be happy for me?
Besides, I don't feel safe flying this year."
"Safe? A coward suddenly she wants to be? Riding that
crazy motorcycle, this doesn't scare you? What are you so afraid all
of a sudden, Miss Don't-worry-about-me-camping-in-the-wilderness?
You're lucky you didn't get eaten by a bear! Millions of people are
flying home for the holidays, no problem."
"You didn't ask David to leave his wife at home."
"Davey's a different story. Your brother is married
and she's pregnant. A normal family. They'll visit her parents this
year, next year they'll bring the baby here. It's no comparison."
"Mother, Angie and I are not married because it's
illegal for us to get married."
"Already with the political statements. If I want
a lecture I'll turn on Fox. From my daughter I want only she should
visit once in a while."
"Oh, Mama. I'll see you this summer when Angie and
I come through on our way to the Music Festival. School will be out
and we'll all be more relaxed. It will be fun."
"You'll have maybe room in your knapsack to bring
a dress? And a bra?"
"Very funny. Anyway, Angie is making a turkey this
year with your recipe."
"Make sure she puts plenty of olive oil and garlic,
the way you like. And tell her to save a drumstick for you. That's
your favorite."
"Yes, Mom, I will. Thanks. Talk to you soon. Love
you both. Bye."
"We love you, too, sweetheart. Bye-bye. Morris? Are
you still on? Did you hear? She's not coming. Oy, such a relief.
Sally Sheklow has been a part of the Eugene community
since 1972 and is a member of the WYMPROV! comedy troupe. This column
marks her second anniversary of writing for EW.
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LOOKING
TO REKINDLE
For the last year and a half, I have
been working as a sales clerk. My job is typical to any retail sales
job, with the exception of our products. That's right, I sell porn.
I also sell "adult" toys, novelties, lingerie, games, cards and lots
and lots of bumper stickers. It's a good job, it pays well, there
are 10 booths to mop and I have job satisfaction. I help people laugh,
and I help people orgasm.
What most people don't realize is that half our customers
are men, half are women. Most of our customers aren't shopping to
"unload." Most are couples looking to bring back that special "spark"
into their lives. That feeling you get at the beginning of a relationship,
that strong sexual attraction that slowly fades to companionship over
the years. I help people find their spark, or at least try.
So far, as I've seen, it's the trying that makes relationships
last; the outfits, pictures, movies and games are all secondary. People
try something new, or get something they know works, go home and make
love. They don't go home and rape each other.
That's right, people do still make love. Am I the
only one who still does? Or am I wrong? When I'm with my wife, am
I wrong in thinking she brings a light into my life that must be experienced
to be truly understood? Or am I "unloading" on this thing/object we
call "woman"? You tell me.
David Tierney
Eugene
UNNATURAL
ACTS
I am writing to complain about the
filthy rag you call Eugene Weekly. While looking at your advertisement
for the Holiday Market, I noticed that, if you squint and fold the
page just slightly, the candles pictured in the upper left, appear
to be performing unnatural and painful acts to the open earthenware
containers directly below. The bias in placing the candles "above"
the pots is, I believe, self-evident. And the caption "Open this weekend"
is unnecessarily suggestive.
Not only that, but I was able to re-arrange the letters
in last week's crossword puzzle to spell several "shocking" four letter
words. I'm sorry that it has come to this. Time was when I could look
forward to reading EW, secure in the knowledge that you were
interested in enlightening the public about meaningful topics of concern
to the local community, instead of simply propagating the pottery-as-victim
mentality so prevalent in modern culture.
Andrew Ross
Eugene
CULTIVATING
HATRED
As a frequent visitor to Eugene from
Great Britain, let me explain why I think Americans are flying the
flag. On Sept.11 you were attacked by the third extremist ideology
you have faced in the last 100 years. This ideology is fueled partly
by America's foolish support for arrogant Israeli expansion in Palestinian
lands, but it is driven by something much deeper -- a creed of
hatred dished up in the "madrassas" or religious schools, where impressionable
young men are taught to hate and to die for the cause, much in the
same way as the last two ideologies brainwashed their young. A Neanderthal
attitude to women comes as standard. Besides directing their hatred
toward America, they readily commit atrocities on fellow Muslims --
witness the slaughter of 15,000 innocents in Algeria over the last
10 years -- a situation with no connection to America at all.
Americans need to think more about the outside world,
especially policy on Israel, but the brutal fact is that there actually
are bad people in the world, as the joy on the faces of the liberated
citizens of Kabul testifies.
