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January 10, 1975 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1975-01-10

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~4Mt ~~zn 3at
Eighty-four years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Friday, January 10, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
Sirica softens the blows

JUDGE JOHN SIRICA'S releasing of
three major Watergate figures,
John Dean, Jeb Magruder, and Her-
bert Kalmbach comes as a surprise
to almost every Watergate-watcher
and participant, including the men
and their families.
This announcement comes at arn
interesting time. The big enchala-
das involved in Watergate, John
Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John Ehr-
lichman and Robert Mardian are
awaiting sentencing. Sirica might be
pulling his punches, giving them light
sentences after releasing the others.
President Ford used this tactic to
soften the impact of giving amnesty
to Nixon by offering amnesty to draft
evaders.
Judge Sirica hasn't given a reason
for his action. If it is a softening
tactic its success is doubtful. "Maxi-
mum John" is becoming known as
"Minimum John" because of his light
sentences.

OF THE THREE MEN released, Dean
had served five months of a min-
imum one year sentence. Kalmbach
had served six months of his six-to-
18 month term and has completed
his minimum sentence. Magruder had
served seven months of a 10-month
minimum sentence. It seems Dean
was finally rewarded for his testi-
mony, without which Watergate
might have never been uncovered.
The American legal system should
be reexamined. It seems the higher
status a person has, the lower the
penalty they receive. They are able
to use political office and prestige for
a reduced sentence or a "get out of
jail free card," as Nixon and Agnew
did. Separation is no greater hard-
ship for families of upper class pri-
soners than for families of the lower
class. It seems the American system
of justice is based on barter and
plea-bargaining.
-STEVE ROSS

F,, tui
By GEORGE HARVEY
THE FUTURE WORLDS PROGRAM
will once again be presented to the
University and Ann Arbor communities
during this winter term. It will be the
fourth year that this popular program
has been offered. In the past it has re-
ceived national attention for being the
first major academic forum for the
presentation and discussion of interdis-
ciplinary problem/solution - oriented pos-
sibilities and probabilities of the world
to come. It has bridged the gaps be-
tween disciplines in a cooperative and
complimentary way by placing them in
perspective to the entire body of present
knowledge. It has made education
meaningful, to many students, for the
first time.
The program has been the only aca-
demic event to receive regular weekly
media coverage locally, and substantial
national media coverage including ar-
ticles in the Los Angeles Times, Detroit
Free Press, and the Futurist Magazine.
It has been an event, a happening, and
has. added positive excitement and fun
to serious academic education. Finally,
it has 'been an open forum for reliev-
ing the frustration experienced by so
many young people in our fast-moving,
confusing, and often absurd world
through rational discussion and positive
presentation, instead of through protests
and riots.
FUTURE WORLDS BEGAN in the
Winter of 1972 as a course mart (student
realized) course entitled the Future of
Human Evolution, in which prominent
university faculty members presented
their ideas and those shared by their
discipline, on the future. The class re-
ceived an overwhelming response . .
planned enrollment was limited to 40
students but had to be increased to 180.
The positive enthusiasm of both facul-
ty and students led to the formation of
the Future Worlds Program of 1973 and
1974: a class (Geography 303) with re-
spective enrollments of 500 and 350 stu-
dents; an open lecture series at Hill
Auditorium, which had an average at-
tendance of 25,000, jointly sponsored by
the University Activities Center (UAC),
and most of the schools and colleges, and
which brought such noted futurists of the
University as Buckminster Fuller, B. F.
Skinner, Dennis Meadows, Arthur C.
Clarke, Margaret Mead, Ralph Nader,
William 0. Douglas, and John Lilly to
name a few; and the annual Future'
Worlds Conference Festival which con-
sisted of seminars, presentations, work-
shops, displays, and multi-media activi-
ties.
WHEN THE FUTURE WORLDS Pro-
gram began, there were no major aca-

demic programs in the study of futuris-
tics at this university or others. In fact,
at the time of the program's initial im-
plementation it was the biggest forum
for the study of this relatively new disci-
pline. Today, there are scores of pro-
grams around the country pursuing this
field of interest. In particular at this
university, courses with titles such as
Low Energy ,Living, Problems of Energy
and Environment, and a few listed in
the Science Technology & Future Socie-
ties pamphlet have sprouted partly as a
result of the vast interest that Future
Worlds has stimulated.

e

W o I°i

rls b ias$
is meant that in the past UAC has spent
a large sum of money for a name in-
stead of a well-constructed and sub-
stantive presentation. Consequently,
many of the speakers this year, though
maybe not well known, will probably add
more contributions than those in the
past.
There is still one vacancy in the series
and presently UAC is negotiating with
Frank Zappa to fill it. For more infor-
mation on the UAC Future Worlds Lec-
ture Series call 763-0046, or talk to one of
the friendly green space men on cam-
pus who, will gladly give you a Future
Worlds calendar.

