Page 4-Sunday, November 4, 1979-The Michigan Daily Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Vol. LXXXX, No. 52 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Army denies gay rights A KONG-STANDING policy of the U.S. Army holds that service in the military is incompatible with homosexual orientation. Aside from being out-dated and based on archaic values, that policy needlessly discriminates against the segment of society still blatantly subject to discrimination - the homosexual community. As a result, Private First Class Roger Cutsinger, an Army clerk-typist for two years, was suddenly deemed unfit for military service. Nothing in his record in that two year time led to the decision to discharge Cutsinger a year ahead of time. No one questioned Cutsinger's qualifications, dedication, or ability. He was kicked out of the Army for the sole reason that he was a homosexual, and he chose to admit it. That Cutsinger was discharged only after admitting he was gay in itself un- derscores the irony of his case. Cut- singer admitted his own homosexuality after two years in the service only in an attempt to help a homosexual friend enlist. All Cutsinger was trying to do in his admission was to make himself the case-study, to tell the Army, in essence, "Hey, I'm gay and I've turned out all right." The Army could have looked at Cut- singer as an example of a good soldier who had proven himself in his record, and who also happened to be a homosexual. That view might have led to a re-evaluation of the current discriminatory policy. That view might have led the Army brass to con- clude that homosexuality does not af- fect a soldier's performance, with Cut- singer as the case-in-point. That's what Cutsinger was hoping for. But instead, the Army chose to seize on Cutsinger's admission of homosexuality and use it to throw him out of the military. Cutsinger's admission, a true act of bravado to aid a homosexual friend and all homosexuals in the military, was sud- denly turned against him, and he was confronted with the sad realization that even in this supposedly intellec- tual and modern society, old taboos and. senseless discriminatory values still outweigh reasonableness and rationality. Despite all the talk of a greater toler- ance in this decade, homophobia - the senseless fear of gay persons - is still as prevalent as ever. The Army's ex- plicit policy of banning gays from the military is a throwback to-these old ungrounded fears, as such discrimination comes from the same mentality that brought us the Salem witch hunts and the 1950s Red Scare. The only difference with fear and discrimination against homosexuals is that it is not a passing trend of any given decade, and, with attitudes like those influencing the policy of the U.S. Army - the institution that broke the color barrier in the 1950s by in- \ tegrating soldiers - prospects for homosexuals unfortunately still look bleak. AP Photo in Washington. Can they gain another chance to fulfill the campaign promises of 1976? President Carter and Vice-Presidend Mondale stand together during a fund-raiser dinner held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Wednesday night Honest Jimmy Carter- has . ', K broken campaign, promises s .%.q-q .- t~v5 4O) UCLYw4a~bflN ~U)ENVo.Y TIE BAJ~0%Ot.~~Pe,4*4G Whatever his critics say about his lack of leadership or mishan- dling of the federal bureaucracy, there is little dispute that Jimmy Carter is an honest man. He may not be able to get along with Congress, but he tells the American people the truth. Nobody can criticize him about that the pundits say. Wrong. A simple analysis of the Carter administration's record reveals that the former peanut farmer has violated the trust and confidence of the nation by breaking numerous campaign promises. In both domestic and foreign policy affairs, the chief executive has retreated from the shaky ground he campaigned on in his political coup of 1976. RISING FROM nowhere, "Jimmy Who?" captivated the hearts of many Americans on both sides of the ideological spec- trum by promising almost everything. It was old-fashioned evangelism. Criss-crossing the nation in remarkable speed, the born-again Baptist resembled a new hope for Americans, a chan- ce to escape from the inflation ills and develop a new and better society. Along the way, he told us a few things he would do as our leader. One by one, though, he's forgotten those promises, or decided they weren't important- anymore. It can be safely said that every president - even the most popular ones - breaks campaign promises. It's almost'impossible to avoid it. The country changes and the president has the respon- sibility to adapt to the changing times. But what is unique about this president's broken promises is that much of his campaign rhetoric was centered around his pledge to restore trust in the federal government. Jimmy Car- ter said he was an outsider determined to revive confidence in the American people toward its leadership. After Vietnam and Watergate, the country needed someone it could trust in the White House. He said he was that man. THIS PIOUS A)ND self- righteous philosophy became the dominant theme of his incredible run for the presidency. climaxed in his famous pledge "to never tell a lie." But unlike George Washington, Jimmy Carter told us a lot of lies. First, he told us that any of his cabinet officers who either inten- tionally misled the populace, or violate normal ethical standards in their posts, would be forced to resign. No more John Mitchells, Earl Butzes, or Spiro Agnews. This was to be a new and respon- sible administration that wouldn't tolerate mischievous conduct. YET, WHEN IT came to a decision to kick out his old friend, Bert Lance, or keep his campaign promise, Jimmy Carter opted for the former. Lance, the director of the budget office, had been ac- cused of violating countless banking procedures while chief executive officer of the National Bank of Georgia. Furthermore, there was evidence showing the Georgia banker 'had acted im- properly to assist friends in his new powerful position. For weeks, the president refused to budge. He expressed his deep confidence in Lance's innocence, and resisted staff pressures to fire him. In the end, however, Lance took the only available option, and left the government. Another one of Carter's key campaign slogans revolved around the need to trim the fat federal bureaucracy. lie promised to cut the