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The ACLU's 'responsible
liberal' circus
SATURDAY JUNE 29, 1968
NIGHT EDITOR: STEVE NISSEN
Goin' to Surf City
'cause it's $232
EVERY YEAR (it seems) when tuition
is raised there are cries that it isn't
really anybody's fault.
After all, if the state Legislature had
given us what we requested, we wouldn't
have had to raise tuition. But after all,
if the University had done a better job
in presenting their needs and goals we
would have gotten the money. And after
all, there is a lot of inflation and we do
have to raise faculty salaries and what
with the new unions and all . . . .
Phooey.
There is an alternative. It's simple
enough. We could leave.
Tuition just went up $240 per year for
out-of-state undergrads. It now costs
$1,540 to go to this school.
Out-of-state tuition has gone up 54 per
cent in the past eleven months. No one
can convince me that educational values
received have undergone a similar surge.
And the University wasn't that much of a
bargain when I came here. A bargain,
perhaps, but not that much.
Even the lofty reputation of the school
has shown signs of crumbling in these
past two years. Key faculty members
have left for parts known and unknown,
and with faculty salary ratings at a new
low there doesn't seem to be much hope
that the tide will turn.
If the trend keeps up, a University di-
ploma might carry about as much weight
as one from Hofstra by the time it starts
making a difference to you.
jT MAY INTEREST some of you dis-
gruntled out-of-state students who,
like me, came to the Mother of State
Universities because the costs were rea-
sonable to know that the University of
Hawaii waits beyond the sea.
trips back to the mainland.
Tuition there is $232 a year. Room and
board goes for less than $750. Standby
air fares are $326 round trip from De-
troit. Going to school there would result
in your saving a total of $1,248; enough
for a woody, a surfboard and a few side
trips back to the mainland.
If you're more academically minded,
think for a moment of the library you
could buy with $1,248; or perhaps you'd
prefer a private tutor. Bad as the school
might be, it couldn't be that much worse.
And at least it isn't going downhill.
-JOHN GRAY
By HENRY GRIX
THE QUESTION was, what
didn't they talk about.
The biennial American Civil,
Liberties Union convention, which
ended here Tuesday, was a circus
for "responsible liberals and in-
tellectuals." With relish, the 250
delegates debated and defined
their views on practically every
crucial issue confronting the na-
tion.
But the ACLU was clearly un-
dergoing a transformation during
the convention. The union is
amending its 'ways in what some
say is an attempt to haul the or-
ganization out of New Deal lib-
eralism and to embroil it in the
social problems of today.
IN SIX DAYS, the convention-
eersproduceda prodigious packet
of thoughtful recommendations
which rescinded several past poli-
cies and called for a reorganiza-
tion of the ACLU policy making
national board.
The controversial recommenda-
tions have been submitted to the
national board for adoption as
policy, but some delegates fear
the board might reject some of
them for the first, time in the
union's 48-year history.
Already misread and miscon-
strued, the resolution on civil dis-
obedience has undoubtedly stirred
the most controversy. Reversing a
stand taken by the national board
last year, the delegates suggested
the ACLU should become involved
in certain cases of civil disobe-
dience.;
"There are circumstances uuder
which direct violation of an ad-
mittedly valid law is a method
by which political and social
change can be accomplished, and
the ACLU might be persuaded in
some circumstances to defend vio-
lators," the recommendation
reads.
Last year, the ACLU board
passed a negative judgment on
civil disobedience without the ap-
probation of its constituency.
THE BOARD contended "The
ACLU believes that the way to
correct injustice in a free society
is to change valid laws by per-
suasion, not by their violation ...
"For us, the single question is
whether the act involved can
reasonably be defended as- an ex-
ercise of a constitutional right. If
it can, then we will defend it; if
not, we will not."
If the board accepts the policy,
of the convention delegates, it
would have to rescind the state-
ment it made last year. If the
board identifies its interests with
those of individuals accused of
civil disobedience, it is risking the
possibility of becoming identified
with radical, and violent, protest.
THAT THE DELEGATES tem-
pered their daring recommenda-
tion by limiting the definition of
civil disobedience to nonviolent
protest doesn't matter to most
legislators and citizens who fear
all protest. That they specified the
circumstances under which law-
breaking is defensible is of no
interest to many who secretly feel
the ACLU has been subversive all
along.
Furthermore, by taking on civil
disobedienceecases, the ACLU
would be venturing into legal
quicksand. The national board
formerly took on cases which
they felt involved the "exercise
of constitutional right:" cases
which were defensible from a legal
point of view. But war protest is
based in moral indigation and is
defended as an act of conscience,
not constitution.
