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T4r ir4igan Daul
Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
rd St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552
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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1969 NIGHT EDITOR: MARTIN A. HIRSC
HMAN
"For inventory purposes, Mr. President, what else had
you traded for Judge Haynsworth's nomination.. .?"
- /
Thos
By DREW BOGEMA
EVERYONE had to take Government in
high school as it was required by state
law. One couldn't graduate without it. To
not graduate was to be consigned to the
living dungeon of the blue-collar w a g e
slave, who couldn't have big cars, lots of
money, or be happy. Ever. This, future his-
torians will probably say, was the only im-
portant aspect of the Fifties (which ex-
tended by accident to 1965).
Everybody knew this except the hoods,
who had brand-new 409 cubic-inch GTO's,
lots of money, and always went about put-
ting on pretentious fronts mnaking it look
as though they were joyous, carefree life-
lovers. Maybe their parents, we thought,
bribed them nottoraise hell. Anybody who
was anybody in the student-nigger crowd
knew that the grease would not be ade-
quately prepared for adulthood, that their
tight-pants, pointed shoes, slicked-down
greasy ducktail hair would eventually
make some girl pregnant, leading them,
one and all, to the crushing deprivation of
the wage-slave. They'd get their due, if we
had to have a revolution.
To avoid the oppression of the wage-
slave life-style, our parents hammered
away day after day, one had to pay atten-
tion in class, make good grades, get into a
good college, and acquire a well-paying
position with a prominent firm. Along the
way, one would pick up the styles, man-
nerisms, and interests of the affluent. And,
after a decent marriage, the final step was
to move out to the suburbs so that you
could experience the joys of growing child-
ren and provide for the family as y o u r
father had done for yours, living all the
time in a hopeless state of anxiety for the
two or three weeks a year when you could
go on vacation, return to childhood and
have fun again. This was the way middle-
class dynasties perpetuated themselves.
To do well in class, one f i r s t had to
know what the limits of the subject-matter
were. This is why if you go into any su-
lurid drugstore novels
burban school on the f i r s t day of the
school year you will invariably see every-
one desperately leafing through their text-
books to see how much they are required
to learn.
The trick was to look at the last chapter
and see if one could answer the questions
at the end. If they weren't too difficult,
then behavior for the rest of the year was
predetermined - sleep - on the desks, in
the physics books, in the library, on field
trips, doing push-ups, waking only for the
bell and for lunch when school really came
alive. There were entirely too many lurid
drugstore novels to keep up with if one was
to find out how it really was in the world.
EXCEPT FOR GOVERNMENT. Nobody
could ever figure out why we had to take
the course. One had to take Math because
when you grew up you might be called on
to keep your checkbook in balance, except
if you were rich, then you didn't have to.
One had to take English to become a liter-
ate, well-read conversationalist, a talent
that was supposed to be of value at cock-
tail parties. The hoods took Shop so that
when they became wage-slaves they could
putter around in their shabby basements
in order to pacify their hostility and ag-
gression at being common proles instead
of limosine liberals. One took History in
order to be able to know what the holi-
days stood for.
But Government had the most elusive
content. Everybody knew about the gov-
ernment and nobody knew about the gov-
ernment. The government was the Presi-
dent and Congress and the Supreme Court
except on the second Tuesday in November
every four years when the Electoral Col-
lege was the government. The government
was Huntley and Brinkley, filling in the
unused space on the tube after the five
o'clock movie and the beginning of prime
time at seven. The government was Super-
man, the FBI, the PTA, the AFL-CIO, the
local traffic cop. The Government was ev-
erywhere, was everybody. How could we
be expected to know everything?
When you tried to ask someone why we
had to take Government, they would al-
ways come down with an attack of the
mumbles-different mumbles of course for
different people. If you asked anyone con-
cerned with the administration of the
school, they would say that it was to help
young people handle their adjustment to
authority. If you asked the teacher, he
would solemnly tell you of the necessity
for each citizen to know of the duties and
obligations he must fulfill in return for the
generous outpouring of governmental serv-
ices that was said to make up these United
States of America. If you pidgeonholed
some hood leaning up against a wall in
the corridor, he would say that Govern-
ment's essential purpose was twofold: to
tell the would-be crook which laws he
could break without risking punishment
and to advise hooligans on their rights
and privileges so they couldn't be arbi-
trarily pimped by a tyrannical govern-
ment. We had smart hoods.
