Iien seek
By BILL HEENAN
DEALING WITH WOMEN'S Liberation is like walking through
a muddy minefield. However, men have adapted to the new
threat. Instead of trying to understand the liberation movement and
its implications for them, guys guard every other word and action
for potential sexism. Man finds himself under the gun every time
he opens a door or helps an old lady across the street. Hence, the
solution for men is not to erect new defenses against women, but
to liberate themselves.
Society dehumanizes us all, but why do the two sexes continue
stoking the fires of alienation? Men and women alike are falling
victims to mutual distrust. Liberation of one sex cannot occur by
exclusion or at the expense of the other.
Like women, men's initial step is comprehending the socializa-
tion process which places people into rigid sex roles. Males, too,
liberation
are victimized when they are supposed to fit an impossible masculine
role which is primarily measured by their ability to dominate
or influence others. Being a rock of security and self-confidence
doesn't help man to float in life, and if he lets down these defenses
for one second, he sinks.
THE PRICE males pay to maintain their image is emotional
independence. This may be reflected in their higher mortality rate.
Channelling most of his emotional energy into relationships with
women, a man loses control of his inner self. Women serve to
boost his ego and meet other emotional needs, but when females
assert their emotional independence, he feels a loss.
Stereotypes color his perception of people. With women he
values appearances above personality, but he simultaneously neglects
his fellow man. Fears of homosexuality haunt each man, prevent-
ing closer relationships. As a result, ties between them are limited
to areas where mutual cooperation - business or athletics - is
necessary.
Protesting Playboy's perpetuation of dehumanized sex roles, a
men's group, Men Against Cool, picketed Hugh Hefner's Chicago
penthouse. Growth of such consciousness-raising groups has been
sporadic, unorganized, and almost too late.
SMEN'SGROUPS at the 'U' have emerged spontaneously in the
past, but many have folded from lack of interest. Joseph Pleck
who teaches a women's and men's course at East Quad describes
past groups as "not very together."
An Alice Lloyd men's group sponsored by Resident Fellow
Ed Egnatios has been deliberating liberation since last fall. Consist-
ing of eight males, they discuss handling "unmanly actions" such
as crying. In addition, the group touches on homosexuality and at-
tempts to come to terms with women's liberation.
}" t Liberation raises other issues. Do women wish to inherit men's
problems? Equal participation in domination does not create a system
of equality. Instead both sexes should build a society that doesn't
limit behavior.
How far will homogenation of the sexes go? If one kisses sex
appeal goodbye, population growth stops and boredom sets in. New
sex roles may be inevitable.
A CURRENT TREND in the woman's movement is withdrawal
from the group consciousness. Incorporating only such bits and pieces
of the ideology that one believes serves self-interest could leave
the world with a conglomeration of traditional and new sex roles.
uwrrant impeachment
Clyde Bellecourt speaks at the Fishbowl rally Saturday
Crimes'
By JULIE ZUCHMAN
IT IS VERY easy to despise Richard M. Nixon. You can hate him
because he lets his dog lick his birthday cake, and because he
dyes his hair, and because he has surrounded himself with men who
are not anywhere near being the best and the brightest. He has
friends who are so stolid and all-American that they would be less
than boring, if it weren't for their funny names like Bebe and Ab-
planalp.
LOATHING NIXON for such reasons is understandable, but you
can't impeach a President because he eats his cottage cheese with
ketchup on it. As Margaret Mead said, you must separate the
President we have now from the Presidency, and she meant that
in its dual sense. Nixon must be brought to trial and the American
people must recognize that this man has none of the qualities
that should be expected in a leader of a nation of 200 million people.
THE RECENT interpretation of "impeachable offenses" will en-
able Congress to impeach Nixon for non-indictable offenses. It isn't
necessary to catch him with his hand in the till; there is sufficient
evidence that Nixon has committed gross unforgiveable crimes
against the people of the United States as they are governed by the
Constitution. He is by no means the .only President. to have usurped
power and oppressed the people deliberately, but the Watergate
scandals have aroused enough fear and anger to focus attention on
the history of the abuse of Presidential power.
SPECIFICALLY among the actions he has taken which can be
considered to be oppressive to the American people are: 1. Im-
pounding (refusing to spend) over $40 billion allocated by Congress,
funds which were to be spent for major domestic programs. He has
held back $159 million from Food Stamps, $36 million from the
Bureau of Prisons, $17 million from Watershed and Flood Preven-
tion Operation, and hundreds of millions more from other housing,
environmental, farming, and health care programs.
