iie Smtiiit aii Eighty-two years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552 TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 1973 Book burning: B tactics Historical perspective of the OEO Editor's note: The following is the first in a series of four ar- ticles looking at the rise and fall of the Office of Economic Op- portunity by Daily staff reporter David Yalowitz. Today, a short history and description of the OEO. By DAVID YALOWITZ THE CURRENT controversy sur- rounding the disbanding of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) by the Nixon administration is the latest addition to the blem- ished history of anti-poverty legis- lation in the United States. The vigorous protests following Presi- dent Nixon's pronouncements of budget cutbacks provide sufficient evidence that the poor and minority groups who have learned 'about community ;action are more sophis- ticated than they were in the Six- ties, and will not be easily deter- red by a decision to curtail or end lowed the precedent established in the 1930's with the New Deal programs of the Roosevelt admin- istration. To execute this proposal, j o b training and manpower programs were to be developed. Services for impoverished communities would be provided, including legal aid and health care. In addition, com- munity action agencies would be established to serve as a catalyst for organizing the poor. This fol- lowed the new principle that the poor should participate in the vital decisions that afect their lives. UNDENIABLY, it was President Johnson's desire to help the poor. Of his two options, the guaranteed income approach was the simplest and most direct way to fight po- verty. However, it was also t h e most expensive, at least initially. Lacking the money - or the poli- tical consensus - Johnson chose THE NAZIS burned books by Jews and Communists. The Russian Communists burned "counter - revolutionary" books. The Spanish Inquisition burned "here- tical" books, as well as heretical people. Now, in 1973, a campus group has an- nounced that it will resurrect book burn- ing, and this time the target will be. two books that are "sexist." The group, Advocates for Medical In- formation, has slated their burn-in for noon tomorrow on the Diag. Their prime target will be a medical textbook written by a University professor of medicine. 4MI COULD HARDLY have chosen a worse tactic to express their dis- taste for the book. Apparently they be- lieve the burning symbolizes the destruc- tion of the oppression of females in the book as well as American society as a whole, especially because the book is used to teach medical students. We disagree. We find the act sym- bolizes the destruction of the right to freely express ideas, whether people find those ideas repugnant or not. Burning a book is an -act of censorship that strikes to the heart of an academic community and any society that wishes to call itself free. Their protest is wrong morally and tacticly. Further, it will prove offensive to by far the majority of people on campus. For at the center of this University lies knowledge, and representative of that knowledge is books. Agree or disagree with their contents, but revere these books nonetheless. SHOULD WE destroy anti-semetic books because they offend Jews? Or burn Mark Twain because he calls blacks nig- gers? We are sure that right wing stu- dents could justify burning left wing books, and, left wing students justify the destruction of right wing literature. Most romantic novels of the 19th cen- tury are sexist. Physics textbooks tell people how to make bombs. Must these books be burned too?' When you start burning books it can be hard to stop. Thatdis the lesson history has taught us about this tactic. EURTHER, WHEN you bufn books you don't like, you fail to solve anything. It will hardly be educational to immo- late books-certainly not as effective a protest as writing another book attack- ing the first. We condemn AMI for using book burn- ing as a tactic of education. It is highly inappropriate in this day and age that we again behave like barbarians to prove whatever points we have to make. We urge AMI to reconsider their means. "With the recent Nixon cutbacks, the fate of most OEO related programs remains uncertain. While money for some programs may presently exist, future grants from the government are not forthcoming." °?'° Wn . . A ,.Pvd".:." 'yi:;j{::{:?}I;{$...ili{ i:r..>.i:" ::.... .... _N Mr:Fvh. their programs At the time of OEO's inception in 1964, two schools of thought for combatting poverty had evolved. The negative income tax, whose most outspoken proponent was eco- nomist Milton Friedman, provided for a direct redistribution of wealth in the form of a guaranteed annual income to every family in the Unit- ed States. Its underlying assump- tion being that the best way to help the poor was to give them money; direct governmental inter- vention on their behalf was to be avoided. The striking feature of this ap- proach was that it introduced in- centives for the poor to increase their income beyond the base pro- vided. The negative income t a x would be graduated to give less to the individual as earnings decreas- ed, but never to the point that wel- fare payments would be more luc- rative than job income. IN PRACTICAL TERMS, how- ever, given the limited opportunit- ies available to the untrained and unskilled poor person, work incen- tives were inadequate unless coup- led with meaningful job oportuni- ties. Thus a guaranteed annual in- come alone would not guarantee an end to the vicious cycle of contin- ued poverty and repression. The second basic approach