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Eighty-two years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Academia's role in social c
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.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1973
By RAY GOZZI
WE DO NOT understand the behavior of
real persons. As a result, we have lost
both the War in Vietnam and the War
on Poverty.
Our academic institutions have contri-
buted to our igrnorance, and are perpet-
uating it.
At just the time America faces prob-
lems of national and global scope, our
academic industry is rigorously training
a generation of specialists to focus on as
narrow segments of reality as possible.
At just the time we need to synthesize
knowledge about the behavior of whole
persons, our academic industry is care-
fully implanting techniques of "critical an-
alysis" which insure that no synthesis will
be acceptable.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that
academic institutions have become self-
serving absorbers of intellectual energy,
which are not contributing what they
should to a society desperately in need of
intelligent guidance.
. We recognize this fact in our everyday
language which o f t e n betrays our true
perceptions. When we say that an issue has
become "academic," we mean that it has
become meaningless, unresolvable, or triv-
ial.
Our failure to understand the behavior of
real persons has produced results we may
truly call evil. Our "War on Poverty" has
not eliminated poverty, but rather has
created a bureaucratic monster which robs
much of the population of its rights, divid-
es families, and creates dependency - per-
petuating the problems it was designed to
solve.
Our War in Vietnam has not stopped
Communism, but rather has killed millions
of civilians while supporting a series of
corrupt dictators, and has thereby streng-
thened the cause of those whom we have
opposed.
In this time of vast and crippling failure,
it only makes sense that the intelligence of
the society should be directed toward mak-
ing sure such failures will not recur.
It only makes sense that the intelligence
of the society be directed toward a new
understanding of the behavior of whole
persons.
Of course, the intelligence within academ-
ic institutions is doing no such thing.
No one will deny that the basic trend
within academic life has been toward in-
creasing specialization. The result is that
more books are turned out on narrower
and narrowed topics. It is a commonplace
that no one can keep up with the increas-
ing volume of detailed work.
Specialized vocabularies emerge, incom-
prehensible, to those outside the specialty,
providing still more barriers to unified
understandings. The thrust of education is
toward forcing students to become profic-
ient in one specialized vocabulary, rather
than understanding where each separate'
area of knowledge is located within a larg-
er whole.
Within each specialization, arguments
over methodology take up the major portion
of a student's education, submerging ar-
guments over substance.
All this while our social reform policies
are failing miserably and the people are
electing Richard Nixon to do something
about it.
THE MOST INSIDIOUS aspect of aca-
demic life, however, is the intellectual style
which is produced by this increasing spec-
ialization and narrowness. This is the style
of "critical analysis," so carefully incul-
cated in all students.
While some degree of critical analysis is a
valid part of every intellectual effort, as
presently practiced the technique has reach-
ed an immoral extreme where it is focused
almost entirely on its destructive aspects.
It is definitely the fashion to attack, pull
apart, dissect and destroy virtually a n y
book, thesis, or construct, The book review
sections of academic journals remind me of
the River Amazon, with its piranha vic-
iously snapping at anything whole which
enters the river.
A critic is not required to be consisteat
7hange
himself. He is not required to have any
co2.structive purposes. He is not required
to possess any over-arching perspectives. le
is not required to build something in place
of that which he tears down.
All that is necessary is criticism. Viet-
nam-like destruction results, with no con-
structive aspects.
This extreme criticism is produced by
the situation where nobody can possibly
know all the detailed work being, done,
yet must appear to have thought carefully
about all of it. Refuge is taken in the
technique of vicious criticism. Priority goes
to appearing knowledgeable, not to con-
structive understanding.
ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS, then, a r e
acting immorally in the truest social sense
of that word. Self-seeking behavior within
narrow fields has become the basis for
intellectual life.
This produces knowledge which is too
narrow to deal with the basic problems
America faces today. And the competition
between narrow intellectuals produces an
extreme critical style which apposes, with
all its strength, just the kind of thinking
America needs.
Ray Gozzi writes a weekly column en-
titled "Maggie's Farm" for the Yale Daily
News.
.4
Letters: Boycott
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Dial "M" for Mitchell
Watergate: A pohltical victory?
THE WATERGATE trial is over, and
top Administration officials are
probably gloating, secure in the knowl-
edge that their involvement in the Wat-
ergate Scandal remains obscure. A quick
jury verdict of "guilty" against the last
two defendants, G. Gordon Liddy and
James W. McCord Jr. for the breaking in
and bugging of the Democratic National
Committee offices will effectively close
the matter for the time being.
If any trial in recent history deserves
being called a travesty, then surely this
is the one. The government, in effect
prosecuting itself, proved lax in it's re-
sponsibility to develop a full case, involv-
ing bringing to light all facts available
about the Watergate affair.
We have five of the defendants plead
guilty before the trial began, removing
any possibility of new revelations and
exposures coming out within the trial.
Add to that the recent news reports
which charge that the five - Howard
Runt, Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis,
Eugenio Matinez, and Virgilio Gonzales-
were paid off to keep silent and to plead
guilty, and the situation is sticky indeed.
