ustxtxb_obs_1986_05_16_50_00005-00000_000.pdf

Whole Earth Provision Company I Nature Discovery Gifts amaze, inform, delight Choose from our business or family gifts of lasting value, for all ages, price ranges and any occasion. Call or stop by and let us make suggestions. 2410 San Antonio St. 4006 South Lamar Blvd. 8868 Research Blvd. 11’44444Ltdr-.:;r: radOstftmeum4, waisir ca.v. :ClawarautztAVAMati.earvaaJoaQ ,Y is it entirely responsive to citizen control. As George Kateb wrote in the Spring 1986 issue of Dissent, “The formulation and possible execution of nuclear policy is inherently undemocratic because it is substantially removed from the political process, and is constitutionally infirm because it supposes overriding executive power.” What then is to be the response of the peace movement? One response is to “throw a little sand in the machine,” as Daniel Ellsberg likes to say. During the week of the April 10 underground test in Nevada, nearly 100 people were arrested for trespassing on the test site and conducting nonviolent protests. The outcry against testing gained momentum as the Reagan administration salted away all chances for a mutual agreement with the Soviets. And it will continue. The Nuclear Freeze has made the test ban a political priority, and efforts proceed in Congress to cut off funding for more tests through an amendment attached to a supplemental spending bill. In addition, the Freeze and a new group calling itself American Peace Test plans a major demonstration at the Nevada test site for the end of this month. Les Breeding, an Amarillo peace activist, says the group hopes to draw between one and two thousand people to the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, on May 31 and June 1. “One or two thousand people in San Francisco or Washington might not look like much, but if you get that many people out in the middle of the Nevada desert, that will be an important expression,” Breeding says. But, ultimately, the peace movement will have to concentrate on more than nuclear testing. Somehow, we will have to find a way to make ourselves into a peaceable people repulsed by the drive to refine our methods of annihilation,. aware that peace can not be kept by force, driven not by hatred of an enemy power but by a moral strength that can only come from being just. We who have split ourselves, as a human race, into two opposing camps seem to expect that the splitting of the atom will bring us safety, energy, survival. The task for a true peace movement is to address this pathology, starting with the individual, then the country, then the nations. D.D. The War and the Press DESPITE THE Reagan administration’s histrionics, the President was unable to sell his contra aid program in March and April. Newspaper editorialists in three of Texas’ major cities Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio remained skeptical of Reagan’s scheme to subvert Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. Here is how the Dallas Times Herald saw it: “If indeed Mr. Reagan envisions the Sandinistas to be such a threat why is he putting so much faith in a ragtag bunch of misfits like the contras? The President says they are freedom-fighters; in truth, their leadership is drawn from the wealthy elite that once supported former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Mr. Reagan portrays the contras as the ‘good guys;’ in fact they have engaged in atrocities every bit as heinous as the government’s. And he claims they have broad popular support; in reality they do not.” The Times Herald urged Reagan to pursue diplomatic avenues. The Austin American-Statesman has remained leery of the contra war; an editorial on March 29 said, “The House should insist on a real compromise from the White House before it approves another dime in aid to the so-called contras.” The San Antonio Light has taken the same stand, arguing in April that’ “increasing the level of hostilities is not the best answer” to the problems in Central America. Most persistent in support of Reagan’s war has been the Houston Post. On March 30, the Post urged the House to “approve this much-needed funding” in the wake of the socalled compromise approved by the Senate March 27. On April 12, the Post urged the House to “be aware that the real barrier to Central American peace lies in Managua.” After Republicans in the House refused to go along with the Democratic leadership April 16, thereby postponing the contra aid request, the Post worried that time was running out for the contras, and “if we continue to waste time wrangling, the Contra aid issue will eventually become irrelevant.” Across town at the Houston Chronicle, the editorialists came up with a stunningly inane attempt to sort out the issues. “What it comes down to,” according to the Chronicle, “is whether or not one is willing to live with the chance of another Cuba in Nicaragua.” Thinking this a profound exordium, the Chronicle went on to dissect the intricacies of their argument: “Note the. phrase ‘with the chance’ . . . it is ‘willing to live with the chance of another Cuba,’ not ‘willing to live with another Cuba.’ That is about as neutral as it can be put.” Other phrases were equally notable. “The issues seem to range all over the place … ” said the Chronicle, concluding in the end that, “Those are more debating points within the issue than the issue itself.” The editorial pages of the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, of course, remain firmly under the control of happy warriors for the U.S. empire. 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