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Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily expressthe individual opinions of staff writers
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1972
Term paper rip-off
BEFORE YOU buy a term paper this
semester, consider what a rip-off
Writer-On, Inc. really is.
Write-On, a company that sells term
papers to overworked or unmotivated
students, currently stocks about 5,000
papers. But using the services of Write-
On is fighting fire with fire-or injustice
with injustice. The argument that by
buying a paper you're just taking advan-
tage of an educational system that you
consider,exploitive and valueless doesn't
stand up. College may be criticized as an
elitist, super-competitive institution, a
"privilege" accessible mostly to upper-,
middle class students - but Write-On
caters to the same crowd.
At $2 pei page plus tax, or at least
$4.50 per page for original research,
Write-On's papers can only be purchas-
ed by students able to shell out at least
$30 for a 15-page paper. Obviously many
students, especially those on scholar-
ships, do not have the option of shirking
their work and buying a paper instead.
Furthermore, the use of purchased
term papers may ironically worsen the
educational situation that drives stu-
dents to buy papers. Professors, now
wary of Write-On patrons, may penalize
all their students by giving in-class ex-
ams, a surer measure of 'a student's
knowledge and ability for grading pur-
poses. Previously, a professor may have
depended upon papers alone for grades.
Journalism Prof. Robert Bishop, for ex-
ample, announced to his Journalism 402
class this term that they would have an
in-class final exam for that very rea-
son. If students had not patronized
termpaper companies, professors would
have no reason for distrust and retalia-
tion.
ASIDE FROM the old argument that
buying termpapers defeats the pur-
pose of education, students should re-
member that Write-On, like similar
businesses, rips off students not only
when they buy papers, but also when
they sell them to the company. An em-'
ploye of Write-On says that a student
might get roughly $1 per page for a li-
brary research paper-half of what the
company would sell it for.
To make matters worse, Write-On no
longer has any competition in town since
a rival company folded. Write-On has a
monopoly and can, in effect, charge what
it likes-or whatever desperate students
will pay.
THE SOONER students realize Write-
On is a rip-off which backfires, the
better. One term paper company has dis-
solved. Let's off the other one.
-DIANE LEVICK
When
By DAVID MARGOLICK
WHEN THE last American sold-
ier leaves Indochina, Richard
Nixon will be hailed as a g r e a t
peacemaker. Armed with an im-
pressive mandate from the Amer-
ican people, he will sing the prais-
es of his Vietnamization policies,
and then the nation can, at long
last, forget about a war which has
plagued it for ten years.
There will be some, however,
for whom the end will have come
far too, late, who cannot be quite
so blithe and proud about any set-
tlement. While Richard N i x o n
serves "Four More Years" - en-
cumbered no more by the Viet-
namese War - and far beyond, the
policiestof his first term willstill
live in the anguish of countless liv-
es, both at home and abroad. It
all makes for the greatest irony of
all, that in "withdrawing" f r o m
Indochina, our "involvement" there
is greater than ever, and will be
felt for decades to come.
THE BOMB CRATERS w h i c h
have made a lunar landscape of
Vietnam will remain long after
Richard Nixon is gone. The sta-
tistics of the Indochina War a r e
familiar enough: twice the ton-
nage of all of World War II, drop-
ped on an area the size of Texas;
five hundred pounds per person
and one hundred and eighteen
pounds per second, on the aver-
age; a total of twenty six million
craters pockmarking the land of
Indochina.
Recently much justifiable indig-
nation has been expressed over the
nombing on Northern dikes, schools,
and hospitals. But it is generally
forgotten that the South Vietnam-
ese, our allies, have absorbed eigh-
ty per cent of the American a i r
war.
The destruction of vegetation
by our bombs has renderedeareas
around many craters forever bar-
ren, permanent features of t h e
landscape. Craters in delta or coas-
tal regions have filled with water,
breeding disease-carrying mosqui-
toes and causing a rise in the rate
of malaria. Erosion caused by
bombing in hilly areas has ruined
large tracts of cropland.