NOW THAT the trial is over, the only
consolation can be that McCord and
Liddy may both face up to forty-five
Today's staff:
News: Debbie Allen, Prakash Aswani,
Angela Balk, Robert Barkin, T ed
Evanoff, Cindy Hill, Rolfe Tessem
Editorial Page: Kathleen Ricke
Arts Page: Herb Bowie, Sara Rimer
Photo technician: John Upton
years imprisonment in payment for their
government loyalty. There is little satis-
faction in knowing that the government
obviously feels justified in employing
"invasion of privacy" tactics wherever
it wants.
Are we to listen to the defense lawyers
Gerald Alch and Peter Maroulis, who
contend that governmental "bugging" is
acceptable when it feels that someone
is suspected of acting "dangerously?" It
is dangerous to think that one crime is
acceptable when it is undertaken to pre-
vent another.
Fortunately, such logic didn't prevail
at the trial. presiding Judge John J. Siri-
ca did an effective job in questioning the
credibility of the defense arguments and
tried to open the proceedings to a more
intense investigation.
THE WATERGATE Affair isn't closed,
however. An upcoming Senate in-
quiry into the Watergate case, headed by
Senator Sam Ervin (D-N.C.) hopefully
will expand upon the trial data and will
be able to disclose the names of all gov-
ernmental personnel involved in this act
of espionage.
At a time when the federal govern-
ment is becoming more and more daring
in violating the individual rights guaran-
teed in our country's Constitution, it is
more important than ever that brakes be
applied to such governmental intrusion.
The government, through the Water-
gate trial, has won a temporary victory.
The upcoming Senate investigation has
the potential of not only upsetting the
government's victory, but their self-
righteousness as well.
-MARTIN STERN
To The Daily:
DURING THE last months we
have worked to get pledges and to
get endorsements from various or-
ganizations. The Farm Workers
Union now has probably more en-
dorsements nationwide from cit-
ies, states, hishops, unions, poli-
ticians, etc. than it did during the
Grape Boycott. But still it's not
enough pressure to force agribusi-
ness to meet the just demands of
farm workers.
Now the real fight is on. The
lettuce boycott in the Midwest and
on the East Coast has now taken
the focus of a national secondary
boycott campaign: The target is
A&P here and Safeway on the West
Coast. A&P is the largest chain
store in the country and buys in
one week over four million heads
of letuce. Also A&P is the biggest
buyer of scab lettuce and proved
during the grape boycott that they
only cooperate with the large cor-
porations as long as they can. They
have over months refused to co-
operate with our boycott and con-
tinued to carry non-union lettuce.
The main reason for ;hoosing
this stratgy is that A&P and Safe-
way are the only chains really
large enough to force growers to
settle the dispute and to give their
workers what they ask for: the
right to form a union of their own
choice.
Our demand is UFW lettuce or
no iceberg (head) lettuce. One of
two things must happen - There
is only between 10 per cent and 15
per cent union lettuce on the mar-
ket. Either A&P stops buying non
UFW lettuce or they force enough
growers to sign contracts in order
for them to get enough UFW let-
tuce to meet the demands of con-
sumers.
Our main object now is to pre-
pare people for the picket lines we
will be having later by leafleting
and by spreading the farm work-
ers' struggle through all possible
channels.
The mass support for the grape
boycott some years ago showed
how effective and successful the
non-violent way of social change
can be if we all get together.
A Union for the lettuce workers
will bring farm workers and all
poor and oppressed people in the
country a step further towards
their goal: freedom and justice.
Success or failure will mean hope
or desperation for millions of peo-
ple. Farm Workers rely on us. We
have accepted the food they are
producing without thinking for a
long time. They gave us food and
got back poverty and miserable
living and working conditions. It's
our turn now to act.
Farm workers need your strong
support now.
We have the power to change
things if we are united. People
proved this during the Grape Boy-
cott.
-Lettuce Boycott
United Farm Workers
Jan. 31
Student apartments
To The Daily:
THE LETTER in The Daily by
Irwin Gross and others telling how
hard it was to get a water pump
installed in an apartment under-
scores the failure of City Hall to
deal in a meaningful way with the
problems of apartment dwellers in
Ann Arbor.
The last few years have seen a
rash of controls imposed on land-
lords and developers. Zoning laws,
housing codes and measures deal-
ing with deposits and rent con-
trols have been adopted by our
City Fathers, and some are talk-
ing about still more controls. But
reasonable rents, good service, and
fair dealing have not come about.
The only result of all this action
has been that student apartment
bilding has come to a complete
halt for 3 years and not enough
family apartments have been built
to meet the demand.
The latest issue of House and
Home, the builders trade maga-
zine, sheds tears of grief for land-
lords in Houston, Texas, and North
Kansas City, Missouri, where high
vacancy rates have forced land-
lords to offer inducements of up to
3 months free rent, payment of
moving expenses elimination of de-
posits, and, in some cases, even
leases.
What Ann Arbor needs is more
apartments, a lot more. To gef
them, City Hall must create a cli-
mate which attracts construtcion
and modify the short-sighted and
counter-productive controls which
have caused builders to m o v e
their operations to towns where
they don't get hassled all the time.
