94e £ ici~gan Paiul
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

deep greens and blues

f1

Poor Pilar: A tail of our Thymes

0

I


by larry lempert-i

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.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3,. 1971

NIGHT EDITOR: W. E. SCHROCK

Students and residency laws

MUCH HAS BEEN heard lately about
the business of registering students
to vote. In all the furor created following
ratification of the 18-year-old vote, and
the banning by the state Supreme Court
of special residency requirements for stu-
dents, a great deal of time and energy
has been expended on the question of
real and imagined roadblocks to student
registration.
In all of this however, an important
issue has been left largely unconsidered.
While .residency requirements ndw pre-
sent no major obstacle to student voters,
the position of student candidates in Ann
Arbor is by no means as favorable.
To qualify as a candidate for City
Council, it is necessary for the aspirant
to have been a registered voter in his
ward for at least one full year.
While on the surface this appears to
be a reasonable minimum, when it is ap-
plied to students, with their semi-noma-
dic modes of residence, the requirement
takes on another dimension.
STUDENTS, AS HAS been frequently
pointed out by harried city clerks,
are by far the most mobile segment of
the city's population. It is common for
a particular student to reside in a dif-
ferent ward each year he or she is at the
University.
Obviously this would effectively pre-
vent him or her from gaining residence
in any one year, the result being that
many, if not all of the more qualified
students are barred from elective office.
It can readily be seen then that the re-
quirement works to the distinct disad-
vantage of the potential student candi-
date, whether deliberately or not.
It is equally apparent that a student
vote without student candidates is of
greatly reduced relevance.
The right to vote, in and of itself, is
not necessarily indicative of democratic
process.
By making student candidacies diffi-
Editorial Staff
ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
Editor
JIM BEATTIE DAVE CHUDWIN
Executive Editor Managing Editor
STEVE KOPPMAN .... .. Editoria, Page 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 Arts Editor
JANET FREY .... ............. Personnel Director
ROBERT CONROw .... Books Editor
JIM JUDKIS ,.................. Photogral "v Editor

cult, these residency requirements make
unlikely candidacies representing politi-
cal views centered in the student com-
munity-thus to a large extent circum-
venting the ostensible intent of the 18-
year-old vote, the real representation of
young people in the electoral process.
THE ARCHAIC nature of present elec-
tion laws is probably the primary fac-
tor in the problem. Designed to regulate
politics before the enfranchisement of
students, they have been rendered obso-
lete by this change in the political scene.
Thus far, the city has shown a general
if grudging willingness to accommodate
itself to the new political realities created
by the enfranchisement of its student
population.
Now it has an opportunity to further
demonstrate its good faith and dedica-
tion to democratic process by removing
the restrictions on student candidacies.
If it does not act affirmatively at this
point, the initiative may be taken from
its hands as court tests of the law are
currently being prepared by a number of
sources including the Human Rights-
Radical Independent Party.
--CHRIS PARKS
Birdwateher
FEW FEDERAL agencies guard them-
selves against unfavorable publicity
as carefully as the Atomic Energy Com-
mission. The AEC conducts surveys to
determine the number of birds on the
island of Amchitka, where an under-
ground nuclear blast is scheduled for this
week.
Since nuclear testing began in 1964,
the island's birds have gone to other
parts of the Aleutians, according to Ro-
bert Jones, manager of the Aleutian Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge, which includes
Amchitka. Whopper swans no longer
winter on the island and the numbers
of almost all other birds have declined.
Only the dickeybirds have retained their
strength. Jones, however, cannot be more
specific. The island's bird population, he
explains, is "classified information; the
precise figures reach me under restricted
classification."
The AEC also keebs track of waterfowl
on the island. Jones, however, distrusts
these figures since they are gathered by
helicopters and "if there is anything dis-
turbing to wildlife, it is a flapping heli-
copter."
-P. M.

