FEBRUARY 21,1992 — THE DECREE — PAGE 3
‘Imaginary Invalid’ saves best for last
By CECILIA LYNN CASEY
Wesleyan’s Performing and
Visual Arts Department presented
Moliere’s “The Imaginary In
valid” on Feb. 15. Overall, the
play was entertaining and enjoy
able with the last act being the
best. It was a good performance
and well worth seeing.
The stage and costumes were
weU done and everyone having a
hand in producing them should
be congratulated. Also, actress
Anna Marrow, who played
Argon’s youngest daughter, was
charming to watch and did well
with her part.
Rob Mullins was a surprise as
he proved that he could sing as
well as act. he performed his part
admirably and hopefully he will
continue to be a part of the the
ater department at Wesleyan.
As for the more seasoned ac
tors, Todd Waters, John PemeU,
and Kristi Larson each gave per
formances just shy of their abili
ties.
Todd Waters, who starred as
Argon, was ai times very humor
ous and convincing. But for the
first part of the play he drifted
into being too hammy. For in
stance, when Argon was yelling
at his maid Toni (Kristi Larson),
Bashing Japan useless
(Continued from Page 2)
dard of living is far superior to
theirs, and that Japanese are be
coming increasingly disenchanted
with their labor hours.
In the midst of all this deal-
making or agreeing on target
goals or whatever. Congressman
Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) of
fered up a law which would close
our markets if the Japanese didn’t
reduce the trade deficit. The fact
that such a thing is impossible
doesn’t seem to matter. You see,
the reason we have a trade gap is
that we buy Japanese goods. We
buy Japanese goods because we
want them. What trade barriers
from the U.S. would do is block
out Japanese goods, restricting
competition and artificially sup
porting failed com^^anies.
Getting Japan t. let us send
Fords to Tokyo is not the answer.
If we can’t take Honda’s market
share here, what makes anyboay
think we can get it in Japan? If
we could sell our goods here, they
couldn’t, and we’d all be happy.
The secret to balanced trade is
to make quality products and ad
vertise them so as to convince the
rest of the country that the U.S.
goods are the ones we want. We
call that competition and the free
market system. Competition
makes our goods get better, so
the consumer wins.
Before I get accused of being
insensitive and not caring about
workers in danger of losing their
jobs. I’d like to point out that for
eign trade doesn’t destroy jobs.
There are other factors that do,
such as when we move plants out
I of the country or somesuch. The
trade deficit is only in the goods
column.
As Walter Williams pointed
out in his Jan. 29 syndicated col
umn, the Japanese don’t make
picture galleries for green and
white portraits of U.S. Presidents.
They take their dollars and use
them. All dollars have to get back
here sooner or later, because no
body has use for them in some
other country. The Japanese in
vest in our capital resources in
the form of stocks, bonds, bank
accounts. Rockefeller Center,
baseball teams, whatever. Our
goods deficit is matched by our
capital resources sale surplus, we
we are actually in a state of bal
anced trade.
Protectionism is bad. Several
of our presidential candidates are
beating the drums to do unto Ja
pan as Japan does unto us, all
based on misconceptions and
populism. They figure that if they
can convince us that Japan is the
root of all recessions, they can be
swept into office. But competi
tion is the driving force behind
the free market, and protectionism
defeats competition.
it was nothing more than lines
being said loudly.
Kristi Larson gave a good per
formance and was at her best
when she was talking to Angela,
played by Erica Weiss. Larson
likewise lost a degree of her usual
spark when she was yelling at
Waters, which made the first act
suffer. But by the end of the play.
Waters and Larson both were do
ing their best acting, and as a re
sult the end of the play was de
lightful.
John Pernell, who played
Thomas Diarrhea, had a strong
beginning and carried most of the
scene in which Angela first meets
Thomas, who is the man her fa
ther wants her to marry. By the
end of the play, however, Pernell
lost his steam, which was disap
pointing because he is an excel
lent actor and owes his audience
something more than standing on
a box bumping and grinding.
Most of the audience enjoyed
the play as the laughter and ap
plause indicated. Freshman Pete
Widell said the play “was very
humorous. I thought that Robert
sung great. I really liked it.”
Lisa Jones said that it was
“Killer!” and sophomore Kevin
Hambrecht commented, “Wow!
What a performance!”
Voters must share blame
(Continued from Page 2)
the governor and his wife a few
minutes to explain away any
doubts raised by the adultery is
sue. They said they had worked
out their marital problems —
which might make them famous
under different circumstances.
But the media then discovered
a letter Clinton wrote in 1969
about his concerns about the
Vietnam War. If you take the time
to read this letter (the excerpts
published), you know that his
agony reflects an entire
generation’s and is rather well
articulated.
If you think that adultery or
agonizing over the Viemarn War
automatically negates a person for
the presidency, then you don’t
need me. But I can’t help but want
to know what kind of governor
Clinton was. Why does he say he
doesn’t support his state’s re
gressive sales tax on groceries and
non-prescription drugs when the
records clearly show that he op
posed every voter or legislative
attempt to repeal it? Wffat kind of
Democrat supports Bush’s anti
union agreement with Mexico for
a free trade treaty which took jobs
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from his state?
George Bush and Bill Clinton
have spent their entire adult lifes
preparing to be president. No one
had a better resume than Bush,
according to Washington stan
dards. Does that mean that they
have studied books as do schol
ars or studied their fellow citi
zens as do regular people? No. It
means they have hired media ex
perts and kissed the rear ends of
special interest groups.
They are not, as Jerry Brown
is trying to tell us, their own per
sons. They are inventions, cre
ated to appear to be whatever they
need to get elected. Once in of
fice, they think they deserve our
gratitude and respect. For what?
My mama taught me respect has
to be earned.
Voting could mean more than
superficial glamor (Bush with
Arnold Schwarzenegger?) or a
thousand-points-of-light rhetoric
(Kerrey’s New New Deal) or al
ternatives which are no alterna
tives (Tsongas on capital gains)
or alternatives which are worse
(Buchanan’s anti-semitic,
homophobic, racist, sexist fanta
sies).
At the moment, however, it
means nothing else for many of
us. We would rather accept what
can be scanned quickly than
search for what might actually
work.
I can’t help but wonder
whether or not democracy will
turn out to be a failed experiment
because the electorate failed to
live up to its part of the bargain.
Think about it.
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