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Wednesday, November 15, 1972
University Daily Kansan
KANSAN comment
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
By Garry Wills
Democratic Scapegoat
The election is just a week past, and most Democrats are trying hard to forget the stinging defeat of their national ticket at the polls. Moderate Democrats are looking for a sacrificial goat to avenge the loss. The goat seems to be Jean Westwood, the Democratic Party chief who was hand-picked by George McGovern.
It is not unusual that a loser should look at his defeat, wonder what caused it and take some steps to counter his forces for the next encounter.
What is happening now among Democratic regulars—and will continue for some time, doubtless—is not the introspection of a bloodied-but-wiser loser, but the petulant, selfish, vindictive and pouting vengeance of a child who has been set Jean Westwood because of what she represents. The McGovern reforms represented the exclusion of entrenched labor
There are many decent people among the party regulars, but in their stampe to retake the center—and their repudiation of them—been the men to be ready to surrender—the men needed to party of the little man retreat its steps to the bosom of the politically influential few.
support, fat cats, big-city bosses,
proper racists like George Wallace,
Henry Jackson hawks and all the
little and big polls. Those folks who
found themselves on the outside this
year are coming back in—and as far
as they are concerned there isn't
room for them and Jean Westwood.
There is nothing wrong in making an effort to unify the party. It is natural. But in this case, unification seems to mean exclusion. Should this be the case—as it appears—the nation's and, in the long run, the nation's.
Vindictiveness Prevails In Election
—Thomas E. Slaughter
Nixon's landslide was a victory for vindictiveness. Take the issue of amnesty, which plagued McGovern no matter he tried to fudge it. Nixon, with his better instinct for the voters' worst impulses, just got tougher on the issue.
And be right to the heart of this issue's appeal: the regular inductees had been charged with violating their resisters must also pay. As if patriotism and service were not their own reward—as in this war, they are not. The sacrifice was great. We have a meaningful through the sacrifice of others.
This talk reminds me of a Catholic friend's heated outburst against the reception of married priests back into the church's sacraments. "Why should they get away with it?" he asked. "Look at those who stayed in. Why should they bear
all the sacrifice, and others be rewarded just the same?''
What a desolate view of the priesthood that revealed—as something so dessicated and valueless in itself that only others' memory could make it worth anything at all.
Actually, few priests are vindictive toward their "fallen" brothers, precisely because their life has rewards that do not depend on inflicting misery on others. But the pitiful little "patriotism" of Nixon cannot make this claim. Who really is responsible for our culture's Wild West? They are not glorious in themselves, so we must level other people's payment for this war down to the supersal of our wasted men.
There is nothing surprising in this. The egalitarian vice always has been envy—the only vice that seeks no good thing in itself (as do lust and greed and ambition), but seeks only to strip good things away from others.
The disproportionate resentment expressed against "welfare chisiers" is a good example of this. It does not arise from a belief in the dignity of labor, of good things done with human sweat and skill. Many of the real "chisiers" in our society are those who draw good pay for shoddy work done—so little do they respect labor.
No, the resentment of welfare comes from bitter hatred of work, and equally bitter determination to inflict it on others: "Buddy, i pay—now you pay." That is: "I have been senseslessly brutalized, and I have been senseslessly being to escape the same brutalization!" Routed men, we would dwindle others down to our size. It is what we call democracy.
Capital punishment was voted back in by California—another good example of vindictiveness divorced from all social injustice. The law has little rehabilitation in others (and even that has its problems—sacrificing Mr. X to cure Mr. Y). No, the lynch instinct arises in cases where there is least premeditation of punishment or rape. A crazy man does not figure the calculus of punishment and then (numerically) desist; he will not be prevented by the spectacle of some other man's extinction on the altar of the state.
Yet still we cry for such extinction, for the death penalty in many forms. We want to kill other people down to our own small measure of life. And so—so aptly—we have made even Nixon respectable; made spite a virtue. By a landslide.
(C) 1972, Universal Press Syndicate
Jack Anderson
Fire Blamed on Navy Brass
WASHINGTON - A disastrous $15 million fire aboard the aircraft carrier Forrestal has been blamed, in part, upon the Navy brass who violated regulations by ignoring nancy, flammable furnishings.
The fire broke out last July in the resident admiral's "flag quarters," which had been set up to be a Miami Beach hotel suite.
