2 The Daily Collegian
Editorial Opinion
Needed alumni group will provide
voice for gay and lesbian graduates
A new alumni group will offer
valuable input on gay concerns to
University administrators.
Two former co-directors of the
Lesbianjand Gay Student Alliance
have fotmed the Penn State Gay
and Lesbian Alumni Association to
make up for an apparent lack of
representation in the University's
Alumni Association.
The Penn State Alumni Associa
tion is a powerful organization that
administrators consider while mak
ing decisions about the University.
Now PSU GALA will also serve as
an important source of influence.
Just as the Alumni Association
has helped make Penn State larger
and better funded, a strong PSU
GALA will make the University
more sensitive and diverse.
For instance, LGSA has been lob
bying to add sexual orientation to
the University's anti-discrimination
clause. But students can do only so
much without alumni support,
which PSU GALA can provide.
Despite some administrative
efforts, discrimination against gay
men and lesbians at Penn State
remains widespread. For example,
many people, including some Uni
versity officials, still equate sexual
orientation with sex.
In 1986, The Penn Stater, the Uni
versity's alumni magazine, refused
to print a paid advertisement from
LGSA asking alumni to answer a
survey about sexual orientation.
dry Collegian
Friday, July 20, 1990
1990 Collegian Inc
Editor
Ted M. Sickler
Business Manager
Ty D. Stroh!
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mined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor
holding final responsibility. Opinions express
ed on the editorial pages are not necessarily
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Board of Editors
Managing Editor
Lori Shontz
Opinion Editor
Jesse Fox Mayshark
Campus Editor
Stacy S. Niedecker
Town Editor Mark Jones
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Linda D. Wahowski
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Laura A. Ward, Chino Wilson
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Laura Eckert
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Assistant Photo Editor
Chris Gaydosh
Dragging the defense budget out of the cold war
Talk of a peace dividend seems. . . I
don't know. . . inappropriate. The news
that the country has been at war comes
as a suprise to me. Did I miss the armi
stice? The parades with old veterans
swelling with pride, children waving
flags, and mothers crying?
Did I miss people breaking out casks
of victory wine they had been saving
since the 19505? Did I miss my chance
to buy war bonds? Did my mother work
in a grenade factory without my know
ing it?
My Opinion
John V.
Antinori
I realize that no word spoken by a pol
itician is a valid signifier for anything
"revenue enhancements" are not
taxes. But war and peace used to be pre
tty straightforward ideas. Either your
father, or your older brother, or one of
PSU GALA
Magazine officals compared run
ning the advertisement to running
an advertisement for condoms or
tampons.
Misunderstandings such as that
one can hopefully be resolved by a
greater recognition of gay concerns.
Pressure from an organized group
like PSU GALA is an effective
means of making those concerns
known.
Alumni have power to pressure
the University in many ways. They
can lobby in Harrisburg. They can
lobby in Old Main. But the best tac
tic is to lobby with dollars; alumni
dissatisfied with the University are
less likely to donate money, aid gay
and lesbian alumni have littlb to be
pleased with.
And like most other alumni
groups, PSU GALA will sponsor
reunions. These will be more than
social gatherings by providing
opportunities for gay and lesbian
alumni to chart the progress they
have made and see the areas in
which more work is needed. Keep
ing in contact with the past is impor
tant for today's and tomorrow's
leaders.
Gay men and lesbians face dis
crimination on a daily basis, a fact
too often ignored by University offi
cials. Now, with increased pressure
from alumni, administrators are
more likely to respond to the needs
of Penn State's gay community.
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your uncles or cousins was overseas try
ing to kill someone or they weren't.
Easy. •
Now "war"and "peace" are more
nebulous. The - Old war" is over, and
we are being told that we won, but no
one is very certain about what we won.
What we know for sure is that the "war"
destroyed the Soviet Union as we knew
it, and may yet dissolve the Union com
pletely. It remains to be seen whether
the "war" destroyed the United States
as we know it.
