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Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
rainbow bridge
Towards a common Ann Arbor community,
by john siinclair.
'4
r
rd 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, DECEMBER 1, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: TAMMY JACOBS
QO n up Regents meetings
RECENT MOVES toward opening more
of the Regents' monthly sessions'
should be commended as a step toward
increased involvement of the public in
regental decision-making. However, these
gestures should be viewed as but one
step in what should be a process of mak-
ing the meetings completely open to the
public the board is supposed to serve.
Two weeks ago, the Regents permitted
a Daily reporter and photographer to at-
tend their monthly Thursday night ses-
sion. The two were allowed to listen to a
discussion between the board and psy-
chology Prof. Roger Heyns, former chan-
cellor. of the University of Califoria at
Berkeley. After a few minutes, however,
Vice President for University Relations
Michael Radock asked them to leave,
saying the Regents would have to include
other local media if the Daily was allow-
ed to be present.
Last. week, however, President Robben
Fleming said he would suggest that the
board open its Thursday night sessions
to selected members of the public and
press.
If the Regents agree to include the
press at- their Thursday night session,
this change would be some improvement
over the preseIt system. As it stands now,
the Regents hold meetings here two days
each mnonth. The press, and public are
permitted to attend a sesion Friday morn-
ing where, because decisions have already
been nade, little discussion takes place,
policies are approved virtualy unanimous-
ly, and the agenda is run through at
lightning speed.
But the Regents are elected officials,
chosen by the people of the state to make
policy decisions on state-owned univer-
sities. Their opinions, ,ideas, and policy
positions. spould all be a matter of public
record, noh only for the benefit of their
constituents but also for those - students
and faculty members - whose lives their
decisions affect.
THUS, THE REGENTS should move to
open as much of their average 14
hours of closed meetings as possible. If
only the Thursday session is opened, the
Regents could continue to make import-
ant decisions in closed sessions, while the
Thursday night slot could be filled with
forums such as the one with Heyns -
discussions, which though potentially in-
teresting, do not inform the public about
the rationale behind regental decisions.
Those who feel the Regents should be
able to conduct their business out of the
public eye should not worry about these
proposals for opening meetings, for de-
cision-making processes can never be en-
tirely open. In the two days they are in
Ann Arbor, the Regents discuss policies
and programs during meals, in their free
time, walking between meetings. It is
highly improbable that the press could or
would monitor their every waking hour
at the University.
And the press, in fact, should probably
not be present at discussions on all poli-
cy matters. The review of appointments,
dismissals, and tenure is a highly sensi-
tive and personal matter which should
probably remain confidential between the
Regents, the employer, and the employe.
STILL, MANY REGENTAL decisions are
of great interest to the public. Par-
ents and students want to know why
tuition must be increased year after year.
Professors want to know why funds for
their departments were cut.
Some decisions, such as, those on a
student-run bookstore and black admis-
sions in the past, and the Regents' up-
coming consideration of classified re-
search are of particular interest to the
University community. When groups in
the University have taken a strong stand
on issues and have worked for the imple-
mentation of their goals, they should be
able to know why and how the Regents
made their ruling instead of sitting
through a virtually staged vote in the'
Regents' Friday morning open session.
IN THE MEANTIME, other steps towards
better communication can be. taken.
One such step might be to make public
the Regents' detailed agenda, which gives
background information for and explana-
tions of the items the Regents are to
consider. Open hearings and forums
should also be continued and expanded.
Those on classified research, University
investment practices, the Health Serv-
ice, and pass-fail grading have admirably
presented the Regents with varied stances
on issues - positions they might not have
become cognizant of during their short
stay in Ann Arbor.
Yet even these hearings do not solve
the problem of understanding policy
making, since the Regents rarely speak
at the forums - either to ask questions
or give their own opinions.
Thus the proposals to open the Thurs-
day night sessions ought to be extended
to all Regent's meetings. It may be a
difficult system for the Regents to adjust
to at first, with some friction likely to
result. But it is a necessary step to en-
sure the board's responsibility to its con-
stituents and to let members of the Uni-
versity community observe the formula-
tion of decisions which directly affect
them.
-SARA FITZGERALD
BEFORE I GET into anything
specific in this space - and I
hope I'll be with you once a week
or so in The Daily fromnnow on-
I'd like to lay out a general pro-
gram in this first column which
might help to provide a context
for anything I might say in the
future. What I'd like to offer is a
statement written by my partner
and comrade Leni Sinclair, which
says it better than I could do
right now, and if you can get next
to this then we can move on to
deal with specific problems and
specific solutions which concern
all of us who have an interest in
our common community here in
Ann Arbor.