2. THE WHITE HOUSE has instituted secret military actions
against Cambodia and Laos, totally flaunting the Constitutional
clause which states that "Congress shall have the power to de-
clare war". He has destroyed thousands of lives and homes with his
illegal war. The President has stated that he would appropriate funds
allocated for other purposes if Congress cut off monies for military
activities to continue his war.
3. THE FIRST Amendment to the Bill of Rights guarantees the
freedom of speech and of the press. Nixon's administration has
harassed, spied on, and attempted to control the media, especially
television and newspapers. A strong attempt was made by the White
House to stop major newspapers from publishing the Pentagon
Papers. Newsmen were subpoenaed to appear before grand juries
in 'disabling attempts to force them to reveal their sources. With
the present administration still in power, the safety of the first
amendment is still shaky, since no assurances have been granted
to the press that further abridgements will not follow.
4. THE FIRST Amendment has been further trampled upon by
the Nixon administration which has conducted, through the United
States Army, illegal prying and espionage into the lives of Ameri-
cans who, in exercising their rights, disagreed with Administra-
tion policy. Dossiers on their personal lives, including their financial
and sexual affairs, have been created. There is no legal basis for
this type of snooping and prying.
5. THE NIXON administration has violated the Fourth Amend-
ment's guarantee of personal privacy and security by bugging the
homes and offices of citizens with electronic surveillance and wire-
tapping devices without obtaining the necessary warrants. The
Nixon Administration has claimed that government officials could
decide to conduct surveillance if they felt that the individual
was dangerous to "national security." Their rationale was unani-
mously rejected by the Supreme Court, which reaffirmed that a war-
rant must be obtained in cases pertaining to domestic surveillance.
THESE OBJECTIONABLE actions continue on and on ad nau-
seum. Impreachment is "An indictment against the President or
other officers, listing charges of treason, bribery, or other high
crimes and misdemeanors". There is no room, or need, for a
public scalping of Richard Nixon. He can be removed from office
for crimes he has committed as a President without vindictiveness
against his character. Impeachment is clearly an ultra-sensitive
issue. Its dangers lies in the fact that it is an unknown that has set
some people quaking over fears about creeping radicals and leftism,
and others over political opportunism.
THE WOMAN who snarled "Why don't you give him a trial
first?" to the student holding a "Honk for Impeachment" sign last
week is representative of a large proportion of Americans to whom
''impeachment' is as disturbing as 'welfare"' or 'busing'. To
convince these people that impeachment is an absolute necessity,
they must be shown how Richard has personally harmed them. It is
not expedient to drag Nixon through the mud; not so very long ago
he was a savior who rescued the straying America of the sixties.
Idols with feet of clay can fall hard enough to evoke the sympathy
of martyrdom.
F THE OTHER extreme to be avoided is overzealous alignment
with the Democratic party. A lesson American voters should learn
from this affair, if nothing else, is to trust no politician by party or
policy, but to try to judge by his actions. The huge power that the
Democrats are amassing is every bit as dangerous and pervertable
as that which Nixon has abused. At best, impeachment is idealis-
tically a reaffirmation of the American democratic system; realis-
tically it is the removal of a President who has taken so much more
than his share of power that it is incomprehensible. The uncommit-
ted and apolitical have got to join those already favoring impeach-
ment; even the rats will eventually desert a sinking ship.
AIM lecu
By DAVID STOLL
"IF THEY throw out all the indictments," American Indian Move-
ment (AIM) leader Clyde Bellecourt told the crowd gathered in
the Fishbowl Saturday morning, we won't be happy. We went to
Wounded Knee to die if we had to, and we're still ready to die
for what is ours by right."
On February 27, 1973, three hundred Ogala Sioux and AIM
militants began their 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee, S.D. A
year later the U. S. Justice Department is prosecuting their leaders
Russell. Means and Dennis Banks in St. Paul, Minn., on eleven-
count indictments stemming from the occupation.
After the cases of Banks & Means are disposed of, Bellecourt
and four other AIM leaders will go on trial. In Sioux Falls, S.D.,
meanwhile, another 149 people are also scheduled to stand trial.
LIKE THE other leaders, Bellecourt is charged with burglary,
larceny, arson, car theft, possession of unauthorized firearms, assault
of federal officers in the course of a civil disorder, and conspiracy.
