Letters to The Daily TnE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL ' ,eId NdwonsoteSyr nitrate, c9gr 'No, I do not care for another cigar!' Eighty-four years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Thursday, January 23, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 Rationing maybe, taxes no GERALD FORD, in his continuing attempt to exercise leadership without any leadership ability, has thrown down the gauntlet to Con- gress. Capitol Hill is extremely dis- satisfied with what passes for the Administration energy policy, and threatens to enact a policy of man- datory allocation instead. At his press conference Monday, Ford threatened to veto any and all rationing plans. Such a plan, he claimed would be unfair to commut- ers and rural Americans. Congressional Democrats are say- ing almost the same thing about Ford's energy policy, which calls for increased tariffs and taxes on oil, in hopes that the increased prices would induce people to buy less petroleum products. The Democrats claim that his plan would hurt poor Americans and would spark another round of in- flation. In this case, the Democrats are right. Ford's energy plan is yet an- other attempt to rob the poor to give to the rich. The oil companies, with TODAY'S STAFF: News: Dan Biddle, Cindy Hill, Jim Ni- coll, Cheryl Pilate, Curt Smith, Jeff Sorensen, Jim Tobin Editorial Page: Alan Gitles, Paul Has- kins, Marnie Heyn, Debra, Hurwitz Arts Page: David Blomquist Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens their customary lack of public spirit, would not resist the opportunity to fatten their bank accounts using the excuse of passing increased taxes along to the consumer. FORD WILL, OF course, fight to the best of his somewhat limited abilities to save his plan.' And it is a safe bet that the Congress will have passed a gas allocation bill for Ford to veto within the next few months. There is a logical alternative to both plans that no one seems to have considered - mass transit. More peo- ple riding on mass transit would mean fewer driving cars, which would in turn mean a reduction in gas con- sumption. Of course, cities like Detroit have no mass transit system to speak of, and one will have to be constructed. Even cities that have mass transit systems will need to have their sys- tems expanded. The federal govern- ment will have to provide the money. Spending money, as the govern- ment would have to do for mass tran- sit, is the standard Keynesian answer for recession. And the construction of the mass transit system would pro- vide immediate job relief for the de- pressed construction industry. PERHAPS FORD WILL adopt the mass transit solution. But his current energy policy and past per- formances would indicate that all op- timism is foolheardy. -JOHN KAHLER To The Daily: THE LSA faculty r two dangerous steps ally restoring the ai Cold War university 1960s. The facultyn the LSA Curriculum endorsed LSA credit "courses"; and the faculty reduced stu bership on that Com 33 per cent to 25 p all this stands, we pect a military/aca prochment to devel serious student oppE These actions are actionary, recalling t before 1969 when R LSA credit and stud Curriculum Commit Both moves were, prompted by a reali counter-revolution c be delayed much lon accreditation couldr layed because ROTC has fallen too low a program here. NI with subsidies in thi rent-free facilities an credit from several s colleges, ROTC nee credit subsidy to ent into today's action ar The counter-reacti even limited stu governance also had or never because thl toward more, not ]a participation in acad ion-making. Studentc rights had to be redu defined as privileges become permanent p governance system.I Curriculum Commi asked to be reconst student-faculty pait even the faculty Graduation Requirem mission favored 40 p dent membership th schools and colleges students to curriculu tees: nine schools p over one-third stude ship, and four alread ity. BUT THE decisiv ment is the just-pubi of the Commission to dent Governance.I favors student mem all school/college a mental committees a tive bodies, and spec vors parity on curric mittees. The faculty who pushed through tion