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June 14, 1968 - Image 4

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Michigan Daily, 1968-06-14

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-i,

flye irliigan Bailij
Seventy-seven years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
under authority of Board in Control of Student Publications

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-0552

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

FRIDAY, JUNE 14,1968

NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN GRAY

__ ._

Nuclear treaty:
Going nowhere slowly

THE OPTIMISM created by the adop-
tion of a nuclear non-proliferation,
treaty by the UN General Assembly is an
example of a foolishly sanguine reaction
to an ineffective move toward a distant
goal of disarmament.
When the Geneva conference convened
four and a half years ago, President
Johnson instructed the American nego-
tiators to seek an agreement so "that
future generations will mark 1964 as the
year the world turned for all time away
from the horrors of war." This promise
has not been met.
The treaty, which limits the spread of
nuclear weapons to non-nuclear nations,
is notable more for what it ignores than
for what it includes. For President John-
son to call it "the most important inter-
national agreement in the field of dis-
armament" is to blatantly misrepresent
the true potency of the treaty.
UNDER THE terms of the agreement,
present nuclear powers would not be
affected by any limitations. The continu-
ing produ tion of nuclear weapons by the
United Sates and the Soviet Union will
no doubt continue undisrupted.
Yes, it is encouraging to note that
West Germany, Israel and the United
Downinanship,
SOON AFTER the assassination of Sen.
Kennedy, the President and the Con-
gress moved quickly to provide Secret
Service protection for all active presi-
dential candidates.
Pictures came over the Associated
Press telephoto machine soon after,
showing each of the candidates with
their newly- assigned bodyguards. George
Wallace's protectors were conspicuously
white.
Come on, President Johnson, how
could you have missed that trick?

Arab Republic, nations on the verge of
becoming nuclear powers, agreed to the
terms of the treaty. These nations have
traded the possibility of increased power
for what seems to be a sincere interest
in disarmament.
But after four years of negotiations,
the best the Soviet Union and the United
States could produce is a treaty that af-
fects neither of them.,
ALTHOUGH the failure of the Soviet
Union and the United States to ef-
fectively limit their destructive capa-
bilities is a real tragedy, it is a greater
tragedy -for President Johnson to pretend
an effective treaty exists.
In saying that the treaty "goes far to
prevent the spread of nuclear weapons",
President Johnson is blindly clinging to
a desired ideal rather than seeing the
document for what it is worth.
Rather than blasting the treaty for
not forcing worthwhile steps, the Presi-
dent is twisting the treaty to make it fit
the political glorification of the nations
that signed it.
FOR, the General Assembly's failure to
produce an effective treaty is particu-
larly disappointing when compared to
what could have resulted. Every time a
disarmament conference convenes, the
possibilities inherent in that meeting are
limitless. Every time that meeting results
in a worthless document, however, the
possibility for true disarmament is set
back by false pride resulting from hollow
agreement. This is the shame of the
President's pronouncements.
When leaders place a successful pre-
sentation above an objective view, they
are perpetuating a cruel game of ap-
pearances. A distorted view is substituted
for an accurate view just as a worthless
measure is substituted for an effective
one.
--LESLIE WAYNE
Thanks, Bill
OPENING the mail the other day we
were delighted to find a letter from
William F. Buckley, Jr., urging our sup-
port for a new venture of his, a biweekly
magazine called Combat, dedicated to
exposing the vile machinations of the far
left.
We can only hope that our readers will
respond to this new quasi-literary ven-
ture with the support and enthusiasm
that an undertaking of this magnitude,
deserves.
-W. S.

