iditorial opinion
While professing to be strong
on law and order Mayor Frank Riz
zo allowed lawlessness and mobs
to reign in Philadelphia for eight
hours on Friday.
He remained in conference and
out of touch while 250 of his sup
porters in the Building and Con
struction Trade Council sang "God
Bless America” and beat up two
newsmen.
He neglected to order his police
commissioner to break up the
picket lines around The
Philadelphia Inquirer building even
though the labor council had no
contracts with The Inquirer which
could justify demonstrations.
He allowed the city solicitor to
refuse to deal with the violent and
unlawful demonstrators without a
court order. After an injunction was
received from a federal judge and
served by federal marshals he
Housekeeping: A world problem
By BARRY BOYCE
6th-bachelor of philosophy
There are genuine reasons why waste
is not considered a virtue among men.
However, in the last few decades in this
country, where men have been isolated
from the basic resources which maintain
their life, they have ignored a lot of
waste. It’s gotten to the point where It
can no longer be ignored. The garbage is
piling up at the back door. I am con
vinced that if we were aware of our
wastefulness we wouldn't do it, but the
hustle and bustle of modern society has
anesthesized our common sense. Join
me, if you will, in some second
thoughts, with the help of statistics from
biologist Barry Commoner.
If someone asks you where you live,
you are not likely to tell them "the
earth.” Perhaps this is half our problem.
We don't realize that our house Is, in
some sense, actually the earth itself.
This fact is reflected in the origins of two
very ' important words, economy and
ecology. The “eco” in both of these
words comes from the Greek word for
"house.” Clearly, the house that is
implied for our times is a large one
the earth itself. So economy and ecology
both come down to a sort of
housekeeping. Just as you try to keep
your house running efficiently and in
order, so the nation and the world try, on
a much larger scale, to tend to their
house.
V
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..
Listen in
TO THE EDITOR: It is most heartening to find that the
University’s radio station WDFM is this term enlarging its
“Third Program" of classical music to run from 11 a.m. to 6
p.m. On Mondays through Fridays for seven hours unin
terrupted by commercials you may tune in to a full range of the
finest in music, presented by student announcers who
themselves seem to appreciate what they are offering. (Add to
this the Metropolitan Opera matinees on Saturdays and the
midday Philadelphia Orchestra programs on Sundays.)
In this welcome move, station WDFM takes an Important
step toward fulfilling its cultural function as a University
enterprise. There is a long-standing community need for it,
too, and since the new arrangement.is presently being an
nounced as “temporary,” interested individuals might well
express their support of It in writing to WDFM, 304 Sparks
Double talk
allowed his lackeys to continue
picketing The Inquirer.
During the entire eight-hour
episode, Rizzo’s law and order
police force sent only a handful of
plainclothesmen to the demon
stration. They made no attempt to
keep order. The mob beat one of
The Inquirer’s staff at the feet of a
plainclothesman. Another officer
told an Inquirer editor that if he at
tempted to cross the picket line he
would be arrested for assault.
But more than this, the council
and Rizzo kept The Inquirer from
publishing for several hours. Their
brutp force negated the public's
right to know and twisted the First
Amendment into • an
unrecognizable distortion.
Obviously, neither Rizzo nor the
trade council is living up to its
professed flag-waving ideals. Riz
zo is two-faced on law and order;
If you will accept this simplistic but
generally accurate description of our
situation, I will now ask you to Imagine
yourself as housekeeper of just the
United States, no less the world, for a
day. You would doubtless be so
disappointed and overwhelmed by the
shape of your house that you wouldn’t
know where to begin. This is In fact the
state of society today. Why?
Being a $64,000 question, there is no
pat answer. But, I think some very
reasonable suggestions can be made.
Until very recently, economists and
ecologists have been unwilling to get
together and admit that it is the same
house each of them are trying to keep
clean. But even worse, now that they
have reached this realization, they are
arguing about who can do the better job
of cleaning house. One can envision
T.V.'s Hazel (noted economist) and Mr.
Baxter (noted ecologist) arguing over
who can clean up little Harold's mess
better.
