Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
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TRAN VAN DINH-
Silencing the voice and songs of protest
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
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Editorials printed in The Michigan daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: RON LANDSMAN
Residential College
A questionl of attitude
WASHINGTON (CPS) - The
name of Trinh Cong Son came
to the notice of the American
public only at the beginning of
this year when the New York
Times published an article by its
correspondent in Saigon, Bernard
Weinraub, under the headline: "A
Young Vietnamese Sings of Sad-
ness and War."
But long before that, Trinh
Cong Son, the "Bob Dylan of Viet-
nam," was the idol of the Viet-
namese public, especially the
young. His public appearances
were always sold out in advance,
and his records treasured by stu-
dents and workers alike. In him
war-torn Vietnam confided and
through him expressed her agony
and shed her tears.
"I want to describe the absur-
dity of death in my country; I
want to describe the war," he said.
He 'opposed the killing and he
longed for peace.
His increasing popularity fright-
ened the ruling Saigon generals
who fear peace more than war,
the source of their wealth and
power. They decided that Trinh
Cong Son must be silenced.
HE RESIDENTIAL College is facing
what may prove to be the most crucial
ssue of its short history - the role 'of
tuclents in the selection and evaluation
f faculty. The successful resolution of
his issue may ultimately determine
Whether the RC can achieve its objec-
ives of quality community education.
This issue is more crucial than giving
proportionate representation to students
and faculty in RC government. Precedent-
areaking as that decision was, faculty
;nd administrators did notfeel threaten-
,d by that redistribution of power.
From the beginning, RC Director James
.:obertson, his faculty and staff have
,een committed to the theory of joint
: aculty - student decision - making. They
lave felt secure in the belief that stu-
ents were competent to participate in
'ecisons on the day-to-day problems of
unning the school.,
But the possibility of students having
I. part in reviewing faculty members
hreatens a belief cherished even in the
Comparative "liberal" (student-oriented)
earts of many RC faculty.
This belief may be vaiously defined as
utonomy in the classroom, academic
reedom, or king of the mountain.
AT IT BOILS down to, as Prof. Carl
Cohen has said (in what must be re-
arded as intentional oversimplification)
s that faculty members are not "hired
lands but prima donnas." They feel stu-
ents are not capable of judging what
ook them years to develop. They want
o be Inaster in the classroom, not subject
..o constant scrutiny and criticism.
The Residential College must now de-
.ide if it is truly committed to its students
n the sense of giving them the quality
ducation they desire, or if political ex-
* ediency will take precedent over the col-
ages' avowed purpose. The implcations
.f that decision are what make this issue
o critical. 'And that decision could
hreaten the very existence of the college.
The faculty argument that students are
ot, competent to judge a professor's
-eaching technique seems by definition
avalid. Students are the most exper-
: enced observers of actual classroom pro-.
edure. Students can best determine what
ffect on their motivation and thinking a
articular professor has. ,
Of course students would not have sole
uthority over reviewing faculty. Any
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tditoriaI Staff
MARK LEVIN, Editor
STEPHEN WILDSTROM ,URBAN LEHNER
Managing Editor Editorial Director
DAVID KNOKE, Executive Editor
committee charged with hearing criticism
of faculty would have to include faculty,
for they can supply the invaluable per-
spectives gained by observation over time,
which students with their one-class, one-
term experience with a professor can not
hope to have. Both faculty and students,
then, have a contribution to make. And
both should be allowed their voice.
Ideally, representatives of administra-
tion in the college would also be on the
committee. They would facilitate com-
munication between the committee 'and
the individual faculty members. Adminis-
trators would relay student and faculty
criticisms, avoiding the awkward situa-
tion of having a student or fellow faculty
member do it. Criticism from an admin-
istrator would at the same time carry
more weight and be less likely to create
bitter feelings which are harmful to the
sense of community in the college.
ONLY IN extreme cases would the com-
mittee recommend dismissal of a
faculty member from his RC assignment,
for the committee's main purpose would
be to afford a professor some guide for
self-correction.
At the present time many professors in
the RC give their students a considerable
voice in how the classes are run. They are
open to criticism and have established an
atmosphere of mutual education in their
classroom.
It is those professors who have failed
to establish this rapport who are most in
need of feedback from their students, and
most likely not to get it. These professors
could only benefit from an institutional-
ized avenue of criticism students would
feel free to utilize.
