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An Obvious Point
Of the monstrous federal budget this
year military waste accounts for 56
per cent and interest on the national
debt and veterans benefits account for
another 33 per cent; leaving just 11
per cent of the total budget for aU of
the other pressing needs of our country.
There is nOtMtfflnnnediate that can
be done about the national debt, be
cause it will have to grow larger before
it can ever become smaller, and we are
not now doing enough for veterans so
there is no chance of a reduction in
that department, which after all is a
much smaller part of that final 33 per
cent than the mere statement might in
dicate. .•
This leaves military waste as the only
logical direction for our nation tp. turn
in order to find funds for the jobs that
have to be done if our natipji js tp cop
tinue to thrive as a viable political arid
economic unit.
This year $30 billion will be wasted in
Vietnam, which alone is far more than
all of the non-miHiaty operating costs
of the entire' federal,-establishment.
Few among us, it -js. to be hoped, are
ready for unilateral disarmament of the
kind that left our country and England
utterly defenseless in the deadly years
between 1918 and 1939.
The vast majority of us understand
the necessity of beeping our country
strong, because that is the only posture
from which one can negotiate in a
world that is far more motivated by
fear than by charity.
But Vietnam has nothing to do with
American security, since that precious
commodity is guarded by our circle of
Polaris submarines, the Strategic Air
Force, and what ever super-secret hard
ware is in orbit in outer-space with the
potential to watch and to retaliate ip
case of sudden hostilities that might be
aimed at our country.
We do not need to cut taxes at the
federal level, but we do need badly to
redirect the use of these vast amounts of
money thats pour into the federal treas
ury. At least the annual amount wasted
in Vietnam is needed in urban revitali
zation, in air and water protection, in
the total transportation field and in a
completely new system to care for the
aged, the crippled, the deserted, the
chronically sick and the mentally des
titute.
The Liberal Blindness
Saturday Review Editor Norman Cous
ins is one of the prime examples of
what is worst with the so-called liberal
mind in the present context of world
affairs.
Cousins is one of those who harps
most against American involvement in
Vietnam, and but for his age and expem
Give tastes he’d probably have been at
the barricades in Chicago, throwing hu
man manure and urine in the general
direction of the Democratic Parly’s for
eign policy, blit landing in the faces of
Chicago police. ^
But now Cousins is weeping by the
bucketfull for American involvement in
the Nigerian civil war, using the same
Goebbels’ technique of terrifying half
truths in his editorial of December 21st
Counsins joins Senator Ted Kennedy —
another Vietnamese Dove — who is urg
ing “an abrupt and monitored end of
tually there is only one country, since
the United States.
Cousins and his breed very bitterly
oppose the blockade of arms shipments
to' North Vietnam, or to Communist Cas
tro Cuba. But they would have more
About Sheriff Yates
Jones County Sheriff Brown Yates
is under heavy attack from many direc
tions, and, we do not want to make
his position worse, but there are times
when the silence of friends can be more
damaging than their voice.
Yates is a long-time friend of this
writer, who knows from dose personal
observation that insofar, as thei enforce
ment of the law with impartiality and
diligence that Yates has done a good
job for the people of Jones County,
and at very poor pay. The majority of the
people of Jones Cdunty know and appre
ciate this, since they Have overwhelming
ly re-elected him each time an election
for sheriff rolled around.
But a combination of many things,
including health and! tension resulted
in Yates reaching that point where he
badly needed to take a leave of absence
to recuperate both his health and some
peace of mind. But unfortunately there
are no such provisions made for public
officials. Sick or well they feel com
pelled to carry out the duties of their
office.
Yates started drinking on the job, and
too much, or at least the amount he
drank had too much effect on him,
and this has resulted in his being at
tacked by a flock of people. Some of
whom are acting in complete public spir
itedness, but some of whom are acting
in a spirit of complete vindictiveness.
For whatever reasons, the fact remains
that Yates is under heavy attack, and a
large part of it is justifiable, even if the
motivations for the attacks are not of
the very noblest.
As a friend of Yates and Jones Coun
ty, we strongly urge that Yates take a
leave of absence determined by his doc
tors; perhaps of a month, six months,or
possibly even longer.