probably did it d to defy the CSSG and their intransigence t gents. Significantly th supported by SACUA son Carl Cohen, notor: hatred of students tempt for democratic With student-facul the Curriculum t would have never fav credit. But the deep tion between the d that both tend to fr man values of freedo nity. ROTC is partc tritive system of U.S ism; further, "brea to military discipl Thomas Jefferson w breaking their spirit ciples of passive o Likewise higher ed part of the nutritivea the corporate econom spotic decision-makin competition and the h classroom also foste obedience. FOR STUDENTS t ary faculty meeting i whatever decisions em that meeting may: years. If people de forcefully, the traditio ven LSA faculty won credit for ROTC and gram is likely to Wit If a strong presenceG versal of Curriculum tee restructuring, the faculty reaction willI just in time to permit scale democratization by the CSSG. Histori LSA faculty has treate with contempt and( but they respond ver a show of strength. The responsibility fo ing such a democratic military effort fallsn the organized socialist ical groups. I know the don't usually venture ivory tower, but if all es anything, it proves demic decision-makin "academic question. lightly recommend m tion, but I do when, as provocation is great, o nels don't exist - isn' of the issues? - and on success are reason -Bob Black January 19 homop To The Daily: WE, THE undersign uate Student Assista .faculty members at th sity of Michigan, de] ROTC ror stories about sexual as- saults is to confuse sexual orientation with sexual misbe- ecently took havior. This is a common myth. toward tot- However, we must point out uthoritarian that if the University wishes to of the pre- judge all members of a group majority of by the abusive behavior of a Committee few, it ought to consider firing for ROTC all male heterosexual faculty, governing since statistics show that by dent mem- far the greatest number af rap- mittee from es and other sexual crimes are er cent. If committed by men against wo- should ex- men. Of course, heterosexuality demic rap- or homosexuality per se does op without not indicate sexual misconduct. sition. Another myth is that homosex- literally re- uas are sick: that this is not he situation the case was recently recogniz- OTC 1 o s t ed by the American Psychiatric ents gained Association in its belated de- tee seats. cision removing homosexuality I think, from its list of mental disorders. zation that WE WONDER why the Admin- ould n o t istration does not want the Uni- iger. ROTC versity to conform to the local not be de- Ann Arbor ordinance prohibit- enrollment ing discrimination on the basis to justify of sexual preference in employ- ot content ment. The assertion that the Uni- ie form of versity is technically not sub- d academic ject to local ordinances is a chools and specious one. As a recipient of ds an LSA federal funds, the University ice officers should be aware that the U.S. my. Civil Service Commission's on against blanket ban on the hiring and dent-faculty retaining of homosexuals in to be now U.S. government jobs has been ie trend is declared unconstitutional. ss student As an educational institution, emic decis- the University must be cognz- democratic ant of the fact that the Uni- ced and re- versity of Cincinnati forbids dis- lest they crimination on the basis of "sex arts of the orientation" in all university ac- In 1972 the tivities including employment. ttee itself Sex orientation there is defin- ituted with ed as including male or female y. In 1973 homosexuality, heterosexuality, -dominated and bisexuality, by preference nents Com- or practice. Portland S t a t e er cent stu- University in Oregon has a sim- ere. Other ilar policy. Furthermore, t h e have added largest union of teachers in the m commit- nation, the National Education rovide for Association, has an avowed pol- t member- icy to defend gay teachers de- y have par- nied employment rights because of their sexual preference. e develop- WE RESENT, but are hardly shed report surprised by, the University's Study Stu- attempt to avoid openly con- The CSSG fronting the issue of sexual pre- bership on ference. For