opinion

Other Voices

A Threat to Free Speech

On Tuesday of last week, several hundred students at the University of Southern California disrupted a campaign speech by Walter Mondale with sustained shouting and heckling • Boring!" they shouted merrily. A clearly unsettled Mr. Mondale responded: "USC is not the Republican convention where you can silence people." After almost two decades of left-wing intolerance of free speech on this country's campuses, we suspect many - adult conservatives were viscerally pleased at the pasting Mr. Mondale took at USC If it wasn't the Republican convention, neither was it Harvard, where back in the 1960s, stude.its chased Defense Secretary Robert McNamara across campus rather than listen to him talk about the war in Vietnam. Nor was it Smith College or Columbia University, where more recently, speechmaking appearances by United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick were de facto banned by coalitions of left-wing teachers and students. Republicans and conservatives had better move as quickly as possible, however, to shove this smelly development back in the bottle. More specifically. Ronald Reagan ought to repudiate his supporters' heckling of a presidential candidate. The comments by Mr Reagan have been decidedly lame. "I wislf people wouldn't do it. But I suppose if the

speaker has a right to be heard, they've got a right to b heard." A large part of Mr. Reagan's current popularity and thi vibrancy of the conservative movement he leads derive: from a reaction to the contempt for civility and fre< speech on campuses and in public places through the I960: and '70s. On reflection. Mr. Reagan will surely understand this At least he understood it in 1965, when he won the gover norship of California in part by promising to "clean up the mess at Berkeley." Disruptions like those in Berkeley in 1965 or the one at USC may be sophomoric, but the cumulative threat they pose to free speech free inquiry and simple public order is serious. It was bad enough back when American politics became the plaything of campus mobs. But what really discredited the moral authority of modern i liberalism was the fact that so many prominent adult liberals failed to denounce this activity or even rationalized it. Stopping 19-year-old conservatives from shouting down liberals is one of the things the president's "bully pulpit" is good for. If Mr Reagan hesitates to use it, he may sacrifice a lot of the moral high ground he and his supporters have taken in the last two decades. — Wall Street Journal

An Abridgement of Free Speech

9 We have searched in vatn for a sentence or two in the Republican Party Platform explaining the party's position in opposition to. or in support of. the administration's efforts to curtail the Freedom of Information Act and censor the writings and speeches of all government employes during their lifetimes. But we did come across this paragraph under the general heading of "A Free and Just Society." "F ree individuals must have unrestricted access to the process of self-government. We deplore the growing labyrinth of bewildering regulations and obstacles which have increased the power of political professionals and discouraged the participation of average Americans, Even well-intentioned restrictions on campaign activity stifle free speech and have a chilling effect on spontaneous political involvement by our citizens." Later on in the document the Platform states: "We sup-

port reasonable methods to fight those who undermined national security ..." WE HAVE THE FEELING the Platform Committee was trying to tell the President something but didn't know how, or didn't dare, to come right out and say that expanding the classification of government information curtailing the Fol Act. and sensoring the thoughts of government employes all in the name of "national security" is wrong. " 3 Certainly, "free individuals must have unrestricted access to the process of self-government." That's what the FoIA is all about. And the "growing labyrinth of bewildering regulations" is a fitting description for the Presidential directives requiring review of Vie words and thoughts of millions of government employes and the threat of polygraph Jests whether they agree or not. WE REALIZE the Party Platform is not binding on the CVen re-elected. However, these words in me riauorm and the growing opposition in Congress against attempts to broaden the lifetime controls on the writings of employes should have some impact on the next President. "Any abridgment of the freedom of speech, and particularly the practice of pre-publication censorship, runs counter to the genius of our democratic system " according to George Ball, a former Deputy Secretary of State inat seems so obvious to us we wonder how our elected officials can ignore it. Editor Sc Publisher Magazine

Divided by Smoke America's cigarette smokers are living under conditions - actual and potential - that are unacceptable to any other people in our nation. In fact, they live under conditions of restriction, taxation, segregation and prohibition that would be illegal for any other class of citizens. Isn t it ironic that politicians who were given a mandate in 1980 to eel the pnvemmeni nff m<r

in government backs are letting a vocal minority successfully pile governmental burdens on the backs of smokers? Isn't it ironic that our society, which defends endangered snail darters, whales, seals and the rights of aberrant groups, is willing to deny the rights of millions of its citizens who use tobacco"' And isn't it ironic that, at this time in our country's history , when we have broken down the barriers that divide people on the basis of race, creed, color and gender we are letting zealots erect new barriers to divide people on the basis of whether or not they smoke"' Horace R Kornegay. chairman of the Tobacco Institute. in a speech to the Tobacco Association of the U S in Pinehurst. N.C.

