Page 4- Friday, October 26, 1979-The Michigan Daily Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Vol. LXXXX, No. 44 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan U.S. relief aid can end Cambodian tragedy America Revisited kevin rosner HE ADMINISTRATION'S pledge e of $70 millio to the Cambodian in- tprnational relief fund is a long- overdue acceptance of this country's ifsponsibility for the current plight of tie Cambodian people. The famine and djsease gripping the populace are a direct result of the genocidal policies of the Nixon-Kissinger administrtation, whose unprovoked and unwarranted qombing attacks turned a developing 4ation into the current breeding ground of pestilence and starvation. Dr. Kissinger's defense of America's expansionism is to shift the blame for expanding the Vietnamese war onto Vietnam people. But the fact remains tbat the Cambodians were neutral non- combatants, and America's massive military excursion into that country Was a deliberate act of aggression ranking in terms of morality somewhere near Hitler's excursion in- Poland and the Huns' invasion of Europe. §o Carter's pledge of $70 million to 0ebn up the tragic legacy of Nixon and issinger is not a sacrifice on our part, even an act of good will. It is a isponsibility from which this country gnnot escape, and the $70 million giust only be the first step in a process rehabilitating and reconstructing *e country that we devastated. : The Carter administration package i relief and through existing inter- iational organizations must now be tfllowed up by an immediate U.S. GIrlift of food and medicine into Cam- "rodia. Committing the forces of the %.$. military to such a massive relief fort would assure that direct ship- M0nts of food from this- country ac- tdially reach Cambodia's starving. The jtdministration must also allocate a gercentage of our own food production, Specially grain, for immediate ship- ment to Cambodia on U.S. carriers, knd U.S. personnell could aid in the d?stribution -All this would still not atone for the dark spot in America's history, but an iihmediate commitment to reconstruc- ton would at least demonstrate to the 'orld that this country accepts its grave responsibility. ;But there is another side to this y agic episode. The illegal and gi egitimate puppet government in !ihnom Pehn has so far been reluctant Q accept offers of international aid to fIeed Cambodia's starving masses. The tietnamese-backed authorities are Oparently waiting for the inter- dptional community to recognize their fraudulent government before they will allow the world to feed their people. These inhumane butchers are using the Cambodian people as their pawns in a ploy for recognition of a government that was installed by Vietnam's aggression, and it amounts to nothing more than international blackmail that strains the very fiber of humanity. But the humanitarian concern in feeding three million people at this point outweights the disgust at recognizing a supposed government that blackmails its own people. For the purposes of negotiation to allow the food relief, the administration must America, I too, have given you all/and!I am nothing In your glazed eyes. Do you see me as a spy or degenerate? You, America, are stoned by the hysteria of your crowds who Still kill themselves like Dionysian slaves except There is no wine-There is no song. There is just the wheel and the barge. Still roasting your artists and poets of beatitude Who pulled you out of the fire McCarthy was tending. How many men and women walked along Broadway and sang holy songs To your land, your people, seeking good in all eyes? America, 42nd street is in ruins and the Beats are dead and gone. Gone with prro Jack Kearoua who breathed his last breath in 1969. Your fog was too much and swallowed him up by a blind drunk. Do you weep America? You mattered in your steel offices of locks and keys about Those hipsters who talked of meaning and God in Paterson lofts., Out to village bars, to others, and losing our minds along the way.. Their Man-God Neal Cassidy is dead too America. You killed him with expulsion to Mexican deserts. He died walking do wn your train tracks, coming home to work The Industrialism of your two shores. America, the Beats were the last generation who spoke truth to your face. Yes, some lost themselves in surrealism and visions. Lost like sheep who clustered together for warmth from your bitter Yankee chill. They stunk like Turks who smoked one too many cigarettes Forgot to bathe and ran out into the village square to see What the day was about. There were fictional stories for Life Magazine when the Midwest hugges its Protestant arms and hoped Love was real. Beats Beats are the frum taps and the soldiers who should live Eternally in the history books to tell your children about courage After the great way, after the holocaust, after the trauma. America, the Beats were the letters in this trange soup of chance Who came up right and spelled words you didn't want to hear. A merica, Ginsberg had two dollars and twenty seven cents in 1956 America, that wyas the year of my birth and Iam penniless in 79 What plans do you have for me? You've tried to undermine my meaning by telling me-God islos eNven me a chest ful of shabby reasons, phlem, and no-opes America I renounce your days of no music. I am a junkie of hope. You told us you were a fighter, the Beats knew your lie and told. Teller of desperate lies to your children Who reacted by dancing in the streets and didn't go to work. You lies to Time magazine about the Beats. You lied to Newsweek about the Beats. You lie to me but I've seen the wheel coming full circle for sometime now With spokes that slash my generation with fear Splits them in two. I, America, feel te Beats praying for us. Spirits rid us of our feeble minds Let us see God reading the newspaper- Only the funnies: he has nothing to do with the headlines. America its been 35 years since the Beats began their pilgrimage Since then politicalfugitives run free among us Are you learning forgiveness America? How much were you paid? We are your marrow and don't forget it. Beats you never thought Knowledge