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OPINION
Page 4
Sunday, September 11, 1983
The Michigan Daily
Gary
Hart: A
candidate with
By Dave Kopel
Isn't it time for a president who isn't a
failure? Everyone wants a successful
president, but some people, looking at recent
history, fear that the job is simply too big to be
done well. But the problem isn't that the
presidency is too big; the problem is that our
recent presidents have been too small.
Every one of the potential Democratic
presidential nominees would work hard at
being a good president; each is at least
moderately intelligent. Any of the potential
nominees would make a far better president
than Ronald Reagan. But only one candidate
possesses the vision to lead America into its in-
creasingly complex future. That candidate is
Colorado Senator Gary Hart.
During his nine years in the United States
Sedate, Hart has established himself as one of
the- most innovative thinkers in American
politics.
IHLITARY REFORM is one of the many
iss ies on which Hart has moved beyond the old
cliches to propose novel solutions. Hart
believes that the defense debate has
mistakenly focussed on how much money to
spend. Instead, Hart, a member of the enate
Arned Services Committee, has asked what
we are spending the money on. Unlike Ronald
Rd4gan, who tries to solve our national
se4urity problem by throwing money at it, Hart
safd, "More spending on a military that doesn't
wdrk just buys a bigger military that doesn't
wdrk."
For the vital task of defending Europe,
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger buys
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the high-priced M-1 tank, which breaks down
an average of every 43 miles. And to defend the
oceans Weinberger puts all of our eggs into a,
very shaky basket - 13 large aircraft carriers
- which are easy targets for tactical nuclear
missiles.
Instead of enriching defense contractors by
buying super-expensive and unreliable
weapons, we should purchase weapons that will
work, and purchase them in larger quantities.
-.
by more than the size of one's arsenal.
Although the Reagan-appointed Scowcroft
Commission concluded that there is no feasible
basing mode for the MX missile, Reagan plans
to drain tens of billions of dollars from the
Treasury to build this destabilizing boon-
doggle.
HART LED the Senate fight against the MX,
and will continue the battle until the missile
plan is killed. Hart is also the Senate's expert
on nuclear non-proliferation and a sharp critic
of plutonium exports.
Hart has opened new avenues in other areas
as well. In fiscal policy, for example, he is a
proponent of the Tax-Based Incomes Policy
(TIP). TIP would impose tax penalties on any
of the 2,000 largest corporations that exceed
wage/price targets. Unlike wage-and-price
controls, TIP would stop inflation without
creating a cumbersome, new bureaucracy. And
unlike Reagan's tight money policies, TIP
would not throw nine million people out of
work.
On some issues though, Hart could not be
more traditional. According to the League of
Conservation voters, Hart has done more for
the environment than any other Democratic
candidate. Hart's concern for the environment
links him with a bipartisan tradition dating
back to Theodore Roosevelt.
Hart also believes that if America is to be a
great nation it must be a just nation. While
Ronald Reagan doles out American dollars to
tinhorn Latin American generalissimos, Hart
argues "We are foolish if we try to bottle up the
anger of abused people by fortifying regimes
that have ignored them for decades. Our,
natural allies are people who want food,
vision
shelter, medicine, and hope."
An opponent of every aspect of Reaganomics
right from the start, Hart feels that the
president's job is to inspire the nation, not to
justify trickle-down greed and selfishless. One
budget debate highlighted the difference bet-
ween our current president and our next one. In
the Spring of 1981, Reagan slashed school lunch
budgets. Hart proposed cutting back business
tax deductions for entertainment, and using the
revenue to restore school lunches.
Hart is undeniably a dark horse. But so was
Jimmy Carter, so was George McGovern
(whose campaign Hart managed), and so was
John F. Kennedy. For that matter, how many
people expected Ronald Reagan (a radical ex-
tremist if there ever was one) to be elected
president?
Hart lacks the money and the name
recognition of the other candidates. But he has
by far the strongest grassroots organization,
especially on college campuses. And as Lyndon
Johnson found, out the hard way in 1968,
dedicated students can topple a president, even
a president who was elected by a landslide.
The recent Martin Luther King, Jr.
memorial march on the nation's capitol showed
the world that America is abandoning com-
placency, that the "Me Decade", is behind us.
Gary Hart can lead America to a greater
future.
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THE PENTAGON bureaucracy, which
rewards paper pushers instead of military
strategists, is another target for Hart's
military reform program.
Hart's new approach to defense spending will
save taxpayers $17 billion in the program's fir-
st year alone and, more importantly, may save
American lives in combat.
In sharp contrast to President Reagan,
Senator Hart realizes that security is measured
Kopel, a second year law student, is
working for the Gary Hart Presidential
Campaign on campus.