sub- scribed to the practice of provid- ing service programs to the poor separate and in addition to the formal welfare structure. This fol- the service approach.hPolitical ex- pediency may also have been a factor in his decision to choose this. path. Johnson counted on an organized representation of poor America to be a potent addition to his Democratic constituency. On August 20, 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act was signed into law. The Act established OEO, as an independent agency in the Ex- ecutive Office of the President and set up a dozen new programs to help relieve poverty. Some of these programs were given to OEO to run directly, others were parceled out to existing agencies to be run un- der OEO supervision. As conceived by the Johnson Ad- ministration, OEO was not con- sidered a welfare agency. Under the Social Security Act of 1935, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) became direct- ly in charge of administering wel- fare programs such as Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and programs for the aged and blind. In contrast, OEO was to be con- cerned with the testing and develop- ment of a variety of innovative ur- ban and rural programs to reduce poverty along a wide-ranging front- centering chiefly on economic mea- sures, education, law reform, and health care. FUNDAMENTAL to Congress' plan to carry out the Economic Op- portunity Act were the local Com- munity Action Agencies (CAAS), which administer the most basic programs created by the Act. As defined in the Opportunity Act, a CAA can be an agency of a state, a political subdivision of a state, or a public or private non profit 'agency formally designated as a CAA by the state or appro- priate political subdivisions. Once it is officially designated, a CAA becomes the vehicle on the local level for citizen participation in policy planning and implementation of the Community Action Prog am, (CAP), which Congress has recog- nized to be "the heart of the OE(O anti-poverty program." To remain a part of the anti-pov- erty machinery, OEO has had to shift its emphasis. Beginning in 1969, a greater portion of its bud- get was directed toward job-train- ing programs. The Nixon admin- istration influence was obvious as OEO became more of a work-trin- ing agency. With the recent Nixon cutbacks, the fate of most CAA and related OEO programs remains uncertain. While money for some programs may presently exist, future grants from the government are not forth- coming. Despite perpetually insuf- ficient funds OEO has implemented several important programs which may not exist in the future: * Approximately 10 million Amer- icans aged 55 and over live on in- comes below the poverty level. Through programs for the aged, CAAs seek employment opportuni- ties for poor elderly citizens. * Rural programs are directed at the 11 million poor living on farms and small towns. Through CAAs, these programs provide low income, rural people with employ- ment opportunities, education, health care, and housing as alter- natives to migration to the cities. * Milions of poor Americans do not receive adequate health care. In an effort to meet some of these needs, the OEO Conpre- hensive Health Services program operates more than 60 Neighbor- hood Health Centers in poor com- munities. * To combat hunger and malnu- trition among the poor, the OEO Health Services developed an Em- ergency Food and Medical Services program. Funds are male avail- able through Community Action Agencies to aid the poor not reach- ed by other agencies. This program has reached nearly 1.5 million of the very poorest people with food stamps and medical attention that they otherwise would not have re- ceived. * A number of OEO-developed programs have been delegated to other federal agencies for admin- istration. Head Start, which pro- vides education, and medical and dental' care for pre-schoolers is now administered by HEW Job Corps P r e s i (I c it tJohnson outlining the Great Society in a speech at the Uni- N The loss of a master THE GREATEST artist of our time, Pab- lo Picasso, died Sunday. Lovers of great art and those who value artistic inter- pretations of our society will miss him. No other artist in modern times had such skill in all forms of art, be it oil or water colors, lithography, sculpture, or stage settings. His incredible talent mas- tered all forms of art in his seventy-five year career. Along with his friend Georges Braque, Picasso was credited with the "inven- tion" of cubism, and thus broke the Editorial Staff 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 RTCKE ...........Editorial Director ERIC SCHOCH . Editorial Director GLORIA SMITH .............Arts Editor CHARLES STEIN ............ City Editor TED STEIN.......................Executive Editor MARTIN STERN..................Editorik Director ED SUROVELL........ ............ ... Books Editor ROLFE TESSEM....................Picture Editor Photography Staff DAVID MARGOLICK,.........,. Chief Photographer ROLFE TESSEM .................. Picture Editor KEN FINK Staff Photographer THOMAS GOTTLIEB ...... . Staff Photographer STUART HOLLANDER............Staff Photographer STEVE KAGAN ..................Staff Photographer KAREN KASMAUSKI .......... Staff Photographer JOHN UPTON................ . Staff Photographe.- ground for the various forms of so-called "modern" art that has both awed some viewers and confused others. Picasso had much to do with the pop- ularization and belated recognition, of African art. As he freely admitted, he borrowed greatly from African art, espe- cially in his later periods. PICASSO WAS also strongly committed to pacifism and through his art demon- strated the absurdity of war and the des- perate need for peace in the world. 