Editorials
Contents Volume CVI, Number 21 commonweal Correspondence 642 Editorials ...
...For the rest close is distanced...
...I'm perfectly willing to ride in the lead truck and get shot in the process rather than sit back and have it on Editor: James O'Gara my conscience that I did nothing to stop a second holocaust...
...should hector their congressional representatives...
...foreign, $39...
...Airdrops are Woodrow (Paris) chaotic and brutalizing to the population, says another experienced relief worker, we Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, learned that in Biafra...
...It can only be Church World Service UNHCR Regional Office guaranteed that someday the archives will be scrutinized to see Cambodia Relief Fund U.N...
...212) MU 3-2042...
...We have grave doubts about unilateral less absolute than itself...
...Headquarters whether Washington was faithful to Mr...
...has ended up legally supporting the genociAgencies Aiding Cambodians dal Pol Pot government...
...The Pol Pot forces cerns to the last Cambodian...
...There is Washington...
...The long-term danger of rewarding such political N. W. 20006 Boston, Mass...
...2. There should be a reasonable time limit for pursuing But it won't work...
...At stake is the Babylon: Andrew Feinberg 667 survival of perhaps two-and-a-half million people...
...American Friends Service How much should it be...
...How much kinder to our still smarting political chits, and they who secured President Carter's supconsciences...
...I0022 Cambodian Refugees business must remain speculation to the outsider...
...Frus- death of millions of Cambodians appears minimal...
...10016 They are holding a starving people hostage, willing to "exAmerican National Red Cross International Services Oxfam-America change" them only for American diplomatic concessions...
...Only something on the order of actions but have never opposed them-not even military ones, Abraham and Isaac can stand up to it...
...Its priorities are denying any legitimacy sionals say it should be larger, pointing out that $30 million of to the Pol Pot forces, even if that means refusing food aid from the $69 million pledge relates to PL 480 food that is not now those whose efforts on the Thai border may unavoidably in- available...
...The complexities are there, and one is stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...Committee There are some stark political choices here...
...Why not the "land bridge" of truck convoys from Thailand to Phnom Penh, with the permission of the rival Staff Cambodian governments if possible, without it if necessary...
...A SECULAR SAINT' They should demand that the media not let the story slip into If there was dissent on the decision to award the Nobel Peace the middle...
...The U.S...
...praise in theNew York Times, an editorial which referred to her in head and text as "a secular saint," a phrase which theTimes obviously intended as praise but which strikes us as odd, to say the least...
...The "experts" have reasonable fear of American involvement, Phnom Penh may failed too often before, and not infrequently because no one not want any outsiders witnessing its lack of roots and depenelse assumed responsibility...
...It was they who lobHow much easier is their chosen image of violence softened bied it through the Congress, cashing in on well cultivated by erotic sentimentality...
...They proposed instead a partially nude woman pleading with a soldier...
...Committee for Unicef Soviet power...
...planes were flying over that area, they were carrying bombs...
...Could the food and supplies get distributed-there are 180,000 VietCommonweal...
...In short, if Mother Teresa is a secular saint, we stand at Kent State, but university officials rejected it...
...10016...
...Their can only suppose that to the Times a non-secular or religious reasons (like this Comment) had to do not with its execution but saint would be someone floating by on a pink cloud...
...thinking in routine patterns may be the the decade, and it defies any aesthetic response or rendering greatest enemy of all...
...I can think of no hardly palatable...
...I chose the image of life of a dedicated religious under vows of poverty, chastity, Abraham and Isaac," Segal said, "despite its sexual sado- and obedience all her adult life, that her very daily routine is masochism, and in spite of the conflict of the generations, one built around the divine liturgy, meditation, and prayer, because it deals with mercy and compassion and has a happy that in middle life she founded a new religious order, the ending...
...grain, to move the Vietnamese-supported government in Phnom Columnists: John Garvey, Frank Getlein, Penh and to facilitate the movement of supplies...
...02116 cynicism...
...23 November 1979: 643 It is the image of that emaciated child, those blank-eyed and volve assistance to Pol Pot guerrillas, and achieving recognislack-limbed parents-multiplied by tens, by hundreds of tion for itself through international agreements...
...claim to our concern and to our action...
...The pleading female figure calls up the those negotiations, and Washington should be developing image of another female figure pleading and cursing in vain contingency plans for possible failure...
...The Old Teatament Without Why can't more be done...
...It is a story to make us tremble...
...care for the poorest of the poor in countries all over the world...
...But the serious questions, once more, turn on political matters...
...And why not exert Assistant Editors: Daniel M. Murtaugh, David Toolan pressure on the Soviet Union, as again Father Hesburgh has proposed, through their Editorial Assistant:,Anne Robertson desire for U.S...
...One of dramatic...
...No chance of airdrops in any case, says a third...
...with its choice of symbolism...
