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May 18: The Hunters
Won't Go Home
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1966
NIGHT EDITOR: MARTHA WOLFGANG
The Unique 'Rebellion'
At Northern High School
DETROITERS talking about the North-
ern High crisis lack the language
necessary to provide a title for the group
of individuals who led the walk-out and
virtual removal of Northern Principal
Arthur Carty.
THEY CANNOT bring themselves to call
them the Northern Students, because
they know that Northern is one of De-
troit's lowest-ranking high schools when
academic prestige is measured.
They will not call them the Northern
Rebels, because this term smacks of the
hatred and bitterness they fear under-
lies the Northern crisis-hatred for the
suburbanites and taxpayers who ignore
and avoid the inner city.
They will not refer to them as the
Northern Rascals, becauses that would
indicate some humor in the whole af-
fair, and if it was nothing else, the North-
ern affair was very grim.
They won't term them the Northern
Kids, becauses that would make them ap-
pear to hold something in common with
their own kids, and this cannot be.
Detroiters-in letters to newspapers, in
conversations at home and at work and
elsewhere-usually refer to the individu-
als who staged the Northern High protest
as 'them." They think of 'them" as mis-
fits, the victims of something wrong with
Detroit and America for years.
ETROITERS KNOW Northern is at the
gates of the Inner City, on Grand
Boulevard and Grand River. Sports fans
know that the home of the Red Wings,
Olympia Stadium, can be seen from the
Northern playground. Savants know that
Northen is close to Barry Gordy's "Hits-
ville U.S.A." Motown, the birthplace of a
Negro culture of sorts in the Western
World. Farther down the Northern dis-
trict is the New Center, site of two ex-
pensive new hotels, Detroit's main legiti-
mate theater, and the headquarters of
General Motors.
Those who remember the news remem-
ber the Northern Scandal of January,
1965. At that time, a radio commentator
exposed prostitution, narcotics peddling,
brutal intimidation, and a frightening
world of violence on the steps in front of
Northern. The police acted then.
In short, Detroiters felt this way about
Northern: they knew it was hard to avoid
When driving in Detroit, they knew it
served a depressingly poor Negro neigh-
borhood that was bad off though better
than some in the city, and that they
wouldn't want to be there for long.
Northern, to them, was a depressingly
dangerous place.
AT A TIME WEN Northern was not in
the minds of Detroit citizens, prin-
cipal Arthur Carty censored an editorial
.criticizing the administration and the
school's inferior academic climate. This
precipitated the protest. And suddenly,
Northern was n the news again.
For over a week, varying numbers of
students stayed home from scool. Student
spokesmen-if they could be called stu-
dents-called it "a protest against in-
ferior education." They demanded aca-
demic reform.
The first reform called for was the re-
moval of Principal Arthur Carty, whom
an assistant principal at another Detroit
high school called "sort of a hard-nosed
demagogue."
Meeting with Superintendent of Schools
Samuel Brownell, the protestors gained
the r first request after oveer seven days
of private discussion. Carty was removed
to an office in the Schools Center Build-
ing and replaced by Assistant Principal
George Donaldson, a more kindly admin-
istrator with experience for the last five
Editorial Staff
CLARENCE FANTO .......................Co-Editor
CHARLOTTE WOLTER.................... Co-Editor
BUD WILKINSON.....................Sports Editor
BETSY COHN ...... ........... Supplement Manager
NIGHT EDlITORS: Meredith Elker, Michael Heffer,
Shirley Rosick, Susan Schnepp, Martha Wolfgang.
Business Staff
years as a counselor in some of the city's
more gentle schools.
Northern students went back to school.
They said another walkout could be ex-
pected if other academic reforms were
not granted-academic reforms which
they have not publicly articulated.