POOR PILAR is in heat.
Justin and Zerbinette hear the tags
jangling late into the November night;
they hear crisp leaves snapping under the
rapid movement of padded paws as the
husky-shouldered machos circle the house
next door.
Looking out a lightly frosted window,
Zerbinette sees puffs of hot breath, gray
against the darkness, rising as the suitors
sniff at the door.
"I haven't seen Pilar for days." says
Justin Thyme.
"Can you blame her?" Zerbinette turns
away from the window. "Every time she
sets foot out the door, she gets attacked
from five different directions."
"She probably loves every minute of it."
"But that's just it, Justin-she doesn't.
Listen." She sits up in bed, pulling the
quilt up to her chin. "I was sitting outside
a few days ago reading Statistics. It was
a little cold, but nice, and it's fun to
watch people walking by."
"Instead of reading?"
"Instead of falling asleep reading. Any-
way, Pilar was out and she came up on
the porch to say hello. And pow!-that
big collie from down the street came
along and jumped on her back."
"Horny bastard-what did Pilar do?"
"She played along with it at first, sure.
But after a while it was getting ridiculous.
He just wouldn't lay off. She shook him
away but the brown German shepherd
around the corner leaped on and started
humping like a goddam machine. She
snapped at him but there was still a mean-
looking boxer to contend with. It was like
that all morning."
JUSTIN HAS BEEN lying on his back,
his eyes closed. He sits up now. "Didn't
you help her out?".
"Are you crazy?" says Zerbinette. "Who
am I to argue with a sexually aroused Ger-
man shepherd?"
A low growl outside, then a series of
sharp barks in response-two contenders
must be squaring off in a show of deter-
mination for Pilar's paw.
"Do you think Pilar's impressed?" Justin
wonders.

Zerbinette leans against the wall and
thinks back, back to a time before Justin,
before the second-floor apartment they
live in with Pilar in the house next door.
And she remembers that she too has
been hounded, pursued like an animal in
heat by wolves who wanted heat and
nothing else.
"Chauvinist dogs," she mutters.
And a big brown German shepherd be-
low, unaware of her and of Justin, aware
only of a beautiful black dog behind the
door, settles down on the porch next door,
for a long wait through the November
night until morning.
* * *
AT THE OPENING of Mike Nichols'
Carnal Knowledge, two male voices rise
out of the darkness, chuckling and wow-
ing at each other's tales of sexual exploits.
I laughed with my best friend when we
saw Carnal Knowledge, at least at the be-
ginning. Our midnight-to-morning tall
tales had been bad, but they had never
been blatantly sexist or gross.
So we thought. But people who never
throw anything away-and we are such
people-have to pay the price when their
hoards are discovered years later.
It just so happened that I plastered the
profundities of my infamous younger

--Daily-Denny Gainer
years all over my bedroom wall. Literally
--I typed on note cards all the sayings
that impressed me most and taped them
up.
A few days after I laughed at Carnal
Knowledge, I found the tell-tale profundi-
ties when I cleaned out a drawer at home.
Some, of course, were of the honest, light
variety:
Plymouth Rock should have landed on
the Pilgrims.
X is for xylophone because X is
always for xylophone.
We have nothing to fear except fear
itself (and of course the boogie man).
In addition, there were the semi-heav-
ies:
Something is rotten in the state of
Denmark.
Today is the tomorrow you worried
about yesterday-now you know why.
Rake the muck this way, rake the
muck that way-it is still muck.
As well as the real heavies:
The flower in the vase still smiles, but
no longer laughs.
Nothing exists but atoms and the
void.
Nothing is but what is not.
If I laugh at any mortal thing, 'tis
that I may not weep.

More than half of the 122 cards, how-
ever, dealt with women, and few of the
comments were totally favorable. With-
out knowing it, I'd been rushed along in
one of the strongest currents of my cul-
ture-in the books I read, in the songs I
heard on the radio, in -the television shows
and movies I watched. It was Woman as
Sex Object, Seductress and Destroyer.
It began in a light-hearted way:
Of all my relations, I like sex the
best.
If you don't think women are explo-
sive, just drop one.
What do you look for in a girl? It de-
pends on what I've lost.
The feeling moved toward a carefree
independence:
When it comes to your lovin', I can
take is or leave it.
But then it turned bitter:
Girl, I need your love
But I ain't gonna get this low.
What is a girl?
A torture machine
Designed to punish a man.
It soured into scorn:
Frailty, thy name is woman.
No woman's worth a-crawlin' on the
earth.
Then worms shall try that long-pre-
served virginity.
And ended with:
Falling in love with you, girl, is just
like dying.
It can't help but make me wonder. Car-
nal Knowledge does not have a happy
ending after all. The two boys who laugh
about their escapades never mature be-
yond their preoccupation with sex. They
get worse as they get older until, looking
back, one of them affectionately entitles
his home movies "Ball Busters on Parade."
THEIR EXISTENCE is empty - they
live like dogs perched hungrily outside the
door of the neighborhood goddess-in-heat.
Yet they are the kind of guys who might
have collected profundities and taped
them up on the wall.
It's enough to make you give up clean-
ing your drawers.