This is lamentable. Common sense
seems to have been lost within the
bureaucratic structure; therefore we are
being prevented from seeing that the
economy and the ecosystem (including
' HENRST.,,,
Collegian forum
Building, University Park.
From this frequent listener, compliments and thanksl
Harold E. Dickson
Professor Emeritus of Art History
Bi-buy
TO THE EDITOR; I am writing this letter in response to any of a
number of anti-Bicentennial articles I’ve been reading lately.
The last one was a column in Tuesday's Collegian.
The word that bothers me enough to write this is "buy
centennial.” I have been bombarded by this word more often
than any advertising for Bicentennial items. Every writer of an
anti-Bicentennial article thinks this Is the wittiest pun they’ve
come across In years, it is so hip to be anti-Bicentennial
because a lot of sales pitch is America-oriented this year. To
me, it seems that the anti-advertising propaganda Is worse
than the ads in question. If Bicentennial items bother you,
his fervor sways when personally
involved in an illegal event. This
persecution of The Inquirer is tied
to Rizzo's $6 million libel suit for a
satirical column on him published
this past Sunday.
The trade union is smearing the
image of all unions with its tactics.
Its super-Americanism is revolting
when coupled with bombings of
non-union construction sites and
beery mob tactics.
Anarchy, not democracy, is the
result of the trade union’s antics.
Anarchy, not law and order, is the
result of Rizzo’s spiteful gestures
against The Inquirer.
It’s time that a law and order
mayor and a law and order union
stop saying one thing and doing
another.
That’s hypocrisy. It’s also
dangerous.
energy resources) are inextricably tied
together. In the past, it might have been
fine and convenient to talk of stimulating
the economy without having any concern
about the physical environment. But
now, as problems of pollution, energy
conservation, unemployment and a weak
economy converge, we must realize that
the economic environment Is still part of
the physical environment. In short, what
we need is a more ecological economics.
Who will give a damn about stimulating
the economy when he has to wear an
oxygen mask, anti-radioactive clothing
and wading boots to work?
It has, in fact, been quite reasonably
suggested that the roots of the energy
crisis, eco-crisls and economic crisis all
lie in large scale corporate mistakes in
the post-war era. The city of Los
Angeles, for instance, possessed in the
beginning of this century what could
now be the most efficient and least
polluting mass transit system possible:
trolley cars. The smog-coughing energy
hog, the bus, replaced it long ago with
encouragement from General Motors
and the oil companies.
In large scale, petrochemical products
(products which use oil as the raw
material: plastics, styrofoam,
detergents, synthetics) have replaced
many more natural, often more durable,
products of which there really is no
shortage. The tragedy is that in the long
run, the petrochemical industry makes a
r«»lf
From the editor
Neither
I used to think the arts beat coor
dinator got all the good mail that came
into the Collegian office. But now I get
letters from maniacs.
There’s a 33-year-old bachelor not too
far from here who wrote to the Collegian
asking for funds. He wanted to have
plastic surgery, he said, to correct his
circumcision. Circumcision was more
dangerous than drug addiction, he said
and he traced the horrors of cir
cumcision in his three-page plea:
"fastidiousness, neuroses of left-sided
Injuries in men, fear of hard work,
allergies, ulcers, and crime in general."
We never printed the man’s plea. I
don't know if he was serious or not but
just to be sure it didn't find its way onto
the editorial page, I buried it in the
bottom of the dead letters flje.
The circumcision letter now rests
comfortably with a sheaf of papers
called "Veritas." This mimeographed
scandal sheet claimed Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis was responsible for
President Kennedy’s death. It alleged
that the First Lady, in climbing onto the
trunk of their limousine, kicked the
President’s head with her left foot,
thereby leaving him In his assassin's
.•firing line. . v , r •
Also included In "Veritas," as if mere
facts weren’t enough, was a photograph
of Mrs. Onassis walking down a New
York Street. Plainly labelled for all of us
to see, was the clinching evidence
"left foot that kicked the President's
more inefficient use of invested funds,
an equally inefficient use of energy and a
more efficient use of labor (resulting in
fewer jobs to produce the same public
needs). As biologist Barry Commoner
has said of the petrochemical industry,
"The amounts of energy and capital
needed to accomplish the same tasks
have increased; the amount of labor
used to achieve the same output has
decreased; the Impact on the en
vironment has worsened."
