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Tuesday, January 25,1977
University Dally Kansam
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Opinions on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of KU or the School of Journalism
Pardon just a start
So far, Jimmy Carter is proving to be true to his word.
Just a little more than 24 hours after taking the presidential oath of office, he fulfilled one of his campaign promises by sending a delegation to the national pardon to all Vietnam draft evaders.
With a mere stroke of his pen, Carrier put to rest an issue that had simmered and at times escalated.
RICHARD NIXON would not grant amnesty to those men who refused to serve his country during the Vietnam era. This gave those who had protested the U.S. involvement in Vietnam one more reason to castigate Nixon, the war and America's "love it or leave it" mentality. Gerald Ford granted a conditional amnesty—draft evaders and deserters could return to the United States providing that they compensate for their wrongdoings by working for a time as public servants.
Ford's amnesty program was less than a smashing success, Conservative groups, particularly veterans' organizations, clamored that Ford was being too lenient. Representatives of deserter groups screamed even louder, saying that Ford's action was hypocritical, considering that he had just granted Nixon a full, complete and unconditional pardon for all crimes he might have committed while President.
SO, AFTER all these years, Carter has said to America's draft evaders overseas, "Come home, boys. All is forgiven." And to the thousands of deserters and ex-military men with dishonorable discharges, Carter will say, "I'll figure out what to do with you later."
Carter's swift response to the amnesty issue has in turn drawn swift responses from critics and friends. His opponents say that
his pardon will set an unfortunate precedent in the event of another war: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" could be a reality the next time around, they say.
That rationale is pure hogwash. Should there be a next time around, those who have the guts to serve their country will do so. Those who have the guts to flee the draft and take sanctuary far away from home and family also will do so.
and should there be a next time around,
perhaps American intervention or participation in a war will be justified. Then
we're going to admit that we wouldn't be such a matter of conscience.
SUPPORTERS of Carter's pardon say he has taken a major step in healing the nation's wounds. They are correct, in a sense. His will help to repair the wounds inflicted by 25 years' involvement in a futile conflict. Thanks to Carter, thousands of men can be reunited with their family and friends back home.
But his supporters are wrong if they assume that the pardon is but the first of several magical tricks that Carter has up his sleeve. He will be granted with a simple stroke of a pen.
Unfortunately, most other problems that
America can't be dismissed quite so easily.
IN 1977, there are still many Americans who are impoverished, who are unemployed or who fear for their lives whenever they step outside their homes. The presidents who preceded Carter never sufficiently met the needs of those Americans, either because they didn't really want to or because the task was too monumental for one person.
Vietnam is part of the past. But there are other problems that were with us then, and are still with us. It is those wounds to which Carter must now turn.
WESTPHIL
Cabinet's fresh faces scoured
Cabinet selections and other top-level appointments of Jimmy Carter's seem to reflect Carter's ideals of a new
Washington with some fresh faces.
However, two appointments each involving men who've
Dogged days for Susan, press
Along with the 20,000-plus students who enrolled at the University of Kansas last week was a celebration of sorts.
of sorts, because the press made her so. Susan Ford, always a private citizen, yet always in the public eye, continued that posture, though perhaps not much more than three hours after her father, Gerald Ford, became citizen Gerald Ford,
seen or talked to her under different circumstances. Just another sophomore, waiting in line for the enrollment cards. buying books.
WE KNEW. Bloodhounds that we are, the press eagerly anticipated, Field House. She was later than she had expected. And in our pre-specacle camaraderie, the girls didn't come off that gauntliness would come off.
She joined fellow sophomores Thursday in the t tedious enrolment process with which she had never been familiar. Yet few of those colleagues would have known who she was had they seen or talked to her under different circumstances. Just another sophomore, waiting in line, fill up enrolment cards, bailing books.
She wouldn't show, we predicted. Why should she? She was, instead, playing it smart and planning to enroll late, we thought. Or else she was in Washington, watching some citizen Ford. Sounded like more fun to us. anway.
we waited, perhaps drawn to the crowd of about 20 camera-takers, who noted a notebook-armed reporters. A clever disguise, someone joked. The dog was probably just as likely to be disappointed, but probably less ashamed.