When we first moved to Ann
Arbor in 1968 this was a whole
different place from what it is
now. Our brothers, \with their
beautiful long hair blowing in the
wind, would constantly be hassled
and called all kinds of names by
straight short-haired college stu-
dents. The sisters would get
gawked and ogled at as we walked
we all have in common as young
people in America far outweigh
our differences. The ruse about
students being part of the commu-
nity only temporarily, until they
graduate, doesn't separate us any-
more. Freaks are just as unstable
as a class as students are, maybe
even more unstable.
We just have to work to take
control over our own lives and
control our own communities
wherever we happen to live at
the time. We cannot postpone
the future and leave it up to
other people to get it together
here. The future is right now and
it's up to as what we do with it,
The isolation between the cam-
pus and the community has to
stop. The University after all is
token, students will never make
the revolution without the support
and participation of their brothers
and sisters in the community wno
are already living the life-style of
the future.
There have been some em-
bryonic' attempts at making the
University serve the needs of the
community, like the University
Child Care Center, the Women's
Crisis Center, the SGC Bail-Bond
Fund. But there has to be a lot
more than that. Students have to
get involved in, and demand to get
credit for, working on community
projects like the new People's
Community Center, Ozone House,
the Free Health Clinic, Drug Help,
the People's Food Co-op, etc.
Students and freaks united in
their demads and in their daily
commitment to serving their
own needs can make the Uni-
versity responsible for imple-
menting programs to take care
of the needs of all the people
in the community: food, housing,
clothing, health care, advancing
the people's culture and the peo-
pe's technology.
Since 18-year-olds have. gained
full citizenship and students are
no longer disenfranchised because
of their status aststudents, we
want to work together with other
organizations to see to it that no
person over 18 in this city and
county remains unregistered. We
want to work 'towards establishing
relations between the Ann Arbor
Tribal Council and corresponding
student government organizations
for the purpose of electing candi-
dates to the city and county gov-
ernments who are responsible to
all young people, students and
freaks, high school students and
our little sisters and brothers who
are still kept from voting.
The time for the phony separa-
tion between students and their
brothers and sisters in the "sur-
rounding community" is over. We
have only to look around to see
that we are ONE COMMUNITY,
we are one beautiful Rainbow
People, and we have to break
down the separation between our-
selves which has been promoted
by the control addicts in busi-
ness and government who depend
on our isolation from each other
in order to keep us in our place.
We face the future together-a
future we will create together
through our unity and our work.
* * *
Our goal is to organize Our com-
munity, including the University
and its students, into a powerfully
united organism which can serve
as a model of the world of the
future. As Huey Newton has
taught us "a community is a
comprehensive collection of in-
stitutions that will deliver our
whole lives, provided that we can
reach most of our goals within it.
It serves us and we create it in
order to carry out our desires."
All Power to the People! Rainbow
Power to the People of the Future!
The Editorial Page of The
Michigan Daily is open to any
one who wishes to submit
articles. Generally speaking, all
articles should be less than
1,000 words.
John Sinclair is chairman of the Rainbow People's Party, a
local connunal service-oriented group. He is presently in Jack-
son State Prison, awaiting a decision on the appeal of his 9v2-10-
Year sentence for possession of two marijuana cigarettes. This is
the first of a series of weekly columns Sinclair will write for The
Daily.
I
Building a community center
Working with the Food Co-op
down South U with no brassieres
under our raggedy tee-shirts.
It was more serious than just
being called names, though. Sev-
eral times we had our windows
smashed in the middle of the win-
ter when a bunch of drunk frat
boys threw rocks and snowballs
at our house. A lot of times,sit-
ting here on Hill Street, Ann Ar-
bor's Fraternity Row, we felt as
though we were living in the mid-
dle of enemy territory.
But the animosity was by no
means one-sided. Freaks had an
equally contemptuous attitude to-
wards students and toward intel-
lectuals in general. Freaks mostly
resented the fact that students
always seemed to have money,
while they never had any and lived
from day to day, from crash pad
to crash pad. Students generally
didn't smoke dope then, but drank
beer, they 'had short hair, and
they listened to bogus low-energy
music. And all we ever had to say
to students in those days was:
DROP OUT!
That was back in 1968, though;
now it's 1971 and everything is
very different. Basically I think
that students and freaks are be-
ginning to realize that the things
part of the community and has to
become responsible to the commu-
nity or else it's just a glorified
General Motors or Rand Corpora-
tion.
