4elr Mir4igan Daily
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan

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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 all reprints.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1969

NIGHT EDITOR: DANIEL ZWERDLING


ROTC disruption:
A little' too early

OLITICAL ACTS of civil disobedience
waged against institutions contribut-
ing to the war in Vietnam have been tak-
ing place across the country for s o m e
time now. Most of the acts of disruption
have been inflicted against the processes
of the selective service system, often re-
sulting in destruction of draft files and
temporary interruption of induction pro-
cedures.
Such acts of civil disobedience are al-
most always "illegal." When government
property has been destroyed under the
argument that such property has no right
to exist, groups like the Catonsville Nine
have proceeded with full awareness that
they will be liable for criminal prosecu-
tion.
In most cases, the courts have shown
themselves capable of only dealing with
the simple questions; Did or did not the
accused destroy government property?
Did or did not the accused "trespass" on
government property in taking part in a
disruption? But more recently the courts
have shown a surprising and encouraging
tendency to consider the greater impli-
cations of acts of civil disobedience. This
has been seen in such instances as the
dismissal of charges against the Milwau-
kee 14 for destroying government prop-
erty.
IT IS PERHAPS in this context that to-
morrow's proposed disruption of ROTC
classes should be viewed. Those students
who will take part in the disruption at
North Hall must realize that they a r e
taking part in a form of civil disobedie-
nce and thus are likely and, perhaps illo-
gically, subject to face academic sanc-
tion. A student who is not prepared to
face stiff disciplinary reprisals, possibly
even expulsion, should best stay away.
But there are students who understand
and accept the possible academic or civil
consequences. It is deplorable that the
University has already decided that they
are already guilty and will be punished.
For like most criminal courts, the Uni-
versity is prepared only to t a k e disci-
plinary action and not to handle the wid-
er philosophical questions of disrupting
something like ROTC. This disciplinary
action will be turned over to three possi-
ble authorities - civil officials, student
judiciary, or the student's individual col-

lege. Dscipline at the college level seems
most likely.
By awarding jurisdiction in cases of
disruption to a college board, the Univer-
sity is immediately assuming guilt on the
part of the disrupters. It does not recog-
nize t h e immediate political questions
raised and instead c.oncerns itself almost
entirely with imposing some kind of aca-
demic sanction.
If students who disrupt classes are to
be disciplined, the place to handle such
issues is a student judiciary. A student
judiciary - rather than a disciplinary
board - would be in a better position to
deal with the philosophical and individ-'
ual ramifications of individual a c t s of
civil disobedience. Civilian courts are be-
ginning to handle this concept; certainly
the University must be equipped to do so.
RIGHT NOW, only discipline is guaran-
teed to students who f e e I conscien-
tiously that they m u s t not accept the
presence of ROTC on this campus. There
are not many students who are likely to
jeopardize their academic .careers over
the ROTC issue at this point. The f e w
that are will be in great danger without
broad student support.
Therefore, the movement to eliminate
ROTC programs must not be confined to
acts of disruption if success is to be at-
tained. Student power unfortunately
cannot be exercised by t h e quality of
ideas or the stalwartness of its leaders.
Students will be successful in winning de-
mands only to the extent that they can
command the support of large numbers.
Student support against ROTC has not
yet been sufficiently tested. If such dis-
ruption of ROTC classes is meant to
spearhead a successful movement against
ROTC, then perhaps tomorrow's activity
is a little early. Individual acts of con-
science will not in themselves get rid of
ROTC.
Hopefully, tomorrow's disruption of
ROTC will trigger greater activity by stu-
dent groups in building support for elim-
ination of ROTC. For if it is just an act
of civil disobedience, it is unfortunate
that the University is still not prepared to
understand it.
-STEVE ANZALONE
Editorial Page Editor

AT WHAT point do you fight? When do
you stop what you are doing and say,
"Here is where I take a stand"?
These are the most difficult of questions.
and a man's worth can be judged by his
wisdom in answering them.
The Daily had to make just such a deci-
sion last week when it was proposed that
we publish the picture for which Ken Kel-
ley of the Argus was arrested on an ob-
scenity charge.
The alleged obscenity was a photograph
of Republican Councilman James Stephen-
son, with an outline of a penis drawn in
between his hands. Kelley published the
picture because Stephenson had accused
the Argus of continually printing pictures
of "a male genital in a discernibly turgid
state."
The Daily was then faced with the prob-
lem of whether or not to publish the pic-
ture, taking all the risk that publishing it
entailed.
THE PRINCIPLE risk involved in such
an action would be prosecution for ob-
scenity-an action all but promised by
Washtenaw County Prosecutor William
Delhey. Moreover, there was the strong
possibility of Stephenson pressing a libel
suit, which would probably have closed The
Daily down.
It is dubious that either suit would have
done any long term good for either The,
Daily or the Argus.
The chances of losing such a suit in a
local court were great, so at the very least
The Daily would have had to go to an
appeals court to gain anything worthwhile
from the prosecution.
But even if the prosecution were over-