'The most famous of his anti-war works was "Guernica," painted after the sense- less German bombing of a Spanishatown during the Spanish Civil War. The agon- ized faces depict a horror and meaning that mere words or photographs would be hard pressed to match. As journalists we marvel at the power of great artists to express in shapes and colors those things that we cannot ex- press in words. Picasso's ability to achieve this was unmatched in modern times. We shall long treasure the numerous and spectacular achievements of his life- time. Today's staff. News: Amy Hannert, Josephine Marcotty, Marilyn Riley, David Stoll Editorial Page: Eric Schoch, Martin Stern, David Yalowitz Arts Page: Gloria Jane Smith Photo Technicians: Ken Fink, Da v i d Margolick e(rst'y. and Neighborhood Youth Corps fur- nish work training for tsadvant- aged young people. These two programs are now run by the De- partment of Labor. * In addition, family planingz, al- coholic recovery, and drug addic- tion programs are administered through OEO. The crucial Legal Services Program has been instri- mental in defending the rights of the poor. The local offices of the CAA are funded by the Office of Operations which works through ten regional offices to provide resour,:es and guidance to more than 900 urban and rural CAAs throughout t h e country. Each of the ten regional offices works directly with t h e CAAs within its region, procesing grant applications and monitoring the use of federal funds. Effective April 29, however, Acting Director of OEO Howard Phillips had an- nounced that he would close down all ten regional offices. OEO was conceived as an experi- mental organization and failure of certain programs was expected. The spirit of OEO was best typified by former Director R. Sargent Shriver's feelings. In response to criticisms regarding program de- ployment, Shriver stated that OEO could spend years analyzing what methods to use and in the interim nothing would be done for the poor. It was better, he felt, to try some- thing and fail than to try nothing at all. Letters To The Daily: BOOKBURNING: Do women have the right to free speech too? If you think symbolic book burn- ing is "boorish and disgusting", try reading the book. The following quotes are from U. of M.'s Dr. J. Robt. Willson's Obstetrics and Gy- necology (1971); C. T. Beecham, M.D. and E. R.' Carrington, M.D. This book is used to teach our medical students about women. What is a 10-page description of "women's minds" doing in a medi- cal text? Rather than DESCRIB- ING the feminine personality, it is in fact PRESCRIBING, it. If you substitute "black" for "woman" following would never be permit- ted to be taught in this university: "The traits that compose the core of the female personality are feminine narcissism, masochism and passivity." "The idea of suffering is an es- sential part of every woman's life." "Every aspect of a woman's life is colored by her ability to accept the masochism that is part of her feminine role." "Too much femin- ine narcissism without masochism produces a self-centered woman. ." "The normal sexual act . . . en- tails a masochistic surrender to the man . . . there is always an ele- ment of rape." "The very act of coming to the physician puts the patient in. a parent-child relationship." (The normal woman) "sacrific- es her own personality to build up that of her husband." "She is likely to feel thattshe is 'animal-like' . . . or "to think of the vagina as a 'dirty cavity' "The physician notices whether the patient is reacting to the inter- view in a feminine way or whe- ther she is domineering, demand- ing, masculine, aggressive ... (If you ask too many questions about the side effects of your IUD, you just might be abnormally de- manding!) "It is a common belief of black patients (that the source of sexual desires) is in the uterus; white patients think that it is in the Supporting the and aggressive striving for the re- wards involved in identification with her family . . ." (Is this to say that women students are AB- NORMAL?) "Certainly the patient . . . should be allowed to keep her own confi- dences, but this response in itself indicates to the physician that an emotional problem exists." "By the patient's dress, walk, makeup and attitude . . . a judg- ment of her personality begins." Later Willson says that if a woman is not "relaxed" (how can she be?) during this "personality" examina- tion, perhaps she should be refer- red to a psychiatrist. .. . sexual implications t h a t are influencing her anxiety (during a pelvic examination) are not im- portant at the moment." What about the sexual feelings that DOC- TORS have made known to their patients during pelvic examina- tions? A quote from the only other book that we are burning "World of a Gynecologist" is one that black people will be able to identify with since it reeks of Manifest Des- tiny: "(The gynecologist) is made in the image of the Almighty .. . his kindness and concern for his pa- tient may provide her with a glimpse of God's image." -Kay Weiss Advocates for Medical Information April 9 To The Daily: IN 1969 WHEN a group of law books in the Law Quad, The Daily applauded the event as a just pro- test against irrelevant academic inquiry and course mraterial. In 1973 when Advocate for Medical In- formation sponsors a protest against University use of INCOR- RECT medical and psychological information in its gynecology texts The Daily likens it to Hitler. Per- haps The Daily ought to reexamine its priorities and reserve opinions for the editorial page. -Linda Hallman and 15 others April 9 EDITOR'S NOTE: A search incident by representatives of the Nixon Administration. More absurd and extremely suspicious is the manner in which the student-elec- tion fraud is being handled. Four obvious questions in this regard require immediate response from SGC: 1. Is anything being done to de- termine exactly who committed the fraud and will the persons involved be permitted to run in the new election? 