Nevertheless, the ACLU would
be giving support to protest
(where it is greatly needed), and
be living up to its reputation as a
defender of civil liberties-any-
one's liberties.
r . . . . : . : : : : " i :{ .: .. . ";:" }:. ": : V.
"... the ACLU was clearly undergoing a
transformation during the convention. The
union is amending its way in what some say is
an attempt to haul the organization out of New
HOWEVER, the ACLU really
has no shining reputation of serv-
ice to big city, ghetto residents.
The union's failure to aid the poor
prompted the delegates to take a
shotgun blast at urban problems.
* The delegates resolved that
equal protection under the law
means equal access to the law,
and suggested that "Judicare" be
provided for all who need it.
0 To increase its "ghetto pres-
ence," the ACLU has already es-
tablished a storefront office in
Chicago, but the convention
sought board approval to increase
the assistance.
tended income maintenance is
now a civil liberty.
Aiming to champion other mi-
nority groups, the convention
considered the problems of youth,
prisoners, the mentally ill and
the military.
The convention churned out
recommendations favoring an 18
year-old voting age, suggesting
a Bill of Rights for youth, en-
couraging diversity in secondary
schools and universities, and ask-
ing equal freedoms for alltthese
groups, including the military.
The ACLU also stiffened oppo-
sition to involuntary conscription
Deal liberalism and to
problems of today."'
embroil it in the social
both caused and justified the ac-
tion.
Besides, the union is feeling
growing pains. In three years,
membership has jumped from
75,000 to 125,000 and the organi-
zation's revenues have skyrocket-
edfrom $700,000 to $1,650,000.
Simply handling the new resour-
ces may require policy shifts.
Furthermore, the ACLU, like
many liberal organizations, is
going through an identity crisis
in which it must change or be-
come identified with the elements
vainly trying to preserve the stat-
us quo.
By its own admission, the ACLU
has in the past concentrated on
protecting the liberties of the Dr.
Spocks and the upper and mid-
dle class intellectuals who dared
challenge the oppressive activities
of government. For example,
1,250 of Michigan's: 5,000 ACLU
members live in the liberal and
upper middle class enclave of
Ann Arbor.
But in Ann Arbor this week,
the union redirected its policies
to include the new form of pro-
test by the long oppressed peoples
of the nation.
In dealing with the reorganiza-
tion of the ACLU itself, delegates
felt more blacks, who had not al-
ready attained prominence, should
be serving the national and local
boards.
The delegates defined blacks
not as Negroes, but as those
"seeking positive identity with
other black men and women."
This desperate attempt to i-
dentify ACLU concerns with the
ghetto would prpbably enrage
many blacks who don't see how
a white man could presume to
think and feel like a Negro.
But the ACLU-at least its rank
and file- is sincere and con-
scientious in what it is trying to
do. Because it not only accepts,
but searches for change, it stands
a good chance of emerging as the
champion of those who deserve
the benefits of that change.
r: :", : r.: r::::. :"::r :"{:::::. :;r.} :?'rtiS~~t;"}}.{s 3s:.}i:":":ยข:g::4'r}:":":>r}:.;"}:"}: "}?':.?":.#s:
* The delegates called for com-
pensation to citizens whose rights
are violated by police, and at the
same time suggested increased
compensation for police.
" The ACLU probably at the
request of the convention also ap-
point a committee to consider
black separatism.
* The convention attacked the
welfare system which contains
"severe and pervasive deprivations
of civil lliberties,
Delegates also charged the
system is based on poor assump-
tions and voted overwhelmingly
for a program of income main-
tenance, or guaranteed annual
wage, that would not interfere
with personal liberties.
THIS WAS THE FIST time the
ACLU became involved in an eco-
nomic issue, but delegates con-
as a violation of personal liberty.
"The present draft law as present+s
ly administered in the present
circumstances violates civil liber-
ties and constitutional guaran-
tees," delegates said.
In the past, the union has said
conscription was a deprivation of
civil liberties justified only in the
overriding interest of national se-
curity.
The new statement is aimed at
"the present circumstances"-
the Vietnam war-which the
ACLU is plainly judging to be not
in the national interest.
It would be unfair to say that
such definitive and liberal poli-
cy statements are not typical of
the union. But at the recent con-
ference, delegates undoubtedly en-
gaged in one of the most dramatic
outpourings of policy revisions
and updatings.
The acelerating pace of history
'You ain't any better than
Viet Cong'
Thanks for the voting rights
but then again ...
