Mirror - Vol. 06, No. 10 - October 29, 1982

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Volume 6, No. 10, Friday, October 29,1982 Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut 06430 Incorporated 1977
Bishop O'Connor Pleas
For Disarmament
John J. O'Connor, secretary of the National Bishops Council on Nuclear
Warfare, endorsed disarmament at a lecture on October 18. The Bishop
questioned the morality of possessing nuclear weapons. In assessing
the possible need for nuclear weapons, O'Connor confronted many pro-fessionals,
[photo by John Pastorelle]
Reagan Ranches
Protest New Federalism
by Matthew Benedict
Staff Writer
"There must be a serious dis-armament
to reduce the volatility
of weapons," stated Bishop John
J. O'Connor during his lecture
Monday, October 18, in the Oak
Room.
O'Connor, a navy chaplain
since 1952 and presently serving
as the Vicar General of the
Military Vicarate, is the secretary
of the National Bishops Council
on Nuclear Warfare.
For the first half of his lecture,
O'Connor spoke about the prepar-ation
of a pastoral letter which,
when approved by V3 of the
by Elizabeth Kline
News Editor
Active in 35 cities across the
United States, the national organi-zation,
Association of^Community
Organizations for Reform Now
(ACORN), will sponsor Reagan
Ranches "to create a national pro-test"
against Reaganomics stated
Trudy Friedman of ACORN. The
local ACORN organization will
hold its rally in Bridgeport's Wash-ington
Park October 30-November
2.
Friedman explained that
ACORN is "an association of low
and moderate income people"
who join together to fight for
police protection, new sewers, as
well as battling the unfair
landlord.
ACORN is a bi-partisan national
group that restricts its political
endorsements of candidates to
the state and local levels. Accor-ding
to Friedman, "We endorse
candidates we feel fit the needs of
the constituency best." ACORN
believes that Reaganomics hurts
their constituency; therefore, the
Reagan Ranches will be held
across the country.
ACORN applied to the Parks
Commission for a permit to hold
their rally in Bridgeport's
Washington Park. Since the park
is a city park, the commission
denied the permit's request to
hold a political rally. "It's a blatant
violation of the First Amend-ment,"
asserted Friedman. Law-yers
from the Connecticut Civil
Liberties Union are representing
ACORN In their protest against
this ruling.
University organizations, the
Hunger Action Coalition and the
Young Democrats, will participate
in the rally either October 30 or 31.
Kim McElaney of Campus Ministry
explained that Friedman con-tacted
Campus Ministry and the
Hunger Action Coalition ex-pressed
interest. McElaney said,
"One of our concerns is to be
more exposed" to those who take
a political stand in the communi-ty.
ACORN has invited Senatorial
candidates Lowell Weicker (Rep)
and Toby Moffett (Dem) as well as
the Fourth Congressional District
incumbent Stewart McKinney
(Rep) and his opponent John
Phillips (Dem) to address the
Reagan Ranch. As of last Friday,
ACORN had not received a res-ponse
from these candidates.
The rally's agenda includes a
press conference Saturday and an
issues workshop discussing the
cost of utilities, social services
cutbacks, the new militarism, and
the housing crisis. Monday there
will be a meeting with various
Bridgeport officials involved with
housing and unemployment. Tues-day,
people will go door to door to
encourage voters "to vote into of-fice
anti-Reagan candidates,"
stated Friedman.
Bishops in general assembly of
the National Bishops' Council,
will become the "formal opinion of
the U.S. Catholic Bishops" on war
and nuclear weapons. "The
Bishops are asking serious ques-tions
about the morality and pos-session
of nuclear weapons,"
O'Connor said, "and we are trying
for a new meticulous assessment
about war and nuclear weapons."
For the past year and a half,
Bishop O'Connor has served on
the committee that interviews
people to comment upon the use
of nuclear weaponry. O'Connor
has spoken to theologians, con-gressmen,
lawyers, medical doc-tors,
and pacifists to obtain in-formation
to place into the letter.
"We are trying to address this set
of issues in a balanced, prayerful
perspective, so as not to be highly
emotional, or 'ultra-liberal' or
'ultra-conservative,' O'Connor
stated. "We have sifted and
weighed all the information in
light of the gospel," O'Connor
said, "for the best interest of
God's people, not just the moral
and ethical approach." "We wish
for all the Bishops to take a
careful, balanced approach, not to
be swayed from one extreme to
another." If approved by the *h
majority, the letter will be trans-mitted
not only throughout the
U.S., but throughout the world so
there may be recognizable, "a
unified position within the U.S.
that the church may live within."