14

I

Or

Nixonomics: Desperate moves to forestall depression?

By PETER RUSH
Daily Guest Writer
ON AUGUST 15, when President
Nixon imposed domestic eco-
nomic controls unprecedented in
recent memory while at the same
time removing the various fea-
tures stabilizing international eco-
nomic relations since 1944, all
intelligent citizens should h a v e
been put on their guard against
simplistic explanations and glow-
ing predictions.
Yet simplistic explanations and
glowing predictions have flowed
from most professional economists
and most politicians of both par-
ties.
This includes economists Prof.
Warren Smith, writing in T h e
Daily (Sept. 14) and Gardner Ack-
ley, former head of the Council

of Economic Advisors under Pre-
sident Johnson in a recent mono-
graph "Stemming World Infla-
tion."
The general analysis of these
and most other American econo-
mists is that the wage-price freeze
was necessary and proper to stem
an inflation caused, through the
mechanism of "demand-pull," by
the Vietnam war spending since
1965.
If the Nixon program is fully
implemented, these economists al-
so agree, significant economic
growth will likely occur by 1972.
Unfortunately explanation and
prognosis fail to take account of
the real cause of today's world
economic crisis; moreover, the
conclusions drawn therefrom are
actually dangerous and must be

Letters: Responses to Perloff on women

To The Daily:
IN A RECENT editorial (Daily, Oct.
28), Rick Perloff noted that "arrogance
is unhealthy fiber." I agree. It's also un-
pleasant fiber, because it does create
barriers between people. But pointing
out the unhealthiness is hardly a per-
suasive tactic to take in an effort to
eliminate the arrogance.
Oppression is unhealthy too, after all.
Perloff wrote: "It took the young,
after all, to sense . . . the ugliness of
America; older people could not see the
decay of the environment or the glitter
of the suburbs." Indeed. But then the
young never oppressed their elders; the
young were never the raison d'etre of
their elders' dilemma.
While I have many responses to Per-
loff's article, I think my only message,
put concisely, is this: If male reporters
have found difficulty covering women's
meetings on campus, why not just send
female reporters, and let the men lick
their wounds in private instead of on
the Editorial Page ...
It's a bit much to ask the oppressed
to be tolerant of even the sympathetic
oppressor when the oppression is still
so fresh in our minds, and so substan-
tial and demeaning a part of our live.
There will, I trust, be an eventual "com-
ing together" of men and women. But
the time is not yet ripe for forgiveness,
or for the polite acceptance of advice
from those for whom, only yesterday,
we were unquestioningly expected to
cook breakfast, lunch, dinner and do
the dishes too.
What women demand and require is
the opportunity to make our own mis-
takes and take credit for our own suc-

To The Daily:
I STRONGLY suggest that before
Rick Perloff writes another article about
the Woman's Movement, he gain a bet-
ter understanding of the basics of the
situation than is shown in his article
"On arrogance, tolerance and Women's
Lib" (Daily, Oct. 28). His use of the
term "Women's Lib" makes question-
able his self-assumed stance, as friendly
critic. Is such a flippant term used for
the struggles for self-determination of
any group other than women and gays?
Would he refer to Black Lib or Viet-
namese Lib? This is not just a semantic
quibble; one of the demands of the
Women's Movement is that women be
taken seriously as human beings and
not treated just as amusing creatures.
Perloff complains that male reporters
have difficulty covering women's meet-
ings. As he points out in his article,
women as well as men are victims of
conditioning. Many of us who are strug-
gling against our socialization as quiet,
passive females have not yet reached
the point where we are as open in dis-
cussion when a male is present as in an
all-woman group. The value judgment
has been made by many women that the
development of women outweighs the
privilege of the male reporter. Then
often the decision is not made on the
basis of a general principle, but on
past experiences of inaccurate stories
and misquotes by the particular male
reporter. It is interesting that Perloff
raises this question at the same time
that women are organizing against sex-
ual discrimination at The Daily.
Perloff comments upon hostile recep-
tion of men's comments upon women's