years the Gay nd depart- advocates have been euphemis- nd legisla- tically called the Human Sexual- ifically fa- ity advocates. Such a euphen- ulum coin- ism, as well as the evidence politicians that University officials enter- the reduc- tain numerous mythical ideas eliberately about homosexuals, are them- ] telegraph selves indicative of discrimina- o the Re- tory attitudes, and argue strong- e ploy was ly for the necessity of articulat- chairper- ing and implementing anti-dis- ious for his crimination policies at every lev- and con- el of University employment values. practice. The GEO demand is a ty parity, small start in this direction. Committee We refuse to be a party to ored ROTC the conspiracy of silence re- er connec- garding this issue. We seek the ecisions is active support of fair-minded istrate hu- and concerned members of the m and dig. University community, and the of the nu- community at large, and urge imperial- them to speak out. king men FACULTY: Frithjof Bergman, ine," as Robert Beyer, Bruce Bowen, wrote "is Charles Bright, Gary Bron, John s to prin- Campbell, John Chamberlain, bedience." Mark Chesler, Margaret Clay, ucation is Fernando Colon, Roger Davis, system of Norma Diamond, Elizabeth Dou- y; and de- van, John Earls, Samuel Elders- g, graded veld, Lutz Erbring. hierarchial Raphael Ezekiel, W i 1I1 i a m r passive Gamson, Zelda Gamson, Edie Goldenberg, Melvin Guyer, John Gyr, Brian Hazlett, Robin Ja- he Febru- coby, Catherine Kelleher, Mar- s critical: vin Kiersteda, Kenneth Lang- ierge from ton, William Lockwood, M a r- stand for garet Lourie, James McConnell, monstrate Barbara McKinley, Harold Liv- nally cra- esay. 't approve Richard Mann, Donald Mat- I the pro- thews, Robert Mattoon, Liz her away. Meese, Alfred Meyer, Richard forces re- Meyer, Arthur Miller, J o a n Commit- Morley, Elizabeth Pleck, Joe e back of Pleck, Leonard Radinsky, Hen- be broken ry Reed, Bettie Seeman, Earl the large- Schulze, Otto Sellinger, D a v i d proposed Singer. cally t h e Robert Sklar, Elizabeth Soden, d students Frances Svensson, Renata Tag- deception, liacozzo, Michael Taussig, Wil- y well to liam Utall, John Vandermeer, Zelma Weisfeld, Thomas Weis.- r organiz- skopf, Joe Wilson, Craig Wolf, and anti- Marilyn Young, Marc Zimmer- mainly on man. t and rad- GRADUATE STUDENT AS- ese groups SISTANTS: William Acton, Peg- into the gy Anton, J. Arnos, Margaret this prov- Ballad, Pete Becker, Robert that aca- Bennett, Elizabeth Berriman, g isn't an Janet Bankenship, Piotr Blass, I don't Carol Blumberg, Ellen B o b e r, ilitant ac- Bette Bono, Ray Boryczka, here, the Nina Bunin, Catherine Calder, ther chan- Oliver Carsten. t that one Karen Carty, Amber Chand, the odds Mark Clarke, Miriam Cohen, ably good. Robert Collin, Nancy Conklin, Francis Couvares, Barbara Cox, Bill Crawford, Thomas Cusack, A. Cox, Stephen Daggett, Jr., Betsy Darken, Rebecca Dauer, hobw J. Dennis, Kathleen Durham. Susan Dycus, Randy Earnest, ned Grad- Richard Eichenberg, Fran Fea- nts a n d therston, Mark Ferenz, Maurico e Univer- Font, Robert Fournier, R a y- plore and mond Fragnoli, Ellen F r a n k, Linda Hooper, Gayle Horetski, Michele Hoyman, Tirbani Jag- deo, Jenny Jones, K. Jordan, Mark Kaplan, Deborah Kasnitz, Robert Kessler, David Kikuchi, Elizabeth Kirchen, Richard Kir- seline, Ethel Klein, Larry Klin- ger, Thomas Koop, Aleda Krause. Thomas Kush, Jim Landes, Laurie Levinger, Anne Locks- ley, Laura Magzis, Ann Meyer- ing, Aaron Miller, Reynolds Monach, Nancy Morrison, Ann Munster, Anne Harper Nobles, Sylvester Novak, Janice O'Neal, Kyle Perkins, Leslie Real, Meda Rebecca. Stephen Risch, Michael Rob- inson, James Rosenberg, Claudia Ross, Gayle Rubin, Virginia Sapiro, Scott Schneider, Ar- thur Schwartz, Pam Schwartz, Stanley Seltzer, Penelope Shaw, Sandy Silberstein, Rand Smith, Victoria Sork, Caroline Stoloff, David Strong. John Stuckey, Eric Sweetman, Margaret Thomas, Kathy Tild- en, Daniel Tsang, Susan Tuck- er, Marietta Urban, David Wag- ner, Janice Walker, C. Wal- lace, Mike Watts, Hugh Wheel- er, Alexander Wilkinson, J o y Wolfe, Joseph Woodworth, Mark Ziegler, Herz Zukier. handguns To The Daily: EVERY 21 MINUTES an American civilian dies by the