Indeed, according to Scientific
American, U.S. involvement in In-
dochina has been "a war against
the land as much as against arm-
ies." Not only are craters found
in every part of the country, in
the
long,
namese have been forced
don fertile areas becausec
hundred thousand ur
bombs hidden in the paddi
farmers have been killed
dental detonation of the
Even in comparatively sa
bomb fragments cut theI
water buffaloes, causing
and death.
One needs only to lo
aerial photograph of Ver
a useless tract of land si3
after the fact, to see that
heals very slowly. Decai
even centuries from nov
after Richard Nixon has b
elder statesman and is d
gized, Vietnam will bear
testimony to his policies.
THERE WILL be others
not forget the war so qt
is estimated that there,
perhaps hundreds of thou
illegitimate children fatl
American personnel in
Since their round eyes an
ed shoulders are constant
ers of their unpopular GI
these children are scorned
Vietnam, particularly tho
fathers -were black.
According to the Nem
Times, this hostility is c
ed by poverty, which mal
bleak prognosis; the chili
receive little or no school
the likelihood of lifetimes
cycle drivers, prostitutes,.
or soldiers.
Since these children;
American citizens, they
considered American p
"The care and welfare
unfortunate children,"say
partment of Defense pape
has never been and is not
sidered an area of Govern
snonsibility." Yet while
Nixon and his advisors
brating the withdrawal of
American soldier, these
will remain, with others
edly still to be' born. Fi
Vietnamization was nothi
than "Americanization,"
won't end in time for elec
Richard Nixon will som
third or fourth from the la
Golden Book of Presiden
his policies will live on
of these people.'
NORMAN ROCKWELL
er paint a picture of thei
to aban-
of several
nexploded
ies. Many
by acci-
bombs.
ife areas,
hooves of
infection
ok at 'an
'dun, still
xty years
the earth
des a n d
w, long
ecome an
duly eulo-
eloquent
who will
uickly. It
are tens,
isands of
iered by
Vietnam.
nd round-
t remind-
[ fathers,
in South
se whose
w York
ompound-
kes for a
dren will
ing, with
spent as
servants
are not
long war is over
traditionally experienced by re-
turned soldiers, but compounded
this time by a sense of futility and
confusion over what their mission
actually was.
Kissinger' ssecret talks
FOUR YEARS ago today, Presidential
candidate Richard Nixon stated
that if a President failed to achieve
peace in four years, he didn't deserve to
be re-elected. By his own standards Mr.
Nixon should not be running for office.
Nevertheless, the President is cam-
paigning for a second term. To justify
his failure to end the war, Nixon has
campaigned on the claim he has done
everything possible to bring about an
"honorable" settlement of the war.
Nixon has sent Henry Kissinger for'
another session of talks with North Viet-
namese negotiators in Paris. Though
quick to announce that the Kissinger
talks are being fheld, and drop hints left
and right, the White House refused to
reveal anything substantive about the
meetings with the North Vietnamese. The
White House has only said that negotia-
tions are at a "very sensitive stage."
Only results can dispel doubts that
the Kissinger talks are just sophisticated
propaganda to appease the American
public.
NIXON IS well ahead in the polls, so
there is no reason for him to settle
the war out of political pressure. A set-
tlement now would involve concessions
to the Vietcong, something Nixon is not
willing to do. Such a settlement would
cost him the active support of some con-
servative elements now behind him.
But at the same time, the Kissinger
talks serve as a facade to muster support
from the more liberal factions in society.
In an attempt to gain the, backing of
persons who desire a quick end to the
war, Nixon can point to the Kissinger
talks. And as long as he refuses to re-
veal anything about the talks, his op-
ponents are crippled - they have noth-
ing substantive to attack.
As evidenced by the last four years,
President Nixon remains the consum-
mate politician. On the Vietnam issue
he is able to maintain his conservative,
support, create support among liberals
and deny his opposition a receptive audi-
ence for meaningful criticism. And he
has done all this without revealing his
stance at the secret talks.
ONE CANNOT argue with the effective-
ness of Nixon's political tactics. But
one must take exception with the results
of his policies. His term is all but over
and the war still continues.
