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Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
1
1
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
News Phone: 764-0552
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1973
Arresting the Constitution
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SETERV1
EIGHTY-ONE PEOPLE were arrested
Friday for disregarding an injunction
that was a clear infringement upon their
Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms of
speech, press and assembly.
The injunction, handed down last week
by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge
William Hampton, enjoined A&P lettuce
boycott picketers from picketing within
50 feet of the store, and from using more
than two picketers at a time. The de-
cision also forbade them to mention A&P
in any of their literature.
In the injunction, the court cited as a
basis for the decision the picketers "en-
gaging in threatening, intimidating, men-
acing, assaulting, coercing, impeding
and harassing activities."
IRONICALLY, NONE of the A&P cus-
tomers purportedly endangered by
the notoriously non-violent picketers ever
saw fit to file an affadavit backing these
allegations.
The boycott leaflets themselves are
hardly libelous or inflammatory; they
simply state a fact even A&P will con-
cede: the store sells non-UFW lettuce
and grapes.
It appears then, that the store's cus-
tomers were threatened only with infor-
mation, which they could choose to ac-
cept or ignore.
Hampton's injunction was therefore a
blatant abridgement of First Amendment
rights.
Unfortunately, labor laws of recent
decades - aimed more at protecting the
economic status quo rather than lifting
the down-trodden or protecting certain
rights - have almost totally obscured
these rights.
Hampton is not totally to.blame for this
decision; it is unfortunate that he has a
good deal of precedent to fall back on.
SINCE THE TAFT-HARTLEY Act of
1947, secondary boycotts have been
restricted, and since the Steel Foundries
case of 1921, legal precedent has been es-
tablished to regulate the size and loca-
tion of picket lines as well.
The latitude allowed these laws and
the strength of these precedents has
been determined on a case-by-case basis,
often relying on the wisdom of the judge
alone.
Last week, they were interpreted in
the strictest sense, unjustly trampling on
the rights of the picketers, but doubtless
appealing to the conservative commun-
ity of Pontiac.
As Friday's arrests have shown, how-
ever, the decision did not apply only to
Oakland County, although Hampton
Sports Staff
DAN BORUS
Sports Editor
FRANK LONGO
Managing Sports Editor
BOB McGINN..............Executive Sports Editor
CHUCK BLOOM ...............Associate Sports Editor
JOEL GREER .................Associate Sports Editor
RICH STUCK .............. Contributing Sports Editor
BOB HEUER .............Contributing Sports Editor
claimed that the ruling would not affect
A&P picketers elsewhere.
IGNORING THE QUESTIONABLE con-
. stitutionality of the ruling, Hamp-
ton's decision may, perhaps, be accept-
able to the Pontiac community. But guar-
antees of constitutional liberties cannot
be based on community standards.
But picketers learned Friday in cities
across that state that the decision can be
applied in all Michigan counties, includ-
ing communities sympathetic to the boy-
cott
The economic basis for the injunction
is clear. The document cites the loss of
patrons and prospective patrons, grave
and serious injury to (A&P's) valuable
name, reputation and good will."
The paramount issue, is, of course,
whether protecting the profits of a pri-
vate business should supercede the
rights of the individual.
We commend the arrested picketers
for their stand in their latest, inadver-
tent cause - that of defending our ever-
diminishing civil liberties.
Nixon's candor
THE WHITE HOUSE calls it Operation
Candor. The target is the American
people and the object, far-fetched as it
may seem, is to restore Richard Nixon's
shattered credibility. It may well consti-
tute Nixon's goal-line stand to retain the
Presidency.
However, rather than lend credence to
his claim, "I'm not a crook,". the Presi-
dent's latest counterattack has only dem-
onstrated how short of ammunition he
really is.
Nixon kicked off this campaign by as-
suring the Republican Governor's Con-
ference that there would be "no new sur-
prises" about Watergate. Then key re-
corded conversations suddenly ceased to
exist, due of course to technical difficul-
ties and Rose Mary Wood's unique
stretching ability. Understandably, the
President's credibility was hardly resus-
citated.
But now Operation Candor informs us
that Nixon paid only $1,667 in federal in-
come taxes for a two-year period during
his first term. Even if this small sumf
can be explained away through legal
loopholes, it only increases public mis-
trust of Nixon.
