IwIM1PMrII r rr r MYr glf r rinr II i II r rrr Oli fir. Y I t
Seventy-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS OF THE UNIVESTrrY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
's<'
AT-LARGE
..And to all a Good Night
Ly NEIL SHISTER
4
A sti "L3 i ;
ere Opinions Are Free, 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH.
Eruth Will Prevailns
NEws PHONE: 764-0552
Editorials printed in'The Michigan Daily sypress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This Mist be noted in all reprints.
IDAY, APRIL 12, 1968 NIGHT EDITOR: RON LANDSMAN.
Democratic Contenders:
Too Many Liberals
ESTERDAY'S WHIR:WIND visit to
Lansing by Senator Robert Kennedy
marks the Michigan unveiling of the re-
vised version of Politics '68 complete with
major casting changes and a script totally
rewrtten by Lyndon Johnson.
Now that recent events have rendered
an anti-Johnson crusade relatively irtele-
vant, it time for a reassessment of the
merit; o participating in this year's
Preslden'VAl charade.
On the surface, Johnson's political
abdication should give this year's Presi-
dential . race an almost millenialistic
quality for many. For the new alignments
within the Democratic Party are such
that Hubert'Humphrey-once considered
far left-has become the only hope of th
party conservatives.
The enthusiasm that the ascendancy
of the party's liberal wing would have in-
spired a few years ago has been effec-
tively checked by the bitter experience of
the past ,five years. The Johnson Admin-
istratio has convincingly demonstrated
the inadeluacy of liberal dogma to con-
front th'e prek~lems of ,a deeply troubled
era.
Kennedy, Humphrey and Senator Eu-
gene McCarthy all represent minute
variations on the theme of outdated lib-
eralism. While the three contenders have
hopefully learned from the excesses of
the Johnson Administration, they have
not seen fit to revamp their underlying
political postulates. And there lies the
weakress of the Democratic Presidential
trio,.
FOR EXAMPLE, none of the three con-
tenders have given any indication that
they reject the dangerous myth of se-
curity through nuclear deterence and
are willing to undertake the unilateral
disairmament initiatives toward the So-
viet Union necessary in order to destroy
the spectre of mutual distrust.
While hopefully all of the Democratic
threesome have now learned that America
cannot police the globe, there is little
evidence that any of them really perceive
the deeterious effect that American eco-
nomic hegemony has on the underde-
'veloped world.
If America does have the sincere in-
terest which it should have in the econ-
omic development of the Third World,
then our aid in greatly increased quan-
tities must be channel through a multil-
ateral agency like the United Nations so
the underdeveloped countries themselves
can decide how best to employ this vitally
needed capital.
AIa .THREE CANDIDATES will un-
doubtedly place great emphasis on the
need to dramatically increase the amount
of Federal funds channelled into the
urban ghettoes.
But the candidates have presented
scanty evidence that they understand the
emasculation of black self-respect which
is a result of paternalistic programs and
the corresponding necessity for the poor
to have complete control over their own
lives. '
Furthermore they appear to cling to
the facile notion that there still is a rel-
atively painless way of solving America's
racial blight. The nation must recognize
that even business involvement in the
ghetto or a similarly attractive plan will
be relatively meaningless until whites
are willing to fundamentally alter their
lifestyles and begin to accomodate the
Negro in America life.
LASTLY all thre.e candidates represent
a philosophic inclination to stress
benevolent Federal control over the free-
dom of the individual. For example, it is
'keeping with contemporary liberal rhet-
oric to attempt to remedy the anti-liber-
tarian aspects of the draft through an
alternative system of compulsory nation-
al service. None of the Democratic con-
tenders appear prepared to place in-
dividual liberty on a higher plane than
the nationalistic goals of the'state.
What distinctions do exist between
Kennedy, Humphrey and McCarthy are
rooted in personality and style rather
than ideology. Only if the Vice-President
mistakenly believes that his road to
political glory lies in further mimick-
ing the policies of his political lord and
master, will there be any substantial pro-
grammatic difference between the can-
didates.
Consequently while there are few
policy reasons to distinguish among the
Democratic trio, many will argue it is
necessary to staunchly support the
strongest candidate in, order to prevent
Richard Nixon from realizing his long
cherished dream of moving to the White
House.