It is true, as some Residential College
members have charged, that hastily es-
tablishing a review committee at the
present time would cause serious loss of
needed support for the college among the
LSA faculty. In fact, the loss of present
RC faculty' could result. Loss of faculty
support could threaten the very existence
of the college.'
The solution is not to abandon the
project but to change faculty attitudes
themselves. This can be accomplished if
students are willing to keep the issue in
open debate in the Representative Assem-
bly, and if RC faculty who support such
a committee, as many do, will communi-
cate their support to their LSA colleagues.
It must be made clear that faculty
accepting assignments in the Residential
College will be subject to such evaluation.
If faculty members can not be convinced
of the value of this criticism, they should
not teach in the RC under these condi-
tions. The quality of RC education can be
immensely improved without the danger
of creating a backlog of ill-will in the
University community - a danger which
must be avoided if the Residential College
is to survive on its own terms.
-JILL CRABTREE
Supporting the empiricist
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following
are excerpts from a paper by Prof.
Max Mark of Wayne State Univer-
sity read at the annual convention
of the American Political Science
Association early last month. Mark
is loosely allied with younger politi-
cal scientists who are dissatisfied
with the current direction t hte i r
discipline is taking.
Second of a 2 part series
By MAX MARK
WHILE THE empiricist vogue
T has had its basis in that re-
definition of social science dis-
cussed earlier, two sources have
g i v e n considerable intellectual
support to empiricismand at the
same time provided a more so-
phisticated justification for con-
servatism as it bears upon em-
piricism: the anti-historicism of
Karl Popper and the end of ideo-
logy school represented by Daniel
Bell. A discussion of both sources
is relevant.
For Popper historicism is the
source of all recent evil. His book
The Poverty of Historicism is ded-
icated to the victims of "the Fas-
cist and Communist Belief in In-
exorable Laws of Historical Des-
tiny," incidentally, a singular tri-
bute to the power of epistemology.
Popper takes the position that
any philosophy of history which
has a millenial view must lead to
dogmatism and, ultimately, total-
itarianism. But at the same time
he thinks that any speculation re-
garding long-range historical de-
velopments is dangerous because
it may lead to totalitarian tenden-
cies. Such speculation is not only
dangerous, it is also irrational. The
irrational he derives from his ar-
gument about the steady growth
of our knowledge. "If there is such
a thing as growing human know-
ledge, then we cannot anticipate
today what we shall know tomor-
row." What Popper therefore
wants us to do is to confine social
action to piecemeal social engin-
eering.
Without meaning to be able to
do justice here to the subject a
feW pertinent remarks are neces-
sary, particularly as they try to
elucidate the conservative bias in
the defense of empiricism: While
Popper takes the position that a
philosophy of history must neces-
sarily lead to totalitarianism, he
critizes those who attack science
because some of its fruits have
been used for evil purposes.
The companion to anti-histor-
icism is the end of ideology school.
While Professor Popper warns us
not to look far beyond our noses
becauses it is dangerous, Daniel
Bell tells us "you can 1 o o k -
nothing is there, everything has
evaporated."
In making this argument about
the end of ideology Bell uses a
definition of ideology which stress-
es the dogmatic character of ideo-
logy; t h e matrix of ideology is
identified by him with economics.
Noteworthy is that Bell speaks
about the end of ideology in the
West and the exhaustion of' po-
litical ideas in the fifties. The first
is an important qualification. The
attempt by some to extend the
end of ideology to underdeveloped
countries - an attempt which can
only have the purpose of uphold-
ing reactionary regimes - does
not find support in Bell.
When we come to his notion
about the fifties it is here that in-
terpretations have to differ. For
Bell political ideas exhausted
themselves in the fifties and this
is the end - I would argue that
this represented only a hiatus. In
my view the fifties were a time
of clear-cut problems externally
and quietism internally. External-
ly, the Cold War, though full of
tensions, did not represent any
intellectual problems. The actions
of pre - revisionist Communism
could give rise not only to a re-
vulsion agains messianic ideologies
but also to skepticism vis-a-vis
ideology per se. Domestically, the
fifties were a time of economic
growth and the expansion of the
welfare state. The Black Revolu-
tion had not yet gained momen-
tum. One really could feel smug.
IT IS NO mere accident that the
fifties saw the production of those
young political scientists who be-
came so committed to empiricism
and a scientific political science in
general. It was a generation no
longer burdened even by a faint
memory of distress and cinflict.
