Care for campus

should last all year
I applaud Madonna Moss, who suggested in her April 29 letter that the University launch an anti-litter campaign (“Keep campus ‘green’”).
I work in Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, and the amount of cigarette butts and garbage litter in the courtyard of the building is astonishing. Garbage and broken glass are also strewn across the parking lot across from PLC.
Why do certain people think that the outdoors is their personal garbage can? Perhaps one of the slobs who litters this beautiful campus will write a letter to the editor and explain his or her rationale. I’d really like to know how one can be so selfish and lazy.
Instead of “University Day,” one day when the University is spruced up, let us always and every day care for this precious campus.

Ruthann L. Maguire

program coordinator

Oregon Humanities Center

Public nudity is not a crime
Public awareness of civil liberties has been an issue since our country was founded. If we have a liberty, we want to know about it.
However, our liberty to be nude on Lane County parks, land and roads (outside of city limits) has been kept secret. People assume that it is not legal. Only those who dare to call the Lane County Parks Department and Lane County Sheriff’s Department will be informed that it is not illegal to be fully nude in those areas of Lane County.
This means we can walk, hike, run, bike or sunbathe nude in those areas. It is very enjoyable and liberating — it’s freedom. With any liberty, there is responsibility. You can’t perform sexual acts in those areas, whether you’re clothed or not. That will get you arrested. We’re allowed to be nude, not to do sexual activities. Both are different matters not to be associated with one another.
The matter has been debated and determined to be legal. It is not a matter of discussion, it is a matter of our liberty. We all have a favorite freedom, and the last thing you want is uninformed people questioning or scoffing at a liberty. That spoils the point of having freedom. Who wants to diminish freedom? The only replacements for liberties are penalties. Think about that.
If you weren’t aware of this liberty, you are now. You won’t be surprised when you see a nude person in those areas. Perhaps you may be nude, too! Happy trails!

John Eccleston

Eugene

Walk, don’t just talk,

against sexual assault
In response to your editorials on the Seattle Mardi Gras photograph (Point/Counterpoint, ODE, April 17), I am writing to express that students need to evolve from talking about the issues of sexual violence, and move on to participating in ending the violence, communicating to our community and our society that we will not accept this violence and that it must stop. It seems as if every week the Emerald has a headline describing yet another survivor of sexual violence on our campus and in our nation. In this time of severe proliferation of these headlines, we need to hold hands as a community against sexual violence and, rather than talking about the headlines and praising the work that is done by a small group of people, join our voices together in protest.
One in four UO women will have experienced sexual assault by graduation.
This figure is unacceptable. Lets join together in support of survivors, in reclaiming the right of our sisters deserve to feel free to dress, walk and talk without being blamed or scolded. Let us join together to take back our nights, to claim our sovereignty and to tell our community that we will not accept sexual violence. Take Back the Night, a 30-year-old worldwide event for survivors, allies and communities is the place where our voices may join together loud and clear and we may march together in protest. On Thursday, May 16, I invite you to join in the fight.

Jaime Crandall

sophomore

SWAT Team member

ASUO Women’s Center

Graduation pledge shows bigotry
“It’s about caring. The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility is … about caring” (“Pledge shows students care,” ODE, April 16).
What bigotry! How “big brother”! A pledge that is prejudicial against those who believe that we should not “care.” There is a legitimate philosophy that survival of the fittest is responsible for the evolution of man, and that “caring” would reverse that process.
Whether or not one subscribes to that philosophy, their adherents may one day number enough to invoke a non-caring pledge.

Robert P. Kelso

San Marcos, Texas