But the can-win approach to Presi-
dential politics seems relatively unneces-
sary as polls and intuition easily indicate
that any of the three candidates can beat
the latest Nixon retread. As for other
possible Republican hopefuls, all trends'
are that the GOP still believes it would
rather be right than President.
THERE APPEARS to be little prag-
matic necessity for critics of contem-
porary liberalism to compromise their
convictions and support one of the Demo-
cratic candidates for President.
By actively supporting a candidate
one is naturally impelled to inflate the
standard-bearer to almost heroic pro-
portions and mentally blot out his de-
ficiencies. This can only. serve to en-
trench the Politics of the Superman as
the public is led once again to believe
that the election of a certain man will be
sufficient to divert America from her
disastrous course.
America needs far more at this cru-
cial juncture than liberal platitudes and
tried and tired solutions. We need far
more than the facile and glib programs
of candidates scrounging for elusive votes.
What is necessary is a thorough re-
structuring of our basic political axioms
and a redirection "of political thoight
toward the new realities which have
emerged during this dismal decade.
THE SUDbEN and momentous events of
the past two weeks display both
hope for the amelioration of some of our
worst abuses, and the depth to which
fundmanetal problems are embedded in
the fabric of our society.
The need for critics who can pierce
America's self-delusions will be vital in
the days ahead and it is therefore urgent
that these dissidents not abandon their
role in a burst of unwarranted enthu-
siasm for any Presidential candidate
For with Johnson's withdrawal, the
Presidential race is no longer crucial and
the outcome seems relatively forordained.
A new Kennedy-Nixon tilt appears in
the offing and the result looks like a re-
make of 1960.
IT IS IMPERATIVE that the campus
maintain a relative coolness toward all,
candidates and thereby leave itself
free to point out the underlying inade-
quacy of the liberal programs of Kennedy
and his two Democratic rivals.
This is a time for academia to con-
centrate on building a new ideology to
replace the liberalism which failed. For
the universities to exchange the funda-
mental task of updating ideologies and
issues for the sign-waving hoopla of a
relatively unimportant President election
wmiln hp tro ai
HE TIMES really are changing, faster and more
completely than maybe even Dylan himself realized.
Yet in the end perhaps the only thing that ever changes'
is time, perhaps beneath the moment's drama that be-
comes mundane in retrospect there is something more
basic about the human condition that is changeless.
This is what Hesse's Siddartha came finally to realize
as he went to the continually flowing river for his wis-
dom, and Thomas Wolfe may have made the ultimate
contrast that can be made when he juxtaposed Time and
the River.
There is something fraudulent in trying to sum-
marily make meaning of four years. It cannot be done.
It seems now, in the midst of the hurricane, that
monumentous things have occurred. But the cardinal
sin journalists commit is in attempting to inject instant
meaning into anything that happens, and I'll resist
the temptation.
Before I go much farther, though, there are a few
debts that I must publicly proclaim. The first is to
Dr. Robert Angell, who retires this year after a long and
distinguished career at the University. I majored in
sociology because of the profound effect Angell had on
me when I was a sophomore, and have since come to
realize that he was important for me more as a man
than as a sociologist. He combines a great sense of
humanity with a sharp, penetrating mind and it is 'in-
deed too bad that there will not be more, students and
professors who can benefit from the experience of
being around him.
THE OTHER person who has given me something
special is Robert Skilar,},an assistant professor of. history
and American Studies. In a few years here Sklar has
become a campus celebrity, and, the fact that he has
is a commentary both on him and the University. He
has transcended the barriers of the University, making
himself genuinely accesible to students simply by caring
enough to make the effort. More importantly, though,
he is thinking in a new way, combining a variety of
concerns and disciplines in an attempt to synthesize them
into a single, important approach to the study of culture
and it especially exciting and interesting to Watch himt
work, and in turn be worked by him.
* * *
It is a scary feeling now to be leaving.
I vividly remember the first time I saw this place,
arriving on a humid Sunday before fall orientation.