In the past, that's exactly what
we thought of the University. It
was just anothercorporation that
had to be smashed, or, unable to
do that right now, it had at least
to be dropped out of. But we were
idealists then. We have l2arned
that the University is simply a
form, a structure, and that in it-
self it is neither good nor bad.
But a university cannot exist
without its students and scholars,
and it's up to them to give it the
correct content: it can be either
reactionary or revolutionary, de-
pending on the uses people make
of it. The new slogan has to be:
Turn On, Tune In, and TAKE
OVER!
There is no way a revolution can
take place in this country without
all sectors of the population being
involved in making it. There is no
way freaks can make a revolution
without the support and partici-
pation of their sister and brother
students and all the incredible re-
sources that are available to them
at the University. By the same
Letters to The Daily
To The Daily: workshops, how they can go back
ONCE AGAIN, a Daily reporter, to their own states and work to
in search of something to do, has get young people elected to the two
decided to comment on and cri- national presidential conventions.
ticize something he knows nothing The only assumption this confer-
about. In his editorial called "Give ence is operating under is that it
Youth a Chance" (Daily, Nov. 23) ts about time that American youth
Chris Parks discussed the Emer- get into the American political
gency Conference of New Voters process-be it in a radical, liberal,
and my activities in relation to it. moderate or conservative manner
It is odd that he should know -where the decisions that affect
the details about my meeting with us all are made.
a Daily reporter -since he was not It is about time that Parks, and
there. The inevitable result was all others like him wake up to "the
inaccurate and irresponsible re- harsh realities' of political power
porting. The meeting with The -in this country." the decisions
Daily was actually held a week be- are not made out on the streets
fore the date ,he gave and it was by people waving signs and get-
not an interyiew of me. I never ting beat up and killed by society's
handed the Daily reporter a guest helmeted hired hands. The deci-
editorial. I merely introduced Mike sions determining this nation's fu-
Manning, Association of Student ture are made by th people who
Governments Executive Vice Pres- involve themselves in the political
ident, to the Daily reporter and process, the people who work to
then listened as he was interview- get a seat at a national' convention
ed. At the end ofthe interview, he so as to choose a candidate, and
gave a prepared statement to the finally. at the ballot box in No-
reporter. vember.
The main danger, however, that IN 1968, American youth com-
is created by such inaccurate re- plained that after the national con-
porting as displayed by Parks, is vention, there was no choice. In-
the damaging effect it can have stead of camplaining, it is time to
on the worthy project which is be- get into the conventions and create
ing made the object of uninformed a choice. Except for a lot of dem-
criticism. In this case, Parks dem- onstrations, no one really knows
onstrated that he did not have the for sure what the youth vote
slightest idea of what this confer- nieans. What the Emergency Con-
ence is all about. At no time did ference for New Voters proposes
he seek to ask me about it to dis- to do is to help get American youth
cover the purpose of the confer- into the convention so that we will
ence. Instead, he sought to mould know what the youtli vote means.
it in his mind to conform to the It is always easy to sit at a desk
attack he decided to make. Be- and criticize something or the ef-
cause of the number of people who forts of other people. Some Daily
read a newspaper, a reporter has reporters have done too much of
a responsibility to his readers to this in the past. It is about time
investigate a matter and not just that reporters like Parks get off
write off the top of his head. their cans and instead try to do
CONTRARY to what Parks has something constructive.
decided is the function of this con- The Emergency Conference for
ference, the Emergency Confer- New Voters will be held at Loyola
ence of New Voters does not as- University of Chicago Dec. 3-5.
sume that "American- youthas a Housing will be provided. Further
group have some common interest information is available at the
substantial enough to weld them SGC office.
together as a political unit," -Jerry Rosenblatt
The purpose of this conference SGC Executive Vice
is to instruct the young people who President
come, with numerous and varied Nov. 24
Indian-Pakistani crisis
AS PAKISTAN and India teeter on the
brink of full-scale warfare, the great
powers have publicly called for an. end
to violence and a peaceful resolution of
the'erisis in South Asia.
But these cries of concern over need-
less bloodshed from the governments of
the United States and the Soviet Union
are hollow and paper pleadings.
Neither country's cold war strate-
gists are willing to openly seek the inter-
vention of the United Nations Security
Council in the dispute. Rather, both are
busy angling for diplomatic leverage and
fear the charges of hypocrisy they would
encounter should they encourage Secur-
ity Council action.
Hopes that conflicts, such as the one
in the Indian subcontinent, could be solv-
ed peacefully were incorporated in the
founding of the UN, especially in the
powers of the Security Council. But the
great powers, since the UN's birth, have
preferred to settle problems on their
own, often militarily.
