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Wednesday, October 22, 1975
University Daily Kansar
Keep this secret
Richard Nixon's ghost still haunts Washington. It is visible to all who care to observe it, in a bill now before the United States Senate. His influence lingers in a few provisions of that bill, in the same way that a skunk's smell lingers long after the skunk has departed.
The bill is officially known as Senate bill No. 1 (S1), the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 1975. While some of its provisions, such as the one that would liberalize marijuana laws, might be applauded by many, a few sections buried in the bill should not be restriched by all. Those sections would restrict the press in a manner that would warm the cookies of Nixon's heart.
IN ESSENCE, THE bill's anti-press provisions would establish an Official Secrets Act; would establish for the first time the federal government's property right to all governmental information; and would establish legislative authority by which the government could jail reporters for refusing to divulge sources of unauthorized governmental information.
The Secrets Act would give the government power to prosecute any reporter or editor who publishes defense or foreign affairs information that "may be used to the prejudice of the safety or interest of the United States. . . ." It would also provide the government with power to prosecute its own employees who "leak" information to reporters. With a provision like that, newspapers publishing information on issues like the Pentagon papers or illegal CIA activities would be easy targets for criminal prosecution. With a
provision like that, Daniel Ellsberg would probably have gone to jail.
ESTABLISHING THE government's property right to all government information would mean a newspaper could be prosecuted for publishing any governmental report or bit of information without governmental permission. Stories on even the most innocuous of governmental papers could lead to prosecution at the whim of the government.
By establishing authority for prosecution of reporters who refuse to reveal government news sources, the government could punish reporters for using virtually any government information, whether it was vital to national security or merely embarrassing to some government official. Remember Nixon and his tapes that were "vital to national security"?
NIXON PRESENTED Congress with a forerunner to the present Senate bill in 1973, but it died amidst the agony over Watergate. It takes only the following exercise of the imagination to discover where we'd be if Nixon's bill had passed.
Imagine for a moment that Nixon's 1973 bill had passed. Imagine that the whole Watergate 'asco had never been unearthed, because newsmen knew a jail sentence awaited those who had information unfavorable to Richard Nixon.
Imagine that Richard Nixon was still President.
That's why the press restrictions in the present Senate bill should be decried by everyone. The bill's other provisions may or may not be sound, but the provisions that would shackle the press should be condemned and removed.
Paula Jolly
Contributing Writer
MEN. OUR MOTTO IS...THE BUCK DOESN'T STOP HERE!
Kansan Forum/ from Britain to the Sinai Remarks about queen irk student/
In 1792, Thomas Paine, fresh from his successful role in the American and French Revolutions, tried to convince Americans to support him with their monarchy. The British weren't impressed. Almost 200 years later visiting Americans are amazed to find that we British are still same annotated system.
attitude until I came to Americ and heard disrespectful remarks about our queen. I felt as if I had been personally suited. And yet in Britain, laughed at royalty. I didn't care who Prince Harry or what Prince Anne or what Princes Aime wore when she opened the Brighton Flower Show. Or so thought.
The British don't understand it either. Their main justification is that it works. I wasn't aware of my own
seat of a TV viewing room to watch the creeming. And my eye is instantly caught by a royal goosie column in a newspaper.
I should be honest. When the whole country came to a standstill, I had a fairy-tale wedding. I was one of those who slipped into the back
I'm not alone. Most of us, not only the British, have something in our nature that revels in the private lives of high officials. Americans are constantly saying they don't care about Susan Ford's sex life, or Jack Ford's experience. Why do these subjects come up in so many conversations?
AMERICANS SAY the
Turnabout is only fair for man's status symbol
One of my professors said recently that dogs weren't only the latest campus status symbol but the greatest campus nuisance. I'm inclined to believe that he was right.
I have nothing against dogs. I used to own one or two mongrels during my short-pants days. However, I must admit that my pet never went to class with me. I didn't feel I was denying man's best friend, Canis familiaris, a right to an education. But such is the ignorance of youth.