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S proposal for a
constitutional amendment to lower
the voting-age nationwide to 18 is an-
other in a recent series of pitches by na-
tional politicians to convince young peo-
ple to "work within the system." As such,
it is both hypocritical and unlikely to bek
very effective.
Had the President been genuinely con-
cerned with advancing "the moral integ-
rity of (the system's) case" (as he put it
in his proposal to Congress), his record
for the years of his administration would
have been considerably different.
In a democracy which in theory is gov-
erned through reasoned debate and the
will of the people, he has shepherded the
nation through a highly unpopular war,
refusing not only to heed but often even
to listen to intelligent and thoughtful
critics of his policies. His administration
has harrassed powerful and vocal dis-
senters with arrests. He has stifled impor-
tant information which might have em-
barassed his administration.
Even now, while appealing to the young
to channel their efforts for change
through the processes of the existing po-
litical system, he and his Vice President
are maneuvering to invalidate the suc-
cesses students working within the system
have scored for McCarthy and Kennedy
in the primaries.
HUBERT HIJMPHREY'S attempt to win
the nomination (in defiance of every
expression of the people's will in the pri-
mary elections) by marshalling the votes
No comment
'THE STUDENTS of Saigon unaccount-
ably have launched a peace move-
ment of their own, urging political settle-
ment of the war . . . What they think
they would gain by quitting and letting
the Communists overrun their nation is
beyond us."0
-Eric Sevareid on the CBS Evening News
-D. MICHAEL SHAPIRO
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TTRAN LHNERC................ Co-Editor
of the pros who will serve as delegates,
is far from the only reason for the disen-
chantment of students with the political
system. But it certainly does add to the
questions being raised about the value of
the franchise for anyone, much less those
under 21. If the power of the voter is as
negligible as events in the last four years
(including Humphrey's heavy-handed
campaign) seem to -indicate, why should
18-20 year old Americans get excited
about the prospect of enfranchisement?
STILL, whatever the motives of 'those
proposing the amendment, students
and other young people should and prob-
ably will support it actively. As voters,
their influence in Presidential elections
will be small, but it will still be an influ-
ence: perhaps enough to change the re-
sults in a few states in very close elec-
tions.
Furthermore, their impact on Congres-
sional and local elections could be consid-
erable, especially in university-dominated
communities (assuming the absence of
laws, like Michigan's, barring the gain or
loss of legal residency merely because of
student status); Robert Scheer's 1966
campaign for Congress in Berkeley gar-
nered 45 per cent of the vote and would
have won easily had students under 21
been allowed to vote. The franchise would
give students the opportunity to influence
the decisions in their local communities
which are probably their greatest con-
cern-decisions on housing and parking
regulations, for example.
Finally, they should and will support
the amendment because it is based on im-
peccable logic. University students and
even high school graduates who don't con-
tinue their education are at least as po-
litically and intellectually mature as half
of the adults who now vote. If maturity
and political understanding are to be the
criteria, let them be applied without ex-
ception or let them be abandoned and
identified as mere pretense employed by
those who irrationally fear for their own
overrated political influence.
And if President Johnson and those like
him wish hypocritically' to enfranchise
those under 18, let them; and let the first
political acts of those newly enfranchised
be to cast the votes which put them out of
office.
-URBAN LEANER
We believe you
A NEW YORK CITY policeman was in-
terviewed yesterday on CKLW radio.
He reported that reports of police bru-
tality during the recent uproar at Co-
lumbia were greatly exaggerated.
He claimed, for example, that a widely-
By NADINE COTIODAS
1URSDAY night about 15
people quietly picketed the
State Theater's showing of the
latest John Wayne movie, "The
Green Berets'.' What started out
to be a sideshow for the early
comers to the 9:00 show soon
turned into aheckling spectacle
performed by various and assorted
patrons of the 7:00 show who
were leaving the theater.
Richard Cook, informal spokes-
man for the picketers, had earlier
told me the group was not any
particular organization but simply
a collection of interested people.
He said they had conferred with
the police about picketing and
all the police asked was that the
picketersestay on the sidewalk.
The police said patrolmen would
be on hand in the event of any
trouble, Cook added.
The picketers were not what
some might exepct (i.e. barefooted,
bearded, unkempt and grubby)
but rather neatly dressed young
men and women carrying care-
fully printed signs made with thin
black magic marker on plain
white'tackboard. Some signs
read "Save you $1.75 and join us."
Others read "Not misleading but
DULL" or "Why glorify violence?"
