Y Eighty-two years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan ... a megaphone and he's unstoppable... 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1973 I _.... The long overdue cease-fire A VIETNAM CEASE-FIRE has been set for Saturday. And with it, President Nixon announced last night, the war will end for American troops and prisoners of war. After a bloody decade of American in- volvement in the Indochina war, our first reaction is a joyous "at last." For Nixon's decision to "sign the treaty" ful- fills the demands for a finish to this monstrous conflict - whether those de- mands have been pressed in the streets, in the voting booths, or in the privacy of living rooms. A lasting peace must yet be realized before this war is buried into the soon- forgotten past. The President declared last night that the major stipulations he has insisted upon have been met. He termed the initialed agreement "peace with honor"-a phrase he has used con- sistently during his presidency. It is, however, far too late for America to salvage honor from the carnage in Southeast Asia. IT IS NOT too late to ensure that the war ends not only for America, but for all of Indochina. True peace will come only when its strife-torn lands can stand on their own-their people, in villages and cities, in industry and agriculture, determining for themselves the nature of their societies. American guns and American dollars can never be the pil- lars of peace, no matter who wields the arms or disburses the money. Hopefully, the tragedy is coming to a close, ushering in a new era of true peace for Indochina and the world. THE PRESIDENT'S achievement is a welcome one, long overdue. After the unwarranted bloodshed, the anguish- ed years of horror and torment, Ameri- can involvement is ending and the fight- ing to be stilled. And that is something for which we must be deeply thankful. --THE MICHIGAN DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF By ARTHUR LERNER WASHINGTON - "Criticism of the vets' separate march would be counter-p r o- ductive. The vets have traditionally h a d their own actions. By marching separate- ly today, they are affirming that they are with us. Here they come. We must support them and cheer them on. But we must not relax our discipline. Their distinctiveness unifies them with us." * * * He's deadly. He's quick. He's everywhere. He's often right, but it doesn't matter, because he's Jack the Rapper. Jack was in Washington Saturday. He's been in Ann Arbor, and he's been in San Francisco. He has natural talent, give him a megaphone and he's unstoppable. He can be found on all sides of public issues. He is most often found at demon- strations. He must not be confused with Soapbox Sam or Bandstand Barry. He is not a public speaker. He is a communi- cator. SATURDAY, we waited two hours to march. As the tail of the march, we were fair game for Jack. He came by time and time again, in different uniforms, to tell us when we could move, why we weren't, and to where we would. Usually he didn't know the answers to our questions, but he came anyway. Experienced march demonstrators are connoisseurs of street activism, on the look- out for the most obscure button, the, most together chant, the niftiest banner. A n d along comes Jack. Don't get me wrong. He belongs. He has an uncanny ability to bring a crowd together. Disparate in politics, split down the middle tactically, the crowd unit- es in its conclusion that Jack is a nurd. FOR THE JACK of today is but a bleak tintype of yesterday's Jack - the Samuel Adamses, Mario Savios, Carrie Nations, String 'em up Steves, and Necktie Neds who sparked lethargic mods into a spirit- ed activism. A dime store version, of the rabble rousers who transformed reluctant collaborators into convivial comrades. Now we only call on him tq lead us in "Down down down B52, down with Nixon, down with Thieu," and "Up the ass of the ruling class.", Perhaps our cynicism has rubbed the sheen from the street speaker. Or maybe the quality of spontaneous street fire and brimstone has eroded. Raspy, unshaven, and repetitive, he ap- proaches with bullhorn, megaphone, or just stretchable vocal chords. And I just tingle when I hear him say: "I KNOW you've been waiting for two hours now, but this is really a great event. We've got all this good energy going and we ain't gonna stop until we get that agree- ment signed. "We've got to show the President that we still care. We've confounded the pigs and the man by being