The muddled definitions of "war"and
"peace" are among the major reasons
the president, congress, and the nation
are two months away from a $lOO bilion
budget sequester, or an austerity bud
get so severe that it will be equally
recessionary, resulting in a decreased
standard of living at home and
decreased American power abroad.
The Soviet economy nearly collapsed
trying to sustain the military state
required to fight the "cold war ; " the
U.S. economy is likewise highly milita
rized, and suffering because of it.
Ronald Reagan knew that wars have
an expansionary effect on an economy.
He created the economic expansion of
the 80's by deficit spending, a large part
of which was the largest peacetime
arms build-up in history. In many ways,
the country had a war-time.economy
Art Department
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Board of Managers
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Anne Cunningham
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Opinions
Reader Forum
Military-industrial complex saps economy
Over the past thirty years, military spend
ing has become the implicit industrial policy
of the United States. Recently released figures
ranking Penn State fourth amongst Universi
ties nationwide in defense contracts underlies
the extent to which military spending has per
meated both our university and our society.
The Military-Industrial Complex (MIC)
President Eisenhower warned us about in his
farewell address has evoled over the years to
the point that currently one job in five is some
how related to the "war machine." Though
moral battles about the wrongs and rights of
defense speding will rage on for years, the
pressing question is "Can we, as a nation,
afford to continue supporting such a policy?"
The answer is no.
Despite the fact that the United States won
"the war that never was," we have found our
selves ill-prepared to fight the international
economic wars that are pillaging our cities.
Destruction in the form of crime, illiteracy
and unemployment runs rampant . . . directly
attributable to a nation's loss of its ability to
compete in increasingly fierce international
markets. When placing the blame for this
demise, all fingers necessarily point to Wash
ington, D.C. and its short-sighted, number
conscious, "Growth-Now!" mindset.
Implications of the acute economic ineffi
ciency of the defense industry are widespread.
Since military procurement targets innova
tive sectors, where labor is relatively high
paid, fewer jobs are created per dollar spent
that would be possible if similar amounts were
targeted for social services. Furthermore,
since the nature of the industry creates
&Imand for already scarce material and labor
IN at should the new president's priorities be?
If, asMcely the Penn State Board of Trust
ees names Joab L. Thomas as the new Univer
sity president on Monday, what do you think his
major priorities should be?
Some may point to continuing efforts on cam
pus to promote greater cultural diversity and
understanding. Others might emphasize Penn
State's perennial tuition increases. What do you
think?
If you have views on this or any topic, The
Daily Collegian wants to hear from you.
throughout the decade; we were simul
taneously at "war"and at "peace,"
whatever those terms mean.
But basing an economy on military
spending is bad economics: You cannot
sell MX missles to Korea or Star Wars
systems to Italy. These weapons pro
grams absorb enormous amounts of
capital, research and development
resources, and manpower, but, once
completed, they sit in military bases
and produce no economic benefit. Thus,
the trillion-plus dollars spent on defense
since 1980 contributed mightily to the
budget and trade deficits threatening to
make the U.S. an economic basket
case.
You can make VCRs and refrigera
tors as long as people want to buy them.
But eventually the market for Ml tanks
drys up. When, for political or financial
reasons, the government signifcantly
decreases military spending, the econ
omy tends to contract. In a recent issue
of the Nation, Alexander Cockburn
observed that, in modern history, reces
inputs ( very few engineers and skilled
machinists are unemployed), an inflationary
bias is created in some sectors while doing
nothing to alleviate unemployment in others.
The most problematic aspect of defense
spending as a macro-economic policy, howev
er, is its (surprisingly) slow filtration into the
economy. Though input-output studies indi
cate military spending has a higher multiplier
effect ( i.e. increases in spending resulting in
even larger increases in GNP) than social
spending, applied economic studies almost
always conclude that social spending has
more growth effect than equal military expen
ditures. This is attributable to the immediate
dispersal of social dollars into the economy
whereas military dollars often take two years
or *tore to exhibit their stimulative effects (a
result of the delays in production synonymous
with the industry). In English, military spend
ing is a less than optimal stimulus of economic
expansion.