gun. Each year 25,000 Ameri- cans are shot to death and over 200,000 are wounded. Since the begining of this century, 800,- 000 people have been shot to death in this country - more than all the deaths in all our w3,ars from The Revolution to Vietnam. The U.S. ranks number one among all the world's nations in the number of deaths by fire- arms. The handgun accounts for / of all firearms but for 75 per cent of all gun killings. It is estimated that there is one pistol for every 6.25 long guns in the U.S. While pistols cause 3.25 homicides for every one with long gums. This makes pistols twenty times as deadly in actual use as long guns. There are 210 million guns owned by U.S. citizens. The U.S. manufactures 2.5 million handguns each year. Between 1899-1948 about 2.5 million guns were sold in the U.S. per de- cade. In the decade of 1949-58, the number of guns sold doub- led to 5 million. In the decade 1959-1968 10.5 million handguns alone were sold. It is clear we are becoming more and more armed all the time. BUT THIS GREATER insist- ence of armaments has neither undermined the crime or mur- der rates. The U.S. homicide average is 8.9 per 100,000. Mich- igan has an averge of 11 per 100,000. Michigan has the high- est murder rate of any north- ern state. Only twelve other states have higher rates. Within a ten year period, 1963- 73, Michigan's homicide rate increased 370 per cent. And that statistic is not all Detroit's doing; for, excluding the De- ftroit metropolitan area, out- state murder rates increased 320 ter cent in the same period. In 1972 pistols accounted for 515 of the state's 964 homicides- 55 per cent of the total. About 70 per cent of all mur- ders in this state occur between individuals who were acquainted prior to the fatal incident. This means such persons as family members 'and friends perpetuate most of the kilings. This is only a sensible observation because most murders are committed while in the heat of an argument over some issue of mutual con- cern to the parties. The pistol is the easiest - and most effec- tive - weapon seized. IT HAS been discovered that the gun killer is more often the victim's brother, wife or sis- ter than some intruding viscious twisted killer or burglar. We could reduce our handgun hom- icide rate as much as 70 per cent by simply removing such weapons from. the hand of the average "law abiding" citizen. For it is the most common among us who is the person to perpetuate society's most hen- ious crime. In light of such facts, Citi- zens United to Save Lives was formed in the fall of 1973. This is a Michigan-based citizen's group whose sole purpose is to amend the State Constitution to prohibit the private possession and ownership of handguns. An initiative petition was circulat- ed by CUSL in 1974 to get the question on the ballot, but the effort fell short by 60,000 signa- tures. CUSL intends to mount another, more financed and more sophisticated petition drive for the 1976 elections. To see this drive successfully through to the end, we need to build up a firm grass roots or- ganization and support on col- lege campuses across the state. -sideswipes, Wit and wisdom from the Maynard St. Sage By BOB SEIDENSTEIN ---- 5 EVERYONE else plays t he game of predicting what the new year will bring, so why should this column join t h e crowd? Oh, sure, we played 1 a s t year and our score for 1974 was not bad. After all, we did pre- dict that Nixon would resign in early Augst, that Ford would pardon Nixon a month later, that the percentage of inflation would exceed the number of fingers you have, and that the whole mess would end on the 31st day of December. Not a bad record. But that stuff is too easy. Anyone can predict that o i 1 prices will go up. Instead, and as a public service, we'll let you know what won't hapen in the next 350 or so earthly ro- tations. FIRST, rest assired, things will not get btter. And if by some miracle they do, we cer- tainly won't admit it. This coun- try needs pessimism to survive and slrvive we will so that we can continue saving that times will continue to get hard- er. Second, the meek shall not in- herit the earth. Once again they will starve, die in wnrs