Page 2/The Battalion/Thursday, May 2, 1985
Reagan's trade
embargo too late
A week ago Congress refused President Reagan’s proposal
to send aid to the revolutionary forces in Nicaragua. Wednes
day, Reagan announced that he is imposing a trade embargo
against the Nicaraguan government and denying access to all
Nicaraguan commerical airlines and flag vessels.
Reagan also is abrogating a 27-year-old friendship treaty be
tween United States and Nicaragua, in lieu of the Sandimstas’
“aggressive activities in Central America.”
But Reagan’s actions have come too late. The trade embargo
might be appropriate retaliation for the actions of the Nicara
guan government, but they should have been imposed before
Reagan brought his proposal to aid the Contras before Con
gress.
Until now, Reagan has been contradicting himself by main
taining official recognition of the government in power and still
supporting revolutionary forces within the same country.
Leftist aggression has been present in Nicaragua for quite
some time, and although Reagan attributed his latest action
against the Sandinistas to President Daniel Ortega’s recent visit
to the Soviet Union, the news of Soviet-Nicaraguan ties is noth
ing new.
If Reagan wanted to effectively show strong support for the
Contras, he should have made his position with the Nicaraguan
government clear from the beginning.
The Battalion Editorial Board
is for everyone
As 1 was walking
along the hills in
front of the architec
ture building yester-
day afternoon,
looking at all the
Patti
Flint
brightly colored student projects, I
spotted my roommate and her boyf
riend. Her boyfriend, an aerospace ma
jor, asked me what all this #*%#! was.
Art, of course, Kendall.
To me, art is a means of self-express
ion which strikes an emotional chord in
the artist and the viewer. Art is for ev
eryone, not just an elite few.
But just because something’s art
doesn’t mean it’s good or that everyone
is going to like it. The laser prints sold
from time to time in the MSC are art to
someone. To me, it’s junk — sterile, in
sipid.
The MSC Visual Arts Committee is
encouraging students to get involved in
art. Through Artfest (a student art com
petition), performance art next to Rud
der Fountain, visual art exhibits in the
MSC gallery, and other programs, the
committee shows students that art ap
peals to more than one sense through
Patti Flint is a senior journalism major
and a columnist for The Battalion
LETTERS:
Editors ignorant of
the true word of God
EDITOR:
The Battalion’s editors pride them
selves on their ability to make students
think. But what is the purpose of the
thought process? Is not the purpose of
thinking to arrive at a conclusion and
then to act upon that conclusion? Does it
not then follow that for our actions to be
sound and right, our conclusions must
be soundly based upon truth? It is evi
dent that if we act upon conclusions not
based on truth then those actions will be
wrong with potentially disastrous re
sults. Thus, it appears that our goal for
utilizing the thought process is to arrive
at truth that our actions may be succes-
ful.
Thinking for the sake of thinking is
not enough; we think to arrive at con
clusions, upon which we can act. As ac
tions based on erroneous conclusions
often lead to disaster, our goal must be
to avoid disaster and have sucess at what
we set our hands to do.
Brian Arthur Frederick
You only can get
what you pay for
EDITOR:
Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of
a man’s heart, the mouth speaketh.”
This could be extended to“. . . the hand
typeth.”
While walking through campus the
other day, I heard one person say to an
other, while referring to the Albritton
Tower, “And this is the bell tower that is
supposed to make us a world-class uni
versity. I wish they would spend our
money in other ways, like the education
that I am paying for.” Richard Braas-
tead, a former student, expressed the
same view in the April 1 issue of The
Battalion.
Editors, though you claim to be
moral, “conservative” (whatever that
means) citizens, what you continually
write is truly in your hearts. It is quite
clear from your editorials that you do
not support the standard of the word of
God which is the only reliable measure
of truth I have ever found.
First, I have been told and believe
that you get out of an education what
you put into it. Secondly, the arguments
against the bell tower are wrong. Mr. Al
britton donated the money for a bell
tower, therefore, the money should go
for a bell tower.
Ah'uhacreptabie
Sowet episode”
Soviet threat.