here in such numbers. The war is still going, but the anti-war movement has been a success. We must show with our feet that we still care." Arthur Lerner is an outgoing Daily ed. torial director. Daily Photo by DAVID MARGOLICK Debuking ideologyandpoliticsof division Examining Johnson's career THE DEATH OF Lyndon Baines John- son, 36th President of the United States, of a heart attack Monday, once again forces upon us all the opportunity to mourn a fellow human being and ex- amine in retrospect the effect of his life on the course of the world. When most people die, the retrospec- tion Is fairly easy: Most people are never in a position to'affect the course of the world. Throughout their lives they re- main ineffectual -- "mute, inglorious Miltons"' who perhaps affect their fami- lies, friends, and immediate surround- Ings but little else. A celebrity, particularly a politician-- especially the President - is another matter. When someone is thrust into a Today's staff: News: Debbie Allen, Robert Barkin, Beth, Egnater, Cheryl Pilate, Judy Ruskin Editorial Page: Ted Stein Arts Page: Diane Levick, Sara Rimer, Barbara Bialick Photo Technician: Rolfe Tessem Editorial Staff' SARA FITZGERALD Editor PAT BAUER...............Associate Managing Editor LINDSAY CHANEY ............. Editorial Director MARK DILLEN............Magazine Editor LINDA DREEBEN.........Associate Managing Editor TAMMY JACOBS. .. . Managing Editor ARTHUR LERNER ................ Editorial Director ROBERT SCHREINER....Editorial Director GLORIA JANE SMITH..................Arts Editor ARTS STAFF: Herb Bowie, Rich Glatzer. Donald Sosin. ED SUROVELL.. Books Editor PAUL TRAVIS .........Associate Managing Editor NIGHT EDITORS: Robert Barkin, Jan Benedetti, Di- ane Levick. Jim O'Brien, Chris Parks, Charles Stein, Ted Stein. COPY EDITORS: Meryl Gordon, Debra Thal. EDITORIAL NIGHT EDITORS: Fred Shell Martin Stern. DAY EDITORS: Dave Burhenn,hJim Kentch, Marilyn Riley, Judy Ruskin, Eric Schoch, Sue Stephen- son, Ralph Vartabedian, Becky Warner. TELEGRAPH/ASSOCIATE NIGHT EDITORS: Prakash Aswani, Gordon Atcheson, Laura Berman, Penny thy Ricke, Eugene Robinson, Linda Rosenthal, Zachary Schiller, Marcia Zoslaw. STAFF WRITERS: Howard Brick Lorin Labardee, Ka- Blank, Dan Blugerman, Bob Burakoff, Beth Eg- nater, Ted Evanoff, Cindy Hill, Debbie Knox, David Stoll, Terri Terrell. Sports Staff JOHN PAPANEK Sports Editor ELLIOT LEGOW Executive Sports Editor position of power and influence, he or she receives the opportunity to exert that amount of power and influence. One can either avoid or grasp that opportunity. Most people seem to succeed in utilizing it. The difficult judgment to make is whether they have used it successfully. IN THE CASE OF Lyndon Johnson the assessment is a complex one, clouded by the dark spectre of a war that he escalated, at first as almost a minor policy decision, which grew gradually and unobtrusively until it became a monkey on his back he could not shake off, until perhaps Monday evening. Like the late Harry Truman and many others thrust into an influential post, Johnson rose to the occasion, and per- formed competently. He brought to the Presidency a reputation acquired in 24 years in the Congress and Senate, as a shrewd operator, a politician's politician who would go to virtually any length to accomplish his goals. During his early years as chief executive, he set up some pretty good ones. His record in domestic matters-rightly the main concern of a U.S. President- was admirable, following in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Among his accomplishments were the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, medical care for the aged, massive federal financial aid to elementary and secondary school systems throughout the country, raising of the minimum wage, launching of a major housing program, and initial efforts to clean up the en- vironment. RUT THINGS DID not go as smoothly for Johnson as they seemed to go for his hero Roosevelt. Despite his Great Society and the War on Poverty, as his term progressed through the Sixties, dis- illusionment surfaced, manifest in vio- lence - ridden campuses and in riot-torn cities. For even Johnson's domestic record could not escape being sullied by the growing war. Students rebelled against the hypocrisy of an administration that could fight poverty at home, and at the same time cause thousands of deaths in a remote corner of the world fighting the indefinable spectre of Communism. Poor people in the