page 4
daily nebraskan
monday, january 19, 1981
oli cy is responsibility of U.S.
Flexible hostage p
The most critical lesson of the
hostage crisis is in jeopardy because
of fuming extremists who dwell on
the insult of the Iran situation rather
than conceding the United States
was partially responsible.
Lowell Weicker Jr., a Republican
senator from Connecticut, recently
delared any Americans taken hostage
in the future should be allowed to die
before the United States submits to
political blackmail, forcing the world
power down from the perceived
pedestal of omnipotence to bargain
with other nations.
This view by one of the nation's
leaders displays a disgusting attitude
in ignorance of the country's
responsibility to its citizens and with
total disregard for its obligation to
respect the rights of other nat
ions. Weicker and those who may
adhere to this opinion for handling
hostage situations should concern
themselves with doing all they can to
ensure this kind of tragedy never
occurs again. Such preventive and in
sightful measures would be far more
beneficial to all concerned the U.S.
government, its citizens and
representatives, and other
societies than establishing a blanket
foreign policy that would violate
some of the most basic principles
upon which this nation is founded.
Clearly the taking of the hostages
was not a diplomatic or
acceptable-method of dealing with a
world problem.
The United States, however, is not
blameless. In supporting the
dictatorial regime of the late Shah
Pahlavi against the popular wishes of
the Iranian people, the United States
ignored their needs, setting its sights
on the narrow, selfish goal of ex
panding the nation's capital gains at
the expense of others.
Any nation that continually
expounds the philosophies of liberty,
justice and protection should be
willing to make the sacrifices
inherent with such noble princi
ples. Among these sacrifices are
allowing other nations freedom from
American manipulation and
acceptance of their values and
desires.
There is a valuable lesson to be
learned from the pain and suffering
of the hostages and their families, as
well as the blow dealt to the nation's
honor.
Realizing the responsibility the
United States has for protecting its
citizens while respecting and
upholding the rights of other nations
is the only way to ensure the trauma
incurred by the hostages doesn't go
for naught.
Bonzo's cousin hurt Reagan encouraged to eliminate
by Reagan's snub TTQ r'nmmrWnn nn rhnl Riahto
That Harvard-educated gorilla who finished only 49
electoral votes behind Jimmy Carter in the race for
president is understandably bitter about not being ap
pointed to Ronald Reagan's cabinet.
"Frankly," said the public-spirited simian, "I had
rather counted on being the new secretary of educat
ion, seeing that Mr. Reagan is determined to dismantle
that department. Much as I dislike tooting my own
horn. I have a certain knack when it comes to dismantl
ing things."
WASHINCTON-When Budget Director Dave Stock
man and his fellow tree surgeons get about pruning the
giant oak of government, hopefully, they will not
overlook the small, dead branch known as the U.S. Com
mission on Civil Rights.
The case for closing down the commission is presented
in its January "Report to the President and the Congress."
With a crime wave paralyzing our cities, the first priori
ty of the commission is "federal legislation to allow the
Department of Justice to prosecute readily police officers
who abuse their authority."
Why? Well, "civil disorders across the country have
been triggered through violent treatment of minorities by
law enforcement officials."
The former matinee idol recalled that in the movie
"Queen Kong," in which he played opposite a 35-foot-tall
woman, he dismantled six police helicopters and
an entire cheesecake factory before being felled by the
Tac Squad and gastroenteritis.
"I had planned to smash the windows, tear the
doors from their frames and rip out the wiring to make
those pretty sparks fly all by myself," said the barrel
chested budget slasher. "I think this Utah educator,
Terrell H. Bell, is going to have to hire a professional
wrecking crew. He doesn't look like he could dismantle
a telephone book, page by page."
The starry-eyed idealist said he was also disappoint
ed over minority representation in the new cabinet.
"When it comes to picking representatives of minor
ities," he said. "Mr. Reagan has gone hog wild. Never
have tinier minorities been represented in a cabinet.
How many corporation lawyers, board chairmen and
four-star generals does the president-elect think there
are in America?"
The homespun political sage said he felt strongly
that Mr. Reagan should have balanced his other cabinet
secretaries by appointing one representative of a major-ity-either
a woman or himself.
