Western Front - 1982 February 12

              The Western Front
Western Washington University Vol.74, No. 11 Friday, February 12,1982
Debaters grapple over sex, nukes, war
By Dale Folkerts
Defending what he called mis­representations
of the Moral
Majority's true positions, the fun­damentalist
religious group's
national vice president came to
Western Wednesday night to
exchange verbal jabs with People
for the American Way spokesman
Sam Brown.
Moral Majority representative
Cal Thomas also verbally battled
several hecklers in the Performing
Arts Center audience of about 500.
But Brown, whose group pro­motes
"diversity and tolerance for
differing opinions," chided the
organization led by Jerry Falwell
as trying to repress discussion
about vital social issues. The
Moral Majority demands agree­ment
with their views with the
threat of labeling opponents as
"godless, amoral, immoral or un-
American," he said.
People for the American Way
was founded last fall by producer
Norman Lear.
Many of the opening comments
by the two speakers centered on
attacking each other's statements.
Both said information was used
out of context, orinformation was
omitted to misrepresent their
actual views.
Thomas outlined the moral
group's goals as pro-life, "not only
the unborn," and a traditional
family.
"That does not mean we are
against working wives or day care
centers. It means we are opposed
to efforts by homosexuals to try to
make legitimate a chosen lifestyle,"
Thomas said.
Other key points in the New
Right's platform are fighting the
decriminalization of drugs and
opposing pornography, which
Thomas described as "mind pollu­tion."
The Moral Majority sup­ports
a strong national defense to
protect those values, he said.
Thomas said, to undermine their
credibility, liberal adversaries of
the group, with help from the
press, promoted misrepresenta­tions
that the group is attempting
to ban certain library books,
favors capital punishment for
homosexuals, has a Victorian view
of sex, opposes sex education
classes, is insensitive toward poor
people and believes in nuclear war.
Brown centered his attack on the
Moral Majority's attempt to pro­hibit
discussion of certain issues.
He charged the group with playing
upon prejudices and fears, not dis­cussing
some problems and over­simplifying
others. Lack of discus­sion
hinders the political process
the group claims to promote, he
said.
The Falwell organization needs
to address nuclear proliferation,
Brown said. While the group
should be concerned with the
decline of the traditional family
and increasing divorce rate,
"frankly, neither of those trends
will kill us all in one blinding
flash."
Brown said it is an insult to be
told homosexuals pose a greater
threat to America than nuclear
war. Falwell should stop turning
hate inward onto other Americans
and face serious issues, he said.
Brown also criticized the use of
religious programming in the
media to promote political move­ments.
But when audience
members began to question.debat­ers,
attention returned to homo­sexual
issues.
Thomas said homosexuals
should not be entitled to legal pro­tections
granted to other "legiti­mate
minorities, because theirs is a
chosen lifestyle."
Thomas said he had talked to
former homosexuals, but "I have
yet to talk to a former black."
The group is not "attacking
individuals who are homosexu­als,"
he said. Everyone should be
(continued on page seven)
Cal Thomas
Sam Brown Casey Madison
Day for lovers once a bloody Roman ritual
By Carol Temple
If the typical ritual of sending
candy to your sweetheart on St.
Valentine's Day is more than you
can stomach, this year Roman his­tory
may provide an interesting
twist to the holiday usually asso­ciated
with love.
St. Valentine's Day originated
with the traditional gruesome feast
of Lupercalia in 44 B.C.
During Lupercalia, male goats
and dogs were sacrificed to purify
virgins. After the animals were
killed, their blood was smeared on
males who then would run the
streets of Rome brandishing whips
made of goatskin. Women lay
down on the road to receive lashes
from the whips to insure fertility.
In addition to the purification
rites performed on this occasion,
maidens wrote love messages and
put them into a large urn to be
drawn by the men of the city, who
then courted the girls whose mes­sages
they had drawn.
Another belief arose in Rome,
circa 270 A.D. In this legend, St.
Valentine's Day is considered a
Christian festival commemorating
the martyrdom of a legendary saint
in Rome who betrayed Claudius II
and was executed on Feb. 14.
Wheatly wrote that St. Valen­tine
"was a man of most admirable
parts, so famous for his love and
charity that the custom of choos­ing
Valentines upon his festival
took its rise from thense."
According to legend, the saint
sent the blind daughter of his jailer
a farewell note, which he signed
"from your Valentine."
Although this legend is less vul­gar
than the feast of Lupercalia,
historians remain skeptical of its
validity.
The custom of sending "valen­tines"
or love-tokens, usually ano­nymous,
to a valentine is thought
to have come from England and
France. The custom says that on
the second week of February, birds
begin to mate and lads and lasses
should choose lovers and exchange
gifts as a celebration to the "love
birds."
Another English tradition on
Valentine's Day came from the late
1700s. In this tradition, young
women pinned five bay leaves to
their pillows. If they dreamed of
their young man during the night it
was said they would be married
before the year was through.
Although Valentine's Day was
celebrated as early as the seventh
century, by the 14th century whips
and sacrifices were replaced with
the traditional non-religious cards
and gifts of today.
The now multi-million dollar
greeting card business is thought to
have started with the valentine
card. The first cards were hand-painted
copper plates produced to
meet large demands. These were
followed by woodcuts and litho­graphs.
Valentines first were produced
commercially in the United States
in the 1810s. Their creator, Esther
A. Howland, sold 5,000 the first
year.
It seems odd that historians are
not able to agree upon the origins
of St. Valentine's Day, but then
one must remember that lovers can­not
be defined either.