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September 09, 1970 - Image 4

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The Michigan Daily, 1970-09-09

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MbeMtc ian Baty
Eighty years of editorial freedom
Edited and maraged by students at the University of Michigan

lighting the housing squeeze in tents

420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

News Phone: 764-0552

f

Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1970

NIGHT EDITOR:

DAVE CHUDWIN

CORE and black separatism:
Black power for black people

TilE DECISION over the weekend by the
Congress On Racial Equality (CORE)
to adopt a program of black separatism,
rejecting its traditional stand of promot-
ing integration, should come as no sur-
prise. The decision, albeit somewhat be-
lated, serves as further witness to a fact
which has become increasingly clear over
the past several years - there is no fu-
ture in being a "good nigger" for the
white establishment.
No matter what one may think of black
separatism itself, CORE's decision can
only be seen as a step forward toward
active participation in the struggle of
blacks against appression and exploita-
tion.
Previously, CORE has been cast in the
role of a "moderate black organization."
This meant it went along with the plans
of the white establishment for improving
the lot of black people and was useful to
that establishment as a means of "con-
trolling" dissident blacks. As long as
CORE, and groups like it do their jobs
well, co-operation from the federal gov-
Air piracy as
counter-revolution
THIS WEEKEND leaves destroyed a 23
million dollar airlines and 300 people
captive in the desert.
The airliner's loss is relatively unimport-
ant compared to the totally inhumane
treatment accorded to the innocent civil-
ians who are passengers on the besieged
aircraft in Jordan.
The guerrillas' threat to destroy the air-
craft with the passengers still aboard if
their demands are not met must be con-
sidered very real. Yet those so-called
"freedom fighters" whoare held captive
in West Germany, Switzerland and Brit-
ain are dangerous and unpredictable men
and women who would present a very real
danger to civil aviation in the' future if
released.
Thus the governments concerned face
a difficult dilemma, whether to make a
stand against air pirady now, risking the
lives of hundreds of innocent people, or
later, when the risks involved may be
greater.
To those of us who have sympathy with
the Palestinian cause it is becoming hard
to justify much of the activity in which
the guerillas are occupied.
The obvious anti-semitisn of the guer-
rillas who refused to allow Jewish women
and children off the planes while per-
mitting Gentile women and children to
leave is awful and shocking.
The callous disregard for human life,
which is what the tactics of the guerillas
are tantamount to, is counter-revolution-
ary and destructive to the ends of the
Palestinian cause, besides giving new fire
to ithe already powerful Ziqnist lobby.
Air piracy must be stopped. It is a
shame that it will be stopped by precisely
those forces which revolutionary people
are traditionally opposed to.
-JONATHAN MILLER

ernment, among others, is forthcoming.
But such a role is fraught with frustra-
tions, and when those frustrations a r e
expressed, in. the form of more militant
rhetoric or action, that white co-opera-
tion tends to evaporate.
IRONICALLY, such co-operation is rare-
ly a loss. Government programs for
blacks, at nearly all levels, are infamous
for promising the sky and delivering vir-
tually nothing. City administrators across
the country, black and white, lay at least
part of the blame for racial unrest to pro-
grams which consistently fail to live up
to the glowing descriptions given them by
politicians.
One of the black lawyers who fought
for landmark Supreme Court decision on
school desegregation, now speaks of it in
subdued tones and slowly shakes his
head, saying, "We thought we were really
doing something then, but now . . . I
don't know."
The position, then, of "moderate black
groups" is one of doing very little to gain
virtually nothing. For blacks who have
devoted most of their lives to concepts
like integration and black capitalism,
such a realization is a hard one to face.
But as younger, more militant blacks
move on a variety of fronts, and as the
futility of being "good niggers" hits more
and more current moderates with full
force, the "civil rights" struggle will be-
come thing of the past.
In its place will be, virtually, a revolu-
tion. As more and more blacks give up on
taking gratefully what is given them, and
no more, the rule book on dealing with
blacks, and other racial minorities, will
have to be totally rewritten.
A few groups, such as the National
Association for the Advancement of Col-
ored People and the Urban League, still
remain, ready to serve when the master
calls. But they, are rapidly finding them-
selves surrounded by a new militancy, de-
dicated to working for blacks first,
-ROB BIER
Associate Managing Editor
Say thataan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported yes-
terday that Palestinian guerrilla
spokesmen have protested the presence
of armed guards on Israeli's El Al airline
flights. The guerrillas charge it is "a
gross violation of international law."
Speaking over Damascus radio in Syria,
the spokesman said the failure of a guer-
rilla attempt to hijack an El Al airliner
near London Sunday was because of this
"outrageous Israeli violation."
This came in light of the Arabs threat
to blow up two planes full of hostages
they had successfully hijacked earlier.
If this weren't such a serious, nearly
unbelievable incident, they would say
in Tel Aviv that the guerilla spokesmen
have a lot of chutzpah.
-J.C.S.
-N.C.

