I
Eighty-two years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Nixon avoids truth of
amnesty issue
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1973
By JAMES WECHSLER
PRESIDENT NIXON'S latest
news conference pronounce-
ment dispelled any faint hope that
the Vietnam peace agreement
would induce him to modify his
belligerency on the issue of am-
nesty. Once again his response was
couched in fighting words t h a t
sounded as irretrievable as they
were incendiary.
On this occasion, as he has be-
fore, he not only seemed resolved
to exploit the country's darkest
postwar passions. He resorted to
what must be characterized as a
deliberate, dishonorable falsehood
when he described the problem os
involving only "those few hundreds
who went to Canada or someplace
else, and chose to desert their
country ..."
Some Americans may still like to
believe that it is only such a com-
parative handful who chose, in one
way or another, to resist participa-
tion in the war. The President
knows better. While there is no
exact count available of the num-
ber of young Americans whose liv-
es are at stake in this debate, con-
servative estimates place the fig-
ure at more than 50,000 and it
may well exceed 100,000.
AS OF LAST December, the Jus-
tice Dept. conceded that it had
2400 indictments outstanding at
that time against youths accused
of violating Selective Service regu-
lations. Such indictments are
sought and obtained, of course, in
only a small fraction of cases.
Jules Duscha, director of t h e
Washington Journalism Center
pointed out that more than 300,000
dishonorable discharges - m a n y
of them related to war objection
- had been handed out since 1965.
Responsible church groups, he not-
ed, estimated that as many as
60,000 young Americans had mi-
grated to Canada in the last seven
years, while more than 500 have
gone to Sweden and thousands
more are hiding "underground" in
the U.S.
In short, Mr. Nixon is wiltily
and cynically trampling on, truth
when he talks of "those hundreds"
as if a small company of weird
eccentrics or congenital cowards
constituted the real story of Amer-
ican defection from the war. If
that were the situation, there might
indeed be little ground for full-
scale national reappraisal; it might
be sufficient to urge quiet case-ly-
case review.
But plainly that is not the actual
condition confronting us..What we
are talking about is a significant
segment of a generation. Yet Mr.
Nixon's palpably dishonest numb-
ers game evoked no further ques-
tioning from the gentlemen a n d
ladies of the press assembled for
a rare press conference audience
with him; they turned to o t h e r
subjects, and his reference to "the
few hundreds" was transmitted
over many TV stations as an un-
contested statement of fact.
It is almost as if we have grown
so accustomed to dissembling in
high places that the repetition of
a falsehood is now taken for grant-
ed, or at least deemed upworthv of
quarrel. (The Associated P? r e s s
blandly carried Mr. Nixon's re-
marks on amnesty without even a
bracketed intimation that his fig-
ures were, to put it generously, a
subject of dispute.)
THERE WAS a certain compul-
sive logic in the President's vis-
statement of the facts. It was stat-
ed in the context of a lengthy ti-
rade against critics of the w a r
("among the so-called better peo-
ple, in the media and in the intel-
lectual circles") and in praise of
"the majority" who had somehow
resisted the insidious doctrine
"that this was an immoral war,
that America should not be there,
that they should not serve their
country . ."
It happens, of course, that a
majority of Americans long ago
expressed the view in numerous
surveys that the U.S. involvement
was unwarranted - whether t o r
strategic, moral or other reasons,
or a combination of them.
But Mr. Nixon, determined to
proclaim that he has proved some-
thing by pursuing the war for four
additional years, cannothtole.,ate
any hard questions about the virtue
of our position.
ABOUT THREE years ago, the
late Cardinal Cushing of Boston
pleaded:
"Would it be too much to suggest
that we empty our jails of all the
protesters - the guilty and the
innocent - without judging them;
call back from over the border and
Around the world the young men
who are called deserters; drop the
cases that are still awaiting jurg-
ment on our college youth? Could
we not do all this in the name of
life and with life, hope?"
In this uneasy aftermath of a
loathed, wretched war some com-
parable declaration by an Ameri-
can President would surely stir the
conscience and humanity of much
of the country. But Mr. Nixon has
now made it tragically clear that
we will not hear such words from
him. Soon we will discover how
many in Congress are prepared to
display any greatness of spirit in
the face of his angry call for re-
venge and retribution.
