ustxtxb_obs_1986_01_10_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

Pho to by Lo u is Du bo se Cattle grazing in front of National Assembly building, Managua. THE TEXAS OBSERVER 5 Maverick Americans with Fritz Mondale and Reagan. As for the suspension of civil liberties in a moment of national crisis, we Americans in our revolution drove thousands of loyalists to Canada and without due process of law. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. In World War II, against the advice of his attorney general who said it was unconstitutional and against the advice of J. Edgar Hoover who said it was unnecessary, Franklin Roosevelt threw Japanese-Americans into concentration camps almost solely because of their racial extraction. But don’t give up on a country or the cause of democracy any more than Dugger, then a kid editor of the Daily Texan of the University of Texas, or I, a young legislator, gave up on Texas because of the meanness of an Allan Shivers or because of a resolution establishing an un-American Activities Committee designed to destroy academic freedom at the University of Texas. You keep trying by appealing to the decent instincts of people. With that intent in mind, I interviewed three highly regarded college professors without having shown any of them Dugger’s story \(a version of which appeared in the November 21 Los Unfortunately I had to edit their remarks and any fault in that regard is mine. I worry about good teachers having 35 years ago walked through a valley of cruelty and oppression with educators in what was then “the Joe McCarthy days.” Anyway, watch what my friends had to say. R. MIKE CONROY, Econom ics Department, University of Texas at Austin: “Everybody who watches Nicaragua is saddened to see a state of emergency. It hurts to see any country suspend civil liberty. I also know from talking with American friends in Nicaragua that the Nicaraguan government itself is torn up about all this, and so it is real important not to distort what has happened. “Political gatherings have not been suspended. They now require a permit on public grounds such as is done in any city in America. Yes, there is an increased censorship, and that’s wrong, This piece is reprinted from a. column appearing in the Dec. 15 San Antonio Express-News. but there is no widespread limitation of personal freedom such as under martial law. “The U.S. support of the contras contributes to the diminishment of civil liberty and so does the embargo. Ironically, the people who have complained the loudest about the embargo have been members of the Chamber of Commerce, industry and the most conservative businessmen. Even Cardinal Obando has denounced the embargo. What’s more, American businessmen are being hurt because they are losing markets.” DR. JOHN DONAHUE, Sociology Department, Trinity University, San Antonio: “Nicaragua is in the midst of an undeclared war with the United States. One way for a government to protect itself is with emergency powers. Nicaragua lifted its emergency decree once before so elections could be held and will again, I believe, if there is a decline of hostilities. “The conclusion a sensible person must come to is that if the U.S. honestly wanted dissent and a loyal opposition in Nicaragua, then it would not stifle that dissent by using troops led by Somoza lieutenants who are not the loyal opposition, but the disloyal opposition. In our American Revolution it would be like turning our chances for freedom over to the officers of King George III. “It is very difficult for a loyal opposition to exist in the middle of a war. The war has to end if there is going to be an effective loyal opposition. The U.S. could do this by not funding the Contras. “Another way to have a loyal opposition is to end the embargoes, both of the country and of products, that is, have commerce between our countries. Private businessmen in Nicaragua are being forced to turn to Asia and Europe. “There is a symmetry to all this. War is bad for democracy and an embargo is bad for capitalism. “I would stop the war and the embargo in return for Nicaragua agreeing to never station foreign troops and missiles on its soil, or making war with its neighbors. I’d have bilateral trade agreements, cultural exchanges, and send the Baltimore Orioles to tour the country.” R. JOHN BOOTH, Political Science Department, North Texas State University: “If I thought Nicaragua was another Soviet Union I would be appalled by that and walk away, but the point is Nicaragua isn’t. “There is a reasonable possibility that if the U.S. will quit financing the contras, the emergency decrees restricting liberty will be lifted. As a matter of fact, Ortega made that offer. Why assume that Nicaragua would never lift it when it did once before? Let’s, therefore, support the Contadora process. “There are some Marxist-Leninists in the government. , In fact, I talked with some of them, but their comments to me were limited to economic viewpoints. Restrictions against free speech and religion were never mentioned. “Making war will encourage a lack of liberty. Instead, why not trade with