Voices of Reason

Thirty Years of Interviews

From the December 1998 issue

(Page 2 of 13)

"The zoning process is a political process. It has no relationship whatever to looking at each land use and making a prudent decision on it, whether it's good for taxes or whether it's not good for taxes--whether it's good legally or good this way--it's a political process. People gather, make compromises and whoever screams the loudest has his way."

June 1973

From "Why I Did It!," an interview with Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg

"To whom did [the Pentagon Papers] convey a great deal of information? To whom were they valuable? Not to foreigners on the whole, or foreign adversaries. Ho Chi Minh did not need a document to know the president misrepresented the very things being said to Ho Chi Minh in negotiations, or the actions the U.S. was taking against North Vietnam....But to credulous Congressmen and many American voters who wanted very much to give the benefit of the doubt to the President, then the existence of documentary evidence made a great deal of difference."

February 1974

From "Libertarian Politics," an interview with Rep. (and later Sen.) Steve Symms (R-Idaho)

Reason: Would you agree...that Watergate may be healthy in the sense that it's healthy to build a basic distrust of bureaucracy and government in Washington?

Steve Symms: Yes...As a practicing Republican...it's not a political plus for me to be a member of Congress in the Republican Party....But it's kind of interesting....I don't have any sympathy for anybody that's involved in it. If they're guilty, I say they got to face the music, and the truth goes a long way in politics. The quicker it comes out the better. I hope that it weakens the Executive Branch of the government, because the Congress has for too long sat down here and handed over the power to the President.

October 1974

From "Straight Talk," an interview with psychiatry critic Thomas Szasz

Reason: You mean you don't believe that heroin is addictive?

Thomas Szasz: Not so fast. It's precisely the word "addiction" that's my quarry. Suppose you give a cigarette to a youngster who has never smoked. He smokes it. Will he enjoy it?

Reason: No.

Szasz: OK. Suppose you give him a martini. His first martini. Will he enjoy that?

Reason: Probably not.

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