Monday, September 24, 1034
Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
0
rom President Reagan we've learned that Jimmy
M Carter and the Democrats were responsible for
the huge federal deficits, the ailing tarm economy
and the Iranian hostage crisis.
We never hear about the 200 Americans who died in
Lebanon, or whose fault that might be.
The fact is, last week's attack was the third such t ruck
bombing of U.S. installations in Lebanon. There is no
excuse for the lax security that allowed another attack
or for the policies behind our presence there.
Our numbers in Lebanon have never been enough to
be a successful deterrent to fighting. We had just enough
to be a sitting target for terrorist attacks.
- The United States has identified itself with the
Christian phalangists one of .the many splintered
groups fighting for dominance in Lebanon. The U.S.
embassy was moved to Aukar after the attacks on the
embassies there, according to Gary Wills in the Sunday
Journal-Star.
The embassy personnel were being protected by
Christian phalangists, Wills said, and t he Moslems hate
the Christian phalangists. In a country where Moslems
comprise a large segment of the population, association
with one group invites hostility.
We were in hostile territory, and we had not finished
the gates that would have stopped the truck-bomb that
killed people last week. The TV scanners were not
working, and a contingent of Marines had been moved
out of the area.
The situation has been compared with that in Iran
during the Carter administration. We sided with the
Shah, incurring? the rath of the Moslems there, causing a
hostage situation. The fact that we didn't get the
hostages back before the election probably had a lot to
do with why Carter lost the election.
More than 300 lives were lost in Lebanon. The hostages
were all recovered alive.
Funny how times change.
ondale needs 'leadership lessons
9 from R
eagan
T
o: Fritz
From: Richard Cohen
Re: Your Message
As you know, there's much crit
icism here in Washington about
your failure to enunciate a mes
sage. You are perceived as weak,
bland, boring and lacking in lead
ership qualities. What people are
saying, in essence, is that you're
not Ronald Reagan. Therefore, I
recommend the following:
Call a staff meeting and fall
asleep.
Forget the name of a close
associate.
During a "press availability"
pretend you don't hear a ques
tion, allow Joan to stage whisper .
the answer and then repeat it
word for word. Don't ask me why,
Americans,seem to love this sort
of stuff.
Make up some facts. Use anec
dotes that are more apocryphal
than true. Say you filmed the lib
eration of the concentration
camps ana attribute the dese
gregation of the armed forces to a
black galley hand who showed
heroism at Pearl Harbor. Ignore
history and concentrate on myth.
Stop saying you have a plan for
reducing the deficit. Instead, say
you have no plan but that the
deficit will somehow reduce itself.
Then everyone will give you credit
for being an optimist and feel
good just by seeing your face.
Boundless, cock-eyed optimism
is better than a plan any day.
Show you're decisive. Promise
if elected to invade a small Carib
bean island. Barbados would be a
good choice. Say you are rescuing
Claudette Colbert from the peril
of the rising dollar.
ir 7wl
"... AMD WHAT CM W fjO AgoOT TH PRC?T(0N THAT I'M DU(,l? "
Identify yourself with heroism
instead of, say, the AFL-CIO. Find
a hero and say what he has done
is typical of all Americans. Forget
that what made him a hero in the
first place is that he is untypical
and instead talk about a return
to traditional values. Mention them
a lot and ignore that they some
times meant sexual repression,
discrimination against women,
child brutality and religious
coercion. These are" mere details
and we are striving for the big
picture.
Stop talking about fairness. In
stead, talk of equal opportunity.
That means if you have a lot you
get to keep what you' have and
have the chance to get more. Also
make sheer dumb luck look like it
was earned or deserved. We all
know that being born American,
white and middle class is the best
luck of all and that after that you
ha ve to really work at being poor.
Forget about that, though. No
one wants to hear it.
Pose on a battlefield. Most of
the European ones have already
been used by Reagan, so choose
an American one maybe Tren
ton. That way you could identify
yourself with George Washington,
point out, that the battle took
place on Christmas Eve and hit
the religious angle as well. Also
don't forget that Trenton is in
New Jersey, a swing state With 1 7
electoral votes.
Crack a joke about bombing
the Soviets but be sure to do it off
the record. That way, the press
will look sneaky and unethical for
reporting it, you will appear vic
timized, and you still will be able
to make the point that you're
unequivocally hostile to the
Soviets. Most Americans are, too,
and they will admire you all the
more for it.
Be unreasonable. Say you'll
never raise taxes even though
you must; call on Congress to cut
the budget even though it can't;
ignore statistics showing you used
the veto less than even Jerry
Ford. Lambast the Federal Reserve
Board for the tight-money policy
that wrung inflation from the
economy, insult the Soviets and
then suggest a summit meeting;
and talk of banishing God from
the classroom as if He has been
banished to the hallway for chew
ing gum. Take no questions on
any of this.
Slow down. Take naps. Watch
lots of afternoon television. Chop
wrood. Ride a horse. Cut out read
ying. Use films for briefing. Show
no intellectual curiosity. Appoint
a Middle East negotiator every
month or two.
Train Joan to gaze at you as if
she had never seen you before.
Dilate her eyes if necessary.
When talking to ethnic groups,
mention movie stars vou nave
known. Reagan cited "the beauti
ful Delores Dei Rio" to a group of
Hispanics. Say you knew her, too.
Take no questions on this one,
either.
In short, if you always do what
Reagan does, after a while saying
"what you see is what you get"
won t sound like a tnreai. iou
might not win. But you won't be
tired, either.
e 1S:.4, Washington Po$t Writtr Group
t T -n Daily u
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ve for
as writers,
T 0U nave t0 &dmire the courage of
tf that man; he ignores the pain and
-S. just keeps plugging away."
Someone not from Nebraska might
think those were the words of a newscas
ter or magazine writer speaking about an
arthritic old monk ministering to lepers
or an embattled publicservant striving to
right political injustice.
football may mean death
pia
vers i
8
ristopner.
15
fc
irbach
But we Nebraskans know that was the
voice of a sports commentator speaking
about a football player.
Two players' cases which have received
much attention in the football-crazed
Lincoln newspapers over the past week
end show how utterly ridiculous such
talk is. The players are Trevor Pavich, a
Lincoln Southeast High School senior,
and Ed Reinhardt of the University of
Colorado.
Pavich suffered a ruptured spleen two
years ago that could have killed him, and
Reinhardt could be dying as you read this
because of a head injury he received in a
game last week.
A story in the Friday's Journal-Star
Extra Point praised Pavich for the valor
he displayed while continuing to play
football, against the advice of doctors.
Pavich is quoted in the story as saying
medical personnel yelled at him when,
during a checkup for another injury, they
found out about his old battle scar. Those
silly doctors they just don't under
stand the love of the game.
gnore injuries
The love of the game was the opera
tional phrase in a sports column in Sun
day's Journal Star. "It's. incredible," the
columnist wrote, the lengths some indi
viduals will go for the love, of a game.' "
He meant incredibly wonderful (or awe
some, in sports terminology), not incred
ibly stupid, as many of sound mind might
Infer.
The columnist suggested that football
is more than just a game, that, "The game
is competition. The game is life."
Such an attitude may well be at the
root of the problem. Fans, coaches, sports
journalists and players themselves have
made football into something more than
recreation or sport. They've made it, m
every sense of the phrase, a life and death
matter.
Continued, cn P2e &