T I ChuoNicIt Paqe Tuesday, Six jANLARy 19, EDITORIAL Holiday should inspire thought If the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been able to experience Monday's celebration of LMtmW tsa" Sc worrit Human Rights Day, he probably would have been displeased. Most of us spent the afternoon on the ski slopes or sprawled in front of the television set. Holidays have a way of doing that to people. Instead of challenging our awareness of human struggle and accomplishment, holidays lull us into sleepy complacence. They calmly coax us to watch reruns of Dream ofjeanie; they inspire us to eat junk food and catch up on homework and laundry. In most cases, this attitude toward an occasional Monday off is acceptable. In the case of Human Rights Day, it is simply abhorrent. Human Rights Day, which should aptly be titled Martin Luther King Day, provides us with a vital opportunity for reflecting on human progress. v .King's vision of a society untainted by prejudice-anhate deserves more than neglect or casual notice. It deserves reverence. It deserves a new kind of honor one which is steeped with vigilance and reflection. , Unfortunately, this is difficult to obtain in a society literally starving for leisure time. Our holidays are too precious and few to be which proper packed with the kind of observance of Human Rights Day demands. This is the danger behind packing so much meaning into one Monday a year; Even the most self-satisfi- Andrew Hunt d ed self-inqui-ry well-meani- .... celebrants cannot battle all the ng wo,rlo?s prejudice in a single afternoon. the 24 hours which technically 'composeresult, Human Rights Day should be viewed as As--a tne climax of a year-lon- g struggle for social equality. King's dream won't be realized until all human beings are able to move beyond the shallow symbolism of laws and holidays. Although these civilized attempts at equality are necessary, they fail to motivate internal change. And in some instances, they merely anesthesize our social consciences, allowing for subtler forms of brutality. If King had been here Monday, he may have, viewed the holiday created in his honor as nothing more" than a sedative. We believe we aren't prejudiced because we have passed Civil Rights legislation. We believe we aren't bigoted because we honor a black man's triumphs every year. Yet in spite of these beliefs, inequities in housing, distribution of wealth and hiring and promotions continue to exist. Even members of the Reagan administration famous for their neglect of human rights issues admit King's dream is far from being fulfilled. There is only one way the United States can evolve into the society King envisioned: People must refuse to be calmed by the gesture of a holiday which honors King's achivement. Instead of treating Human Rights Day with indifference or filling it with hollow commemoration, we must recognize the questions it poses and begin confronting them together. broad-sweepi- ng Chronicle The Daily Utah Chronicle is an independent student newspaper published during fall, winter and spring quarters, excluding test weeks and quarter breaks, by the University Publications Council. Editorials reflect the opinion of the editorial board, and not necessarily the opinions of the student body or the administration. Subscriptions are $25 a year, SIO an academic quarter. All subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription correspondence, including change of address, to the Business Manager, Daily Utah Chronicle, 240 Union, University of Utah, Salt Lake Citv, Utah 841 12. U S. policy smacks of deceit Last week, West German police arrested a woman named Christina Gabriele Endrigkeit. Her alleged crime was bombing a West German nightclub on the evening of April 5, 1986, which killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded countless others. It was the West German nightclub bombing that prompted a retaliatory U.S. air raid against Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya, on April 15, 1986. Yet West German police announced they found no evidence linking Endrigkeit with Libyan leader Col. Moamar Ghadafi or the Libyan government. ' It seems someone made a boo boo. " And an immense boo boo it was. Thirty-seve- n people were killed during the U.S. air raids on Tripoli and Benghazi. An additional dozen people were killed in the aftermath of panic and chaos. If there were a time to launch an air raid on Libya, it was in April 1986. The newspapers and televisions featured larger-than-liaccounts of "terrorist" attacks. Morale was low in this country. The public was "sick and tired of being pushed around by 'terrorists.'" And utilizing his theatrical abilities, President Reagan made tender speeches about a young girl killed in terrorist attacks on the airports