Kerry Marshall
Brighton, England
ON
FREE SPEECH
Hope Marston's letter ("Vandals Have
Rights" 11/8) is a poorly thought out attempt at defending "freedom
of expression" of people writing "smut" and "sleaze" on property that
doesn't belong to them. The Supreme Court has ruled that protesters
have the free speech right to build a model of the Lincoln Memorial
and trash that model -- instead of, say, illegally blowing up
the Lincoln Memorial; or the right to buy a copy of the U.S. flag
and burn it, but climbing the flagpole at the Federal Building and
burning the American flag there, or breaking into a Protestant church
or Temple Beth Israel Synagogue and burning the U.S. flag belonging
to that Jewish or Protestant congregation are both desecrations, and
not protected "freedom of expression."
Again, would Marston "defend" the so-called "rights"
of a group of juvenile delinquents, who like most Christian Americans
were only a little anti-Semitic, but "punk-enough" to raise a little
hell by spray-painting Nazi swastikas and logos such as "KKK" on the
walls of a synagogue? What if some real live American Nazis defaced
a synagogue in New York City with quotations in German of Nazi propaganda
and swastikas and quotes from Hitler's Mein Kampf -- as
actually happened in 1943?
An action that is mean to revolutionarily undermine
power or structures of legal evil, cannot be protected "rights" by
that same system of legal tyranny. And you don't have to be a cultural
or moral relativist to agree that "one man's 'freedom fighter' may
be another man's 'terrorist.'"
The theory of democracy is that different sectors
of a society will agree to disagree, while sharing some commonly held
propositions or presumptions about government and human nature, so
as to minimally agree so that democracy works.
James Atlee Asher
Springfield
PLEASE
REFRAIN
Now look what you've done!
As with all issues in this lovely, yet completely
neurotic town, people are completely missing the point regarding pornography,
vandalism and free speech. I will try to simplify.
Lighten up, all of you, before I send you all to your
rooms (to do God knows what privately).
Look, if you don't fund EW, buy advertising
space or pay for production costs, you have no right to say what belongs
in its pages. You can agree, disagree or be completely ambivalent,
but since you're not contributing: Don't vandalize. Please refrain.
Destroying other people's property proves you lack communication skills
and the ability to be creative.
To the editor who suggested, "Buy a dildo," don't
be an ass! There are myriad ways to tell people to quit being so high
strung, suggesting they purchase a rubber phallus to do so makes you
look simple. It makes me wonder about your collection of sex toys
and why that approach seems to work for you. Hmm.
To the women who believe that vaginas are "disturbing
and repulsive," and to those under the impression that EW is
responsible for teaching your children about sex, you are both very
sadly mistaken. How sad for you and how sad for your children.
There are positives and negatives to every situation.
EW is not responsible to uphold your personal moral standards.
I rarely agree with what EW says, but I choose to read it,
and therefore accept that I will be annoyed, offended, amused and
entertained. And if it's not acceptable for me to run around town
accosting people with a bar of soap, hair clippers and deodorant,
well, you get the point.
Liz Alders
Eugene
MORE
OPEN TALK
I don't even remember seeing this
ad that's causing much of the fuss, a woman in lingerie. It sounds
pretty "normal" and boring. What's the big difference between lingerie
and bathing suits? I think it's sad that so many people are either
stimulated by or object to so much of the pedestrian stuff about sex.
I go along with the "get a life" crowd. Learn to talk
about sex, and love (in their many forms and definitions) more openly,
and do more of it, and there'll be less market for the junk.
Dan Robinson
Eugene
PATRIOTIC
HYPOCRISY
Every time I see an American flag,
I wonder where it was made. A forced labor camp in China? A sweatshop
in the Philippines? To me, it is far more disrespectful to the flag
to use it as a mere symbol of convenience than to burn it. And where
will most of these tattered relics end their days? A landfill. Nowadays
I see "One Nation Indivisible," but never "With Liberty And Justice
For All." It is only the blind eye that we the people turn to our
government that allows such "patriotic" hypocrisy to exist.
How can there be freedom or justice in a land with
secret military tribunals and secret executions? President Bush is
now warning Iraq not to develop "weapons of mass destruction" to "terrorize
nations." I wonder how the untold thousands (who's counting?) of dead
Afghan civilians feel with American weapons of mass destruction raining
terror upon them daily. If we are defending civilization, where are
the calls for democracy in Afghanistan? If we are pursuing justice,
why did Bush refuse the Taliban's offer to extradite bin Laden to
a neutral country for trial?