cities were ultimate- ly unconvinced that Johnson really wanted to help them, since the war he propagated ate up mammoth amounts of federal funds and indirectly led to widespread inflation which made their lives more miserable. JN THE END perhaps it was a lack of foresight that proved to be Johnson's tragic flaw. In recent years, even he seemed to feel that he had made a great mistake regarding U. S. policy in South- east Asia. It is a shame that it was a mis- take he did not live to see rectified in his lifetime. Right now a meaningful assessment of Johnson is difficult. The closeness of im- mediate events such as the war as well as our tendenev to overlook shortcom- inic in a cnn ha whn cinier r1'n pnm- Editor's Note: The following is the second in a two-part series analyzing the internal problems facing the Ann Arbor Human Rights Party. By DAVID CAHILL There are three other beliefs now held by some HRP members that are creating a lot of problems for the party. 1. The HRP grows and prospers by developing divisions within it- self on political lines and by strug- gle over those divisions. A remnant of "dialectical" meth- odology in a party which allows diversity of opinion naturally leads to the feeling that political divi- sions should be fostered so that we can "have it out," deciding (at least temporarily) what t h e majority view will be, and then go on to the next division, ad infini- tum. But in a troupe like HRP, this results in constant uncertain- ty, instability and the fostering of hostilities which never die down. THE AMERICAN LEFT has been characterized for decades by in- cessant factional infighting. That helped to destroy the SDS, as many of us remember. Whatever bene- fits might be gained from contin- ued hashing over of political dif- ferences are far outweighed by the resultant inability of the group to function in any other way except as a debating society. And a hos- tile one at that. The constant emphasis on "divi- sions" prevents the formation of coalitions either within or outside the party - and it may even be used as a power tactic. For in- stance, I am told that at a recent meeting of the "Rootless Choco- late Almond Cosmopolite" caucus one member said "Where can we pick fights?" This is the ultimate absurdity of a striving for divi- sions. Remember that old saying "di- vide and conquer"? A group which deliberately divides itself is al- ready conquered. 2. The positions someone took long ago on some issue are still very important. The local Democratic Party is as untogether as it is partly because their people can never forgive or forget. Once I had a long talk with some of them about others in the party, and what came out of it was one long, sad Byzantine intrigue over splits which should have heal- ed years before. "I can't support him because he didn't back so-and- so for City Chairman in 1962" is a typical example. In our party the splits aren't quite so personal (al- though sometimes I wonder), but the effects of not healing divisions and not realizing that people's views change are just as serious in HRP. PURPOSEFULLY encouraging divisions on all kinds of issues Letters Alcohol danger To The Daily, AS COLD weather once again approaches, I am reminded of some incorrect advice given one cold day last December by the today ... column, namely, to stay at home and drink hot toddies!" A well-known pharmacological text gives the opposite advice regard- ing liquor fortworeasons: alco- hol increases cutaneous blood flow (that "flushed feeling"), and thus :--.-0 - . . , 1 -. :_ . :on it : i which really don't have to be de- cided is bad enough. But not lay- ing old conflicts to rest means that, since each person is bound to be on the losing side now and then, and since the divisions aren't always along the same lines, soon- er or later no one can work with anyone else since everyone has been on the wrong side! 3. There is one correct ideology, which can be "objectively" prov- en. If you don't believe in our ideology, you are either stup- id, misguided, or evil. If we don't have our way, we won't partici- pate. Not all belief systems have with- in them statements about their own infallibility, objectivity, or capabil- ity of being "proven." However, many political (and religious) ideologies do. Naturally, not every ideology which claims that it is "cosmically correct" can be so, since different ideologies which claim to be all-encompassing as well as correct are bound to con- tradict each other on at least