Pot Laws Unfair...
THERE HAS LONG BEEN debate,
especially on college campuses, concern
ing the fairness of pot laws. So now, it
seems, the Nixon Administration
doesn’t think that smoking pot is worth
ten years of prison anymore.
The proposals for change were
made -yesterday. Presently, possession,
sale or use of marijuana is a felonv with
a maximum penalty of two to ten years
in p r- '-~” and a fine.
UNDER THE suggested revisions,
use or possession of any drugs would
become a misdemeanor providing for
a sentence of up to one year and
a $5,000 fine.
Perhans the Nixon administration
thinks that if its suggested revisions go
through, pot laws in this countrv will be
as fair as they need to be. or at least
will be in the context of realistic late
20th century social mores.
However, the revisions are actually
legal tokenism.
Even if the changes go through, it is
absurd that smoking grass can send you
to prison. It is iust as absurd that John
E. Tngersoll, director of the Justice
Department’s Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs said: “Because of the
present penalty structure, there is a
real hesitancy on the part o f
prosecutors in courts to handle (drug)
possession cases because of the poten
tial I”''* l ’ "nn"it=e S involved.”
INGERSOLL, we presume, is look
ing for the greatest number of drug con-
...Grid Rankings, Too
UNIVERSITY GRID FANS will be
;unnerved this morning as they note T
the second time in three weeks that the
Nittany Lions have slipped down in the
Associated Press football rankings.
The Lions played a heroic fourth
quarter on Saturday, showing in the
Orange Bowl tradition thev created
themselves, that two tries at the goal
line are as good as one anyday.
Also, the Syracuse Orangemen
were clearly playing over their heads. Tt
was Homecoming in Syracuse, and they
had their three periods of fun.
! STILL, THE AP WRITERS who
rank the college teams thought more
.highly of seven other teams, and the
Lions slipped from fifth to eighth.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno said
tit all with these words. “The sign of r
®hr Satin (EoUrgtatt
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PAGE TWO
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Editorial Opinion
victions possible, and can see reduced
penalties to increase the number of con
victions under them.
Rather, laws should be revised or
stricken only to further justice.
On one hand, the Administration
acts as though it wants to make the
drug laws more "fitting;” on the o+he"
hand, however, Ingersoll’s statements
make the revisions appear only as a
new means of policing morality.
Whv can’t the government face up
to the fact that millions of young peo
ple. and some not so young, are smoking
grass across the country?
WHY CAN'T IT take the time to
appoint a blue ribbon panel of experts
to studv the drug problem and its cni'e
quences? Second guessing is a worthless
pasttime, but we can’t help but conjec
ture that at least marijuana laws would
be found totallv antiquated.
Sensible restrictions should be im
posed on the use of marijuana. It should
not be sold to persons under, say, 18
years of ace. Tt should be licensed p~' j
taxed by the federal government. And
smoker« who d’-hm under its influence
should be penalized.
N t XON'S STATEMENT vesterdav
that the revisions will make “better
respect, for the law” is ill advised Tf the
President, or any of his advisers,
believe that persons about to smoke the
week will stop and think. “The pot laws
are more iivt now. so let’s not smoke,”
he’s thinking absurdly.
great team is when you beat a good
team and don’t play so well.”
THE LIONS HAD their backs to
the wall on Saturday, but they wouidn”
let Syracuse count them out. They
fought when all seemed hopeless, and
they came up winners.
Such a valiant effort deserves
praise rather than the fate the Lions
received. Something is wrong with a
rating system that allows people who
see no more than a box score to rate
teams for a national championship.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF rating
college football teams should belong to
the National Collegiate Athletic
Association. They sanction the games
and set uo the rules. SteDs toward •"
national playoff system rather than out
moded bowl system should b e
investigated. Only then can the true
strength of teams be tested.
Successor to The Free Lance, est. 1887
64 Years of Editorial Freedom
To Go
rESDAY, OCTOBER 21
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And there are a lot of them. A field as fast
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We are interested in aspiring people with Bache
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=====4, I 6ET BACK? W
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OJHAT HAPPENED?
