TM Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Saturday, June 15, 1974 News Phone: 764-0552 Atom bombs for Egypt, or Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay? THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT the United States will sell nuclear reactor capability to Egypt represents the most foolhardy and dangerous decision In American for- eign policy in the past decade and paves the way for a massive rekindling of the touchy powderkeg in the Mid- dle East. Although the announcement stresses the capability will be for "peaceful purposes," the experience in India shows that a nuclear reactor is only one step away from a nuclear bomb. India was given the same capability - and exploded a nuclear device last month. The announcement also reduces the nuclear nonpro- liferation treaty to a meaningless scrap of paper. This treaty, which was signed by the U. S. and limits the spread of nuclear weapons, among nations is now worth- less in the light of the new action. The decision by Nixon and Kissinger can be likened to giving two children guns and telling them to fight it out between themselves. Israel has had a nuclear capa- bility for years. But with Egypt's entrance into the nu- clear club, the stakes are considerably higher. IN THEIR BID to get Egyptian oil, Nixon and Kissinger have traded away any chance for a real peace in the Mideast. Given the massive hatred between Egypt and Israel, a nuclear war in that explosive sector of the world may be a foregone conclusion. Even though Israel has a nuclear capability, it has not used it for fear of in- curring adverse world opinion. But with Egypt's new ac- quisition, such political constraints have been removed -and a preemptive nuclear attack may be rationalized by either side with an "if we don't use, they'll use it first." The Nixonian rhetoric about "paving the way for a lasting peace in the Middle East" has now been exposed as the farce and sham it really is. Any thoughts about the altruistic motives of the president and his globe- trotting secretary of state have been completely removed. For the politics of oil (and all its attendant ugli- ness) has reared its head. A swap of a nuclear capability for oil can only be described as shabby - and foolish. Innocent people may die on both sides because of the blatantly imperialistic greed of the United States govern- ment. THIS TYPE OF IRRESPONSIBILITY in our public of- ficials - be they elected, as Nixon, or appointed, like Kissinger - cannot be tolerated. Even if Watergate never had happened, this alone would be grounds on which to impeach the president. It should not be in the purview of any official to hand out nuclear capability, with all its potential destructiveness, like chewing gum to any child who grabs for it. A nuclear capability is not a toy. If you hand some- one bullets;it will not take long to find a gun to put the bullets in. The responsibility for any deaths or injuries from that gun must rest solely with those who gave him bullets in the first place. The president and Dr. Kissinger would do well to dwell on that for a while. -GARY THOMAS Spring Staff REBECCA WARNER Editor MARNE HEYN Editorial Director KEN IN Arts Editor GORDON ATCHESON ......................................... Night Editor JEFF DAY . . ...........Night Editor MEUYL PILATE.... ...... Night Editor JUDY UtSKIN............................. Night Editor JEFF SORENSEN .......... Night Editor ARARA CORNELl. AssNight Editor JANET NARSHMAN .................. Ass't. Night Editor ANDREA LILLY ........ Asst. Night Editor STEPHEN iiER5NH.... ,.. .......... Asst. Night Editor DAVID WHITING .Ast. Night Editor MARC FeLDMAN Sports Editor CLARKE COGSDILL ...:...................... Contributing Sports Editor GEORGE HASTINGS ............................Executive Sports Editor JOHN KAHLER .................................. Associate Sports Editor ROGER ROSSITER ............ ............... Managing Sports Editor JOAN ADES.............. ........ ...Circuation Manager MARK NANCRAINTfi Business Manager KAREN COPELAND. .. .... Display Manager EMILY MIEN ........................... Office Ass't, KATHY KELLER.........Office Asst. CASSIE ST. CLAIR .................................... Classified Manager TOM GOTTLIEBN.'