Last year Barney Niestchmann was pre-
sented with the Henry Russel Award for
scholarly achievement. Gunnar Olsson
was awarded the Collegiate Professor-
ship by the Regents. Both of these
awards are respectively the highest hon-
ors a junior and senior faculty member
can receive in the University. Both
awards were based partly on their par-
ticipation in the Geography Depart-
ment's Future Worlds course (Geogra-
phy 303.)
THIS YEAR Jim Clarkson, Associate
Professor of Geography, is the sponsor-
ing professor and is working with Seth
Comstock and Widd Schmidt who have
been primary organizers for Future
Worlds since its beginning. The Geogra-
phy- Department only recently decided
to sponsor the class for the fourth year.
The projected enrollment is 500. How-
ever; there are presently only 5 stu-
dents enrolled due to the late commit-
ment of the Geography Department. Also
as a reult of this most of the speakers
and presentations for the Monday after-
noons have only been tentatively sched-
uled.
Plans are in the making for multi-me-
dia presentations, a simulation game,
professors from around the University,
and a couple of surprises. However, Fu-
ture Worlds has been given a firm com-
mitment by President Fleming for a
February 3-lecture. All class presenta-
tions will be conducted in the Modern
Languages Building, auditorium 3, from
4-6 on Mondays. For more information
call the Geography Department at 764-
0344.
THE COURSE CONTENT respective to
the students will depend mostly upon the
' sections. There will be 20 sections of-
fered for one hour per week and will
cover such topics as education, life
styles, communication, nutrition, and
science fiction. These discussion sec-
tions are intended to help students gain
a better perspective of the UAC speak-
ers, the Geography speakers, and more
imnortantly to help direct them towards
tonics of personal interest.
In summation, the Future Worlds Pro-
gram provides some more exciting aca-
demics and happenings and hopes to fur-
ther stimulate an active interest for the
pursuit of frontiers in knowledge, which
is something which seems to be lacking
in many areas of our society. In its some-
what unconventional approach to edu-
cation, the program will attempt to pre-
sent once again a viable set of alterna-
tives for the future of the species and
their environment.
George Harvey is the pen name of a
graduate student at the University and
part-time spaceman.
Slueeze ,

ts

o f f!

Ras: Leave sinking ship

Little Green Man Wernher Von Brawn

'',TILL THE AMERICAN GOVERN-
MENT ever learn? If recent re-
ports concerning Gerald Ford's plans
to aid the Thieu regime in South Viet-
nam are true, the answer is no.
It seems that America's Saigon
puppets are in trouble again, and
need help. So the man who can't fig-
ure out how to stop the recession im-
mediately comes up with a plan to
give South Vietnam three hundred
million dollars more military aid in
addition to the seven hundred mil-
lion Congress has already appropriat-
ed this fiscal year.
When will they ever learn? It cost
America 50,000 lives and uncounted
billions of dollars to drive home the
lesson that the will of the people can-
not be suppressed by even the most
powerful military machine on earth.
So how can even Gerald Ford be-
lieve that American money can in-
definitely prop up a corrupt puppet
regime that exists without the slight-
est shred of popular support? It
hasn't worked in the past, and as long
as there are Vietnamese willing to die
for their ideals, it never will.
AND, FULLY APART from the Viet-
namese, how can Gerald Ford
do this to the American people? May-
be Ford did not notice this while
skiing in Vail, but there is a reces-
sion going on. Unemployment in
Michigan recently topped the eleven
per cent mark, and will climb high-
er before things get better.
Imagine what that three hundred
million could do for the the state of
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Gordon Atcheson, Dan Biddle,
Dan Blugerman, Cindy Hill, Jose-
phine Marcotty, Sara Rimer, Steve
Ross, Judy Ruskin
Editorial Page: Tony Duenas, Marnie
Heyn, Steve Stojic
Arts Page: David Blomquist
Photo Technician: Karen Kosmouski