Yet as we continue to grease the machine,
we have failed to notice that the wheels are
falling off one-by-one. In the drive for short
term prosperity, we have undermined our
ability to compete in the long run. Scarce
resources, especially educated labor power,
are increasingly allocated to the design of
complex weaponry which, on a whole, spawns
relatively few products with commerical
usages. The result is an economy that suffers
from the sacrifice of large market efficiency
in the pursuit of narrow military needs.
Had these monies been instead targeted to
alternative uses such as mass transit and
alternative energy technologies, there might
not be all this talk of being surpassed by the
The letters we print reflect the views and con
cerns of the entire University community, so
make your voice heard. It's easy.
Type a letter of one to one and a-half double
spaced pages and submit it in person to the
Collegian office at 123 S. Burrowes St. Longer
letters of up to three pages may be submitted as
reader forums.
Letters may also be mailed to the office, but
the author's identity will have to be confirmed
before publication.
sions have always followed significant
reductions in military spending.
There are signs that this contraction
is already under way. Lockheed and
McDonnell Douglas have already
announced layoffs. Cockburn cites a
report in the July 3 New York Times
estimating that California's economy
would lose 151,000 jobs and suffer a $7
billion dollar drop in the gross state
product if military spending drops by
11.5 percent in 1992.
A recession would be terrible given
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OAIN 01'
e
Friday, July 20, 1990
11 '41%44
Japanese as the world's premier economic
power. In fact, Japan's recent domination of
the steel, auto and electronics industries
once the domain solely of the U.S. may be
attributable, at least in part, to its scarce
amounts of military-related production.
Unfortunately, there is no end in sight. As
Congress wrangles with budget problems, and
increased taxes are on everyone's lips, the
MIC marches on, while the peace dividend
quietly blows away, never to be heard from
again.
A final caution that must be urged is that
Penn State, as a land-grant university, cannot
allow itself to be swept away in a whirlwind
of defense dollars. Though Richard Stern,
associated director for research in the applied
science lab, believes Penn State is obligated
to be connected with defense research, he
must remember also that the University can
not allow the quest for project money,to dis
place the need for intellectual freedom.
Eisenhower warned of the consequences:
"The free university, historically the fountain
head of free ideas, has experienced a revolu
tion in research. Partly because of the huge
costs invovled, a goverment project beomes
virtually a substitute for intellectual curios
ity."
So as the Iron Curtain falls, marking the end
of the Cold War, the time is now for beating
the swords back into ploughshares. Such
action is the only way the U.S. will retain its
position as the world's leading economic pow
er.
Martin L. Shields is a graduate student in
agricultural economics
Author or authors should include name,
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Generally, letters should be submitted by
1 p.m. to be considered for publication the next
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all letters for length, and to reject letters if they
are libelous or do not conform to standards of
good taste.
the budget crisis, but if the hard times
cause the U.S. economy to shake its
dependence on military spending, the
suffering could be worthwhile.
But there is no guarantee that the mil
itary will significantly shrink.
Although the forces of history, natural
selection, and economics indicate that
the military should wither, politics and
bureaucracy could dictate otherwise.
Plenty of generals, administrators, and
politicians see their power base eroding
and are working twenty-hour days
devising a new raison d'e-trefor the mil
itary.
Some see the threat of "terrorism" as
justifying a large standing army. Oth
ers would involve the military in the
war on drugs. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.,
proposes using the military in the cam
paign to save the environment (huh?
One of the benefits he claims for his pro
posal is that it would help to maintain
the vitality of the defense establish
ment.
Nunn misses the point. It is the contin
ued vitality of the defense sector that is
helping to push this country towards
economic crisis.
John V. Antinori, a graduate student
studying English Literature, is a colum
nist for The Daily Collegian.
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