the beneficiary of their oppression.
Men do know a lot less about women
than women do about men. This is not
an inherent superiority of women, but
rather a reflection of their situation.
Women's well-being has depended upon
pleasing men. Thus they have develop-
ed and passed on to their daughters a
well-developed knowledge of how men
work. Blacks have a better understand-
ing of how whites work than whites do
of blacks. The slave knows the master
better than the master the slave. It is
but a matter of survival.
The most insidious part of the article
is the statement that clearly men can
not offer meaningful advice on such
subjects as whether or not to have an
abortion or attend graduate school but
that men should be consulted on such
questions as the nature of feminity and
the differences between the sexes. As
long as men can define such basic ques-
tions as those, they will have little cause
to worry that women will differ greatly
from them on such questions as when it
is allowable to have an abortion. The
essence of self-determination is self-
definition. The power to define is the
power to control. Such maneuvers as
this are desperate attempts of the dom-
inant group to maintain control.
Cries of tolerance in this regard sound
odd, to say the least. As long as the
oppressed groups submit to the un-
equal situation, such cries are not heard.
But as soon as they begin to organize
themselves, the dominant group begins
to plead for tolerance. I am not pleading
the case of dogmatism, but rather point-
ing out that cries of tolerance are often
pleas for leaving things as they are.

To The Daily:
THE PAST several days have wit-
nessed a very revealing exchange of
views between Associate Editorial Page
Editor Rick Perloff and Maryann Hoff
Grad. (Daily, Oct. 29), on the limits
and proprieties of male intervention in
the women's liberation movement.
Though I am by birth a male, I con-
sider myself somewhat qualified to com-
ment. on this debate since I devoted fif-
teen weeks to professional research on
the role of women in 19th and early
20th century American political move-
ments for a forthcoming book by Kitty
Sklar, the University's specialist on
women in America.
However, instead of dwelling on the
specific issues in dispute, I wish to
raise the level of discussion to encom-
pass all the movements for liberation
of sundry oppressed groups in America.
It is my own view and that of others
that although the issue of the liberation
of women or blacks or Chicanos et al
is a vital one to the general revolu-
tionary movement, the compartmental-
ization of these movements is funda-
mentally reactionary and plays directly
into the hands of the burgeoisie. This is
why Perloff's remarks are so important.
By raising secondary issues and creating
false barriers, the women's movement
along with the black nationalist move-
ment, is weakening what should be the
primary thrust of all serious revolution-
aries - the liberation of all of society
through the vehicle of the class most
integrally connected with the means of
production.
Space limitations forbid a more

strongly opposed by the popula-
tion.
The errors of economists - these
"learned gentlemen" - stem from
their surprising approach; they
ignore the central feature of the
world economic picture, the world
credit system, whose shakiness
brought on the successive mone-
tary convulsions which were cap-
Peter Rush is a member of the Na-
tional Caucus of Labor Coginmit-
tees, a nationwide socialist organi-
zation. This article represents the
view of that group.
ped by the August dollar crisis.
They also treat the key problem
of productivity as a mere after-
thought. Can these gentlemen be
serious?
ITEM: no permutations or re-
combinations of the theories of
"demand - pull," "cost - push,"
"downward rigidities of prices and
wages," (see Ackley's Stemming
World Inflation) account for the
empirical facts of growing obso-
lescence of . much of America's
basic industrial structure, and of
the increasing failure of major
industrial corporations to reinvest
in modernized plant and equip-
ment.
ITEM: none of Ackley's theor-
ies accounts for stagnant or fall-
ing real wages since 1965 in the
face of generally rising output per
man-hour ,(largely through speed-
up and minor productive improve-
ments) - his theories would pre-
dict rising real wages!
ITEM: none of Ackley's theories
accounts for the huge quantities
of capital flowing into currency
speculation over the past four
years - the immediate cause of
the dollar crisis! ,
In short, Ackley's theories can
purport to "explain" inflation only
by excluding from consideration
most of the key economic develop-
ments of the past decade.
In fact, the crisis to which Nix-
on responded so drastically on
Aug. 15 is the classical situation
preceding and presaging a depres-
sion a situation first elucidated
by Karl Marx in his treatise Cap-
ital. The fundamental fact under-
lying the crisis - overlooked by
Ackley and all of his co-thinkers
within the economics profession-
is the astronomical expansion of
various forms of waste and specu-
lation, backed by credit, which has
far outstripped the growth of real
wealth production.
CAPITALIST economics has re-
fused to recognize the distinction
between the paper value of an in-