Michigan. At the least, it could ease
the misery of the workers as they
wait for the auto companies to reduce
their inventories. At best, it could be
used to diversify the state's economy,
to make the state less dependent on
the whims of the automotive Big
Three.
But Gerald Ford seems to feel
President Thieu is more deserving
than the unemployed of Detroit and
Flint.
Gerald Ford (and others) has a
frightening vision of what would
happen if the communists took over
South Vietnam. With the National
Liberation Front flag flying over Sai-
gon, it would be apparent to all that
the 50,000 Americans who died in
Vietnam died for nothing, and the
billions of dollars spent in Vietnam
were spent to no purpose.
PRESENTED WITH THE UGLY
truth, the -American people who
gave so much for so little will start
questioning the power structure that
made the Vietnam war possible. And
the power structure will have nothing
with which to defend itself.
Fortunately, Congress, long the tool
of presidential policy, is beginning to
see the sordid reality that lies be-
hind Ford's attempt to save face.
They recently placed a ceiling of $337
million on aid to the Cambodian
puppet regime. Our own Marvin
Esch supported the bill, pointing out
that all American aid has ever meant
to the Cambodian people is death.
CONGRESS HAS STARTED on the
right track. It should reject all
attempts by Ford to increase aid to
South Vietnam. Stuffing money down
the rathole of Saigon and increasing
the misery of the South Vietnamese
people in a futile attempt to save Ad-
ministration prestige is a policy that
is neither fiscally nor morally justi-
fiable.
-JOHN KAHLER

This year's program will essentially
consist of the same format as in the past.
The UAC series, organized by Ron Wil-
son, will include such notables as Weh-
ner Von Braun, pioneer of the rocket
engine and presently the director of the
Marshall Flight Center for NASA; Gene
Rodenberry, creator of the television ser-
ies Star Trek, accomplished science fic-
tion author, and winner of the Hugo
Award; Jean Houston, a leading con-
sciousness researcher and conducted the
original LSD experiments. The lecture
series will also include a panel discus-
sion on energy. However, the guests for
this have not been confirmed.
ONE CHANGE IN THIS year's ap-
proach to organizing the lecture series
has been to invite speakers not so much
for their popularity, but more for how
well they speak based upon content and
presentation. This one change was
deemed necessary through past experi-
ences with "well knowns" who charge
enormous fees for what can best be re-
ferred to as "canned raps." By this it

ALSO INCORPORATED into the Fu-
ture Worlds Program. will be the Con-
ference Festival on April 4 ,5, & 6. In the
past this has been a time of joint efforts
on the part of many university depart-
nients, offices, individuals, and the Ann
Arbor community. Geodesic domes, so-
lar shields, and discussion panels, and
various contiguous happenings such as
the Festival of Life, and the Future
Feast. Many people involved themselves
in a personal way through projects, mo-
vies, and general gallavanting.
The organization for the Conference
Festival is handled by a conglomeration
of students from the Geography Future
Worlds class, UAC, and various organiza-
tions in and outside the University. For
more information call the UAC Future
Worlds office at 763-0046.
The Geography Department became
involved in Future Worlds through the
efforts of Barney Nietschmann and Mi-
chael Naimark, the original organizers
of the course. Last winter term the spon-
soring professor was Gunnar Olsson.

The

local day care

fund

By DAN RUBEN
"IT HAS BECOME obvious to me that child day
care centers just can't make it unless there is
some source of funds outside of fees that the centers
can get." These are the words of Frances Harmon, the
Director of the Model Cities Child Care Center, where
90 per cent of the children are from low income
families. With the termination of the Model Cities Pro-
gram at the end of 1974, and with it most of this
Center's funding, Ms. Harmon said that "the existence
of the Center would be in grave jeopardy" if more
funds are not forthcoming.
Another day care center, the Ann Arbor Child Care
and Development Center, has a present deficit of $12,-
000 to $15,000. According to Lucille Tooson, the Direc-
tor of the Center, the cost per child per week is $42.
Because many of the children come from low income
families, only $26 per child per week is received. Tlis
Center, too, will have to close soon if new funding
does not become available.
"EVERYTHING BOILS down to money", said Jacki
Miller, Director of the recently opened Discovery Cen-
ter, "which is crummy because we don't have much."
Ms. Miller, who has received no salary, has had to
donate some of her own money to keep the Center
open.
Any day care center designed to serve low income
children must expect that the parents can only pay
minimal fees, if any. Therefore, without an outside
source of money, there is no way such a center can
remain open. For low income parents, it is crucial
to know that there is a place where concerned adults
will take care of their children at a cost they can
afford.

Relieved of the child-caring burden, the parents are
able to go to school or work in an effort to improve
the situation for themselves and their families. If
these centers and others for low income families do
not survive, the parents will be forced to go on wel-
fare. If the government insists upon ignoring the hu-
manitarian concern of providing a healthy social and
learning environment for low income children, it might
at least view the problem from an economic stand-
point. Does it not make more sense to provide money
to run day care facilities than to have to support
entire families on welfare?
IN 1971, THE Congress in an unusual display of initia-
tive and compassion, passed a rather sweeping child
care measure. The original Senate version would have
provided free day care for families with incomes up to
$6,900, with a graduated fee scale for higher income
families. The House version set the cut-off for free
day care at $4,320. Fearing a Nixon veto, the Senate
agreed to support the weaker version. Nonetheless
Nixon still vetoed the Bill arguing fatuously that it
would threaten the role of the family in American
life. Nothing could do more to demoralibe a family than
to leave it with no alternative to welfare. Had this pro-
posal been signed into law, the problem of child day
care would largely have been solved.
Instead, we have the present crisis. In Washtenaw
County, day care has stumbled along with the help of
about $600,000 per year from the Michigan Depart-
ment of Social Services, a figure which does not come
close to meeting the need. In Ann Arbor, in 1973, day
care receive a small boost from revenue sharing funds
which has kept many centers barely alive up to this
time. Now, either new funds will have to be made