...Why not a huge program of airdrops, literally flying Illusions: Bruce Vawter 669 over the political barriers to the starving population...
...Hanoi's employ all the power we believe is ours to wield...
...So says Father Executive Editor: Peter Steinfels Theodore Hesburgh-would others be willing to join him...
...What sleep there was brought nightmares that knowledge, citizens should not let national concern flag...
...Some relief profesVietnam's invasion...
...struggle on, using mountain strongholds and Thai sanctuaries...
...Segal...
...New York, N.Y...
...Still, serious ques• There is the Heng Samrin regime, brought into power by tions remain about the American effort...
...They some of us still cannot confront...
...Vance's statement Elkhart...
...complications and possibly even military actions by Thailand • There is the Pol Pot regime, ruthless almost beyond and China...
...High Commissioner for 1011 First Avenue There are no obvious answers, and much in this whole Refugees New York, N.Y...
...Single copy, $1...
...National Education Association...
...Contents Volume CVI, Number 21 commonweal Correspondence 642 Editorials 643 Open education: Hugh Magister 645 USSR population bomb: George Liber 646 Native soil: Abigail McCarthy 647 The Invasion of Cuba: Frank Getlein 648 Social Security-Will it make it?: HOLOCAUST Joseph O'Donoghue 650 Our Philippine` colony: Jim Morrell 658 BY HUNGER The Philadelphia story: Isidore Silver 660 Screen: Colin L. Westerbeek, Jr...
...There are reasons for that on which we should re- Missionaries of Charity, that has thousands of members who flect...
...10017 that nothing else laid greater claim to American concern and Committee to Aid action...
...Airdrops are Movies: Colin L. Vjesterbeck, Jr...
...It is something rather different and larger than "sexual sado- OPEN EDUCATION masochism," we think, and the happy ending does not arise THROW THE TIME-SERVERS OUT from any of the human values that the story calls so sharply into question...
...Maybe the Kent State red much enthusiasm, except among activists from the administrators knew this better than Mr...
...Eugene Hillman 666 But a massive effort is needed...
...yet they will not be easily rooted out, and issue now before the world community and before every single their continued resistance means that both regimes are deter- nation," said Secretary of State Vance, "that can lay greater mined to deny food and supplies to the other's forces...
...after all, the last time tain), Desmond Fisher (Dublin), Alain U.S...
...10016 Thailand or even renewed fighting with China...
...Only half the minimum goal of 1,000 tons of grain Woodstock Census/Barefoot in per day is likely to be reaching Cambodia at the end of this month...
...Special two-year rate: need for trucks, the competition with military units for road use, the problems of $35...
...patrons of the Renaissance and Baroque...
...Catholic Relief Services For Cambodia U.N...
...It is a crime to talk about a second holocaust if the the generous tributes to the Roman Catholic nun was editorial talk-again-becomes a substitute for action...
...Recognition may be out of the question, but Washington, however reluctantly, Commonweal: 644 should risk giving that regime some increased diplomatic iconography of Mars and Venus so favored by artists and stature if the survival of so many can result...
...They should encourage religious...
...One can see their point without agreeing with them...
...But are we to main concern is waging a continuing war...
...supervision to prevent diversion of aid...
...They felt that violence should not be commemorated by an image of violence...
...They should question pre*idential candidates, including the one in the White House...
...10016 331 East 38th Street Phnom Penh and Hanoi on the eve of possible conflict over New York, N.Y...
...91016 successful negotiations with Phnom Penh...
...Abigail McCarthy, Thomas Powers To ask these questions is to encounter a host of political problems...
...Meanwhile there are several guiding principles for Indochinese Refugees World Vision 211 East 43rd Street- Cambodia Relief Washington and for U.S...
...Telephone: river, have produced some results...
...We can send our money to the voluntary relief agencies Christianity Rediscovered...
...so has the West's current suitor, The following agencies are providing goods and supplies for Cam- Peking...
...The outrage that Abraham and Isaac bring up port by a well-timed endorsement of his election...
...Hanoi follows the same logic as Henry Kissinger did, it may In this case, there is no shortage of parties to blame...
...The Department of Education story of Abraham and Isaac is an intransigent story, not calculated to comfort..At its heart is an outrage whose absoluteness is the only human measure of the absoluteness of God's will...
...citizens: Suite 1401 919 West Huntington Drive 1. The best hope for Cambodians still appears to rest with New York, N.Y...
...It early years she became a nun and left her native land to go as a depicts the bearded figure of Abraham raising his knife over religious missionary to a foreign country, that she has lived the the kneeling bound figure of Isaac...
...The problem of diplomatically propping up 660 First Avenue Cambodian Relief New York, KY...
...We're not completely sure what a secular saint would IMAGES OF KENT STATE be, but we suppose it would be someone who practiced heroic The four students slain at Kent State as this decade began virtue without religious inspiration-a very good person actwere memorialized recently, hundreds of miles from the ing without religious motivation...
