Page 4-Tuesday, May 20,1980-The Michigan Daily
Few answers to
Miami tragedy
FAR MORE dangerous volcano than Mount
St. Helens exploded last weekend in Miami
Florida, where three days of racial violence left a
toll of death and destruction that far surpassed that
of the natural disaster in Vancouver, Washington.
Geologists will be able to learn why Mount St.
Helen erupted, but we may never have a complete
understanding of the riot in Miami. The seemingly
senseless killing and destruction by Miami's
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four years of Reagan
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outraged sacks were long-nidden symptoms of a As the presidential candidates
very malignant disease. The symptoms may be take their campaigns through the
scary, but the unknown cause is terrifying, countryside and votes from the
Black leaders in Miami have noted a host of in- state primaries and caucuses are
justices that precipitated the riot this weekend. The counted, one specter looms
most immediate concern was Saturday's acquittal Rmaganiusly closer he t 4on
of four white policemen who were accused of president of the United States.
fatally beating a black insurance executive and And as I type his name, I shake
then covering up the incident by making it appear my head in disbelief. Here's a
to be a traffic accident. man who wants to throw the
An all-white jury deliberated only two-and-a-half Nations; who sent teNational
hours before delivering the acquittal verdict that Guard in to quell the campus
smacked of racism and sent shock waves through unrest at Berkeley; who
the entire Miami community. Shortly after the promises never to appoint a
verdict was announced, blacks took to the streets" homosexual to his Ad-
and began the rampage that left 15 dead and at o ratito t the e Reagn
least 216 injured. Presidency (God forbid) for the
The Saturday verdict was the last of a recent next four yea's. In order to see
string of court trials and unpunished instances of how Reagan has his November
police brutality that have left blacks bitter toward victory all locked up, let's look at
polic brutlityhis challengers.
the legal system. And many additional factors as PRESIDENT CARTER: In his
well led Miami blacks to the despairing feeling that three and one-half years in office,
climaxed in violence last weekend. he has demonstrated extreme
The unemployment rate for Miami blacks is ineptitude, poor judgment, and
myopic decision-making. His list
twice that of whites, and the average income of a of bungling include: Iran, Dr.
black resident is little more than half the average Peter Bourne, Bert Iance, Andy
income for a white. Blacks have a desperate feeling Young, his cabinet resignations,
of political helplessness as well. They have wat- 18 per cent inflation, Cyrus van-
ched their power disintegrate even further with the ce, a botched U.N. vote on
large influx of Cubans who have been successful in nauseum.
landing jobs and establishing businesses. Carter's policies on foreign and
How helpless those who did the killing and looting domestic affairs have pitched
must have felt. How deep the feeling of outrage and swayed like a tiny Cuban
must have been to prompt previously sane men and refugee boat which doesn't know
whether it's legal or illegal to
women to savagely murder innocent human dock in Miami. His vacillating
beings. positions include his proposed
The rioting, which has finally begun to slow, was budget, the presence of Russian
tragic. But it is hard to comprehend the even worse troops in Cuba, and the neutron
tragedy of a society that ignorantly drives a group bomb which he persuaded our
tragedyreluctant allies to accept, then
of its own people to commit senseless murder. suddenly decided to scrap.
It has been noted that in times'
of foreign crisis, people rally
'round the president. But there
toril policies*are too many foreign crises
(Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba) and
too many unanswered questions:
Letters and columns represent the opinions how long will the hostages be held?
.e i.ha.twhy was the rescue mission at-
of the individual author(s) and do not tempted? why didn't we take
necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs precautions against an embassy
of the Daily. takeover?
*tD lCARTER RAN as an outsider,
By Nick Katsarelas
and he has demonstrated with
great amusement, em-
barrassment, and dismay why
outsiders cannot be effeetive
leaders.
John Anderson: The most
significant consequence of An-
derson's efforts will be to draw
votes away from Carter. And in
the close presidential race that it
promises to be, moderates
joining the Anderson bandwagon
will give Reagan the difference
he needs.
TED KENNEDY and George
Bush: Both stand little chance of
gaining their party's nomination.
Ted has undertaken the
Sisypheantask of trying to unseat
a President of his own party, and
Bush is just like Reagan but in-
telligent, respected, and a bit
more moderate. Nevertheless,
the Republican sentiment is, why
vote for George Bush when
there's Ronald Reagan?
This brings us, -finally, to
Reagan. He has won most of the
primaries, and within two weeks
will wrap up the Republican
nomination, Voters who are
outraged at OPEC and the energy
crisis see Reagan as their saviour.
We don't need toY conserve,
Reagan cries. We've plenty of oil
reserves, and infinite resources
of energy in coal and nuclear
power. To hell with importing oil.
Laid-off auto workers, middle-
class people hit hard by spiraling
costs and stagnating wages, and
Americans worried about U.S.
military strength, all see Reagan
as the man who can help get them
back on the payrolls, cut in-
flation, and reassert America's
Number One positiorr-throughout
the globe.
REAGAN'S ANSWERS to
complex problems are consisten-
tly simple-minded, and yet he
may be the most popular can-
didate. Then again, "Three's
Company" may be the most
popular television show.
Reagan the campaigner speaks
less vigorously as the right-wing
extremist that he is, and appears
ostensibly as a moderate to those
who don't know better. His con-
servatism is popular in the South,
which even Carter has some
trouble with four years ago.
WILL REAGAN be good for the
country? No. Domestically, he
will attempt to systematically
undue all that women, liberals,
and those seeking social justice
have been doing for the last two
decades. He is against ERA and
abortion. He calls marijuana the
"most dangerous drug." He
proposes to make welfare a state
burden, thus leaving welfare
recipients floundering while the
states figure out where to get the
money.
Although he is against a
peacetime draft, his rationale is,
"We don't need Minutemen. We
need Minuteman missiles. He
supports an enormous increase in
defense spending to build every
conventional and nuclear weapon
American technology can turn
out.
Reagan is-an outsider, and we
have already seen the mess an
outsider can make. Carter has
failed to resolve his com-
munication and relationship
problems withnCongress, and
Reagan will not only face the
same dilemma, but his problems
will be exacerbated because of
what will most likely be a
predominantly Democratic
Congress.
Despite the divisiveness among
Republicans about who their
presidential candidate will be,
the Grand Old Party is quite
adept at healing its wounds, and
welcoming with open arms
whatever choice is made in July.
It will be a strong, supportive,.
cohesive party that pushes
Reagan toward his inevitable
electoral victory in November.
Nick Katsarelas is the
Daily's special projects report-
er.