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A Guest Editorial
“The World Is
Your Home Too”
I am alwavK amazed at the real power college studenU have at
their command, and how much of It goes unused....wasted.
That a shame. Because student power could provide that
criticai margin, that extra measure of push needed to channe
our national policies, our energies, and our consciousness into
new wavs of meeting the verj pressing needs of the people of
this world.
No, 1 am not talking about the street demonstrations and the
sit-ins that were part of another decade. I am talking about the
p<iwer you have collectively as citizens, voters, and shapers of
opinion, and about the power you have as Individuals to make
things happen on your own.
I am told that the current generation of college students is more
concerned with their own welfare than with making this planet a
better place to live. I am told that. But I don’t believe It. 1
suspect that today’s college students are simply not aware of
what Is going on in the world.
Take the issue of world hunger. Think of the thousands of
people who will not live until tomorrow morning because they
can’t get enough to eat. Now what can you do?
I think It Is really simple for a campus hunger committee to
establish a voter registration booth where students pay their
tuition and begin to talk about the problem....raise political
consciousness. The problem with young people, and I’ve
learned this from my own family, is that they all register to vote
back home and then all forget until the last minute to write home
for absentee ballots. You’ve got to get people to register on their
campuses. I think this would revolutionize American politics.
If you have, for example, 55 thousand students on a campus
like Ohio State, or 45 thousand at Michigan State, and they are
registered, every candidate coming to those states would come
through the campuses because there are so many votes there.
And at that point you get to ask the candidate what he or she Is
going to do about world hunger. Then the candidate goes to
another campus and gets the same question. That starts people
In public life thinking, coming up with policies to change things,
to get action.
Let me talk for a moment about the other kind of power, the
power students have as Individuals. You have a decision to
make: whether to use the knowledge and experience you are
gaining to help only yourself or to share the fruits of your
education with people who desperately need what you have to
give.
You don’t even have to re-invent the wheel. It’s already been
done. It’s called the Peace Corps. Some 80 thousand people,
many of them fresh out of school, have served as Peace Corps
volunteers helping people in the developing world help
themselves to a better life. The Peace Corps is celebrating its
2(hh Anniversary. It is still going strong, still attracting bright
people who want to enrich their lives by helping others.
It Is an option worth considering. So is service in this country
as a VISTA volunteer. VISTA, which stands for Volunteers in
Serv ice to America, has just celebrated it 15th Anniversary .
The nice thing about VISTA and Peace Corps Is that work.
They get results. As an Individual volunteer, you may even
change world history , and you will certainly change the lives of
the people you come in contact with. When you add up all the
lives touched by all the volunteers, think of the difference it
makes.
The problems of this world are not going to go away overnight.
A belter world is built like a house, brick-by-brick, piece by
piece.
Yes, college students do have power, collectively and
individually. How well they use that power will make a
difference in how well, we, as a worid community, meet the
challenges of this decade.
tDllOR'SNOTK:
Mr. Young is a former United States ambassador to the
United Nations.
ENERGY.
We can't afford
to waste it.
Sinning
In The Name Of Moralit
WASHINGTON- What crimes
against man and God we see
being committed these days in
the name of morality.
It was just plain disgusting to
watch the Rev. Jerry Falwell,
the television evangelist, on
“Meet the Press” last Sunday,
trying to weasel away from a
revelation that he broke one of
God’s commandments and lied
about President Carter.
Speaking at a so-called 'I Love
America” rally in Alaska last
March, Falwell told of an alleg
ed breakfast conversation in
which Carter had told him why
he kept ‘‘known practicing ho
mosexuals” on the senior White
House staff.
Falwell admitted on ‘‘Meet the
Press” that no such convers
ation with President Carter ever
took place, but he insisted that
he had not lied to that audience
in Alaska. He said he was just
speaking in ‘‘parables.”
Every angel in heaven must
have winced as this self-styled
dispenser of the gospel likened
a malice-aforethought lie to a
Biblical parable, and then, in
almost the same breath, de
scribed his remarks as ‘‘a
reckless statement” for which
he apologized to President Car
ter on network TV.
I learned years ago not to doze
off or leave my wallet lying
around in the presence of people
who tell me that they are more
moral than others. This bring-
(jtj dazC C7. <cf^owa.n
arrogance to call his group
“Moral Majority,” and to say
that Vice President Walter Mon-
dale is part of the “amoral
minority,” reinforced my skept
icism when he uncovered a
special streak of hypocrisy.
Falwell, who used phony
quotes to try to make President
Carter look like a defender of
homosexuals, was asked if he
would call for the resignation of
Rep. Robert E. Bauman
(R-Md.), the ultra-conservative
who recently was accused of
soliciting sex from a 16-year-old
boy and who then made a
tear-jerker public statement
about how his troubles with
alcohol combined with what
Bauman calls his “homosexual
tendencies” to get the congress
man into trouble.
“Moral Majority” is alleged to
be the brainchild of Bauman--
still the Maryland chapter of the
group disavowed its support of
Bauman. But not Falwell. He
offered “forgiveness and pray
er” on the grounds that since he
didn’t call for the resignation of
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy after
the Chappaquiddick incident, it
would be inconsistent for him to
ask for Bauman’s resignation.
Falwell thus proves that he is
not God’s messenger of greater
moralism; he is just another
right-wing political polemicist.
My instincts always have been
to show some compassion to
those afflicted with alcoholism
or sexual problems. My com-
y
passion runs tiiinner tb,
watered scotch in a J
joint now that everv^'
"lan caught taking',^
otherwise violating
cnes, “Iwasdrunk!"
I have absolutely no
for Bauman, i"
physician has said T
congressman is ^
shape, or form
leading
Demon Rum had ni
with Bauman s
alcohol,
”’6 to believe t
nothing to
. search fo,„
'n the world of homoseiuj
What really destroys j
man s claim to your »
sympathy is the mean h™
"sy of the man. Aveara«
voted to block House coni
fon of a $221 million alco
abuse program . He v«ti
deny federally financed le
assistance to homosexuals,
has consistently foug),, jj;
to extend federal civil rig
protection to gay people,
has been the super-moral ad
cate^ of a “family protea
act, and has become a daii
of the anti-abortion forces.
While Bauman was ran
about the “right to life"
fetuses, he didn’t tell us t
16-year-old boys have the ri
to a life secure from his koi
sexual blandishments.
Whether you're 16or 60,ifi
see a Falwell and a Bauit
approaching you with a bam
proclaiming their super m
ity, you had better run lile lie
away from them.
POTliXTIy\L DOXKKY’S?
Lj alLH Of antjboclij i££i ox liEUii oj' cinij int£.X£.±ttncj Aa^^£/2U2^ axoundcQ.in^t
tkat ^ou think, muq bs cjoocl ^noucjfi to jiLn a. ^ k f tj of t(i£. on iornso/ii,
liUa±^ Ut UA knouj. Contact .Sia[[in^x at tfiE Co[[E^Lat£ offict oi call
exitzmion
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