THERE ARE several interesting observa-
tions to be made about the Norther
crisis:
-The walkout was conceived, organ-
ized, and staged solely by Northern stu-
dents, casually referred to in athletics as
the "Eskimos." The Freedom Schools and
other activities staged by individuals from
Wayne State University and local
churches, significantly Father David Gra-
cie, must be ignored. It appears these in-
dividuals moved in on the Northern Crisis
only after it was full-blown and could be
considered respectable in idealistic circles.
-In one of Detroit's toughest neigh-
borhoods, there was no violence. A high
official in the Schools Center said she
was amazed, when she sat in her car out-
side Northern during one picketing ses-
sion, that she could hear no obscenities
-The protestors were not backed by
parents. There was no vocal Northern
P.T.A. backing the protestors. An offi-
cial of another Detroit high school said
"if it happened anywhere else the par-
ents would be in on it immediately, prob-
ably wringing their kids' necks." This re-
flects the lack of roots most students at
Northern have known throughout their
lives.
THEPROTESTORS were not extrava-
gant or militant. They spoke simply
and without emotion. Any bitterness did
not show. Their chagrin did. When asked
where he had gotten the idea to stage
the protest, one leader replied, "From at-
tending inferior schools all my life."
-No mention was made of college pre-
paratory or occupational training. The
protestors merely spoke of "inferior edu-
cation" and even failed to explain how
this was manifest at Northern. How these
individuals relate themselves to the col-
legiate communuity must be explored in
greater deptth, because college has an im-
portant place in alleviating all Northerns.
--Suddenly Superintendent Brownell
had removed Carty. Detroiters were deep-
ly annoyed. As a result several significant
wards showed their lack of support for
the move by defeating the Detroit school
millage last Monday. Most observers be-
lieve reaction against the Northern de-
cision was responsible for the way vot-
ers decided.
IT IS EASY to envision how Brownell
came to make his concession. With
Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh preparing for
and embarking on a two-week European
tour-reflecting his preoccupation with
his evolving senatorial campaign-Brow-
nell was forced to act independently and
without backing from the top city official.
Police Commissioner Ray Girardin, who
instituted the city's tough, technically
polished, and competent tactical mobile
unit to stop mob violence, has been con-
cerned with maintaining friendship with
the Negro community while sincerely
combatting crime, and could be counted
on to approve any move to keep relations
pleasant.
Brownell, with retirement less than
two months off and no successor in sight,
could hardly be expected to lead the
school system into a long-term and vio-
lent crisis. Other crises concerning teach-
er unionism were shaping up. Brownell's
decision to assure students that the in-
justices and poor standards of Northern
could be alleviated can be seen as jus-
tifiable in light of the position he was
worced into.
IF ALL IS QUIET on the Northern front,
it is because the protestors have at last
blurted out their frustrations and have
seen part of their frustrations alleviated.
Furthermore, before they complete
their move toward academic reform, they
lust learn something about quality edu-
cation, for this is entirely new to them.
But there will be more demands from
Northern, and Detroiters will have to ex-
amine something they have shunned and
shuddered at for years. Northern has
sudden1v hecome integrally involved in
By LEONARD PRATT
HAVING ONE'S jugular vein
lacerated by a giant bat, the
side of one's head blown off by an
explosive telephone or being
strangled with a rosaryrprobably
aren't really such horrible ways
of dying. It's the reason for dying
that way that could get on a per-
son's nerves.
Yes sports fans, The Hunt has
come to Ann Arbor. Patterned af-
ter the plot of the film "The
Tenth Victim," The Hunt's object
is the arrangement of mock mur-
ders. Successful "hunters" or vic-
tims who are able to sniff out
their adversaries and do unto
them first, are awarded with
points. The more exotic the "kill"
the more points gained for it, un-
til a party at the end of the term
closes competition. Bloody Maries
will no doubt be served.
THE UNIVERSITY of Chicago's
Hunt organizers call it "a means
of letting off aggression, a way to
break some of the academic ten-
sion." The original film called it
"a safety valve for humanity's lat-
est aggressive instincts." It is all
that and more.