By HARVARD VALLANCE
"I'M STAYING HERE until it
gets too cold" - so they say
around the tent city of the Diag,
and many of them act like they're
not kidding.
The housing market in the sub-
urbs of the tent city may or may
not be any tighter than in prev-
ious tight years, but with the ad-
vent of the tent-in, those who
lost in the mad scramble for the
best apartments are at least
making themselves visible.
In the old days they would dash
for any couch or available floor
space a friend could offer while
waiting for the magic apartment
to appear. This year, however,
they not only get the experience 'a
unique warm weather life-style,
but they get to go on television
and get interviewed.
"$60 a month for a room with
a kitchen down the hall wouldn't
be bad" says one graduate stu-
dent "but I had to borrow emer-
gency money from my father to
get back here and I'm just not in
the market for what's left - $80
or $100 a month with no kitchen."
"Look" an angry camper says,
"tell 'em I-answered 18 ads today
for two bedroom places and the
ones that were already taken went
for $200 or more and the ones
that weren't were askingupsto
$260."
"I say we have a revolution,"
says another.
The atrocity stories go on and
on . . . of the landlord who wants
$80 for a room as a single and
$120 for the same place as a
double, of $75 per man for four
in a two-room place being the
going rate, of Ann Arbor being
worse than Berkely, etc., etc....
WHILE JOHN FELDKAMP,
Letters:
To the Editor:
IN THEIR LETTER concerning
the selection of Robert Knauss as
Vice-President of Student Serv-
ices, Steve Nissen and Norm Wil-
son condemned President Fleming
for not appointing any of the five
candidate his own Search Com-
mitee nominated for that posi-
tion. We are in full agreement
with them on this point. By delay-
ing his selection, President Flem-
ing successfully waited until all
the nominees were no longer able
to remain in contention. He also
has hampered student involve-
ment in the Office of Student
Services by opposing creation of
a student majority policy board.
The OSS has been functioning
without direction, and President
Fleming delayed the appointment
of a new vice-president and the
creation of genuine policy boards
which would have made the office
meaningful and functional for stu-
dents.
However, Mr. Nissen and Mr.
Wilson do not seem to understand
the position Student Government
Council has recently taken con-
cerning the appointment of a new
vice-president. SGC endorsed no
one for the position of vice-presi-
dent of Student Services. On Aug.
19. Council passed the following
resolution:
Three weeks ago, Student
Government Council began to
screen prospective candidates
for the position of Vice-Presi-
dent of the Office of Student
Services.
During the past few weeks,
we have interviewed all those
who have presented themselves
as possible candidates and those
who have been recommended to
for that position.'
This past weekend, SGC, in a
majority decision, decided that
we should make known who we
find to be acceptable for that

position at the earliest possible
date.
President Fleming has al-
ready indicated to us his willing-
ness to appoint Robert Knauss
as Vice-President of OSS. After