turned by the U.S. Supreme Court, it would
not necessarily bar the county prosecutor
from pressing similar charges in the future.
Change in American law is a slow and
painful process, and grinding up a small
organization like The Daily would do few
people any good.
AND WOULD such action really help the
Argus? Neal Bush of the Lawyers' Guild,
who is working on the Argus case, wears
that the Argus will win, if not in the lower
courts, then on appeal. Why then need
The Daily submit to such a prosecution
when the test case already existed?
Bush argued that the stature of The
Daily would help the Argus case. I am
unimpressed. The Daily is a student news-
paper, perhaps a good one, and among
student newspapers it is well known. It
also has a name of sorts among the na-
tional press. But when it comes to the
courts, I doubt there would be much
distinction between a student newspaper
and an underground newspaper.
ALL THE ARGUS could have gained
from The Daily printing the picture
was some strang lsychic satisfaction.
Misery loves company.
But these alone are not sufficient reason
for The Daily to fail to publish a picture
which was potentially newsworthy.
The real question, the question upon
which The Daily senior editors divided,
5-5. and the entire staff defeated the ques-
tion. 46-25, is "Is it worth it?"
The Daily has always been a brave
newspaper, and in the days when it was
not so independent of University and R°-
gental control it was willing to buck the

powers that be. It was through s u c h
courage that The Daily won the independ-
ence it now enjoys.
The proponents of printing the picture
like to compare this question to some of
The Daily's forays in earlier days - when
Rapoport deposed a Regent and the sports
staff defied the Big Ten establishment.
But there is a crucial difference.
The expose of Regent Eugene Power's
finances and the illegal practices of certain
Big Ten schools were qualitatively differ-
erent. Those were stories that The Daily
had an obligation to print; they were
muckraking in the best and most honest
sense.
Unlike printing the allegedly obscene,
and certainly defammatory picture of
Stephenson, printing the stories on Power
and sports practices were in the public
interest, intended to protect the public
from situations that could not be tolerated
whan exposed to public scrutiny.
Likewise, proponents of printing t h e
picture also like to allude to the moral
and ethical question. One's stand on the
Vietnam war is a moral issue, the argu-
ment goes, and so is that of printing the
picture.
Certainly the obscenity laws are uncon-
stitutional and absurd. People who worry
about such laws are most often upright,
sex-obsessed people who harbor, as Menck-
en observed of the Puritans, the fear that
somnone, someplace, is enjoying himself.
But people who fight obscenity laws are
only slightly less silly, except in the realm
of the arts where sex and sexuality may
be germane to the artistic aim.
The word "morality" does not confer
sanctity on any issue. Not all moral ques-

tions are equal. And obscenity relates to a
lesser kind of morality than does an ille-
gal and unjust war.
Finally, one must consider what role
The Daily, as a newspaper, must take.
What is The Daily's greatest strength? It
is as a newspaper. as an open, aggressive
investigator info the ills of its realm, that
it has what powers it does have, not as a
litigant in an obscenity suit.
Even in the Kelley case. The Daily can
play a better role than to join the defense.
The Daily\ as an investigating newspaper,
is more powerful in looking into the Kel-
ley case and the events surrounding it than
as a litigant.
AND IN LIGHT of what would have hap-
pened to The Daily, the question of the
functions of The Daily becomes even more
crucial.
The Daily would have published that
picture only at the expense of everything
else The Daily can and should do. To stop
and fight now, to wage war over the draw-
ing of a penis, would h a v e barred The
Daily from waging other battles w o r t h
shedding some blood for - over Harvey
and the blacks, over bad housing, over
University corruption or mismanagement.
The question, in the final analysis, must
be answered in terms of relative values -
what would be gained by printing the pic-
ture, as to what would be lost.
IF THE DAILY had printed the picture.
it might have lost the opportunity to work
toward the betterment of the University
and the city.
You must pick your dragons carefully.
You only get to fight a few.


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In Ann Arbor,

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is

illegal

3 out of 9: Why not more?