James Wechsler is the Editorial
Page Editor of the New York Post.
Copyright 197 3-New York Post
Corporation.
r
A new secret plan
for a united SGCI
THE MlILXAIKEE JOURNAL
P'ublishers-Hall Syndicate, 19723
I43 The Register
and Tribune Svndicate t
A new attack COn the media
By ROBERT BARKIN
Feature Editor
THERE IS a natural frustration
when a dynamic personality is
forced to lead an ineffectual or-
ganization. As President of Student
Government Council, former stu-
dent Bill Jacobs has been known to
vent his frustration in violent
threats such as the time he threat-
ened to "bloody my face" while I
was visiting the SGC office.
But I never took him seriously
until recently when I was wander-
ing in my usual half-stupor through
the third floor of the Union. My
ears perked up immediately when
I overheard a conversation between
Jacobs, SGC Honcho and computer
programmer John Koza, and SGC
Treasurer David Schaper. My cas-
sette recorded something like this:
JACOBS: I feel so constricted by
SGC. I want to do something more.
Like rule the world.
Schaper: What makes you think
that-you can rule the world? You
have enough problems with theose
morons on council.
Jacobs: I considered that pro})-
len and I concludedthat I would
be much more effective in the out-
side world than in the University
community.
Schaper: You mean you don't
have to think in the outside world?
Jacobs: Something like that. You
see, no one believes a bully in the
University community. People just
laugh at you when you threaten to
break their nose.
Koza: But, we'll show 'em, won't
we Bill?
Jacobs: Sure, John. As I was
saying, no one takes a bully on
campus seriously. But let me at
the outside world where intimida-
tion, violence, and brutality count,
and I'll be <the new political mira-
cle.
Koza: Killer!
Jacobs: I wish you wouldn't say
that.
Schaper: How do you know you
will be that effective?
Koza: I took care of that. I fed
it into my computer and the re-
sults came out favorably.
Schaper: They always do.
Koza: Wait a minute! It's unfair
to imply that I cheat just because
the computer breaks down in
every election that our party hap-
pens to be losing in. That's merely
circumstantial evidence.
Schaper: Did it 'break down in
this bully program?
Koza: (mumble) Yeah. But I fix-
ed that. And the important thing
is that the results came out right.
JACOBS: Enough of this. We
have to make a plan of attacK.
Schaper: Why don't we s t a r t
beating up council members until
they vote the right way?
Jacobs: That's an idea. We
could try various tortures to see
which is best. Who should we start
with?
Schaper: How about Dobbs? lie's
a real troublemaker.
Koza: I think it's important to
set a good example. We have to be
effective right off the bat. Let's go
after Margaret Miller. She'll be
the easiest.
Jacobs: Good idea. She has a
pretty nose though. Maybe I'll only
break her arm.
I decided to escape as far away
as my. fear could take me.
I
NOW THAT AMERICAN involvement in
the Vietnam war is over, the Nixon
administration has found a new target
against which to wage war-the Ameri-
can news media. The victim is likely to
be the American principle of freedom of
the press.
The latest salvo ,is in the form of a
nine-page document issued by the White
House and mailed by the Republican Na--
tional Committee to names on a mailing
CHRISTOPHER PARKS and EUGENE ROBINSON
Co-Editors in Chief
ROBERT BARKIN...................Feature Editor
DIANE LEVICK .................Associate Arts Editor
DAVID MARGOLICK ..........Chief Photographer
MARTIN PORTER ......... Magazine Editor
KATHY RICKE ............... Editorial Director
ERIC SCHOCH ........Editorial Director
GLORIA SMITH Arts Editor
CHARLES STEIN City Editor
TED STEIN ....,............. .... Executive Editor
MARTIN STERN ...................Editorial Director
ROLFE TESSEM ...... ........... Picture Editor
Photography Staff
DAVID MARGOLICK ...Chief Photographer
ROLFE TESSEM ......... Picture Editor
DENNY GAINER .S. . taff Photographer
THOMAS GOTTLIEB ........... Staff Photographer
KAREN KASMAUSKI ..........Staff Photographer
Today's staff:
list provided by Herbert Klein, White
House communications director.