The Great Depression was ancient
history and even World War II
was far behind, overshadowed by
that great burst of economic ac-
tivity of the post-war period.
To think that one can substitute
for ideology an empirical utopia
as Bell wants it, "an utopia that
specified where one wants to go,
how to get there, the cost of the
enterprise and some realization of,
and justification for the determ-
ination of who iS to pay" in-
volves more the notion of budget
planning. than that of the crea-
tion of new purposes in a world of
dramatic change. It leads to an
extrapolation of trends from ex-
isting society without any con-
sideration of a change in the value
system. The work of what t h e
French c a 11 futurible movement
and in our country goes under the
name of The Year.2000, a work in
which not surprisingly Daniel Bell
has played an active role, shows
this only too clearly.
BOTH THE anti-historicism of
Karl Popper and the end of ideo-
logy school of Daniel Bell reflect
a tired liberal society trying to
dodge problems rather than meet
them head on. What is being ex-
hibited is a failure of nerve to con-
ceive large purposes a n d to be
willing to be committed to them
There is exhibited also a disturb-
ing lack of faith in man's ability
to make himself master of his fate.
In his Presidential Address be-
fore the American Sociological As-,
sociation in 1962 he said: "Having
grown up.in an exciting and cons
structive period of socialist opti-
mism, I have never quite lost my
hope for radical social change. But
I do not believe that empirical so-
cial research of the type we are
discussing tonight can contribute
to it."
Now, socialism or no socialism,
piecemeal social engineering will
not do for us today. But even if it
were adequate for us, it will not do
for the majority of mankind -
and it is vital for us to understand
the majority of mankind and to be
able to relate ourselves to it.
What does all this mean for our
field? Being an optimism, I see
a moving away from empiricism
with its conservative implications.
Perhaps I have been already beat-
ing a dying horse. Looking at the
new generation of political scien-
tists, the generation of the six-
ties, we ;see a deep social concern,
a desire to look for purposes other
than those given by society, a de-
termination to develop one's own
definition of the social and po-
litical problems that confront us.
The new political scientists will
perhaps be less scientists and more
intellectuals, intellectuals in the
Mannheim sense; that is people
who are above society and are able
thereby to transcend the narrow
framework of traditional assump-
tions. Being disciplined people
they will use methodology, but
they will not be encrusted by it.
In a general sense, it seems to
me that we will see political phil-
osophy reassuming its centrality
i our concerns - a n d conse-
quently we are bound to have both
a more exciting and more relevant
discipline.
Two months ago, on a visit to
the northern provinces of South
Vietnam. he was arrested (without
warrant and without trial of
course) by the military security
police in Da Nang. Officially he
was among the thousands of Viet-
namese who "disappear" daily.
and no one except a few friends
know he is now in one of South
Vietnam's numerous detention
camps.
I LEARNED of his arrest only a
few days ago from a friend in
Washington on "official business"
who as a gift brought me a tape
of Trinh Cong Son songs. "You may
not see him again," my friend
said. "He was arrested." According
to my friend, his arrest, although
not made public in the Saigon
press, is no longer a secret; his
admirers now organize clandestine
parties to sing his songs or listen
to his records.
Trinh Cong Son was born with
war in 1940 (when the Japanese
invaded Vietnam), and since
then saw nothing but destruction
in his homeland. His native town,
the ancient city of Hue, the last
bastion of Vietnamese culture
with its museum and its libraries,
was destroyed during the Tet of-
fensive this year by U.S. rockets
and bombs.
AS BOB DYLAN once said,
"Open up your eyes and ears and
you are influenced; there, is noth-
ing you can do about it." Trinh
Cong Son opened his eyes and saw
only death and burning. He open-
ed his ears and heard only the
thunder of bombs and the clatter
of machines guns. And there was
nothing Trinh Cong Son could do
but write and sing songs and ex-
press his sadness at the devasta-
tion of the land he loves so much.
He admitted he was influenced
by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez: "I
like Bob Dylan-his voice is a cry,
a lament. Joan Baez-her voice is
melancholy and beautiful."
Trinh Cong Son supported him-
self, his mother, two brothers and
five sisters with his talents. Who
is going to take care of them now?
They will surely join the three
million faceless "refugess" in the
barbed wire camps, the product
of America's nation-building pro-
gram" for South Vietnam.