Collegian Invites Faculty Writers
University faculty are in- The articles should be type
vitea to submit articles to Col- written and triple-spaced and
iegian’s “Faculty Forum.” should not exceed 75 lines in
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Start out where
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YES, NO THANKS TO YOU! HE WAS
CHAR6ED WITH NOT PURSUING HIS
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UJAS VERY UNPERSTANPINS...
- I^l
Letters to the Editor
Women: Sex Objects?
TO TIIE EDITOR: The Homecoming Queen
Contest is an example of the roles that women
are given to play in our society. We are treated
as sex objects, and thus \vc become conditioned
to accept such a degrading role. This
phenomenon is not an accident, however. This
role of wo.men is functional for the society that
we live in.
As mindless bodies that are evaluated on
the terms of a monolithic standard of beauty
and “pleasing personalities” (passive and ac
cepting behavior), we become very susceptible
victims of the consumer society. The large
monopolistic companies that rule the U.S.
economy and government find that impulsive,
thoughtless buying habits and very insecure
people are very susceptible to advertising.
The very notion of having the University
represented by a beauty queen denies the
stated goals of an academic community, whose
members pretend to themselves that PSU is
dedicated to logical thought, free exchange of
ideas, critical inquiry and rational challenge of
human ideas and behavior.
But the dominant ideology of our society in
fact discourages the active pursuit of these
goals, especially for women. It is no accident
either that those members of U.S. society who
sit on boards of trustees are also members of
the corporate elite who benefit from the ex
ploitation and oppression of women.
Contests such as Homecoming Queen
become quite logical in this context. Yet we
must, if we are to live fully human lives, reject
the kind of logic which rationalizes and even
glorified the treatment of peoples as objects.
The energies dissipated in such frivolous
activities as Homecoming and its beauty con
tests could be put to much better use if
directed toward such crucial issues as the war
and institutionalized racism.
We urge our fellow men and especially
women students to reject the false values and
roles assigned to us by a decadent society and
to accept the challenge of building a humanistic
society.
Cindy Rosenthal
Chairman, Women’s Liberation
(lOth-GNAS-Levittown)
HUB Marine: A Service?
TO THE EDITOR: On Friday I protested the
presence of Marine Corps recruiters on cam
pus. In regard to the protest and to your cov
erage of said events m the Saturday edition of
The Collegian:
—lt is easy to pigeonhole (and thereby
obscure) a protest in the “devil-theory”
category whether the devil be communist or
SDS. In reply to your article headed “Marines
vs. SDS”: I am not a member of SDS and I
moan to be understood by what I say, not by
how someone artibrarilv labels me.
—The draft card burnings and the protest
signs lent nothing but a carnival atmosphere
(mirrored m the stupid grins of many who
walked by) to what should have been a serious
dialogue between the protestors and the non
protestors.
- —ln reply to Lt. W. C. Conrad’s comments
in The Collegian: “Lt. W. C. Conrad of the
Marines said the protestors did not bother him.
‘Everyone has the right to protest.... As a mat
ter of fact it is my duty and obligation to pro
tect that right to dissent.’ ”
As a matter of fact the Marines do less to
protect my right to dissent than they do to deny
others the right to dissent. (Witness the popular
revolutionary movements in Vietnam or the
Dominican Republic.) Indeed, my right to
dissent becomes rather hollow when the
substance of my dissent is the “protection” of
my right to dissent.
Furthermore, in regard to Lt. Conrad’s
assertion that he was not bothered by the pro
testors: Is he so sure of himself that he has
ceased to question the morality of his actions?
—ln reply to the person who argued that I
was merely picking up business for the
recruiters: The situation will not get better by
being ignored. Military recruitment is a disease
on this campus because it is unchallenged by
an ignorant, apathetic, and morally degenerate
student body. It goes without saying that a
disease must be understood before it can be
treated.