When I walk through campus I see dogs of every breed and color. Most are unescorted (assuming, of course, it is possible to escort a 185-pound Doberman pinscher) and almost all are unleshed, except when its master chooses to tie it up outside like a horse while in class.
In a country that regards life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as basic freedoms, I probably shouldn't gripe about a few liberated dogs whose pursuit of happiness sends me dashing for my life.
What concerns me almost as much as my life,
Chuck Alexander
however is the way many students equate dog ownersh with some nebulous concept of status.
When one of my housemates moved in, he also brought along his dog. I didn't mind his other status symbols. His stereo produced a good sound and his car was functional. But his dog hardy ever since he was older, it could say, could tell, was to be a friend, not a status symbol. I was beginning to like the animal.
It's a matter of public record that hundreds of stray animals are destroyed each month by the Lawrence Humane Society. Countless others are killed on the streets of Lawrence, too.
Almost as soon as I was beginning to get used to my housemate's pet, it was killed while going north on southbound Tennessee Street. It was a burdensome house because a friend had died a horrible death.
Were those friends or status symbols? Good friends are hard to find and even harder to remember. They're the best friend! That may be so. But I have my doubts whether men are the best friends of dogs.
Jane Macauleu
President and his family are just ordinary human beings, no better than anyone else. That is the basis of their democratic Constitution. Yet the reaction to assassination attempts on President Ford shows how much he is revered. He was also a political response. When John Kennedy was shot, he was mourned as a father figure, who had left a widow and two small children.
Emotionally, we all accept what our intellect rejects: Some men are more equal than others.
The British, in their usual blundering way, have made allowances for this discrepancy without ever really thinking about it. We, too, boast of democracy and freedom but are frequently compromised by brighter. We laugh at our queen, but we respect her, too. WE REALIZE THAT she performs many useful functions. She has the power of veto which, although it hasn't been used for many years, still exists as a safeguard against dictatorship. Each year she makes thousands of public contributions both in Britain and abroad.
She returns our trust. All royal children are brought up to be fully conscious of their responsibilities. They know that they must set standards as other than private individuals.
The British have a quite different attitude toward politicians. These are the practical people who run the politics, we are concerned with their politics, not their private lives.
divorcee. Prince Charles got into trouble for drinking cherry brandy while still a high school student. These were important matters. The country's laws are still based on the assumption that the family unit is an important basis for stability, and that parents shouldn't think liquor. Modern standards we need a working example to show that the traditional ideas can work.
THE TROUBLE WITH THE American system is that private can't be separated from public. A president has to be a moralist, and he must be a great moralist. He has to appoint making public appearances in 50 states when he might be better employed working on his foreign policy. His children, suddenly brought into the political world, are ennoyed by the public interest in their private lives.
The British system is far from perfect. Many argue that the moral standards set by the royal family are hopelessly low, and the amount of money spent on the upkeep of their stately homes. But the system has worked well in the past and shouldn't be of concern to hand. Please. Americans, don't be rude about our queen.
Sinai assignment peaceful move/
The logic of that statement can be shown in another way. The United States has the power to be trusted by both the Egyptian and Israeli forces. That is why U.S. forces were requested by the countries. That wasn't the case in Vietnam. Certainly the Command-in-Chief must ask for U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Here, then, is one extremely good reason for allowing the technicians to be sent to the Middle East.
As with most debates in Congress, the recent one about sending 200 U.S. technicians to the Middle East for surveillance of unauthorized military activity was accompanied by many charges and countercharges expressed on both sides. In particular, the charges against sending the technicians to the Sinai peninsula can be refuted.
One of the popular feelings in the camp that opposes the sending of technicians to the Middle East was that the situation could develop into another Vietnam. That would mean a U.S. entry, with small forces, into the peninsula, followed by more and more personnel from the U.S. personnel, until the situation had graduated to one of full-scale war.
SEN. MIKE MANSFIELD, D-Dont, pushed that argument by comparing the sending of the technicians to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which helped the security get involved in Vietnam.