According to conference organizers, the $2,000 which he earned
speaking here will go to the AIM legal defense operation.
Although the trials constitute the government's largest sedition-
quashing efort this year, there is little word on them in Ann Ar-
bor. Nothing in The Daily, perhaps because nothing ever comes
over the wire services.
A few days before Bellecourt's arrival, howeverrsomething
did come over - just a little item from the Associated Press. Belle-'
court and his brother Leonard, the wire said, had been charged
with petty theft Monday after allegedly attempting to steal $5.36
worth of sausage from a supermarket in Minneapolis.
A POLICE OFFICER, it is interesting to note, was apparently
on the scene to make the arrest. He had to handcuff Clyde after
Clyde protested the arrest and Leonard tried to get rid of the
sausage by throwing it behind the store safe. No word on the
trials, just the sausage.
Saturday morning Bellecourt was quite late, two hours to be
exact. Most of the hundred or so people who had gathered to rally
with him waited patiently, however, and since their faces were the
familiar ones at these occasions they managed to pass the time
sociably. When the featured speaker finally arrived, he appeared
walking past the Graduate Library with a family in tow, look-
ing away across the empty grass to the buildings around the
Diag.
A grim solid man in his thirties, Bellecourt had a grip in his
handshake - the straight kind - that few in their studies at this
University will ever match.
Speaking in a measured, uninspired tone he began to tell about
the trials and the siege, reciting outrage after outrage on the
part of the government or Pine Ridge government chief Richard
Wilson. The crowd followed his words with grave faces. They
weren't just listening to an ordinary agitator, however; they were
r
ler visits,
listening to an Indian, a physical man with a certain grace about
him.
Sometimes he even turned eloquent, more from the content of his
words than any oratorical skill. "Some years after 'our people
were massacred at Wounded Knee in 1890," Bellecourt said, "Black
Elk stood on a hill nearby and had a vision about the sacred
tree. He said that its roots had withered and died at Wounded
Knee, that the hoop had been broken. But he prophesied that the
Indians would gather there again, the four races come together
and the roots of the sacred tree be nourished once more."
THE "INTERVIEW" was conducted at the bottom of an empty
Auditorium C in flourescent half-light. When Bellecourt took off his
sunglasses his eyes are a little squinted and weary, but steady.
"We're just like this," he answered in response to a stupid ques-
tion about his and other AIM members' abilities in a fight.
After he had talked some more about the siege and the
trials, I asked him to explain the rituals to which he occasionally
referred. Sweat bath, he told me, is a traditional ceremony in
which AIM members purify themselves in times of crisis. "It's a
small enclosed place, like a teepee, in which red hot rocks are set.
After packing into the place, we pour water on the rocks and sweat
and pray and sing. The medicine man talks and the spirit comes
into us. It's like group therapy."
"Don't demean it with the label 'group therapy,'" I suggested
helpfully.
"NO," BELLECOURT reiterated calmly, "it's like what they
call group therapy. Even the women went through sweat bath at
Wounded Knee," he continued. "Once all the leaders were in sweat
bath praying and singing when we came under attack. Bullets were
flying all over the place, but not one come into the tent."
"What does the medicine man do?" I asked.
"He holds ceremonies, participates in meetings, and provides
spiritual direction. If it hadn't been for our medicine man, Leonard
Crow Dog, we'd have been fighting and arguing all the time.
He operated on every person shot in Wounded Knee with Indian
medicine. Now he's under the same indictments that we are, and he
don't even believe in shooting deer."
Bellecourt, I noticed, wore a bear claw around his neck and
smelled faintly of patchouli. Some time after the siege ended he
was shot in the belly and took sixteen pints of blood in transfusions.
He attributes his recovery to Leonard Crow Dog.
"What's going to happen if the jury convicts you and the
other AIM defendants?" I asked.
"It's a very tense situation," he said, bowing his head. "If
that happens I think there'll be a Wounded Knee in St. Paul, Minne-
sota. We were born political prisoners - I spent fourteen years
in a correctional institute - and we're not gonna live like that
anymore. Just like I said, we're ready to die for what we're doing,
and we're gonna die before we go to jail."
Us folks in Ann Arbor, we'll watch.
I
Eighty-Three Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
News Phone: 764-0552
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1974
Register
Now!
ON APRIL 1st, Ann Arbor vot-
ers will go to the polls to decide
the fate of two major issues -
rent control and the $5 marijuana
fine. They will also be electing
half of the City Council w h i c h
will represent them for the next
two years.