--- --"

Letters to the Editor

Representative
To the Editor:
Could someone please tell me
what has become of government
of, for, and by the people?
I have listened with incredulity
as countless news broadcasts re-
port the "fact" that Hubert Hum-
phrey has virtually won the Dem-
ocratic nomination for President.
Where does this victory have its
basis-in the mind of some zealous
party official, in the subjective
questions of an "objective" poll?
Certainly not in the past events.
Hubert Humphrey, running, not
inappropriately, under the name
of the Johnson administration,
placed a poor third to both Sen-
ators Kennedy and McCarthy in
all but one state primary. He has
not accepted offers to debate on
the issues at hand. Granted he has
indicated that his views are in
some manner different from those
of the present Administration, but
has left the determination of those
differences up to the people's ima-
gination. In short, he has made
little, if any, effort to apprise the
people of his views.
Claiming self-righteously that
he will stay above "political squab-
bles," Mr. Humphrey in fact plays
the political game to the hilt,
courting delegates and patting the
backs of party leaders.
The only justification which is
offered for his behavior is that
he is limited in what he can say
because he still holds the post of
Vice-President. When, pray tell,
will the transformation take
place? When will the toad become
the handsome prince? Inaugura-
tion Day is rather too late.
And what of the convention
delegates? Where do they derive
their power to represent not the
wishes of the people in their states,
but their personal political in-
terests? How does a man pledged

to the late Senator Kennedy
magically appear on the side of
Humphrey the day after Robert
Kennedy has been buried? Are the
people's rights and opinions also
to be buried?
Senator Kennedy said time and
again that it was Humphrey he
opposed in attitudes and policies,
that it was with Senator McCar-
thy that he had the most in com-
mon politically. And yet, accord-
-ing to a recent New York Times
poll of delegates, more than four
out of every five Kennedy dele-
gates say that they will support
Humphrey. Is this representative
government? Perhaps, but it is
most certainly not representative
of the people.
-Steven Blatt
Law and...
To the Editor:
Ann Arbor used to be a safe
place to walk around in, but
apparently times have changed
and so has the quality of some
of the more unusual people wan-
dering around campus in the ear-
ly morning hours. At around five
A.M. on Saturday a student walk-
ing across the diag was jumped
by three individuals and beaten
brutally. About fifteen minutes
after he was able to inform the
Ann Arbor police of this mishap,
these same individuals assaulted
the authors of this letter on State
Street across from the Union, beat
them, and robbed them of about
ten dollars. During the nearly
half-hour in which this rather
conspicuous and boisterous activ-
ity took place, not one member of
the Ann Arbor police force or even
the omnipresent Sanford Security
was present.
There seems to be no excuse for
the police's delay in sending at
least one scout car to investigate.
It seems even more unlikely that

Sanford Security was so busy pro-
tecting the University from kids
with cans of green spray paint
that they didn't have enough time
to walk around and find out what
was happening to the people on
campus. Ann Arbor used to be a
haven for big-city students who
never before had the opportunity
to walk off their insomnia with
impunity; if this is no longer pos-
sible, at least some effort should
be made to keep State and South
U. from becoming another 12th
and Clairmont.
-Chuck Krause, '71
-Al Safian
-Bob Rubenstein, ~'69
Nincompoop
To the Editor:
The blathering arrogance of our
so-called "student" newspaper
plummeted below its previous
nadirs yesterday when Little Sher-
ri Funn, self-styled "Beatle Ex-
pert" took it upon herself to de-
liver the definitive commentary
on Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band.
Early in the (I hesitate to say
it) review, Miss Funn gets bogged
down in sentimental and trivial
ephemera. Were that not bad
enough in itself, to add insult to
injury, as it were, Miss Funn hap-
pens to be, in my humble estima-
tion, flat wrong.
She babbles on with lines like
"Sgt. Pepper walked the terribly
thin line between good and pre-
tension" and "Bob Dylan, as
usual, was the leader of this new
,honesty' phase in rock with John
Wesley Harding." And everyone
knows Zappa never says "The pre-
sent dayacomposer refuses to die;"
it is inscribed on the album jacket.
If you don't accept this, you are,
a blind, stupid nincompoop.
--Lonnie Lickett, Grad