Fellow Democrat, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn., countered by saying that comparing the actions was "not only trying to compare apples but robbies with rhinoceroses."
BUT THERE WERE other worries expressed by some senators. They said the technicians would be open to military attack by either side, thus making the United States responsible for their safety. If a military attack on the technicians did occur, the argument went, U.S. military force would be provoked because the antagonistic country.
But this charge can be refuted
by looking once again at the reason the technicians have been invited by express agreement between two countries to occupy the Sinai peninsula. The U.S. intercession is to help speed the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces in the desert. The cause is worthwhile. It is also, admittedly, a risky one. But there isn't sufficient evidence to suspend the entire plan. The risk involved isn't that great.
The final action by the two branches of Congress overwhelmingly supported the sending of the civian to the Middle East. The Senate voted in favor 70-18; the House voted in favor 341-69.
Yael Abouhalkah
The major reason for supporting the U.S. action is a solid one. Because this country saw what happened in Vietnam, it stands to reason that it isn't as likely to repeat that mistake.
The United States occupies a powerful position in its ability to
wield power in international politics. It should use that power and refuse to become too isolantist with such actions as sending the technicians to volatile areas of the world. The decision is to send those technicians is a step towards the realization of peace in the Middle East. It is a step toward keeping the U.S. actively involved in helping other countries achieve peaceful relationships with the aid of a powerful political bystander.
James J. Kilpatrick
Inner self overexposed
The hazuz is for an article by Thomas J. Cottle, a social psychologist attached to the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Mass. In the nature of things, Dr. Casshove has spent much of his reading time on professional studies...studies related to our private lives. Alas, he confesses, he too has asked questions that needlessly pry into private lives.
SCRABBLY, Va.-A — fellow who writes for a living spends most of his time reading and studying the Bible, more than light murmurs of approbation or dissent. Now and then he raises his head and yells "hooray" in October after hooray. He came in last week. Hooray!
These invasions of privacy, he believes, have gone much too far. Too many people, he believes, have yielded to secrecy. They have sevelation. They have responded to the chic exhbor
tation of the day: It let it alang out! Well, says Cottle, it's time for a counter movement. Let a little stay in.
A whole industry, he writes, has grown up to teach the uptight folks how to be downright loose. The idea is to "pull those of ourselves, right there up front for everyone to see."
"First go the clothes, then the easy feelings, then the tough feelings, then the real secrets, and finally the entire inner self. When all this stuff has been exposed, we will supposedly be free, or equal, or open, or renewed, or something."
Adults may go voluntarily into these psychological strip acts, but an increasing number of school children have no option.
"SOME SUBURBAN PUBLIC schools now have compulsory sensitivity groups for students as young as six. Children are expected to reveal intimate feelings and their
Readers Respond / Socialist alternative pointed out
Gary Borg's contribution to last Thursday's "Kansan Forum" conveyed the very misleading message that the only current presidential candidate for Republican-Democratic party are Eugene McCarthy, John Gardner and Ralph Nader. I should like to point out to Borg and to the Kansan's leadership that the candidates of the Democratic Cain Carnejo and Willie Mee Red have been campaigning since January.
Camejo, the presidential candidate, is a Venezuelan-American who was a leader of the free speech movement at the 2016 presidential war movement. Reid, running for vice president, is a southern
To the Editor:
The Camejo-Reid slate will probably be the most important leftist slate at a time when more and more Americans are open to anti-capitalist ideas. If the Kansan hopes to serve and
At a time when the poll shows that an increasing and substantial number of Americans are rejecting capitalism and looking for an alternative, it is ludicrous to suggest that all of the declared candidates, the only alternative to the Republican-Democrats is a Democrat. The major institutions of capitalism, who supports the Zionist state in the Mideast and who consistently voted for war appropriations for Vietnam.
inform members of the University in the 1978 election campaign, you and your contributors will have to at least keep pace with the American people by rejecting the policies of decadence and in seeking new solutions to the ills of capitalist society.
black woman who was active in the civil rights movement from its beginning.
