"What's 'law and order' got that we haven't got...?"
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily exp ress the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1968;
NIGHT EDITOR: ROB BEATTIE
UAC s crowning achievement:
The fluff y white queen
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Up'
THAT STARRY-EYED SYMBOL of col-
lege past, the Homecoming Queen,
clearly-is irrelevant. Yet the smiling float-
rider has become a political problem.
Is the Homecoming Queen the beauty
contest winner, the prettiest girl on;
the campus? Or is she the "typical Mich-
igan coed," Villager skirted and circle
pinned, efficient, active, even if her pho-,
tograph isn't going to stop the hearts of
the boys in the trenches?
In the first case, what subjective stan-
dards are used to choose the Queen? The
convenient criterion has been the white
middle class image of the girl, more-or-
less next door.
George's nest eg
GOV. GEORGE ROMNEY has found an
extra $30 million above the expected
surplus in the state coffers. The new fig-
ure did not come as a surprise to Univer-
sity officials, who would like to get their
hands on some of the money to mitigate
the tightness of their own budgets.
But the chances are very slim that any
of the $55.9 million surplus will find its
way to higher education. It has been sug-
gested that Romney will sit on the addi-
tional funds that he found because he has
been counting on the money to prevent
a tax hike next year.
A tax hike next year would be very un-
popular with the people of Michigan, as
Romney knows only too well.
With this little fiscal nest egg in his
treasure chest, Roinney now probably
feels a little more secure. If he does not
have to ask for a tax increase next year,
Romney will, insure his position in the
voters' minds as the financial wizard who
led Michigan out of the fiscal quagmire
created by preceding Democratic admin-
istrations.
This may be good business, but it is
too bad that state programs, especially,
higher education, are forced to operate
near austerity while Governor Romney
walks around with money in his pocket.
-STEVE ANZALONE
Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan.. 48104.
Fall and winter subscription rate $5.00 per term by
carrier ($5.50 by mail); $9.00 for regular academic
school year ($10 by mail).
Daily except Monday during regular academic school
year.
UNLESS THE GIRL next door is black.
Unless she has chosen to wear severe,
classic Afro hair.
But she is, as her boy friend and the
Black Student Union tell you, beautiful.
Because her skin is not peaches and
cream but midnight and tawny. Because
her eyes are not blue but dark brown.
Because her nose is not slim and long and
straight but broad and softly shaped.
Jane and R u b y cannot be compared
fairly.
THE SECOND OPTION is to choose a
supposedly more objective standard
and select the typical University coed.
And that's exactly what you'll end up
with,, black or white. An ordinary, un-
thinking, automated acceptable represen-
tative of the traditional female. The typ-
ical Michigan coed is, typically, not worth
the trouble.
The irrelevant symbol of decorative
feminine uselessness t h a t accompanied
the hegemony of the superior man should
be left to die with the theoryof male su-
premacy.
Diehard alumni speak proudly of our
only real long-standing tradition, "The
Men of Michigan," but male supremacy
here, as in the rest of the world, has been
lost in the drive for equality of the sexes.
NoW that Homecoming- no longer signi-
fies the return of hordes of misty-eyed
alumni to the old Alma Mater but is in-
stead an excuse for UniveIsity Activities
Center fund-raising, the introduction of
the Queen contest two years ago wasn't
even an attempt to revive an old tradi-
tion, but rather a try at creating a new,
one - about 50 years too late.
VEN THEN, a Homecoming Queen
might not have gone over too well.
The men-only sanctum of the Union pool
hall, the prohibition against women on
the football field, and the all-male cheer-
leading squad have all fallen quietly to
the forces of change only in the last fpw
years.
No one seems to mourn them particu-
larly. These older, more venerable and
equally irrelevant traditions have slipped
quietly into the past, accompanying the
de ise of the now outdated ,ideas that
sustained them.
Miss Fluffy White American Girl should
be allowed the same graceful retirement.
