SOPINION
Page4 Saturday, September 20, 1980 The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
c
Vol. XCI, No. 15
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, M1 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of The Daily's Editorial Board
A devilish lottery scam
THERE ARE those who claim
they'll never win, and never buy
them.
There are those who claim they'll
never win, but buy one every day
anyway, just in case.
And then there are those who know
they can't lose, buy hundreds of lottery
tickets, and win millions.
Of course, those who know they can't
lose have a secret: They fix the lottery.
While state lottery officials across
the country claim it couldn't happen, in
Pennsylvania it did. In April, at least
six people allegedly conspired to inject
liquid into numbered ping pong balls
used to select winning lottery com-
binations.
A Pennsylvania grand jury recom-
mended yesterday that charges be
filed in the lottery-rigging case, which
really was a devilish scheme.
Liquid was injected into all the balls
floating inside three air machines ex-
cept those numbered "6" and "4."
Then, heavy betting occurred on num-
ber combinations involving 4 and 6,
with the result a "666" winning num-
ber. 666, you may know from The
Omen, is a number representing satanic
evil.
It's kind of sad, when you think about
it, that this scam was discovered.
Surely everyone has dreamed at one
time or another of rigging a lottery.
Those unfortunates who got caught in
Pennsylvania are left with only one
defense, it seems: The devil made
them do it.
4 @Q1980 The !News and O~eer
Distributed by LA. Times Syndicate
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Halting the Indian nukes
SANITY HAD ITS way on Capitol
Hill Thursday when the House of
Representatives voted to reject the
proposed shipment of 38 tons of nuclear
fuel to India.
President Carter had earlier ap-
proved the sale over the objections of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a
prerogative which the law regarding
nuclear material exports allows him.
But the law also allows the Congress to
block shipments if both legislative
iouses issue statements of disapproval
within 60 in-session days. The Senate
fbw has one week- to duplicate the
&'d W mber's is y
The material Carter wants to send to
India consists of low-enriched
uranium, which is not suitable for
weapons use. But even though the In-
Mondale on
7 ICE PRESIDENT Walter Mon-
V dale, speaking at the centennial
celebration -of a Kansas City
pewspaper, indicated that the Carter
Administration opposes recent legal
incursions on freedom of the press.;
While Mondale's remarks may
represent a progressive initiative on
the part of the White House, they have
n somewhat hollow ring in light of two
offenses relating to press freedom that
have gone uncorrected by the Ad-
iinistration.
7 For the first time, Mondale, ex-
ressed disapproval of the conditions
rought about by one particularly per-
picious 1978 Supreme Court decision, a
judgement that gave law enforcement
officials the "right" to search
newsrooms for evidence in criminal
proceedings. The High Court decision
vas spurred by an unexpected in-
a
s
dians plan to use the fuel as an energy
source only, newly re-elected Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi has been un-
cooperative in coming to agreements
on limiting the spread of nuclear arms.
Withholding shipment makes excellent
sense as a method of achieving respon-
sible international nuclear policy.
India could certainly show more
restraint than it has been exhibiting
over the past decade. According to
Representative Jonathan Bingham (D-
New York), who sponsored the
resolution rejecting the shipment plan,
India used American' and Canadian
nuclear materials to explode a test
Weapon six years ago, against the ex-
pressed wishes of the suppliers.
There's no reason to let that sort of
dangerous activity go on.
. press rights
vasion of The Stanford Daily in Palo
Alto, California.
Yet, it was Carter's Justice Depar-
tment that secretly subpoenaed the
phone records of The New York Times
Atlanta Bureau. (Bell Telephone was
only too happy to comply.) Mondale
had nothing specific to say about that
case.
Furthermore, Mondale's boast that
the Central Intelligence Agency is no
longer using reporters as operatives
abroad left one important point un-
spoken. CIA Director Stansfield Tur-
ner, handpicked by Mondale's boss,
has repeatedly expressed support for
the practice of employing reporters-a
practice that jeopardizes the safety of
all foreign correspondents. We would
feel a tad more comfortable if the
president himself would repudiate
Turner's enthusiasm for the Agency's
days of glory. .
- -t
- --
Forget the protests-There's
a big econ test next week
Last spring term, a professor stood before
an auditorium filled with several hundred
students preparing for an introductory
political science lecture. He leaned toward
the microphone and asked cautiously:t"How
many of you would consider yourselves
'liberal'?" A handful of us bravely raised
our hands. "How many of you would consider
yourselves 'moderate' or 'middle of the
road'?" A growingdnumber of hands crept
above the sea of students. "How many of you
would consider yourselves 'conservative'?"
he asked. Suddenly, the auditorium was filled
with the hands of future lawyers, doctors, and
corporate executives.
The same Diag that was the site of the
nation's first major rally in protest of the
Vietnam War is now the occasional recruiting
grounds of the John Birch Society. A group
that 10 years ago would have been heckled off
the campus is now surrounded by inquisitive
students, grabbing pamphlets and scribbling
their names on petitions.
A "Reagan'80" bumper sticker is pasted on
a dorm wall that not so long ago displayed a
Eugene McCarthy campaign poster.
THIS IS A new generation of college studen-
ts. A generation that is as disdainful of its
more politically-active predecessors as that
order of "drug-crazed radicals" would have
been of these new "establishment sell-outs."