Apartment dwellers can put good
old capitalism and greed to work
for them by pulling the strings
for their own benefit.
-Clan Crawford, Jr.
Jan. 31
. What is ye worlde coming to? Allowing e
woman to control her own body!'
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The roach that ate N.Y.
Letters to The Daily should
be mailed to the Editorial Di-
rector or delivered to Mary
Rafferty in the Student Pub-
lications business office in the
Michigan Daily building. Letters
should be typed, double-spaced
and normally should not exceed
250 words. The Editorial Direc-
tors reserve the right to edit
all letters submitted.
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By PETE HAMILL
LATER, WHEN the Roach Com-
mission tried to find out what
happened, they decided that it all
started the week after New Year's
in Frankie Stanko's cellar. Frank-
ie and his friend, Willie Diamond,
were trying to make hooch with
the Chemcraft chemistry set that
Willie's son got for Christmas. At
some point, Frankie knocked over
a bottle of Mission orange, at the
exact moment that some chemi-
cals spilled. And through the mess
walked a cockroach. Nothing un-
usual; in New York cockroaches
walk through everything. Frankie
and Willie left.
A few days later, Frankie was
at the bar in Rattigans, having a
dozen fast boilermakers, and look-
ing out the window. He saw his
housetshudder. He sipped t h e
boilermaker, and saw the h o u s e
shudder again. "Lookit this," he
said. "My house is shaking." And
then, very slowly, the home be-
gan to burst outward in a show-
er of bricks, plaster, fire escapes,
and TV dinners. And then, rising
from the debris, they saw T h e
Roach.
* * *
The Roach was at least a story
high, gleaming in the afternoon
light, its feelers blinking for di-
rection. "What is that thing?" the
bartender said quietly. "I think,"
said Stanko, "that it is the big-
gest cock-a-roach in the world."
The bartender pulled a drink from
the tap: "That goddamned Lind-
say. What'll he think up next?"
The next few hours were, to coin
a phrase, an orgy of chaos and
destruction. Firemen poured gal-
lons of water on The Roach, who
The Roach ate a three-year supply Environmental Protection Admin-
of electrical wiring stashed in the
Globe Lighting Co., just as Milton
Lewis arrived with an Eyewitness
News team. "Now," listen to this,"
Lewis said, just before The Roach
ate him.
The Roach carved a path of de-
struction through Brooklyn, grow-
ing larger and sleeker with each
meal. He swallowed every fruit
and vegetable store on Fifth Av.,
Jefore heading into Pintchick's on
Flatbush Av. where he ate through
all the wallpaper, oilcloth, plastic
plants and linoleum - the g r e a t
desserts of The Roach's y o u t h.
Satiated, he lay down on Flatbush
Av. Within minutes, the National
Guard arrived under orders from
Gov. Rockefeller to practce their
usual restraint. They set off an
artillery and rocket barrage which
missed The Roach and destroyed
Carroll St.
Three lawyers from the Ameri-
-an Civil Liberties Union arrived
in a gypsy cab "to insure that The
Roach's constitutional rights are
not infringed upon," but The
Roach just blinked, and ate them
and the cab. Police from t' e Ber-
Ren St. station tried to book The
Roach "for resisting assault," but
The Roach ate the station house.
Tanks, flamethrowers, laser beams
were thrown into the battle; a re-
quest was made to President Nix-
on for permission to "nuke" The
Roach, even at the risk of losing
Brooklyn, because he was commit-
ting the ultimate American crime:
Destroying property. Nixon was
hiding somewhere.
The Roach was marching re-
morselessly on Manhattan, when
Mayor Lindsay convened an em-
istrator Jerry Kretchmer interrup-
ted: "We don't have time for de-
finitions. There's only one solu-
tion." All heads turned in his di-
rection. "J-0 Paste!"
The WASPs in the cabinet
thought Kretchmer had collapsed
ender the pressure. "What is J-0
Paste?" the Mayor said. There was
a wild discussion of the merits of
J-0 Paste, and reluctantly, be
Mayor agreed to give it a try.
There was only one problem: sice
the Irish had moved out, and the
Jews had moved uptown, the city's
entire supply of J-0 Paste was in
the hands of the Puerto Ricans. As
The Roach mashed through Brook-
lyn Heights and onto the Brooklyn
Bridge, desperate calls were made
to Puerto Rican leaders. And they
were resisting. Said one: "No cock-
roach ever called me a spick."
The Roach was halfway up the
side of the World Trade Center,
with Bess Myerson tucled under
a feeler, when Rockefeller and Pe-
ter Brennan relented. They agreed
to kick all of the Irish out of the
construction unions and replace
them with Puerto Ricans, in re-
turn for the hoarded J-0 Paste.
* * *
Millions of potato slices were
spread with the deadly paste, and
a fleet of helicopters, led by Fred-
die Feldman of WOR, headed for
the Trade Center. Bess Myerson
was crawling to safety on the
roof, while the deadly cargo was
aimed at The Roach. His chies
roared through the night sky, bel-
lowing the hurt, defiant and some-
how noble, until, overcome, he top-
pled from the roof, falling to doom.
He landed on three building in-
spectors who were waiting for a
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