A1
Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
friday mmOring
A dull crunch
...and baby is smashed
by da iiel zwerdli4.........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.
FRIDAY,.
JANUARY 15, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: JIM
BEATTI E
I
Diary
Dec. 28 - Jan. 10
EACH DAY I look out my win-
dow and watch my neighbor
working with his car. How he tink-
ers with it - his white MG sports
convertible! I see him spreading
his tools, wrenches and rackets
and screw drivers and myriad
s m a l I bolts . and screws, on
a crumpled oily cloth laid care-
fully on the sidewalk.
The car's hood is open; if I
crane my neck I can just see his
shoulders hunched over thc mani-
fold intake, and although h i s
head is hidden by the carburetor
and air filter, every four seconds
I see great rushes of steam which
must be coming from his poor
laboring lungs; sometimes there is
a long pause and then a sudden
gush of steam as he tenses his
muscles and focuses his wits and,
poised, suddenly exerts tremendous
force on his socket wrench. When
it is very cold outside he some-
times disappears for long per-
iods; from my vantage point on
the living room couch I look anx-
iously for his return, and marvel
at this small white coupe, left
alone with his hood opened trust-
fully, almost naively, baring its
wonderful and complex engine and
innermost parts to any who would
tamper with them or disturb their
broken repose. I imagine my
neighbor warming his hands and
feet in his apartment, gulping hot
rushes of coffee before returning
to his devotions, to the cold and
his white MG coupe.
Jan. 13. Today, and starting two
days ago, I look for my neighbor
but he doesn't come. The car's
hood has been closed, though; I
think he has fixed it.
Jan. 14. This morning as I was
waking up I heard a dull crunch. I
ran outside. An enormous b 1 u e
Chevrolet with four doors and
enormous tires and eight cylinders,
this whopping ode to men's mast-
ery over machines, has skidded
on a solid sheet of ice, smashed
into the white MG's left side and
stopped wedged against this little
auto's back left side. I run out-
bile, too, has given me cause for
pain: a second hand SAAB in ex-
cellent condition. purchased one
year ago for only $750. It is a very
good deal. Through a special in-
surance agre ment I pay only $260
per year: parking tickets nave
not exceeded $60 Twice a year.
once in spring and once in fall. I
give my SAAB a preventive check-
up which costs each time $40. I
think of the care my parents used
to give me in my annual visits to
the doctor and dentist.
Last spring I give my SAAB
a special 24.000 mile checkup, and
pay $90. Two months later the
clutch gives out; the mechanic
repairs it for $75, and during the
repairs notices a faulty distribu-
tor which he repairs for $15. In
October my radiator overheats
and I find some rotted hoses: I
pay $12 to fix the leaks. In De-
cember my car suddenly shakes
and lets out a frightful wheeze,
an;: stops on a highway: one of
the pistons has a hole in it and
the engine. has overheated. The
repair costs $140, plus $60 for a
new clutch and flywheel since the
garage discovers that the clutch
has gone bad again. That's be-
cause the flywheel was bad to be-
gin with and, unreplaced, has
quickly worn out the new clutch
I installed several months ago.
One week ago my Oar drives
fine but suddenly the engine
sounds as if it is going to explode
and great gushes of exhaust pour
from under the fotor: the muffler
has rusted through. I pey $35 to
replace it.
MY BROTHER has purchased a
Lodge Dart for $900, but can't
drive it as the transmission has
gone bad. He has recently pur-
chased new tires for $100 and
can't afford a majo- repair as of
yet.
Epilogue
My parents replaced the trans-
mission on their Ford twc months
ago, and tell him it cost $250 in
parts and labor.
A
4
-Daily-Jim Wallace
side to make sure the driver isn't
going to speed away without leav-
ing a note: it happened to me be-
fore. It's a friend of mine whom
I haven't seen for 10 months! She
is upset, as she is a wee late for an
appointment with her psychiatrist.
WE LEAVE the two cars, wedg-
ed together in stasis after the im-
pact, and walk into my house as a
light freezing rain begins to fall,
dribbling inside an enormous hole
which this woman's Chevrolet has
punctured in the small MG's metal
side. As she calls the police I
make some constant comment tea
to sooth her.
