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Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan

The over-wrought intolerance of evil

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News Phone: 764-0552


Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in ol reprints.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 1969

NIGHT EDITOR: DAVID SPURR


The ABM vote:
Time for a filibuster

ANY SENATORS, IN the wake of the
Foreign Relation Committee's hear-
fngs on the anti-ballistic missile system,
have realized how potentially dangerous
and costly the establishment of such a
system would be. Yet when the proposal
finally comes to a vote in the Senate,
there is a good chance that it will not
be defeated.
Therefore it is the duty of e v e r y
senator who opposes the establishment
of the ABM to see that the ABM proposal
is not enacted.
A filibuster shows possibilities as a
means to prevent continuation of the
ABM. It may be the last chance to stop
this program before it escalates into an
Endorsements
THE FOLLOWING endorsements were
explained in Sunday's and yester-
day's Daily:
For SGC PRESIDENT and VICE
PRESIDENT
Excellent Marty McLaughlin and
Mark Van Der Hout
Qualified: Bob Nelson and Mary Liv-
ingston
For COUNCIL SEATS
Excellent: Shelly Kroll, Carol Hol-
lenshead and Joan Shemel
Qualified: Michael Kane, Bob H i r
shon and Panther White
For LITERARY COLLEGE PRESIDENT
Panther White
FOR BOARD IN CONTROL OF'
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Larry Deitch and Carla Kish
THE DAILY urges students to vote yes
on the referenda for .abolition of
the language requirement and estab-
lishment of an SGC bookstore.
-THE SENIOR EDITORS
Editorial Staff
HENRY GRIX, Editor
STEVE NISSEN RON LANDSMAN
City Editor Managing Editor
LESLIE WAYNE ......................... Arts Editor
JOHN GRAY....................Literary Editor
JIM HECK ....... . ........Editorial Page Editor
STEVE ANZALONE............Editorial Page Editor
MARCIA ABRAMSON .....Associate Managing Editor
PHILIP BLOCK ..........Associate Managing Editor
ANDY SACKS .,.. ................:..... Photo Editor
Business Staff
GEORGE BRISTOL, Business Manager
STEVE ELMAN . Administrative Advertising Manager
SUE LERNER................ Senior Sales Manager
LUCY PAPP................ Senior Sales Manager
NANCY ASIN..........Senior Circulation Manager
BRUCE HAYDON ................... Finance Manager
DARIA KROGULSKI.......Associate Finance Manager
BARBARA SCHUI2.......Personnel Manager
JENNY STILLER ............Editorial Page Editor
Sports Staff
JOEL BLOCK, Sports Editor
ANDY BARBAS, Executive Sports Editor
BILL CUSUMANO«........ Associate Sports Editor
JIM FORRESTER..j........Associate Sports Editor
ROBIN WRIGHT .............Associate Sports Editor
JOE MARKER ..................Contributing Editor

arms race that will make Vietnam war
expenses look like Pentagon pin money.
The filibuster has been used for years
by southern senators in blocking civil
rights legislation, and it has been affirm-
ed over and over again as a legitimate
parliamentary weapon by 'conservatives
and liberals alike. At the convening of
this session of Congress, the Senate-
despite northern liberal opposition-up-
held the rigid cloture rule of two-thirds
of the senate, saving the filibuster for
another year.
Those liberals should now recognize
the silver lining within the filibuster
cloud. It is fortunate that ABM oppon-
ents still have at their disposal the tactic
of the marathon debate.
While southern senators have f o r
years served their racist constituencies
through use of the filibuster, liberals
have taken an attitude of moral super-
iority in generally abstaining from the
use of the device. Yet they have often de-
fended the rights of the southerners to
use it.
Liberals should now recognize that
the minority has the duty to override the
majority on issues that potentially
threaten the interests and safety of the
nation.
HESITANT LIBERALS should perhaps
think back to the Tonkin Gulf reso-
lution of 1965, which found the lonely
duo of Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruen-
ing opposing what later proved to be the
key to the mindless escalation of t h e
Vietnam war.
In that case the Senate, without so
much as a question, gave the President
the right to pursue war as he saw fit.
As it later proved, the original resolution
was only the tip of the iceberg that grew
into the unchecked squandering of bil-
lions of dollars in a senseless war.
Hopefully, the parallels between the
Tonkin resolution and the ABM pro-
posal will not be wasted on the well-
meaning senators who were so miserably
misled in the earlier vote. The ABM
plan, once started, could be extended by
the President into an all-out "protective"
shield against Soviet attack.
And these same liberal senators should
realize that after the first five billion
dollars are spent on the ABM, they will
never muster the political strength or
moral courage to vote down added appro-
priations once the cost begins to mount.
Long after many senators admitted their
mistake on the Tonkin resolution and
paid lip. service to Vietnam w a r op-
position, not one Vietnam appropriation
bill has faced significant opposition.
THE TIME HAS COME for the strong
Senate opposition to the ABM to stand
firm. It is time for senators like Phil Hart,
George McGovern, and Edmund Muskie
to put their mouths where their professed
beliefs are - or else refrain from the
post-ABM passage sob story. about lack of
opposition strength.
Twenty-five determined senators
could mount a filibuster to stop almost
any legislation. The ABM opposition cer-
tainly has this strength.
On this crucial vote, liberals m u s t
continue the fight to the finish. If not,
their bluff will be called once and for all.
-BILL LAVELY

