9: Makinglots of/headines.
. . . but not much pro
a L . " : ~ sE N THEIR inimitable, overly-enthusiastic way, journalists
loved 1971 a lot more than anyone else. To newsmen, the
t s F: a y" ,: Pentagon Papers experience was threatening, but Life got to
shoot pictures in China, there was new activity at the UN, and
both Time and Newsweek had to agree-it was a banner year
rk ' for President Nixon.
Newsweek was typically ambiguous, with its dubious com-
s pliment that "after two years of being President, Richard Nixon
ti'K b <:Y, s $\ '' < 4 had finally begun to act like one" But generally, the estab-
tt al ilishment press was quick to laud Nixon's surprising changes of"
heart, which ultimately seemed to steer his administration on g
"zC , F>=a fresh course.
His upcoming round of summit talks, if completed, would
, thy&a h ms abtiu by y president in recent his-
* :" >< < a< y j (oFi:tory. The trip to Peking would be intriguing, if nothing else, and
4F ,, , , ; .: e , N,,,Nixon's eventual willingness to devalue the dollar and institute
r>< °a %' "" wage and price controls was a step in the right direction, how-
' <4 ever overdue.,
z £ s > d ''. #If all these were accomplished with Nixon's typical over- K ssenger meets Chon
abundance of flagwaving and chest-polishing, nonetheless they
)T.
were done. And even if the President did produce a list of pre-
dictable errors (like the Mayday arrests, the Pentagon Papers
Peflap, another round of absurdly unqualified Supreme court
Y " F. . nominations and his headlong dive into the Calley case), he
and his slick media men managed to control the headlines and
television channels well enough to come out of the year with
his popularity on the rise.
Banfladeshos refugees
SO THE NEWSMEN had a lot to write about, and kept them-
selves happily occupied. But unfortunately for the restaof
the population-who are not as interested in speculation about
t h e h e a r t i c h l t i m a t e l y s e e y a re c o n c e r n e d w i th c o n c r e teio n;o n
results at home-the year proved far less interesting.
For who could say whether the summit conferences or the
China visit would produce anything, or be assured that they
...would not result in an eventual worsening of relations? More-
. 2Y" <;over, despite all the ballyhoo of late, who could tell whether
' ' Y xthe administration's future fiscal and monetary policies would
b .i..>ja ~ gbe any more effective than those which led us into the mess"
u s r we're into now? No one. Few, if any, of this country's current .
ventures were very near fruition.
And if the national and international scenes were am-
biguous, virtually nothing had been accomplished here at home.
What had changed here in Ann Arbor? Not much. True, more
people are into Jesus, and booze Is finding a new audience.
Students are quiet and studying more. And 18-year-olds are
starting to vote right here In their own city. But the snow is
ust as dirty, all the new buildings are as pristine and rectang-
ular as ever, and the super markets continue to rip us off.
-eesor wha as changed in Los Angeles, where people still
move into dwellings but never see their mountain views through Seale
the smog until two months after they arrive? Or where school
fchildren can no longer go outside during recess because It is too
THE harmful to breathe? Not much.
R WHAT has changed in New Y or Detroit, where crimes
of all types, despite Nixon and Agnew's rhetoric, have con-
tinued to increase drastically? What is to be done for the
people there who have become so defensive and frightened that
can't even answer a question for a stranger? Apparently, not
The Laos invasion much
SO HA t WS T that characterized the yeare Only that
no one much cared what it was like. By continuing his war,
in which by now over one in everd hundred Americans had
served, Nixon clearly won a victory. And as the political trials-
those of Angela Davis, the Harrisburg 8, the Panthers Ellsberg-
ground on, he maintained the state's victory over dissent.
Huey Newton also won victories during the year-by getting
aout of jail. Yet neither side could inspire public interest.
sEOPLE JUST DON'T seem to believe that the quality of life -
j.
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here is really going to change anymore. So it was hardly
ironic that people were only interested in relieving their minds
through "enlightenment." Nor was it difficult to understand
why an article should appear recently in the New York Times
describing the emigration plans of those who came joyously to
this country as recently as the fifties.
It was just a year for forgetting dreams. And for Richard
Nixon, who was forced to retreat from his early calls for a
"New American Revolution" and for a rekindling of the "Spirit,-
of '76," it was probably a good thing
JIM BEATTIE
The Attica revolt
Women in protest
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