These are only a few major examples
where a concern with the environment
and efficient use of energy were ignored
in the face of more “pressing” corporate
economic interests, a smaller work
force, immediate maximization of profit
and faster production. By and large,
however, this has been the cause of
many of our energy, ecological and
unemployment problems today. We
cannot turn' back the hands of time, but
perhaps we can learn from our mistakes.
Well, maybe our society is destined to
go to work In a two-year-old Chevy, with
our lunches in plastic bags, throwing
away our soda bottles and the cans
which held our pudding. I think,
however, that we must begin to see that
a good economy does not necessarily
mean a good life. Economists
traditionally call things like pollution
and energy resource depletion and waste
“externalities.” These men must begin to
see that this is just bad housekeeping.
simply do not buy them. Treat them the same way you treated The Rape Crisis Center would like to restate its function as a
the Evel Kneivel nonsense. The fact remains that someone will service organization. We are a non-political volunteer center
always be trying to sell you something for any reason possible, with two main purposes: 1) to maintain a hot-line (234-5050)
and the Bicentennial is no exception. for rape-assault victims and those concerned with the victim's
Don't let the hard times keep you from celebrating the emotional welfare and 2) to provide primary prevention
Bicentennial. If you miss it, there’s another hundred year wait, education to the public
Joseph F. Betz
6th-englneerlng
Rape crisis
TO THE EDITORS: It has come to our attention that a con
siderable number of people have associated the Rape Crisis
Center with the demonstration against Frederick Storaska’s
lecture concerning rape. The Rape Crisis Center Is an
autonomous organization and is not affiliated with any specific
groups or views. Hence, the Rape Crisis Center did not plan
nor participate in the demonstration.
‘Try that again and you get 30 days for attacking a fist.’
head," “right arm that could have cradled
the President’s head and kept him out of
range."
So far I’ve discovered from the pile of
letters. I read everyday, useless facts
about poultry production in the state,
hog diseases and egg quality.
I also know that the Allegheny Portage
Railroad is 142 years old. I know of an
organization in Black Hawk, Colorado
-called Biological Resistance Against
Institution Nuts [BRAIN]. The Collegian
gets about one news release a week from
BRAIN, but none of them are
decipherable.
rain nor sleet...
t Sheila
McCauley
I quote: "From cave man to feudal serf
to model-T Ford democrat,. the new
survival discovery on planet Earth is
brain self-control ... Brain self-control
causes backward self-therapy to total
self-cure of neurosis as pre-requisite to
automatic dormant tissue release."
Sometimes our political mail gives us
insights into ambition. Soon after
PEANUT BUTTER AND
foR
president
sheila McCauley
Editor
Joseph Ammerman declared his can
didacy for U.S. Congress, the Collegian
received his campaign literature. Pasted
over Ammerman for Senate, was
Ammerman for Congress in red.
A few words about letters to the
editor. I spent a whole year soothing
feelings of letterwriters whose letters
were not printed. We just don’t have
enough space to print every letter to the
editor we receive.
You can find our general policy about
letter length and writer identification on
the editorial page next to the headline
“Letters to the Editor.”
We average about 50 letters a week
and have room to print about 25 letters a
week.
If we get 20 letters about an Issue,
such as “PSU females try love,” we print
a representative sample. Perhaps ten
letters in all will see print the five
best-written from each side.
But please try to understand, no
matter how valid or justified your anger
is, no matter how well you argue your
point, your letter may not run. Some
people erroneously think we favor
opinions that agree with our editorial
policy." If your letter doesn’t run, It’s
either because we didn’t have room or
else the letter was libelous. But check
with the editorial editor to make sure.
She may be able to ease your writer's
cramp.
IELLY SANDWICH
Mailing Address: Box 467, State College, Pa. 16801
Office: 126 Carnegie
TonyAuth Philadelphia Inquiror
(weu.-Tfci.kr issues
APtfe(?lM ELECTED)
The Rape Crisis Center of
State College
NADINE KINSEY
Business Manager