luxury apartment dwellers. If
you don't, you can turn singles
into doubles, doubles to triples, or
you can squeeze yourself into large
closets, storage areas, attics and
basements and hope either that
the landlord doesn't catch you or
that the building inspector doesn't
catch him.
ANOTHER OPTION, of course
is to connect your apartment to
the campus with a two or t h r e e
,mile walk or to get yourself a
farmhouse. If you choose the lat-
ter. you've part of the problem
because you've probably got a car
and enough money to get an ex-
pensive place in town. So get a
place in town and bid up. the
price of apartments and some-
body's got to walk two or three
miles to class every day because
you're; rich and he's not.,
Still another option, offered by
one of the tent dwellers who says
he's a bit, tired of "the flat rip-
off in this town" is to stage a re-
peat of last year's Real Estate
Office rip-off and Bank Burn-
ing in Santa Barbara. He points
out that somebody has already
started on the picture windows at
Charter Realty.
If crises persist long enough,
of course, it starts getting defined
as normality; and apparently the
housing office finds that to be a
healthy enough name of the'pre-
sent situation. There's nothing to
be alarmed about because "In
terms -of the over-all market"
says Edward Salowitz, Associate
Director of University Housing,
"this is the best year we've had
in the past two or three." To the
people living in the tents and on
the couches, the over-all market
might as' well be the market for
overalls.

4

-Daily-Richard Lee

Director of University Housing,
will swear up and down that "If
there's an absolute shortage of
housing, I'm unaware of it" the
residents of the tent city will
swear up and down that there's
absolutely no housing they can
reasonably afford.
The housing office also main-
tains that nobody in the tents
could seriously be in need of a
place to stay when there are 50
openings left in the dormitories
and plenty of listings available at
the off-campus housing office,
even though you may not be in

the market for those prices or a
return to dormitory roommates,
meals and paper thin walls.
A tour of the tent area will con-
firm; of course, that it is not peo-
pled entirely by serious apart-
ment hunters, but nevertheless the
hunters are there and any contact
with the students around you will
tell you that most of the victims
of the housing squeeze can be
round camped out on couches and
floors around the student ghetto.
You can't live in a tent a 11
winter, of course, nor can you an-
noy your friends forever and those

who still wander from house to
house or from tent to tent, must
eventually find places to live,
much to the relief of an embar-
rassed housing office.
There are-several alternatives to
the glut of students on the market,
all of which necessarily are quite
beneficial to our local population
of landlords.
As one lean desperado, a vet-
eran of a week-long search put it,
"we finally stooped to the modern
apartments."' If you have the
means, you can always bid your-
self up into the market of the

4

SGC

has

faith

in Prof. Knauss

iol

having extensive interviews and
conversations with Professor
Knauss, SGC believes that his
appointment is an acceptable
one.
SGC would have preferred
that President Fleming prompt-
ly had chosen the Vice-President
of OSS from a list of five can-
didates nominated by his own
Search Commvittee. He did not,
and so the Office of Student
' Services has stagnated without
direction and without policy
boards during the past year.
SGC did not attempt to re-do
the work of the Search Coin -
mittee, but rather to find an
acceptable candidate who could
be appointed fairly soon. There-
fore, even though we have inter-
viewed people who we have been
enthusiastic about during the
last few weeks, there has been
no attempt to come up with any
list of endorsed candidates.
FURTHER, Steve Nissen and
Norm Wilson have stated that-
Professor Knauss has recently
been silent concerning the issue of
policy boards. This is not true. At
three open sessions, Robert Knauss
has been probed at length on that
issue. We believe that his stand is
acceptable to us. He has agreed
that the policy decisions and ulti-
mate control of the OSS must be
left to a student majority policy
board, and that the extent of that
control is to be determined by the
policy board. He has also agreed
to put in writing his intention to
resign his position whenever the
policy board calls for his resigna-
tion. We have no reason to believe
that Prof. Knauss has lied about
his stand concerning p o li c y
boards.
SGC has not changed its posi-
tion on the question of policy
boards for the Office of Student
Services. Students must and will
make the decisions in that office.
--Marty Scott
President,
Student Government Council
-Jerry De Grieck
Executive Vice President
Sept. 8

