KANSAN Comment
27 at Presidio
Because of the nature of military justice, the Presidio 27 case is simple to explain.
First, three definitions are necessary. Mutiny by Army standards, is any group of more than two which has organized in violation of authority. Total power is that which the military has over the mind, body soul, and life of its members. Military justice decrees that a man is not innocent until proven guilty but guilty until proven innocent when brought before a military court.
Oct. 11, 1968, Private Richard Bunch was shot by a guard at the San Francisco Presidio stockade. Bunch, 19, had been put into the army prison for being AWOL. He had earlier been examined by Army psychiatrists; his mother had requested that he be admitted to the hospital for psychiatric care because he had been found to have suicidal tendencies.
Bunch asked the prison guard if he would shoot him if Bunch tried to run away from the stockade. The guard replied that he would. Bunch asked him to aim for his head and then ran. The guard shot him in the head.
Although the unarmed prisoner could have easily been apprehended without shooting, the killing was designated justifiable homicide by the Army.
However, Oct. 14 the other prisoners in the stockade protested by singing "We Shall Overcome." The 27 men were charged with "nonviolent mutiny"; the maximum sentence for this crime is life imprisonment.
The men were to be tried in small groups. The first three tried were given 14 to 16-year prison terms.
Now the prison term of the first man sentenced, Nesrey Sood, has been reduced from 15 to 2 years, presumably because of public pressure against the case.
At present, the Army and all the military bodies are sovereign entities within the context of a democracy. No one outside the military has any right to even question its treatment of one of its members, whether enlisted or drafted.
The existence of a soldier, sailor or airman is dependent upon the whim and wishes of his superiors. At the moment of his induction, a man loses his constitutional rights as a citizen of the United States. This holds true whether the country is in grave danger in war or is relatively safe in peace.
But if public sentiment can work as strongly in the fate of the rest of the victims of the Presidio "mutiny," as it has in the reduction of Sood's sentence, perhaps the fearsome grip of the military can be loosened.
Then maybe the military can be brought under the influence of the democracy and men, who are supposed to be defending their country, can enjoy the privileges of democratic justice. (AMS)
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CAPE KENNEDY (UPI) — Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, who is to pilot a spacecraft closer to the moon than man has ever gone:
Quotes
"We expect a fantastic view. We've seen photographs from 60 miles. We can only extrapolate really what moving across that surface at eight to ten miles might be."
To the Editor:
In reply to the Diebolt and Entriken editorials of April 8.
"Within the very near future, we can either move toward our objective, a just and honorable peace, or we might lose the opportunity to establish peace."
NEWARK, N.J. — Mrs. Della James, 68, refusing medical attention for her dog, Dolly, who fought off three attackers despite a bullet wound in the nose:
WASHINGTON King Hussein of Jordan, on peace in the Mideast:
Readers defend, criticize blacks
Apparently the Black Student Union understands more fully than do Kansan editorialists the true meaning of white invocation of
"My baby took care of me and I'm going to take care of her."
CHICAGO — Adai Stevenson III, celebrating the victory of a candidate for alderman whom he backed against Mayor Richard J. Daley's political machine:
"Bill Singer's victory is . . . a hopeful signal for a new Chicago, for better government in Chicago and a Democratic party which is more democratic."
"If you can tax me because I am single, you can tax me because my eyes are gray, my hair is white, or I am 72 years old. I have no more control over these conditions than I have over my martial status. How many eligible, single men age, 72 or thereabouts do you know?"
WASHINGTON - Miss Vivian Kellems, who is 72 years old and says she will refuse to pay her income tax because the tax discriminates against single persons;
"democratic" principles. Your idiotic fulminations and incomplete logic are hollow because the reality doesn't jibe with the images you so flippantly try to create.
So please ... don't insult us with this "democratic principles" garbage until you're sure the pendulum has, in fact, come back to the center. As long as society at large remains sold on the practices of oppression (while lipping heavy on images of democracy), don't expect the logic of democracy to apply to pom-pon girl selection. That bill of goods just isn't relevant—not yet anyway.
John Lee
Lawrence graduate student
To the Editor:
This letter concerns the pom-pon squad controversy. There seems to be some dispute over who the pom-pon girls actually represent. Is it the team or the students as a whole?
The students should assert their right to elect the pom-pon squad. When spring elections are held, those girls wishing to be on the squad could submit their names as candidates. Then the students can vote on any basis that they choose, be it beauty, popularity or race.
Or, if the girls represent all the students, then they should be elected by the student body as a whole. Presently the selection of the girls is out of the hands of either the team or the student body. The administration is the guiding force behind their selection.
The BSU considers the pom-pon girls to be representatives of the team and therefore should, in some sense, reflect its racial composition. If, in fact, the girls are representatives of the team, then perhaps they should be selected by the team members.
Stephen J. Schof
Lawrence Senior
Phyllis Johnson
Salina junior
Poll shows Americans favor war end
In a sample of 1,536 adults, Sindlinger found that 37.6 per cent of those questioned supported the Vietnamese war effort, 47.5 opposed it and 14.9 had no opinion.
NEW YORK (UPI) - A nationwide survey by Sindlinger & Co. indicated that more Americans oppose the war in Vietnam than support it but two-thirds are opposed to a solution of the war that would involve a coalition government including communists.
Some 54.5 per cent of the women and 40.2 per cent of the men said they opposed the war, and 26.1 per cent of the women and 49.9 per cent of the men said they supported it.
Only 13.8 per cent of those questioned said they agreed with the proposal for a coalition government, which has frequently been proposed as a solution to the war. Some 66.5 per cent said they disagreed and 19.6 per cent had no opinion.
Sindlinger & Co. is a market analysis firm which prepares its polls for institutional clients. The polls are made by long distance telephone from New York to every state except Hawaii and Alaska.
The numbers are chosen by a computer programmed to make representative selections of voting age Americans.
RX for Social Ills: CONCERN!
So said Mrs. Elizabeth Watson, a 79-year-old widow when she was honored at Philadelphia General Hospital for 28 years of service as a volunteer.
PHILADELPHIA (UPI) Our great lack today is that people are not concerned about other people."
Mrs. Watson, former buyer at a center-city department store, has been spreading cheer at the hospital since 1941. She chats with patients or reads to them. She also carries a basket containing toiletries and religious tracts, explaining, "I give them a lot of little things they need and would not otherwise get."
Her rounds include the tuberculosis ward, where she does not fear contagion.