After unpacking into a fourth floor, garret-like room in
West Quad, I walked down State Street.- I ' saw Angell,
Hall and thought that it must be a Federal Reserve Bank.
not part of the University, since only a Federal Reserve
Bank ' could be that pretentiously stolid. And I recall
being awed by the immensity of the U.G.L.I. And wonder-
ing how one gets up the courage to ask a girl out at a
University, since they seemed so obviously worldly and
sophisticated.
Today this same campus, with its same Diag benches,
looks incredibly different. Its mood and style have
changed. To a large extent there are two discernable
groups of students around-those who still believe in a
world inhabited by Wendy the Wimp in wee-juns and
villager outfit and Sidney Straight with rep-tie and rep-
mind, and those who don't and are trying in a variety
of ways to find one they do believe in.
The war has played a big part in doing this. It his'
excited people, made them anxious and tense, and
prompted them to look at the quality of life they had
been leading and attempt to improve it. The student
power thing is a manifestation of an amorphous sense
of malaise bred by the war and if the student power
movement now has faded away, it could quickly reappear
in another guise. Similarly, the campaign for New
Politics is potentially extremely important, for its ad-
vocates urge attacking the roots rather than the surface
manifestations of social malfunctioning, and they are
proponents of not only radical politics but also radical
education and economics.
THE CHANGE that has occurred in the Black tem-
perament over four years is obvious. How close it will
start hitting was reflected this week when a group of
Blacks took over the Administration building and locked
everybody else out.
* * *
-But beneath the tempest one has the haunting feeling
that maybe nothing is really changing at all. Men are
still hungrily looking for salvation, not so much in god
or society anymore, but still somewhere-maybe in
mystic love. They are desperate for immortality, on such
a fundamental level that perhaps few are aware of it,
but Bertrand Russell understood it when he said "all
men want to be God, the only difference between a
genius and another is that the genius is unwilling to
admit that he can't be."
Yet of course something is happening, something
monumental. We as a civilization are rapidly approaching
the era of total structure, total organization. The me ek
are not going to inherit the earth, but the social scientists,
the technocrats exercising power are. This is Shister's
fearless prediction, his final idea as a writer with The
Michigan Daily. Civilization will soon, within the next
hundred years, have reached the point where if every-
thing is not known, at least everything will be knowable.
The computers are indeed destined to take over, and the
men who make them work are destined to run the whole
show.
It is painful to say this, yet unavoidable: Humanists,
those who do believe that there is something noble about
the human being and that if shown the way he will
prevail with grandeur, are in the rear-guard, not the
vanguard of society. Our destiny is to be created and
nurtured in an environment where chance is drama-
tically minimized and order is forever.
"I know all the truth this world has, and that is that
it has none" writes Camus in the person of one of his
characters. The spectre of absurdity pervades life, but
still the Odyssey of life is a fine one even if there is no
Ithaca at the end of the road.
4
Which Road to Arab Nationalism?
By REUBEN RAINISCHI
Daily uest Writer
As ANISRAELI STUDENT I
would like to lrespond to sev
eral points raised by Mr. Imad
Khadduri in his two articles on
the "Palestinian Liberation Move-
ment," but I must first congratu-
late Mr. Khadduri for being the
first Arab, student (in my period
of study here) with the courage
and intellectual openmindedness
to admit that Arab countries
themselves are burdened with
"corrupt governments and rel-
atively stagnant societies" and
that their primary responsibility
is to change these conditions for
their ownl people.
In his article Mr. Khadduri
equates Israel to the French
colonialists who ruled in Algeria
and other parts of Africa. I have
no doubt that many people in Is-
rael, having had to fight by
themselves a very 'costly war
against British imperialist inter-
ests in the Middle East, have the
strongest admiration for the A l-
gerian freedom fighters.
However, may I remind Mr.
Khadduri that French settlers in
Algeria did not have any cultural
ties or feelings of heritage for Al-
geria before they migrated and
established themselves in that
land. Also, behind the French
settlers stood a leading colonial
power while behind the immi-
grants to Israel stood nothing but
the sea and British detention
camps in Cyprus. It is interesting
to note that in Israel, British
foreign domination was replaced
by sound democratic institutions
while in Algeria, colonialism was
replaced by a military junta. It
is really unfortunate that a na-
tionalist like Ben Bella went from
a French jail to an Algerian free-
dom jail!
