quixotic quest
E1ie £irligan Daitl
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Inside a grocery store: The price of life
I
rick perloff
r
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: HESTER PULLING
From Acheson to Nixon
SOME TWENTY years ago, Secretary of
State Dean Acheson and his cohorts
formulated what became known as the
cold war policy. At that time, that policy
came under fire from right wing forces
including Senator Dick Nixon for being
"soft on Commu ism."
Eventually, however, the Vietnam War
brought home to large numbers of Ameri-
cans just how calamitous the policies
initiated by the Truman Administration
actually were. So everyone, including
Nixon himself, has now adopted a rhe-
toric intended to convince the public that
their hard line stance has been aban-
doned.
With the supposed decline in his poli-
cies, Acheson became rather obscure,
and his death last week caused little stir.
But this was indeed unfortunate. For
Acheson's death could well have served
as a reminder to all of us just how little
this country's policies have really chang-
ed during the last 20 years.
A BRIEF review of Acheson's career
reads like a list of America's most
important Cold War policies. Foremost
among them, perhaps, i the Truman
Doctrine, which asserts that, "it must
be the policy of the United States to sup-
port free peoples who are resisting sub-
Candor
ADDRESSING THE Blue Key National
Honor Society of the University of
Georgia recently, Rep. Wilbur Mills (D-
Arkansas) showed unusual candor about
his college career.
Recalling that Blue Key was not estab-
lished at his alma mater, Hendrix Col-
lege, during his undergraduate days, Rep.
Mills said, "I would have striven for re-
cognition which goes with the confering
of the Blue Key - on the other hand, I
was spared the critical application of your
criteria for membership. Looking back,
perhaps it is just as well"
-MAYNARD
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Editor
JIM BEATTIE DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor
STEVE KOPPMAN ..... Editorial P-age Editor
RICK PERLOFF .. Associate Editorial Page Editor
PAT MAHONEY .... Assistant Editorial Page Editor
LYNN WEINER .. .......Associate Managing Editor
LARRY LEMPERT . Associate Managing Editor
ANITA CRONE................ .........Arts Editor
JIM IRWIN ......... Associate Art Editors
ROBERT CONROW .. . ..s Books Editor
JANET FREY........... .. .... Personnel Director
JIM JUDKIS ...... Photography Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Rose Sue Berstein, Lindsay
Chaney, Mark Dillen, Sara Fitzgerald, Tammy
Jacobs, Alan Lenhoff, Hester Pulling, Carla Rapo-
port, Robert Schreiner, W.E. Schrock, Geri Sprung
COPY EDITORS: Pat Bauer, Art Lerner.
DAY EDITORS: Linda Dreeben, Hannah Morrison,
Chris Parks, Gene Robinson, Tony Schwartz, Ted
Stein, Paul Travis.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Jonathan Glauser,
John Mitchell, Beth Gberfelder, Gloria Jane
Smith, Sue Stark, Marcia Zoslaw.
Sports Staff
MORT NOVECK, Sports Editor
JIM KEVRA Executive Sports Editor
RICK CORNFELD .. Associate Sports Editor
TERRI POUCHEY......Contributing Sports Editor
BETSY MAHON .. .... Senior Night Editor
SPORTS NIGHT EDITORS: Bill Alterman, Bob An-
drews, Sandi Genis, Joel Greer, Elliot Legow,
John Papanek, Randy Phillips, Al Shackelford.
jugation by armed minorities or by out-
side pressures."
Under this doctrine, $400 million in
emergency military and economic aid
was provided in 1947 to Greece and Tur-
key-in the first place to counter "com-
munist" insurgents and in the second
to strengthen the armed forces.
Now, Greece, that land vigorously de-
fended against "communist subversion"
by Acheson in the forties, has been hon-
ored by a visit of Vice President Spiro
Agnew. That dictatorship, despite pro-
tests from all parts of the Greek political
spectrum and many American liberals,
thus receives continuing full U.S. support.
THIS SAME doctrine.was used to legiti-
mize our involvement in Southeast
Asia, and remains the chief argument for
our aid to military dictatorships and the
maintenance of our bases abroad.
In May, 1950, Acheson sought and ob-
tamed economic and military aid for
France in Indochina to battle the Viet-
minh, thus paving the way to future U.S.
military involvement.
The secretary of state's Japanese peace
treaty also contained provisions for
American military bases in Japan, while
in Europe the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization developed under his guidance.
Thus, example after example could be
cited where the guidelines established
under Acheson are still followed today.
The very agencies created in the late
forties still exist now-the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund and so
on.