Neither the traditional standard of beau-
ty nor the traditional feminine role means
anything now.
--MARCIA ABRAMSON
£8tt
f rom
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!A
MHRI REORIENT ATION
Stiflingthe imagination?
By FRANK BROWNING
THE NEW DIRECTOR of the Mental Health
Research Institute is not turning the social
scientists out to pasture when he says he plans
a shift in the MHRI program toward greater
"clinical emphasis."
Nor is new director Dr. Gardner Quarton sug-
gesting that the only projects which MHRI will
undertake must be directly keyed to the extension
and improvement of psychiatric therapy.
The changes which Quarton suggest are more
subtle, aiming at the basic assumptions upon which
MHRI's research has been founded since its in-
ception in 1955.
The essential assumption behind MHRI research
has been that solving the problems of mental ill-
ness requires an extremely imaginative study of the
operation of the human mind-both from the van-
tage point of its biological/neurological construc-
tioi and from the social context in which human
actions occur.
THROUGHOUT its 13-year history, MHRI
has stood practically alone in this country in the
development of those research goals and has be-
come the most widely-ranging behavorial science
research group in existence.
The import of the Quarton shift in emphasis
is not that the interdisciplinary nature of the In-
stitute's work will be cut off, but that by attach-
ing specific real world constraints-such as the
improvement of psychiatric therapy-to the MHRI
program, he would introduce needless restraints
on the generation of new knowledge about mental
illness.
Using the criterion of clinical effectiveness,
for example, it might be very difficult to justify one
of MHRI's most exciting projects: Prof. David,
Singer's attempt to collect and categorize the cor-
relates for all international wars between 1815 and
1915.
WHILE THIS STUDY is not likely to result in
information directly relevant to advancing in-
dividual psychiatric care, the result could con-
tribute a great deal to understanding the social
conditions which give rise to irrational actions on
a mass scale.
Thus the problem which MHRI faces is the,
same one which has alway's been tossed back and
forth between the advocates of basic and applied
reseach: How much shall we be influenced by the
demand to meet contemporary, needs?..
Obviously the, inequities which exist in pro-
viding treatment for psychiatric disorders-a pro-
fession based on personal referals and largely lim-
ited to the suburban wealthy-plus the enormous
amount of clinical research still left to be done,
demand attention.
,YET, IT IS HIST RICAL 4Y true that when the
pressure of contemporary needs forces the scientific
generation of knowledge into the funnel of ap-
plication, then the quality of that science has been
seriously impaired. It is then that we are left
with political science designed to show Americans
how to modernize Asian peasantry into the Super-
market of Life.
For an organization like MHRI such a blatant
abr6gation of scientific investigation is admit- .
tedly unlikely. But the effect may. very well leave
uninvestigated more remote areas of study which,
while showing no clear correlation with mental
illness at the present time, might later contribute
a great deal to understanding how man comes
to accept and justify irrational action. Curtailing
the free run of the imagination in men's progress
toward valuable new knowledge might seriously
impair one of the University's more vital and ex-
citing research institutions.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Bruce Levine, 71, leads a double life as administrative
ice President of Student Government Council and an active member of
voice-SM.
By BRUCE LEVINE
Daily Guest Writer
CALLED home last week to let my parents know just what the hell
had happened in Ann Arbor. I told them about the welfare mothers,
their demands, the picketing, the sit-ins, tle mass arrests, the arraign-
ments, the possibility of jail terms. And having digested the what, my
parents asked why.
Why did I get arrested over a welfare hassle? It's a fair question.
I never talked about welfare at home. Never really thought much about
it either, My folks knew I was a war-protester, an SDS-member, a self-
proclaimed radical. But welfare rights?
Well, the point is (as a Daily Editor told his father), we did get ar-
rested over Vietnam and black liberation. The particular welfare issue
was important, but (like the Vietnam protest) principally as an im-
mediate focus of a much broader issue - the fight of people to con-
trol their lives, their institutions, their country, ultimately their world.