...Day after day, 'Books' inexorable hunger is executing starving Cambodians as methodically as gas chamThe Neoconservatives: Edward T. Chase 664 bers...
...That image from the day of the Kent State ously consider the proposals for action that deviate from stand- slayings is one of the best known journalistic photographs of ard relief operations...
...The statue was commissioned in Ohio and was meant to This is secular...
...It disregards whatbe as baffled in this struggle as we were in the Indochinese ever might impede the war effort, and its interest in the life and venture that helped to bring today's calamity about...
...The plight of the Cambodians does As an alternative to the Phnom Penh government, they are appear to have struck home in the capital...
...should seri- over a fallen student...
...soon tempted to put the whole matter in the hands of the "experts," both technical and political...
...ture and the Arts, is published biweekly, except Pressure on the Soviets may only backfire, and in the end isn't it better to pursue the monthly Christmas-New Year's and July and Au- negotiations with Phnom Penh which already, as in the opening up of the Mekong gust, by Commonweal Publishing Co., 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...pages because starvation is only dismal and not Prize to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, we did not see it...
...we are not • There is Hanoi, which invaded Cambodia and would supposed to lose wars, not against hunger either...
...If Mother Teresa is a secular grassy slope where they fell...
...Those wanting to contribute to the Cambodian relief effort may write to one of them...
...As for truck Jacqueline Reeves Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor convoys, they would have to pass through territory where, don't forget, a war is still Publisher: Edward S. Skillin being fought...
...Yet "again" is occurring...
...and And then the technical questions-unloading capacities at Kompong Som, the Canada, $20...
...That is even mount a Vietnamese "incursion" into Thailand to wipe what, in fact, makes it different from that earlier Holocaust, out Pol Pot sanctuaries, thus threatening further diplomatic and what makes an effective response so difficult...
...How much is Washington inhibited by its Pol Potbodian refugees in Thailand...
...Inspired by Hitler's holocaust of European Jewry, the phrase is a pledge and a prayer against inaction in the face of the deliberate murder of millions...
...Americans are used to succeeding...
...Cambodia Relief For Cambodia Should Washington pay the price...
...One is reminded that much more than food is Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome but cannot involved-medical supplies, equipment, aid for reviving Cambodian agriculture so be considered or returned unless accompanied by a that next year's starvation can be forestalled...
...But there is the immediate danger of millions of CARE Unicef deaths...
...The U.S...
...The usefulness of the "China card" in balancing Fund for Cambodians U.S...
...foreign, $22...
...But what can be done that is not dence on Vietnamese forces...
...Others feel Congress is acting too slowly or cautiously...
...A Review of Public Affairs, Litera- namese troops to prevent it-if Phnom Penh objects to the means of delivery...
...662 EVER AGAIN...
...And what should weigh in 17th and D Streets 302 Columbus Avenue Washington, D.C., the balance...
...10017 Monrovia, Calif...
...It is, in fact, resolved into the familiar of us, it appears as little more than rearranging boxes on an 23 November 1979: 645...
...A brief ceremony at Princeton saint, what is one to make of the facts of her life: that in her University dedicated a bronze statue by George Segal...
...Moreover, they would inPolve the Thais further in the knot of hostilities...
...46515 Room C301 New York, N.Y...
...America turned to a familiar figure from the fifties and asked 3. Even in the absence of a definite proposal and complete him for sleep...
...battling, like a few undermanned rescue teams, against this rising ocean of death...
...Besides a thousands-that will not let us do this...
...Hanoi and For Cambodia International Rescue Committee 1501 Cherry Street For Cambodia Phnom Penh may be playing the same ghastly game as the Philadelphia, Pa...
...We want to doubtless like to exercise permanent control over it...
...19102 386 Park Avenue South Ayatollah's zealots in Iran, except on a vastly greater scale...
...They should not be In 1968 the poet Robert Bly suggested that in electing Nixon ruled out in this crisis...
...Chinese policy in negotiating relief efforts with Phnom Penh...
...Knowing that this needn't be so, the world watches in anguish-and in apparent helplessness...
...imagination, responsible for the miserable deaths of perhaps • There are the Soviet Union and China, locked in combat one-third of Cambodia's people and for much of the nearly through their proxies, willing to press their geopolitical contotal disruption of its economic base...
...Indeed, if trated, we look for someone to blame...
...leaders to follow the example of Father Hesburgh in speaking out boldly...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S...
...Poetry: John Fandel possible with the permission of Phnom Penh, says one observer, but without that Correspondents: Brian Wicker (Great Bri- permission there is a real chance planes would be shot down...
...being done...
...It arises simply from that same, absolute will of THE CREATION of a Department of Education hasn't stirGod...
...let alone humanitarian ones -in principle...
Vol. 106 • November 1979 • No. 21