The illegal drapes flamed up, the plush carpet smoldered, and the elegant ceiling tiles threw off clouds of smoke. The smoke and soot bilooled up fire passages and poured into decorate rooms. Some of it was destroyed beyond repair.
prohibit unauthorized alterations aboard ships.
The Navy quickly cracked down on the suspected arsonist, 19-year-old Seaman Jeffrey Allison, who will face a court martial November 27 for allegedly starting the fire.
But no disciplinary action has been announced against the big brass who ordered and approved the illegal, matchstick quarters. Navy rules not only ban almost all wooden construction but
The officer in charge of the fancy quarters was the Forrestal's skipper, Capt. R. F. Schultz. He presumably was outing the wishes of the admirals, who liked to go to sea in style.
Those responsible for converting the Forrestal's flag quarters into a luxurious firefair aren't the only offenders in the fleet. The company used fuel repair funds to buy luxury items for their suites.
Expensive paneling, flammatable two-by-fours, decorative sailing tiles, rich carpeting and solid Scandinavian furniture. An elegant room is provided by Congress for combat necessities, say our sources. A number of audacious flag officers even have hired interior decorators to lay out their designs in stylish colors and patterns.
Sometimes, the fancy trimmings have been installed by the ships' crew. Other times, the work has been done at shipyards.
To the University of Kansas Community:
Readers Respond The War, Mud Creek
Whir..rr..rr
The war continues to wind down.
Zumwalt reminded the admirals that in World War II fire damage outcost all other ship disasters. "I am concerned," he declared, "that many of the hard-learned lessons of World War II have been combustible furnishings aboard ships have been forgotten.
“Recent shipboard fires,” he has canned all ships, “particularly the Forrestal fire which was started in combustible furnishings in the flag quarters, emphasize the need to reestablish the control over the containers and eliminate unnecessary furnishings in ships throughout the fleet.”
My sincere sympathy for the next four years to all of you who sought an alternative this last election day.
Ellen Susan White
Journalism, May 1972
Vancouver
British Columbia
Plan "500"
Letter to the Editor:
But at all times, the bills have been paid by the taxpayers.
Letter to the Editor:
These illegal expenditures finally have drawn a rebuke from Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the navy chief, who doesn't seem to mind the elegant quarters so much as the fire hazard.
I attended the public meeting on plans for flood control of Mud Creek last Thursday evening at Grant School. It seemed to me that the best and least cost plan would be the most fitted toward the end of the meeting by a professor of geography at the University of
"We cannot wait for the start of actual combat to make our ships less vulnerable to useless loss of life and property," he observed commanders to get rid of all possible flammable furnishings.
Kansas. This plan, known as alternative "500," would provide lakes in the watershed upstream and would eliminate the need for channelization as provided in the 1969 corps of Engineers 369 Corps.
This seems like a sound plan, and it has been used in the past by many people in rivers, so why wouldn't it work just as well on Mud Creek. It would help the water resources keep part of the silt out of Mud Creek.
I also would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of the 3rd commissioner district for their support given to me last Tuesday when I was elected your County Commissioner.
Will the people have a chance to vote on alternative plan "500?" I doubt it.
I. J. Stoneback
Route 4
Lawrence, Kansas
The Naval Board of Inspection and Survey, he warned, will investigate "any instances of unnecessary furnishings."
Red Carpet
Embassies in Europe have been ordered to roll out the red carpet for five congressmen and their wives, who had planned to make a grand pre-Christmas visit to London, Madrid, Nairobi and Rome.
After we made inquiries, however, most of the prospective sightseers began backing out of the trip.
A cable, meanwhile, had already gone out from Secretary of State William Rogers to the embassies, ordering them to meet, assist, provide transportation for the travelers.
The congressmen wanted separate cars and chauffeurs at each stop. "Codel (congressional representative) is doing it with drivers," added Rogers.
"Use of local currencies ... up to equivalent US dols 50 per day," he directed, "plus actual transportation costs authorized."
had signed up for the trip as follows: "Representative James M. Hanley, chairman, Mrs. Hanley and son Peter (17 years old): Representative Morris Udall and Mrs. Udall; Representative Joseph Reagan and Mrs. Mills; Representative Frank Brasco and Mrs. Brasco; Representative Lawrence J. Hogan and Mrs. Hogan."
Udall, Brasco and Hogan told us they had decided not to go.