Book
By 1
When the
to sell all the
ther lugging
semester, th
Exchange gi
set their owr
Starting
through Fri
book exchai
p.m. to 5 p.r
thir
“The
pie away is
immediate i
son, vice pr
ices for J
Wednesday,
Ellison s;
system is set
in used boo
set their ow
Is containment a lost cause! for
more than one medium. And whatever
way is chosen, the value of the work is
decided by the message and the emotion
elicited, not by its popularity or salabil-
ity.
“Art for the masses” seems to be ad
vocated by most people who have a
knowledge of art, but believed by few.
The only involvement of the “masses”
that they snobbishly believe possible
consists of the guys who load the paint
ings on the truck and drive them to the
museum.
WASHING-
TON — T his is
the most impor
tant congressional
moment since
May, 1947, when
Congress sup-
ported U.S. inter
vention-through-
aid on the anti
communist side in
the Greek civil
war. Congress
thereby trans-
George
Will
are saying the usual things: that the
United States “drove” the Sandinistas
into Soviet clutches. But in their first
two years, the Sandinistas received more
aid from the United States than from
any other country — five times more
than the Somoza regime received in its
last two years. (Someone should calcu
late the value in 1985 dollars of the aid
France gave the American Revolution.
It was, I will wager, much more than
$ 14 million.)
enable Nicaragua to join Poru
Spain, Turkey, Argentina and Hoi
ras on the list of nations that haveii
form tyranny to democracy.
A*
Mikhail Gorbachev hit the
running — right at Pakistan, threa(
This is where arts committee differs
from others in the arts community: they
really believe in art for the people.
Although most people will never have
any interest in the abstract expression
ists, the fauvists or any other movement
in art, some might like to make kites or
furniture or pottery. These may not ap
peal to the more esoteric element, but
simplicity has it’s own virtues.
So Kendall, just because you don’t
like something, doesn’t mean it’s not
good. Or art.
formed containment from a theory into
a policy. If Congress now kills aid for
the anti-communist side in Nicaragua’s
civil war, if Congress forbids even mod
est financial support for a mass
movement prepared to do the dying to
prevent consolidation of the second So
viet satellite in this hemisphere and the
first on the North American continent,
the evisceration of containment will be
complete.
During the Vietnam War, people
eager to believe were encouraged by
Hanoi to believe that South Vietnam
was experiencing a “indigenous peasant
revolt” and that the ferment in Indo
china was only cosmetically communist.
The Sandinistas deny their American
protectors the comfort of that pretense.
The Sandinistas do not deign to disguise
their Stalinism at home, their “socialistic
solidarity” with the Soviet Union and its
other clients, their “revolution without
borders” against neighbors.
ing reprisals if Pakistan continuesii
cilitate aid for the Afghan resistandj
Congress spurns the contras, how
will Pakistan resist Soviet pressure
Congress will not countenance su|
for the Contras, the increasingly
voice of the United States will have;
creased resonance in South Africa;
Phillippines and other places wl
freedom is at issue.
BEAUMC
jartment of
Jsh in three s
to determine
laminated b
jesticides, of
State hea
tests for J<
Chambers C
vrobe indica
legally usee
Sto
By KIM
Tim
A&M
In 1947 President Truman told Con
gress: “I believe it must be the policy of
the United States to support free people
who are resisting subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressure.” Rea
gan’s policy is the Truman Doctrine af
ter 38 years of communist advance. An
armed Nicaraguan minority, sustained
by outside (Soviet, Cuban, East German,
etc.) forces, is sovietizing Nicaragua in
the way that was being done in Eastern
Europe in 1947.
The Soviet Union’s Sandinista clients
have no more right to rule Nicaragua
than Vidkun Quisling had to rule Nor
way. Yet the world continues to speak of
Sandinistan steps toward Stalinism as
“failings.” The Sandinistas are not
somehow failing to implement democ
racy; those “failings” are premeditated
In 1947, Congress had fresh mem
ories of the terrible price paid because
of nonresistance to Hitler at the time of
the re-militarization of the Rhineland.
Today the historical memory of many
members of Congress consists entirely
of Vietnam and its putative lessons. But
congressional management of U.S. pol
icy toward Central America — too little
aid, too late; pursuit of the Chimera of
negotiated settlement with a regime that
does not believe in splitting differences
— is a recipe for another Vietnam: an
other protracted failure.
