Seventy-Sixth Year EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTSOF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS Whew Opinons Are Free 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICH. NEws PHONE: 764-0552 r-it.b W*.t :Prevail' Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the inidividual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. 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 "Hear Any Late News About The Saigon Political Battle Front?" a . fi inin~' rrn~'a #. I Pz Ueliru f 1