Primarily it is another facet of
modern youth's attempt to close
with reality, to somehow grab hold
of a blood and guts world that
they have been denied. They have
been denied that reality-which is
probably best defined as an in-
tense awareness of personal emo-
tions: sex, fear, scorn-by a How-
ard Johnson society, an eatable
world but a tasteless one.
Such a world is probably the in-
evitable result of the great in-
creases in affluence, the size of
government and use of mass com-
munications of the post-war era.
As the post-war generation-al-
most all those longing for a re-
turn to some sort of reality were
born around 1945-has matured,
it has constantly been assured of
good food regularly, a good deal of
amusement and jobs for the ask-
ing. Consequently the pathos and
passion that characterized earlier
American life, and still character-
izes life in most of the world, left
it.
A SOCIETY OF well-meaning,
well-fed and largely uncaring
brutes is left, a society so perfect-
ly regulated that it is becoming
more and more difficult even to
be a failure, or to figure out what
failure or success means. The taste
has gone out of things, and it is
missed.,
This is, of course, a conserva-
tive as well as a radical proposi-
tion. That link is another sign of
the fascinating links between con-
servatism and radicalism, links
that have never been more ob-
vious than today. What makes
most modern students radical ra-
ther than conservative is that ra-
dicalism sees the processes that
have led to modern life more
clearly than conservatism and
deals with them more directly.
WHEN THE TASTE goes out of
something it's only natural to try
and spice it up. A fanatical indi-
vidualism, the popularization of
drug use, exhibitionist dances and.
the James Bond movies are sub-
stitutes for the personal reality
which cannot be had in modern
America. The individualism and
rejection of "the Establishment"
characteristic of the New Left are
attempts to break through to this
reality in an institutional way.
If America could comfort her-
self in the knowledge that such
frustrations and rejections are
marks of only a small percentage
of today's youth, things would not
be so bad. But the Hunt illustrates
that the search for some sort of
personal effective reality has gone
far beyond that, into the majority
of sensitive middle-class students.
The real problem is that a re-
jection of the Establishment, of
traditional occupations and poli-
tical techniques, is linked closely
with this search for a personal re-
ality. The unpopularity of the
Establishment thus seems to be
spreading into youths who earlier
would have been assumed to be a
part of it.
THIS IS indeed the case. Busi-
ness firms are becoming more and
more desperate for high-quality
leadership. Law has lost its at-
tractiveness . M o s t intelligent
young people are now entering
engineering firms, teaching, or
otherwise looking for employment
in areas that are essentially ad-
juncts of the society's leadership
elite. There is the curse of future
America.
For these same middle-class stu-
dents are the people from whose
ranks America's leadership has
always drawn its replacements.
Business, government work and
politics in general have always
been gradually taken over by the
intelligent of the young genera-
tion. But the intelligent of this
generation are not taking them
over. The lack of competent state
legislators is already illustrating
this problem on a low level.
John Gardner, just before being
appointed Secretary of Health,
Education andn Welfare, partially
grasped this problem when he
wrote that American colleges to-
day are producing advisors rath-
er than decision-makers, econo-
mists and political scientists rath-
er than politicians and diplomats.
But to a great degree, it's not the
college's fault. He failed to see
that the colleges aren't making
politicians or diplomats out of
their students because the students
are refusing to be used for those
ends.
WHAT HAPPENS.to America
when its key decision-makers are
not the best minds the country is
turning out? What happens when
every move of the government is
criticized by people who could have
done it better, but who chose not
to? Where are the mass of intelli-
gent day-to-day decision-makers
to come from? And what happens
if they do not come?
The problem is wider than Am-
erica. It questions whether any
highly technological society, es-
pecially a democrocy, can contin-
ue to function properly when its
leadership suffers a brain drain
of such massive proportions., And
it questions whether that drain is
not the inevitable result of the
massive social advance that Am-
erica has seen in the last half-
century.
