"Does that mean we get to live on a houseboat ... ?"
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
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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.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: JUDY SARASOHN
DECISIONS ON MONDAY
Income tax in Ann Arbor ..
THE PROPOSED city income tax, coup-
led with a provision for a reduction
in the city property tax, must be passed
Monday for the benefit of all of Ann
Arbor's citizens. Although not the best
of all possible taxes, it is the most pro
gressive permitted under the state con-
stitution.
The tax package put together by Mayor
Harris would tax a city resident one per
cent of his gross income minus $600 for
each dependent. Commuters would be
taxed half that amount, one half per
cent of their gross income less the deduc-
tion for dependents. Exemptions of $1200
are provided for the elderly and t h e
blind.
The income tax proposal will be pair-
ed with a vote to reduce the present ex-
orbitant 14.23 mill property tax to a max-
imum of 7.5 mills ($7.50 per $1000 of
assessed property).
With the estimated $1 million in in-
creased revenue, the city will be able to
make long-needed capital improvements
and increased the number of city serv-
ices available to all who use the city.
MOREOVER, the proposed tax revisions
come as close as possible to taxing
only those who have the ability to pay,
and do a great deal to ease the growing
tax burden on the city's lower and middle
income residents.
Unfortunately, the income tax is not
a graduate one; state law prohibits a n y
Michigan city from levying anything
other than a flat rate tax. But an analysis
of the dollars and cents effects of the in-
come tax-property tax reduction pack-
age reveals its advantages to lower in-
come residents.
An orderly, working at University hos-
pital, for example, will be able to deduct
$600 for each of his three children from
his $6000 income. He will also be able to
deduct his union dues and uniform mon-
ey. His taxable income will be only $3000
and his income tax only $30.
If he lives in a mortgaged home--and
in Ann Arbor there is a good chance that
he does-his property tax will be re-
duced by half. If his property was mar-
ketable at $17,500, this means he will pay
only $65 instead of the present tax of
over $130. The overall tax cut for the
lower income resident is clear.
EVEN THE lower income commuter will
benefit from the institution of the in-
come tax. A nurse who works at the hos-
pital here but lives in Ypsilanti may de-
duct for dependents and union and uni-
form expenses. If she earns $5000, her
taxable income will probably come to only
$2000. Her $10 tax will be more than
compensated for by the promised city-
subsidized bus service between Ann Ar-
bor and Ypsilanti which will save her
transportation costs.
Moreover, if Ypsilanti passes the in-
come tax bill now before voters in that
city, the nurse will split her income tax
between the two cities, paying only $5
to each. Because of the improved services
which the income tax will secure, the
nurse will end up saving more of her in-
come.
Elderly persons will receive even great-
er benefit from the tax. Their income tax
will be negligible or nothing, and the
property tax cut can only aid them.
Obviously, the tax burden will fall on
those most able to bear it. The affluent
residents of the township will be paying
at last for maintenance of the city in
which they earn their income and whose
services they utilize. It is deplorable that
these citizens have not been taxed before
and cannot be taxed more.
THE ONE shortcoming of the tax re-
visions is that there can be no guar-
antee the property tax reduction will be
passed on to renters. Except for lower
and middle income tenants of public or
221(d)3 housing units (who will be
given a rent cut) there will un-
doubtedly not be a decrease in rent.
Those people - including students -
who reside in Ann Arbor, rent and earn
a taxable income here, probably will be
paying more tax,
But certainly students should not be
so shortsighted as to ignore the overall
and undeniable benefits of increased re-
venue to the overwhelming majority of
the city's residents. The city needs more
money to improve streets, sewers, re-
creational facilities and bus service, to
name just a few.
Besides, a little appreciated advantage
of the property tax deduction is that it
will stimulate realtors to build in Ann
Arbor, thus limiting the upward swing in
rental prices and curbing the housing
shortage in this city. If the increased
building does not produce absolutely
lower rents, it will at least slow their ad-
vance.
