Wdnesday, July 31, 1995 - The Michigan Daily - 5 IM GONNA SAY IT NOW iXon s gone, but not very quiet I was excited to hear about the recent New Yorker article regarding Richard Nixon's thoughts on the election of President Clinton. Monica Crowley, an assistant of Nixon during the last years of his life, kept a diary of some of the con- versations and interactions between the two individuals. t week, the New Yorker lished the article Crowley wrote about Nixon's opinions of President Clinton and the 1992 campaign. Other than being simply fascinating, one portion of the article contained something that struck me. Apparently, Nixon was none too pleased GREG about Clinton's dodging of PARKER the Vietnam draft. According Ighe article, Nixon said he thought Clinton was a oward and a fraud," as well as lacking in integri- ty and honor for his dodging of the draft. Nixon said that Clinton "didn't serve his country when it needed him, so why should we have him serve when he is ready?" But what put the icing on the cake, at least for me, was when Nixon said that Clinton "was no conscientious objector; he was a selfish, spoiled brat. He made my job so much harder, and he sent God knows how many men to their deaths in his place." 0 find incredible irony in the fact that Nixon, though he eventually pulled American out of Vietnam, was one of those responsible for pro- tracting the Vietnam War. Yet he criticized Clinton for not wanting to fight in probably the most ludicrous, imperialistic and asinine con- flict that America has entered in its 220-year his- tory. Can we blame Clinton, and others like him, for avoiding fighting in the Vietnam War? Certainly few want to die, and more importantly, few prob- want to kill other men. But while one should Wready to defend one's country, no one (read: country) should have the right to force a person to put themselves at risk in a situation like a war, and no one should have the right to force one human being to kill another. It's as simple as that. Of course, if North Vietnam had invaded the United States on U.S. soil, then maybe we could question Clinton's behavior had he skipped the draft. But in the Vietnam War, America was fight- ing another country's war, regardless of any per- *ed Domino Theory threat of Communism, with a capital "C." I won't get into any Military/Industrial-Complex-Trilateralist conspir- acy theories explaining the Vietnam War, but to be blunt, it was unnecessary for the United States to enter, let alone stay in, the war. And if one can't trust their government to stop the senseless killing of young men, as in Vietnam, then one has to take action on one's own. If this means assembling en masse and burning the flag or avoiding being sent to battle yourself, so be it. Clinton's draft issue may arise again in the *oming election. Bob Dole, with a rather impressive war record, might gain some patrio- tism points over Clinton. But let's not forget that Clinton beat George Bush in 1992, and Bush him- self was a war veteran. And it seems that Clinton has a substantial lead on Dole in the latest polls. Clinton's ability to beat Bush and lead Dole may demonstrate an admirable trait of America. It might show that people that have Nixon-esque thoughts on Vietnam and the draft might be wan- i in number, and many people might sympa- Ae with or support Clinton for his actions dur- ing Vietnam. Let's hope that both are the case. -Greg Parker can be reached over e-mail at glparker@umich.edu. NOTABLE QUOTABLE "We can bring the nation to Michigan - if you build it, they will come." - Gov. John Engler speaking at North Campus yesterday. Engler spoke in reference to the University s new technological advances, a quest the state is financially supporting. CHRIS FARAH MASHED POTATOES /At rE o00- p .c =s -O-l L ET TE RS Dashed dreams off the playing field To the Daily: I'm an undergraduate student at the University, undeniably concerned about becom- ing financially stable, at least for the next year. When presented with the opportunity to get involved with the last Olympics of the century, I jumped at it - a once in a lifetime opportunity, or so I thought. This employment opportunity would have enabled me to go to home and school without worrying about how I was going to get my books for the next year. This opportunity also would have given me pride in saying to my family, "I don't need any help with paying for school this year." However, instead of all the opportunities and goals I was to receive and accomplish, I was privy to only one honor: U-M students bringing home the gold. Instead of celebrating this victory, I'm packing - being sent home by bus because my employer is losing money and is unable to pay for me to remain here. My determination is to show the Wolverine spirit by demonstrating leadership and having people congregate on and around our vendor loca- tion. I implore the gold-winning U-M swimmers to participate in an autograph session, showing we all have the fighting spirit our school is known for! KEITH YOUNG LSA SOPHOMORE sOUND AND FURY Terror and prayer Sometimes I feel very small. Like a few weeks ago while I was driving through a very intense electrical storm in Wisconsin. The sky lit up with the green glow of lightning and the clouds moved across the moon like smoke. The thunder literally trembled right through me. Or just a few days ago, standing on top of a peak in theiShenandoah moun- tains in Virginia, looking down below at an earth so far below it was invisible through the high hazy air. Yes, I felt very small and very vulnerable and very insignificant. And over the last few weeks, that's the feeling I see sweeping soft- DEAN ly over the country. BAKOPOULOS We have suddenly become a very humble and pious nation. A ter- rorist attack on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. A tragedy in the skies off the coast of Long Island. And then a deadly explosion in the heart of the Olympic host, Atlanta. Terror is becoming very real, and we don't know what to do. Except pray. After each of these tragedies, President Clinton extended his prayers for the victims and their families. After TWA Flight 800 crashed, he stressed the importance of "faith in God" during troubled times. The morning after Flight 800 went down, ABC's "Good Morning America" featured a priest and a rabbi joined in prayer. They read Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd," they prayed, "I shall not want." Americans looked at their TVs, sipping coffee and slurping cereal, as the two men lit a candle in memory of the flight victims. Olympic athletes, officials and fans bowed their heads in moments of silence in the after- math of an explosion that took the life of one woman and injured hundreds more. And just this past weekend, as I was returning from a retreat, a week of worship and prayer, I found myself instinctively bowing my head. The train I was ready to board had been delayed. There had been a bomb threat. I prayed. More than any time in recent years, Americans are bowing their heads - hoping for some sense tocome out of the shadows of tragedy. We pray and we pray and still none of it makes sense. Americans have a favorite phrase at times like this: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families." Still, to say our thoughts are with them doesn't seem to make much sense. "Thoughts" implies some intellec- tual process of rationalization is at work, and in tragedies like this one, there is no way to intel- lectualize an answer or a consolation. At a large, public and liberal institution like the University, there are a lot of people who pro- claim themselves atheists. I know. Many of them are my friends. And many of them ask me how any intelligent person can actually believe in God when such horrible events happen on earth. My answer is this: How can we not? These are the horrible things we humans do to each other. While we often marvel at humanity's progress, incidents like the Saudi Arabia tragedy or the possibility of terrorism on Flight 800 or the Olympic bombing make us realize just how small and vulnerable and imperfect we really are. So we roll our confused eyes heavenward, wondering just what is there, what higher order exists to supercede our sometimes senseless and chaotic existence here on earth. We mumble our prayers and hope there is someone listening. - Dean Bakopoulos can be reached via e-mail at deanc@umich.edu. By Wiley s w } s C..