It is of course possible to consider the war issue, the poverty and race
issues, as unconnected protests organized around wildly different de-
mands. The war: atrocities. The ghetto: police brutality. The factory:
wages. Yes, these issues can be viewed in those terms. And doing so re-
veals absolutely nothing about the real gut content of each.
THE WAR PROTEST isn't a revulsion against bloodshed. If it
were, we'd all consider a Vietnamese surrender as equally acceptable a
solution as an American withdrawal . . . Just so long as tranquility
followed.
But bloodshed is not the issue. The Vietnamese know it; we know
it. At stake is the right of the Vietnamese people to control their own
lives and country. A Vietnamese capitulation will not serve that cause.
If American blacks were suddenly to return to lives of "quiet des-
peration," a comparative peace at least might return to the ghetto. And
black control of black communities would be a dead cause.
If American workers would only stop wildcatting for control of work-
ing conditions, American industry would function much nore "smooth-
ly" and "efficiently." And the fight for industrial democracy wo id
shrivel and die.
THE QUESTION QF CONTROL unites all these struggles - con-
trol from below vrsus control from above. It is this issue which makes
the welfare fight more than a scramble for scraps. We do not march
and chant just to persuade some welfare bureaucrat to pretty-please
modify his policy dictates.
We assert the right of the people manipulated by the bureaucrat to
-- instead - dictate to that bureaucrat what policy will be. We chal-
lange regulation from above (the power of the county Board of Sup-
ervisors to determine welfare procedures), and counterpose to it control
from below, from the ranks of the welfare constituency.
In this sense, then, a stand (or a sit) for the mothers is one made
for the Vietnamese, blacks, and strikers as well. When and where - at
which particular focus of this broader struggle - we happen to be ar-
rested is relatively unimportant.
WHEREVER WE ARE BUSTED, it will be for challenging the
right of the entrenched. to control the lives of the rest. (And those
who scorn involvement in so "obviously reformist" a struggle as one for
welfare rights ought to consider the revolutionary nature of the broad-
er struggle outlined here. If ever control from below replaces control
from above, the revolution is made.)
This, I think, will explain to my
father why his radical son got in-
volved in welfare. The next ques-
tion is why an institution 1i k e
Student Government C o u n c 1 .
'should follow suit. After all, isn't
SGC supposed to be a non- par-
tisan service organization for stu-
dents? What role - what right -
has it in committing itself on off
campus matters? The answer, it
seems to me, must run alopg lines . "
similar to the one I gave my par--.
ents.
The main reason so many indi-
vidual students g o t involved in ..
this issue is their recognition of
the unity of all demands for con-
trol from below. When SOC tem-
porarily set a s i d e $1500 of its The issue: Control
funds for bail loans for students
and community people arrested that weekend, it announced its ree-
ognition of that unity of purpose.
WE ARE NO STRANGERS to manipulation by bureaucrats. Last
'year we organized on campus for the right to determine who as stu-
dents could be in which dorm when, who would be punished .for violat-
ing which rule =- in short, we organized around the right of students
to regulate student conduct.
We were informed by our administration that control of ouch
things was invested, not in mere'students but in the administration
itself.
I will not take space here to rehash all the recent examples of
Regental and administrative attempts to destroy the possibility of con-
trol from below on this campus. One such example should suffice.
When SGC demanded student control over the Vice President of
Student Affairs, the Regents and President Fleming (in their reject-
ion) shoved our noses in the universal nature of our strivings. "If we
grant this right to students," they smirked and snickered, 'we will
next be getting the same kind of demand from our employees!"
AND THEY WERE RIGHT. If any ruling body ever once surrend-
ers the principle of top-down control, it therein whets the appetite of
all the groups over which it holds sway. Recognize the logic? Dominoes.