2. Why are the candidates being reimbursed? 3. Who is paying for these reim- bursements and the new election? 4. Why are the fraudulent ballots not simply discounted if they can be identified? We are outraged at SGC's gloss- ing over of what appears to be a serious instance of corruption and misuse of student funds. --Dale Colling Ed Hoffman Betsy Lamb Nancy Maurer Bridget O'Donnell April 4 IRP very much alive To The Daily: JONATHAN MILLER'S news an- alysis of Monday's City Council election (Daily, April 3) represents once again the type of misunder- standing of HRP which reinforces the theory which the Democrats so love that "HRP is dead." But before Miller, Councilperson Fab- er, and the great HRP-killer Don Coster (sic) (also known as the radical village idiot) go araund dancing on HRP's grave, they'd best make sure HRP is in it first. To say that HRP's failure to win a seat signals its death is ab- surd. It ignores the fact that IIR!,, unlike the Democrats and Re- publicans, is more than an elec- toral party; its members support workers struggles - on the picket lines (for example, the United Farm Workers' picket line at the Eastern Michigan Union at 5.30 a.m. every day last week) is v ,ll as on council; they work in the prisons to help prisoners organize; they work to help high school ',:u- book b reveals growth in the non-student areas of the first and fourth warJs, areas in which future grow:h can come as a result of further year- round hard work. Finally, Miller and others idiot- ically parrot the whimperin;, Demo- crats' line that if HRP people had voted for Mogdis, he wouLid have won. But if Modgis's people had voted for HRP, HRP would have won. Absurd? Of course, but so is the first idea. People, aware of the possible consequences, made up their own minds to vote for IIRP. Most of them would't have voted for Modgis anyway. If you want someone on wi111 to blame the lack of a Democratic mayor, try the Democratic Part-., a party which hasn't done any- thing to deserve a victory. -Richard Levy April 5 Review protests To The Daily; IT IS WITH a great deal of re- luctance and a creeping' growing sense of futility that I write this letter, to protest Alvin Charles Katz' review of the R.C. Players Production of "The Three Sisters".' Admittedly as an R.C. student, my biases are evident, neverthe- less I write this as an individual who is disquieted -'by the cavalier treatment of a fine dramatic pre- sentation by a Daily reviewer. Feeble attempts at pacification i.e., "uncut diamond" notwithstand- ing, the review of "The T h r e e Sisters" was unfair. The dismis- sal of Burr Anderson's perform- ance as mere caricature and the reduction of Pamela Seamon's per- formance to that of a woman with "a splitting headache' smacks of amateurism and reeks of an utter and callous disregard for the time and effort put into the production. I, and countless others like iue, who appreciated the production are waiting with bated breath tin d hearts all a-twitter o learn by what criteria Mr. Katz judges a performance, and we all are amraz- ed by Mr. Katz's uncanny and awesome ability to 'iscertain Ptt e absence of Doug Sprig 's direcuio . urning another supercilious review. It is undeniably true that not all thea- tre in Ann Arbor is of Broadway caliber, yet it should've been glar- ingly evident to any reasonable per- ceptive and sensitive person that "The Three Sisters" was a finely directed and acted show. If the Daily reviewers are trying to establish their credentials as dis- criminating individuals in pursuit of good theatre, then they are do- ing precious little to convey their anoreciation of theatre to the un- enlirhtened and blissfully ignorant mosses who, despite their abysmal ignorance recognize excellence wl-n they see it. This letter will undoubtedly go unheeded by Mr. Katz and his -el- low critics; dwelling as they do in Olympian realms of wisdom in- accesible to the rest of us mortals. Yet, nevertheless in my despicable ignorance and incurable naivete I will end this letter hoping upon hone that one day a Daily reviewer will come ont and give an honest and perceptive review instead of the unadulterated garbage we've been receiving. -Wendell Jones '74 April 6 To The Daily: AFTER READING Mr. Katz's re- view of Three Sisters I'm appalled that he could watch the play and miss so much. It is obvious that his knowledge of Chekhov is quite nil. His comment that the charact- ers go through quick changes in emotional level is indicative of this type of knowledge. If anyone has any sensitivity to what is discussed in Chekhov's plays they will be- come aware that this type of action is trevalent. It tells of the Russian ability to both laugh and cry at the same time. I'm fed tip with the attitude of most reviewers, both here aid pro- fessionally. They think of them- $lxves as an elite. Maybe a better system wo-ld be for them to state their cr-dentials relative to the plv at the beginning of the ar- ticle. If Mr. Katz objected to certain points in the play (as to how it was done or directed) may- be it would be better for him to suggest an alternative approach. ___i 77F FliX i9 I