in Rome and Vienna. The leaders of this nation wanted blood. It seemed to be the perfect time to bomb Libya. The raid was carried out at 2 a.m. on April 15. In an excellent investigative account of the attack published in the Nation (June 5, 1986), former Attorney General Ramsey Clark pointed out that most of the casualties were civilians. "The second target was a congested, densely o, residential section of populated, albeit Clark wrote. Tripoli," "Big bombs destroyed homes in at least six places. An entire family of seven was killed instantly by a direct hit on an apartment. A father of three was killed when he went to a window to see what was happening. His wife and children were injured. A Greek citizen's home was fe well-to-d- old destroyed and his family injured. An Lebanese woman, on a brief holiday from school in England, was killed. The home of a longtime employee of an American oil company was hit, A boy of six who causing one death in the family. saw his father die in his home said he would kill Reagan when he grew up. Parents talk of children who scream in the night; husbands, of wives who are unable to sleep. No one I spoke with had expected old ... Editorial Board: Kent Anderson, Shauna Bona, Andrew Hunt, Bryant Larsen, Dee NaQuin, Rosemary Reeve, Fara Warner Editor in Chief Managing Editor News Editor Editorial Editor Sports Editor Feature Editor Photography Editor Chief Copy Editor Investigative Editor Campus Editor Assistant News Editor Assistant Editorial Editor Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Feature Editor Shauna Bona Kent Anderson Fara Warirr Dee L. NaQuin Laury Livsey Rosemary Reeve Steven C. Wilson Bryant Larsen Dennis Rombov Lori Bona Darren Hawkins Andrew Hunt Glenn Seninger Loreen Erickson Assistant Feature Editor wsisiani rnoiograpny fcditor Assistant Copy Editor ReporterS S Bus.ness Manager C0U"ta"t JlaSS,fieds Accounting Clerk the United States to bomb Libya." And so it was this "civilized" nation of ours carried out its brutal aerial bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi. Ghadafi's little daughter was killed during the air raid. But unlike the young girl killed in the attacks on Rome and Vienna, the death of Ghadafi's daughter was not seen as a tragedy in this country. Republicans and Democrats alike lauded the attack, claiming that support for terrorism had plummeted . dramatically. Yet they remained conspicuously silent about terrorism when, a few months after the attack on Tripoli and Benghazi, a bipartisan Congress voted " to send $100 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, whose primary targets are innocent civilians. Nation columnist Alexander Cockburn said that when President Reagan mentioned the United States had intercepted two radio signals linking Libya to the West German nightclub bombing, not one single policymaker, Democrat or Republican, had the courage to question Reagan's claim. On April 16, 1986, immediately after the U.S. air raid on Libya, President Reagan referred to Ghadafi as a "mad dog" and a "terrorist leader with no regard for human life." Yet it was not Ghadafi who sent in planes to bombard Washington, D.C., to incinerate innocent people, to murder President Reagan's daughter Maureen. One wonders who the "terrorist leader with no regard for human life" really is. Now that time has taken its toll, the American public has forgotten about the bombing of Libya. Last Wednesday, a short article about the arrest of Christina Endrigkeit ran aon the third page of The New York Times, acknowledging she had no connection to Libya. So now what? Do we go back and apologize and mourn the dead for one minute? Or do we just go on as we have been and forget the whole thing? Should we be angry, or should we come to expect this from our politicians and policymakers? Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark was correct when he wrote, ". . . Ronald Reagan must be impeached and tried for high crimes and misdemeanors." Otherwise, this nation will descend further into the pit of militarism and innocent people will continue to perish in the name of "freedom and democracy." Andrew Hunt, a sophomore majoring in economics, is 1 assistant editorial editor of the Chronicle. John Pecorelli Erin Calmes dvui Ruiz Ken, Condon Todd Curtis Sharon Deckert Ellen Garff W. Scott Hal! Kelly Hindley Amber McKee Deanie Wimmer Robert MeOmber Kav Andersen Charlene Collins Kim Co'lcct ions Account Executives Michael Ailsop John Hausknecht Kris DeBry Tammie Bostick Todd Typesetters Production Manager Assistant Production Manager Production Staff Distribution Butler Sara Wilson James A. Beck Tracey L. Heinhold Michael Q. Cleary Kenny Watanabe Abbie Hall Maria Lisieski James Olsen Todd Mafsuda David Orchard Christopher Stratford .... 1988