Mr. Khaddurn sees Israel as a
creation of foreign designs intend-
ed to suppress Arab freedom. But
may I remind him that since its
creation Israel has never served
as a base for foreign troops, has
nod alligned itself with foreign
military personnel.
Yet taking a brief glimpse at
the Arabic world, we are wit-
nessing the operation of Ameri-
can military bases in Saudi Arab-
ia and Libya. And it is no longer
a secret that Russian naval forces
use Arab ports of Latakia, Port
Said, and Alexandria as de facto
naval bases and that the entire
Egyptian army is now guided,
trained, and supported by Rus-
sian military machinery set up
in Egypt.
WHILE I SHARE Mr. sKhad-
duri's desire for the creation of
some kind of economically viable'
and socially just Arab Palestine,
let no one forget that Jordan
seized the area of the West Bank
during the 1949 war with Israel'
and the Palestinian liberation
cause was then betrayed by' its
very saviors.'
The conference table can very
easily lead to an independent
Arab Palestine and there is no
need to sacrifice additional lives
of young courageous° Arabs who
desire their own independence.
Since the six day war, Israel has
many times renewed its request
for direct talks with its Arab
neighbors.
I am confident that a confer.:
ence between Israel and the con-
cerned Arab states and repre-
sentatives of the Palestinian Arabs
themselves can produce an in-
dependent Arab Palestine within
the borders of historic Palestine
as the United Nations partition
plan called for in 1947. However,
to ask Israel to relinquish its
military gains without a sound
peace in the area would be forcing
her back into the vulnerable po-
gition in which she found her-
self prior to June 5, 1967.
And now, by refusing to ne-
gotiate with Israel in a peaceful
manner under United Nations
Representative Jarring's guidance,
the Arab states are continuing to
murder the Palestinian national-
ist movement. And at the same
time, non-Palestinian Arabs have
the naked audacity to complain
(much like the fellow who kills
his own parents and then asks
"Why, am I an orphan"), that
Palestinian independence is being
thwarted.
I cannot escape the conclusion
that what hinders the establish-
ment of a just peace in the Middle
East is the fact that the coun-i
tries Which Israel is inviting to
the conference table are pres-
ently ruled by outdated royalist
and feudal regimes on the one
hand and military 4extremists un-
der the disguise of socialistic na-
tionalists on the other.
WHAT WE ARE SEEING in
'Palestine' is 'an intervention by
Arab countries from outside Pal-
estine to "safeguard" the interests
of the Palestinians. However,
this same intervention on the lat-
ter's behalf has already led the
Middle East into three wars with
tremendous men and material
losses and the creation of num-
erous refugees. I once listened to
a broadcast in Israel by His
(then) Majesty Ibn Saud who,
pledged ten million Arab lives for
the 'cleansing of Palestine from
its Zionistic cancer'. By saying
that the Palestinians as a libera-
tion movement. can "be detroyed
but not conquered" in their ef-
forts to achieve "the elimination
of the political state of Israel,"
Mr. Khadduri displays not only
his desire for the violent destruc-
tion of one society but also his
willingness to commit - even
unto another's total annihilation
-- a would-be nationalism which
he does not represent.
Personally, I feel that if the
Palestinian Arabs had less sup-
port and backing from their Arab
"brothers" across the frontiers,
their cause of self-determination
would have already triumphed.
In conclusion it is perhaps ap-
propriate that I repeat here Mr.
Abba Eban's statement to the
world "Let us not go backward
to belligerency but forward to
peace." What we are witnessing
now during this period of no war
and no peace is the continuation
of the old trends that the coun-
tries in the area are devoting
their entire national efforts, their
energies, and their material re-
sources to the causes of arma-
ment and military alertness.
AND THIS IS DONE at a time
when both Arabs and Israelis are
are in a desperate need to devote
more of their resources to an im-
proved standard of living. Let us
just think for a moment how much
safer and better and healthier the
entire Middle East could be if we
would but work together. The
conference, table is still waiting.
fI
1*
l
Letters: Logicand the Pill
.,
,
The Daily is a member. of the Associated Press,
Collegiate Press Servite and Liberation News Service.
