opinion
sally hodgkinson
even editors get the blues
It was — and is — easy to hate the Iranians
who held the 52 Americans for 14V2 months.
They stomped on our pride. The Iranians
flicked their middle finger at us for 444 days and
we didn’t like it.
Pride, not the lives of the Americans, was the
reason we rallied ’round the flag, tied yellow
ribbons and generally wallowed in self-pity for the
14'/2-month “crisis."
We became enraged patriots, quick to wag
fingers at Jimmy Carter for being wishy-washy and
compromising. “Blow the hell out of Iran,” we
screamed. “Damn terrorists. Teach them a les
son.”
We were reduced to the hate that we hated
the Iranians for displaying.
In the black-and-white Iranian world of the
444-day standoff, all of the hostages were CIA
spies, all Americans imperialist pigs and Carter
was a sneak.
And in the black-and-white American world of
the hostage standoff, the Ayatollah Khomeini was
a religious madman and all Iranians were flag
burners and kidnappers.
When people are dehumanized and crammed
into boxes marked “terrorists,” “spies” or “mur
derers,” hate reigns. It’s easier to see all Amer
icans as capitalist imperialist pigs and all Iranians
as revolutionary bloodthirsty terrorists than to see
the gray areas.
Fortunately Carter wasn’t color blind. While
not ignoring the Iranian insult, he wasn’t swayed
by the national hysteria.
But his patience and restraint was labeled as
incompetence and the biggest strength of the
Carter presidency cost him re-election.
We wanted a Happy Ending — fast. We want
ed revenge. But we got 52 live Americans after
141/2 months.
We wanted perfection in a president. But we
got a president with human weaknesses who
found that issues aren’t as simple as they looked
outside the White House.
It was easy to hate Carter and blame him for
the ills of the country. So in our continuing quest
for instant everything, we hired an'ex-movie star
who promised to grab the reins of the nation,
renew our “determination, courage, strength,
faith and hope” and gallop off into the sunset of
“heroic dreams.”
And when Ronald Reagan discovers that
complex problems can’t be resolved by simple
campaign promises and he screws up, we’ll feel
cheated.
And, again, it will be easy to hate.
vours
Egalitarianism
Jean Lorraine’s letter "Feminists will
win,” which demands that men accept
feminism, has certainly stimulated a
great deal of harshly defensive re
sponses from men. Men should, how
ever, welcome the egalitarianism of all
people, regardless of sex.
If a man does not want equal rights and
justice for women, he should at least
support feminism for his own good, since
the termination of today’s stifling male
and female sex roles will ultimately liber
ate both women and men. The restrictive
obligations that masculinity demands of
us men truly are boring and dangerous.
Our patriarchal society teaches men to
live each day with insensitivity and ag
gression, and to display appalingly little
patience, responsibility, and concern for
our world. We are also constantly en
couraged to accept and enjoy porno
graphy.
Feminists despise pornography
because it reinforces the tragic miscon
ception that women live for sex alone
and are passive, giddy and defenseless
against violent physical domination.
Unfortunately, our shallow male sex
role requires that we "prove" our manli
ness to ourselves and others through the
systematic suppression of our emotions,
and by the hostile domination of women.
This is why feminists object to porno
graphy — not because they want to deny
Americans their Constitutional rights,
but because pornography cleverly
legitimizes the physical abuse of women.
Pornography does, in fact, promote
beating, mutilation, and rape.
Sexual democracy offers a refreshing
alternative to this present dominant
submissive relationship. Egalitariansim
will allow women to be respected as
strong individuals, and will also help to
deter sexual violence. Men should not,
therefore, feel threatened by feminism.
Rather, we men should accept our new
role in society, since it will permit us to
lead more fulfilling and whole lives. Men
will be able to openly share instead of
consume, offer support instead of cyn
ical criticism, and contribute under
standing, acceptance and peace.
Richard Fowler
Freshman, humanities
On hostages, shah
We are all justifiably pleased at the
return of the American hostages from
Iran. Their captivity by the Iranian
government was a serious crime which I
do not intend to condone. However I
think that we should remember the tens
of thousands of Iranian people who were
tortured by the Shah's secret police with
the support of the American government.
These people will never return to their
homes and families.
Tom Lynch
Graduate, English
More on abortion
Regarding the letter from Marty Heiser
and Kelly Hogan ("On abortion," Wed
nesday) I would like to make a few com
ments.
The situation was given of the parents
of Beethoven. "The father has syphillis
and the mother has tuberculosis. They
have had four children, the first one was
blind, the second one died, the third one
was deaf and dumb and the fourth had
tuberculosis.” Mr. Heiser and Mr. Hogan
then state “the mother is now pregnant
with her fifth child but is willing to have an
abortion if you determine that she
should."
The whole issue of abortion is that
women should be able to control their
own lives and bodies. The whole idea
(even hypothetical) of a woman who is
willing to have an abortion but needs
someone else to make the decision is
abhorrent. Women are not indifferent to
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abortion. It is something that most peo
ple should and do weigh very carefully
before making the decision they feel is
best for those involved. In the situation
above, if that poor woman decided that it
was all she could do to care for her three
handicapped children and that to have a
fourth (handicapped or genius) would
make it impossible to give her three
existing children adequate care, who
could blame her for having an abortion?
I am also confused that the authors,
who claim to be Christians, seem to value
the life of a potential Beethoven more
than the life of a child with tuberculosis.
They make it sound as if abortion would
be fine in their eyes as long as it didn’t
affect potential “contributors to socie
ty”
Using their reasoning, one can easily
justify abortion. What if Beethoven had
been a woman, had gotten pregnant
when she was 13 and died in childbirth
nine months later?
Pregnancy and childbirth are a risk to
life and health and to the quality of life of
many people other than the actual
woman involved. They should never be
undertaken lightly or unwillingly.
Susan Beebe
Senior, biology
Flag or mat?
Like many vets, I was outraged and
humiliated by Ron Phillips’ desecration
of our flag. Our flag, his door mat, sym
bolizes far more than just one soiled
page in our national history. It is the
symbol of our people and our home. It
was and still is a beautiful banner of hope
in an increasingly hopeless world. Ask
the Cuban refugees, the Vietnamese
boat people or the 52 returnees. Their
response will have more meaning than
that of one embittered man.
David Wellsfry
Junior, accounting
fetters policy
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