'We hear a loud crunch. I r u n
outside. A massive brown Olds-
mobile station wagon has skidded
on a solid sheet of ice, smashed
into the white MG's front grille
and hood and stopped with i t s
bumper wedged underneath t h e
sports coupe so that auto is up-
lifted as if in a plaintive cry, of
despair. The drive is angry; he is
driving to a business meeting. Now
he has warped the small white
car's entire hood so that it will no
longer function, and shreds of
glass and metal are hanging
crumpled from the front; once
instruments to pierce the night,
now shredded and useless. T h e
entire front is stoved in; I fear
to look, bevause I know that just
as a person, fragile and vulnerable
to life forces, will suffer unbear-
able injury to his vital organs
when crushed from without, so
the MG's little engine is crippled
from the station wagon's blow.
the police came, one policeman
in fact, a man with a friendly
smile which softens his riot hel-
met. He tells us 158 other cars
have crashed around Ann Arbor
since last night. The two drivers
fill out innumerable f o r m s,
slumped in the squad car's back
seat which warms them from the
frozen morning rain. Forty min-
utes pass, me sitting quietly on
my living room couch; a tow truck
appears and pulls loose the Chev-
rolet, then the station wagon,
pulls loose these intruders from
the foreign convertible. And fin-
ally, the squad car, the tow truck
and the two automobiles drive
away, leaving alone the white MG
sports coupe: very small looking
and very crumpled.
MY NEIGHBOR hasn't returned
yet.
Reflections
Who can estimate, who can
compensate, the incalculable time
and effort, the emotional involve-
ment and expenditure of saved up
funds, the pure devotion, which
my neighbor has invested in his
tiny white MG? I empathize: I
understand his loss. My automo-
Another commission reports
v 1
°A DIURABLE
1UNDER WAY
S - I OLj
IN
()NEMIGHT SUPPOSE that a society
anxious about increasing criminal
violence would take measures to control
weapons, and to concentrate its resourc-
es in an effort to control the trend.
It therefore appears somewhat remark-
able that in the United States, where the
control of crime has become a major po-
litical issue, virtually anyone can acquire
a gun, drug addicts are treated in such a
way as to make their commission of crime
inevitable, and a large portion of resourc-
es are devoted to the prosecuting of vol-
untary acts in a futile struggle to enforce
an archaic conception of public morality.
ON THIS SUBJECT, another commis-
sion has issued another report. Like
the commissions on Civil Disorders, Vio-
lence and Pornography before it, it has
made some constructive proposals. Like
its predecessors, it will probably be ig-
nored by the officials who established it.
The National Commission on Reform of
Federal Criminal Laws has recommended
A hip plot?
VICE PRESIDENT for Student Services
Robert Knauss should be taken to
task for, in his own words, accepting a
hippopatumus for the SAB "without con-
sulting anyone." While it is not to be re-
gretted that he failed to ask President
Fleming, the Regents, the executive of-
ficers or Grad Assembly, Knauss erred
seriously in not consulting SGC, his policy
board or any of the student organizations
housed in the SAB.
The hippo, as described by its creator,
Jonathan Kantor, is "the natural predator
of the pig. He seeks him out and kills him.
Pigs must tread softly wherever hippos
are found."
A LTHOUGH at first blush, such a guard-
ian may seem desirable for the SAB
(especially in light of last summer's at-
tempted invasion by Yorkshires of the
Legal Self-Defense office), the prospect
for some groups may lessen when it is
realized that such protection for their
offices may lead some office-dwellers to
let their guard dewn. This could be an
especially serious situation in light of the
fact that pigs can be taught to walk on
tiptoe.
Knauss should realize the error of his
hastiness and consult with the tenant-
constituencies of the SAB before he de-
cides to accept what may be a subversive
plot to undermine the SAB and make is
vulnerable to invasion by pigs - or hip-
pos, for that matter.
--RO RIR
in its final reports to President Nixon and
Congress that private ownership of hand-
guns be outlawed, that homosexual acts
and other 'deviate' sexual activity be le-
galized, and that penalties for drug pos-
session be substantially scaled down. In
addition, the commission h a s proposed
that fraudulent acts by corporations be
punished more severely and that capital
punishment, which has not been used for
over three years in this country, be abol-
ished.
