i A talk with a jX4 M togian 43 t1. Eighty years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan junkie on State Street 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, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1970 NIGHT EDITOR: STEVE KOPPMAN SGC Election Endorsements EVEN MORE THAN in past years, this week's Student Government Council elections have been characterized by an electorate rendered apathetic by SGC's apparent ineffectiveness in influencing University policies. To a substantial extent, however, Coun- cil's weakness is inherent in its position in the University: Devoid of institutional power over Unversity decisions, Council has only been influential when it could bring strong pressure to bear against the administration and the Regents. However, Council does retain certain functions which make it worthy of stu- dent interest. For example, SGC has con- trol of an annual budget of about $20,000 and it is responsible for appointing stu- dents to a variety of committees including one-the Office of Student Services Policy Board-which appears to have won some minimal influence over certain campus policies. Thus, despite our reservations about the effectiveness of Council we make the fol- lowing recommendations: EXCELLENT PAUL TEICH: As SGC administrative vice president - an appointive position without vote-Teich has proved himself efficient and effective in handling a large amount of the administrative work that makes Council an active organization. His strong advocacy of student concerns make him the top choice for voters in this week's election. JEANNE LENZER: Only a freshman, Lenzer has already gained a great deal of experience in University politics LSA Govt. WITH A FEW exceptions, the caliber of the candidates for the literary college student government's executive council is, we believe, somewhat lacking. All of the candidates express support for re- forms which could begin a democratiza- tion, and an upgrading of undergrad- uate education at the University. What clouds these aims is the lack of a thorough understanding of the common-enough ideas they espouse, and the absence of a well-thought-out program for their im- plementation. However, four of the can- didates have sufficient merit for favor- able consideration by literary college stu- dents: PETE PRAHAR is a junior with a broad and refreshingly well-reasoned outlook on the issues confronting the literary col- lege. Confident and well-spoken, he has planned an intensive campaign to con- vince the faculty of the value ofranu n- lmitedI pass-fail grading system and the abolition of distributon requirements. But should discussion prove fruitless, he shares our belief in the value of such mass actions as a college-wide strike to point un the widespread support for a proposal. JAMES BRIDGES is a junior who far exceeds the other candidates in imagina- tion, earnestness and a generally well- thought-out understanding of academic issues. While we believe some of his views could go farther toward seeking an un- grading of literary college education, he more than makes un for this by his open- mindedness and willingness to carry-out the wishes of LSA students. ED ROBERTS is one of the few candi- dates to stress the urgency of increased enrollmentof black students in the liter- ary college. He has pledged to oversee the direct fulfillment of the college's black admissions program. While his lack of familiarity with certain major academic issues is unfortunate, this will no doubt be overshadowed by his value as a know- ledgeable representative of the college's black community. JAMES DTLLON is a freshmmn whose nrimarv concern is the current ineffec- tiveness of the LSA student government. He knows the only way the government can beeomp a notent force for change is by achieving leitimacv in the eves of the students, fPculty members, and admin- istrators. He rightly believes this will only be accomnlished when the govern- ment hecgrs to adopt strong and cogent through her work in Radical Lesbians. While many others agree with her on the important issues that face Council this year, Lenzer is one of the few who has definite plans for implementing her ideas -by doing intensive research on Univer- sity issues. GOOD MARNIE HEYN: While her immediate concerns are ending military research and sexism on campus and implementing the BAM demands, Heyn believes strong- ly in keeping Council open to different kinds of groups, and getting Council's "resources into many hands." She is en- rolled in the education school which may help to give Council a broader base. ANDRE HUNT: A freshman whose con- ception of University politics and pro- cedures is sometimes simplistic, Hunt is, nonetheless, an enthusiastic person who can be expected to pursue issues he be- lieves important with serious dedication. As a black, Hunt wants to be responsive to the black student population while strengthening t h e i r