(VDITOR'S NOTE: Arthur Ross is
vice presidentNfor state relations
and planning at the University. The
following article was his commence-
ment address at the January grad-
uation at the University's F l i n t
campus.)
By ARTHUR M. ROSS
IT IS STYLISH to maintain that
there is no possibility of com-
munication between the middle-
aged and the young. We think in
linear sequences like a book, it is
said, while they think in simul-
taneous patterns like a television
image. We are institutional, they
are existential. We think four let-
ter words are obscene, they think
napalm is obscene. Young people
therefore sometimes say that par-
ents, professors and other tradi-
tional authority figures just don't
have anything relevant to say, so
why waste time?
This assertion by the young is
not so shocking as the widespread
concurrence on the part of the
middle-aged. Perhaps the most
common complaint of parents is
that they cannot get through. Is
this because the children are really
so indifferent, or because the par-
ents have lost morals and self-
confidence? Now that they no
longer rule by divine right, are
they willing to make their case on
its merits, or all too ready to crawl
into a shell of presumed ir-
relevance?
The case of the professor is just
as serious, because he is supposed
to profess. But what is he willing
to p r o f e s s? Positivism has
triumphed throughout the world
of learning, so that even philo-
sophy, sociology and economics
concentrate single-mindedly on
analysis and measurement of "be-
havior."
PROFESSORS are afraid to
discuss values with their students.
Here again it is not because the
students are happy with a diet of
undiluted positivism, for they will
turn out in great force to hear any
outside speaker who deals with
ethical and moral questions.
Are we not shortchanging the
students if we unfailingly wear a
mask of moral neutralism for fear
of being thought unscientific, old-
fashioned or square?
Today, speaking as a Professor,
I want to discuss a moral question,
and I want to criticize an impor-
tant strain in the thinking of
many students. In recent years the
mantle of self-righteousness has
been seized by the young from the

The Professor

The Graduate

shoulders of their parents. It is
now worn so solemnly that joy-
lessness has become an almost
compulsory posture.
Young people have an over-
wrought intolerance of evil. They
are thin-skinned concerning hu-
man frailty. They are despondent
because human effort is so inef-
ficient. They recognize the fact,
but will not accept it, that God
was joking when he created man.
If the middle-aged have lost
their confidence because their au-
thority is questioned, the young
have lost their nerve because there
is evil in the world.
I AM THINKING now of some
graduate students in economics.
They were highly intelligent, high-
ly educated, highly sensitive; I
found them thoroughly admirable.
What distressed me was that they
were so down-in-the-mouth. They
saw economic resources producing
weapons of destruction and fri-
volous luxuries, rather than neces-
sities of life for the poor and op-
pressed. They noted the persistence
of in equality and discrimination.
They accurately perceived the low
yield of anti-poverty, manpower
and other social programs.
And they concluded that there
could be no real hope except in
a radical reconstruction of society
which they themselves recognized
as a most unlikely possibility.
Their futilitarian posture, I felt,
was interfering seriously with their
enjoyment of life.

The steady diet of miseries on
the editorial page of The Michigan
Daily gives me the same feeling.
The Daily is an excellent paper,
and its treatment of University
administrators - has been sur-
prisingly gentle during the past
year, so that I have no complaints.
What bothers me is that as the
editorial writers look out at the
messy spectacle of the state, the
nation and the world, they react
with such great disgust and so
little ebullience or even amuse-
ment.
AN INTERESTING example of
intolerant morality is found in The
Graduate, perhaps the most pro-
fitable and widely discussed mo-
tion picture of the decade. It is
true that the film's producer, Mike
Nichols, is no longer young, but he
cleverly simulated both the self-
righteousness of the young and
the self-doubt of the middle-aged.
Is Benjamin's anguish really
plausible? Was the affair with Mrs.
Robinson really that one-sided?
Didn't he enjoy it at all, didn't he
learn something about love, wasn't
he just a little proud of having
made it with a woman like Anne
Bancroft? No, we are asked to be-
lieve this boy was so priggish as to
be incapable of pleasure in a dis-
honorable liaison.
Naughtiness has likewise been
purged from the experimental
stage and cinema. It is really
ironic that the much-publicized
nudity in Dionysus has caused

