'An Evenin
Renowned author speaks out against war
Jon Fleck
Capital Times Stuff
Studs Terkel, a Pulitzer-Prize
winning author and unapologetic liberal,
called the Persian Gulf War "absolutely
unnecessary."
"War to us is something distant," he
said. "Do we have to be bombed or
invaded to experience the obscenity of
war?"
As the fourth speaker in the Penn
State Harrisburg 1990-91 Lecture Series,
Terkel, 78, said the United States has no
business fighting any war.
"Was this trip necessary?" he asked.
"In Vietnam we lost to a bunch of little
guys in black pajamas, but nobody asked
what we were doing there in the first
place.”
Terkel, speaking before a crowd of
ISO at the CUB during "An evening
with Studs Terkel", poked fun at the
U.S. government for fighting small
nations like Panama, Libya and Iraq.
"Imagine Muhammad Ali knocking
the hell out of Woody Allen," he said.
"We always have to show we're it no
matter what."
Terkel, dressed in a red sweater
which showed off his white hair, strayed
from a formal lecture focusing on one
topic. Using a collection of amusing
anecdotes held together by his progessive
j)olitics, he 6alled the liberal media**
"farce."
"You don't see a labor section next
to the business section," he said.
Terkel said someone who questions
authority when he or she thinks it's
wrong is a true patriot.
"A patriot is no longer a flesh and
blood being," Terkel said. "It has
become a thing."
Terkel won the Pulitzer-Prize in
1985 for his book "The Good War": An
Oral History of World War 11. And for
more than 35 years, he has hosted his
own radio show in Chicago.
He said many people today have no
sense of the past, even of events that
happened within the last ten years.
Terkel linked today's many plane
wrecks and near-misses to the 1981 air
traffic controller strike which lead to ex-
President Reagan's firing of 15,000
controllers who were striking for better
working conditions.
"These guys were striking for our
safety," Terkel said. "And 90 percent of
us cheered it (the-firing)."
He also said many anti-union people
fail to remember it was their
grandparents and great-grandparents
belonging to unions who fought for the
Kurds from page 2
Rahrooh said that the Kurds are a
people of Indo-European culture, and
their descent makes them hated among
the Arabs of the Middle East, so hated
that in Iraq, they are used for "target
practice" by Saddam Hussein.
Ansary said that during the war
President Bush promised to divide Iraq
with one part going to the Kurdish
people, thus granting them the
autonomous state they have sought
with
ids Terkel
PSH NEWS
Studs Terkel
now common eight-hour work day and
the 40-hour week.
"It's like we have a national
Alzheimers disease," he said.
Terkel blames the loss of historical
sense partly on television.
"TV bites provide wisdom in 10
seconds," he said. "Even the better news
shows like Nightline ask 'You have 15
seconds left, what's your philosophy on
life?'"
Terkel said his favorite type of
history is "anonymous history". He said
he wants to know more about the
anonymous people of history like the
throughout the 20th century.
But then, Ansary said, Bush pulled
out and said, "let the Kurdish people get
rid of Saddam themselves."
Bush's message became a signal to
the Kurds to go in and try to get
Saddam, with the United States
militarily backing them, Ansary said.
The Kurds promptly went in and were
slaughtered by Hussein, who received
nothing more than a two-day cease fire
warning from the United Nations.
Rahrooh said that the United Nations
ones who built the Egyptian Pyramids.
"People say the Pharoahs built the
pyramids," Terkel said. "They didn't
build them. Why Mrs. Pharoah's nails
are as immaculate as Elizabeth Taylor's.”
"When Sir Francis Drake defeated
the Spanish Armada, historians say King
Phillip wept," Terkel said. "Were there
any other tears is what I’d like to know,"
Bom Louis Terkel, he adopted the
name Studs after the fictional character
Studs Lonigan.
"I was in a school play and there
were four kids named Louis in it," he
said. "I was always carrying around the
imposed the cease fire, the U.S. shot
down two Iraqi jets and Bush went
golfing in Florida.
But Rahrooh said he is not surprised
at the action taken by Bush and the
world community. He said the Kurds
have been living without autonomy and
respect for over 70 years.
Rahrooh said that within the next
two to three weeks between 40 and 60
percent of the Kurdish refugee children
will die of starvation and disease.
Rahrooh said that during the U.S
April 26, 1991, CAPITAL TIMES
book Studs Lonigan so they called me
Studs."
After graduating from the University
of Chicago Law School, Terkel worked
as a civil service employee in
Washington, D.C., a stage actor, and
movie house manager before turning to
radio and television broadcasting and
writing.
In the early days of radio, Terkel
played a gangster in a radio soap opera.
"I used to threaten Ma Perkins five
See Terkel, page 4
invasion into Kuwait it seemed "not OK
for Sadam to kill a half million
Kuwaitis but it is now OK to watch 2
million people die in the open desert."
He said that the government of
Turkey has had a historical suspicion of
its 12 million Kurdish citizens and fears
that adding the refugee populations
increase the possibility of revolt.
"Saddam Hussein has gotten away
with murder for 20 years and will
continue to get away with murder for
years to come," Rahrooh said quietly.
Photo by John