AND THE alternative to the tax revis-
ions on Monday's ballot are the irre-
sponsible and inequitable ones proposed
by the Chamber of Commerce, the Re-
publican Party and the Board of Real-
tors. These groups would pass a two mill
special improvements charge, based on
property assessment to raise the added
revenue for capital improvements. This
would increase the burden on the over-
taxed and let the commuters off free.
Also, they would cut the city's budget,
limiting specifically the monies allocated
to public housing and bus service. Fur-
ther, this will guarantee a rent increase
across the board.
This is especially dangerous as federal
anti-inflationary measures continue to
take effect, increasing unemployment in
the lower income brackets. Although the
income tax would ease the burden on the
unemployed, the present property tax--
let alone an increased tax-would only
further oppress those without jobs.
It is clear that tax reform is vitally
needed in Ann Arbor. A first step toward
that end will be made if voters approve
the establishment of an income taxmand
the reduction of the property tax on Mon-
day.
-HENRY GRIX
Editor
Letters to the Editor
HRC
To the Editor:
JACK HAMILTON' in his letter
to the Daily of October 29, la-
ments the "ignorance" of a Daily
editorial which depicts the lack
of efforts being made by the Uni-
versity to change social inequities
both in our society and within the
University. Later he labels as "vic-
ious" a report that an HRC mem-
ber has placed t h e opprobrium
"Uncle Toms" upon black people
working for change within t h e
University. Neither of his con-
cerns, unfortunately, are address-
ed to the central problem the Uni-
versity faces as the largest em-
ployer in the broader community:
the problem of power - who in-
fluences and or controls the de-
cision making process of the Uni-
versity.
It may be a fact, as Mr. Ham-
ilton suggests, that the University
is making ceaseless efforts to re-
dress the racial imbalances high-
lighted in t h e "Green Report."
The fact still exists, however, that
segments of the University popu-
lacemand citizens in the broader
community perceive the Univer-
sity as being discriminatory. In
essence it becomes a question of
the perspective from which one
looks at the University.
On the one hand, Mr. Hamil-
ton, blacks working for change
from within and others, who by
virtue of their being employees of
the University, take an institu-
tional perspective toward such ac-
tivities as recruitment, training
and promotion. Their starting
point for change is the present
structure of the University, and
change for t h e m means incre-
mental development without bas-
ic transformation of the system.
Studies of organizational change
show that people working from
within an organization do not
achieve extensive s t r u c t u r a I
change without great turmoil.
ON THE OTHER HAND, the
segments of the community who
see the University as discrimina-
tory and who are critical of its
change efforts have a different
perspective. They see their breth-
ren remaining in low-level jobs,
being confronted with University-
developed criteria which impede
their promotion, and recruitment
into higher level jobs (both aca-
demic and non-academic) being
controlled by people looking for
the "right" blacks).
Their starting point is that on-
ly large-scale reordering of re-
sources and crucial alterations of
the University can redress the im-
balances. They ask "Do the people
who are recruited to work for the
necessary change in the system
represent our perspective or the
perspective of the institution?" I
suspect on the weight of present
evidence their answer is the lat-
ter.
They do not see a .great reor-
dering of University priorities, nor
that the changes which Mr. Ham-
ilton says are being made are suf-
ficiently systemic, nor 'that blacks
being hired to work for change
from within represent their in-
terests. It does no good to label
their perceptions as vicious or ig-
norant ("if only they knew what
we're doing"). The fact is that
the perceptions persist and they
do so because the very people the
University is working to help feel
a sense of powerlessness and
frustration.
Racist ''
To the Editor:
THE ESSENCE of racism is the
petty lack of integrity and Jack
Hamilton's letter of Oct. 29, 1969.
to the Michigan Daily, was a bril-
liant display of this phenomenon.
His attack on Miss Alexa Cana-
day. Daily reporter, is proof of the
pettiness and lack of integrity
(racisml which exists at this Uni-
versity. Miss Canaday was merely
reporting the news as it happens
at an HRC meeting. If Hamilton
were a man, rather than attack
a student repoter, hie would: 1
chastise the Ann Arbor News for
reporting the same story and (2
go before the HRC and tell them
what he for Fleming) thinks.