and get stoned to Roling Stone albums. The more well-to-do meek will contimne working 40 hours a week in lousy jobs, buying Red Wing hokey tickets and eating plastic food. As has been stat- ed, things will not get any bet- ter. Third, Congress will not wake up and Ford will not get his needed brain transnlant. Nelson Rockefeller will not lend you $6,000 to buy a new car. CALIFORNIA will not fall in- to the ocean. The Ioch Ness monster will not be discovered. The Tirs will not find a catch- er who can make th neg to second. You will not find a job when you graduate. Of course, many other events will not hanpen in 1975. But, unfortunately, we do not even have the room in this snace to list those events, much less ex- plain the factors that will go into their non-occurrence. Happily, the world will not be too different, especially if, like we all did last year, we re- solve not to do too much about it. Apathy will not die. Remem- ber, you read it here first. * * * rPHIS NEWSPAPER, as many of its readers know, has made quite a number of mis- takes over the years. But few have matched the one recently committed in an editorial entit- led "Winter: A Mixed Blessing." There, the writer, bemoaning the effects on transportation of the otherwise pretty snow, says, "But of course, there's nothing anyone can do about the weather, as Mark Twain re- marked." In one swoop of the pen the writer not only incor- rectly attributed an overused, idiotic and downright dull quote to one of America's great wits, but has managed to incorrectly paraphrase the quote in question as well. The correct quote is "Every- body talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." But as New York Times columnist Russell Baker o n c e pointed out, while it is true that everybody talks about the wea- ther, people are constantly do- ing things about it. FOR EXAMPLE, when it is cold we wear lots of clothes. When it rains we carry umbrel- las. When it is hot we jump in lakes. This is a far cry from saying, as the editorialist in this paper did, that "there's noth- ing anyone can do about the weather," for we both can and do things about the weather. The quote about people talk- ing but not doing anything about the weather has been attribut- ed to another editorial writer, Charles Dudley Warner. The in- ane statement appeared in an editorial in one of the country's most inane newspapers, The Hartfoid Courant, on August 24, 1897. Connecticut was probably hot at the time. Although the editorial was unsigned, Warner has been thought to have written it since he was Associate Editor of the paper from 1867 to 1900. TO SAY the talented Twain actually quipped the famous quote is like saying that he is resnonsible for "Have a nice day" or "Smile, Jesus loves you." Twain was too busyr say- ing things like "Whoever h a s lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death in- to the world," to be responsible for such drivel about weather. The confusion over the quote has probably come about for two reasons. First, Twain had the misfortune of having lived in Hartford, the city of the quote's origin and second, Warn- er collaborated with Twain on "The Gilded Age." TWAIN did talk about t h e weather in a speech to the New England Society on December 22, 1876 when he said t h a t the weather in New England "is always doing something ... In the spring I have counted 136 different kinds of weather in- side of 24 hours." But lest we condemn editorial- ist Warner, it should be men- tioned that Warner is credited with at least three superb quot- es. It was he who wrote, "Politics makes strange bedfellows," and "The thing generally raised on city land is taxes." He also wrote, "Public opinion is strong- er than the legislature, a n d nearly as strong as the Ten Commandments." But turning back to the wea- ther, it was, of course, Robert Frost who said, "The snow comes in on little cat's feet," wasn't it? Bob Seidenstein is a staff writer for the editorial Page. y,, . t " . -..Vi"""i. r .. +.. .. 4 ,Y j I "'N FL 7 . CAL. FCQt4IA, 6~iM1" A c or RJL0 5 SORT~lANDt.S1 NO6 C~IU1S lEw Vc AC1 K 14.luqy -mews flPA ? COULD HA4VE TOLD tAA 1T-ATr 100 YtEARS$ AGO!I low fnrc °(,C- UI UPER .