such excited comment in political
and journalistic circles, for the
real thing is inevitably disappoint-
ing.
Solemn nudity drained of baw-
diness produces boredom rather
than titillation. I am certainly
not an expert on the subject, but
I wonder if the new morality of
respectable immorality doesn't
constitute a real hang-up for
young people, although it does
have the function of shocking the
elders.
If you deny the authenticity of
evil, how do you account for the
artistic genius of Richard Wagner,
a -hateful misanthrope and anti-
Semite; or of Dostoevsky, a black
reactionary in the court of Czar
Nicholas?
IN THE FLIGHT from evil there
is really no hiding place. A case
in point is Senator Eugene Mc-
Carthy. By driving a wedge into
the closed circle of politics, and
making Vietnam a mainstream
political issue, he changed the
course of history and brought hope
to thousands who despaired.
But history is full of ambiguities.
McCarthy said he "would never let
the kids down," but he threw in
the towel before the balloting at
the Democratic Convention. Sub-
sequently he gave up his seat on
the Foreign Relations Committee
to an ardent hawk. If Richard
Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge
make peace in Vietnam, the cup
of irony will truly overflow,
To the morally sensitive person
today, perhaps the most difficult
truth to swallow is that black
men are only human. The Negro'
has been the victim of the most
monstrous crime in human history.
Understandably the mood of
young Negroes is angry and self-
righteous,
Radical white students who
identify themselves with the Ne-
gro cause sometimes adopt an ab-
surdly groveling attitude as if
,historic injustice could be as-
suaged by attributing absolute vir-
tue to the black man, sentimental-
izing about soul food, and sus-
pending the processes of observa-
tion and reasoning. This only
serves to deny the humanity of
the Negro, for if he is human he
is, both hero and villain, divine
and debased.
THIS IS A MATTER of con-
siderable practical importance now
that the subject of Negro history
is belatedly being organized into
courses, curricula and textbooks.
There is real danger, of a Parson
Weems or Walt Disney version of

Negro history, especially if segre-
gated schools of black studies are
established.
The antiseptic motive was re-
cently illustrated by an angry at-
tack on The Confessions of Nat
Turner. The book was criticized
because Nat Turner was shown
lusting after a white girl and be-
cause his ragged army was some-
thing less than heroic once the
revolt had been launched.
Likewise, The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn was recently
purged from an American Litera-
ture course at one university, al-
though "Jim" must surely be the
most admirable slave in the whole
library of fiction.
Young Negroes ought to know
about the proud and civilized
kingdoms in black Africa prior to
the European colonial conquests;
but they should also know that
black Africans rounded up their
fellow tribesmen for the slave
trade. They should know the role
that Negroes played in the' Amer-
ican revolution and in taming the
frontier; also in the political cor-
ruption of Chicago and New York.
YOUNG PEOPLE, in their time,
will abolish many evils with which
the middle-aged are fatally com-
promised. I honestly think they
will abolish war, sexual hypocrisy
and racial discrimination. They
will run the world better, because
from here the only direction is up.
But in addition they will experi-
ence the corrupting influence of
power, they will make ambiguous
compromises, they will see the
ironic jokes which history can
play.
History is full of characters who
refused to concede that good and
evil are opposite sides of a coin.
Therewas Father Thomas de Tor-
quemeda, the grand. inquisitor of
Spain; Cotton Mather, the Puritan
theocrat; Robespierre, the fan-
atical conscience of the French
revolution, and so on. The most
moral of men, but hardly the most
attractive.
The relationship between young
and old is one of the more difficult
in human society. Like the rela-
tionship between landlord and
tenant, doctor and patient, hus-
band and wife, it is inevitably
awkward.
MY THOUGHT for today is
that if we can avoid self-right-
eousness and moral superiority in
dealing with each other, maybe
we can close the generation gap
a trifle.

4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Daily's Democratic propaganda

To the Editor:
THE ANTI-REPUBLICAN edi-
torial page which appeared in
March 12's Daily came as no sur-
prise to me, and I look forward
with some curiosity to The Daily
issue which will appear within the
next three weeks expressing glow-
ing words of praise for the Demo-
cratic Party and its candidates.
I have come to expect this one-
sided approach to city politics
from the editors of our outstand-
ing student newspaper. However,
lest some of the readers of The
Daily confuse this biased Demo-
cratic Party propaganda with ob-
jective journalism, I write this
letter to express an opposing view-
point.
The Daily has made many neg-
ative remarks concerning the in-
volvement of Richard Balzhiser
and the Republican Party in the
student-public housing problem
in the city of Ann Arbor. It is
interesting to note some overlook-
ed facts in this case.
FACT: THOUGH the "Balzhiser
ordinance" will not solve the en-
tire problem of student off-campus
housing, as is readily admitted by
Prof. Balzhiser himself, it is a
positive step. It gives renters one
more tool in their struggle for fair
policies.
Fact: Though the Rent Strike
Legal Defense Committee praises