The cable identified those who
Chairman Hanley said he hadn't made up his mind whether to make the trip. He would prefer to stay and home with the access with his family, he said. If he was in Europe, and son "at my own expense."
The purpose of the trip, he explained, is to investigate the defense program for overseas children.
Copyright, 1972,
by United Feature Syndicate, Inc
- HENRY, BE PRANK WITH ME IS THE LOVELIGHT DYING IN YOUR EYES OF BLUE?*
James J. Kilpatrick
It is the problem of Rosebud and Lord Macaulay. They are skunks.
Squatters Pose Smelly Problem
A considerable problem in diplomacy, strategy and old-fashioned hospitality has arisen at our small spread here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a problem that we have proclaimed with delicacy and courage, if indeed it has to be approached at all.
Our problems up here, you will understand, are not problems of large dimensions; no crime, no drugs, no traffic, no sirens in the night. This time of year, to tell the truth, there is not much to do. November is that kind of month. If a cow wiggles through a fence
and comes up in the yard,
Lorenzo chases the beast away
and we talk about it for two or
three days. Anyhow Lorenzo
looks up in it for two or three
days. He is a great talker,
collie.
But about Rosebud. The general rule at our place is that Lorenzo kills the groundhogs, my wife mira kills the mice. I swat the flies, but otherwise no one kills anything. The rule is live and to live. If the human race is survived by the sick, we have a better human race. Here the rule works admirably for quail, doves, deer, fox, possum, 'coon, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, and even snakes, and
of course Rosebud and Lord Macauley are entitled to the same Amendment. But are they—well, they are skunks.
Rosebud appeared about a month ago, along a fence row a hundred yards from the house, a cunning creature, black as a Bible, with a whitewashed face and whipped tail. She was grubbing away in the front field, minding her own business. She moved to look at Rosebud, and Rosebud looked back at us. Lorenzo, who is nobody's fool, lay down and looked the other way.
This was about the middle of October. Every night now we see
Rosebod on patrol. Once, coming home from a good party, I durned near ran over her in the driveway. Since then we have been coming up that driveway and I will tell you the way, we wait till the don't sign changes. Live and let live.
Then, 10 days ago, we were coming home by twilight, ver-ry slow, and there was her gentleman friend. Back in the apartment, she's in the empire's platform for the tennis tournament—plywood nailed on a couple of sawhorses—and sitting on that platform, if you would believe it, haughtly surveying the wasteless no noblest skunk if ever saw.
Letters Policy
Letters to the editor should be typewritten, double-spaced and should not exceed 500 words. All letters are subject to editing and condensation, according to space limitations and the editor's judgment. Students must provide their name, year in school and home town; faculty and staff must provide their name and position; others must provide their name and address.
Editorials, columns and letters on this page reflect only the opinions of the writers.
and black smoking jacket,
smoking a thin cigar. We are
having a flossy party next week
for the press. Suppose the
paint comes with contingent
comes up the drive, and za-a-ja!
It boggles the mind.
Griff and the Unicorn
By Sokoloff
One distant friend has suggested that Lord Macaulai and his paramour be trapped alive and transported. Some months ago, when the chimpmunks bird beder feeds blind, I bought two Hav-a-Hart traps, one small, middle-sized, but I never had the heart to set the big one and the small one caught nothing but Charlie the chipping sparrow. It caught him twice and he was burned up. But where would you give a live skunk out of the trap?
So there is the problem. It is not exactly a monumental problem, compared to those that afflict the larger world, but it worries me. Rosebud was grubbing away last night within 29 yards of the house. If Dr. Kissinger will hurry up and get the police out, then this, perhaps he could run out some weekend and negotiate a truce with these character. Otherwise we may have to let Lord Macaulay referee the next tournament, and who wants this guy to keep score?
Universal Press Syndicate 197
What to do? They have moved in. They have taken up housekeeping. Last week Rosebud hung out a line of wash. Rosebud was sitting around the court suiting around the court suit by evening, in white ruffled shirt
He had a certain arrogance about him. You remember Macaualuq? "I do not hesitate to pronounce," he used to say. After a while, when it suited him and not one moment before, this skunk shunned dart and stroped up behind the wall, telling me that skunks amble, or waddle, or lumber along. Lord Macaualuq strove.
(C) The Washington Star Syndicate, Inc.
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