AS HAMILTON well knows the
University has exhibited racism
not only in its employment, poli-
cies, but also in its political and
economic activities. Why does the
University give mortgages to land-
lords who don't lease to black
people. How does the University
explain the relationship between
the Office of Research Adminis-
tration and the military-indus-
trial complex, which practices
racist oppression on the Vietnam-
ese and colored peoples through-
out the world? Why does the as-
sitant director of University rela-
tions condone this school's re-
search activities and facilities in
South Africa. the stronghold of
apartheid? And now freedom of
the press is being challenged be-
cause black concerns were printed.
I hope Hamilton's views are not
the views of those higher up in
the administration. If they are.
then imediate reforms for else
revolution are in order.
-Edward L. Truitt, Jr.
Oct. 29
Bookstore plans
To the Editor:
DESPITE THE ATTENTION
and publicity which have sur-
rounded the student-faculty run
bookstore plan, formulated after
a series of meetings among SGC
members, representatives f r o in
the Central Co-ordinating Com-
mittee, SACUA, representatives
from various college governments
and the administration, and
which has been approved by the
Board of Regents, it seems evi-
dent that some questions concern-
ing the financial aspects of the
bookstore plan still exist. Some
points which bear clarification
are:
11 In order to help insure the
financial success of the bookstore,
it will be managed by a profes-
sional manager appointed by the
Bookstoe Board. Generally a c -
cepted auditing, inventory, a n d
accounting procedures are to be
followed.
2) THE FUNDING of the book-
store will consist of the $100,000
from the "Student Vehicle Fund."
and a $5.00 returnable deposit
which will be collected from stu-
dents.
31 Students only pay the $5.00
deposit once, and it is returnable
when the student leaves the Uni-
versity.
4 The deposit will not be paid
until fall, 1970. All students en-
rolled at that time will pay the
deposit, and any student enter-
.ing the University after the fall
be dAermined by the Bookstore
Policy Board,
7 The Bookstore will be oper-
ated on a policy of maximizing
student savings.
THE QUESTION of whether
or not a university bookstore is to
be established will be determined
by the vote on the bookstore re-
ferendum in the SGC election,
Nov. 10 and 11. A "yes" vote on
this referendum is essential if
we are to have a student book-
store.
--Mike Farrell
SGC, Member-at-large
-Kathy McCarthy, '70
-Al Neff
Central Co-ordinating
Committee
-Neill Hollenshead
President, Lawyer's Club
Oct. 30
justice for Seale
To the Editor:
JULIUS J. HOFFMAN is mak-
ing a mockery out of democracy.
The "judge" has consistently den-
ied Bobby Seale's constitutional
rights to a defense of his o w n
choosing. But when Seale right-
fully protested this repugnant be-
havior, the "judge" had him
"shackled and gagged."
In a democratic society, an in-
dividual has rights and duties.
You cannot deny Bobby Seale's
iights andthen expect him to do
his duties.
What is happening in Julius'
court is not a good example for
foreign students coming f r o m
lands constantly castigated by
Americans for their "lack of
democratic societies," and who
had expected to learn about
"democracy" first hand.
-Aziz Essa
Kuwait, Arabia
Oct. 31
David McMurray
To the Editor:
AFTER READING Ron Lands-
man's article Sunday concerning
David McMurray, a former for-
eign language teching fellow, I
had to write and add my personal
knowledge of David McMurray.
His being forced out of the uni-
versity has to be the most appal-
ling action taken in Ann Arbor
within my four years here.
David McMurray w a s my in-
structor for Spanish III, a course
in which I did receive a C, but I
still feel that he was one of the
finest instructors I have ever had.
I personally detest studying
foreign languages, but I still have
nothing but praise for David
McMurray and h i s Spanish
course. He was within a depart-
inent legendary for its asinine ac-
tions, but he tried nevertheless to
give his students the best course
possible under those circumstanc-
es.
