Opinion
LOG
Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, January 14, 1985
Back to talking
After more than a year of turning up noses at one another,
the United States and the Soviet Union have finally come back to
the bargaining table and agreed to continue their dialogue.
Neither has agreed to be cooperative or compromising, but
the fact that they have agreed to talk is a modest step forward.
The leaders in Washington and Moscow have taken the first step
toward recognizing and admitting that there is a problem, that
the nuclear arms race has to be gotten under control.
The tension and hostility that have been rapidly increasing
between the two super powers is dangerous — dangerous for
the entire world. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. have got to talk;
they have got to talk about the nuclear arms race instead of try
ing to keep each other in the dark. And if they really want to
control the arms race they are initially going to have to ban at
least certain types of testing.
The true test of the sincerity and concern of both sides is still
ahead. Whether or not any progress will be made toward dis
arming the world remains to be seen, but at least there is a possi
bility now. At least there is some hope.
The Battalion Editorial Board
News service would
hurt press freedom
Recently, a group
of Mexican reporters
left their jobs with
Mexico City’s Uno
Mas Uno newspaper
Loren
Steffy
because they felt the paper was too close
to the government.
Mexico boasts freedom of the press,
but the news media, which is closely
linked to the government, rarely deals
with controversial material or investi
gates public agencies. Although the me
dia is technically free, governmental ad
vertisements are its main source of
income. The “free press” comes with
strings attached.
In America, our news media prides it
self on, among other things, being a
watchdog of the government. Ameri
cans expect the press to be objective in
relaying information from Washington.
Some people say the press isn’t accu
rate enough. Even President Reagan
has said the media distorts his views or
fails to interpret his words correctly.
For this reason, Reagan has decided
to bring the people “unfiltered” news by
creating his own White House “news
service.” The service would provide
transcripts of presidential speeches and
announcements. It also flushes the ideal
of a totally free press down the toilet.
The service would give the White
House control over all press releases
from the executive branch. In other
words, we, the people, will be hearing
exactly and only what the White House
wants us to.
Obviously, a government-sponsored
service will not investigate controversial
actions of the government. Biting the
hand that feeds you is not a common
practice in Washington.
This lack of investigative reporting
leaves the news service open for abuse.
If freedom of the press is to work, the
media must be uninhibited in its mon
itoring of government activities, except,
of course, where national defense is
concerned. To issue press releases and
other information through a govern
ment-controlled news agency is a step
towards Orwellism.
Reagan should be admired for caring
enough to want his words to be reported
faithfully, and he should be com
mended for trying to do something
about it, but starting his own news
agency is not an appropriate answer. I
can’t help but think if Nixon had had his
own news service, maybe he could have
kept his job.
An unidentified White House official
said Reagan’s aides feel the president’s
LETTERS:
Liberal worried about
‘moral relativism’
EDITOR:
I am a liberal, and as such I believe
that the sources of society’s ills are not
laziness, lack of piety or absolute accep
tance of some official dogma, having it
too easy, etc., but sick views and sick as
pirations. One cancerous ideological ail
ment that worries me at the present is
moral relativism.
Moral relativism makes the following
assumptions: that everyone’s morals are
limited to their culture (time, national
ity, ethnic group, socioeconomic rank),
therefore no one is qualified to say
whether an action is good or evil when
committed by someone from another
culture. What’s evil in our culture may
be good in theirs — how would we
know? Would we want him from an
other culture to pass judgement on us?
Another implicaton of moral relativism
is that we cannot condemn other people
for doing something that we did before
ourselves, even if we now regard what
we did as evil and would not repeat the
act if the situation occurred again. We
had our day of imperialist glory, so now
it’s their turn!
Neo-conservatives, come out of your
shells! Before the student revolt every
one knew you and admired you as liber
als! I was born just three years before
that tragic event reached its climax and
grew up thinking of you as conserva
tives like all my peers, until some out
side reading of Robert A. Heinlein,
H.G. Wells, Whittaker Chambers, Rob
ert Owen, et al exploded the lies I had
been forced to memorize.
Richard William Burden
Class of ’88
‘World class’ parking:
parking across globe
EDITOR:
How is anyone who makes these as
sumptions going to fight evil? Yet moral
relativism is the lesson of nearly all so
cial studies classes today. As a liberal, I
I finally figured out what this world-
class university’ vision means. I guar
antee any student will know what
‘world-class’ means when he is forced to
park 7 continents away from his class.
Roger Pearce
History major
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views can be presented more ef fectively
if they are “unfiltered”.
By “unfiltered” the official meant the
press releases would bypass the inde
pendent media. Thus, public informa
tion on government activities would
sidestep one of the essential parts of the
checks and balances system. T he press
would be unable to fill its vital role of
government watchdog.
Besides making the White House cor
respondent obsolete, the White House
News Service would create a situation
similar to the one in Mexico.
US. AGENDA
GENE.'®,. SW1V.ERUND
-y- !V
9-00 AM*
KMX) AM
Avoid Stai'Vters.
10**00 M
n-OOAM
Ewide Star Wars.
uoo m-
HOOPM
Pretend Star Wats
doesKt exist.
cm* AGENDA.
GENE>C\,SWraraiAND
900AM
1000AM
1000AM-
1100 AM
Badger about Star Wars.
Wuiie about Star Wars.