"Personally, I think I would have been a better
choice as I come from a better majority," he said, "see
ing that I am a devout member of The Moral Major
ity." The former all-Pro middle linebacker, who is of the
Episcopalian (low church) persuasion, said he was (1)
pro-family ("but not the nuclear family, as I think fam
ilies who don't have solar power should make do on or
dinary electricity"); (2) in favor of prayer in the
schools ("particularly before surprise quizzes"); (3)
opposed to abortion on demand ("women should be
more polite to their doctors"); and (4) a believer in the
Biblical theory of creation.
"Do you realize there is not a single avowed creat
ionist in the new administration?" demanded the bull
necked battler angrily. 'This is a deliberate slap in the
face for the noisy majority that elected Mr. Reagan."
Asked why he was so vehemently opposed to the
Darwinian theory of evolution, the Ivy League intel
lectual drew himself up to his full five-foot-four.
"I have my pride," he said simply.
(Chronicle Publishing Company 19811
Li
..j lJ
JL
ucnanan
The reference is, presumably, to Liberty City, a "dis
order" triggered by the exoneration of several Miami
police of charges they engaged in an incident of brutality
in which a black man died. But whatever "triggered"
Liberty City, what transpired was a race riot in which
thousands of looters participated, and several doen
engaged in acts of brutality and murder against victims
whose dual offenses were that they were white and in the
vicinity at the time.
For every minority member brutalized by police, a
thousand arc victims of black-on-black crime. And.
apparently, the right to life of hundreds of thousands of
crime victims, black and white, is of less moment to the
USCCR than the handful of victims of "police abuse."
In the report. President Reagan is enjoined to nominate
more women and minorities to "policymaking positions"
in his administration, even though these are political and
patronage jobs which belong, by right and tradition, to
conservatives and Republicans who supported Ronald
Reagan not to ideological soulmates of the Commission
on Civil Rights.
Congress, whose creature this surlv little puppy is
comes in lor instruction as well.
The commission is "alarmed" at die Lagleton-Biden
Amendment which blocks HEW (now MIS) from termina
ting funds to school districts involved in desegregation
cases where compliance would entail forced busine.
The commission condemns the Helms Amendment that
Ronald Reagan endorsed which would deny the Depart
ment of Justice funds to file desegregation suits that result
in forced busing.
The commission opposes the Ashbrook-Dornan
Amendments which tell the IRS to keep its tax-picking
hands off private and parochial schools.
The commission directs the 97th Congress to take up
the open housing amendments the 96th failed to enact,
amendments which place the burden upon landlords and
homeowners to demonstrate they are not bigots.
"Antidiscrimination efforts that supposedly guarantee
'neutrality' in employment decisions are inadquate to
eliminate entrenched discrimination. In these circum
stances, only affirmative measures that consider race.
sex or national origin in decisions affecting employment
can succeed. . ."
Stated simply, the commission favors reverse discrim
ination and racial quotas.
For Ronald Reagan to implement the commission
agenda would require the betrayal of his mandate. Which
is the first reason the SI 2 million USCCR should be
abolished; there are others.
Its bureaucratic sins: a) redundancy and irrelevance,
in that it has become the amen corner of the Black
Caucus; h) arrogance, in that it assumes unto itself the
role of ultimate arbiter. Grand Sanhedrin.of what is the
only proper stance for those who support "civil rights";
c) obsolescence, in that it continues to advance ideas and
causes that arc the detritus of another decade.
Finally, the Commission on Civil Rights is essentially
antidemocratic in that it insists that programs and policies
continue to be pressed upon the American people who
freely repudiated those programs and policies - and such
people in November.
For fear of the noisemakcrs, no Congress, no president
has been willing to bite the bullet and shut down this
sinecure. As a consequence, every president and Congress
has had to listen to its biennial posturings as the "con
science of the nation." Mr. Reagan would be well-advised
to take the heat now, claim economics as his argument,
and put this national pest out of its misery.
(c) 1981 by PJB Enterprises, Inc.
The Chicago Tribune-N.Y. News Syndicate, Inc.
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