OUR FEARS that we would be required
to know everythin'g in order to pass the
course were somewhat soothed when we
found out what Government class was all
about. Government was the teacher wear-
ing white socks, which means of course,
that anything passing from his lips was not
to be heeded. Even though he could force
us to memorize the names of the Cabinet,
recount the complicated process of how a
bill became a law, or count the number of
states Goldwater had carried on a single
hand, he could never command out alle-
giance and loyalty because of his white
socks and clashing K-Mart clothes he wore
day after day. Our parents had told us
that proles were not to be listened to.
But, still, nobody ever knew why.
However, everything is now clear. Gov-
ernment was required in order to make sure
that we would accept the existence order
of things and not change much-maybe
the seniority system or the Electoral Col-
lege, practices that even the elders said
were antiquated. Government was required
to make sure that we would be indoc-
trinated to the sit-tight-after-the-great-
struggle consciousness.
Our parents had beaten back the deathly
poverty of the Depression and valiantly
crushed those Nazi devils who tried to
steal wealth by take-over rather than make
an honest dollar from their own labor, and
had set up a political system in which
success depending upon how much praise
and reverence one showed toward these
accomplishments. It was our duty to pick
up where they had left off, to continue
the crusade to make the world good for
General Motors.
WHERE TELEVISION and parental
training failed to instill you with good ole'
one-hundred-per-cent American greed,
Government class would take over to show
you a network of rules that favored 'the
bourgeois, apathetic, unthinking existence
where the private search for wealth and
social isolation were the order of the day.
Government would phrase all the impor-
tant nitty-gritty of living with two-hun-
dred-million others into dogmatic claptrap,
that made you feel as though this was
Sunday school so you wouldn't pay atten-
tion and daydream instead.
Government was described in such a life-
less way in order to insure that in the
future whenever a common prole or even
a well-to-do man on the make began to
read of government policy, the old, never-
buried memories of boring days in Govern-
ment class would make them throw up
and quit thinking about the blind leading
the blind.
No dice. Some fool came around and
because everybody was so bored with it
all, people listened. The message was short
and missionaries sprung up all over the
land to carry the teachings of the prophet:
it doesn't have to be this way.
Or, maybe it was just that those luscious
drug-store novels were too delicious.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
~~~4'L lAS kJ46 *.~ N~4.%. ~b9.
Stop worrying about quaddie
and Th, i Smdat
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The Haynsworth defeat
as a Nixon victory
rrHE POLITICAL intrigue surrounding
the defeat of the nomination of
Judge Clement F. Haynsworth has served
to obscure the essential nature of the
conflict and to spotlight the Nixon ad-
ministration's role in the losing battle.
This, of course, is not necessarily bad
since the results of the nomination a r e
bound to have a profound effect on the
President's immediate political future.
Besides, it was heartening to see Presi-
dent Nixon's stalwart fight to appoint
Haynesworth end in disaster for the Chief
Executive. For once it seemed as if the
consummate politician had goofed and as
if his strategy to coddle the South and
coerce the Senate was crumbling.
UNFORTUNATELY this apparent out-
come of the fight is deceptive.
The defeat of the Haynsworth nomina-
tion in no way spells defeat for the Ad-
ministration policies and may in fact be
utilized to whittle away the energies and
resources of the loyal opposition. Nixon
may still win his crusade on behalf of
the silent majority.
Meanwhile, the President has yet to lose
the war to make the court more moder-
ate. Perhaps because it is interesting and
important to speculate on how the de-
feat reflects back on the new President
there has been a tendency to discount
or ignore the impact of the incident on
the court itself.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, that impact will be
considerable. Although the high court is
not, as some pundits contend, the prime
mover of this society, it is the catalyst
for significant and liberal social change.
In the last two decades it has made a
series of landmark decisions found al-
tering the directions of change.
Now the most consistently liberal mem-
bers of the court (Justices Douglas, Mar-
shall, Black, and -- sometimes - Bren-
nan) will be outvoted by the more moder-
ate and conservative forces (Justices
Burger, Harlan, Stewart, White and the
new nominee).
Jdi/orial Staff
HENRY GRIX, Editor
SIEVE NISSEN RON LANDSMAN
City Editor Managing Editor
LANIE LIPPINCOTT ...,.. Associate Managing Editor
JENNY STILLER..............Editorial Page Editor
LESLIE WAYNE ArtE di,
While it will prove impossible for the
newly constituted court to reverse trends
begun in the last 20 years, the judicial
branch will surely not break ground.