SO THE HUNT is not just the
beginning of the end. In a real
way it is the end for 'the hundreds
of thousands who need it, and
amusements like it. No one can
blame them, but their vital serv-
ices are quite' probably lost to so-
ciety.
Someone ought to start Hunting
for some replacements.
4
Questions and Answers on Singapore
EDITOR'S NOTE: The ques-
tions answered in this column
were submitted by Robert C.
Daniels in response to Koh Tai
Ann's offer to answer any in-
quiries concerning life in Singa-
pore, particularly student life.
By KOH TAI ANN
1) What is the exact status
of the (university) student in
modern oriental society? Do they
represent a distinct social group
as is the case in Continental
Western society?
TH E TERM "modern oriental
society" is such a broad one. I
will, therefore, confine myself to
the society I know best-Singa-
pore.
There are students from both
Chinese and English universities.
They do not represent a distinct
social group as such but most of
them do tend to come from "mid-
dle class" and upper income
groups. This is less true, however,
of the Chinese university because
costs there are lower.
Generally, the students are a
dispersed g r o u p. Government
grants in recent years have made
it possible for a large number of
poor but able students to continue
with their studies. Since Singa-
pore is small in area, most stu-
dents return home after class. The
tendency for students to come
together in any groups which to-
gether form some sort of students
"sub-culture" is therefore less.
2) Are they taken "seriously"
as is often not the case in Amer-
ica?
BECAUSE it is considered one
of the highest privileges to be a
university student, people do take
university students very seriously.
Their activities are closely report-
ed in the local press. Somehow
people feel that, since it requires
a degree of merit to become a uni-
versity student and this is what
prepares him for his role as a fu-
ture leader, what he does at the
university is therefore of great in-
terest to the community.
It is expected of university stu-
dents to take themselves serious-
ly. They are going to be future
leaders, remember?
3) Is their political activity
taken seriously or viewed with
alarm?
STUDENT political activity is
taken seriously and viewed with
more than alarm. In a develop-
ing country it is highly possible
for students to topple governments
and create political instability.
For instance, each time when stu-
dent disturbances occurred at the
Chinese University, both the gov-
ernment and the university au-
thorities ended up conducting
Commissions of Inquiry. ,
These commissions then made
recommendations as to w h a t
courses of action were to be taken
to remedy the students' griev-
ances. Government officials made
it a point to come down to the
campus to discuss current issues
at public talks when invited by
student bodies.
4) Do they feel a sense of
economic exploitation and ne-
glest as many Amtericans do?
THERE IS NO reason for local
students to feel a sense of eco-
nomic exploitation. eW do not
form a distinct community resid-
ing in any one particular district,
since many do not stay near cam-
pus. We are not large enough to
make it worth the while of the
business interests to exploit us.
The parents of a student may be
rich, but not the student.
As for neglect, it would not be
natural if we didn't feel that
things could be better. We feel that
more staff should be engaged, bet-
ter facilities provided. There is
an acute need for expansion of the
administration's services, which
would cater to the non-academic
problems of the student. The es-
tablishment of something like an
Office of Student Affairs would
be greatly welcomed. However, we
realize the acute shortage of funds
in many cases limits what the
university can do for its students.
5) Do they tend to. be attract-
ed to Western philosophy as a
grasp for the "opposite" as
Western students often seek Zen
and other Oriental schools of
thought as a
of "support?"
"goal" or "pillar"
ON THE CAMPUS of the Eng-
lish University, students tend to
be attracted by Western thought
and the Western way of life. This
is so because Western ways and
attitudes have come to be regard-
ed as more "progressive." Prob-
ably it is because Western ways
are relatively permissive. Besides,
we have been exposed more to
Western thought.
Many of us experience conflicts
because we are Asians who have
had at least 12 to 15 years of
English education based on West-
ern philosophies of education. At
home we are in an Asian environ-
ment, but most of our time is
spent in school reading English
books and using English.