It is possible that his total health may
never recover to that point where he
could reasonably carry out the import
ant duties of his office again. That is a
chance all of us have to take in any oc
cupation, but in a high public office the
situation is different than in private em
ployment.
We have faith in the people of Jpnes
County, and we know to a certainty that
if Yates does take such a leave of ab
sence and does regain his health that
the people of the county will protect
him rather than prosecuting or perse
cuting him.
of Southeast Asia. • ;
The issue in Nigeria is not freedom v<s.
slavery, or communism vs. capitalism or
even Catholicism vs. Buddhism, as it
vtaSln the beginning in Vietnam. a'
The issue is ethnic, tribal, ancient, '
endless.
But the American garden variety lib
eral nourishes his bigotry on the utter
myth that the only racism in the world
today is that of Southern American
whites against Negroes; when in all
truth this is the root of .practically , all.
of the world’s strife today.
What else is the Jewish-Arabic con
flict, the Japanese-Korean, The Flemish
Walloon in Belgium, the Catholic-Protest
ant in Ireland, the Hindu-Moslem in In
dia, the white-black in England? All are
ethnic, all are racist.
Which is not to argue that because an
evil
ceptable. Every effort ought to be made
to ease the bitter strains of racial and
religious strife.
But the first lesson each of us should
learn is that those without fault should
cast the first stopfv'. lt seems someone
rise suggested this a long time ago, but
few of us have ever
value. ‘ -
PARAGRAPHS
BY JACK RIDER .
January 20th is not very far away,
and on that diy the reins of the federal
government will change hands. Each of
us who loves and has pride in our na
tion ought to pray and pray frequently
that this new regime has the courage
to do just a few very simple things;
much of which its leader has promised
to do.
Most important of all is the imme
diate enforcement of the law, and not
an enforcement that is mixed up with
civil rights or juvenile emotions, nor
watered down with misguided notion®
about academic freedom. We need no
new laws; only enforcement of the ex
isting laws.
The federal government has grown
so huge that even the wisest Washing
ton heads such as Eric Sevareid fall in
to the not unnatural stance that there
is very little change possible over the
the short haul. But this is a disease that
grows worse in direct ratio to one’s
nearness to Washington.
President Nixon will have the oppor
tunity to moderate the activist posture
of the supreme court. He will have the
opportunity to support an attorney gen
eral who believes that the laws are for
everyone, and if his first choice for
attorney general develops into such a
jellyfish as Ramsey Clark the president
has complete authority to fire him and
hire another.
Some fear that Nixon will lack the
courage; that he has been too long a
part of the Washington apparatus to
rock the boat, but there is just the pos
sibility that Nixon, having finally arrived
at the pinnacle of power, will have both
the ability and the courage to use that
power. Johnson had the ability but he
lacked the courage. Johnson wanted
everybody to love him and wound up
with nobody loving him
If there is a bitter lesson in the re
jection of Jbhnson and Humphrey ft is
that there is neither personal political
profit nor national security in bowing so
meekly before any loud-mouthed minor
ity. And this is not anti-Negro, but is
completely pro-Negro, because the peo
ple who have been hurt most by this
prostration before the Rat Browns and
and Stokely Carmichaels and Elridge
Cleavers and Huey Newtons are the best
elements of Negro society.
JONES JOURNAL
‘These are the'bind of people who have
flagrantly violated- an endless list- of
teAw4 onvf them *111
;l44.. despfe the jfact thg; the federal
government has pre-empted to itSelf,
under an illegal decision of the supreme
court, the entire sphere of treason. No
state government now has a right, so the
supreme court has said, to indict or pros
ecute for acts of treason. Yet this is
what this breed of Negro militants is
guilty of- along; with such white pukes
as Jerry Rubin, Tom Haywood and Mark
Rudd.
If just a few of these stinking, rotten
apples were plucked out of this barrel
of national discontent it would be «*»»»
ing how quickly and completely peace
would return to our domestic front. This
is the single, easy job that a new presi
- dent and a new attorney general /*ar» 4^_
and they can do it quickly. 'And I pray /
they will, but cynically I am not too
optimistic. f