Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News
BRUCE BIOSSAT
The Greedy—Ugly
Americans, Too
By BRUCE BIOSSAT
WASHINGTON (NEAi
A very considerable number of Americans are remark
ably adept at hiding from themselves. To be blunt about
it, they are highly self-centered and downright greedy.
There really isn't anything new in this. A kind of gold
rush grabbing for every stray nugget has marked this
country from the frontier days. It’s just that the phe
nomenon has immense force today because there are
so many more Americans around.
Travel the land and you’ll hear and see the signs in
abundance.
A dentist told a woman the other day:
“You’d be astonished at how many people with dying
relatives come to me and ask whether I can extract the
gold fillings from their teeth after they die.”
Drop into an antique shop and listen to the proprietor:
“Young married women whose mothers are either
dying or are infirm and no longer alert come to me
with valuable objects they have stolen, unobserved, from
their mothers’ homes. They want quick cash. If they get
it, they often are back soon with more things to sell.”
These are small but shocking examples of the “I want
all I can get” syndrome deeply rooted in this nation.
Those who study the rampant thievery by the affluent
put some of it down to thrill-seeking, and ascribe a lot
more to simple greed. Many people are trying to steal
their way into a very nice standard of living.
The incredible double plague of shoplifting and thefts
by employes has the same root cause. The governing
motive seems to be: “I am entitled to live as well as
the next fellow.”
Greed has, of course, a great array of quite legal out
lets. Some corporations milk their customers badly. Not
too much of that comes to light, unless the < ustomer hap
pens to be the U.S. government. Overcharges on defense
contracts are a story known to us all.
Labor unions, having found power at last in the 19305,
are not free of greedy impulse. They have their share
of grasping highbinders, though these types usually pre
sent their demands as mere efforts to “catch up” with
the rest of the economy.
If anyone imagines this is strictly an industrial big
city phenomenon, he ought to roam the countryside
awhile. Want your trees pruned? Better set a money limit
on what the pruner can do. Otherwise you may be look
ing at some pretty giddy figures. I know a fellow who
gave the pruner free rein. He got a lot of firewood and a
bill for $1,700.
The thing grades easily into “I want something for
nothing.” Don’t leave anything lying about, out of your
sight and control. It won’t be there long. That goes for
your yard, your office desk, anywhere.
A small matter, but quite symbolic: America’s news
stands and magazine racks are besieged by poachers.
The noble purchaser, with cash in hand, can hardly
break through the strong forward wall of free readers
“asserting their rights” at rack-side.
Somewhat more unsettling is the news from federal
authorities that many students who have obtained U.S.
loans to help finance their education are breaking faith
and stopping repayment of the money the moment their
schooling ends. And then there are those chaps who get
a free education at West Point or Annapolis, only to
resign from the service before giving their country a
day’s worth of return.
O K., men, let’s head on down to the Sugar Bowl and
catch up on our reading. Leave your wallets at home.
You won’t need them.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
GLOBAL View
Find Key to Peace,
China Urges Hanoi
By RAY CROMLEY
WASHINGTON (NEA»
The diplomatic representatives of a major Western
nation in mainland China have reported in dispatches
to their government that over the past several months
they have sensed a change in Peking’s attitude toward
the Indochina war.
These men report Peking has been pushing Hanoi to
negotiate, to find some formula for an agreement with
Washington and Saigon.
For some time now the war in South Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia has been counterproductive for Peking.
What China wants in these three countries is the build-up
of strong local Communist parties or other pro-Peking
groups.
But for several years in South Vietnam and in Laos:
Hanoi has been sacrificing the local Communists to
strengthen its own hold in these regions.
This was particularly noticeable in the Tet fighting
in early 1968 when Hanoi gutted the local party structure
to secure the bodies needed to carry out the series of
sensational (but costly) attacks.
Hanoi’s bumbling in Cambodia cost the Chinese a major
base of support. Today in Cambodia, native Communist
units and native Communist political interests are sac
rificed to the needs of North Vietnam’s armies. In Laos,
the picture is the same. The local Pathet Lao is in sad
shape.
There is evidence Peking now believes the war in
Laos. Cambodia and in South Vietnam as now fought is
weakening the local Communist parties. Mao has re
peatedly warned Hanoi on this point.
What China wants, apparently, is to circle back to
the late 1950 s and early 19605.
This can best be accomplished if North Vietnam’s reg
ular troops are removed along with the U.S. forces and
conventional warfare brought to an end.
A strong faction, even in Hanoi, favors this course.
China's own spectacular development of the H-bomb
apparently has made her leaders especially apprehensive.
For the first time Peking realized the awesome power
of this weapon.
China can do little about the Russian forces on her
western frontier. But she can. perhaps, do something
to reduce the strength of U.S. forces near her eastern
borders—in Japan, South Korea. Okinawa, Formosa.
South Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines.
An end to open war in South Vietnam, and other steps
for better relations with the United States, might induce
Washington to cut back further American forces through
out the western Pacific.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.I
8
Wednesday, August 11,1971
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