U-00 AM-
17/00PM
Gripe and compfeuii about
Star wars.
1400 PM-
200 PM
Lunch
14-00 m-
2-00 PM
Lunch.
2-00 PM-
§00 PM
Listen to tnonofocfue
about Star Wars.
§■■00 pm Appear on IT and
we're cautious^- opt
2,-OOPM-
§ : 00PM
Harandue and bellyache
about .Star Wats. d
S ; oo pm Appear on TV and say
were cautiously optimistic.
Even vigilantes can't
be right all the time
By ART BUCHWALD
Columnist for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Loren Steffy is a weekly columnist for
The Battalion.
also believe that men do not make their
own qualities and powers, but are cre
ated by God and molded by the environ
ment in which they grow up. This
means that our social studies classes are
turning out passive, apathetic acceptors
of organized hate and destruction, of
which Communism is one giant exam
ple.
After noting the positive reaction of
citizens to the shooting of four thugs by
a vigilante in the New York City subway,
a bunch of us in Washington decided to
form our own vigilante organization to
see that justice was served in the nation’s
capital.
There are tough gun laws in the Dis
trict of Columbia so we drove over to
Virginia where you can buy anything
you want, from a .22 Saturday night
special snub-nosed revolver to a Uzi
semiautomatic machine gun.
I chose a .38 Smith 8c Wesson re
volver because it fits snugly under my
coat and reminds me of the old westerns
when the good guys constantly drove
the bad guys out of town.
Our vigilante group didn’t have long
to wait. Schneider had been mugged the
night before and he said he could iden
tify the guys who did it. We went with
him to a Georgetown bar and he
pointed them out to us.
“Are you sure they’re the ones?” I
asked him.
“Of course I’m sure,” he said. “ The
big guy is wearing a raincoat just like the
one I owned.”
That was good enough for us. So we
took the three men out of the bar and
shot them.
The police were furious that we had
done their jobs for them. But the public
was delighted and we became folk
heroes overnight.
The next time we went out was when
a 7-Eleven in the neighborhood was
held up.
The clerk in the store said the stickup
man wore a Halloween mask, but he
had a hunch it was a taxi driver who
lived down the street.
We routed the cabbie out of bed and
brought him down for identification.
The clerk said, “It could be him.”
“Wait a minute,” Pester said. “We
have to be certain because as vigilantes
we don’t want to hurt an innocent man.
You said the guy was wearing a Hallow
een mask. What kind of mask was it?”
“It was a Darth Vader mask.”
We sent Pittman to get a mask at the
costume shop. Then we put it on the cab
driver.
I’he clerk said excitedly, “That’s the
guy.”
“You’re sure?”
The clerk replied, “I never forget a
face.”
So we took the cabbie out in the alley
and broke his legs.
After that we were dubbed “The
Magnificent 7-Eleven” and more people
were rooting for us than they were the
Redskins.
The liberal press wrote bleeding
heart editorials accusing us of being
nothing more than hooligans, and the
mayor went on television to condemn
us. It didn’t matter, because the crimi
nals were now more afraid of us than
they were of the police.
Ghristmas night Alvin told us, “I just
got a tip that there are a bunch of drug
dealers holed up in a house in North
west Washington. Let’s burn it down to
teach all the drug dealers in town a les
son.”
We hopped in our van with 10 gallons
of gasoline and drove to the address the
tipster gave Alvin. We threw the liquid
all over the house and set it on fire. A fa
ther and mother and three children
came pouring out of the front door.
The father screamed, “What the hell are
you doing?”
“Teaching you drug dealers a lesson.”
“I’m not a drug dealer! I’m a post
man.”
“Is this your address?” Alvin asked,
showing him the one the tipster had
written down.
The postman looked at it and said,
“No you dumb SOB’s. That’s in South
west Washington, not Northwest. You
guys burned clown the wrong house!”
“Don’t get all shook up, pal,” I said.
“Even vigilantes make a mistake once in
a while.”
The Battalion
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Member <>!
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Southwest Join nalism ( amfcrence
Second chiss po.soiffc /oiidoi College Snition. IX 77S43.
United P
The Battalion Editorial Board
Brigid Brockman, Editor
Shelley Hoekstra, Managing Editor
Ed Cassavoy, City Editor
Kellie Dworaczyk, News Editor
Michelle Powe. Editorial Page Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors 3
Kari Fluegel, Rhonda Snider
Assistant News Editors
Tammy Bell, ('.ami Brown, John Malleti
Assistant Sports Editor
Chat eau Williams
Entertainment Editors
Shawn Behlen, Leigh-Ellen Clark
Staf fWriters Cathie Anderson,
Brandon Berry, Dainah Bullard,
'Pony Cornett, Michael Crawford,
Kirsten Dietz, Patti Flint,
Patrice Koranek, Trent Leopold,
Karla Martin, Sarah Oates,
Tricia Parker, Lynn Rae Povec
Copy Editor Kay Mallett
Make-up Editor Karen Bloch
Columnists Kevin Inda, Loren Steffy
Editorial Cartoonist Mike Lane
Sports Cartoonist Dale Smith
Copy Wt iter Cathy Bennett
Photo Editor Katherine Hurt
Photographers Anthony Casper,
Wayne Grabein, Frank Irwin,
John Makely, Peter Rocha, DeanSaito
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The Battalion, 2lb Reed McDonald
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