*.,_ i Eighty-Five Years of Editorial Freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Cafes: Brimming with Wednesday, April 9, 1975 News Phone: 764-0552 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 Notice: No votee no bitchee By PAUL O'DONNELL A w I D E S P R E A D, stereotypical view of France includes a beret-wearing mous- tachioed Frenchman sitting in an outdoor cafe with a glass of red wine on the table in front of him; he sips the wine slow- ly as he watches the world go by. Or perhaps he's a long haired student, in a cafe in Paris' Latin Quarter, having long conversations about May '68, socialism, capitalism, ex- tentialism, and other 'isms" . . . the atmosphere is filled with cigarette smoke and Car- tesian logic. While these vi- sions of France are far from being accurate representations of the country as a whole, the cafe is indeed an important part of the European, and espe- cially Mediterranean, way of life. It is certainly an institu- tion which fascinates most Americans when they first come to Europe; some of us even spend hours going from one cafe to another when we first arrive in Paris, Madrid, or Rome. I confess to being one of those who spent his first evenings in Paris going to Cafe de la Gare, Le Saint Severain, and Cafe Risheliou instead of visiting Notre Dame or the Eif- fel Tower. After I'd been in France for a while, a friend told me: "Tell me what cafe you go to; and I'll tell you what party you vote for." The state- ment is, of course, exaggerated, but I later learned it carried substantial truth. "AND THAT," said my friend as he took me for a tour of his home town in Southern France, "is a Monarchist cafe ... that is where the Cascicans hang out . . . here's where the law students go . . ." "How can you tell?" I had to ask. What made one bar "Socialist," another bar "right- wing," and another "Monarch- ALTHOUGH MONDAY'S low student turnout at the polls was expected, it was nevertheless disappointing. The total number of people voting in the Second Ward, a student-dominat- ed enclave, has decreased significant- ly over the past two years. In the 1973 elections, 4,563 Second Ward residents cast their ballots. This year, only 3,623 bothered to do so-a decrease of nearly 21 per cent. During the years before the 18- year-old vote went into effect, stu- dents grumbled about being hit by the draft while being denied their politi- cal voice. Since they have been grant- TODAY'S STAFF . News: Glenn Allerhand, Stephen Hersh, Jay Levin, Sara Rimer, Tim Schick, Jeff Sorensen Editorial Page: Clifford Brown, Bar- bara Cornell, Paul Haskins, Debra Hurwitz, Mara Letica Arts Page: David Blomquist, Chris Kochmanski, George Lobsenz, Sarah Polarek, James Valk, David Wein- berg Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens ed their enfranchisement, however, their political voice has emerged as a weak one, at best. STUDENTS ARE traditionally the least motivated group of voters. A chill breeze or long wait are often de- cisive factors in keeping large num- bers of them away from the polls on election day. The rent control ballot proposal - the one issue which logically might have generated a moderate amount of student concern - was decisively trounced. Not only was it defeated 2-1, but it received 4,400 less votes than last year. It is true that a well-financed me- dia campaign by the landlords helped tip the scales heavily against rent control, but students apparently suc- cumbed to apathy, assuming their in- dividual votes were of little conse- quence. Unless students change their atti- tudes and begin to exercise their franchise, the lowered age of major- ity will be largely meaningless. Piloting in Cambodia: ist," especially when they were all similar in price, architec- ture and decoration? The con- clusion was that bars get their "character" according to who did or didn't frequent the place, and that this didn't necessarily have anything to do with the bar's atmosphere or the man- agement's political leanings. PART OF MY one-man study involved talking with' bartend- ers, waiters, and bar owners, and even working in one cafe- restaurant. In one "leftist" cafe, for example, I asked the waiter how he liked working there. "The customers are nice, but they don't tip much . . some waiters live off their tips you know . . ." The wait- er's pot-bellied, chain-smoking boss seemed more concerned about the cash register itself than about whose money he was putting in it. "I don't care who or what my customers are, as long as they pay their bills and don't break anything," he smil- ingly informed me. If going to one cafe of an- other ' sometimes implies a political choice, tipping, or not tipping, also has political con- notations. Once, aftertleaving my habitual tip of fifteen per cent pourboire, a French stu- dent solemnly advised me: "You shouldn't leave tips . . . if the waiter is poorly paid, he should go- on strike and de- life existentialist cafes, intellectual cafes, working - class cafes, high-class cafes along the Champs-Elysees, and under- world bars in the red-light dis- trict. Some literary cafes which were once frequented by such famous writers as Jean-Paul Sartre have since become tour- ist attractions, even though the personalities who made them famous never set foot in them. THE TRADITION OF literary creation taking place in cafes