Under t h e commission's proposals,
handguns could not be owned by private
citizens, and all other firearms w o u 1 d
have to be registered. There is a signifi-
cant demonstrable relationship between
the availability of firearms, the commis-
sion of crime and the general level of vio-
lence. Certainly this is not the only fac-
tor making America's crime rate so high
in relation to other societies where fire-
arms are strictly controlled, but the easy
availability of guns does facilitate t h e
commission of crimes, and does result in
numerous deaths - in personal conflicts,
during the commission of crimes, and in
accidents - which would not have other-
wise occurred.
THE COMMISSION'S recommendation
that laws prohibiting homosexual acts
and other sexual practices commonly
considered deviate be repealed, merits
wide support. Even for those who would
not agree that governmental restrictions
on voluntary sexual activity are a cruel
and unwarranted intrusion into individ-
ual lives, there remains the compelling
argument that at a time when the entire
police, court and prison systems are un-
able to deal effectively with rising crime,
it seems pathetically wasteful to burden
these systems further trying to enforce
crimes involving voluntary acts victimiz-
ing no one, which appear not to be signi-
ficantly deterred by the law.
On the questions of drugs and porno-
graphy, the commission has unfortunate-
ly compromised with prevailing political
sentiment. Though its proposal that mar-
ijuana possession be punished only with
fines is an improvement over current law,
its basic approach is still punitive. It con-
tinues to treat the heroin question sim-
plistically - ignoring the facts that ad-
dicts will continue to need heroin, that
supplies will continue to be available des-
pite the law, and that the drug's illegality
raises its price greatly, virtually forcing
the addict to steal.
The recommendation favoring reten-
tion of anti-pornography laws ignores
convincing scientific evidence, compiled
most recently by the President's porno-
graphy commission, that the alleged
harmful effects of pornography a r e
mythical.
Letters to The Daily
To the Daily:
THIS MORNING I read in your
newspaper a letter by Miss Fai-
genbaum and Miss Welch in which
they criticized their treatment
while working at one of the cam-
pus bookstores. Out of sympathy
with them, and feeling that the
more skeptical segment of Daily
readers should be more fully con-
vinced of the unethical practices
of certain community employers I
encourage you to publish the fol-
lowing s t o r y of my experiences
with the Follett's bookstore man-
agemnent.
A few weeks ago, while still a
student at the University, I ap-
plied for a full time job at the
State street bookstore. At t h a t
time I was told that my chances
of getting such a job were "very
good," but that I should c o m e
back around December 10 to con-
firm them. Returning to Follett's
on the designated date. I was told
that I would have to start work-
ing part-time during the rest of
the semester in order to make
certain the availability of the full-
time job. As it happened I ended
up working for them from four to
six hours a day during the study
and exam periods in addition to
my other job as a janitor at a
more honest business in our com-
munity.
Having been told that I would
be eventually working in t h e i r
Spanish book section, I was mean-
time given the j a b of marking
books that would be sold to the
students in this semester's Nook
rush. When my exams were over
I began working full-time for
them. I worked through New
Year's up till last Tuesday, when
the book rush came to its virtual
end, and Follett's completed an-
other lucrative transaction with
the students. Without having ful-
filled their promises of having me
work for their Spanish book sec-
tion, without giving me previous
warning, I was conveniently dis-
posed of at that time.
NOT BEING a union member.
and having signed no legally bind-
ing contract with them I can do
nothing but accept my misfortune.
My possibilities for t h e coming
months are reduced to returning
to school, paying late registration
and hazzling insurmountable dif-
ficulties, or praying that I will
find another job in the extremely
tight Ann Arbor market.
What I would like to see is the
formation of a unionby bookstore
employes in the n e a r future to
prevent the type of exploitation I
have been subjected to. and the
type of mistreatment Miss Faigen-
baum and Miss Welch experienc-
ed.
-Robert Wende
Jan. 14
Strike
To The Daily:
STRIKING is a right. It is a
right in exactly the same way as
freedom of speech, freedom of the
assembly, and freedom from hun-
ger are rights. If you c a n n o t
strike you are literally a slave. To
the degree that individuals, insti-
tutions, or states infringe upon
these rights, they are authoritar-
ian enemies of ful free democ-
racy.
The low pay and poor working
conditions of the AFSCME work-
ers in the University, alone justi-
fies their decision to "withdraw
services," i.e. strike. As members
of the temporary steering commit-
tee of Ann Arbor's new left-radi-
cal political party, we will fully
support these workers in their
struggle to obtain a decent life. It
was the democratic decision of the
founding convention (Dec. 12) of
this party to support AFSCME
workers not just with paper reso-
lutions and militant words, but
with all our resources and energy.