It may be taken for granted that t h e
President will eventually appoint a con-
servative whose integrity is beyond re-
proach and whose nomination will be
confirmed. The President has vowed to
swing the balance of the court to the right
and no one doubts he will succeed.
,THE STRATEGY w h i c h defeated
Haynsworth then, was aimed n o t
primarily at changing the complexion of
the court (although the single most im-
portant reason for the defeat was un-
doubtedly Haynsworth's questionable
anti-labor and anti-civil rights stands)
but was designed specifically as a slap at
the President.
Such an outpouring of energy to fore-
stall the inevitable is understandable on
the part of the opposition party: the
tougher they can make life for the Presi-
dent, the better their own prospects for
future victory. But that so many prestig-
ious Republicans-17 in fact-voted
against confirmation was somewhat
stunning. The party leadership deviated
from the Nixon line because of ethical
commitments (held over from the Fortas
affair) and political commitments (pend-
ing in upcoming elections).
BUT IT MUST not be forgotten t h a t
Nixon has made efforts to entrench
his power not on party lines alone. If tle
Nixon strategy is to lure the South into
the Republican camp, he can still do so.
Despite the stinging criticism of some
southern skeptics, Nixon can justly claim
that he tried valiantly to get their man
into office. It was really those northern
liberals who messed up the whole thing.
In the end, the President will compel
the Senate to buckle down and appoint
his man. After all, Nixon is the only one
who can make the suggestions. And the
lesson for the South will be that it can
rely on Nixon; the lesson the liberals al-
ready learned is that they cannot.
Hopefully, liberal members of the Sen-
ate will not jump to the conclusion that
this President is really inept and quite
vulnerable. Although some optimistically
claim that the administration bungled
the whole thing and can't even dominate
its own party, the President is merely
proving himself to be his own man.
To the Editor:
NEWS ARTICLES which ap-
peared in the October 22, 1969
and November 1, 1969 issues of
the Michigan Daily cited incidents
of posible food poisoning. T h e
first article w a s entitled "Food
Poisoning Likely in Barbour Sick-
ness." The second article was en-
titled "Residential College Stu-
dents Hit by Outbreak of "Quad-
die Disease'."
Reports from the Department of
Environmental Health and Safety
have now become available to' our
Office which after thorough in-
vestigation there is no evidence
available to indicate that f o o d
poisoning occurred in either case.
This fact has been communicated
to the residents of b o t h Betsy
Barbour and East Quadrangle.
Those residents and other inter-
ested students are encouraged to
discuss these reports w it h Mr.
Lynn Tubbs, Assistant Director of
University Housing - Food Ser-
vices.
WE ARE VITALLY concerned
about possible cases of food-borne
or other sicknesses. Any suspic-
ions of such possible diseases
should be called immediately to
the attention of Food Service per-
sonnel in the specific building
and/or the Department of Envir-
onmental Health and Safety in
Health Service.
-John Feldkamp, Director
University Housing
Nov. 25
Great aspirations
To the Editor:
WITHIN THE SCHOOL of Edu-
cation, either the majority of un-
dergrads are silent or there is a
"silent majority" (if you'll excuse
the expression). It it difficult to
believe that the latter is true-
that the majority of ed. students
don't "agree in principle" (as the
faculty did) with the ideas pro-
moted by the students who are
trying to effect a change. Neither
possibility says very much for the
majority of undergrads who
haen't shown interest in the Ed.
School's Cinderella movement.
The problem here, is that it's going
to take a lot more than a wave
of a wand to transform the Ed.
School into a progressive and
worthwhile institution.
The students who are working
toward the long overdue change,
are progressive and innovative in
their thinking. They are unwilling
to passively melt into the mold
which the structurally inflexible
Ed. School offers them. This type
of undergrad student will be best
qualified to benefit from and prove
the merits of the Ed. School of the
future because of his ability to
think independently and creative-
ly.
The discussion and plans, thus
far, seem to indicate that the new
Ed. School will promote and en-
courage the development of this
kind of thinking. It is also this
type of student who will become a
teacher who is capable of helping
students develop in this way.
IT IS UNFORTUNATE that the
majority of undergrads in the Ed.
School is unwilling or unable to
look critically at its program and
take action to improve it. There
are many who don't care if they
are getting a good education. To
them, the importance of the Ed.
School is only as a means toward
the end of receiving a teaching
certificate. There are also those
students who are serious in their
aspirations to become teachers.
but they are not capable of think-
ing more independently. The un-
willing and the unable students
are not the kinds of students who
will make the future Ed. School
a successful one.