Trinh Cong Son composed many
songs, but his two most popular
are "Tilnh Ca Cua Nguoi Mat
Tri ("Love Song of a Woman
Maddened by War"), translated in
full below, and "Gia Tai Cua Me"
("Mother's Inheritance" which
starts,:
One thousand years of slavery
under the Chinese aggressors,
One hundred years of dom-
ination by Western invaders,
Twenty years of ceaseless civil
war-
The fortune a mother be-
quearths her children is a. sad
Vietnam.
The mother's fortune is a
mountain full of graves,
The mother's fortune is a
brood of rootless bastards
And a gang of faithless trai-
tors.
From time to time he has hope,
as in the song "I Shall Visit," in
which he tells his dream of visit-
ing all the historical places of
Vietnam front north to south when
peace returns.
Generals Nguyen Van Thieu and
Nguyen Cao Ky and their numer-
ous secret services and police have
imprisoned thousands of students,
peace candidates, intellectuals,
peasants. They now tried to si-
lence the voice of tormented Viet
nam by putting Trinh Cong Son
behind bars.
BERNARD WEIRAUB wrote:
"As soon as he starts strumming
his guitar and singing, the audi-
ences bursts into song with him.
At most of his concerts, young
women in the audiences weep."
Deprived of their Bob Dylan,
the Vietnamese people now prob-
ably have to ask Dylan and Baez
to be the interpreters of their
agony and their dreams and make
them weep. The atrocious war
maddens not only the Vietnamese
women but the sensitive and sen-
sible people of the world. Not to
be maddened, one has to cry some-
times.
4
SLetters to the Editor
Berrigan: Ambivalent rationale of
dissent
By DANIEL BERRIGAN:
EDITOR'S NOTE: Daniel Berrigan,
one of the Catonsville Nine, is a
Catholic priest from Baltimore. He
wrote the following piece before he,
ils° brother, and several, others
raided the draft board in Catons-
viUe, Md.
EvERY PAGE that deals, as this
one tries to, with the news
about today, f i n d s itself fairly
buried before it is b o r n. Last
week's omelette. This week is still
in the egg shells. I sit here, break-
ing eggs to make an Easter, to feed
the living as I hope, good news for
bad.
-Some 10 or 12 of us (the num-
ber is still uncertain) will, if all
goes well (ill?) take our religious
bodies during this week to a draft
center in or near Baltimore. There
we shall, of purpose a n d fore-
thought, remove the 1-A files,
sprinkle them in the public steet
with home-made napalm, and set
them afire. For which act we shall,
beyond doubt, be placed behind
bars for some portion of our nat-
ural lives, in consequence of our
inability to live and die content
in the plagued city, to say "peace
r n .n' tr-n" ltn i n nn n' +r
rest for thinking of the Land of
Burning Children.
Small consolation; a child born
to make trouble, and to die for it,
the first Jew (not the last) to be
subject of a "definitive solution."
He sets up the cross and dies on
it; in the Rose Garden of the ex-
ecutive mansion, on the D.C. Mall,.
In the courtyard of the Pentagon.
We see the sign, we read the di-
rection: you must bear with us,
for his sake. Or if you will not,'
the consequences are our own.
FOR IT WILL be easy, after all,
to discredit us. Our record is bad;
trouble makers in church a n d
state, a priest married despite his
vows, two convicted felons.
We have Jail records, we have
been turbulent, unchairitable, we
have failed in love for the breth-
ren, have yielded to fear and des-
pair and pride, often in our lives.
We are no more, when the truth
is told, than ignorant beset men,
jockeying against all chance, at
the hour of death, for a place at
the right hand of the dying one.
We act against the law at a
time of the Poor People's March,
o a fma mnranv-- lnha, 4.a n n
any thinking man. The w a r in
Vietnam is more and more literal-
ly brought home to us. Its inmost
meaning strikes the American
ghettos; in servitude to the afflu-
ent. We must resist and protest
this crime.
Finally, we stretch out cur
hands to our brothers throughout
the world. We who are priests, to
our fellow priests. All of us who
act against the law, turn to the
poor of the world, to the Vietna-
mese, to the victims, to the sol-
diers who kill and die, for the
wrong reasons, for no reason at
all, because they were so ordered
- by the authorities of that public
order which is in effect a massive
institutionalized disorder.