still continues, and even thesis- writing doctoral candidates can be seen poring over notes and writing draft copies in a quiet back or upstairs room of a neighborhood snack-bar. One university professor, himself the author of several books about Spanish history and liter- ature, told me' of his experi- ences; "I can't write at home I take all my notes and reference materials to a cafe; it's theonly place I can get any work done." Cafe going may seem like a rather "separatist" activity, with each social class, profes- sion, political tendency, or ath- letic preference visiting 'exclu- sivelyn his own establishments, and not venturing into bistros that don't correspond to his in- terests or views. In small towns, however, the limited number of possibilities forces bar customers of all ages, na- Far from a carnival U' budget: No easy choice TN LIGHT OF Monday's announce- ment that the University budget will be cut an additional two per cent next year, the Administration has a greater obligation than ever before to reaffirm its commitment to pre- serving vital University programs and endangered personnel. Robben Fleming and his band of merry managers have no enviable task ahead of them, and no one can reasonably expect them to arrive at a fiscal policy that will meet Milli- ken's guidelines and at the same time not take an unhealthy chunk out of the University's people and project assets. But the budget barons would be re- miss to level their austerity arrows at crucial educational programs and em- ployees without first looking else- where for alternative funding sources. FLEMING THE OTHER DAY grimly predicted that the unexpected set- back would probably be reflected in either a tuition increase, curtailment of already depleted programs, or in- creased reliance on private contribu- tions. Those administrators who discount student resistance to tuition hikes as a predicably defensive reaction might take a closer look at ethical implications of a fee hike option be- fore adopting it. Within the past year, the standard number of students who have annual- ly been forced to withdraw for the traditional reasons of poor grades, personal problems, or disinterest has been upped radically by a growing minority of students who can no longer afford an astronomical price tag on a University education. THE POLITICIANS, THE educators, - and the history books have al- ways told us that people who work diligently and cooperatively are as- sured an education regardless of per- sonal means. But the cold realities of the present economic malaise tell us that what we've held as sacred truths are, like so much else, no more than empty rhetoric. The free enterprise system is some- thing that we are stuck with, and for the most part willing to swallow. But there is no tolerating the application of cost efficiency and economic thrift principles when it results in the de- motion of students to expendable commodities. Increasing tuition will not solve the University's economic crisis. One doesn't relieve an overburdened tree by trimming it at the trunk. THE ADMINISTRATION should do everything possible to seek out alternative funding, especially if, as many have charged, they have untold millions languishing in private funds. As a state institution, this Univer- sty was bult to serve its students, not to victimize them. The Administration and State budget makers would do well to reassess their attitudes to- ward education before deciding where the budget axe will fall. A~ickig"wu aily Sports Staff BRIANsDEMING Sports Editor MARCIA MERKER Executive Sports Editor LEBA HERTZ Managing Sports Editor BILL CRANE............Associate Sports Editor JEFF SCHILLER ... ..Associate Sports Editor FRED UPTON.......Contributing Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS: Jon Chavez, Andy Glazer, Al Hrapsky. Rich Lerner, Jeff Liebster, Ray O'Hara, Bill Stieg, Michael Wilson ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Rick Bonino, Tom Cameron, Tom Ruranceau, Kathy Hen- neghan, Ed Lange, Scott Lewis, Dave Wihak DESK ASSISTANTS: Marybeth Dillon, Marcia Katz, John Neimeyer By RICHARD BOYLE CAPTAIN GENE E. J. Lee pulled back on the throttle of his four engine Viscount, which dipped into a steep dive. His co-pilot, on the lookout for incoming rockets, peered out the win- dow. As the plane careened into a dive, I braced myself, trying to see past the pilot's head. Our plane had been held up at Battambang, Cambodia's rice capital 150 milesnorthwest of Phnom Penh, because of fresh reports that Phnom Penh's Pochentong airport had been roc- keted. But after the delay, Chinese-born Captain Lee made his daily flight to bring bags of rice and a few adventurous passenger from Battam- bang to Phnom Penh, risking rockets at both air- ports. Some 20 airlines fly various routes in Cambodia -some no more than one-airplane operations, runnning on a shoestring and hopes of a fat U.S. government contract. Since the risks are high, many airlines quickly go bankrupt, especially if the company's single airplane is hit too many times by shrapnel. LIKE CAPTAIN LEE, all of the pilots are non-Khmers - Taiwanese, Koreans and Ameri- cans. The Viscount came down hard, hitting the runway with a thud. We were all watching for incoming rockets or even 105 mm artillery shells, which have twice spread panic at the airport. A few grave baggage handlers in helmets and flack jackets raced to unload the freight as the passen- gers ran quickly to a line of sandbags near what was left of the airport complex. Other flight groundcrews huddled behind sandbags, waiting for the distinctive whine of incoming rockets. 