We have lost the links. with the
traditions of our parents, many of
whom were immigrants and yet, in
spite of our Western-style educa-
tion, we are not of the West. It is
difficult to find some kind of a
cultural identity.
FOR MOST OF US it is easiest
to take the line of least resist-
ance. They adopt Western habits,
are usually Christians and reject
totally their Asian background. Yet
for many, it is a very disturbing
experience when they are faced
with this dilemma, often for the
first time, when they become uni-
versity students and are exposed
to all kinds of new experiences.
For the Chinese University stu-
dent there is little such conflict.
He has no doubts that the Chi-
nese culture represents the high-
est of all civilizations. Much of
the political agitation that had
happened on the Chinese Univer-
sity campus had been inextricably
linked with issues concerned with
the university as a bastion of Chi-
nese culture in Southeast Asia.
(It is the only Chinese university
in our part of the world.)
The university has come to be
regarded by the Chinese educated
as a symbol of their cultural iden-
tity. Plans to make the university
into a multi-racial institution in
keeping with Singapore's multi-
racial society were actively oppos-
ed, because it was thought that
its integrity as a Chinese institu-
tion would thereby be threatened.
(The English university is multi-
racial in the sense that students
of all races- attend it. Though
there is no discrimination what-
ever, still, only Chinese attend the
Chinese University.)
AS FOR SEEKING a "pillar of
support," I doubt if many students
do consciously seek this. The pres-
sure is too great on one to pass
exams, obtain, a degree and fin-
ally a good job. Parents, especial-
ly, exert strong influence on many
students. To fail would not only
bring personal shame on one but
on one's whole family.
p
7w'
"Anon" Celebrates the Past and Present
4
EDITOR'S NOTE: L. H. Pow-
ers is an associate professor in
the English department.
By L. Ii. POWERS
A NEW LITERARY magazine of
rather exceptional quality has
made its welcome appearance on
campus. Anon simply announces
itself as "an ecumenical offering
by a community of writers for the
most part members of a larger
community of the University of
Michigan." That community of
writers exhibits a range of talent
and a degree of excellence that
will excite the hearts of the
larger community, which will be
struck by the variety of poetry
and prose here.
THE POETRY is predominant-
ly lyric but of widely varied length
and in a range of different styles.
There are the, brief and appar-
ently artless utterances of Jerri-
Words, you are my night
companions,
Come,
Let us find lover and thief.
And the scarcely longer, but
more tightly controlled "Umwelt
as Carrot" of Walter Clark -
clever and caustic beneath its
disarmingly simple surface:
Power of the plum;
Who can mistage it?
The carrot is shy in beauty.
The power is in its shoulrers.
A donkey will follow a carrot.
A drayman a donkey.
Wonderful game;
A follow-the-leader.
And just beyond this, Leo Mac-
Namara'sspare and careful "Par-
tition," which compresses the
tragedy of Conchubar and Deirdre
into a dozen lines that Yeats would
have approved.
Connor saw the dark-haired girl
And started from his lonely
throne,
He undid all when Deirdre
driven
Dashed her head against the
stone.
free-verse of Jerome Badanes' "A
Journey." At times it reveals the
rough power that characterizes
some of Badanes' best poetry; here
and there (it is not perfectly sus-
tained) the strength of utterance
that the free form permits is evi-
dent. "A Journey" is distinctly and
almost aggressively contemporary.
INDEED, a predominant note-
perhaps the predominant role-is
the contemporary: the sense that
(after all) these are our writers
is complemented by the recogni-
tion that they are addressing us
and the themes of our time and
place.
The magazine begins with a
prose piece by Irwin Titunik,
"Double-Talk about the USSR,"
which pretends to offer a series of
reports on their visit to Russia
by several students-after (rather
a good bit after, I'm afraid) the
method of James' "A Bundle of
Letters." Ed Botts has a poem on
"Helicopters" ("They can't really
fly, chicken! They waltz around
with the buttocks/ of a diplomat")
-which suffers a little from the
contemporary blemish of the gra-
tuitous and unintegrated use of
certain four-letter words of Anglo-
Saxon origin.