There is, therefore, no such thing as a purely student movement
for student rights. Such an organism is parochial, isolated, stillborn. A
successful movement for student power will - must - be followed by
similar struggles by other repressed constituencies, including Univer-
sity employees. And against this, of course, the administration and Re-
gents are fighting tooth and claw.
At this point, I think, some remarks could profitably be addressed
to the Daily columnist who sadly but firmly announced some time ago
that the student left was."impotent." And that there would therefore
, be no revolution. Period.
In one sense he was correct. As long as the fight for 'change re-
mains exclusively a student fight, it will indeed remain impotent. The
educational, corpqrate, and governmental bureaucracies are far too en-
trenched and interlocked to fall before the shouts of enraged scholar-
Joshuas.
VISIONARIES WHO PERSIST in such fantasies will continue to be
disappointed. And having equated their fantasies with all possibilities
of basic change, they will see in the impotence of the first the doom of
the second,
-However, abandoning childhood dreams can be just as easily en-
lightening step as an embittering one.
Student leaders in France had no illusions that their street fights
with the gendarmerie alone would bring on the revolution they sought.
But once aligned with other people on the move - especially with
working people turning on their bureaucracies - they shook France to
its foundations.
How does all this theorizing relate to what is taking place in Ann
Arbor? Are we on the threshold of a revolutionary "worker-student al-
-4
Letters: Lmited options of Recorder 's Court
To .the Editor:
STEVE WILDSTROM'S scathing,
editorial on Detroit's Record-
er's Court (Sept. 24) was an.
amazing mixture of Inaccurate re-
porting, hasty and, misleading
generalizations, and false analysis.
I doubt very much if he has
spent much time in actual obser-
vation of the court's operations.
Nor, apparently, has he talked in
depth to attorneys (such as this
writer) who practice there.
For one thing, there is a De-
fender's Office now operating in
Detroit, sponsored by the Detroit
Bar Association and financed by
public and private foundation
funds. It has a full-time staff of
very experienced attorneys and a
few young ones. It also has a staff.
of very competent investigators1
to balance the prosecutor's office.
which, of course, has the Detroit
Police Dept. doing most of its in-
vestigative work.
MANY CASES of indigent de-
fendants, formerly assigned to
private counsel, are now given to
this new office. Their investiga-
tive staff also is available to pri-
vate counsel when they take as-
signed cases. (Also, a little re-
search by Mr. Wildstrom would
have revealed the fact that some
of the the most brilliant defense
work in the court has been per-,
formed by private assigned coun-
sel.)
More important, Recorder's
Court is a societal "dead end."
The harsh brutality of a confus-
ed and bitter society comes to a
full rest there. And the judges,
no matter how compassionate
they may be, have a very limited
set of options available to them.
At times, one wishes that the
of a type of infantile, authoritar-
ian type thinking which does not
befit The Daily.
Judge Olsen, for one, has, des-
pite his former reputation as pro-
secutor, not been noted for being'
harsh and vindictive onsthe bench.
And, the same for Judge Poin-
dexter, despite his former role as
leader of "Homeowners" groups,
in Detroit. His constitutional in-
terpretations are somewhat un-
predictable, but they have oni oc-
casion (as in the case of Gov.
Romney's curfew proclamation
during the 1967 Detroit riot) in-
uredto the benefit of the de-
fendant.
Judge Colombo has been unfair-
ly condemned, both earlier in The
Daily and in the national press,
as a former counsel for the De-
troit Police Officers Association
(DPOA). Are we now to deny
cops (whatever we may think of
them) the right to counsel?
In the area of Michigan's over-
strict narcotic laws, the Detroit
Recorder's Court has been note-
worthy for its relatively reason-
able (compared to most state
courts, including Washtenaw
County) approach, in light of the
slight danger, if any, that most
of these "offenders" present to our
society.