In other words, Achesons ' policies,
while blasted at their inception by the
Republican Party and Nixon, have es-
sentially remained in force to the present
day. The man who "covered up Commu-
nist conspiracy and who was condemned
as unfit to guide American foreign poli-
cy, for the most part could still be sec-
retary of state today.
IT CAN ONLY be concluded, therefore,
that despite changes in party and
personnel, United States foreign policy
has not changed signifiantly since the
second world war. Perhaps it is for that
reason that those who criticized the State
Department then are not so critical now.
-ZACHARY SCHILLER
Bombs away
"WHAT FATAL slip turned an air sup-
port mission near the Cambodian
border into a mistaken bombing trag-
edy?" puzzled U.S. Air Force investiga-
tors yesterday.
Peeved because at least 18 South Viet-
namese died in Monday's accident, when
an A37 jet goofed and dropped two 50-
pound bombs on a friendly base, sources
pointed out that this time it wasn't as
bad as last March, when U.S. bombs and
napalm killed some 36 South Vietnamese
participating in the Laotian campaign.
Perhaps the Vietcong should cooperate
and wear neon name tags so that these
slips and other "unmentionables" won't
keep embarrassingour firm foundations
in Indochina.
-MAYNARD
I SHOULD LIKE to announce my en-
trance into Life. You know Life, the
majestic man of merchandise who sells at
your corner grocery for a dollar a slice
of dignity. You know that grand magi-
cian - he has welcomed me to his quar-
ters.
And I am rejoicing. I say "Hello Life.'
I hope I do the best I can, sir. I am for-
mally announcing my appearance on your
quarters, I am formally announcing my
candidacy for a piece of the pie, a good
ol' market price. I am formally at this
moment onward and hopefully upward
casting my membership as a loyal par-
ticipant in Life.
And I say "Hello Life." I am strutting
about now admiring your machinery, look-
ing up your suffering and I have detected
that 45 people have cried today and the
problem of evil has affected 35 tornadoes
in southwestern Kansas. I inspect your
locomotive, Life. Hmm. Looks all right,
They told me there was supposed to be
decency.
Decency, Decency? I'm strutting up and
down the aisles of your store, sir, and the
inventory says, the inventory lists says
dear sir, that you are supposed to - now
wait a minute - that you are supposed
to contain 45 pounds of rare hamburger
steak and in addition youare supposed
to hold in your stocks a lot of raw de-
cency. You know, Good Cheer. Helpful
Humans. There. I spot one.
I SEE A Good Person. Now let's stock
that up. Life, you mystical beast, you
contain 45 ounces of suffering in the
canned goods section to my left and there
over to the western corner of your store
along in the meat packing sectionuyou
offer for sale a grand total of 35 pounds
of decency. Not bad, Life. Not bad. Well,
I guess suffering is down this year. Not a
bad total for an experienced merchant.
So here I am, Life. I am walking
aroundhand admiring your merchandise.
How much does that here piece of good
will cost a friendly local personage? I
should like to buy myself, yes, a better-
how do they say it?-a tiptop personal-
ity? How much, let me ask you this, how
much would it cost that I could have a
touch of romance, plus a tiny tinge of
spontaneous joy at another baby's birth
and some raw hurt feeling whenever
someone breaks a toenail-how much
would that cost, eh Life?
I should like to purchase a better per-
sonality and oh, over there I see I'm in
the meatpacking section and you're pack-
ing people's values. Fine.
AND LET ME say this right here and
now. I have given you the best years of
-Daily-Robert Wargo
my life in preparation, you funky faced
clown, Life, and I am telling you what
I have done that you should listen:
I kissed one child when she was bounc-
ing a ball from a rooftop and the view
was she would fall into a fire down below,
And I saved that child. And I was re-
warded 56 points of intrinsic - say in-
trinsic - compassion.
Yessirree, and remember the time, re-
member theahours well spent, dignity well
earned, that the small man hobbled up
and down the street, and I tossed him a
shelter and I gave him the best moral
instruction I could. I took him home, I
did, and I fed him, and I gave him a bath
and when we looked up, he was happy and
soft again. So how about that, I ask? How
about the value there? What about the
return on that there investment?
FOR LET me say right here and now
that I did these things not for my health
-you're darn tootin' - you think I help
these folks for the betterment of my young
age, well you have one more whistle com-
ing, sir. I mean, you may be a magician
but you cannot make people worry for
others' welfare, now can you-you can-
not and I did those acts, you understand,
so I could enter this store one day and
sit down near the counters and order: 56
slabs of dignity for every well-meaning
act I performed.
Such that I can sit down and get that
piece of bread that I have earned-yes, let
me tell you, compassion is well-earned-
and I can divvy up that hard-earned
bread ten thousand times to feed my-
self. Such that I can give myself a bonus
point, so when I march down a crowded
city -st'eet I can hold up my head high
and clear andsay "See, I breathe dig-
nity. See, I have a legacy of moral brinks-
manship that covers me until I die."