cooperation with SGC. In 'addition, he has expressed re- freshing alternatives to the grind that new students discover when they first come to the University. BRIAN SPEARS: Spears sees the im- portance of Council as a group which has access to information and the power to appoint people to various committees in the University. While he has worked hard in the past for such activities as the Teach-In on Repression, it was not al- together clear that his interest would hold for Council. ACCEPTABLE JEFF LEWIN: An enthusiastic candi- date who was largely responsible for forc- ing the democratization of Inter-House Assembly this year, Lewin has expressed interest in continuing to work on housing problems. However, he offers little of substance that would constitute a co- herent political p r o g r a m for Council action. JAY HACK: Hack has been involved in working against war research and sex- ism, and for implementation of the BAM demands. He has ideas for academic re- form to steer the University toward being a place where anybody could come and use its resources for learning. AL ACKERMAN: While Ackerman, who was appointed to SGC last month, has supported Council sponsorship of such causes as a booklet on University war re- search produced by SDS, the Ann Arbor Women's Coalition, and Radical Lesbians, his political philosophy is that of an old- fashioned liberal. NOT ENDORSED PAUL TRAVIS: While Travis is well- versed on the problems of the University, it is not clear to us that he wants to work on Council. He believes Council is useless except for passing out money and he does not have a clear conception of how to organize student support for an issue. HENRY CLAY: Although we recom- mended Clay last year because of his realistic conception of Council's capa- bilities and his work on minority admis- sions, his record has shown a lack of interest to work hard or seriously on Council. RUSS GARLAND: Garland talks vague- ly about "finding an issue" and "getting support" in a way which seemed that he was more interested in locating issues than pushing those changes he felt were needed. JIM KENT: Running as a law-and- order candidate, Kent criticizes confron- tation tactics employed by the campus left while consciously choosing to defend the existence of the institutions of mas- sive violence and oppression on campus: ROTC, University-sponsored military re- search and job recruiting by imperialist corporations. MARK RUESSMAN: Describing SGC as unrepresentative and "an infantile left- wing organization," Ruessman would ap- parently attempt to shift Council to the right if he were elected. Asked what he wants Council to do, Ruessman responds that what it should not do is more im- By JONATHAN MILLER "HEY MAN, do you know anybody that's interested in copping some really great psilocybin?" asked the junkie outside P.J.'s restaurant on State Street. "No, I just spent all my coin on jones (heroin), but do you know where there's anywhere I could crash to- night?" replied another dude. The guy who seemed homeless said that he was from Toronto, but on closer questioning he admitted that he wasn't a Canadian, but a New Yorker who split the scene there when the police got after him. John, for we shall call him that, said he had been using heroin for seven years and proudly showed his arms, which lacked the collapsed veins that typify many junkies but looked much-punctured none-the-less. "You gotta know how to use the junk," said John, "some of these kids who are doing it now are crazy, they don't keep their points clean, nothing; crazy." John was proud of his record, never had hepatitis, never had bad veins and always had plenty of junk. "'I DEAL, SURE, I had this seven pounds of heroin in New York and the police arrested me but I escaped." John claimed. "Oh yes?" I inquired. "Yeah, we had it all worked out, I got away in a helicopter from the roof of the courtroom," he said, totally seriously and absolutely dishonestly, with an en- gaging twinkle in his deep, pained eyes and a nervous shuffle of his booted feet. John said that after getting out of New York he went to Toronto-Toronto is a good place to be a junkie. But now he's come to Ann Arbor-to sell dope to the kids. "Heroin is just the farthest out trip there is, these hallucinogens, acid and shit, keep 'em, they've got nothing on junk," John explained. "You only use heroin?" "Well, I do a bit of methadrine sometimes, but mostly just heroin. These things like LSD, they poison you," said John, clinicly. He seemed deteimined to show his worldliness to a journalist who seemed to interested in him. JOHN WAS IN ANN ARBOR and he needed a fix, his connection hadn't come through and he was starting to hurt. As time wore on he became more uncomfortable and he asked me for some money. He got it, for informa- tion rendered. "If you come back can I take some pic- tures of you?" "Yeah, I should care," said John, happier now that he could afford a