........................... ...Photographer KAREN KASMAUSKI .........................Photographer 0 \ 4 INFANTILE INSIGHT On father By BETH NISSEN EVERY TIME a family's first baby is born, another mother and father are brought into the world. After the excited calls over long- distance wires are made, and the cigars smoked into congratulatory ashes, there remains the problem of bringing up baby. Traditionally all the how-to books on success- fully raising a balanced child have been written for mothers. The projected image of newborn babe is usually incomplete without the accom- panying new mother, cheeks blushed with ma- ternal pride. Ads for baby products are written and produced for mothers; fathers aren't usually shown capable of keeping their sons and daugh- ter's newborn bottoms drier or spooning strained beets into their drooling and toothless mouths. The father has been left little to do except con- sistently bring home the pablum, and play goot- chie-goo in the early evening with a well-scrubbed powdered infant. The realities of raising children alternate be- tween joy of discovery and weary drudgery. Be- tween the Kodak moments of Baby's First Tooth, First Step and First Word are the backaches of the hundred-thousandth used Pampers and end- less heap of spitty clothes, the 1 a.m. whining and the one misplaced shoe. Almost all of the unpleasantness is commonly considered the burd- en of the parent with the womb. Fathers are expected to share the joys of parenthood, but are traditionally allowed to keep both hands clean. The father holds a rather set arrear posi- tion in child-rearing. ACCORDING TO our gaggle of learned psychol- ogists and social behaviorists, a passive father role has its effects on children. In the past, the absent father during most of Baby's waking hours was compensated for by the devoted moth- er. There has recently been a great decrease in the status and admiration awarded the profes- sion of motherhood and children are suffering from the lack of a strong parent - especially father - figure. Fatherhood is much more than contributing to the baby's genetic structure or the patronizing gift of a weekly allowance or a hand in the daily discipline. For either a male or female child, the father helps shape their perceptions of their neighbors and themselves. There is little public and social recognition if a man is a good father; there is much condem- nation if he is a negligent one. Most of the praise for a productive and good child - as well as the blame for an indigent and delinquent one - are given to the mother. The father plays an accessory role, one clearly defined by American family tradition. Rare is the father who gets up to fix the family breakfast in the morning or risks dishpan hands to help with the dishes. The man who offers to heat up the Hamburger Helper, go Kro- gering for the week, or fold a basketful of and baby bathtowels is a saint and a paragon husband. He also threatens the delineated world of divid- ed His and Her chores, which has consistently loaded everything but the disposal of the garbage onto the wife and mother. MINDS, LIKE the times, are changing. Those women who feel their Masters degree qualifies them to do more than watchdog Junior tireless- ly, or feel the tedium of baby's care more than they care to carry solitarily, are calling for an added shoulder to bear the weight of both respon- sibility and work that automatically follows when one and one makes three. Far-sighted psychologists warn of the effects of early abandonment of a child to the smiling surveillance of cheery Kool-Aid and Nabisco day- care centers. Such a price for a mother's freedom Ideas of inside or outside personal plumbing should not determine who earns the bread and who makes it into sand- wiches or which parent raises the child and which one raises the money. A child is an emo- tional as well as physical pro- duct of both parents. can muddle a child's identification of parents and home and endow them with as much a sense of direction and security as an air-shipped suit- case with no destination sticker. The idea of child-raising being synonmous with mothering will have to be changed along with the diapers. For the sake of the psyche of fu- ture children, the idea of parenting will have to take stronger hold. A greater involvement of fathers in the daily routines of their children and a dissolving of the rigor mortised roles of father and mother should both free enslaved mothers and grow better adjusted children. Ideas of inside or outside personal plumbing should not determine who earns the bread and who makes it into sandwiches or which parent raises the child and which one raises the money. A child is an emotional as wel as a physical product of both parents. The difference between a father by rite of pa- ternity and a father by rite of involvement in their children's growth determines which fathers get only a $6.00 tie from their children on Father's Day and which fathers get the loving and grate- ful emotional ties of their children for life.