WE CANNOT AFFORD to lose
men of his calibre merely because
a few closeminded professors
thought he didn't fit in. David
McMurray stood up for his stu-
dents when he told his fellow in-
structors that their departments
were outmoded, and I am truly
sorry t h a twe students weren't
given a chance to stand up and
speak for an outstanding instruc-
tor and a fine person.
-Roger A. Keats, SGC
maxwell's
silver hammer
by drew bogena
BACK IN THE Cold War days of the ninth grade - as we learned
the rudiments of chemical and biological warfare in Science, the
architectural requisites for the successful bomb shelter in Shop, and
the physical principles of the ICBM in Math - all of us were required
to take Civics, where we were instructed how to arrange our attitudes
towards the American Way of Life as defined by the Reader's Digest
World-view of things.
Every morning at eight, following the riotous anarchy that was
homeroom, we would stumble into Civics and collapse into our squeaky.
strait-jacketed, desk-chairs. "Shut-Up!" our beloved-football-coach-
turned-social-scientist would bellow, curtailing the social clamor, and
we'd force our attention to the essentials of public education.
First would come thirty distinct and quite ingenious renditions of
the Pledge of Allegiance, all sarcastically and contemptuously done,
mind you (the coach never catching on because he was daydreaming
away of someday becoming a heroic American martyr and/or a wealthy
Eastern aristocrat).
There was never time for any of us to applaud the best pledge of
the day (except the time on Halloween when Mad Marvin, dressed as
Captain Kidd, recited the pledge atop his desk in iambic pentameter,
all the time pretending to walk an imaginary plank, and produced a
standing ovation from the class when he fell off the desk and ripped his
pants), because yesterday's assignment always fell due immediately af-
ter attendance was taken. when the coach-turned-stern-yet-fair-mind-
ed-Calvinist-God would stride about the room inspecting our scrib-
blings.
NO ONE EVER DID homework. All of the kids that were later to be
groomed and earmarked for college and promising positions in society
were possessed of that peculiar ability to answer the questions at the
end of the chapter (by rearranging the right sentences in the proper
part of the text) in lickety-split speed - while the coach was trying to
force the kids who were later to be labeled "hoods" and "grease" to
answer "Here" after their names were called.
THad the coach been a little quicker himself, he might have been
able to recognize absence on careful examination, but he had been a
dum-dum in school. too. and had only escaped the wage-slave dungeon
because of his athletic prowess.
All the while half the class period was gone, and for want of any-
thing else to do. the remainder of the hour was generally spent going
over the questions at the end of the chapter.
As the coach would invariably call upon a dum-dum first to recite
the answer to the Pesist ouestion. and as th dum-dum searched hih
and low first for his book and then for the right page and chapter and
then for the right sentence, we would all slyly slip Lady Chatterly's
Lover or the latest Heinlein thriller underneath our inanely-titled text
(The Bible of American Democracy. or Why We Are So Good, or what-
ever) and read to our heart's delight. All the time undergoing an anx-
iety charged with life-and-death tension. lest our subversive activity
be discovered and be punished by the coach-turned-Stalinist to recite
in front of the class the democratic homilies.
EXCEPT THAT by a strange coincidence. all thirteen members of the
football team happened to be in the same class, so most of our time
was spent upon special projects in the library designed to insure that
our ninety-five pound middle-linebacker would make his first tackle
before the end of the season. We would all huddle in the back of the
room and discuss our one and only trick play, the statue of Liberty
handoff, while the rest of the class watched horror-movies depicting
Communist Encroachments upon Free World Soil.
And, every now and then, the coach would invite the neighborhood
Bircher to deliver a fierce diatribe upon how it was Better To Be Dead
Than Red or to reveal the latest dastardly plot of the Communists,
saved-in- the-nick-of-time-by-vigilant-American -freedom-fighters. such
as "How the Communists Planted Mustard Gas In Our Grape-Flavored
Chewing Gum."