QUITE REALISTICALLY, most
defendants do not just stumble
"accidentally" into Recorder's
Court, as a result of police vindic-
tiveness and bigotry. (The pre-
judiced behavior of some mem-
bers of the Detroit Police Dept.
is basically another matter and
cannot be proven, upon- careful
analysis - much to the dismay
of Mr. Wildstrom - to have much
in,-, +nnL~f inn wIith, thennprn, -
1
xestigation; but not on the basis
of inaccurate, emotional, and
"self-fulfilling" accusations.
-Sol Plafkin,
Sept. 23
The model school
To the Editor:
CONSTRUCTING AN ANSWER
to Jill' Crabtree's editorial on
The Children's Community (Sept.
20) is a difficult thing to do.
It is difficult, not so much be-
cause of the particular stories she
tells of the specific points she
makes, but primarily because she
makes totally /falseassumptions
about education, kids and us.
Rather than answering her
point, I would like to deal openly
with a few of the assumptions
held by those of us who are com-
mitted to the school. This should
begin to illuminate some of our
critical differences.
THE EDUCATION SYSTEM is
inextricably wed to the social,
economic and political system ;
and radical, humane changes in
the educational system will only
come about when the social sys-
tem is significantly altered. The
educational system has been set
up to serve, and does successfully
serve, the needs of this broader
system.
Even the most humane and lib-
eral school systems, through
methods such as tracking, (ex-
plicit or subtle), grades, and nar-
row standards of achievement,
participate in channeling people
into predetermined positions.
It has been shown that family
social class has more to do with
income after school than level of
education. The school system has
the mechanisms to prepare-or,
teachers. They are the result of
institutionalized goals and pur-
poses, which make excellent
teachers ineffective and helpless.
Because the'school system can-
not significantly, change without
broader changes, and because re-
forms in the schools do not alter
its fundamental nature and func-
tion, The Children's Community
has chosenaidifferent strategy.
that of a model,
A model school has at least two
purposes. One purpose is to pro-
vide an ongoing, working model,
of many ideas which are given
lip-service or partial implementa-
tion in other schools. Another
purpose is to try to make real
such' ideas as discovery learning.
two way integration, experimen-
tial learning, parent involvement,
non-authoritarian relationships
between adults and children.
TO CALL THIS THEN a "lab-
oratory" makes false assumptions
that the public schools are work-
ing with tested, proven, trust-
worthy methods and ideas and ig-
nores critics who have said that
the school systematically destroys
kids intellectually and psycholo-
gically. It is important that people
deal with these ideas, struggle
with their implementation, and
not ignore their problems..
There are no "correct answers,"
no blueprints for how to teach or
how to work. There is only the
professional pretense of know-
ledge, The best of good educators
and writers are recognizing t h a t
previous assumptions about learn-
ing about language, about child
development, are simply wrong.
Racism is an institutional prob-
lem and must be attacked institu-
tionally. The public schools, like
other institutions, are systema-
This problem can only be dealt
with by the creation of a whole
new environment. The Children's
Community creates an environ-
ment which is accepting, which;
makes no single standard of suc-.
cess applicable to all, which re-
quires no one set of behaviors or
skills' in order to gain respect.
Clearly there are differences,
and those differences create con-,
flict. Kids should have the chance
to relate to each other honestly,
to share experiences and inter-
ests in a context which does not
judge one better thal the other.
THERE IS NO NEED for "ex-
pert supervision" in the sense that
an adult should be present to con-
stantly judge, manipulate and
control an interaction which no
adult who has grown up in this
culture even understands. Kids of
course should be continually
supported, helped, talked with, in
their interactions with other peo-
ple.
The Children's. Community is
not difficult to criticize. But the
criticisms to be helpful must take
place within the context of these
few basic assumptions about the
purpose of the schools.
-DIANA OUGHTON
Staff, The Children's
Community
Sept. 26
Republicans
To the Editor:
A NUMBER of people on the
campus of the University of
Michigan have complained to me
about the bias you have in favor
of the Democrats. Republican edit-
orials never appear, . Republican
publicity releases do not get in to
print, and you sgem to regard all'
Republicans as political troglo-
11