If this is indeed the best Operation
Candor can do to state the President's
case, it appears that the truth, not Con-
gressional Democrats or the liberal press,
is Nixon's worst enemy.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Ted Evanoff, Chip Sinclair, Charlie
Stein, Sue Stephenson, Rolfe Tessem
Editorial Page: Cindy Hill, Eric S c h o c h,
Chuck Wilbur
Arts Page: Diane Levick
Photo Technician: David Margolick
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Making the great escape
from reality
By JOAN HOLDEN
SAN FRANCISCANS who decide t h e y
can't take city life, and can afford to
choose, retreat across the Golden G a t e
Bridge to still-sylvan Marin County. Scen-
ic, affluent, ecology-minded, Marin is said
to be the pleasantest place to live in Cali-
fornia. But if that is not good enough, north
of the county's tasteful tract homes lies a
world still more pleasant, safer, and more
picturesque than Marin itself.
Just off busy Highway 101, a walled and
turreted medieval town, ablaze with ban-
ners and bordering an oak forest, rises from
a gigantic parking lot. This is the Renais-
sance Pleasure Faire, northern kingdom of
an expanding empire of fantasy presid-
ed over by a California couple, who are
making a good thing of their discovery that
Americans nowadays will pay good monev
to pretend they are in another time and
place.
$3.75 ENTITLES you to step (along with
30,000 others on an average summer week-
end) into a past that never was. Inside,
you are free to wander through a busy
market square and along a winding lane
lined with some 200 booths and stalls, and
half a dozen outdoor stages, where histor-
ically appropriate entertainment goes on
almost constantly.
Hawkers and strolling players wind their
ways through the crowd. Craftsmen cry
out their wares, and the scent of charcoal-
broiled meat mingles with the fragrance
of the forest. Severaltimes daily, Queen
Elizabeth I passes through in a royal pro-
cession, with drums and bagpipes.
A husband and wife team, Ron and
Phyllis Patterson, claim to have originated
the "theme event", or fantasy fair, a Cali-
fornia phenomenon that, if not exactly
sweeping, is certainly creeping across the
country. What started as a one-weekend
benefit in Los Angeles in 1963 has not only
swelled to a full-time business in Cali-
fornia, but inspired dozens of similar events
from coast to coast.
THE FANTASY fair is really a refine-
ment on a long-time national pastime,
make-believe. Somewhere between Disney-
land and the grade-school carnival, the
Renaissance Pleasure Faire offers the best
of both. The illusion is of professional qual-
ity, abut everyone gets to join in the fun.
It is a winning combination. People in-
terviewed at the Faire said it was more fun
than Disneyland, friendlier than the out-
side world, less "plastic" than contempor-
ary life.
"When we created the Faire, we created
a place we really wanted to be," says Phy-
llis Patterson. It turned out lots of other
people want to be there too.
"We're in a depression now," says one
Faire staffer. "People want to celebrate
something - anything."
The modern world is banished - within
reason. Next door to "The Keepe" and
"The Prattlers Stage", a sign advertises
"Change, Checks Cashed, and Credit Card
Sales." But you may not use your credit
card to buy a hamburger, or anything nade
of plastic.
Also kept out are political leafle
any illusion to contemporaryi
Faire entertainers. So, for tha
is any allusion to the darker si
Renaissance. This is a Renaissa
out war, intrigue, or plague, an
unlikely in a 16th century mark
without poor people. Few are to
among the nearly all-white Faire
Ron Patterson's assistant, ,Kar
blatt, was frank about the limit
Faire's accuracy. "We leave out,
light of, the horrors. People ar
to pay to see someone's hand c
picking pockets."
"IF THE RENAISSANCE was
"People interviewed at the Faire said it was more fun
Disneyland, friendlier than the outside world, less 'p
than contemporary life"
CRAFT GOODS sold must all be kinds
known in the Renaissance. Faire-goers may
guzzle beer, wine, lemonade or mead, and
stuff themselves with Meat Pyes, Beef
Rybbes, Artichokes, and Cream Puffes.
Eating is one form of participation Faire-
goers enter into avidly. Another is costum-
ing. Many (especially older) patrons draw
the line at playing dress-up, and others turn
up in whatever exotic garb they have ly-
ing around the house. But thousands buy,
rent, or sew Renaissance costumes. Every
year the Faire receives complaints about
people who don't wear costumes from peo-
ple who do, and feel their illusion is being
spoiled.