-JIM REUS
"While Richard Nixon serves his 'Fourl
are n o t Most of us know at least a couple
problems. of young men, seemingly stable
of these when they were sent to Vietnam,
ys a 'De- whowere never able to readjust to
r, ". . . the routine back at home. Accord-
now con- ing to reputable psychologists, up
ment re- to fifty per cent of Vietnam veter-
llichard ans need professional help; but
are cele- facilities are overcrowded and the
the last government is unwilling to acknow-
children ledge the extent of the problem.
undoubt- Because of the low socio-econom-
or them, ic and minority group background
ng more of most of these men, their diffi-
and it culties often go unnoticed or a r e
tion day. deemed inconsequential; m a n v
eday be turn to drugs in lieu of psychiatric
ast in the care. Photographs of Nixon greet-
ts, b u t ing them on the walls of V.A. hos-
in each pitals does not exactly help their
treatment.
The POWs - those interred from
will nev- the start of Mr. Nixon's tenure and
returning those shot down once he resumed
the bombing - will come back to a
..::....tumultuous reception and p h o n e
calls from the White House, b u t
More they will face even more obstacles
than the others. "There is redly
no such thing as a hapoy ex-prison-
etna- er," says one U.S. medical official;
loss of motor abilities -while in cap-
f his tivity will force them to relearn
basic skills, while depression, loss
ount- of memory, and sexual impotence
will, according to Newsweek, be
factors in a high suicide rate
among them.
OUR OWN SOCIETY will bear
" the scars of Mr. Nixon's policies
world is far longer than the "Four M or e
he cover Years" he claims he deserves. It
Post. The will feel it with every penny c'f
returning the war chest which should have
manifest been spent at home and with the
e, in the millions of dollars yet to be spent
ins. They for veterans' benefits over the next
ionment, five or six decades; it will feel it
problems in the anguish over those who need-
lessly died and those who happen-
ail stff ed to survive; in the disaffection
iiy staff and apathy of a generation of Am-
cent con- ericans - weaned on Diem, Thien,
and Ky, on My Lai and tiger cages,
on dikes and defoliation - which
was virtually taught how deceptive
and immoral its leaders really
were.
The nation has become divided
and calloused to an unprecedented
degree, and among the losers are
again the Vietnamese themselves,
to whom we should feel a moral
commitment to repair the destruc-
tion which we have unleashed un
their land.
As the nation settles back into a,
false complacency, Richard Nixon
can congratulate himself on a job
wel Idone. He has taken an ex-
plosive issue and defused it. To the
acclaim of what may well be a
election year majority of unprece-
dented proportions he has upheld
some vague notion of American
honor.
THE TRUE legacy of the Nixon
years, however - of those scarred
by an ill-conceived war shame-
lessly perpetuated - will never be
enshrined in the Nixon presidential
library, or anywhere else for some
time to come. As folksinger Steve
Goodman wrote about war widow
Penny Evans, "They say the war
is almost over, but I think it's just
begun."
Years'-encumbered no more by the
NO
mese war-and far beyond, the' policies oy
first term will still live in the anguish of cc
less lives, both at home and abroad."
w=
fields, paddies, swamps, forests,
and along roadsides - five million
acres of forest and cropland have
been defoliated.
Massive bulldozing has left t h e
land "torn as if by an' angry
giant." The timber industry h a s
suffered tremendously, not on 1 y
from the destruction of trees, but
also from the breaking of s a w
blades by bomb fragments embed-
ded in the wood.
Most poignantly of all, the Viet-
Vietnam veteran, whose
a little too depressing for
of the Saturday Evening P
severe stress on the GIr
to civilian life will also
itself for decades to come
lives of countless veterar
will face anxiety, disillus
apathy, bewilderment,1
David Margolick is a D
photographer and a frequ
tributor to this page.