U RBAN L E H NER
The path of
most Resistance
"MY NAME is Arnie Bauchner," the leaflet began. "Today I am re-
fusing induction at Fort Wayne."
Arnie Bauchner was standing in front of the Ann Arbor armory
at 5:30 yesterday morning when the inductees who would travel to
Fort Wayne by chartered bus and the Ann Arbor Resistance members
who would go by car arrived. He was handing out to the inductees green
mimeographed sheets which explained what he was doing and why he
was doing it. Between writing, re-writing, typing and mimegraphtng
the leaflet, checking last minute details with lawyers, and rehearsing
in his mind what he would do and say, he had only gotten six hours
sleep in the last two days.
The morning was cold, very cold, and gray. The people in front
of the armory chattered and huddled together over thermoses of
coffee. Talk was more an exercise in maintaining blood circulation
than a meeting of minds. Only Bauchner seemed oblivious to the cold
as he gave instructions to the Resistance members in a quiet, com-
posed voice.
COMPOSURE IS a virtue which seems to come naturally to Arnie
Bauchner. He is in his early twenties, dark and mustachioed. He went
to Rutgers and is new a graduate student in the University's sociology
department. He has organized the poor in a Philadelphia neighborhood.
Last Dec. 4, he returned his draft card to the Selective Service System
Deciding to turn in his card was not something Arnie Bauchner
took lightly, and perhaps his cool, almost pensive composure is rooted
in the deep conviction which he has been nurturing over the .past
months, both before and after Dec. 4. For him, as for may in his
position, resistance is more .than an isolated act of defiance; it is a
life-style, a dedication to change society through personal commitment.
Yesterday morning, he seemed genuinely, fatalistically unafraid,
uncowed in a way which those, of us who have continually kept our
decisions one day away, who have refused to wrestle with ou con-
sciences, could never be. On the bus, he feared a little for his safety
men in his position, riding buses'to induction centers to refuse induc-
tion, have been badly beaten by fellow-inductees. But never did h
fear the almost certain prison term which now awaits him.
WITH THE ANN ARBOR resisters, the Detroit resisters, and those
from the Detroit adult support group, the demonstrators must have
numbered 30 or 40. The sky in Detroit was no less bleak than it had
been in Ann Arbor. Only the smells in the air were different. Fort
Wayne sits back off of Jefferson Avenue, an industrial row occupied
mostly by steel mills and taverns, and the smoke from the chimneys
has left the street engulfed in smog.
Across the street is a small Catholic Church, the building of ec-
lectic architectural design - a box-shaped structure with Byzantine
battlements. Four or five MP's guard the old fort's driveway,, a few
feet back from the sidewalk and the red-brick wall. Five or six city
policemen and an F.B.I. agent with a camera stood around yesterday
on the thin strip of grass between the wall and the sidewalk where
the demonstrators slowly walked their signs around in two circles,
one on each side of the driveway. Along the drive, between the side-
walk and the MP's, is a bright green metal trash can; on its side,
in clumsily- stenciled white letters, are the words "Anti-war, Anti-draft
literature and trash here."
The demonstrators on the sidewalk erected a makeshift cardboard
basket of their own and scrawled on it "Government propaganda here."
The picketers were In a polite, almost jocular mood.
THE RESISTANCE people come to Fort Wayne often, for the
center is processing about 100 inductions a day. On days when they
know someone Is planning to refuse induction (three or four a week
do, and the number is increasing) they turn out more heavily. The
military has no authority to arrest those who refuse induction. That
is a matter for the FBI, and indictments are sometimes delayed for
months. But the military can hold a man inside for hours, even days,
before letting him go. They are less likely to do that if they know
people are waiting for the man just outside.
Inside, Bauchner was quickly isolated from the other men. This
was his only regret. He .had hoped to pass out leaflets to all the men,
to talk to many of them, especially those there only for pre-induction
physicals. He could have done it, too, had he been less obvious at the
outset. But then he would have had to endure long'hours of examina-
tions, and he was weary from lack of sleep.
He was taken into a room by himself, and the doors were shut.
The young lieutenant who interviewed him admitted they didn't want
"others to see this." Later, in the-car returning to Ann Arbor, Bauchner
remembered the young officer's defensiveness, his curiosity, his uneasy
pauses when in the course of their pleasant hour-long debate he
couldn't answer certain arguments or seemed to be mulling over a
point.
"THE FIRST THING he said to me was, 'do you have anything
against 'me personally?'" Bauchner assured the lieutenant he didn't
(a graduate of the University of South Dakota with one year of
law school at the University of Wyoming, the lieutenant hopes to go
into finance). Twice during the hour the officer asked Bauchner to
rise, then said, "Take one step forward and repeat this oath and
you will be in the army . . . you don't want to step forward? .. you

