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Show Page 4 The Thundcrbird Monday ApriC 28, 1986 Be selfish: Demand peace for your future The Great Peace March for Global Disarmament 1986, although basically an ideological movement, deserves popular support. You may or may not agree with their proposals; you may or may not be for disarmament, but one fact is indisputable: Nuclear war would be devastating. There is enough nuclear firepower currently on the planet to obliterate the Earth seven times over. Whether or not disarming or stockpiling is the answer, it is best to talk now. Tomorrow may be too late. If the USSR were to launch a nuclear attack, we would have about 24 minutes to react. Twenty-fou- r minutes is not much time. The marchers are for verifiable global disarmament. They dont want it to come overnight, but they do want it to come soon. They say that if enough support is shown, that the U.S. would have to stop and rethink its position on the arms race. From that ideology rose the Great Peace March, sponsored originally by QE E X r cd(fy tkinh Yeatc flierch&rs dre tetaffy COOL dndlpoufd feue gone to f,cmLLYyeMy had to studyjo. WTt r V ' Ca'cefctAXT .A mimifi ProPeace. The march started with 1200 people, marching about 15 miles per day toward Washington, D.C. They plan to be there Nov. 15 of this year. After they left Los Angeles, ProPeace financially folded, leaving the marchers in Barstow, Ca., with no place to go. Eventually, the marchers founded the Great Peace March, Inc. They then became an independent group, not relying on a corporation to tell them where to go next. The 550 people that were left are marching on to the capirol. Many people disagree with the march, saying that it is costing too much for the communities they march through, that it is useless no matter how many supporters they get, that their plans are flawed and that disarmament would never work. Lets look at the alternative: Nuclear war. If every bomb on the planet was detonated by each of the nuclear powers, the planet and its inhabitants would cease to exist. Nuclear war frightens everyone. A study done with children showed that it was one of their primary concerns in life. How would you tell your child the reason the Russian bombs will hit his neighborhood in 20 minutes? How would you answer his or her questions? Who could you blame but yourself? Reagans buildup policy was good for its time, but that time is over. In a nuclear world, it is time for peace. We dont need to prepare to die when we could be celebrating life. War is not in human nature, its something society teaches us. The Thunderbird believes that the time for peace has come. While we still need to defend ourselves, we dont need to play childish toys. games with grown-uIf you dont want peace for youself, at least support peace for everyone else. p :(,;ra Q)e Chunderbird THl SIVPLNT NE'as AND lLY' OI; SOUTHERN I TAH "TATE COM t:Gt VOLUME 80, NUMBER 26 Edilor Tvler Jensen Copy Edilor Rebecca Southern Photo Edilor Derek Miller Sports Editor Ken Co Entertainment Editor Paige White Assistant to the Editors Annette Grooms Senior Staff Writer Kris Johnson Production Manager Kelli Fov Advertising Designer Gavin McNeil Advertising Representatives Kellie Jen.sen Eugene Rrown Faculty Adviser Larry Baker i Ihc Thunderbird is piiHislu-Monday of the academic year by and far the student body of Southern Utah State College and is not aff, hated in any manner whatsoever with the Colleges department of communication. The views and in I he hunderhml are the opinions of the publication's individual opinionsandexpressed do not writers necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the institution, faculty, staff or student body in general. The unsigned editorial directly above is the of The Thunderbird as a single entitv. Letters to the editor must he opinion typed and include the name, student numher (if from a student) and phone number. Only the name will be printed. Names will not he withheld under any circumstances and the editor reserves the right to edit letters for iength and to preclude libel. Letters must he submitted by nixm Friday for inclusion in the following week's edition. The Thunderbird: editorial and advertising offices at 520 Vest 200 South, Cedar City UT Mail at SUSC Box lU84, Cedar City, UT 84720 iSOI) 7758. GJirVd ge How does one dress for peace? but it is a major factor. Just who are these marchers trying to reach on their odyssey across a country that they believe needs awakening? Surely theyre not concerned about the young, (lets say) liberal citizens of this country. These are the people who will empathize with the look and feel of the marchers, but theyre also the people who will already agree that its time to end the nuclear buildup. No, the people who must be reached by the marchers are the very people who not only disagree with or are ignorant to the marchers philosophy, but who also find the demeanor of the marchers repugnant. The scene on Main Street Sunday was an interesting one to say the least. Lets not deal with the amazement that the marchers must have felt that the town seemed to have been deserted by its residents on this day. Lets deal with the besuited man and woman who were lifelong (65 years) Republicans and believers in the American ethic and who were being lectured to by a young girl with faded, torn overalls and the headband that held her long, braided hair. They were inching away slowly, looking at their feet, the sign over the UP&JL office, the passing cars, whatever they c.ould find to avoid meeting the impassioned eyes of this Peace Marcher. Their concerns were how to pay their rising utility bill on a fixed income, who the speaker was going to be at Sacrament Service and whether the roast will be done on time for when Clarence and Maude come over for supper. Middle America simply will not listen to what it which is to say may consider the lunatic fringe anybody who walks across the country waving peace flags and wearing bandanas anywhere other than around their necks. This all is not to say that the Peace Marchers should dress like Mormon missionaries, but if the people theyre trying to reach are of a conservative demeanor, they should be as acclimated to this as possible. Otherwise, what they appear to be speaks louder than what they are saying. And what they are saying is even more important than it was in 1968. Its too important to say by sitting on the grass strumming guitars and singing yoga-lik- e tunes written by men who now wear suits. way they look and talk and act BY LARRY BAKER Access is a recurring column in which members of the campus community express their thoughts on issues of interest andor concern. Larry Baker is director of publications at SUSC. Ya wanna end war and stuff, ya gotta sing loud. Arlo Guthrie, Alices Restaurant, 1967. Its hard to argue with the Peace Marchers who ambled through town this weekend. I mean, there are hawks and doves and there will always be arguments as to how to run this world, but whos going to tell someone that, yeh, Id like to see this world blown up, yessireebob. Even Moammar Khadafy isnt that whacko, although I dont know that I could say the same for, say, Claire Berger. Nuclear holocaust has been a fear for longer than most SUSC students have been alive. Its been noted that the United States is the only country in the world to ever have utilized nuclear weapons against other peoples. That was 41 years ago. The only time recently that nuclear weapons have seriously been considered is by Lana Johnson when the Convo crowd gets a little rude. Last year when the Student Senate tried to have SUSC and Cedar City declared a nuclear free zone, there was considerable debate on the subject here, though. Im sure the Soviets were watching it very closely and that if the measure had passed they would have had to reprogram their targeting computers. Im sure the order in the Russkie war room would have gone something like this: Comrade, launch an nuclear strike on the imperialist warmongering yankee dogs. ..but not Cedar City. Remember, Ivan, thats a nuclear free zone! So, ar any rate, flippant or not, the specter of nuclear warfare hangs heavy over us all. I truly feel it is commendable of the Peace Marchers to educate us to the gloomy reality: Forewarned is forearmed, you know. But, heres the thing about the Peace Marchers: Why do they all seem as if they were the product of a 1968 scientists successful experiment in suspended animation and have just now been unfrozen? It may be thought that this is a minor point the all-o- |