We say: killing is disorder, life
and gentleness and community
and unselfishness is the only order
we recognize. For the sake of that
order, we risk our liberty, our good
name . The time is past when good
men can remain silent, when obe-
dience can segregate men from
public risk.
WE ASK OUR FELLOW Christ-
ians to consider in their hearts a
mmn?-tnwhich hn. .trrdus.
death stops here, the suppression
of the truth stops here, this war
stops here.
We wish also to place in ques-
tion, by this act, all suppositions
about normal times, about long-
ings for an untroubled life in a
somnolent church, about a neat
timetable of ecclesiastical renewal
which in respect to the needs of
men, amounts to another form of
time serving.
REDEEM THE TIMESI The
times a r e inexpressibly evil.
Christians pay conscious, indeed
religious tribute, to Caesar a n d
Mars; by the approval of overkill
tactics, by brinkmanship, by nuc-
lear liturgies, by racism, by sup-
port of genocide. ' They embrace
their society with all their heart,
and abandon the cross. They pay
lip service to Christ and military.
service to the powers of death.
And yet, and yet, the times are
inexhaustibly good. solaced by the
courage and hope of many. The
truth rules. Christ is not forsaken.
In a time of death, some men -
the resisters, those who work hard-
ily for social change, those who
nreach and emhrne the unnalat-
The commission
To the Editor:
HAVING BECOME involved as
an informal advisor in the local
effort to collect eyewitness ac-
counts to the violence in Chicago
for the use of the National Com-
*mission on Causes and the Preven-
tion of Violence in America, I am
dismayed that the steering com-,
mittee of the Ann Arbor Mobili-
zation to End the War in Vietnam
"strongly urges anyone who was
in Chicago from Aug. 26-29 to re-
fuse to divulge any information...
to those conducting this investiga-
tion.
The general concern expressed
by the members of the steering
committee is a valid one. In an-
swering questions about behavior
in which one has participated and
in which one or one's friends may
have broken certain laws, one
should always be very careful
about what he says, to whom he
says it, and whether the remarks
once made, will later be attri-
butable to him as an individual.
With respect to this particular
study, these concerns should not
lead one to refuse to participate.
We are concerned with the events
which occurred in Chicago and the
characteristics of those who par-
ticipated in these events; we are
not concerned with the identity of
those people participating or how
they can be found.
There is no requiremtnt t h a t
anyone give us his name, and
while the questionnaire includes a
provision whereby respondents can
state that they do not mind if
their names are forwarded to the
commission, we shall probably not
forward even these names.
In particular we are not inter-'
ested in identifying personally
those who commit specific acts
of violence, and if a respondent
were to tell us, for example, that
he saw John Doe throw a bottle,
we would report that he saw a
bottle thrown without mention-
inig the name "John Doe" even if
the respondent wanted us to men-
tion this name.
WE ARE NOT trying to collect
evidence for any court action, and
if we were inadvertently given
convention and to put the blame
for instigating and/or engaging
in violence exclusively on groups
gathered in Chicago to protest the
Democratic National Convention,
the war in Vietnam, and the
American political system in gen-
eral.
Some are also claiming that the
report of the commission will be
a similar'"whitewash. The only
way to prevent this is'for those
of you with personal information
about what went on in Chicago
to come forward and to report this
information.
WHILES WE CAN offer no guar-
antees on what the report of the
National Commission on Violence
will look like, if you do cooperate
then at least the report from the
University of Michigan campus
will present a picture of what
some in fact saw. If some of you
with information still feel that this
investigation is some sort of
"front" or are otherwise unsure
about whether you want to co-
operate, make an appointment
with John Pfarr anonymously and
come and look at the questions
and then make your decision about
whether responding to these ques-
tions could hurt you or anyone or
anything you value.
While it is hoped that all re-
spondents will answer all ques-
tions even this is not required. You
can be the judge. As one who was
not in Chicago, but who feels it
important that the country learn
the truth about what has occurred.
I hope that those of you have not
responded to the Daily advertise-
ment will reconsider on this basis.
I WOULD LIKE to make one
last point before ending this letter.
I understand without having first
hand knowledge that there is at
least one and perhaps two other
investigations of what happened
in Chicago going on currently on
this campus.
I have been told that in at least
one, the F.B.I. is gathering in-
formation.,J
The study described in the Daily
advertisement and in Thursday's
story is not connected with the
F.B.I. or with any other investi-
gation. The only person currently
1
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