A dog, bearing a striking resemblance to the Ford family's dog, Liberty, joined the photographers and reporters as
FORD ARRIVED.
The hounds picked up the scent. "Is that her?" "Yea, that's her, with her head down."
And off we went, represent-
who curiously peered over our shoulders to see what was going on. But our bosses thought differently.
A media event?
A press mess. Unabashedly, photographers, their motor-driven equipment whirring and clicking away, jammed cameras into her face. Reporters shot questions at her—meaningless questions to a woman who had been asked
Bill Sniffen
Editorial Writer
nalism's adviser table. Sitting behind it were the same men and women who had taught me or who had tried to teach me that the story was all-important. B ruthless; be tactless, if necessary. They, too, seemed embarrassed.
for the chance for the knockout punch.
BUT FORD HAS been through it all before and knows, much to her credit, how to deal with obvious newsmen. She responded with simple "Yes's" and "No's", or short, plain and simple statements of which great news stories are not made.
I returned to Flint Hall to file my not-so-momentary story. I was surprised to see the dog who had awarded Fart's arrival card. I waited for him, waiting at Flint's front door. He still looked curiously up at me.
tatives of the Associated Press,
United Press International,
the Lawrence Daily Journal World.
the University Daily Karsan and
the Kansas City Star (em).
Our pre-gala canarderette for
we elbowed KU students,
and following Ford around the field
house like chicks following their
mother hen.
My only hope now is that some editor somewhere doesn't want me to cover Ford's first at KU. I'm having second thoughts about journalism as a school teacher, and "Susan Ford Begins Classes at KU" might be enough to send me over the edge.
Or rather more like sharks that have picked up the scent of fresh blood.
"Who's that?" a student asked. "That's Susan Ford," her companion answered. So she asked the camera. She elbowed aside by a zealous cameraman from a Kansas City television station. (Or it was a Secret Service Agent!) Funny enough, she sticks to blurs what one wants to bury.
Ford probably wasn't surprised at the attention. She expected it and I admired her hair. They were both major in journalism. Someday, she knows, she may be jamming cameras into equally reluctant faces and asking the camera to also want to be left alone, who also want to be left alone.
THIS STUDENT'S nonchalant answer belied an underlying truth about the media: The news is what we say it is. And Susan Ford was news that day.
them them thousand times before,
and who wanted merely to be left alone—reporters jabbing like light heavyweights waits
THE LOW POINT of the day occurred when Ford sought advice at the School of Jour-
Not to me; not to the students
record, and many, including Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, have promised that it will be no gala affair.
Price rise brings on the battle of the bean
The battle lines are drawn once again at supermarkets throughout the country; the war against inflation has again been escalated by the recent price increases inflicted upon coffee.
Consumers are trying to unite for a boycott of coffee in protest of the dramatic price increases, which have been as much as 80 per cent.
The South American nations that export coffee to the United States have cited their weather-damaged crop this year as the reason for the immediate increases, although the current
Aside from the Bell nomination, Carter has shown wit and color in other selections.
coffee crop slated for harvesting won't likely reach our supermarket shelves for another two years. In justifying the cost of buying the current price hikes will offset their anticipated losses.
a commodity that has firmly entrenched itself in the routine of American life. It is reasonably safe to assume that consumers won't easily give it up.
The particular problem facing consumers now is whether an adequate substitute for coffee can be found, and that seems doubtful—Americans love their coffee too much.
THE QUESTION of whether an actual shortage exists or will exist remains unanswered, and is often a source of finds itself at the mercy of yet.
"HI, THERE! I'M PARTICIPATING IN THE COFFEE BROTHER!"
Paul Jefferson
Editorial Writer
another foreign country's whim to tighten its hold on American pursetrings.
American coffee drinkers (who constitute a big chunk of the population) find themselves in the middle during the 1974 oil and natural gas embargoes; indications are that an organized nationwide effort have the same—less, minimal effect on future coffee prices.
BOYCOTTS AND calls for coffee substitutes are, nevertheless, rapidly being courted. Meanwhile, the television commercials continue to export decaffeinated products in product in all its inimitable (mountain-grown, decaffeinated and acid-free) forms.
ONE POST needing an experienced headache is that of state, Mr. Ziegler confirmed by the Senate already, has been acclaimed worldwide. As a former uncle of former President George W. Bush, he earned a reputation as a world leader.