fix, and not especially caring what this kid newspaper reporter was saying. He went, and returned. John looked in a mess, he was no longer high at all and he was starting to suffer from withdrawal pains, deep stabbing pains inside him, cramps and nausea, sweat and cold. We got John to a doctor who gave him methadone which eased the pain but failed to really satisfy t h e psychologicaldesire for the heroin. John became quieter but he looked uneasy, betraying the quiet self-assurancet that he had displayed so few. hours earlier. I felt more relaxed with him than before, I was less intimidated by his total insanity, and more than' ever, longing to help. "What are you going to do with your life John?" I asked. "I've done everything, once a junkie, always a junkie. I could kick if I wanted to, but I dont. When these doc- tors says that you cant quit heroin they're crazy, anyone can kick, but why?" Why?" "Why kick, you should try it man." 4 -Daily-Denny Gainer S ; cest guy here at ,'re pinned !" "Mom, I met the ni college and W c 1 Letters to The Daily The middle-class road to revolution By MARK DILLEN IT SEEMS TO BE the fashion today to talk about students as if they are one convenient lump of people, all homogeneous in their be- liefs. This is an opinion nurtured since the first days of student pro- test. When the strength of the student left began to be realized, the popular anti-war movement that grew tround it dwarfted the real dif- ferences among students. It seemed that unity extended beyond an opposition to the war. It would be hard for anyone to get that impression now. There is simply too much division among the young. Students themselves are puzzled at the strange quiet that pervades their campuses. The radi- cals are still there, but like the majority of students, they are affected by this overwhelming sense of apathy. Even the so-called analysts and experts end up wondering about the cause of this sudden turn. History may correct this assessment, but to this observer, the reason for our current state is a "class struggle" unlike the one some put forth. It is not a struggle between two or more classes, but rather the struggle within a single "middle" class. THE AVERAGE STUDENT is the focus of this struggle, due to his middle-class background. The children of advantage find it easy to enter universities. The universities then prepare them for their roles in the middle-class. Their parents hold high the value of college education because it is something many of them had been deprived of and, as the new middle-class, something they w e r e taught to value. College degree became a~ symbol of middle-class success, not of learning.}> And so the young were brain- washed. Perhaps a majority still are. But for those who realized, adjustment was, and is, a diffi- cult thing. Therein lies the strug- gle. fr . As children of affluence, acqui- sition became less important for ~ them. Ironically, society's compe- titive materialism had benefited their parents to the extent that it became irreversible; it stayed with x<3 their parents when no longer necessary, widening the cultural' split between parent and child. Vote Growing up physically , comfort- able and aware, both these qua3 ities were present in a way they Iwrote had not existed before.,_......'rn> '* which about A de- S T U D E N T S, generally, are er was aware - especially compared to past generations. But this awareness ly why of society has become a penalty for those not permitted to work within efeat- it. Politics for those without the power to affect society results in poor d have compromises. To realize the wrongs in society but to be subject to po- litical compromises exacerbates the already present feeling of alien- campus ation. Sheriff So the tension finally became a fight. Instead of compromise, the ntation young fought-they knew that "withdrawal datelines" and "Vietnam- S. Uni- zation" were only a comfortable 'way of disguising somthing much fronta- more unpleasant-the killing of innocent Vietnamese and the destruc- rin on tion of their homeland because it fit into someone's "domino" theory. xwho And when students rose to oppose this, a new chapter was written ar-olds in the inglorious history of intensifying opposition by trying to repress 8-year- and exterminate it. Laws to impinge and subdue only made youth's .y Har- fervor more intense. The fight became a defiance against the "systen" onfron- and everything part of it. lief - hat the THOUGH IT MIGHT seem that the struggle would heighten as re state time went on and the causes of discontent affected more youth, as we Lg-at-18 see this fall, the opposite seems to be the case. The radicalism of middle-class youth now appears as tokenism. now is As one would expect, most of the "radical" leaders are the sons y ton- and n't ev- daughters of the very things they are fighting. Once they set i I also themselves against their. parents' ethics, society makes it