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
420 Maynard St.. Ann Arbor. Michigan, 48104.
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year
Daily except Sunday and Monday during regular
summer session.
Fall sd winter subscription rate: $4.50 per term by
carrie: ($5 by mail); $8.00 for regular academic school
year ($9 by mail).
Editorial Staff
MARK LEVIN, Editor
STEPHENWTLDSTROM URBAN LEHNER
Managing Editor Editorial Director
DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor
CAROLYN MIEGEL.......Associate Editoria) Director
WALTER SHAPTRO .......Associate Editorial Director
WALLACE IMMEN....................News Editor
PAT O'DONOHUE:.... .............News Editor
LUCY KENNEDY ...............Personnel Director
DANIEL OKRENT' ............ .......Feature Editor
NEAL BRUSS. .......... ...Magazine Editor
ALISON SYMROSKI .... Associate Magazine Editor
DAVID DUBOFF................ Contributing Editor
AVIVA KEMPNER ...,.......... Contributing Editor
ANDY SACKS. ..............Photo Editor
ROBERT SHEFFIELD .................. Lab Chief
NIGHT EDITORS: Marcia Abramson, Rob Beattie,
Jill Crabtree, John Gray, Henry Grix, Jim Heck, Ron
Landsman, Steve Nissen, Richard Winter.
DAY EDITORS: Phil Block, Eleanor Braun, David
Mann, Michael Thoryn.
Sbort Staff
To the Editor:
NOT EVEN from the Liberation
News Service does one expect
an article asblinded, stupid, and
illogical as David Epstein's "Ca-
pitalism, the Third World, and
the Pill" of last Saturday. We may
summarize Epstein's argument
thus: the U.S. is exploiting the
Third World; therefore, birth con-
trol is evil.
The seemingly "logidal connec-
tion" is effected through vague
references to a monolithic "Es-
tgblishment" gaining from the
population control it insidiously
purveys. Epstein's observations
concern only those regions in
which birth control might be in
the economic interests of this
Establishment: even here his
evidence is strained and unconvin-
cing, consisting, largely of pre-
sumptions of guilt-by-association,
totally unreal assumptions of
class deference, et cetera.'
In the vast majority of the
Third World, overpopulation is
directly felt as misery: the major
example is, of course, India. It
is not only exploitation which
causes underdevelopment - it is
aqually poverty and underdevelop-
nent which cause inefficiency and
secondarily exploitation: causal-
ity runs in circles, not segments.
In his conclusion, Epstein uses
an argument that is logical only
in a Marxian system of logic, in
which the power of the Establish-
ment is axiomatically the greatest
evil. He claims that birth con-
trol serves to disarm the miser-
able masses. There is some truth
to this position: birth control will
disarm the masses in their quest
for power. But the struggle. is not
for power; it is against misery,
The means is confused with the
-ad' orr .f+-i mwPnnn nf the
matters broadly construable as
"political." Epstein's subject mat-
ter is surely relevant; his title is
intriguing. But the article itself
is a fraud: itself far more deter-
mined by the grimy monolith of
anti-Establishmentarianism than
the monolith it professes to ex-
pose. It did not deserve the stamp
of respectability that is automa-
tically by publication in The
Daily.
-Fred L. Bookstein
Joseph J. Bookstein, M. D.
Means and Ends
To the Editor:
IN VIEW of the profoundly un-
settling events of the past week
I feel compelled to issue an appeal
to all parties in the current Amer-
ican racio-economic crisis, i.e.
everyone of us. Please bear in mind
the necessary and intimate link
between the nature of the means
employed to deal with socialprob-
lems and the nature of the ulti-
mate result.
The black-poor and their sym-
pathizers should harbor an aware-
ness that if revolutionary change
is precipitated that this style or
operation is not likely to be dis-
persed by the winds of change
once success is achieved; leaders
propelled to the surface by such
a movement most probably would
come wearing blinders of enmity
which would inhibit constructive
programs and the institution of
true civil liberties. It is doubtful
that the prevalent take-take-take
"tactic." once widely employed,
would stop with the attainment of
immediate needs, and it is hardly
compatible with the personal dig-
nity which blacks profess to be
czplri r
should not be allowed to over-
whelm vigilance against brutality,
h e a v y-h a n d e d administrative
measures, and trigger-happy in-
clinations among soldiers, police,
and the burgeoning, panic-strick-
en armed citizenry.