"Dressing up is the best part of the
Faire," insisted a middle-aged attorney
in a velvet cloak and tights. Most guests
act shy when entreated by a hearty rogue
or buxom lass to try rope climbing or ar-
chery, "Knocke the Blocke", or "Drench
a Wench."
FAIRE HUMOR is bawdy, necklines are
low, and boisterous sex is evidently a sell-
ing point with some customers. "He's very
conservative,"- one woman said of her be-
wigged husband, "but he likes to come
here and ogle the girls". However, any
couple who headed for the trees with
thoughts of participation would quickly
run up again the "perimeter guards", a
ring of bikers in doublets who sit quietly on
the hillside encircling the Faire, to keep
the festivities within bounds and gate crash-
ers out.
like this," said a youth dresse
Walter Raleigh who was explai
he comes back every weekenld,
have been."
"My dedication," says Phyllis
"is to teaching history." Phyllis
teacher, and Ron a graphic ar
they put on the first Renaissan
ure Faire in Los Angeles' bohemi
Canyon in 1963. The event was
a benefit for KPFK, the city's stru
tener-sponsored radio station.
An instant success, the Fair
an annual event, stretched from
end to four, and in 1967 opened
County season. That year, thel
and KPFK argued over money,
Pattersons incorporated as Them
which has since produced the Fe
Making a private venture of
that started as a benefit has e
Pattersons, besides money, a b
among some California artists a
men. KPFK points out that the1
launched on the station's publicit
labor of its volunteers.
HOW MUCH money the Patter
making is a subject much debat
Faire world. The peasants - ve
unpaid performers - point out th
Events takes the entire gate proce
attendance sometimes reaching
day), holds the beer and demonac
sions, and gets a stall fee fro
people plus 15 per cent of their sal
are low - $2.50 an hour for mos
.tters, and a day for most performers (two days a
issues by week) - and considerable use is made of
t matter, "volunteers": high school students who work
de of the in exchange for admission and "buskers"
ance with- who perform for what they can collect.
d -- most Paid retainers, who tend to be loyal,
etplace -- claim most of the money goes back into the
be found Faires. A third of the net income goes to
goers. fund the Renaissance Centre, a Patterson-
en Rosen- organized non-profit foundation which gives
s of the out grants for the furtherance of Renais-
, or make sance arts and crafts, and is currently buy-
en't going ing land on which to build an Olde Eng-
ut off for lish Village,
Faire fans who want to stay in the
n't really Renaissance year around, and long for a
return of its class distinctions, may join
the Centre as Yeomen, Landed Gentry,
Knights, Lords and Ladies, or Of Blood
2 than Royal and Intimates of Her Majestie, de-
lastic' pending on the size of their contributions.
A GOLD MINE of culture and fantasy,
and a gold mine pure and simple, the Ren-
:si:": >;< aissance cannot be staked out by a single
claimant, but the Pattersons are trying.
d as Sir A small college in Oregon, an elementary
ning why school in Lake Tahoe, and dozens of other
"It should groups, including KPFK, who have put on
Renaissance fairs, have heard from Theme
Patterson, Events' lawyers. The corporation has ap-
s was a plied for copyright on the terms "Ren-
tist when aissance Pleasure Faire", "Renaissance
ice Pleas- Faire", and "Pleasure Faire" (including
an Laurel modern spellings).
staged as So far, the Pattersons are way ahead of
iggling lis- the competition. The Renaissance Pleasure
Faire runs for six weeks in Los Angeles,
e became six weeks in Marin County. (The market
one week- town collapses and fits into vans.) No soon-
its Marin er is the Marin Faire set up than work
Pattersons begins on the Great Dickens Christmas Fair
and the and Pickwick Comic Annual, now in its
ie Events, third year. A recreation of 19th century
aires. London in a San Francisco warehouse, the
an event Dickens Fair is open from Thanksgiving
arned the through New Years'. This year, the Old
ad name San Francisco Waterfront Fair and Nau-
nd crafts- tical Exposition stretched Theme Events'
Faire was fantasy season to nearly six months.
y and the
DESPITE - OR PERHAPS because of-
,sons a t e thickening Marin smog and the soaring cost
ed in the of living, Faire attendance rises handsome-
ndors and ly every year. Whatever the squabbles over
zat Theme who owns history, the only current trend
eeds (with that looks likely to slow Americans' flight
17,000 a into the past is the gasoline shortage.
de conces-
m crafts- Joan holden is a staff writer for Pa-
es. Wages cific News Service -- Copyright, Pacific
t jobs, $20 Neivs Service, 1973.