refuse to be inducted?"
"He kept insisting that he could be in the Army and still be an
individual," Bauchner said. "It was ironic because every once in a
while he would ask me a question and I would look at him sort of
incredulously and he would say, 'I have to ask this question, I'm just
following orders'."
They talked about the demonstration outside, and about Columbia.
"He appreciated the picketing, said 'that kind of demonstration wins
friends, Columbia loses them.' I told him I thought there were some
occasions, when rational processes break down, where that kind of dem-
onstration is necessary, but I don't think I convinced him.
"I ASKED HIM what he thought a minority should do when the
majority chooses to commit genocide. If a minority of the German
people had told Hitler they didn't intend to play along, would we have
criticized them for violating somebody's civil liberties? He was silent
for fifteen or twenty seconds, then he changed the subject." ;
Bauchner refused to. sign any papers, the lieutenant said that
was sufficient indication of refusal, and he was released.
There are laws regulating what the military can and cannot do
to yet uninducted civilians, but unless a man knows his rights and
is willing to insist on them even in the face of argument by those who
now control his life, he might as well not have them. The possession
of anti-government leaflets is an example. The military police will
insist that those passing through the gate for induction or pre-induc-
tion phyicals surrender their leaflets. Although they don't have to,
most obey. The average man is scared, easily pushed around, and the
military counts on it. If every man insisted on his full legal rights,
the process of induction would be rendered chaotic.
THEN BAUCHNER was with, the picketers, telling them about the
lieutenant, smiling quietly but with little bravado. A stocky black
man, not more than 18 or 19 years old, stopped at the wall, then
turned to the demonstrators. He didn't want to go; he was obviously
confused and impressionable. They talked with him, and the MP's
began to get a little nervous, edging over occasionally to ask them
to "move off the grass." They told him what to do, gave him literature
and phone numbers, but there were too many people talking at once
and he didn't really understand. They forgot to take his name. As he

U

4'

j

--D. 0.

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Sum ner Editorial Staff
DANIEL OKRENT......................Co-Editor
URBAN LEHNER .,...................Co-Editor
LUCY KENNEDY.......Summer Supplement Editor
PHIL BROWN................A.'.Sports Editor
FRED LaBOUR......... ...... Ass't. Sports Editor

The funeral and America: Parallel progress

By ROBERT JOHNSTON
Editor, 1965-1966
College Press Service
SIX a.m. Saturday morning-A
dark orange sun just above the
horizon is struggling with the re-
lentless smog of Northern New
Jersey. It glimmers and flashes on
the shiny tracks of the Penn Cen-
tral. We rumble through Princeton
Junction, Metuchen, New Bruns-
wick, Elizabeth, Rahway.
This is the overnight train from
Washington to New York. It is
crowded Wvith hundreds of blacks,
--young families returning from
visits with parents and grandpar-
ents in the South, or grandmoth-
ers on their way to visit their
children and grandchildren in the
ghettoes of New York, Newark,
and Philadelphia.
Scattered through the train are
maybe two dozen white faces. Most
of these will be returning over
these same tracks in eight hours
aboard the funeral train of Bobby
Kennedy.
8 A.M.-It is full daylight in
New York City; and it is merci-
fully much cooler than yesterday,
when tens of thousands waited
hours in 90 degree plus heat for a
brief look at Bobby's casket in St.
Patrick's. Stores are not open yet,
and traffic on the streets and
sidewalks is still light.
At the Commodore Hotel, Bob-
by's closest friends and staff are

waits patiently to be admitted.
They outnumber only barely the
ubiquitous New York police, New
York plainclothesmen, and Secret
Service. Telegrams and letters of
invitation are carefully scrutin-
ized; ladies' handbags and men's
briefcases are opened and their
contents sifted in front of tele-
vision cameras.
Nobody makes a scene; nobody
has a chance to.
Inside, the honorary pallbearers
stand over the coffin in turn-
Nicholas Katzenbach, L a r r y
O'Brien, Prince; Radziwill, Pierre
Salinger, Arthur Schlesinger,
Sargent Shriver, Andy Williams,
and so forth. Everyone notices
SCLC leader Ralph Abernathy in
his affected blue denims.
10 A.M.-The immediate family
enters from the back and sits just
to the right of the coffin in front
of the altar. They follow Presi-
dent and Mrs. Johnson by just a
few minutes.
The Secret Service is every-
where.
Teddy Kennedy, in an unsched-
uled speech, speaks well and with
emotion of his murdered brother,
"He saw war, and he tried to
stop it." The President shrinks a
little inside, or at least one hopes
so.
Cardinal Cushing's piercing,
monotonous baritone is at least
of a strength to inspire faith
among the deviant, and to lend