That builds baracades around Meaning Blake loved the Beats from heaven F. Scott Fitzgerald would have toasted them. Whitman would have kissed them all and written Odes of Love to them. Meaning, is still on the road or in another of Jack's eighteen stories. Grandfather of the Beat Holder and worshipper of time Where is your spirit now Jack? I walk these streets in 1979, the year of the Republican I choke and feel so hopeless sometimes, I do feel so alone Jack. You are dead and gone It is my monkey which schreeches in my ear. Will me generation realize they can be angelic? America, I have gotten up hope you will act impulsively about anything But war and the draft. Beats, see now this wheel which has come full cirtcle and it's 1951 again, Holding each other up, you hold me up by tugging at my mind We owe you part of each day but don't say anything to make you feel better. America, Corso is lost somewhere, Burroughs has gone underground I heard he's in Brooklyn behind coils of barb wire. Kearouc and Cassidy are in heavey where they belong. Father Ginsberg still speaks his truth to women in depart- ment stores About the price of tomatoes and the price of their lives. We have nothing to lose but our lives and aren't you worth it? I see men and women mesmerized by the questions Frozen to their chairs Will emotion surface and Reason come to rule? The universities teach Plato but don't mention that Socrates Was as Beat as they come. Orwell was right America you are jumping the gun Come to grips!!! The Chinese are eating the Vietnamese alive. The Soviets spend days worrying about the Olympic games. The Greeks are really dead and Latin isn't spoken by the holy. The Queen of England might as well hole up in an abandoned beach house She swingsno power. Only drunks who lust after lust Dominate the national news Along with your doath. I won't stop pushing America. I wonder what the Beats would think of running off to some Village in Europe and forgetting this headache. Would they too recede into some quiet corner of the world. And talk'to themselves? Would they spit in the street and cut their hair? America, I don't care about my hair I just need a good laugh once in a while. I hate being serious so pass the wine. I won't kill and will act impulsively I'll never be sorry for celebrating the end of the war. I won 't sing sad songs about your inflation for it will kill you in the end. I hate Marx but he proves you right by every day's end. Beats, I hope you didn't lie to me either. I stand before my generation and sing this ode to Life. I hope they hear For as time passes, its gets harder to think I mj K issinge r deal with and negotiate with the mur- derous Vietnamese puppet gover- nment. The Carter administration must make no pretense that it enjoys negotiating with a government as vile' as that in Phnom Penh. But where the lives of three million people are con- cerned, this type of limited de facto recognition is an unfortunate reality of this tragic situation. The Cambodian episode ranks as one of the blackest pages in the annals of human history. From. the Nixon- Kissinger bombings during the Viet- nam war, to the communist takeover by the murderous Pol Pot, to this current chapter of famine and despair, Cambodia has been devastated by a decade of ,atrocities, from inside the borders and without. And the victims have been the people of Cambodia. With the $70 million in relief aid as a' first step, and with airlifts of American food and medical supplies, the U.S. can at least begin to turn a new chapter in Cambodia. In the name of simple morality and human dignity, the . current government in Phnom Penh can only do the same. I. 4'FMWWMMM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL \\\\ E \ Dst Fits NIW"Pap ayndkt.t. 1979 SpaCey Jane W14AT P6 &T E S IMY NWCARPET? I - kIM ~,\ , _-. F , , _ ",- Byr Tom Stevens C GA2'E JEAN 5 a#TOR)c 1 r NOWN \wm\W"\\\\M\MW:l\WW M . .. . . . Letters to the Daily pa,?~' d\ \ :}.. a S/,V . (Ir A b To the Editor: Last Monday night I had the unfortunate experience of hearing Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden speak - about the U.S. economy with the criticism of big corporations being the main em- phasis of their unfounded, and irresponsible complaints. Mr. Hayden said he thinks big conglomerate corporations should be broken up and given over to the workers and all the oil companies be nationalized. I have nothing against worker in- volvement in company decision making or governmental regulation of such vital produc- most of America's big economy- supporting businesses would soon be put out of business because it takes an education such as you and I are now receiving to run a productive business. No other reasoning is anywhere near realistic. Let's be practical for a moment; a laborer's duty in societyis to do his or her job. Af- ter eight hours on the job, most people prefer to go home and relax or go out for a beer, etc. The last thing a tired riveter wants to do at the end of the day is put on different clothes and go do another person's job. The closest On Mr. Hayden's idealistically foolhearty plan of nationalizing the oil companies, two seconds of sound thought would reveal that this plan is no plan at all. First, look at what Europeans are suf- fering through: Great Britain, France, and Italy all have various nationalized in- dustries-their prices are twice or more ours and their standard of living is much lower than ours. Although Mr. and Mrs. Hayden would have you quickly believing otherwise, our standard of living is in fact one of the highest in the, world. qw. is that there is no profit incentive for it to do so-a basic theory of our productivevconomic system. Would you like the government to produce our oil?: If so, get ready' for $3.00 a gallon gas over night. I was the student in the yellow "M" shirt whose question you purposely and rudely ignored due probably to the possibility that you knew it was an applecart-up- setting question amidst a rally for what I think was communism under - the guise of "economic democracy". The question was: How can you give the least bit of, support, (which you and Mr 14nuion nl' nV. nmmss~i - I