OPINION
The Michigan Daily
Sefitrigan al
Vol. XCV, No. 17-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
Sign of hope
P RESIDENT Reagan has announced that he will "go
the extra mile" as proof of his genuine commitment to
world peace. Despite allegations that the Soviet Union has
violated the strategic arms limitation treaty of 1979, the
president has decided that the United States will observe
the agreement.
SALT II was signed by Jimmy Carter but was never
ratified by the Senate. Yet both the Soviet Union and the
United States vowed to honor the treaty which limits the
number of missiles with multiple warheads to 1,200.
Reagan has decided to deactivate and dismantle a
Poseidon-class submarine so that the new Trident sub-
marine Alaska can be deployed without passing the treaty
limit.
Although Reagan has agreed to observe the treaty, he
has made it clear that he will not tolerate any further
violations. The United States, he assures, will be influen-
ced by Soviet behavior and will continue to work on the
Midgetman, a second new type of land based intercon-
tinental missile.
President Reagan's decision to observe the treaty, es-
pecially as it affects the Geneva arms talks, is a respon-
sible move toward peace. By keeping within the boun-
daries of the treaty, the United States demonstrates a
serious desire to negotiate.
Now if the Soviet Union acknowledges U.S. efforts
perhaps some real communication will flow. As things
stand now, the imposed limitations are too lenient.
Clearly, this arms build-up has to stop. Instead of spen-
ding national resources on costly weapon systems, both
countries must work toward developing a better line of
communication. The United States has taken a step toward
reaching that rational goal.
How far either side is willing to go beyond that remains
to be seen.
The Michigan Daily encourages input from
our readers. Letters should be typed, triple
spaced, and sent to the Daily Opinion Page, 420
Maynard, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
Wednesday, June 12, 1985
Page 5
A great march for peace
By Karen Litfin
The Great Peace March may sound
like pie in the sky, but organizers
from PRO-Peace, the sponsoring
organization, believe they can make
it a reality. They plan to have 5,000
people walk from LostAngeles to
Washington, D.C. beginning March 1,
1986. The sacrifice of the marchers
will be great: nine months away from
friends, family, schools and careers.
But their goal is equally lofty: to
move the people of the world to say
to their leaders, "Take the nuclear
weapons down so that we and our
children may live."
PRO-Peace organizers believe
that such a monumental goal requires
thousands of people to make a major
sacrifice. They hope to capture the
imagination of the world when 5,000
people leave their homes to walk
through desert heat, blizzards and
rain to ensure that we will have a
future.
IF THE GREAT Peace March is
beginning to sound naive and gran-
BLOOM COUNTY
diose, a look at PRO-Peace staff will
dispel any doubts. PRO-Peace
Executive Director, David Mixner, is
a veteran political organizer and fun-
draiser with a 25-year career going
back to the Civil Rights movement.
He was one of the four organizers of
the Vietnam War Moratorium, and
has recently transferred his P.R. firm
to his employees to devote himself
fully to PRO-Peace. His staff of
professionals have suspended their
careers to guarantee the success of
the organization.
The cynic may still wonder what is
unique about PRO-Peace. How can
this movement achieve actual disar-
mament where other groups have
succeeded only in raising the issue?
PRO - Peace says that theirnine-month
march will keep the issue alive in a
dramatic way, unlike large done-day
rallies. Moreover, they have a four-
part international strategy to involve
citizens in Western and Eastern
Europe. They agree with President
governments will get out of their way
and let them have it."
PRO-Peace is different from past
efforts simply because of its size and
scope. But it's also different for
another reason: it offers a message of
hope and optimism rather than one of
doom and gloom.
STUDENTS WILL be a crucial part
of the effort; march organizers ex-
pect that half the marchers willahe
students. One of. PRO-Peace's main
objectives is to break the image that
students are apathetic and fatalistic
about the prospect of nuclear war by
offering an alternative: a means
wherehy students can make a dif-
ference today.
We all know what a one-megaton
bomb can do if it falls on the student
union building. What we need to know
is that we can do something now so
that this will never happen. PRO-
Peace affirms our belief that we can
shape our destiny.
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