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Ediedb ithyig an t
Edited and managed by s tndenr s rat The University of Michigan
Stewart
Vol.XCIV - No.4
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor MI 48109
Editorials represent n maIority o.,ion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Ronnie, can you hear us?'
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" RfbY AND ACTION,' the
director ordered. Immnediately,
tho tense actors began executing their
limos and movements. The scene depic-
te a wartime battle of some sort. At
o4 point, a gun went off near the ear of
one of the actors. The sudden noise
sl htly damaged his hearing in his
ri t ear.
he actor was none other than
Rnald Reagan, who currently is
plying the role of President of the
U ted States. And that minor injury
recently forced the semi-retired actor
to get a hearing aid.
But now that Reagan has overcome
his physical hearing difficulty the
question becomes: Can science come
up with a device to help him listen bet-
ter?
Reagan's hearing problem - the
physical one - had been getting worse
in the past few months.
So he unveiled his new hearing aid at
a press conference late last week. It is
capable of picking up the higher-
pitched sounds he has trouble hearing.
The device rests inside his ear, almost
r
completely out of sight.
If only there were a listening device
that could make Reagan understand
what he hears, then he could better
comprehend why women think he is a
chauvinist. He could become more at-
tentive to the plight of the poor. He
could make out more clearly the soun-
ds of danger coming from Central
America. And he could grasp what it
means to be unemployed and have a
family to support.
Alas, such a device could be invented
only in the movies and Ronald Reagan
lives in a dream world of his own.
Perhaps those who think the president
will improve his listening as he has his
hearing are living in a dream world as
well.
Ronald Reagan, with hearing aid or
without, remains a man of rigid
ideology. There is little room for com-
promise or even compassion within
those ideals.
Maybe that's what Simon and Gar-
funkel meant when they sang, "Still a
man hears what he wants to hear and
disregards the rest."
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VII
.Students love this homework,,
_ By Joe Nathan
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Imagine
children eagerly spending hours
on homework, using math,
writing, and research skills on
weekends.
It can happen - and is, across
the country - with courses in-
volving community problems.
Students in overwhelming num-
bers report they both enjoy such
courses and learn more from
them.
The projects are as modest as
the results are dramatic. In New
York's South Bronx, for example,
students and staff from Inter-
mediate School 139 created a
program called GUTS (Gover-
nment Understanding for
Today's Students).
OVER several years, and over-
coming many obstacles, these
students created and maintained
a community garden on aban-
doned land. Several of the
school's classes now use this gar-
den. English students write about
its history, home economics
classes develop recipes for its
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they set up their own "Consumer
Action Service" and worked on
more than 250 problems brought
in by adults in their community
with a 75 percent success rate.
AT Philadelphia's Simon
Gratz High School students and
staff working with the local
Tuberculosis and Health
Association developed an in-*
novative program using puppet
shows, comic books, posters and
cartoon strips to reach elemen-
tary students on health matters.
The school was almost over-
whelmed with requests for the
program.
Such projects can have
significant effects on the larger
community, according to
Jonathan Sher, assistant dean of
North Carolina State University.
He has helped start "school-
based community development.
corporations" in which young
people provide services while
improving their own skills, ear-
ning money for their school and
trying out possible careers.
One group of students opened a
much-needed day care center in
thir . high o nnl Tt w nni-
Eliot Wigginton, an English
teacher in rural Georgia, found
his students were poor writers
and uninterested in drills on
grammar. He decided to change
his approach and started a
magazine about the arts.
Students interviewed long-ime
residents, took pictures, and
generally learned how to produce
a magazine. The result, "Fox-
fire," now has been sold
throughout the world and has in-
spired teachers to start similar
magazines in dozens of other
communities.
This approach to writing not
only gives meaning to student
assignments, it also builds com-
munity pride. Writing assign-
ments rarely have such import.
Worse, they are often boring or
assigned to fill time. No wonder
recent studies show almost half
the nation's children say they are
not challenged by their course
,work.
ALTERNATIVE "youth par-
ticipation programs" have other
virtues. They can reflect an in-
dividual teacher's expertise and
interets sn manv eduaonrs find
offering a variety of ex-
planations. The programs do
require more effort on the part of
teachers and administrators.
And few teachers are trained in
these methods, because, in part,
most university instructors have
little or no experience with them.
Some educators also fear that
parents will not accept such
programs but will insist on drill
and practice for their kids.
Nevertheless, when participation
programs are offered as an op-
tion, parents have been ex-
tremely supportive, especially
after they see their children come
home enthusiastic and excited
about course work.
The National Commision on
Excellence recently joined the
chorus of demands that schools
assign more homework. But the
term "more homework" alone
doesn't differentiate between an
hour spent on work sheets and an
hour spent on genuine com-
munity concerns - between an
hour that is no different from
what has been tried and failed
and an hour that moves children
into new educational ground.
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