amount of federal agencies from 1,900 to 200, similar to the cutbacks he made as governor of Georgia. As Carter learned the intricacies of his new job, he found out that cut- ting the bureaucracy would be almost impossible. He has suc- ceeded in small areas here and there, but generally, Carter has failed to rid the nation of the ex- cess agencies grabbing the tax- payers' money. NO DOUBT HIS second most ambitious - an unrealistic - proposal was to cut five to seven billion dollars from the defense budget. In a September speech on the campaign trail in Springfield, III., the candidate said he was. tired of excessive defense spen- ding. "There is so much waste and mis-management in the Defense Department that must be removed. I will do that," he told the crowd. It's funny that once-he became president, Carter completely reversed himself. Suddenly, he began calling for substantial in- creases in defense spending amounting to about an annual three per cent rise. Noting his past promises, Carter said the U.S. is still the number one power in the world, but that the Soviets were gaining rapidly. A defense increase, he insisted, was necessary to maintain the balan- ce of power. IN ADDITION, Carter pledged that if elected, he would with- draw all American combat troops from Korea. South Korea, he said, had built up its armed for- ces well enough so that an American presence there was no longer essential. In this case, he reiterated his position several times soon after By Michael Arkush. assuming office. But again he changed his mnd, arguing that. removal of American forces may'> provoke the North Koreans to,. launch an invasion on South. Korea. Finally, Carter the candidate represented a new hope for. women, blacks and minorities. He promised to include many of them in his new administration to insure that their rights are safeguarded. By picking Juanita Kreps and Andrew Young, the president sought to satisfy his black and women constituents. A careful look at his record will show that he installed more representatives of minorities in his administration than most past presidents, but many less than he seemed to promise. ALSO, BY increasing the defense budget at the expense of social service programs, the president alienated many black. and minority voters. They were infuriated because they suffer the most when special welfare and social service programs are eliminated. As a result, many influential black leaders have recently . shown their preference for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), in the upcoming battle for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. These broken promises come to mind now because the Carter game plan is clearly to run on the ', president's record. His staff f believes the chief executive has done the best job possible, and has basically kept to his pledges of 1976. While attacking the president's lack of leadership and firm direc- tion, his critics have failed to point out his sharp turnabouts in ' both domestic and foreign policy. The president has lied to us, and weshouldn'tforget it. Michael Arkush is Co- Director of the Daily's Editorial Page. ecy 44 '4"' k, raeli Prime Minister Menachem ds 14 months ago. Camp David Accords still clouded in secri What are the Camp David Accords? We know they took place at Camp David, which is a retreat for U.S. presidents. We know that President Sadat was there and we know that President Carter was there, and Prime Minister Begin. We even saw it on T.V. But what is in the Camp David Accor- ds? Nobody knows. Ask your senator to send you a copy of the Camp David Ac- cords, and see if you get one. You won't. Because this so-called peace treaty is TOP SECRET. Ae are not supposed to know about it, just as the people living in Israel are not supposed to know about it. In Israel, people are not even supposed to read the full, incensored memoirs of their own ex-Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin; "We walked outside, Ben Gurion accompanying us. (Yigal) Allon repeated his question: 'What is to be '.4 'a, , ,,,,,,,u,,,;n, ' /Rn, This section of the censored memoirs was buried in the Oct. issue of the New York Times. You see, in Israel, Rabin, Ben Gurion and Allon are the "moderates." They are the men of peace. Their other side is: TOP SECRET. Just like the Camp David Accords are top secret. Despite all the hue and cry about Palestinians being conspirators, etc., etc., it is to them that we must turn - if' we want to find out what the Camp David Accords are. For the hundreds of thousands of Arabs evacuated from Southern Lebanon because of the Israeli bombing raids going on there, the Camp David Accords are not top secret. They are living reality. SO WHAT ARE the Camp David Ac- cords? Are they the weekly curfews placed on Arab villages in the West Bank, and the "accidental" killings of Arab children by the Israeli occupation forces during the curfew? These are not By Denis Hoppe the occasional suspected high school student-these are duly recorded in the press, the uncensored Arabic langiage press on the West Bank is thus a daily list of the names, date of arrest and discharge, of hundreds of West Bank Arabs, mostly school children, far- mers, parttime workers. The one or two who manage to get word out to France, or the U.S., may take the pages of Am- nesty International's Urgent Action let- ters or the campaigns of the Palestine Human Rights Committee. But these are not the Camp David Accords, I don't think. These are people. So what are the Camp David Accor- ds? I won't give them away to you. Ob- viously President Carter wants to keep them as a surprise. We wouldn't want to Accords. Is the Dimona Reactor in the Camp David Accords? Hiroshima and Nagasaki were top secrets, too. What Accords were they in? Is the recent South African nuclear "event," as it is delicately called, in the Camp David Accords? Shouldn't we find out what is in the Camp David Accords? Or shall we sit and wait. . . until, I would say, next June? We have some idea of the rate of U.S.-made weapons being dropped on Lebanon, from the recent visits to that area by Jesse Jackson, Rep. Paul Fin- dley, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Walter E. Fauntroy, and others. At this rate of' bombing, and by comparison with other TOP SECRET accords that led to wars in the Middle East (1948, 1956, 1967, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Ist Begin hug after signing Camp David Accor