The progress which the minority
of students has made to accom-
plish the necessary change is both
exciting and encouraging. It is un-
fortunate that more students, es-
pecially undergrads, either because
of unwillingness, inability, or a
third possibility, laziness, haven't
given thought, time, and support
to a movement as important as
this one.
-Carolyn Koppy, '71
Dec. 1
Agnew's mandate
To the Editor:
FINALLY! Now we know what
Nixon meant after his defeat in
California when he said the press
would not have him to "kick
around" in the future. He was not,
as the facts have born out, refer-
ring to his retirement; but, rather,
prophesying the end to freedom of
the press in this country.
How else are we to .interpret
Agnew's selection of the New York
Times and the Washington Post
for criticism when he leaves un-
mentioned such fanatically anti-
communist rags as the New York
Daily News or the chain of Hearst
papers?
The Daily News with a circula-
tion about three times that of
the Times, went as far last sum-
mer as to encourage editorially an
all out war between Russia and
China in the name of freedom.
PERHAPS THE portion of the
media under attack should take
seriously Agnew's mandate for
"objectivity" in a way he never
suspected.
Indeed, we might all profit
from more exposure to the "facts"
about our tragic involement in
Vietnam, our presence in Latin
America, or our distorted national
priorities.
-Margo Mulvehill, Qrad
Nov. 21
Impounding fee
To the Editor:
RECENTLY my stolen bicycle
was recovered by the Ann Arbor
Police Department. I was appalled
to discover that I was charged
what was in effect a service fee
for its return. I was charged a
$3.00 impoundment fee.
Apparently people have b e e n
paying this fee from time imme-
morial without ever understand-
ing the underlying principle. I was
being charged for services that
the police department should have
rendered free. The return of stol-
en property is their tax-supported
Job.
IT IS NOT incidental that
something like this should ocur.
If one examines the law under
which this impounding was au-
thorized, he will find that an ex-
treme degree of legal w o r d-
stretching was necessary to im-
power the police to act in this
manner.
It would be ideal if the City
Council of Ann Arbor were to take
steps to rectify t h e appallingly
outdated, ambiguous, and unsat-
isfactory bicycle ordinances.
-Laurence R. Kamins
Nov. 16
Capitalist crimes
To the Editor:
THE DAILY -- like the national
press - constantly plays up the
Weathermen as the "militant" or
"leading" faction of SDS. This
group of crazies and police agents
who split away from SDS at the
Convention in June have since
then' gone around attacking the
people and in general discrediting
SDS.
It is no surprise that they sought
a $20,000 pay-off in Washington
in exchange for remaing non-
violent. So much for t h e i r
"principles."
What is strange is that the
Moratorium refused the offer, es-
pecially since their friends t h e
Mobe leaders helped to bribe SDS
with the offer of a headquarters
and accommodations if we would
call off our rally at the Labor
Dept. Maybe they reasoned a few
more attacks on the people in the
food
name of SDS would further turn
off students and workers to radi-
cal alternatives . . .
WHAT THE Mobe leaders, the
politicians, the administrators.
and the Weathermen all fear in
common is an antiwar movement
that rejects them and sides with
working people, who have the good
reason and potential strength to
smash imperialism.
This is why they refused to
grand a permit for the Labor Dept.
rally. We understand why T h e
Daily chose not to report t h a t
rally. By spreading Nixon's myth
about a great silent majority
(read: the working class) who are
responsible for the war, The Daily
attacks those who are striking
against the very warmakers even
when the government cries the
strikes are sabotaging the national
interest (the Vietnam war).
The Daily has ignored the G.E.
strike in Edmore, Mich., which
SDS'ers from Central and Alma
have supported, and where work-
ers have bei busted for keeping
out scabs.
The Daily ignored the campus
workers' strike at Wayne State,
which SDS mobilized students to
support. The Daily neglected to
report the militant demonstration
led by SDS at MSU to block a
G.E. recruiter, which resulted in
two SDS'ers being arrested f a r
assault and battery.
DESPITE THE Daily and the
rest of the liberal press - both of
which push student power -, stu-
dents led by SDS are increasingly
allying with working people in a
common struggle against racism
and imperialism.
We are allying particularly with
campus workers to expose the uni-
versities for the racist bosses they
are.
The ruling class and its press
fear this alliance becausa they
know it threatens their power and
profits.
-Roger Forman, SDS
Peter Ostrow, SDS
Nov. 19
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