No, the world's richest nation is spending billions
to attack the world's poorest people over a new oil pipeline valued
at several trillion dollars. Think of it as an investment in America's
future, and Bush's energy policy which will guarantee we'll need all
that oil. Still waving that plastic flag? Maybe it's time you thought
about the values it's supposed to represent.
Wayne Skipper
Eugene
BURIED
TRUTH
Thanks for Alan Pittman's excellent
reporting on the virtual news blackout of the U.S. war on Afghanistan
and for your weekly "Undercovered" (11/21) section where EW
prints the news that no other media in Oregon seems to think is important
-- the truth of death and destruction which the mainstream buries
beneath a cloak of pseudo-patriotism and pretend impartiality.
Please keep it up. We owe it to ourselves, to our
democracy, and to the victims in New York and Afghanistan to tell
the truth.
Blair Bobier
Corvallis
NOT
FOR KIDS
This is getting ridiculous. Not content
to criticize the Fantasyland ad, now letter writers are up in arms
over the advertisement for Annie Sprinkle. One writer believes Sprinkle's
viewpoint is so illegitimate that it doesn't even deserve to be presented;
a corollary of this belief is that other people don't deserve the
opportunity to decide that for themselves.
Another writer objects to the sexual imagery in the
ad, claiming it shouldn't appear in a "family" newspaper. I for one
appreciate EW addressing topics that not everyone would want
their kids to confront. Many find descriptions of drugs, sex, or the
incompetence of our current president inappropriate topics for their
kids. For myself, an EW that everyone considered "kid-safe"
would cease to be worth reading.
Keep up the good work, EW!
John Flanery
Eugene
TO
THE COSMOS
Yesterday evening I was driving to
visit a dear friend for Thanksgiving when I say a car bearing a picture
of the U.S. flag and the inscription, "One Nation, Indivisible," obviously
excerpted from the American Pledge of Allegiance that we all learn
as school children. It got me to thinking about what I believe in;
and I asked myself what I would pledge myself to today. Below is what
I scribbled on a napkin at dinner in answer to that question.
I pledge allegiance to the planet, Earth; to the cosmos
to which it belongs, And to the evolution of all life within it. One
ecosystem, indivisible, With health and prosperity for all.
Robert E. Podolsky
Creswell/Eugene
EUGENE'S
EXPERT
Several weeks ago (11/8) you ran
a feature article on suicide, specifically teen suicide in Oregon
and in this community. You quoted and ran pictures of several adults
who work with teens. I was shocked and very disappointed when I read
the article to find not even a mention of Eugene's authority on teen
suicide. Jon Garlinghouse is this community's expert on suicide, bar
none. He has worked as a counselor with teenagers and suicide and
survivors of suicide for years in Eugene. He is a private man on one
hand, on the other he has given numerous talks and presentations.
People who know about suicide prevention and survivor care know about
this unassuming and insightful man. His picture should have been featured,
not Patrick Fraleigh's, who spoke only of district policy on harassment
and of the obvious connection between harassment and teen violence
in the schools.
In fact, the article didn't tell us much that wasn't
already known about teen suicide in Oregon and its causes. In my opinion
as a longtime high school teacher in this community, you should revisit
the entire matter, this time with Jon Garlinghouse and his knowledge
and wisdom as a centerpiece. Then we would learn something more meaningful
about the subject which is disturbing to us all.
Carolyn Wayland
Eugene
EDITORS NOTE: Jon Garlinghouse was interviewed
early in the research, as were other professionals. The article was
pared down for space and focus.
NEED
FOR INFORMATION
I'd like to applaud EW's article (11/21) on
censorship of the press during these recent weeks of war. While every
American has a certain responsibility toward national security these
days, there is also an equal responsibility
for the press to provide us with accurate and, might I say, unbiased
information. The health of our democracy depends on its well-informed
citizens.
I shudder when I hear people declaring that they
would willingly give up such rights as freedom of the press for national
security. Such an idea is absurd, as it was for these very rights
that Americans have fought so hard these past two centuries. Men and
women have sacrificed their homes, health and their very lives in
order that we might live in a land of liberty.
But this current threat to liberty is nothing new.
And it may be hard to imagine for the people of a state where almost
every town has street names like Grant, Sherman and Lincoln that if
this were 1861 rather than 2001, EW would already be shut down,
with Editor Ted Taylor and Publisher Sonja Snyder possibly locked
up in the Civil War equivalent of the Federal pen in Sheridan.
America lost that war. Oregonians may have a different
take on it than a native Virginian, but we are not the nation that
we were before Lincoln's war against each state's right to self-government.
Or should I say against a government of the people, by the people
and for the people.
Kenneth Ray
Salem
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