one point, or they wouldn't be differ- ent. Revolutionary ideologies are par- ticularly likely to have claims of "correctness" attached to them, in part because people will hardly devote their lives to a struggle if they don't think that it's correct. But ideologies are all based ul- timately on people's values - be- liefs about what is desirable, as contrasted with what is true or false. And, since different groups desire different things,their ideol- ogies will be different. Often these value preferences will be hidden. EVEN THE non-value-loaded part of revolutionary ideologies are unlikely to be capable of real proof, partly because they rely so heavily on the "lessons" of prev- ious revolutions. The trouble with drawing conclusions from previous revolutions is that each revolution is an ad hoc, one-time production. Social, political, economic, and cul- tural conditions vary so widely from country to country and from time to time that drawing conclus- ions from them is, and will likely always remain, an art and not a science. One result of a belief that one's own particular ideology is "infall- ibly" correct is the conclusion that those who don't share it must real- ly have something wrong w i t h, them, like people who believe that the earth is flat. And if someone just can't see an "obviously cor- rect" position, ,then why bother with that person. He or she ob- viously deserves to be "purged" or bludgeoned into submission. And any nasty name you can think of to call your opponent is okay. Each faction can't stand people w h o oppose it. OVER THE PAST few months we have seen just how bad this can get. People who wanted to support McGovern were called "liberals," "Democrats," and worse by one group. If you didn't have "good politics" - their politics - y o u had "bad politics." People w h o didn't agree with them were "guilt- tripped" into at least keeping quiet because of "lefter-than-thou" de- bating tactics. ("I am left. Every- one should be as left as possible in HRP. Therefore, since you dis- agree with me, you are not as left as I am and therefore are incor- rect.") The Rainbow People's Party, on the other hand, has repeatedly launched long broadsides full of insulting language at people w h o don't agree with them in the Ann Arbor Sun, their satellite newspap- er. "Ultraleftists," "right-oppor- tunists," "intellectual/social work- ers" and other evil beings inhabit their demonology. The last straw comes when one faction decides that it is more im- portant than the group as a whole, and sectarianism comes to its log- ical conclusion: The disgruntled faction bolts the party or sits on its hands. In August, the defeat of Eric Chester led to considerable non-participation by his supporters in Burghardt's campaign. Also In August, when the Rainbow People were unable to come up with a candidate for sheriff, and found that they could not control the party, they took a walk. WE SHOULD REALIZE - and I think most of us do - that this silly nonsense can't go on. The HRP has now grown up. We have behind us the votes, good wishes, and even the hopes of tens of thousands of people. We should concentrate on their des- perate and heart-felt needs, not on debating fine points, creating ar- tificial divisions, and all the oth- er behavior that a concentration on words and not actions leads to. And we should bear in mind the words of Ben Franklin, who said during the first American revolu- tion, that: "If we don't hang together, we shall most assuredly all h a n g separately." David Cahill is co-chairperson of the Ann Arbor Human Rights Party City Committee and **Uni versity law student. -4 How should i 'I cannot frle we assess L.B..? 'A tragic leader' By CHRIS PARKS WHEN A PRESIDENT d i e s, journalists are supposed to say nice things about him. Even if the President was Lyndon Baines John- son. After all, he's dead and it's an American ethic that you don't kick a man when he's down. Even if he is responsible for escalating t h e most monstrous American war of this century. We are asked to remember the Great Society, to remember the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We are told that Johnson was essentially a big-hearted guy, a humane Amer- ican who made a miscalculation that destroyed his career. John- son, we are told, was the tragic victim of the Vietnam war. I AM ONE journalist who is not ready to forgive or forget. You can say I'm too young - that I lack the balanced moderation of an experienced observer, but I