The document lashes out at "petty
men" who it says delivered "most vicious
personal attacks" on the President's In-
dochina policy, and says that no presi-
dent has ever been under more "harass-
ment" than Nixon. The document makes
no mention of the late President John-
son.
In attacking those journalists who re-
ported and photographed bombed dikes,
neutral ships and Bach Mal hospital, the
Nixon administration is demonstrating
its belief that the only news that should
be reported is the administration's offic-
ial version. Never mind that photographs
document the bombing of dikes and Bach
Mai, if the administration says they
were not hit, then of course they weren't
hit - it's all so simple to the Nixon ad-
ministration.
RUT THE NEWS media does not func-
tion. for the pleasure of the government,
no matter who is president. It functions
to inform the people of this country.
The danger to freedom of the press
doesn't arise from such documents, but
from actions based on such philosophy.
For example the administration's pro-
posal to revise licensing procedures for
local television networks is one such ac-
tion. The proposal's emphasis on each
station's responsibility far what it broad-
casts could very well lead to the revoca-
tion of the licenses of stations whose
broadcasts stray too far from the govern-
ment's official news line. Such a license
challenge is now occuring against an out-
spoken television station in Jacksonville,
Florida.
"No news is Agnews" the joke goes, but
it is rapidly becoming a very poor joke.
-ERIC SCHOCH
Editorial Director
J
'When I talked about getting government off your back, I
meant low priority items like education, housing and
ewm" ol
r -
Letters: Food-co-op
feeds power
To The Daily:
DAVE SINCLAIR of the Rainbow
People's Party has declared his
candidacy for the HRP nomina-
tion to City Council in the Second
Ward. This has prompted me to
warn the people of the Second what
this entails.
I have had considerable exper-
ience with the food. co-op move-
ment in Ann Arbor and elsewhere
for almost two years. I first start-
ed working for the $4 grabbag veg-
atable co-op run in part by the
RPP in May, 1971. In December,
a small group of people decided to
start an experimental co-op with-
in the context of the first co-op
(presently called People's Pro-
duce). These people intended it to
be a possible model for modifica-
tion or specialization of the exist-
ing co-op, and all gestures were
geared in this decidedly non-anta-
gonistic way. However the People's
Produce co-ordinators assumed a
competitive posture, as if this new
co-op was trying to put them out
Df business. This unhealthy atti-
tude, subtle as it was, completely
prevented any communication be-
tween the two. That new co-op is
now called Itemized.
In September, I had heard of
$17,500 of student money allocated
for a student grocery co-op. I
starrted working for it with the
hopes of seeing a grocery co-op
flourish in town. I got together
with the other people who had vol-
unteered, and together we ap-
proached the Tribal Council Food
Committee with the following pro-
posal: With this money, we would
be eager to work on starting a big
all co-op storefront, one-stop anti-
profit shopping, that would serve
the whole city's food needs. We
had a store lined up and a brief
structural idea. All we needed was
energy, input from the prospective.
participating co-ops. Jeannie Wal-
sh, a functionary of the RPP, com-
pletely rejected even the thought of
accepting "University money," and
refused to have anything to do with
News: Prakash Aswani,
Cindy Hill, Charles'
Stoll, Ralph Vartabedian
Ted Evanoff,
Stein, David
Editorial Page: Charles Herrington, Eric
Schoch, David Yalowitz
Arts Page: Gloria Jane Smith, Jeff Soren-
sen
Photo Technician: David Margolick
it, all this in a highly castigating
tone of voice. She criticized us for
being "scattered," and successfully
antagonized all of us. The power-
lust implications are frighteningly
obvious; such a structure as we
proposed would rob her of the con-
trol she had in the Food Commit-
tee. Now Dave Sinclair has t i e
grocery co-op in his platform. Who
is he trying to fool?
Not long after that, Detroit's
Food Liberation Front, now de-
ceased, called a meeting in Ann
Arbor of all the vegetable co-ops
that buy in Detroit's Eastern Mar-
ket on Saturdays for the purpose
of pooling our orders. Nine co-ops
were invited, but only four showed
up: People's Produce, Itemized,
the OEO co-op, andthe Ypsilanti
co-op. The meeting was a disaster.