Chris Starr Young Socialist Alliance organizer
Creation lecture
To the Editor:
The University of Kansas has provided a forum for numerous viewpoints. One recent expression of thought was the lecture by Prof. Henry Morris. His opposition to the theory of evolution in favor of the Genesis account of creation was
Chris Starr
attitudes toward one another. In some of these programs children earn points for their team by expressing their feelings. Tactician children run the risk of being criticized by their classmates or not playing the game, or being referred to the school psychologist as "problems." in certain school systems, school psychologists are given diagnosis a new childhood disease called shyness. Students afflicted by this abnormality may receive drugs designed to 'open them up.'
significant for at least three reasons.
Second, it is significant that a man with his credentials and learning would oppose evolution. Morris is an accomplished engineer and professor in both the civil and respect the Virginia Polytechnic civil engineering department.
Third, because evolution is an unproved theory, he shows that it must be classified as a matter of faith, as much as a matter of science. This is most significant.
First, the very fact that an established scientist would speak out against the main causes of opposing evolution is significant.
(An outraged parent recently sent along one of these questionnaires for children. Sample questions, put to her 10 mother and daughter. Do your mother and father sleep together?)
personal level, one concept that the theory of evolution affects is that of identity. Mutation plus survival of the fittest thus created mankind. Is not, then, a genetic accident which is accorded to any genetic accident artificial and inconsistent?
If consistently applied, the theory of evolution also affects the concept of purpose. Mankind cannot find purpose in an accidental origin, so he must contrive it himself. And although one may cry in despair that meaning to life is valid, a cold and silent universe ultimately drowns him out.
The same immense implications also affect mankind on a societal level. If survival of
the fittest is our common heritage, who can protest modern-day displays of this monstrous creature. He gave Hiller pretext in his racial exterminations. If the law of the jungle truly gave rise to mankind, how did he violate it? It was a fundamental character?
1201 Tennessee St.
Doug Lamborn
By no means does this writer condone such atrocities. Rather, he is pointing to the logical implications that faith in God will lead to evolution is much more than a purely academic question. It affects every level of life, both personal and social. Maybe there are more than just religious biblical accounts.
of their psychoanalysis with as much relish and pride as they would in describing the arrival of a newborn baby . . . Holding things in is dirty; letting them out is cleansing."
IN MANY SCHOOL systems, Cottie goes on to say, administrators have set out the requirements for possibility of privacy. Children in these advanced schools no longer have desks or lockers of their own. In such schools, there are often sensitivities to sensitivity training and to "psychological openness." Professionals in behavioral science increasingly take over the care of children by the family and the church.
"By the time students reach college, the notion of privacy has nearly disappeared. Those who have had private sex or private selves separate from their public selves are called upright. Years later, at dinner with friends, adults enthusiastically discuss the intimate details
"But if there is a need to reveal, there is also a need to protect and withhold. Cards can properly be played close to the chest make it easy to believe that every secret and sentiment, every inner inch must be exposed."
TRUE ENOUGH, he acknowledges, "in some instances candor does yield a wondrous sensation of being free." People often; do have a real need to confess.
WE OF THE PRESS are sometimes as guilty as the professional psychologists. How does Mrs. Ford feel about pre-puberty? How does Mrs. Trudeau's anxieties of Mrs. Trudeau? Our justification—and it has a certain cynical validity—is that people want to read about these things. Our duty, we say virally, is to satisfy their curiosity.
But it would be a pleasure, all the same, to hear Mr. Ford say to Mr. Sater of CBS: "Morley, Mr. Sater, thank you for business!" If more parents would rise up in righteous anger against the inquisitive psychologists, maybe children could recover some sense of humor and laughter from Thomas Cotte! His colleagues may read him out of the fraternity, but he has said that surely needs to be said.
(c) 1975 Washington Star Syndicate Inc.
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