Instead- of forcefully urging UN in-
volvement, President Nixon has urged
both India and Pakistan to pull back
their forces and negotiate peacefully.
THE NIXON administration, allied to
the Pakistani regime through the
South East Asia Treaty Organization,
fears any international proceedings in
the great powers, as the two Asian na-
tions have continued their old propa-
ganda battle over who should control the
disputed Kashmir territory.
The struggle for a Bangla Desh, inde-
pendent of Pakistan, is supported by
India which would welcome a friendly,
peaceful, and militarily weak neighbor
to the northeast. Consequently, the In-
dian army is tying down the Pakistani
forces along the tense border, while the
Indian-armed Mukti Bahini rebels, al-
r e a d y controlling the countryside,
strengthen their position in East Pakis-
tan's large cities.
At the same time, Pakistani's Yahya
Khan is not eager to cool off the crisis
along the India-Pakistan border. Should
his army fare badly in East Pakistan in
the fight against the guerrillas, as it
seems it may, he might appreciate an
opportunity to blame the defeat on a
brief, but bloody war with India. The
Pakistani army could then slip out of an
independent Bangla Desh without losing
too much face - never mind the blood -
retreating to West Pakistan to resist an
Indian invasion.
SHEEPISHLY, the great powers make
pronouncements extolling peace, while
all four nations' diplomatic maneuverings
prevent any concrete action to avoid a
costly war.
I ~ deep greens a nd blues
Correction: The war is not winding down,
_________________________________________ lv larry IennErit
'p
K r r u cs L Ii AL d u W uu u ^s v are u 461
RED BRANFMAN, who has interviewed
F thousands of refugees from U. S.
bombing in Laos, puts ituvery simply: "The
war is not winding down."
Peace groups across the country have
been saying it for years. Frequent articles
in leading newspapers and magazines sub-
stantiate it, and a recent report by the.
Center for International Studies at Cor-
nell seems to confirm it.
The troops are coming home - -they
are no longer needed. A massive air war
has replaced American ground action in
Indochina and the air war has spread
beyond Vietnam to include intense bomb-
ing in Laos and Cambodia.
This is no longer a matter of specula-
tion-this is a matter of fact. And this
matter-of-fact bombing is taking its larg-
est toll on civilian life and property.
"The bombing of Laos has doubled,"
Branfman writes in the Washington
Monthly, "erasing whatever restrictions on
striking civilian targets that formerly ex-
isted. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
villages have been destroyed.
"Ten of thousands of thousands of pea-
American bombing strikes., But personal
accounts by thousands of Laotian re-
fugees contradict these assertions.
IT'S EASY TO CONDEMN our own pi-
lots. High above their targets, sheltered
from knowing the results of their bomb-
ing, they seem all too willing to kill.
Branfman has interviewed pilots in
Indochina. "War has progressed to a
point where you're going to bomb civilian
targets and 'that's it," said one. "I'll be
frank. I'm trained to kill people. I don't
like it particularly. But when the time
comes, I'm prepared to do it."
Another was even more blatantly prag-
matic: "I'm not saying we were might.
Let's face it, we just attacked the fuckers.
But when we did decide to bomb them, we
should have kicked the shit out of them."
It's easy to condemn the atrocious ac-
tions of pilots, officials and presidents.
It's more difficult to condemn the people
who, through their inaction, have allowed
the atrocities to continue.
At one time, we could have pleaded ig-
norance; the government kept a tight lid
the death or the 'suffering we cause.
"What does it mean," Branfman asks,
"when the strongest of the species is sys-
tematically killing and maiming some of
the weakest? . . . the most prosperous
regilarly destroying the homes and be-
longings of some of the poorest? . . . the
most technically advanced using their
most sophisticated weaponry against a
people who pose the most marginal of
challenge to their interests?"'
WE TRIED TO DECEIVE ourselves
once - we talked about sharing our love
of freedom. But in Indochina, it's more
like rape than love.
For two decades, we've attempted to
implant the seeds of freedom and democ-
racy, as if our genes carried either char-
acteristic. Our eyes glazed with a lust
for God knows what, we've penetrated an
unwilling womb, slowly but with increas-
ing force.
Like a rapist who lingers too long, we
find complete withdrawal impossible. But
the time for withdrawal is long overdue,
a withdrawal not only of ground troops,
REFUGEES CROWD a valley north
of Vietiane, Laos.
ground combat, there is more bombing
and the rate of civilian deaths and casual-