The Battalion
Viewpoint
July 8, 1981
Television viewers consumed
Slouch By Jim Earl
by abundance of diet plans
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Morning television
fans recently were witness to an acrimo
nious wrangle between two rival diet book
authors appearing on the same talk show.
The exchange was not perhaps as dys
peptic as might have been heard had two
talk show hosts been pitted before the
same cameras. But it was nonetheless high
ly unseemly.
No other country on Earth has ever
enjoyed such a rich variety of diet plans as
is available to the overweight of America.
The spectacle of two leading gurus bicker
ing on the public airwaves was indecorous
to say the least.
> Try visiting one of the so-called “Third
World” countries sometime. The relatively
meager choice of diet plans available to
~ even the wealthier inhabitants of those be-
> nighted lands will make your heart heavy
with pity.
>; I have heard stories of aborigines along
: the Amazon River who average less than
two diet plans per tribe. Contrast that with
our own abundance.
In this country, diet books are published
in such profusion that reviewers are hard
pressed to keep abreast of the tide. The
Sunday literary section of one newspaper I
read not long ago lumped five new diet
books into a single review.
Imagine what talk show duels do to
America’s image in undeveloped parts of
the world where there aren’t enough diet
plans to fight over.
I remember when I was a child I used to
balk at eating hot tamales for breakfast. My
mother would try to shame me into down
ing the portion on my plate.
“Many poor kids in faraway places don’t
have diet plans that include hot tamales for
breakfast,” she would admonish.
I would hang my head remorsefully and
gulp down a few bites. I never did learn to
like tamales for breakfast but it was a lesson
I never forgot.
Call me a do-gooder if you must, but I
believe the United States would be wise to
share its diet plan plentitude with less
fortune people about the globe.
Just ask yourself this: Do you want your
children to inherit a world in which half the
people have more diet plans than they can
possibly follow and the other half are barely
able to choose between calories and car
bohydrates?
-For an illustration of this principle at
work, consider the composite country of
Lower Bagatelle. The only edible plant it
can grow is colewort. Lacking funds to im
port food, Lower Batatellians consume an
awful lot of colewort.
The conventional wisdom would be to
supply Lower Bagatelle with cookbooks
showing different ways to prepare col
ewort. That type of foreign aid obviously
generates resentment toward the benefac
tors, activating the Ugly American syn
drome.
But send them a new diet plan in which
colewort is the only authorized dish and we
will have won their eternal gratitude, plus
a loyal ally.
the small society
by Brickman
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Berlin: still a very special place
By DAVID S. BRODER
BERLIN — It was 36 years ago this
Fourth of July that the first American
troops entered Berlin to take up their occu
pation duties. It was 18 years ago this June
26 that President Kennedy made his “Ich
bin ein Berliner” speech, reaffirming the
American commitment to the freedom of
the city that the Soviets had severed, two
years earlier, with their infamous wall.
So it was appropriate that halfway be
tween those two anniversary dates, on
June 30, a man who has been at the center
of American policy in postwar Germany
came back to Berlin for a welcome from the
city and the U.S. Berlin Command.
John J. McCloy, the first American civi-
I: lian high commissioner for Germany, is 86
now, but spry of step, quick of wit and as
Z focused in his analysis as in his reminisc-
Z; ence. He dominated an Aspen Institute of
Berlin seminar on U.S.-European differ-
Z ences in foreign policy, not just by his pre-
Z- sence but by the pointedness of his obser-
: vations. And he amazed his hosts by going
straight from the conference table to long
evenings at the opera and ballet with no
Z- sign of fatigue.
McCloy was welcomed back to Berlin by
r the city’s new governing mayor, Richard
I von Weizasacker, and one morning was
* honored by the army with a military review
and the unveiling of his portrait at the
Z headquarters of the Berlin Command.
T The old man was touching and funny, as
I he told how he had persuaded Franklin D.
» Roosevelt that Gen. Lucius D. Clay would
I be a better choice that himself for the first
Z U.S. high commissioner, and when asked
► by President Truman to succeed Clay, was
Z able to say to the perplexed chief execu-
Z tive, “It’s not the first time that job has
Z- been offered to me.”
Z- But as McCloy made clear in the semi
nar, he is concerned at the strains in the
U.S.-German alliance that he and his con
temporaries forged from the ruins of World
War II, strains that show in the rising Ger
man criticism of the Reagan administra
tion’s nuclear policy. And he is worried
that the younger generation of Germans
and Americans may not appreciate even
what Berlin symbolizes as a showcase of
freedom behind the Iron Curtain.
On the latter point, at least, there may
be solid — and not just sentimental —
reasons for reassuring McCloy. The West
Berliners celebrated their freedom this
year in the most practical way possible, at
the polling place, voting in Von Weizsack-
er in a stunning rebuke to the Social Demo
crats who had run the city since liberation
days and had grow sloppy and even corrupt
in the process.