Harris' proposal to establish an
escrow fund for damage deposits
as the "realistic solution to the
problem," the credit for this pro-
posal belongs to Prof. Balzhiser.
He suggested an escrow fund for
damage deposits in a public state-
ment to Student Government
Council on Feb. 20. Prof. Harris
did not mention this plan in his
reply to Balzhiser on Feb. 25. The
idea finally appeared in a letter to
the editor in The Daily of Feb. 28.
I wonder where he got the idea.
FACT: THE SAME Republicans
whom The Daily accuses of not
being truly interested in the Ann
Arbor housing situation are the
ones who first brought the issue
to a head. If it is the Democrats
who are truly interested in student
housing problems and the Repub-
licans who are interested in "pre-
serving an unpalatable status quo,"
then why is it that the Republi-
cans, not the Democrats, took the
initiative on the issue?
The Democrats - those great
champions of justice to students-
have been caught with their pants
down and have been forced to
argue that the Republican sug-
gested reforms will not work.
Meanwhile, the Democrats despe-
rately have tried to come up with
their own alternatives which sound
surprisingly similar to the Repub-
lican proposals.

This bring me to my final point.
The Daily tries to paint Richard
Balzhiser and all other Repub-
licans as "two-faced." They say
one thing in order to get student
votes, yet believe another thing
entirely.
Prof. Balzhiser's negative vote
on the 1965 fair housing ordinance
is cited as.proof of this two-faced
candidacy. I believe Prof. Balz-
hiser not only has the right, but
also the obligation to change his
opinion as circumstances change.
The difference in the fair hous-
ing stand of Prof. Balzhiser in 1969
and that of 1965 shows not that
he is two-faced, but rather that
he is willing to change his views
to keep pace with the changing
times.
REPUBLICANS this year, more
than at any time in the past, have
made a sincere effort to help solve
student problems. This effort has
been constantly criticized by The
Daily as an underhanded attempt
to buy student votes. Yet Repub-
licans have always been able to
win Ann Arbor city elections with-
out student support.
-Mike Renner, '69
March 12
'Real' enforcement
To the Editor:
THIS LETTER is written to ex-
press my indignation concern-
ing the actions of certain unknown
members of the Ann Arbor Police
Department on the morning of
Saturday, March 8, 1969. I was in
Ann Arbor to attend the Advocacy
Institute.
I went to dinner with two of
my friends and, following that,
went to Bimbo's. I was there for
probably an hour or an hour and
a half. When Bimbo's closed my
friend and I walked down the
street to a place called the Falcon
or Golden Falcon. We found it was
closed and walked back to Bimbo's
where we saw several other at-
torneys who we were acquainted
with.
I stood in front of Bimbo's talk-
ing to some people I know, in-
cluding the Chief Assistant Prose-
cutor of a county that will go un-
named. Suddenly two officers ap-
peared. I was ordered to pick cer-
tain papers up out of the street.
I inquired of the officer as to why

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point I dared him to arrest me.
I, at that point, noticed that his
silent companion had an object
in his hand which I am sure was
a "mace" device. The officer final-
ly stated, "You must be lawyers."
I asked him why that should make
any difference. At this time I ob-
served that at least four police
cars had arrived in the immediate
vicinity.
AFTER SOME RATHER juve-
nile bantering on the part of the
officer concerning the, constitu-
tion, etc., the officer turned tail
and left. Before doing so, how-
ever, he informed me that he had
not seen me throwing the papers,
which would have been impossible
since I had not done so, but had
seen them blown into the street
from his car.
He had asked, "Where did those
papers come from?" and had been
answered, "From over there."
Being a rather large individual,
six feet tall, two hundred and
ninety pounds, I apparently was
the largest object "over there"
and so he trotted over.

students were mostly home for
vacation, the officer had nothing
better to do than to go out and
try to pick up a lawyer or two.
In case it makes any difference to
you, I have had some experience
working with police officers, hav-
ing been an Assistant Prosecutor
for near three years myself.
Normally I respect and admire
the work most officers do. The
thing that disgust me most is that
I am sure the only thing that kept
me from being physically molested
and perhaps thrown in jail was the
fact that I am a lawyer. Had I
been a college student, or if I had
a beard, or if my hair happened
to be a little longer, or if I hap-
pened to have on beads, I am sure
that the storm troopers involved
in this matter would not have
shown the restraint that they did
and I probably would have suf-
fered the consequence.
I state that from now on when
I read of disturbances in Ann
Arbor, I will tend to automatically
side against the police because I
can only base my judgment on
my own menorine and my fnm

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