,4
0 0 r OSSARY D DIC..Ai
I etter
To The Daily:
MR. HOFFMAN must be a mor-
on. Else why does he act like one?
His major claim is that any af-
firmative action program is racist
according to the "dictionary de-
finition" of racism. Rubbish.
Racism, when ascribed to in-
dividuals, refers to a prevailing
belief of the inferiority (intellect-
ual, moral or other) of an individ-
ual on account of his race. Insti-
tutional racism, on the other hand
-a notion too new to be found in
dictionaries - refers to the sys-
tematic institutionalized exclusion
on one racial grouping from the
benefits available to other group-
ings of that society. Institutional
racism is usually founded on pre-
judice and initiated through dis-
crimination, but it can persist with-
out either.
A single institution, like the Uni-
versity, is itself racist when and
only when its practices and poli-
cies are such so as to contribute to
the racism prevalent in the society
of which it is a part.
Programs aimed at combating
racism can never themselves be
racist. Discrimination on the basis
of race is not necessarily racist,
much more depends on the intent
and forseeable social consequenc-
es of the act or policy.
0s Affirmative action
defended
jobs, $20 Pveie'sSer vice 1 973.
and provide them with opportuni-
ties which, but for the program,
would have been effectively denied
to them. But even should such
programs give benefits to a "less-
than-qualified" minority person, it
will do so only as compensation
for prior deprivations and as a
means for the prevention of sim-
ilar injustices in the future. Who,
if only aided with a proper under-
standing of the purpose of such
a program, would ever oppose it?
There are some black persons
who have the potential to greatly
benefit from the University exper-
ience, but who will be judged "un-
qualified" only because the cri-
teria of evaluation are biased
against them or because they have
been denied the opportunity to ac-
quire the skills which would make
them appear to be "qualified".
What, Mr. Hoffman, with your
finely tuned sense of social justice
do you propose to do about that!
The most distressing aspect of
Mr. Hoffman's opinion is that it
prevailed on SGC. Those who strug-
gled against racism in the lae six-
ties though that they had opened
the eyes of white America - at
least young white America - to
the reality of institutional racism.
In particular, that institutional rac-
ism was something much more
AoPn-~rnntnA *1than nar14 niiwnt
NCAA rules
To The Daily:
AS AN athletically minded medi-
cal student seeking something be-
sides the endless hours of medi-
cal studies I had hopes of joining
Michigan's track team. In check-
ing the Big Ten and NCAA rules I
found out, as I sadly expected, that
the holding of a baccaulaureate de-
gree makes one ineligible for in-
tercollegiate athletics.
Having graduated from Michigan
State in three years and never com-
peting in intercollegiate sports I
feel badly that I shall never be
able to do so. Unfriendly and dis-
couraging treatment by a MSU
track coach made me foolishly for-
get my hopes of collegiate compe-
tition.
Still wishing to compete, I don't
understand the logic of this rule
that makes a degree holder ineli-
gible. Had I not graduated early I
would still have a year of eligibil-
ity left. But moreover, I c a n; t
understand why achieved educa-
tional status is a criteria. W h y
aren't four years of eligibility al-
lowed irregardless of this status as
long as one is a full time student?
Obviously, age is no factor since
anyone may participate as loig
as he or she is a full time under-
principles
To The Daily:
I HAD THE pleasure of seeing
and listening on TV among others,
to the Socialist Labor Party Car:-
didates for Mayor of New York
City (John Emanuel) and Governor
of New Jersey (Robert Clement)
in the recent election. No mat-
ter how many votes they receiv-
ed, they presented the program
of the Socialist Labor Party to +he
best of their ability and upheld the
noble principles of socialism as
advanced by the Socialist Labor
Party.
As the noted writer, George El-
iot, wrote: "Any coward can fight
a battle when he's sure cr winning;
but give me the man who has
pluck to' fight when he's sure of
losing. That's my way, sir; and
there are many victories worse
than a defeat.
-Nathan Pressman
Ellenville, New York
Nov. 28
j MPEACHA6LE oveCA 1
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