O'Connor then proceeded to
comment upon "what psycho-dy-namics
within the culture led the
Bishops to form this letter and
these moral judgments." O'Con-nor
firmly stated that, in the letter,
he and his fellow Bishops have
"no basic changes in the com-mitment
to maintain justice and a
reasonable military defense
against an aggressor." But, when
faced with the "inordinate stock-pile"
of nuclear weapons and the
"enormous expenditures of re-sources"
to build them, there is no
denying that "the race must be
stopped. There has to be a com-mitment
to and acceptance of the
possibility of a nuclear war,"
O'Connor stated. "We are not pre-tending
any Utopias," O'Connor
added, that "the science of
nuclear weapons is a reality; the
Pandora's Box is open."
"The enormous amount of
modern-day technological
weapons, the strategic nuclear
arms aimed at cities, deployed for
destruction of countless numbers
of innocent people, must be
seriously reduced," O'Connor
said. "These weapons cause in-calculable
destruction...and if
these weapons are ever actually
used in an escalated, all-out
nuclear war, a complete
Holocaust is the only outcome."
Police Regard Beach Safe
by David M. Rothbard
Staff Writer
There have been several reports
of disturbances since school
began in September on Fairfield
Beach Road where some Fairfield
University upperclassmen live, ac-cording
to Lieutenant Comers of
the Fairfield Police Department.
Reports were made to the Fair-field
Police concerning Peeping
Toms, harassing phone calls, and
there was one incident of a "sex-ual
assault" reported in The Mirror
several issues ago. Lt. Comers
stated that an arrest was made in
the "assault" case in which a
prowler entered the bathroom
where a co-ed was taking a
shower.
"The beach area is as safe as
any other area," Lt. Comers said,
"and there is no more danger
there than anywhere else except
that a lot of young girls live there
and it is attractive for certain peo-ple
to go down there."
When asked, one victim of a
Peeping Tom who wished not to
have her name disclosed, said the
police were efficient in getting to
the scene quickly and conducting
a thorough investigation. "I
couldn't have asked them to do
much more," she said.
Lieutenant Comers explained
that whenever a call of that nature
is received, two squad cars with
four patrolmen are dispatched to
investigate the situation. He af-firmed,
"We don't just say, 'Oh,
it's just another prowler,' we treat
it very seriously."
A Fairfield patrolman said that
there is always that type of prob-lem
at the beach and there are no
more incidents now than there
have been in the past.
Comers also stated that there
are a lot of rumors concerning
what goes on at the beach. "It is
always blown up quite a bit bigger
than it really is so you must be
careful of what you hear because
it is often out of proportion," he
said.
The beach security is under the
jurisdiction of the City of Fairfield
and is not the responsibility of
Campus Security.
Future of Beach Shuttle Remains
Unknown For Next Year
by Marguerite Downing *
Public Relations Editor
Operation of the Beach Shuttle for the next
academic year has yet to be determined, pending
a cost—benefit analysis and student approval of
costs, according to Vice President William
Schimpf of Student Services.
In a recent interview, Schimpf reaffirmed and
clarified his recent message to the University
Council regarding the fate of the Beach Shuttle.
According to Schimpf, his main concern is to
make certain that students are aware well in ad-vance
that the fee charged for use of the Beach
Shuttle, if continued, will include the cost of a
new bus and that the increased cost will most
likely be divided among fewer students. As of
now, the facts of the situation have yet to be
determined as cost figures are still being process-ed.
When figures are available a decision will have
to be made between students and the administra-tion
as to whether or not the benefits of running
the Shuttle to the beach outweigh the cost.
Schimpf pointed out that the results of last
year's Beach Shuttle negotiations made no pro-vision
for the continuance of the shuttle beyond
the '82-'83 school year. Schimpf recognized the
need for a transportation service to the beach,
which, "has by far the largest off-campus resident
population." He also stated that, "We are not
committed to putting an end to the shuttle service
to the beach. We just have to see what it will cost
and whether or not students are willing to pay for
it."
At present, 365 beach residents utilize the shut-tle
service at a cost of $31.00 per semester. The
fee charged next year will include a large part of
the cost for a new bus, which Schimpf stated was
necessary as the life of the old bus is due to ex-pire.
According to Schimpf each bus has a life of
approximately 3-4 years. If the Beach Shuttle ser-v!
ce were to be discontinued next year, a new bus
would not be necessary.
Joe Jackson performed before a capacity crowd in the gym Friday night to initiate Harvest '82 festivities. His
songs were enjoyed by an enthusiastic crowd. For story see page 10. [Photo by John Pastorelle]