. If you are new to Ann Arbor and
have not registered to vote, you
only have until March 4th to sign
up in time for the April election.
You can register to vote at City
Hall at the cornerof Huron and
Fifth Avenue and weekday between
8 and 5 and at special sites this
Wednesday through Friday.
These sites are:
* Michigan Union - 12 noon till
4 p.m.
r Public Library - 5 p.m. till
9 p.m. (corner of Fifth and Wil-
liam)
. Ann Arbor Community Center
- 8 a.m. till 5 p.m. from now
until March 4th (614 N. Main)
0 Stone School - 12 noon till
4 p.m. (2800 Stone School Road)
* Maple Village Shoping Cen-
ter - 4 p.m. till 8 p.m.
* Plymouth Mall - 4 p.m. till
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Dan Biddle, Tim Evanoff,
Hill, Jack Kroht, Mary Long,
Pilate, Judy Ruskin
Cindy
Cheryl
Editorial Page: Clifford Brown, B r i a n
Colgan, Claude Fontheim, Marnie Heyn,
Joan Weiss
Arts Page: Ken Fink
Photo Technician: Thomas Gottlieb
Liberals make election close
By CLIFFORD BROWN
EVEN THOUGH WE ARE having enor-
mous problems with our economy,
things are even worse in Britain. Massive
layoffs, a crippling three day work week,
and the coal miner's strike compound the
miseries of the government. A war has
been raging between the liberals, conser-
vatives and the laborites over who should
rule the country. In an attempt to decide
the issue, Prime Minister Edward Heath
asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament.
Today, less than three weeks later, an elec-
tion is being held.
Most voters in Britain can now find cause
to distrust the Conservative and Labor par-
ties. Many of them can remember the
promises of Labor leader Harold Wilson
in 1964 promising rapid economic growth.
These were broken when Mr. Wilson de-
valuedethe pound in 1968, the first time
in since 1949.
Many more voters can recall the pro-
mises of Edward Heath in 1970 to end in-
flation "at a stroke". Mr. Heath then
preceded to follow a line that has sent
food prices up 53 per cent in four years
and had led Britain to the worst trade
deficit in her history. .
THE BROKEN PROMISES and the disil-
lusionment of many Britishers is probably
what has led to the upsurge of the liberal
party. The liberals have been gaining
once termed major are losing the edge
they once had.
In past years, the vote has only been a
contest between labor and conservative
parties. The liberals were a minor party,
capturing only a few of the 635.seats avail-
able in the House of Commons. Either you
were one of the have and you voted conser-
vative or you were one of the have-not
and you voted labor. The barriers have
been breaking down in recent years.
Though most of the well-to-do people still
louder voice than they have had in the
past, if not the only voice.
AS THE GENERAL election has arrived
today, many of the perplexed voters will
today be required to make up their minds.
The issues are mostly economic ones deal-
ing with the coal miner's strike, the ener-
gy crisis and the North Sea oil, and the
whether or not the country should remain
a* part of the EEC (Europeon Economic
Community). While Mr. Wilson has promis-
ed the voters a referendum to decide the
issue, Mr. Heath has remained silent, ex-
cept to say that he thinks Britain should
remain in the Common Market.
Amid all the talk by the liberals of Jere-
my Thorpe and the laborites of Harold
Wilson, the conservatives of Edward Heath
have remained virtually silent. In com-
parison to labor and liberal-voices the con-
servatives havebeen conspiciously quiet
with the exception of one Enoch Powell,
conservative legislator. Powell accused
Prime Minister Heath of betraying the
British people by taking Britain into the
Common Market. Harold Wilson has been
opposed to the move since it was first
proposed. Most of the money, according to
Wilson, has been going to feather the nest
of French farmers and none of it going to
heln the British people.
While the Common Market issues rage,
the co-1I miner's strike is having even more
r
Letters to The Daily
McDonald's
To The Daily:
ANN ARBOR, you talk a good
fight. Tuesday night the Ann Ar-
up, a monument to love of grease,
and the probability approaches un-
ity that they will make money.
This is a free society, as all of
us who admire Solzhenitsyn's
bright torch are proud to point
such an ideal, or who signed that
petition, or who gave even one
word of sympathy for the cause
of stopping McDonald's, if you
have pride, don't buy even one
Big Mac. Nor even if you're ston-
.: u