In keeping with this mandate.
the steering committee has voted
to formally affiliate with the
AFSCME Support Coalition and
to offer what assistance we can
to the strike effort. We urge oth-
ers to do t h e same. SUPPORT
THE STRIKE! DON'T SCAB!
--The Temporary
Steering Committee
,.' ~O~j~>~A ADVANCEC
I-' ,',,
PLACE. ~ '. -,f.r.
!f
~)d M,,JA 1. T' g'
REPORT FROM PEKING:
Sihanouk appeals to U.S.
. . . images
By NORODOM SIHANOUK
(Dispatch News Service)
(Editor's Note: Norodom Sihanouk,
former head of the Cambodian gov-
ernment, was deposed by a coup on
March 18, 1978. He is presently in
Peking where he is head of a
government in exile, the U n i t e d
National Front of Cambodia).
PEKING - THE UNITED na-
tional front of Cambodia now
has its own liberation army com-
posed of soldiers who are neither
Viet Cong or North Vietnamese,
the majority of whom do not even
know what Communism is. I might
just mention the following state-
ment of the French reporter Xav-
ier Baron, who spent several weeks
in the territory liberated by our
Front. He wrote in English in a
bulletin released by Agence France
Presse on the 28th of August:
"Most of the people in the liber-
ated areas had rural backgrounds.
Their attachment to Prince Si-
hanouk had been sentimental at
first. But it changed as the weeks
passed and the families they left
behind began to suffer from air
attacks and to sometimes die in
them. Some did not know the
meanings of the terms Marxism
and Communism. They said, 'I
am fighting for my Prince.' The
guerillas have two enemies - the
Americans and General Lon Nol."
Your own countryman, Richard
Dudman of the St. Louis P o s t
Dispatch similarly reported, "What
I saw and heard during nearly six
weeks as a cantive in Liberated
turned into a massive dedicated
and effective revolutionary base.
We have seen evidence of alleg-
iance to Sihanouk, and of its
counterpoint, extreme hatred of
the U.S. and President N i x o n.
American shells and bombs mean
to Cambodians that the U.S. is
waging unprovoked colonialist war
against them. They see America as
a would be successor to the French
trying to turn back the clock of
history in the face of a swelling
spirit of Asia for Asians."
These statements -speak elo-
quently for themselves.
IT IS NOT difficult to see why
Lon Nol and his regime are doing
everything possible to hide the
truth from world public opinion
and from the American people,
from whom President Nixon is now
extracting more than 250 million
dollars annually to allegedly help
Lon Nol repulse a foreign Com-
munist invasion. On Nov. 25, 1970,
AP cabled from Phnom Penh that,
"The Lon Nol government has re-
fused to acknowledge the presence
of any significent number of Cam-
bodian Communists or supporters
of Prince Norodom Sihanouk.
Censors have been heretofore in-
structed to cut almost all refer-
ences to such anti-government ele-
ments out of dispatches filed by
correspondents here."
Mr. Nixon's administration
knows the truth, but it too is
trying to hide it from Ameri-
The Nov. 9 issue of Newsweek de-
scribed the results of such an air
strike: "When newsmen arrived
to inspect the damage last week,
they found no trace of the deep
Communist bunkers described in
Phnom Penh briefings, nor a n y
other sign of a North Vietnamese
occupation force. All evidence in-
dicated that the massive air as-
sault had done more damage to
the Cambodian town than to the
enemy. More and more U.S. planes
have roared into action over Cam-
bodia. The stepped up use of air
power there has had an impact on
the civilian population. Hospitals
in Phnom Penh and many pro-
vincial centers are jammed w I t h
civilian casualties. One U.S. dip-
lomat in Phnom Penh said, 'We
are terribly aware that the de-
struction in civilian areas could
swing the peasants into the arms
of the Communists far more ef-
fectively than all of Sihanouk's
rhetoric.' "
IT IS MY HOPE that what I
have written here will be seen by
responsible representatives of the
American people in Congress so
that they might give some thought
to the terrible wounds being in-
flicted on my people by U.S.
planes before they consider voting
more credits to President Nixon's
"protege," Lon Nol, who is plainly
and simply a murderer of t h e
Cambodian people.
It is very imnortant that t h e
'~ ,' -~