It is said that an optimist is soinei
who believes his future is uncertain!
timism about democracy, and notji
democracy in Central America, will
irrational if, six months after a lands!-
reaffirmation of a President, Congrt
acting in the name of fastidiousness,
moves the keystone of his foreign f
icy: support for democratic revolutioi
storag<
this
buildii
“Fo:
the ll
have s
Durre
George Will is a columnist fori
Washington Post
Surely the Americans who should talk
least about negotiated liberalization of
the Sandinista regime are those Ameri
cans who, by trying to destroy the Con
tras are removing the only serious pres
sure on the Sandinistas.
successes.
FDR spoke of “quarantining” dicta
tors, but an isolationist Congress re
sisted, until the big war arrived. If to
day’s Congress spurns the Contras,
communist dictators on four continents
will know that Congress will no,t permit
even small inoculations, let alone quar
antine.
Nicaragua’s communist president,
writing in the New York Times, says
U.S. support for the Contras is “con
trary to American values.” That is an
odd complaint from someone who pro
claims his detestation of American va
lues, and it is an ignorant charge, given
the long history of U.S. support for re
sistance to tyranny.
The sum at issue — $14 million — is
12 percent of the sum ($117 million) the
U.S. government had given to the Sand
inista regime by 1981. Familar voices
Today there are anti-communist in
surgencies in Afghanistan, Angola and
Cambodia. Americans opposed to the
Contras favor, in effect, a declaration of
indifference to the only force that might
Tom Malos
Class of ’88
Thus, as you disregard or are igno
rant of the truth that God has revealed
to us, your undermine the very basis by
which right actions are affected and in
vite erroneous conclusions which will
lead to wrong actions with dangerous
consequences. Just consider what hap
pens in a battle when a commander
makes a decision based upon erroneous
information and acts upon that deci
sion.
Joe Bob is back
EDITOR:
Joe Bob is back. Your shallow one
sided denouncements against his style
exemplifies the thought behind all of
your editorials: life should be perfect. It
will come as a surprise to no rational
person that life is without a doubt, very
imperfect. All of your “shoulds” (you
should not be so prejudiced’ you should
not be apathetic; you should not be the
stolid, passive, supine, sluggish impos
ters of academe you collegiate leeches
surely are, etc . . .) are quite well
founded and I agree with most of them.
I commend you for your calls, although
toothless, for fixing humanity. That’s
probably what an editorial is for — to
draw attention to a problem by issuing
an opinion on it in vain hope maybe
someone, somewhere, heaven help us,
might THINK about it and decide to try
to fix society’s problems, too, or at least
his own. Then again maybe there’s a lot
of folks out there that don’t need fixing,
or at least don’t want it.
insipid and those that agree with them
are brain damaged.
Joe Bob is satire. He satirizes these
deranged “thoughts” not by promoting
them, but by aping them. Sure, many
applaud and agree with him. All the
more reason for your handwringing.
The point is that society can, and very
often does, have a negative impact on a
whole class of people. Whether or not
Joe Bob propagates this effect is a mat
ter of debate. I wonder what Mark
Twain would think ....
Each of these statements are equally
Mark L. Wixom
Class of ’88
-
The Battalion *
USPS 045 360
Member of
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Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Rhonda Snider, Editor
Michele Powe, Managing Editor
Kay Mallett, News Editor
Loren Steffy, Editorial Page Editor
Karen Bloch, City Editor
Travis Tingle, Sports Editor
The Battalion Staff
Assistant City Editors
Kirsten Dietz, Jerry Osli«
Assistant News Editors
Cathie Anderson, Jan Pern
Assistand Editorial Page Editor
John HalleH
Assistant Sports Editor
Charean Willia®
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Cathy Riely, Walter Smitt
Staff Writers ....Tamara Bell, MegCadigan
Ed Cassavoy, Ann CervenU
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Wendy Johnson
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Columnists Cami Brown, Marcy Basile
Patti Flim
Morning Editor John Halleii
Photo Editor Wayne Grabeii 1
Photographers ^ re g Bailey
Anthony Casper, Frank Hada
Kyle Hawkins, Jaime Loper
Michael Sandier
1
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