will not forget. Johnson was not a victim. John- son died at 64, a wealthy man - comfortable and secure. He died of a heart attack - a disease of post-industrial opulence. He was no victim in any sense that I understand the word. Viet- namese peasants who died in fire- storms of napalm were victims. Young Americans who died thous- ands of miles from home or who lie horribly mangled in veterans' hospitals were victims. Vietnam - a tiny Asian nation ravaged by the technological might of the most powerful country on earth - was the victim. I don't deny the man his due. He did some good things in the area of civil rights. It must also ,be remembered, however, that after the summer of urban riots in 1967 he ignored the report which said ther mt cause was racism. But when we look at what is worst in American society today - the devision, the decay of the cities, the moribund state of the economy - there is little that we cannot at least indirectly ascribe to the war. And despite the subtle interpre- tations of today's sophisticated his- torians who trace the Vietnam in- volvement back to Harry Truman (Why not Woodrow Wilson?), the war as we knew it was Johnson's war. I cannot forget the shame of America brutalizing a small, pea- sant society. Or the horror of see- ing people my age denied the right to whatever modest plans they had for their lives and sent to die for nothing. In 1968 we used to chant "Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?". I have not forgotten. By DAN BIDDLE JOHNSON is dead. His presidency was seen by many as a failure, a symbol of what was and is wrong with our government and our society. He was the man who committed thous- ands of American lives and mur- dered thousands of Vietnamese in the name of democracy. And we never quite believed that the reason for fighting was demo- cracy. We saw through the ma- chinery of the government and the military and called our Vietnam policy imperialistic.I But to the end, Johnson seemed to think it was right. He looked like a ruined man when he stood up, a little m o r e than four years ago, and g a v e his final major address as Presi- dent. His lips quivering, his face pour- ing sweat, and, as always, h i s whole presence visibly struggling to say the right words, Johnson ended his political career and set about to end the, nightmare he had earlier helped to further. WE WERE shocked. The callous, expedient politician was not meant to admit mistakes or make sudden reversals or previously established policy. That final message from the man who had failed as President should not have come as such a surprise. A few years earlier, Johnson had stood before a nation stinking of racism and said words that a black man had made famous: "We shall overcome." At that time, too, we doubted him. Most presidents pay heavy lip service to minority groups and take it all back after Election Day. Witness Richard Nixon. But Johnson fought for things that no self-respecting American politician nowadays -- least of all the one who now lives in the White House - would fight for. He man- aged to forge strange coalitions be- tween men like Hubert Humphrey and Everett Dirksen, and succeed- ed in passing legislation that :com- mitted the government to the rights and the welfare of millions of Americans. But the horror of the dead bodies in Southeast Asia quickly over- shadowed the beauty of thousands of black Americans finally protect- ed in their right to vote. JOHNSON once said that "it is easier to want to do what is right than to know what is right." It may be that Johnson never knew what was right in Vietnam, but that must be said of nearly every one of the men who have iI BILL ALTERMAN............. Associate Sports BOB ANDREWS............. Assistant Sports SANDI GENIS ................ Assistant Sports RANDY PHILLIPS ........ Contributing Sports MICHAEL OLIN.......... Contributing Sports CHUCK DRUKIS.........Contributing Sports JOEL GREER............Contributing Sports Photography Staff Editor Editor Editor Editor Editor Editor Editor DAVID MARGOLICK ............Chief Photographer ROLFE TESSEM.....................Picture Editor DENNY GAINER ..................Staff Photographer THOMAS GOTTLIEB.............Staff Photographer KAREN KASMAUSKI ............ Staff Photographer Business Staff ANTSY GOLDING Business Manager STEV AEVSEFF .............Circulation Manager SHERRY KASTLE.............Advertising Manager PAUL WENZLOFP... Promotions Manager DEPARTMENT MANAGERS. ASSOCIATES. AND AS- V..