1984_03 The Daily Collegian March 1984

              LPa_&<2 I    March 1,1984
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The USIA's nasty little blacklist
1 HE CLOSER we look at operations of the United States
Information Agency under the directorship of Charles Wick, the
less confidence we have that the people running it know what'
America is about. This is hardly a petty failing, since the function
of the USIA is to present an image of this country to the rest of the
world.
The agency's second crisis of leadership in a very few months
centers' on a blacklist of persons who key agency officials decided
to exclude from the American Participation program of providing
speakers for audiences overseas. The list of prominent but
unacceptable scholars, journalists, politicians and other public
figures includes Coretta Scott King, John Kenneth Galbraith,
Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Stansfield Turner, James
Schlesinger, Ralph Nader, Sen. Gary Hart and Reps. Jack Brooks
and Thomas Downey.
The cumulative, week-to-week blacklisting had been going on
for almost a year and a half when word of it got out and the
practice was dropped a month ago. It was not clear why the US1A
leadership wanted to keep various blacklisted persons off the roster
of potential speakers; although Acting Deputy Director Leslie
Lenkowsky conceded political and ideological considerations
appeared to be in play in some cases. The preferred participants
have tended to be administration officials and others in sympathy
with Ronald Reagan's positions.
The existence of the blacklist, in any case, raised a lot of enticing
questions for newspeople and congressional watchdogs. Interest
was the greater because Wick had just weathered a controversy
over his habit of tape-recording telephone conversations without
Letters
the knowledge of the parties at the other end of the line, including
other high-ranking officials. He was prudently contrite when
cornered, and Reagan backed him against demands for his
departure.
Now it turns out that inquiries into the blacklist face a severe
handicap. Weekly records relating to the list have been destroyed,
it was learned when Senate investigators asked for them. USIA
General Counsel Thomas Harvey said he advised discarding the
documents for management reasons — to stop the practice as
being inappropriate — rather than as a cover-up.
Do the apparently lost records have any significance, since the
existence of the blacklist is publicly known anyway? The destroyed
material happened to include notes by USIA officials on why they
wanted certain persons blacklisted from the speakers' program.
Such information is of obvious pertinence to anyone — including
members of Congress — investigating the why, how and who of
the blacklisting custom.
The enormity of the blacklisting offense is not that it slights the
individuals on the list. The weightier objection is the blacklist
denies some ot America's great strengths — the nation's diversity,
openness to dissent and willingness to settle issues democratically.
Wick seems to be staying in the dim background of the
blacklisting fuss as subordinates take the heat. He deserves to be
out front, since his overly zealous politicization of the USIA's
activities may have caused it all. We suggested his telephone caper
showed him to be unsuited to define the nation's image abroad.
The blacklisting that thrived under his aegis, and is now proving so
hard to scrutinize,.reinforces that suggestion.
Reprint from San Francisco Examiner Feb. 29, 1984
Media pressure
Editor, the Daily Collegian:
In your February 15 editorial, you said
that threatening AS President Andrea
Hedgley through an intended recall was
extortion. In your opinion, this does not
happen in the "real world." You called it
underhanded and a scam.
Now. I have no connection with campus
politics or the people in the campus
politics. But using the media to pressure a
public official is far from extortion. That's
called hard ball politics. If youdon. think
that power plays are often used in daily
life. 1 wonder what planet you are living
on! Newspapers take sides on political
matters all the time.    .
Watergate is an excellent.example of
the way the "real world" operates. The
Democrats and the media made an all-out
assault against Nixon in order to get him
out of office. It worked. The same tactics
could have been used against Kennedy
and Johnson. And if you dont' think that
they had equal or larger scandals of their
own — I've got a bridge to sell you.
T. LeRoy Barnett
ditional love, acceptance and forgiveness
to lead impowered. fulfilling, constructive
lives in the here and now.
I can not prove to you that God unconditionally loves you, and maybe that's
where confusion gets its roots. On the
other hand. 1 can not prove lo you that my
husband loves me either. 1 can tell you
beyond a shadow of a doubt that they
both love me as evidenced in their demonstration of love towards me, individually and personally. My knowledge of
their love towards me includes a step of
faith on my part, as I was the one who had
to become vunerable and entrust them
with my life and emotions. Love, then,
becomes faith because love can not be
proved, yet its existance can not be denied.