MONDAY'S ANTICLIMACTIC decision
to grant voting rights to the three
student members of the literary college
curriculum committee must be seen as a
mere token concession, since after a
year's struggle it only makes official a
previous informal practice.
It is encouraging that the curriculum
committee-which after all has the pow-
er to set credit hours for courses and to
recommend changes in LSA courses-has
made its student members' votes official.
Apple pie
KUDOS TO the clergy of Pittsburgh, Pa.
in the person of Msgr. Charles Rice for
his razor-sharp analysis of recent racial
strife there.
Chatting with an NBC news reporter
on the Sept. 1 Huntley-Brinkley n e w s
program, Rice said the unionized white
construction workers who were angered
by blacks attempts to join the union were
simply "normal American bigots."
"Bigotry is as normal as apple pie,'
Rice added.
Way to call them. Monseigner.
-N.C.
HENRY GRIX fEditor

But since students have unofficially
voted on the committee for nearly a year,
the only real gain resulting from the fac-
ulty resolution is a slight gain in the stu-
dent-faculty ratio, as the six ex-officio
faculty members will no longer be voting.
The real importance of the LSA fac-
ulty's vote therefore lies not in what was
gained, but rather in the conditions under
which even such a small concession was
granted.
tT IS SIGNIFICANT that the faculty
approved such a change at a time when
student interest and activism in the area
of academic reform had been discouraged
almost out of existence.
In fact, when the vote was taken Mon-
day, the only students attending the open
meeting to hear arguments concerning
their future role in affecting the nature
of the courses for which they came to the
University were the reporters.
If nothing else, the vote should cer -
tainly be a signal to students that the
climate for progressive change in the
academic structure of the University is
improving.
If the methods of student activism are
at all effective, then students should
recognize that the attitudes of the fac-
ulty are favorable to a new offensive in
the largely depleted fight for student
decision-making power.
In addition, the faculty's vote gives
the students the advantage of having the
faculty on the philosophical defensive if
it continues its attempt to grant only
token concessions.
FOR NOW THAT the faculty has admit-
ted that students have a right to
share decision-making power in the col-
lege, it cannot truly say that it has ceded


r

"Of course you can have a job, Go out on that
pank and saw it off."

Lett(
I)isrupting ROTC
To the Editor:
THE $18 BILLION "peace and
growth dividend" due at the end
of full-scale American intervention
in Vietnam will not be used for re-
building America. Rather, that $18
billion in taxes will remain within
the Pentagon State to finance
ABM, MIRV, a new atomic air-
craft carrier, several pieces of
"new generation" military aircraft,
and new counter-insurgency tech-
niques.
(As of June, 1969, the University
has received another quarter of a
million dollars in classified coun-
ter-insurgency defense research
grants.)
The result, no doubt. will be a
worsening condition of life at
home and increasing American
subjugation of revolutionary peo-
ples in other lands. After "peace"
in Vietnam, the Pentagon can gear
up for the battles against national
liberation in Latin America, Africa,
and elsewhere in Southeast Asia
and possibly for the "big one" mn
China.
In this way, the Pentagon can
do its part in enforcing the status
quo - economic, political, social
-and cultural institutions desired
h a rnx -rxrtoi~txnc uirenrO nr

?rs to the Et
paralleled in modern society. 1f
the American military is to be
stopped, this carefully constructed
and reinforced legitimacy must be
countered.
We would certainly be remiss if
we failed to recognize the Jal-
lenge already placed before the
military. The NLF and the North
Vietnamese as well as the Cubans
have successfully challenged the
legitimacy and authority of the
American war machine on the
machine's own terms.
The reaction of Americans Las
been to re-examine the path aiong
which the military-industrial -ti-
versity complex has led the nation.
We certainly must also thank the
peace movement for its contribu-
tion to the disturbance of the niii-
tary mentality. And the conzwuu-
tions made by the Fulbright's, tle
McGovern's. and the McCarthy's
cannotebe overlooked,
But the necessary step now is to
break the military, to stop Amer-
ican imperialist policy, to stop the
wear machine so that revolution lt
home and abroad can win. What is
needed is a continued attack on
the military, the interests it serves.
and the American foreign policy
it implements. Wherever the mili-
tary can be attacked, it must be.
HERE ON CAMPUS, the most
visible sign of the military is
ROTC. This program is responsib'e

lito r
university-traiied officers. but by
disturbing the quiescent civilian
environment within which the
military operates so successfully.
Clearly, the faculty response to
ROTC's presence on campus hos
been inadequate. A myriad of
committees have considered the
question, yet the faculty remans
hung-up on their super-profes-
sional ethic. One after another, in
the well-known style of stdied
myopia, the faculty committees
have by-passed the problem posed
by the fact that ROTC is a major
cog in the American war machine.
Instead the committees have re-
stricted their investigation into i he
academic question which is in es-
sence: "Does the ROTC program
meet U of M standards of excel-
lence?." The real question, of
course, is not whether ROTC text-
books are "non-analytic," but
whether the university will foster
or attack even the most blatant
forms or official neo-fascist Amer-
ican policy. We should not be in-
sisting that ROTC present its stu-
dents with more sophisticated ra-
tionalizations for bankrupt re-
actionary American policy.
TOMORROW at 11:00 a.m. we
will begin confronting ROTC on
this campus. We will enter a
ROTC class and talk to the stu-
dents about the real role of the
American military in the world in-
stead of allowing the normal nro-