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Goodness1 I Jon t Even Know Who's Running For i President And All Ol A Sudden I Have This Mad Desire To Charge Out And Endorse Somebody1'

Our Readers Write Better Off? To The Editor : ! When Michael Stubbs' father lost the election, he should have taken the defeat like a man. not like a crybaby. His Sept abetter to the editor knocked the Democratic Party in Lower Township and said how much better we are going to be with the township manager form of government, due to taxes, etc. Doesn't stubbs realize that Township Manager James K. Stump is going to raise our taxes about 18 cents per hundred dollars of assessed valuation, and our water and sewer bills also are going up? Stubbs should try to remember this, because I do The Democrats would always leave a few crumbs for the poor and middle class. The Republicans like we now have inoffice gather up the crumbs and only share them with the rich. The taxpayers .of Lower decided they needed a change Rr^r™16"1 10 vMve .money' Let's start with solicitor oruce Gorman, who is being overpaid. Next year, go out and hire a lawyer fresh out of lawschool for about $20,000 a year. For that amount he would be a full time employe of the township. RAY BRASKIS North Cape May Si N0TE s'umP WOS projecting the possibility 0/ o tux hike, only Township Council has the authority to raise taxes, and only the township Municipal Utilities Authority to" raise water and sewer rates, which it is likely to do

-19 Types of Mustard

My Nehru 's Back in Style

By JOE ZELNIK I'm in possession of half a box of "E.T.," a breakfast cereal that General Mills assures me contains "E T s favorite flavors." M,™i "j5*"1** ■' as a "peanut butter and lr!?!L ,°r!l cnspy' sweetened, 2-grain cereal " Us shaped into "Es" and "Its," so help me God This may bring the General s aides knockmg on my door in the middle of the night, but it is the worst cereal 'l have ever eaten. And 1 like chocolate and peanut butter This is one of those cases where f agree with the reac«£nT°" US? children <t0 a redundancy), They taste E T. and scream "Vuk!" or "f hate it!'» AS FOR ADULTS, ! tried to palm off "E.T." on a lady.f know who loves pigs knuckles, is ecstatic about eel and thinks squid is scrumptious. She refused it I am alwfys indecisive, but I've set a record for soulsearching as I sit at my breakfast table mornings, contemplating a box with 14 one-ounce serving*: h^iiitake lT° T*5 t0 621 u- "" force all down in m and never have to face it again' ' - Tu f OF YOU may be wondering why I don't just 'I""1 You Probably were born after 1945. the start of the Throwaway Society. Those of us who learned our values pnarlo that belong to the Save Everything Society (be cause you never know when another Degression may We Save Everythings are recognized by iammed kitetat' S™1 ShelVeS' StUHed drawere' Era> tair and cSsnsssrsr, Ihe growth of second skins and odors ~f' " UI1S garage sa^«eCt'bleS """ ^ 0riginak' "°l ^ «P a> WHEN THE SO-CALLED fashion industry decrees the lapels on my suit are too wide, I find a little old tailor who narrows them for 25 budts. Better yet if you just don't worry about being "out of ' style (whichiseasytodo here }, in a few years ycxrean be j

the first to be badi "in style." My Nehru jacket for example which brought me some disdain for the las! 15 years ■astaginga comeback. vSi Throwaway PwSewfflS^ lopay J200 for a new oni&.l'm there first and mine cost Why did 1 buy "E.T.," you ask? For the best of reasons 1 had a 3S-cents-off coupon, and the store was paying double coupons. So, a product that normally costs SI 99 onlv ^^LXa„xrot,'wi"chr^' WE SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED that there are "'s caUed enterprise or capitalism or something, and it accounts for an dIvd8t£Srn °ew f00d Products being introduced each •n. . . ?ear' """Pared to three in 1980 facel9 fvuKofrnfrei' rd e° 10 the growr> "toe. you could Sttwt Journal is my source.) Did you ever notice bow many cheeses there are in the daily counter? When I was a kid, S ^ 3^ wtotove ^ good friends with<he fellow orcaramels ^ We """"" keked Tor Veivreta THERE IS a "new products mania.'LthdJnurnal said .and one of the best examples is the gpbntda^?~Tbe same em ?„®^2hmaU0WS' ^ '0^P°lS The resull of cutthroat competition: hut throats Sales are dowm. One of the reasons iTthaLyoufi^^Lrare ^ switchtng from moisl and chewey products to cnmchf^ touch°StUrerS haVe''° d0 lols of researdl tTstay in F^l^t • vee™g toates, demographic changes etc Eve^y s weight conscious, so sate of I^irf CuTine nUr • °bzens outnumber teen-agers, so fruit and fiber is outdrawing sugar-coated Ninety-four percent of those new products fail "FT" »s going to have lots of company. E T