difficult for ir feel- them to divorce themselves from their pocketbooks. As Michael Tabor related of the New York Black Panther 21 said recently: nizance "I'm afraid there is a lot of us out here who have the political he vote holy ghost, who all they do is come to rallies aq3d say free so and so, y please all power to this, all power to that and after it's over, they go home, light up a stick of marijuana, drink some wine,throw on some Jimi the In- Hendrix or some other group and just freak on out and just wait for of get- the next rally." he pos- YET THIS STANDS opposed to the determination and life-long . Ernst dedication a revolutionary must embody if his movement is to succeed. th Ave. The turn-on turn-off spirit of many young radicals is demonstrative rbor of a lack of genuine concern for their cause. They are only concerned when the cause is fun; yet revolutions are not for hedonists. rmory What is to happen now that the middle class student is too *4 OSS the other placement services on campus, such as Engineering and To the Editor: Business Administration, into line A copy of the following letter with the progressive stand of the has been sent to President Flem- OSS Policy Board. ing: With regard to the second pol- icy above: we feel that making AS STUDENTS and alumni of public forums to discuss their ac- the University, we urge you to tivities mandatory for corpora- use your influence to support tions, if so requested by one per University-wide compliance with cent of the student body, affirms the following policies of the Of- the principle that anyone who uses fice of the Student Services the facilities of the University (OSS) Policy Board: should be willing to engage in an 1. The policy stating that no exchange of ideas with members of profit corporation operating where the University community. Cur- discrimination is legally enforced rent policy of the University Re- on the basis of race, color, creed, gents provides corporate recruit- or sex, for example in So u t h ers with a substantial subsidy for Africa, should be allowed to use heir activities on campus, with- the services of the OSS Place- out at any time requiring them to ment Office. engage in a public exchange of Wneu-l SsstyO,local ideas with interested faculty and 2. The policy specifying that a students. corporation which refuses to par- ticipate in a forum requested by Surely you see the reasonable- University students will be denied ness and desirability of a policy, the use of the OSS Placement Of- of requiring public forums, and fic. will attempt to carry this point We find the first policy to be of view to the Regents, who we consistent with the spirit of your understand will have these mat- statement on non-discrimination ters on their agenda at their Nov. in job recruitment, as it appears 19-20 meetings. The BMT proposal in the Employer's Guide: Place- passed by the OSS Policy Board ment Services. Up to the pre- would help to open new channels sent, your statement has been lit- of non-violent political persuasion tle more than rhetoric. Many on campus. corporations which disavow dis- crimination, and thus recruit at FINALLY, we would like to em- this University, practice discrim- phasize that the OSS policies are ination in fact, for example in not intended to result in denying South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, students and recruiters the op- Angola and Mozambique. Not only portunity to interact. To quote do they operate there, but they from a Nov. 4 memorandum from bolster those racist governments the office of Vice-President for by providing critical economic Student Services Knauss, the OSS capital. policy "does not encompass t h e denial of University facilities . . . The OSS POLICY on recruiting, Any company representative can as recently clarified in response be invited to meet and address To the Daily: IN THURSDAY'S Daily]I the letter called "Initiative" carefully described a plea getting us out of Vietnam. leted portion of that lette my depiction as to exactl the age-18 voting bill was d ed - I don't think it shoul been. Our young people onc were tricked, I s a y, by Harvey into a huge confro: about a year ago on E. and versity streets. T h a t con tion caused so much chag the part of the older citize have to be consulted as to e ing the vote to the 18 ye that the move to let the 1 olds vote was defetted. I sa vey did his best to incite c tations almost beyond be all with the end result th young people over the entii lost out as to t h e votin proosition. What I wish to advocate that all students avoid an frontations whatever - do en get a traffic ticket, and want them to reassess the ings as to long hair and: matters. If it takes a cog of such problems to get t at 18, 19, or 20, then I say bend a tiny bit to get it. Thus will we succeed int itiative Petition Methodc ting out of Vietnam, etc. T sibilities are wonderful. -Lewis C 314 S.A5 Ann Ar Me]