By MARCIA ABRAMSON
AMIDST THE furor over Ken Kelley and the Argus, what may well
be the most obscene obscenity case ever has so far been ignored.
In July, soon ofter the South University outbreaks, a girl named
Jackie Evans made the mistake of calling some policemen "pigs."
She was not insulting the officers, according to witnesses; she was
simply referring to them. Miss Evans was immediately arrested and
charged with disorderly conduct for using "vile, profane or obscene"
language in a public place. The complaint against her indicates the
Nvord in question is not "pig," and reliable sources report it was "fuck"
and others of that genre used xvith "pig."
Jackie Evans comes up for trial next month, and her case demon-
strates one of the most repressive and patently illegal of all this city's
fine statutes. Although enlightened human beings may not believe it,
every month at lsast a few persons are duly convicted in District
Court for obscene language.
THE LOCAL obscenity law is ridiculous and unconstitutional.
Frreedom of speech is guaranteed, and there is no use arguing beyond
that. Eventually obscenity laws will be eroded by changing customs,
and the slow motion of the courts; there can be no doubt about that.
At some point, the Dionysus in '69 indecent exposure arrests will be
overturned, and Ken Kelley will be vindicated. The Berkeley Barb has
already succeeded in winning' the case for the "obscene" MC5 photo.
But until then, the existence of obscenity laws provides a con-
venient ground for political harrassment of the young and the revolu-
tionary.
MISS EVANS' case is a perfect example. She was arrested at the
Whistle Stop, where she worked, during a period of extreme political
tension in the city. The Whistle Stop, a home for many of the street
people and White Panthers, had the honor of being the only restaur-
ant in the South U. area teargassed during the confrontations.
The polic, who maintained -- and still maintain - patrols oi
South U., decided that it had somehow become illegal for the Whistle
Stop to put a table and chairs on a small patio in front of the equally
small restaurant.
Since the Whistle Stop had been putting the table outside for
some time, the manager called the desk sergeant at city hall and
asked him why it was suddenly illegal. The sergeant told him, he said,
that it was not illegal unless a noise complaint was filed against the
restaurant. Oi July 12, the sergeant said, there had been no noise com-
plaint, and he offered to send some detectives out to see what was
going on.
But instead more police arrived and ordered the sidewalk cleared
both of furniture and a crowd of about 75 people who had gathered.
The manager told Miss Evans to go outside and take down the
officers' badge numbers. She did, and witnesses say she returned to the
restaurant and told him, "I got the pigs' numbers."
WITNESSES SAID the police apparently overheard Miss Evans.
then charged after her with clubs raised to arrest her. The police have
not yet released their version of the incident; they will discuss the
case only in court.
And Miss Evans was not the only person arrested that day. Another
Whistle Stop employe was charged xvith obstructing her arrest. After
his arrest, there was still another, and that incident is perhaps even
more clearly a case of harrassment.
The police had drawn a line outside the Whistle Stop and ordered
the crowd to stay behind it on the small patch of cement which be-
longs not to the public but to the restaurant. After Miss Evans' arrest,
Audrey Simons attempted to collect signatures from witnesses to a
statement that Miss Evans had used no profanity. Miss Simons ap-
parently - and, witnesses said, inadvertently - stepped just over the
sacred line. It is quite likely that other persons in the crowd did the
same; the Whistle Stop and its patio can barely hold 75 people. But,
at any rate, only Miss Simons was arrested.
AND THE GOOD courts of Washtenaw County have duly convicted
Audrey Simons of obstructing the sidewalk and preventing the public
passage.
But, as one source close to the case said, how could one small girl
block the public passage on an eight or ten foot patch of sidewalk?
Miss Simons would like to appeal the case, but the court mechanism
requires a payment of $150 for a transcript of the trial so another court
can consider an appeal. Miss Simons doesn't have $150; the only way
she can attempt an appeal is through contributions to a legal fund
set up through TransLove Energies, 1520 Hill.
Miss Evans' case may be slightly easier to appeal if she is convicted
--which is quite likely in Washtenaw County. The American Civil Liber-
ties Union has expressed interest in aiding Miss Evans, since a freedom
of speech question is involved.

iaVE NTIssEN
C :it Editor
MAR('IA ABRAM.S0N
PHILIP BLOCK ..
STEVE ANZALONE
JENNY STILLER .
LESLIE WAYNE .
JOHN GRAY
LAWRENCE ROBBIN.S

RON LA Ni)S AN
Miat~eneni1 Editor
3 socaiate Zf:mt,irgiiiEditor
Assoiate n ing Editor
-Edit orvi lP,,geEditor
Editoria1 Pa.e Editor
A ts Editor
Literary Editor
-~Photo Editor

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