Word: token
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...position has exhibited flexibility from time to time. He has divested of stock in individual corporations which did not supply Harvard with requested information on its operations in South Africa, and he has endorsed Congressional efforts to bring sanctions against South Africa. His critics view these efforts as token gestures, an effort to shift the focus of attention away from Harvard's enormous holdings in companies that do business in South Africa...
...sweat, a tall teenager and shorter companion stood, watching and waiting. When the moment was right, they seized it, slipping halfway under the turnstile, seemingly unnoticed by the people they were using as their cover. But the older one was too tall, or too lethargic from the heat. The token seller spotted him, wriggling through a pair of pinstriped legs...
Second, give people or communities around you something more than just token respect. In other words, don't abuse those who are less powerful. Harvard eats up the land around the Square driving up property values and displacing poor families. The University fails to maintain its rental properties, so it can drive out tenants and raise rents...
...same token, however, it is difficult to generate public interest in debates which are perceived as being unimportant. If a majority of voters neglected to log in at the voting booths in the 1984 presidential election, it is probably because of the overwhelming similarity between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale; the biggest issue debated was whether or not to raise taxes, not exactly a life-or-death matter...
...issue is not Saudi Arabia's access to weapons, since King Fahd's regime can buy all the arms it wants from other nations. Rather, the problem for Reagan is political. He promised the missiles partly as a token of the special relationship that has existed between Washington and Riyadh since World War II, and partly as a warning to Iran against carrying its gulf war with Iraq any closer to Saudi Arabia. Said the White House: "Congress has endangered our long-standing security ties to Saudi Arabia, called into question the validity of U.S. commitments to its friends...