Slick talk
In response to Nina Johnson
(ODE. Feb. 25); may I take issue
with your attitude toward the
importance of an education that
underlies the purpose of your
letter?
In that letter you described
the producers of the TV series
“Amrika” as “...sick,
dangerous and
uneducated....” I doubt those
responsible for a nationally
televised mini-series are what
we would think of as being
uneducated.
And what about being
“uneducated”? Is there a con
nection between being sick and
dangerous and being
uneducated? Remember that
educated minds are capable of
being sick and dangerous.
Perhaps you feel the producers
are uneducated because they
aren’t as enlightened about
Soviet culture as yourself, in
which case “ignorant” might
be the word you were looking
for.
Lest I get carried away with
an inherently trivial matter, I
would like to pose yet another
question. Nina, you call for us
to educate ourselves respon
sibly. What constitutes a
responsible education?
Judging from the content of
your letter, you believe it in
vloves the understanding of
other cultures as well as critical
analysis of things such as pro
paganda. I, too. believe this has
merit.
Unfortunately, an elitist at
titude and the use of slick
phrases and hard language
discredit you observations.
John Rutledge
Geography
Thought wrong
While 1 am not a RheCom ma
jor. Mr. Olfert (ODE, Feb. 25), I
can certainly recognize irrele
vant. straw man and ad
hominem arguments, par
ticularly when they are all roll
ed into one. I think you pro
bably knew better, but just
couldn’t resist.
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Pro-lifers are constantly at
tacked for not accepting
Socialist economic theories. If I
fight to save someone’s life,
does it follow that 1 become
responsible materially for their
sustenance?
Must I "guarantee” them a
safe and healthy life? These
arguments are irrelevant to the
abortion question and could just
as easily be used to justify
infanticide.
The abortion argument
hinges upon one question. Can
social conditions justify the
destruction of innocent human
life? Olfert has chosen the
"quality of life" defense for
abortion. The idea that death is
preferable to a "low quality"
life was very popular in Nazi
Germany and is enjoying a
resurgence in our society.
I would hope everyone would
feel uncomfortable with the no
tion that one person can
somehow judge another life to
be not worth living.
Olfert contends that social
situations "dictate" that un
born babies be killed. This bleak
view of man’s ability to over
come adversity is inconsistent
with reality. It is this line of
"reasoning" that has brought
us to the point of legally sane
tioning the killing of handicap
ped infants.
As to your last presumption. I
certainly do not mind being
called “anti-choice.” I am pro
ud to be fighting to deny
women and men the choice to
kill their children. You thought
wrong.
fefT Hoyt
Accounting
Go to work
We the people have heard
enough about the credibility of
our president. I have never once
questioned the performance of
President Reagan. He has con
sistently shown credibility in
his every action. The greatest
question that I pose is that of the
credibility of the congressmen
that challenge our president’s
every move.
1 own a small business here
and often see people that re
mind me of the honorable con
gressmen aforementioned that
are so insucure with their own
actions that they are constantly
pointing a finger at someone
else. They live by the premise:
If everyone is looking at Ronny
they won't be looking at me.
Since the beginning of the
arms deal President Reagan has
been more honest than any man
that I know. He has gone to
great lengths to perform the
duties of his job. Meanwhile,
congress has allowed the na
tional media to manipulate it in
to a hype that has crippled the
progress of our nation.
Our system was established
with several checks and
balances. 1 do not recall that
congress was to do nothing but
grandstand any piece of dirty
laundry that they could find. 1
am quite satisfied with three
separate bodies of government.
A fourth would be a typical
governmental immoderation.
Gentlemen, please get back to
work and at least try to ac
complish something good for
this nation.
l.arry Farris
Business management
Good lesson
I suppose there are some peo
ple who believe low replace
ment birthrates are desirable.
Well, that’s not the case. Ac
tually, one of the best observa
tions I’ve seen on the true value
of children comes from a Soviet
publication.
Victar Perevedentsev, in the
December 1984 issue of New
Times, stated: “The problems
facing the countries with a
negative population coefficient
remain latent for the time being;
what's more, shortcmings often
appear as advantages to the
uninitiated. The less children,
they reason, the less money has
to be spent on food, clothing,
schooling and other needs.”
He continues, “Within two
decades, however, a new-born
child becomes a worker, a con
sumer becomes a producer who
promptly pays back all the ex
penses involved in his upbring
ing (in the broad sense of the
word) and gives society much
more than it has spent on him.
In other words, the child is a
profitable investment whereby
national wealth accrues in the
longrun."
(miging form some of the at
titudes and trends in today's
society, there’s a few things we
might actually learn from the
Soviets, this is if we value our
future more than short-term
selfishness.
Michael Cross
Graduate, political science
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