Elizabeth Schultz approaches the
combined themes of Progress and
of the "Color Problem" in her
sensitive, tasteful, and arresting
"Processional." Her juxtaposition
of the old mule driver in his high-
wheeled wagon with the "Six shin-
ey, hard-nosed cars" effectively
expresses her sense of "the whole
swaying calliope of progress."
(Here one gratefully notes the
distinct echo of Auden, and Miss
Schultz's ability to make excellent
poetic use of the cliche - e.g.,
"hard-nosed.")
Then, too, the urgently urban
feature of our time is Janglingly
caught in Daniel Hughes' "De-
bris," in Meryl Johnson's gentle
and sad "The Town," and in Nat-
alie Uslenghi's evocation of the
ours-as the opening dialogue
makes subtly but distinctly clear:
"How's that ear?"
"Grand."
But this absolutely excellent
story, sternly understated, humor-
ous, and deeply moving, is for all
time and places-yet particularly
appropriate for us, here and now.
The little narrator's troublesome
ear has been cured, his mother
is convinced, by the intercession
of the Blessed Oliver Plunkett; the
boy is almost convinced of the
miracle, he simply wants a "sign"
-to be sure.
FURTHERMORE, a fair share
of the literature is not natively
ours: there are several transla-
tions, both prose and poetry, by
James Svedja, Jeffrey Mitchell,
Alessandra Contenti, Sophia Ster-
iades, Konstantinos Lardas, and
Victor Perera. And even some of
the native creations are, super-
ficially at least, "foreign"-Mr.
Lardas' gentle and poetic prose
piece "Gaia" is a good example.
Because what strikes the reader
who moves regularly from begin-
ning to end of the collection is
the gradual realization that Anon
is in the best sense conservative;
this "ecumenical offering" by our
community of writers is indeed
modern and contemporary, but the
literature illustrates T. S. Eliot's
principle of the importance of
stressing the presentness of the
past-our past, now.
THIS COLLECTION, then, is
something more than the sum of
its parts. It has evidently been
carefully arranged and ordered. It
is not only that MacIntyre's Irish
story, MacNamara's Conchubar
poem, and J. K. Snyder's effec-
tive poem called "Dublin: Strand
Road" are clustered together, etc.,
what is important is that there is
a complex development in the col-
lection as a whole.
Two lines of development are:
one, from the distinctly and ag-
finally American and present, so
are Austin Warren's "Bone and
Blood" ("Only the charred/ Heart
of the believer gapes to free/ Its
ashes in mist-blown retard"),
Father Torrens' "At the City
Gates" (a confrontation with Jon-
ah in our "cockeyed world") and
his "Mary Magdalen" ("Any Freu-
dian/ will hold her suspect"), and
Radcliffe Squires' homely and kle-
lightful "John the Baptist":
It wasn't what he said. Hhat
was only
Crazy. It wasn't the way he said
it.
It was that he so gently yet
proudly exposed his madness.
I never saw John the Baptist
again,
But in the shaft of light where
dust motes
Clamber like stars or bees over
Some treasure achingly dark,
achingly sweet,
He is here.
Here in me, the blind spot of
God.
These poems, with John Con-
ron's delicate and sensitive prose
sketch, "Requiem," are intimate-
ly contemporary and local -- ven
as they extend beyond the here
and now.
ALTOGETHER, Anon expresses
for us sharply the sense of who
and where we are, whence we have
come and who we have been. In-
dividually and collectively that ex-
pression is of a high order. The
art is, for the most part, mature
and accomplished.
The collection has been created
and put together, as the editors
say, by' amature : that it has been
done with love is certainly ob-
vious. One can only hope that this
initial publication will soon see its
sequel.
Al
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