58 had landed the day before. Earlier in the week, Lon Nol's tired third di- vision and other units had launched a counter at- tack to push the rebels beyond rocket or artillery range. But despite a newly appointed army com- mander, the counterattack failed to drive the rebels back and, in fact, may have lost even more of the shrinking Phnom Penh enclave. Captain Lee admitted that pilots now faced small arms fire on landing, which meant the rebels may have advanced to even a few miles of the airport. For several days at stretches, the Americans had stoDped flying because the in- coming fire was taking such a heavy toll. Sev- eral Americanpilots has, been wonded while flying rice and ammunition to the retreating Lon Nol armies and there was political pressire by the new Thai government to ston U. S. military flights from its territory altogether. BESIDES CAUSING physical strain on the aged aircraft making the Battambang - Phnom Penh run, shrapnel also causes a severe mental strain as well. Although the air - conditioning on the creaky old prop plane doesn't work, and the exhaust is a little blacker than usual, the pretty Khmer hostess still smiles as she serves glasses of tea to the passengers. But she is uneasy. A few weeks ago Captain Lee said one of the stewardesses had been hit by a piece of shrap- nel at Phnom Penh airport. "Two pieces came through the cockpit window," he said. Over the plane's loudspeaker, the piped music play "Sail on Silver Bird" as a mother gently rocks an infant. The 45-minute flight is almost unreal. After takeoff, Captain Lee turned the con- trols over to his co-pilot and discussed why he was risking his life for $40 per hour. It wasn't the money, he said. "I KNOW COMMUNISTS well," he began. "We have been fighting them for 25 years. There are two things you can do. One is surrender." "What is the other?" I asked. "Kill them all." Combat for him he said was nothing new. He had battled Communist Chinese MIG-17s over the Formosa Straight in his ancient American- built Sabre jet, of Korean War fame. Those flights, he said, were mainly photo recon mis- sions when he was in the Taiwan Air Force. Al- though he did not down any MIGs, he learned a lot and later worked in Laos for three years, and for Air Vietnam for two years. "Would Congress cut off the money to Cam- bodia?" Captain Lee then asked. I told him the Democratic Caucus in the House had just voted overwhelmingly to suspend mili- tary aid to Lon NoI and he nodded in under- standing. He then put on his earphones as the plane dipped for the descent into Phnom Penh. Be- sides the reports from the collapsing front in Vietnam there was more bad news for pilots- rumors the Khmer Rouge were moving up 37 mm anti-aircraft guns,which could knock down virtually any plane trying to land at the airport. BUT CAPTAIN LEE was still fighting, even if the army of the government he was sunnlying was in total disarravand close to surrender. It was almost as if it were in some distant war decades ago. Richard Boyle, veteran combat reporter who is now in Cambodia for Pacific News, has cov- ered the Indochina gwar for such publications as Time, Newsweek, Paris Match, and New Times. Copyright Pacific News Service, 1975. mand better wages . . . by your charity, you're merely helping his boss justify the low wages." In another bar, a waitress told me not to tip, because the boss-woman kept all the money the customers left. In most cases, however, I automatically leave a few coins in the plastic dish, fearing that if I didn't, the waiter might not understand that it was for reasons of per- sonal conviction. IN EUROPE, where cafe go- ing is as old a tradition as church going, the mixture of coffee and politics is nothing new. But theicorner tavern might also be a sportsmen's meeting place, a chess player's gameroom, or even the perch from which a famous writer looks down upon the world, finding his inspiration by look- ing at reality through an al- coholic haze. In important cities like Paris, there are tionalities, and prespectives to meet and have some kind of contact at the local watering hole. In one small town in Southern France where I once worked as a grape picker, only one cafe was open during the harvest season. OVER A GLASS of beer, on a Sunday afternoon, the distance between employer and employe seemed to diminish . . . one day a week with the bistro at- mosphere and alcohol serving as equalizers, we could forget who was whom, and talk "from one man to another." But the next day, out there in the field, the cafe camaraderie had dis- appeared, and there was no doubt who was the boss and who the worker. Paul O'Donnell is a foreign correspondent for the Daily presently studying in Aix-en- Pro-vence, France. _Letters to Thie dis ru ption To The Daily: I READ OF THE alleged bias in hiring practices by the Ger- man department, and I agree totally with Mr. Schober that there should be an avoidance of departmental disruption. A careful and thoughful reading of the facts that were presented leads me to feel that no such disruption should result since