Walsh and Michelle Stoneman of
RPP spent the whole meeting talk-
ing about how much better their
co-op is than Itemized, how Item-
ized is elitist because "you make
everybody work in your co-op."
Not once did they talk about real-
ities, like who buys, who loads, on-
to whose truck etc. We tried many
times to bring up these tangibles,
to work out a coherent scheme for
doing it, but all in vain; RPP had
another soapbox, and refused to let
it go.
Never in the Ann Arbor Sun, or-
gan of RPP, is there ever a men-
tion of Itemized, which is at least
as big, if not bigger, than People's
Produce. After all, Itemized is
competition.
In Madison, Wisconsin a n d
Champaign, Illinois, the people's
groups have established what
amounts to a community tax. In
Madison, the Sustaining Fund,
sponsored by the many co-ops
there, is there for developing new
co-ops in all fields - health, food,
auto, bicycle, etc. - and for ball-
ing out co-ops in trouble. In Cham-
paign, this same idea is in the
form of a voluntary S per cent com-
munity tax. Anyone who has work-
ed with RPP knows full well that
Dog controls
To The Daily:
I DO NOT like dogs, but under
normal circumstances, I tolerate
them. Normal circumstances does
not include watching them getting
it on with each other in a large
lecture room. Nor does it mean
having them running loose in a
classroom building at all. These
places are for people.
Many students and other people
in this community seem to h a v e
forgotten that some people don't
really care for dogs. I believe that
I am within my rights to insist that
dogs be left home when their own-
ers attend classes. I also believe
that I am asking for rightful con-
sideration when I ask that people
keep their dogs from defecating on
sidewalks, another place which was
designed with people, not dogs, in
mind. The same applies to asking
dog owners to keep their dogs un-
der control. I have had a couple
bad experiences with dogs and I do
not trust them to leave me alone.
Furthermore, I believe that peo-
ple who tie their dogs up to park-
ing meters and leave them to howl
in the wind, rain, and snow, should
be subjected to similar treatment.
For those who don't like them,
dogs are an unwelcome distrac-
tion in classrooms and it is unfair
to both fellow students and to the
dogs for their owners to let them
be there. I may, one day, in a
fit of indignation, kick some poor
dog that is bugging me when, in
all fairness, it's his owner that
deserves the reprobation.
Finally, to eliminate the prob-
lem of dogs in classrooms, I think
that the profs, who are ultimately
responsible for what goes on in
their classes, should insist t h a t
arrogant pet owners leave t h e i r
animals home.
-Phillin Nash, Grad.
Feb. 2
Capital disgrace
To The Daily:
IT IS MOST unfortinate that
rp
Washigton is a city of substand-
ard wages, and I am not speaking
of the cabinet members' income or
the suburban commuters that man
the bureaucracy, but the wages of
the many poor that are trapped in
the Washington ghettos. Congress
has never done anything to help
the city solve its social problems,'
its crime problems, its delinquency
problems or its drug problems. Re-
creational facilities are extree
ly poor for the poor. Low income
housing projects have been'too few.
Slumlords have been tWo brutal.'
Health standards and housing 0od
es have not been enforced or ade-
quate. There are more rats in
Washington than people, y e t the
city has never been able to fin-
ance an effective program to rid
the city of them. The list of sub-
standard living conditions is long
and detailed.
What does this have to do with
Senator Stennis? The socio-eco-
nomic situation has been ignored
by the transient residents (i.e. con-
gressional members and presi-
dents) who frequent Washington
for their political business, a n d
seem to care less about the crime
or any other social ills in our na-
tion's capital.
Senator Stennis, through his ne-
glect and apathy toward problems
that have plagued the city f o r
many years, had ironically fallen-
victim to what other citizens have
had to learn to live or die with.
--J. Christian Valaer '74
Feb. 5
Get involved-
write your reps!
Sen. Philip Hart (Dem), Rm.
253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol
Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep).
Rm. 353 Old Senate Bldg., Cap-
itol Hill, Washington, D.C.
20515.
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