available or else the day care centers for low income
families will die. This is the stark choice that must
be made.
THERE IS HOPE. This new year will bring new re-
venue sharing funds to Ann Arbor, and with these
funds, day care could be saved temporarily. Over the
next six years in fact, $12 million of revenue sharing
money will be available to the City. The first install-
ment will be $2.4 million and will be paid early this
year. Although $123,750 of this money has been pledged
td day care. City officials must recognize that low
income day care centers are near death and that this
figure may not be sufficient to avert such a disaster for
long.
Further, the Human Rights Party is circulating peti-
tions for a charter amendment which would call for
a minimum annual appropriation to day care of 1.7
per cent of the city budget. This amendment must be
signed and passed next April as an important stop-gap
measure to insure the continued availability of day
care centers.
BUT THE BURDEN should not have to fall so heav-
ily on the cities to provide this necessary service. Con-
gress is moving, in its usual sluggish way, to pass a
new child day care measure. Senators Mondale (Demo-
crat, Minnesota) and Javits (Republican, New York)
have introduced a bill similar to the one passed in
1971. The details of the bill will be worked out in hear-
ings, and a vote should come some time this year.
Whether Congress will act in time to prevent many
deserving day care programs from going under, re-
mains to be seen.
Dan Ruben is a staff writer for the Editorial Page.

,I

j1t " t4S -rleONE FROM RED WOOP FtFESr WH O
s FRM " F- .OOR ND GVE t -MERIC
-;-41(t
t ,t - C 4_
S
t ''' Y
,,.f.,-'F

Letters

to

The

Daily

protest Rhodes
To The Daily:
ON MAY 4th, 1970, 4 students
were cut down by the forces of
"law and order" at Kent State.
Those murders flowed out of a
system which runs on war and
exploitation. The students who
died at Kent were the victims
of American imperialism, just
like the hundreds of thousands
who died in Indochina. Their
murders were calculated to stop
the people from resisting an
unjust war and the system
which gave rise to it. However,
the students who died at Kent
did not die in vain. People have

massive demonstration demald-
ing an end to the whitewash and
the indictment of the real crin-
inals, like Rhodes, who ordered
the Guards on to the campus
The struggle that the Kent
students were waging in 1970
continues today in Indochina and
the U.S., and many of the is-
sues remain the same today. W_-
believe that we must unre to
fight against U.S. aggre:;sion
and demand an end to )I aid
to Lon Nol and Thieu. Further-
more, we demand universal, un-
conditional amnesty for all war
resisters, and an end to attacks
on workers and oppressed peo-
ple, as well as students.

Joel Dickman,i
New American
ment
Michael Taussig
sor, Anthropolo
partment, I.M
Norma Diamon
fessor, Anthrop
Department, U
Dallas Kenny,P
World Media P
January 1, 19

memtvber, wide diversity of opinion.
Mo'.e- Militarize the University? Un-
less Mr. Haskin is relerrng to
g, Prfes- the physical presence of uni-
gy De- forms, I doubt if pe car, give
any examples of this one. The
id, Pro- military does not force its op -
-ology ions on anyone.
.M. Most ROTC studen:s may not
New have been among the anti-war
roject demonstrators, like the kind that
K5 invaded and ransacked Norrh
Hall in 1972, but many v, e r e
RO ,C against the war. ROTC students
are people whose free opinion
isn't stifled by associa'ion with
,ly to the a military organization.
il Haskins MR. HASKINS is showing his
cement of ignorance and emotions when he

look on the military estainlish-
ment within the U.S. govern-
ment.
I invite Mr. Haskins to visit
North Hall, leaving ,his prejud-
ices behind, and personally ex-
amine what goes on in ROTC.
Talk to the officers, the NCO's,
the students, and loot over
courses and curriculum. I think
he'll find some revelation;.
Personally, I w,)Ad like to
thank SGC for its .endorsement.
This is my fourth year in
AFROTC, and it would'va help-
ed to have had credit for the
work I put into my courses.
Many should be cross-listed in
the history and political science

To The Daily:
I WOULD like to rep
recent editorial by Pau
criticizing SGC's endori

1

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