there is really no valid issue involved. First of all, Herr Professor Hubbs is correct in protesting that he should not be called upon to chase TAs all over cam- pus. While jogging is admitted- ly a good form of exercise, the TAs, being younger than Pro- fessor Hubbs, would undoubt- edly be able to outrun him; and if he cannot catch them, why should he be expected to chase them? Secondly, Professor Hubbs rightfully assumed that if the TAs were not around in their offices, then they didn't want to teach. (This assumption is so obviously true, no proof is Daily needed to substantiate it.) And thus we have another reason why he cannot be expected to chase TAs all over campus - this would take him out of his office, and thus lead to the con- clusion that he does not want to teach. THIRD, WE CAN only ad- mire his forthright attack on the problem of selecting the TI E F L6H-r 15; r"' 146 E Cof -TFIE ruNtaJEL.. \ Adoption: Not the real answer By JOHN C. SCHAFER THE SAVE-THE-V i e t n a- mese - orphans hysteria currently sweeping the coun- try is an expression of both the very best and the most danger- ous aspects of the American character: the very best, be- cause it is evidence that we can be an unselfish people will- ing to give, to volunteer, to or- ganize in short notice in time of disaster; the most dangerous because in the hysteria we as- sume that we are gods with power to save. Dangerous be- cause we seldom stop to ask what we mean by save and what we are saving people from, dangerous because it leads to excesses like an Amer- ican colonel's announcement. that the town of Ben Tre had to be destroyed to "save it". The problem is not with the original compassionate impulse to help the suffering. No one ,nnlr marrel with that. If the two million orphans, clothed and fed in America, can wash the blood off American hands for what we did to the people of Indochina. THE ORPHANS ARE a diver- sionary issue, an issue politi- cians love, for everyone's for orphans. But while they are having their pictures taken with babies in their arms, children are still being or- phaned as the war continues in Indochina. The real issue is whether or not the Ford admin- istration is going to apply pres- sure on Thieu to leave so that negotiations with the other side can begin and peace can be re- stored. Peace is what will help the Vietnamese - all the Viet- namese, the orphans, the wound- ed, the young, the old, all the people who are tired of running and sick of the war. Bringing them all to America is not a solution. age, and somehow the two bal- ance each other " out. They don't. The moral arithmetic is all wrong. The moral thing for Americans to do is to end the nightmare of war for the Viet- namese and for ourselves. THIEU'S GOVERNMENT is in complete disarray. Even his own self appointed congress wants him out. The handwrit- ing is on the wall and Ameri- ca's empire in Southeast Asia is over. The end of empires may always be messy but it can be less messy if Americans encourage Thieu to take a trip like Lon Nol. President Lon Nol left with some dignity. He is a man of whom it can be said, nothing came of his ca- reer like the leaving of it. It would be good if we could cay the same for Thieu. I have seen the American militarv and civilians with the lets into New Life Hamlets, out of our Free Fire Zones into re- fugee centers, out of refugee centers i n t o resettlement areas. A refugee worker with Inter- national Voluntary Services in V i e t n a m once overheard an American commander telling his men that it was ok to bomb an area; if the villagers ran, he said, there were American refugee workers all ready to take care of them. An old Viet- namese in a refugee camp where I was working once asked me, "Why don't you talk to your fellow countrymen who are dropping the bombs? If you did that we wouldn't need anyone to help us re- build." We as Americans have to stop working at cross pur- poses with each other. WHAT WILL HELP t h e Vietnamese most is the re- storation of order which only TAs. After a list of the most qualified TAs was compiled (planning stage), 'he moved quickly and got the job done in a minimal amount of time. It was the Germans, after all, who developed the blitz as a standard operating procedure- a strategy that was noted for its proven effectiveness in at- tacking troublesome problems. F u r t h e r m o r e, Pro- fessor Hubbs should be com- mended for his discovery of a surprisingly easy and workable solution to the whole problem of selecting TAs. By merely proceeding down his list of can- didates in alphabetical order, he was, as he himself stated, able to end up with the nine TAs who were the most quali- fied for the job. Surely this raises exciting possibilities for the entire university. On the one hand, each department merely needs to choose those names that fall within its sec- tion of the alphabet. FINALLY, IT seems rather obvious to me that Mr. Schober has little basis for raising his objection in the first place. Since the German department has discovered that its most qualified TAs are to be found within the beginning part of the alphabet, and since his name starts with the 18th let- ter of the alphabet (with only 30.8 per cent of the letters com- ing after the letter S), how can he nurture the hope that he is one of their most qualified TA? The mnt-nnalified se-