—ln reply to the gentleman who asked me
why I was protesting: Why are military
recruiters allowed on campus? When, why. and
and by whom was military recruitment
sanctioned to be carried on within the boun
daries of University Park? Granted that a
University should ideally be an open forum for
all opinions, the question remains, is military
WANTED
Person meeting the descripion of
a. imaginative
b. good sense of humor
c. absurd tendencies
d. a flair for the ridiculous
If you meet the following qualifications you’re wanted on
UUB Special Events Committee
Turn yourself in at the HUB Desk by signing an application
©(not affiliated with Spring Week)
university union board
7:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M. Tuesday and Thursday
recruitment the exercise of an opinion? Or is it
more accurately an indirect form of coercion?
If. as the Marine recruiters assert, their
presence on campus is a service to those stu
dents seeking career opportunities is it not
also a disservice to those who find their
presence morally repugnant?
I will end, not by demanding that military
recruiters be removed from the HUB, but
rather by demanding that people qupstion the
tacit assumption that military recruiters belong
in University Park.
Tom Podoll
March: Common Cause
TO THE EDITOR: Rc Morton Levy's letter
“March Judged Dismal Failure”. In his hasty
decision Wednesday evening, he obviously
missed the score. It was more like (to use Mr.
Levy’s choice of terms) “Anti-American SDS”
30, the “Pro-American Moratorium” 3,000.
If Mr. Levy was so concerned about mak
ing the Moratorium a moral demonstration
against the war, why didn’t he join the other
3,000 students and wave an American flag. He
would have been welcomed.
The beauty of the march was that
everyone, regardless of political persuasion or
idcafs, was able to march together in one com
mon cause PEACE.
I Let Ideals be Ends'
TO THE EDITOR: On Wednesday several
speakers used the Moratorium as a soap box
for socialism. Many of us have been too busy
avoiding exploitation to have considered deeply
whether we would rather be exploited by
capitalists or socialists, but it seems to me that
we have nothing to learn from the warmed-over
formulas of the men who corrupted the labor
movement.
Every socialist government mucks around
in the lives of people, and this is exactly what
we are resisting.
Behind every ideology, including capitalism
and socialism, there are con men ready to cor
rupt ideals in the name of that ideology. To
them the ideals of peace and freedom are
merely means to attain ideology; they would
just as readily use war and slavery.
For once, why don’t we let ideals be ends in
themselves, and tell the con men what they can
do with their ideologies.
Why Did Nixon Ignore Us?
TO THE EDITOR: This month’s moratorium
has ended. The day spent at the HUB and
Schwab auditorium with its many speakers and
viewpoints was an education in itself. There is
so much to react to; two points bother me
today.
One, what naive faith I had in the
democratic system is disintegrating. Why did
President Nixon choose to completely ignore
us? A sudden policy change was not really ex
pected, but couldn’t he have said something to
the American people on Wednesday? Would he
have looked out his window if the marchers had
been violent? Doesn’t he remember President
Kennedy’s meeting with representatives of the
March on Washington (only 200,000 strong)?
The presidents have met with small groups
of exchange students at the White House before
they return from their year here to their homes
all over the world. Don’t the American people
rate such a courtesy?
My faith in democracy has faltered locally
too. Apparently there are those in this
university who are not able to let their political
views known publicly, without fear of losing
their future departmental status. When the
names of those faculty members who supported
the moratorium were read by Asst. Professor
Wells Keddie in Schwab auditorium, there were
the unknown faculty who supported the
moratorium but could not allow their names to
be read.
There were the others those who were
cither brave or secure enough that the heads of
their departments judged their work on their
abilities not their political beliefs. If a man
cannot form his own political viewpoints and
state them freely in an American university
where can he do so? What has happened to this
representative government “of the people, by
the people, and for the people?” Do we have
freedom of speech?
Kay Borish
Call the Collegian
HOT LINE
865-2881
(G r a d-Physical Chemistry-
Scattle, Wash.)
Coalition for Peace
C. Leon Harris
Instructor, biophysics
(11-Art-Philadelphia)
—need an answer?
—want to cut red tape?
—have a gripe?
—or just curious?