When football season ended, however, and we finished dead last in
our league, our special status and privileges were revoked, and we were
(like the rest of the niggers in the class) fiercely flailed by the Demo-
cratic Pretensions of the Cold War Puitans, sometimes described as
the Twentieth Century's MacGuffey's Reader Revisited.
THE FOREMOST truth upon our roster of democratic anthems
was the divine teaching that although our political system was not per-
fect, it was the best of the humanly derived. It was the product of cen-
turies of freethinking by renowned Anglo-Saxon political theorists, and
decades of backbreaking labor by dedicated patriots and pioneers.
Somewhere around five minutes to nine, every day, regular as
clockwork, the coach would stop this rambling, generally incoherent
moral dictatlo; stare one of us in the eye; tell us that we could thank
our lucky stai's that we lived in good 'ole middle-class America while
half the world starved; and command us to make something of our-
selves in order to justify our good fortune. It was at these times that
the would-be dum-dum would throw us hostile glares.
Meanwhile, back in the USSR, the coach would recount, there lived
the enchained dupes of Karl Marx who never got a chance to discuss
the affairs of state, determine public policy, select leaders, and have
rights like us. We were always told that the world would once again
become a wonderful place to live when Russia had a revolution and
propelled the democrats back to power. It was as if the coach imagined
that Khrushchev, the morning after a fitful sleep, would experience
a vision and immediately decree the establishment of two-party elec-
tions, which, or so we were told. was democracy.
EVERY NOW and then the coach really got into this, his apple
cheeks reddening as his unmerciful stare charged about the room in
fervent search for a heretical smirk, and he would sternly tell us of
the necessity to give all aid short of war to revolutionaries seeking to
overthrow the Communists. This, of course, was never in The Bible of
American Democracy, as we were allegedly earnest in our overriding
desire for peace. Peace on our terms was only implied.
. It was always a big mystery to us how the Communists were able
to remain in power for so long if they were as evil as they were made
out to be. When one kid asked this in class one day, the coach just threw
up his hands and replied'that God acted in strange ways, that perhaps
humans-being what they were, which was to say weak-had to have
a living, visible model of evil before they would be able to discern the
wvisdom of virtue.
Whenever the coach spoke Christianlike, we would all nod our
heads reverently. God was a big mystery to us too, but we had better
things to do with our time, and this seemed the easiest way out. Every-
body knew that fun started after school.
-
..V. Vietam in Washington
NOBODY IS QUITE sure what kind of
stopgap action the President will pre-
scribe during h i s Vietnam address on
Monday. In any case, how far he is will-
ing to go to reduce American involvement
in Vietnam will reflect how significant
he regards the impending demonstration
in Washington.
Several possibilities lie within Nixon's
limited s c o p e for ending the Vietnam
conflict:
- He could announce a de facto cease-
fire. Senator Hugh Scott believes such an
arrangement is already in effect. This
has been loudly denied by the Pentagon,
and it is highly unlikely Nixon w o u 1 d
now venture even this far. At most, he
will probably reaffirm h i s hopes for a
mutual cease-fire and ask that everyone
pressure Hanoi in accepting it. But Nixon
has been saying this all along. It's gotten
him nowhere. It will persuade no one to
stay home on November 15.
-Nixon could announce a specified
troop reduction as he has done in the
past. By indicating that he is cutting troop
levels by a certain number, say 50,000,
Nixon would fool some people into think-
ing that he is taking an honest step
toward peace. But Nixon's previous cut-
backs have proven to be sham. Pentagon
figures show that total troop strength in
Vietnam decreased only 400 in the last
19 months!
REALISTICALLY, IF Nixon does take
action-and he may not-it will pro-
bably only mean a few more men brought
home. I hope that he is not deluding him-
self that this will mollify the people who
are going to Washington to instruct Nix-
on that this war must be ended now.
There are, nevertheless, people in
Washington-including many Senate
doves--who believe that Nixon will take
more meaningful action. They have re-
frained from criticism and are express-