Dis functional
consciences
To the Editor:
JIM NEUBACHER'S editorial
(Sept. 4) on the Wisconsin bomb-
ing features some provocative uses
of words. He declares that t h e
Army Mathematics Research
Center is now "disfunctional," a
scientific term which connotes the
breakdown of a piece of machin-
ery. While I believe with Mr.
Neubacher that writers must keep
abreast of current jargon in all
fields, I wonder if ',he" is aware
that the bomb also rendered "dis-
functional" research being con-4
ducted in surrounding buildings,
some of it dealing with drugs to
treat cancer and other diseases?
And "disfunctional" also seems to
me to be inappropriate usage in
describing what happened to the
30-year-old researcher who was
in the building at the time of the
blast. Might I suggest "murder-
ed"?
Those who oppose violence are
labeled "impotent" by Mr. Neu-
bacher. This again raises objec-
tions in my mind. Since I had al-
ways thought of one who con-
demns the destruction of life and
property as a "responsible.human
being." But, I must agree that
advocates of non-violence are not
politically efficacious - they
r a r el y blow up buildings and
people, a tactic which surely does
seem to be reducing "repression
and militarism." Why, just think
of what an effect the removal of
ROTC from the campus will have
on the military! And the m i n d
boggles at the drastic reduction of
repression which will surely oc-
cur as a result of increased vio-
lence!
I SUPPOSE THAT "conscience
doth make cowards of us all," yet
the writer's effort at equating
that word with "efficacy" most
disturbs me. I had always thought
that what my conscience told me
was wrong should be rejected,
whether or not it happened to be
efficacious. My conscience rather
consistently indicates that bomb-

ing and murder are immoral acts,
and even in some cases ineffica-
cious, since someone is liable to
put up a bomb-proof building in
place of the vulnerable one. Mr..
Neubacher's citation of the di-
lemma of conscience posed by tac-
tics comes inthe form of a quote
from a local radical: "I can't
condemn those people [Weather-
man bombers in Manhattan]. I
don't agree with it, I won't con-
tribute to it. but I can't bring my-
self to say they are totally wrong."
Surely there is no dilemma here:
the speaker has rendered his con-
science "disfunctional."
-Robert F. Willson, Jr.
Assistant Professor
English Dept.
Sept. 4
Good luck!
To the Editor:
LAST WEEK I received 'the
note from the powers that be
asking $5 for your bookstore. I

didn't want the damn thing,
voted against it, and won't be
using it. Since no penalty was
mentioned on the thing for fail-
ure to conform, I guess we're
even. Good Luck.
-Walter W. Broad, grad
Sept. 3
* * *
(ED's NOTE: The University
Cashier's Office informs us that
a Hold Credit will be placed
on the account of all students
failing to pay the $5 assessment.
In addition Mr .Broad should
know that the $5 is returned to
all students who request it upon
their leaving the University.)
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.

4

Berkeley, C alifornia:
Where it all began

BERKELEY

By CARLA RAPOPORT
SOFT AND WARM, continuing. The Berkeley campus flourishes un-
der a subtle western sun. Students cross sloping greens in casual
hurries. Some stop to buy organic foods at stands which border the
area. Hare Krishna chants and familiar sweet smells waft to those -
who lounge on the lawns near a tall bell tower. The sun is strangely
gentle, never the fatiguing force of Midwestern summers.
Near the campus entrance is Sproul Hall, proudly labeled on a
post card as the home of the "first student protest" in 1964. And in-
deed, disruptive and destructive student activism was cradeled here.
Surveying the grassy grounds, I recalled another time I had viewed the
area. It was a televised picture - was I in sixth or seventh grade? -
a battle between students and police with screams and shouts and gas.
My mind confuses the far away scene with so many other far away
scenes projected on my television screen. Unreal situations like an un-
real, far away war, just rising to public concern. Now comes again the-
fused television memories of this Californian area, memories laced with r
strange words and uncomprehendable violence. Building take-overs,
communes, drugs, People's Park, police shootings, Haight-Ashbury,
confrontation, Mace. All connecting to that far away place, Berkeley.
In a short time, freaked-out Berkeley was no longer unique. Co-
lumbia, Harvard, Wisconsin, and so many others made headlines with
their protests. Soon large schools and most private ones had picked up
the Californian cult of politics and dress and drugs. And in the last
year even smaller,'traditionally conservative schools have added their
names to the ever increasing list of schools with active student move-
ments in the Berkeley tradition.