Ackley
scrap heap!
Or, a banker whofinances a,
mortgage on a delaying slum tene-
ment requires the same interest.
gouged in rents, that he would
require were the building new. All
capitalists who have funds sunk in
economically worthless, i.e. non-
productive, investments such as
real estate speculation, obsolete
factories, defense industries, ad-
vertising and sales, stock market
speculation, public bonds, currency
speculation, (all of which make
no contribution to further r e a 1
production - which are sterile)
require a profit just as if the in-
vestment were productive.
This inherent inability to dis-
tinguish between productive and
non-productive investment allows
the latter to grow at the expense
of the former, much as cancer.
cells choke off healthy ones, while
the capitalists do not even per-
ceive a problem because their pap-
er value by self-valuation is still
rising.
The current crisis has been
caused by just such a cancerous
growth of non-productive specula-
tive and wasteful investments
("fictitious capital") concurrent
with an increasing state of stag-
nation of productive investment.
Harry Magdoff's Problems of U.S
Capitalism, 1965, Michael Tanz-
er's "Out On the Credit Limb,'
The Nation, June 2, 1969, and
more recent statistics validate this
claim.
THUS THE 1960's witnessed an
emerging underproduction crisis
Crying social needs for housing,
health care, schools, mass transit
environmental restoration, etc.
were increasingy more poorly met.
and real wages actually declined
since 1965, even while the eco-
nomy had the short-lived and false
aix e~rn nc oft nyrner~,itf 7 s r n

(here we see the real cause of in-
flation, incidently). But, a limit
is obviously reached when the
population can pay no more.
Thus, as that limit nears, we
have begun to see the threat of
liquidity crises and bankruptcy.
The fate of Penn Central now fac-
es growing numbers of banks, cor-
porations and local, state a n d
school board governments as rents
prices and taxes can be raised no
further. The short term solution
for America's banks and corpora-
tions was currency speculation
against the dollar where the ex-
pected rates of return were very
high. What must be understood.
however, is that there was no al-
ternative for them; once having
"invested" in fictitious capital,
capitalists must gouge real wages
in the short run to stay solvent,
even though that very gouging
process destroys the potential
market for expanded real output
in the long run.
Only a depression can wipe out
the fictitious capital and allow a
new cycle to begin. No amount of
tinkering with monetary exchange
rates, wage and price freezes or
import tariffs can relieve the cri-
sis. It can merely modify the
symptoms,
Nixon's Aug. 15 moves, however,
were designed to force working
populations here and abroad to
support the rickety, grossly over-
hauled credit structure at the ex-
pense of their living standards
The only way ahead for Nixon and
the capitalist class is an escalating
attack on wages and unions.
SIMPLISTIC ANALYSES which
merely blame the war for infla-
tion and crisis thus miss the real
source of the problem - ramp-
angt waste and speculation - of
which Vietnam War spending is
merely one fairly minor part. Un-
fortunately our comradesin the
anti-war movement persist in
popularizing this anti-working
class, pro-capitalist myth, which
can only lead to sad consequences.
A misinformed populace will like-
ly follow "liberal" politicians and
accept the so-called "incomes pol-
icy" approach, which, given the
nature of the crisis, can only serve
as an open door to vicious wage
gouging.
Much more dangerous are the
economic theorists themselves --
figures such as Ackley and Paul
Samuelson - who peddle the non-
sense that prosperity is j u s t
around the corner if only we sac-
rifice now. Depression is what is
just around the corner, and "sac-
rifice" now will serve to demoralize
labor such that it will be much less
able to resist attack when n e x t
,year's "prosperity" turns out to

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