On the evening of his portrait ceremony,
there was another celebration of freedom
— a peaceful protest march through the
downtown streets by some 5,000 youths,
protesting the shortage of housing. With
the memories of the Berlin of Nazi days, it
was something to see the police lined up,
with clubs and shields ready, to protect the
store windows from being shattered by
making no move to interfere with the pro
cess.
And later in the day, when I visited some
of the American troops who had partici
pated in the McCloy ceremony, there was
reassurance of another kind. Most of these
men are too young, of course, to have any
memories of the Berlin Blockade, the Ber
lin Wall’s erection or Kenndey’s speech —
let alone Berlin the Nazi capital reduced to
rubble in the war.
Berlin is now considered “good duty” for
the 7,000 Americans in the military contin
gent. There is good housing for those with
families who serve a three-year tour. The
tour for single or unaccompanied enlisted
men has been reduced recently from two
yers to 18 months, helping their morale.
Because the operating costs of the Berlin
garrison are paid by the West German gov
ernment (since the city is still formally
“occupied territory"), the post has avoided
some of the stringencies imposed by recent
Pentagon budget squeezes.
The mission remains partly symbol,
partly substance. The troops train con
stantly in MOUT — military operations in
urban territory, practicing house-to-house
fighting in mock-up buildings. But with 22
enemy divisions encircling them, the U. S.,
British and French contingents are primar
ily a trip-wire force.
The sense of isolation is a problem.
“There are 112 miles of wall,” one sergeant
remarked, “and you can only go around so
many times without feeling like a rat in a
maze.” Idleness is also a problem. Troops
train intensively for six weeks, patrol and
pull other details for six weeks then have
six weeks of relative leisure.
The city of Berlin is, according to Col.
David H. Harris and Lt. Col. Robert H.
Wood, “awash” with drugs, and controlling
drug abuse is a challenge for the officers
and non-coms. But the attentiveness of
company commanders like Capts. Warren
Crecy and Dave Benjamin and Sgts. Greg
ory McGuire and Timothy Johnson — plus
a “buddy system” that matches a new arriv
al with a Berlin veteran of his own age, rank
and background — is, they say, reducing
the problem.
Meantime, the army continues to show
the flag in a fashion McCloy would
approve, making daily “flag tours” in U.S.
Army sedans through East Berlin and en
couraging Americans in uniform to visit the
old Communist sector, in order to demons
trate the Americans’ right of access.
| Warped By Scott McCullar
“Before we consider the problem at hand, could I suggest that
you look for some other recreation to replace the Frisbee?”
Reagan’s choice
long overdue
Writer’s
cramp
by Angelique Copeland
dangered, she doesn’t fill the NRLC
Even if O’Connor overcomes thee
sition and the Senate confirms herno;
tion, she will still have a long way';
There are those who will considerk
ery ruling from the angle “she voted
way because she is a woman. ” Notonl
she have to fight the stereotypes thall
kept other women before her off theta
with every decision she writes shewilfr
those battles all over again.
Jim Kapj
Missions
been his
Co
It’s about time.
President Reagan’s nomination of Arizo
na Judge Sandra O’Connor to succeed re
tiring Supreme Court Justice Potter Ste
wart will end two centuries of male exclu
sivity on the high court.
Already there have been cries that the
only reason O’Connor received the nomi
nation is because she is a woman, not be
cause she is the best candidate for the job.
But if Reagan had not moved now to break
up the brotherhood on the court, similar
cries would have arisen whenever an
attempt was made to place a woman on the
bench.
While O’Connor would be the first
woman on the Supreme Court, she is by no
means the first qualified woman candidate
over the last 200 years. In the past, a com
bination of tradition, fear and ignorance
has worked to obscure the talents of other
female justices when there have been
openings on the Supreme Court.
And just because a woman has finally
been nominated, the battle is a long way
from being over.
Things will not be easy for our aspiring
first woman Supreme Court Justice. The
president of the National Right to Life
Committee (NRLC) has already
announced “the entire pro-life movement
will oppose her confirmation,” because
they say she has generally supported abor
tion legislation and the Equal Rights
Amendment from her post on the Arizona
Court of Appeals.
NRLC leaders feel like Reagan’s nomi
nation is a slap in the face, since it was their
conservative, middle-class vote that played
a big part in getting him elected.
Recalling the Republican platform and
President Reagan’s often-stated recogni
tion of the right to life of unborn babies,
NRLC feels betrayed. That platform called
for appointment of judges who “respect
traditional family values and the sanctity of
human life” — conservative code-words for
those who oppose the Equal Rights
Amendment and abortion. Because in
1974, O’Connor sponsored a bill to put the
ERA to an advisory referendum of voters
and because she once opposed a bill to
forbid abortions at University Hospital in
Tucson unless the mother’s life was en
But at least the first step has beentt
The feminists and the women si
tionists are rejoicing over Reagans
with tradition by nominating out!
“theirs” for a seat on the nation’s bif
court. All America should rejoice®
milestone this country has passed■
way toward real equality and freed®
to
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