In short, everyone must exercise
his utmost ingenuity in finding
means which are consonant with
the ends envisaged.
I am not sure that the govern-
mental policy of "help - when -
you - can - but - mostly - just -
step - aside" advocated by Mr.
Lehner in last Sunday's editorial'
is the best of all possible choices,'
but few of the (albeit ill-funded)
programs of the now infamous
"planners" have met with much
success so far, and I am willing
to endorse the experiment.. De-
veloping separate enterprises is
something blacks want to do and
would channel the black people'sF
already extant sense of community '"
into activities which would be of
concrete benefit to their livelihood.
BUT IF THIS separatism is to
contribute toward the long-range
resolution of this nation's racial
problems it must be a functional,
creative separatism by mutual
agreement rather than by mutual
recrimination. Toward this end it
is imperative that articulate black,
leaders steal at least part of the
communications stage from their
fire-bombing brothers and clear-
ly elucidate this neo-separatism
to their justifiably terrified white
fellow Americans. It would be
tragic if blacks were to give up
talking just when whites are be-'
ginning to listen.
-Lynn Struve, Grad.
Neither the University nor any
group othEh than the ad hoc
committee of the four predomin-
antly Negro Greek organizations;
planned that week's activities.
The article stated that it was
a "University program in con-
junction with 'National Negro
History Week'" and this is defin'-
itely wrong. The parcelling of
the authors' report on that pro-
gram in between the interviews is
misleading because it insinautes
that those persons int'erviewed
planned it and none of thoe per-
sons'were on the Committee.
Since the two authors of this
particular article either did not
know who planned the program
or chose to' ignore this in their
article, let me explain exactly who
the planners represent and what
the program represented. The
Central Committee of the Nation-
al Negro History WeekhCommit-
tee is composed of the Philan-
thropic or Service Chairmen of
the University of Michigan chap-
ters of Alpha Kappa ;Alpha Sor-
ority, Alpha Phi Alpha Frater-
nity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,
and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.,
The other com=6ittee,, members
were members of the philan-
thropic committees of these four
Greek organizations, with two
exceptions, one independent stu-
dent (unaffiliated. with any stu-
dent organization) and one mem-
ber of Phi Epsilon Pi.
THIS COMMITTEE was formed
so that the four Greek organiza-
tions could work together and,
with! independents to plan ac-
tivities to celebrate National Ne-
gro History Week. This ad hoc
committee adopted as its theme
"The Role of the Black Student in
the White University." ;Knowing
The article could have been
more enlightening as far as the
National Negro History Week pro-
gram had you consulted the ads
that the Committee placed in The
Daily (March 20-24, 1968) or the
Presidents of any of the Greek
organizations involved. It would
have made your article less mis-
leading and less subjective but it
would have made the article more
accurate and more objective.
One last comment about the
article. The research for the Ne-
gro History course and the in-
itiative for discussions with the
administration orginated'with the
committee of the four Greek or-
ganizations chairmanned by Mr.
Richard Ross.
I hope that in the future when
The Daily decides to'print articles
on the black students on campus"
and their activities that it will
try to obtain all the facts first.
-Yvette D. Casey, '69
Chairman, National Negro
History Week Committee
Initiations
To the Editor:
THE CONDEMNATION of "one
of honorary fraternities"
(Daily, April 9) for its lack of
propriety in holding initiations last
Friday was unjustified. For those
people King's death had no tragic
import, nor could they really rec-
ognize it as a national tragedy.
The cancellation of "their juve-
nile antics" would have been no
more than hypocrisy.
Miss Duffy perhaps meant to
say she is disgusted with a cul-
ture which breeds people blind to
their most obvious moral respon-
sibilities and -with a sense of
brotherhood which is less than
skin deep. The events of the past
fn .x ,q r ixole aYf -, vn C
r
9.
Y,