From the onset of the picketing
around 8:45, one heckler, who
claimed to have sat through five
showings, stamped up and down
State Street hollering "You're all
sheep. You ain't any better than
the Viet Cong. You ain't even
set foot out of the United States."
A little later I asked him why
he was so vehemently opposed to
the pickets and why he liked the
movie. He told me the movie
showed there weren't any rules
to the game and that everybody
should see the blood and the gore.
He said it's "kill or be killed and
I don't want to be killed."
When I asked him if he had
already been in service, the man
said he wouldn't fight because
"I'm a very religious man."
Much of the waiting crowd,
however, was silent as they
watched the picketers. Some
f~
-Daily-Larry Robbins
Protesting the pictorial peril
looked on with amused but toler-
ant smiles. Others snickered or
shook their heads.
About 9:05, however, things
picked up. The early show-goers
same out and were met squarely
in the face with the dozen or so
picketers. One group of young
men and women shouted a cho-
rus of boos and one irate woman
in that group yelled, "You big
babies !"
The most vociferous and most
noticeable heckler was a corpu-
lent, six foot-four inch young
man known only as "Big John."
He was dressed in faded blue
jeans, motorcycle boots, a grease-
stained blue work shirt, a black
sleeveless denim vest with a skull
and crossbones on the back in-
scribed "God's Children," and a
large silver swastika hanging
from his neck. (Someone later
explained Big John is a Califor-
nia Hell's Angel transplanted to
Ann Arbor.)
Surrounded by a group of ad-
mirers, Big John ticked off a list
of obscenities and hollered about
"saving the world myself." He
stormed into the picket lines
but was admonished to retreat
by Lt. Eugene Staudenmaier who
was standing calmly and unob-
trusively, in plainclothes among
the pickets presumably to keep
order.
I asked Lt. Staudenmaier about
the legality of the picketing since
Cook had told me the group re-
ceived police clearance. Stauden-
maier quickly corrected me -- "I
can't give anybody clearance.
This is one of their free rights-
as long as there's no trouble."
I noticed that two patrolmen
had come to join Staudenmaier
and were quietly sitting in a
police car in front of the A&P.
Before I could ask the policeman
nearest me anything at all, he
said "No comment. I just came
up here to see what everyone.
else is looking at."
A little later this same patrol-
man told the photographer cov-
ering the picketing for The Daily,
"If you want to keep that camera,
Mister, you better turn it in an-
other direction. You can't take
my picture. It's a violation of my
privacy."
By this time the crowd had
considerably thinned out and the
angered policeman and his con-
panion left. John Smith, mana-
ger of the theater said he had
known nothing about the, picket-
ing but allowed it was "quite a
bit of excitement for an opening
night." The picture is scheduled
to play either one or two weeks
and judging from Thursday's
crowd, will probably be held over.
Corporal Patterson, a Green
Beret back from a six month
tour in Vietnam as a demolition
expert was leaning against the
theater talking to a friend. He
had received a free pass to the
movie. I asked him his reaction
to the movie and the accompany-
ing activity. He said the picture
was "strictly Hollywood" but it
didn't either "play up or down"
the U.S. role in Vietnam.
Patterson said at times he felt
he had "an axe to grind" with
"these people" (the picketers),
but he said this kind of dissent
only made soldiers already in
Vietnam fight harder.
But I don't think the picketers
would have fought, or would fight,
any harder at all, no matter how
anybody reacted. They marched
for something less than an hour,
didn't really engage in active ar-
gument with anyone, let their
views become known, and then
disbanded and went home. Noth-
ing more.
fut Iit
Letters to county chairmen. Let-
ters to newspaper editors. Meetings
with community leaders. The
campaign's f e w professionals,
would handle delegates; the rest
would be for unpaid volunteers.
Peripherally, Ganz indicated
that McCarthy forces would be
backing the Mississippi Freedom
Democrats in Chicago in their at-
tempt to get their credentials
p
4
McCarthy fights the
By D. MICHAEL SHAPIRO
I-IE McCarthy campaign is,
quite evidently, now at the
crossroads. dRghnafter the New
York primary, m 1h of the nation-
al staff gathered in the cam-
piagn's New York state headquar-
ters on Columbus Circle, and made
an effort at figuring what was
to come.
Harold Ickes, Jr., and the three
began talking strategy.
The huge pile of problems were
abundantly clear. How do we af-
fect the already-chosen delegates
who have made no public com-
mitments? How do we prove
Humphrey is a loser and McCar-
thy a winner? How do we con-
tinue to associate Humphrey with
the drastic policies of the cur-
. .. '