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BODY ART CAN BE BEAUTIFUL I appreciate Maureen O'Hagan's article "Tough Love or Tough Luck" in the March 18, 1998, issue of Willamette Week. It brought welcome attention to the underfunding of Portland's social services to homeless youth, as well as providing contact information for some local services for those who wish to help or are in need of help. Regarding homeless youth in Portland, Ms. O'Hagan wrote: "They're pierced and tattooed, aggressive and obnoxious, annoying and intimidating." Equating body art such as piercing and tattooing with these negative character traits says more about the Willamette Week than Portland's homeless youth. If body art such as piercing and tattooing are unwelcome in the Willamette Week, I am sure the next issue will not contain the advertisements for weight loss, body building, cellulite toning, tanning booths, hair removal, hair transplants and penis- and nipple-enlargement found in this issue. Body art, like newspapers, can be beautiful or ugly, in favor or out, but in themselves any free society must call them a good thing. Ms. O'Hagan was mistaken to equate piercing and tattooing with aggressiveness, being obnoxious, annoying or intimidating. Ms. O'Hagan was further mistaken to equate Portland's homeless youth with these qualities. I have enjoyed the good fortune to volunteer at Outside In for the past seven months, and can state authoritatively that there are neither more nor no less of these qualities in homeless youth than I've found in any other community. If there is any consistent difference between the people I've met at Outside In and elsewhere, it is that the people at Outside In do more with less: They are resourceful and hold their own under difficult circumstances. When choosing between the right of a newspaper reporter to be intimidated by a homeless person who looks different versus the right of a homeless person to not be castigated in a newspaper with a circulation of 80,000 copies, I suggest the person with the most power needs to stand down to the person with the least power. Homeless youth, like much of Portland, read Willamette Week; more than one person at Outside In was displeased to be called aggressive, obnoxious, annoying and intimidating by Ms. O'Hagan. I have made a simple but growing Web page for Outside In, located at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/3934/, where information on Outside In and other agencies may be found (including services offered and how to become involved). All facts found there and in this letter are timely and accurate to the best of my abilities; all otherwise-uncredited opinions are my own. Trevor Blake, osipdx@hotmail.com
IT'S RESISTANCE, NOT DODGING
For those who believed that Vietnam was more a war crime than a war, resistance was a political and moral imperative. To fail to resist was to collaborate. For young men of draft age, resistance often cost them their family, career, or homeland. Most noble were those who chose prison, because their example brought shame to a government which had lost its shame. Among those who chose prison was one Robert Wollheim. A college sophomore, he refused a student deferment and returned his draft card. Thirty years later, on the occasion of Wollheim's appointment to the Court of Appeals, your writer Patty Wentz has the gall to describe Wollheim as a "draft dodger" ("A Man of Conviction," WW, March 18, 1998). I know that it is fashionable among young people--including sophisticated young writers--to believe in nothing and to stand for nothing. But is it asking too much to expect from them some respect and appreciation of a time when real people did real things because they felt that what they did mattered? Gregory Kafoury, Southwest Stark Street
WE NEED CHANGE, NOT A VACUUM
I applaud Christopher Jones' convictions and I fully support his right to protest the alleged abuses at the School of the Americas (SOA) ["Student Deferral," March 25, 1998]. His actions are a necessary component of the checks and balances allowed for in our democratic society. When we don't hold government accountable, bad things usually happen. I think the severity of his sentence is appalling considering his offense. I spent nearly 10 years on active duty in the Army, was stationed at Fort Benning on three separate occasions, and have served in Infantry and Special Forces positions. I also have bachelor's and master's degrees in International Studies. Although I never worked at SOA, I am fairly familiar with the curriculum and its operations. There is no doubt in my mind that a number of SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses. In fact, according to Mr. Jones, one out of 100 is linked to human rights abuses. That's bad. But what about the other 99? Are they human rights abusers waiting to happen? Or is there an opportunity here to change the way these soldiers view human rights? If we close down SOA, where will these Latin American soldiers go to get training in leadership and ethics? How will we be able to affect the societal change Mr. Jones and I both want? I prefer to see the glass as half full (or in this case, 99 percent full). SOA needs oversight to ensure that we are teaching the proper values and ethics. Latin American societies have made great strides in the past two decades. We need to support and encourage the military to change as well. What we don't need is a vacuum. Greg Ingram, Southeast 25th Avenue |