And that is why I present my body into
your store now, sir. I'll do anything Asir,
I'll do anything if that means I can get a
little - well, you know how it is when
times is tough - a little profit from this
here life.
I'll tell you right, and I'll even be
straight with you. I will rob banks. I will
kill a little Raskolnikov woman. I will
cook organic meals. I will do most any-
thing if when the dues are counted, and
the money earned is stacked high and
mighty in the lonesome store we call .the
bank which stores every value there ever
was-if when things is done, I can come
out of this battle with a slight profit, well
things are fine and dandy. I am talking
straight with you sir.
Now admittedly, I am a youngster. Am
not denying that. I am not denying that
my experience on the market' place, and
pertise of an old time dealer who has
sipped every straw from every genteel
wine cellar containing every last slimmer
of dignity; I am not denying here and
now that my experience is admittedly
quite slim, and that my -- how do you
say? - savoir faire with the rest of the
folks who trade their selves is not par-
ticularly admirable. But nonetheless, sir,
I am willing to go to most any extreme
to buy a slice of the pie.
YOU SHALL SEE, for that is a promise.
I shall work hard. You think for one lone-
some moment I am going to sit around
and pluck my toes while some other slob
is racing away with compassion. Let me
make it A-1 obvious that I am going to
tolerate no slipshod performance in this
business.
I Will tolerate no cavorting with the
enemy; no, let me say there will be none
of that smiling with folks who are at-
tempting their doggone best to buy an-
other's slab of honor.
You think for one moment I am go-
ing to let my competitors get away with
plowing away the suffering that exists; do
you think I am going to let him strip down
the land for me and eliminate its sour
and foul odors? You think for one soli-
tary slimmer of a moment that I can
allow my competitors to help these folks
-why what kind of innocence are you
spraying? That stuff went out with Don
Quixote. I am in this for myself and don't
you forget it.
Okay, let me make one final promise
before I quit-that by the time my tenure's
up we shall have bought out every value
around. Decency. Spontaneity. Good
Cheer. Loyalty. Name one--- dare you-
and it will be on our shelves selling at a
lower price than you would have dreamed.
Yessirree, you name it. Sensitivity. In
our stocks. Empathy. Can't be beat. Dig-
nity. Best in town. Anything a man could
ever want sitting on these here shelves.'
We'll have them, sir. That's a promise.
Now, I've talked long enough. I know
it. I know I must be boring you stiff
now so let me only say I am once again
announcing my candidacy ' for the posi-
tion of lower stockboy such that I can
enter your store and manage it properly
and (you know me too well) decently.
OKAY. Here I am. Take a look. Wave
your wand a couple times and shout at me.
I'll listen. I'm here to learn (and make
some sly mistakes too, kind sir). Yes, Life,
I shout out to you. I'm here. I'm ready.
Start the ball bouncing as they say. Start
your suffering and your love and all they
Vld me in the storybooks-and if .there's
a lovely lost dragon too, I'll pay extra.
Okay. I'll stop, Life. Now it's your turn.
0
Ai
the market place of ideas,
ularly stringent nor have
formulas for, compassion
is not partic-
I tested out
with the ex-
Letters to The Daily: Lessons of Write-on
To The Daily:
THE PRESENCE ON campus
of "Write-on" affords the oppor-
tunity to comment on the malaise
of an institution which engenders
such destructive entrepreneurial
activity.
How distorted education has be-
come when production of papers
has a higher priority than human
growth and learning. The empha-
sis on large quantities of narrow-
ly defined written work not only
dissipates learning time and ener-
gy, but provides, at best, a very
limited basis for evaluating a stu-
dent's knowledge and ability. The
enforcement of such work pro-
grams by academic authority pro-
duces students who have not ex-
perienced self-direction and self-
definition, who are consequently
alienated from their own intellec-
tual capacities, and who then
view the University in the cynical
terms of merely having provided
them with another entry on a job
application.
As objectionable as the Uni-
versity's priorities is the capitalist
ethos which teaches to exploit ar-
tificial needs created by the sys-
tem rather than to change the
system itself. A paper writing
"service" at $3.50 a page serves
only to perpetuate distorted val-
ues by enabling those who can af-
ford it to "buy their way out"
rather than confronting their op-
pression directly. Further, this
"service" increases the already
blatant inequities between those
students, of the upper and mid-
dle classes, who can afford to pay
and those of the working class
who cannot.
A real service to students in
this regard would be to help them
smash the power that educational
institutions hold over their lives,
and to change those institutions
so that they serve human needs.