THE UN-VOLUNTEER ARMY

On ending the draft

STOPPING the war

By BILL LAVELY
AST SPRING I wrote an editorial on these
pages condemning the proposal for a "volun-
teer army." I received a lot of mail about it, 'some
of it angry, but most of it frankly incredulous.
Why the letters asked would someone who plainly
hates the draft (I called it "slavery") oppose its
oppositionn?
Looking back, it is hard for even me to explain
it, since I am not convinced that abolishing the
draft would be a Good Thing. But in light of the
mixed-up vote in the Senate last month which
defeated the volunteer army proposal, I think that
an explanation of my rationale might cast some
light on the confusion in Washington over the
issue.
At the time last spring's editorial was written,
it looked very much like the Democrats were going

It was my belief, ard it still is, that ending
the war is the most important business facing the
country. Ending the war, that is. Not "Vietnam-
izing" it, not cutting our troop strength, not estab-
lishing an "electronic battlefield," but actually
ending the hostilities.
IN WASHINGTON, the war is an issue second
to our involvement. Politicians sonoriously evoke
the tragedy of 50,000 of our "boys" and ignore the
several hundred thousands Asians who have died
in. combat, in bombing raids, or by plague or
starvation brought on by the war.
They would pretend, (and Nixon especially
would pretend), that by replacing American sol-
diers with Asian soldiers, the war would magically
disappear and cease to be our responsibility (ex-
cept financially). Unfortunately for Southeast

getting rid of the most tangible and immediate
target of the anti-war movement. Without those
selective service forms coming in the mail,
wouldn't college males just forget about the war
entirely?
But last month the volunteer army proposal
was defeated under Nixon opposition. Nixon wants
to wait until the war is over because raising an
army by raising salaries would be too expensive.
Although it is difficult for me to conceive why
middle America, which supports unswervingly the
Pentagon's multi-billion dollar ABM system, would
complain about a few billion more to pay a mer-
cenary army, the added expense may nonetheless
constitute an embarrassment to the administra-
tion.
THE VOTE ON draft abolition revealed that
more than a few people were confused. Kennedy

Students can afford lawyers and appeals, doc- NOW CALIFORNIANS want very badly to change the face of
tors, braces on their teeth, psychiatrists or what their university communities. Leaders of radical action have been ban-
nave you, while the gas jockey at the filling sta- ned from campuses and are arrested for trespassing if found in the ar-
tion who doesn't know his rights and who has ea. In Berkeley, at about 3 or 4 on most afternoons, city police (on
crooked teeth goes into the army like a lamb their own initiative) patrol the popular street stemming from tie cam-
going to slaughter. pus. They pick up all non-resident persons under 18, regardless of-per-
The students have a definite advantage; one sonal identification and precede to send them back to their home town.
lesson to be taken from this is that as long as the A written parental note sanctioning one's presence does not exempt
army is what it is, it will draw more heavily on one from this tprocedure. Thankful for the six months separating me
the low-income half of the nation.-_ from immaturity, I strolled the streets unaccosted, watching unfortun-
ate younger peers being deported.
A VOLUNTEER ARMY may not improve this A few traces of the violence which once shook this community are
situation, but it will provide an out for the man seen here and there. For instance, The Bank of America buildings have
who, for any reason, simply does not want to put literally bricked themselves in, standing in solid defiance of "r o c k-
on a uniform and fight. While the draft has throwers and bomb-plantr&s>Last summer, students and police bat-
tended to make the war less tolerable in some tled fiercely in a University-owned area known as People's Park. The
cases, it doesn't look like its elimination 'would patch of land was to be a 'free community playground built by area
cause any slackening of anti-war sentiment at people. After the confrontation, which resulted- in one student's death,

10

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