But, whatever the shortcomings of mem-
bers of the '60s "counter-culture," one has to*
concede that at least they acknowledged the
failures and injustices of society and sought to
correct them. At least they were engaged by
the challenges of society. At least they cared.
Not so anymore. Perhaps in reaction to the
excesses of the '60s-the Haight-Ashbury's and
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Somoza headline
By David Meyer
the campus bombings-this new generation
has rejected the political concern and ac-
tivism right along with the communes and the
love-ins.
THIS -NEW GENERATION of students
looks at society and does not see the oppor-
tunity to shape it-to make lasting changes
for the better. Instead they see only the oppor-
tunity to conform-to shape themselves into
the successful mold of doctor, attorney, or
business executive.
No longer is it common for. college fresh-
persons to speak of joining the Peace Corps or
VISTA. For these new Bill Buckley apostles,
it's strictly law, medicine, or
business-maybe architecture for the real
non-conformists. (Or, worse yet, there are
ones like the freshwomen in my introductory
history discussion group who two weeks ago
announced that she already knew she was
going into corporate tax law.)
These are the people who think that poverty
ended in the U.S. after the Depression. These
are the people who think that My Lai is a new
citrus soft drink. These are the people who
can't understand why those silly tenant far-
mers in the South, if they really exist, don't
just "go to law.or med school and get good
jobs like the rest of us." These are the people
who think historians have been unfair to the
memory of Joe McCarthy.
MENTION KENT STATE University to
these students and they think only of its poor
record last football season in the Mid-
American conference.
This new generation, which seems commit-
ted to little else than replicating the affluence
of its parents, is surely out of touch with the
harsh, non-suburban realities of the "real
world.
The only glimpse of real activism in the
past several years has arisen over opposition W
to the recently reinstated draft registration;
But even this outcry was nothing of the sort
that characterized the political spirit of a
decade ago. These young pre-professionals
didn't join the ranks of the last remaining ac-"
tivists because they opposed the injustices of
war. They protested because nothing ap'
pealed to them less than interrupting their
ascent up the professional ladder for a jaunt
off to the Persian Gulf.
THE DOMINO THEORY they previously
adopted as proper conservative political
dogma was suddenly forgotten with the
looming threat of their own conscription.
It is this new generation that produced the
student in my political science discussion
group who, last week, explained that he
couldn't understand why all this clatter was
being raised about South African apartheid.
After all, he argued, the blacks of South
Africa have the highest standard of living of
all of black Africa. Why should they worry
about political and social repression?!
Maybe it isn't that these young country-
clubbers can't perceive the world beyond
their hedges. Maybe they are fully aware of
the failures of society, but theywjust don't
care. I mean, who's got time to worry about
social injustice when you've got an econ
exam coming up next week?
David Meyer covers the Michigan
Student Assembly for The Daily.
blasted
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To The Daily:
It seems that The Daily is
trying to teach us something by
labeling Somoza 's assassins
"terrorists" in a headline in the
September 18 issue, but con-
siderable ambiguity clouds the
message. One possibility is that
The Daily is, in a muddleheaded,
obfuscating fashion, trying to
identify with a perjorative term
those who killed a man who, by
the accounts of hundreds of sour-
ces representing a wide range of
the political spectrum, ruthlessly
explited the Nicaraguan people
and killed tens of thousands
seeking to maintain his power.
The other possibility, unfor-
tunately rather slim, is that The
Daily is wisely calling our atten-
tion to the frequent misusage of
"terrorist," startling us with
such a blatant misnomer that we
become more aware of other in-
stances in which we are asked to
reflexively repudiate acts of
violence. I would appreciate
some clarification of The Daily's
intention.
-Randy Earnest
September 18
Unsigned editorials appearing on the left side
of this page represent a majority opinion of The
Daily's Editorial Board. Letters and columns of
the individual author(s) do not necessarily reflect
the attitudes or beliefs of The Daily.
MEO ticket policy hit
Football booing unfair
To The Daily:
The Office of Major Events and
its ticket policy must once again
be called out on the carpet. The
office showed just how incom-
petent it is in its method of ticket
distribution for the upcoming Bob
Marley and the Wailers concert.
My friend and I were eightieth
in line and felt we had a chance to
get good seats in Hill Auditorium.
To our, surprise, there were no
main floor or decent balcony
seats left. My friend promptly
drove out to Briarwood and got
seats in the front row of the first
Springsteen
To The Daily:
You'd think that any people as
balcony, far better than what was
offered at the Union ticket office.
This hardly seems fair. What
do we get for the time we waited
in line? After four years in Ann
Arbor, I've learned I should ex-
pect no better from this
organization. If ticket
distribution is to proceed in this
manner, it should be made clear
to the public. Major Events has
shown itself to be stupid and
shortsighted. This is just a case in
point.
-Barry Rudofsky
September 17
line praised
numbers the morning tickets
went on ale. We stand behind our
i
To The Daily:
Certainly few people expected
the confrontation Michigan en-
countered from a highly
energized Northwestern team
last Saturday. The difficulties
inherent in playing in such wet
conditions are not conducive to
exceptional football. However,
the booing and cat calls shouted
Regardless of some students' ex-
pectations, the Michigan football
team is not run by ignorant in-
sults screamed from the stands.
Let's show some respect. As
good fans, we should help our
team continue to grow in its win-
ning tradition by maturing a little
ourselves. -Bob Ames
Peter Kinley
E' m