Education is struggle.
-New University
Conference
Oct. 19
Racism
To The Daily:
WE ARE ISSHO YIGONG, an
organization of Asians and Asian-
Americans. We strongly object to
the repeated instances of racism
in the Daily's coverage of us.
On September 29, you printed
pictures of members of Issho Yi-
gong in a guerrilla theater done
jointly }with Vietnam Veterans
Against the War. The caption
read, "Vietnam Veterans Against
the War strike . . . morbid poses."
We Asians, not the Vets, were the
ones striking the "morbid poses."
On September 30, VVAW sent
you a letter pointing out the inac-
curacy and the racist implications
of what you had printed.
You buried that letter until
October 12.
On October 13, Issho Yigong
and VVAW repeated the guerrilla
theater. An Asian introduced the
performance, emphasizing Issho
Yigong's role in it. After the per-
formance, an Asian spoke about
racism against Asians in the war
and in the antiwar movement.
Again, we made it clear that As-
ians and Vets participated equally
in the performance. That day, a
Daily reporter is said to have
apologized for your previous in-
accurate coverage.
On October 14 you printed an-
other photo, and you once again
misrepresented our joint guerrilla
theater as a VVAW action.
We emphasized and re-empha-
sized the two organizations' equal
roles, and then yousfalsified that
equality. We Asians made our-
selves obvious to all, and then you
denied our presence. You were
given every opportunity, and were
even urged by every party, to be
unbiased. And then you failed
again.
That was no accident. Your be-
havior toward Asian people con-
sistently follows a white racist
pattern, and your repeated dis-
tortions of the guerrilla theater
are but one example of your ra-
cism:
We expect this letter to printed
with no more inaccuracies, no
more omissions, and no more de-
lays.
-Issho Yigong
Oct. 18
Movie calendar
To The Daily:
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why
the Michigan Daily does not pub-
lish if not in every issue, at least
periodically, a rationally present-
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reporter's notebook
Sundry bits and pieces
jonathan miller
"I think we've got him right where he
wants us!"
A REPORTER called the Sheriff's
Department last week to ask when
one of the guests at "Harvey's Hotel"
had been released.
"I'm sorry," replied the records
clerk, "but I'm not allowed to release
that information. You'll have to try
the .newspaper."
"But this is a newspaper."
"Sorry sir. I'm, not allowed to re-
lease that information," insisted the
clerk.
Them's the breaks.
* .* *
JERRY ROE, executive director of
the Michigan Republican Party, was on
campus this week to address a political
not political, said the newsman.
"That," Roe said solemnly, "is a lead-
ing question."
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS returning
to school next year may well find that
their old piece of yellow plastic will no
longer be accepted identification.
Plans are afoot in the administration
building to issue a new, "improved" i.d.
card to all students, staff and faculty
members.
The .cards will include such details
as the holder's birthdate and a color
photograph. Reliable administration
building sources indicate they will be
issued for the winter term.
There's one under every bed, Brad.
* * *
UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT Robben
Fleming was flabbergasted when in
Korea attending an educators confer-
ence the other week, when a Korean
came running up to him with glee,
shouting in English, "we won."
"That was how I found out about the
Michigan-Michigan State game result,"
explained Fleming on his return.
"There's a lot of our alumni over
there."
A REPORTER visited the medical
school the other day to check out ru-
decided not to run an ad. After all
a table arranged by column for
days would take little space and
save us all some trouble.
-Prof. Marcel Muller
Dept. of Romance
Languages
Oct. 18
(Editor's Note: The Daily plans to
institute such a list. Starting Nov. 2,
The Daily will have an entertain-
ment calendar of sorts. Check the
Arts Page (2), for further details.)
Research
To The Daily:
IT IS UNFORTUNATE that the
Director of the Willow Run Labo-
ratories does not seem to under-
stand the basis of the Assembly's
recent action with regard to classi-
fied research. His letter to The
Daily talks about the right to
publish; the Assembly a'ction was
not concerned with that, but rath-
er the obligation to publish. A
could then carry on classified re-
search. If its employees prefer to
be associated with the University,
they must then accept the obliga-
tions that go with that association.
-Prof. Eugene Feingold
Dept. of Medical Care
Organization
School of Public Health
Oct. 11
Court appointments
To The Daily:
I WONDER IF any of your re-
porters has latched on to the real
and hidden reason behind the re-
signations of four SGC members.
Has anyone considered the cryptic
coincidence of their resignations
and the recent openings on t h e
Supreme Court of the U.S.? Ob-
viously Haas, Higgins, Schnelker,
and Teyn are all being considered
by President Nixon for justice-,
chi. hav faol 1that thp~v oualifv
Soon to be a memory