Coffee, while not an invaluable imported resource, is
UNLIKE SOME commodities, imported coffee is definitely better than domestic, as it takes longer to crisis, such as war rationing. Americans will continue to buy it in great quantity, all the while shaking their fists at the coffee shop, the grocers and Mrs. Olsen.
Besides, boycotts are by nature only temporary solutions.
And as if coffee prices weren't headache enough, tea importers have sent notice that their prices may soon increase, and the unexpected cold wave in January has increased orange juice prices at a level that few can afford to pay regularly.
served the federal government before,have become victimized by criticism and controversy.
Breakfast may soon replace dinner as the most expensive meal of the day. It's enough to drive a person to drink.
The controversial selection—that of Theodore Sorensen as CIA director—ended with Sorensen being more or less forced to withdraw his name from consideration.
IT WAS that action that seemed to show that some members of Congress were unwilling toward making the CIA more open to public scrutiny, something Sorensen
favored as director-designee and something Carter favors for all governmental agencies.
Jay Bemis Editorial Writer
Sorensen's critics had contended that he used classified materials during his days with the Kennedy administration and that he was too inexperienced to head the intelligence department. Sorensen has denied those claims, but he "scurrilous and unfounded personal attacks which have anonymously circulated against me."
As counsel and a close friend of Kennedy, Sorensen seemed to be one of Carter's more selective and outstanding selections.
NOW THE man who hoped to provide "objective intelligence not policy to the President" as CIA director must step aside, and Carter must find someone who will succumb to the wishes of those that want the same CIA we've had in the past.
The selection that has cost Carter a good deal of criticism is that of attorney-general Robert Mueller, an Atlanta lawyer and former federal appellate judge, did seem headed for a federal job since he helped Carter, actively participate, in his White House bid.
BUT AS attorney general-tobe, Bell has been attacked by such black organizations as the Black Caucus and the NAACP, because of what they see as injustice in school education. Georgian resistance to court-ordered school desegregation in the late 1950s.
Clarence Mitchell, an NAACP official, has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and has said that Bell had fallen victim to segregationists during a school district fight 20 years ago.
Also questioned has been Bell's membership to several private clubs in Georgia which have grown from their membership.
CARTER CERTAINLY didn't anticipate, nor did he want, what was going on leading black organizations. It's been clear from studies that blacks were most instrumental in getting Carter elected
Bell will appear before the full Senate today for questioning on his civil rights
troubleshooter and it's one with such a reputation the reins's needed to take over the reins of Henry Kissinger.
Perhaps the one who'll need the most energy in the next four years is Georgian Rep. Andrew Young, who's been named as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Young will find problems involving Vietnam, Arabs and Israel when he begins his new assignment, but his most important task is with Africans deprived of the Third World.
AFRICANS KNOW of Young already and are expecting a lot from him, because of his brightest black members of Congress. What the Africans will want most from Young is a halt to apartheid practices in South Africa countries.
One Carter creation that deserves applause is the new "energy czar" will. The new "energy czar" will be James
Schlesinger, who's known as a hardenser from his years as Secretary of Defense and director of the former Atomic Energy Commission. Energy conservation, as witnessed in recent weeks, is one of the most pressing problems and the appointment of Schlesinger could help ease the situation.
THE REST of Carter's cabinet comprises:
—Two women, Juanna Kreps as secretary of commerce and Patricia Roberts Harris as business using and urban development;
Two former congressmen, Brock Adams, secretary of transportation, and Bob White, secretary of agriculture:
-Two who immigrated here earlier in their lives, Joseph Califano, secretary of health, education and welfare, and Michael Blumenthal, secretary of commerce;
—A fellow Georgian, Bert Lance, who started his career as a $a$-month bank teller and worked at the management of Management and Budget;
—Harold Brown, a former Air Force secretary, who is secretary of defense.
—F. RAY Marshall, secretary of labor, who was raised in an orphanage and in this his way toward a EHL.D., and
Despite disapproval of a few of his choices, Jimmy Carter has molded together a cabinet that includes the American people than any cabinet of past administrations. Women and blacks are represented, as well as Northerners and Southerners. It's a world where the cabinet is interested in bringing government to the people.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
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