11:30 A.M.-The service moves
ahead quickly, ending fifteen min-
utes early.
It is clearly a public spectacle
-a last-ditch effort to paint a
facade of stability over deepening
social crisis. Ethel, Jacqueline and
Teddy Kennedy know the symbolic
reassuring importance of their ab-
solute self-control in front of 200
million Americans and heaven-
knows-how-much of the rest of
the world.
Now begins the ten-hour public
journey to the burial site in Ar-
lington National Cemetery. A se-
lect thousand are put on the fun-
eral train; another 150 are taken
to chartered planes.
The train is 21 cars long-very
long by passenger train standards
in this day and age. With three
diners and three private cars, it
is no doubt the best the Penn
Central has to offer, but that isn't
very much.
On board gloom and boredom
mix into a thick pall of unease
and disinterest. Abundant liquor
and the more jovial of the press
work hard, but unsuccessfully, at
non-lethal conversation; and even
this much never reaches the ears
of guests and friends, who stare
out the window at the passing, sad
crowds, at each other, or at the
seats in front of them.
Television marks the slow pas-
sage of the train through unend-
ing crowds and through a succes-
sion of stations. As it moves south,

away the Capitol dome. The Lin-
coln Memorial, unlit, is barely
visible at the end of the string of
lights that mark either side of
Memorial Bridge; and the White
House, also unlit since the coming
of President Johnson, lies in-
visible in the distance.
The coffin has been loaded at
last into another hearse and is
being borne in a caravan of 24
limousines to the Cemetery.
We see the lights of the caravan
reach the Lincoln Memorial and
pause for a choir's final songs.
Radios among the crowd at the
Cemetery connect the lights across
the Potomac with th'e chorus
voices. On one side of the Memo-
rial the Poor People watch with
the same desperate, quiet incom-
prehension at the thousands of
faces lining the railroad tracks.
Suddenly, out of the blackness,
the huge black cars pull up near
the grave. Faces that have been
waiting six hours turn expectant-
ly. The coffin is borne quickly
from the hearse to the gravesite,
about 40 feet, followed by the fam-
ily, the President, and close
friends. They stand in a close
circle around one side of the
gravesite, which is just beneath
John Kennedy's in a clump of
trees. The services proceed eerily
in a small circle of light in the
pitch black Cemetery. Thousands
of candle-flames mark the limits
of the immediate crowd and the
dimensions of the public watching

sidewalk and are soon off into
the night.
BOBBY IS BURIED. It is 10:45
p.m. The Penn Central, the TV,
and radio, the great, the powerful
and the famous, and 200 million
Americans go back to business-as-
usual.
At least they try.
How long business-as-usual can
be maintained is another question.
When John Kennedy was mur-
dered, there remained to this
country's government a vast pool
of political leadership, and intel-
lectual and financial resources for
the continuation and expansion of
the New Frontier. There are no
such sources of strength now.
There are no billions readily
available, and there is no leader-
ship available to find them and
use them, to accommodate the
blacks' felt demands.
There is no evident way out,
and there is no leadership availa-
ble to find it or effect it, of a
huge, self-perpetuating and self-
defeating war in Southeast Asia.
Business-as-usual is beconing
more and more ; a fool's game,
played in the absence of thought
and in the presence, of both tra-
gedy and revolution.
Reagan plays at Governor.
Nixon plays at perpetual rejuve-
nation. McCarthy plays at Knight-
hood. Rockefeller plays also-ran.
Johnson is getting off the ship.
Harriman plays spin-the-bottle.
The Pentagon plays, "How To

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