It is my hope that the readers will be
intellectually honest and do not stereotype
God or his followers by a random sample,
population of two. I hope you seek God
and experience the knowledge of unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness.
God is there, he is only as far away as your
heart.
Shari Wickham-Ahlberg
The Daily Collegian
Founded in 1922
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Christianity
Editor, the Daily Collegian:
The last two days I've been on campus.
I've observed in the free speech area both
Christianity and people at their very worst
Instead of building bridges of ideas, our
brutal words hacicea away at our human-
ness and left us further apart from one
another, separated by-walls that are
strengthened by hurt and hate. »
1 was sad to hear the condemnatory
remarks on the platform. None of us
needs to be judged by anyone else. It
seems that "Brother Jed" and company
didn't understand that when Christ said
that he brought with him a sword, (the
Bible), that he didn't intend its readers to
use it tocut people off at the knees. He did
intend Tor it to be part of the equipment
used by followers of Christ to enable them
to live quality lives.
It seems that "Brother Jed" missed the
core of God's message to humanity. It is
that God is on our side, he's not against us.
God through Christ has sent a vital message of unconditional love, acceptance,
andforgivness.'
The Christ of Christianity, the one that
tbe Bible talks about, impowers his
followers through the vehicle of uncon-
Am
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March 1,1984
Krebs' life 'somewhere over the rainbow'
Rainbows may end somewhere in Oz,
but they start at the Home Economics
building Room 204 where another wonderful wizard resides.
Room 204 is better known as the
"Rainbow Room" and the wonderful
wizard's name is Dr. Eugene Krebs.
His office is festooned with rainbows on
his walls, on mugs and cups, on cards. and
even a shopping bag that a student gave
"Rainbows are a sign of hope and
peace," he said, "it's a
of a new-beginning."
Krebs is the home
ment chariman who runs the program like
it was his family.
His rainbow collection started two-
and-a-half years ago. When he first arrived
at CUSF, a "restricted area" sign was
posted on his door. He realized he wanted
something more friendly.
Krebs ordered a welcome sign. "They
gave me a stinking little thing like that," he
said holding up two fingers an inch apart.
"1 thought 1 wanted one (a sign) that
stands out, so I put a couple rainbows on
"The words they write on the cards are
more important to me than the rainbows
on ihe front," he said.
H if philosophy is simple enough: caring
and sincerity, are all he offers.
Krebs is especially proud of a "com-
mendation-of-sorts"given him by a group
of students. It stated how much affect
Krebs had in changing their lives. The
students also-wrote their home country
Beside their signature, listingo
'Aren't we a society, or are we
a group of warring tribes?'
-Krebs
d Kenya to Saudi Ara-
Theor
t they a
:belov
sincerely welcome
• here," he said. "After a while the students
felt like they could trust me."4
Krebs just finished taking down more
than 200 rainbows he has received as gifts
from students, making room for a fresh
batch that will surely come this semester.
Krebs describes himself as "the dingy
guy that goes around campus and invites
everyone to be a friend."
"You can't have too many friends in this
world," he said.
If there is any doubt as the the impact
Krebs has made on some people's lives,
testimony is not only in the hundreds of
thing that seems clear is that his
message is universal. Krebs even had a
theory about all people in the world.
"There's only one race and that's the •
human race," he said. "If we had a family
reunion and invited everyone that's related
to us by blood and by marriage, then we
have them invite everyone that's related to
them by blood and marriage, pretty soon I
dont think we'd leave anybody out in this
"it is the thought that we are all a family
.__ should work together,"he said. "Aren't
we a society, or are we a group of warring -
tribes?"
Krebs is eager to share all his cards, and
advice with anybody.
"Students come and they tell me their
triumphs and problems. They get a feeling
. that there is someone who cares,"_he said.
"They found. place where people care
about them. That makes all the difference
•See Room, Page 8
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