Porno, sexual
freedom and decadence
A anew' kind of prisoner
REE WEEKS ago Calvin Dow was
convicted of manslaughter, posses-
sion of a dangerous weapon, and escape
from an Oregon prison. He was sentenc-
ed to 25 years. Dow did kill the prison
guard whose death led to the extension
of his prison stay.
But to the members of the Calvin Dow
Defense Committee, Dow represents a
new kind of political prisoner. Unlike
Angela Davis, Dow was not framed. Cal-
vin is like thousands of other inmates
of the federal prisons, a victim of intol-
erably oppressive conditions who, instead
of buckling under pressure, stood up and
resisted prison authority at every j unc-
ture. " Such strength, however, comes at
a psychological cost, which Dow has had
to pay.
DOW FIRST went to prison at 17 when
he was convicted of auto theft. The
oldest of seven children, Dow comes from
a white working class family and never
finished high school.
Sentenced to two years at the Oregon
State Correctional Institute, he spent 11
of his 13 months there in "the hole", a
severe solitary confinement cell. During
this period the prison was run by a par-
ticularly oppressive administration and
beatings of prisoners were a daily oc-
currence.
As Dow's experiences worsened and his
political awareness expanded, he became
an extremely serious and introverted
man, according to fellow prisoners. From
this point on he began reading and be-
came a socialist. As a radical leader Dow
was deeply respected by other inmates,
and constantly harassed by prison of-
ficials, who shipped * him around the
country on a tour of more than five fed-
eral prisons.
aOW'S DEFENSE committeehoped to
have him found not guilty on the
grounds of temporary insanity. The man-
slaughter he was convicted of took place
after a fight with another inmate, when
the guard tried to take a knife away
from Dow and he reacted instantaneous-
ly by stabbing him. Witnesses agree that
Dow killed the guard in a moment of in-
sane rage.
Unfortunately, two defense psycholo-
gists found Dow sane at the time of the
killing. Dow's lawyers were court ap-
pointed, because neither his family nor
the committee could afford an expensive
private defense. So Dow pleaded guilty
and got a sentence of 25 years, instead
By MARTIN STERN
THE SEXUAL Revolution goes
on! 1972 may well be remem-
bered in years to come as the year
women struck back. After decades
of media exploitation of the fe-
male body for male sexual enjoy-
ment, women can now flip through
an establishment women's publi-
cation, and drool over a naked
(and hairy) male playmate of the
month.
Burt Reynolds has become t h e
pioneer of the above board male
"nudie foldout." His exposure has
subsequently led to male nudes
in other publications, and the re-
lease of several colorful male pin-
up calendars. Now we're hearing
complaints that female exploita-
tion was bad enough without hav-
ing males exploited also.
The key point here is whether
this "sexploitation" is bad for our
society. Will it hamper efforts to
reach a level of "humanism"
where we all will be judged for
who we are, and not just for our
appearance and sexual append-
ages?
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION pro-
bably reached an all-time high in
the late sixties. Sex invaded our
living room via television, class-
rooms, literature, movies, into our
personal lives at a rate never be-
fore equaled. The moralists a n d
preachers condemned the decad-
ence of the times, and foresaw the
decline of our society.
Well, - we're still here, decadent
as ever. But honefullv. with health-
the candy we couldn't have or the
toy we couldn't afford, the naked
body became the forbidden fruit
for us.
And when we began dating, to
many of us, it was not an oppor-
tunity to develop a meaningful re-
lationship with a female, but rath-
er, our chance to taste the for-
bidden fruit. Locker room talk con-
sisted of post-conquest talk: "Ya,
she let me get her in the back
seat "
THEN SUDDENLY, nudity was
over-exposed. The novelty of two
breasts and a vagina wore off.
"You've seen two, you've seen
them all." Males began concen-
trating on relationships involving
personal qualities and enjoyed
characteristics between two peo-
ple. True, sexual intercourse re-
mained, but it became more than
just "a piece of ass"; it became
an expression of two persons shar-
ing emotions with each other.
Females also began to throw off
their "yoke of expression." Cul-
turally conditioned to believe that
their body functions were some-
how vulgar and unenjoyable, the
new sexual freedom allowed many
women to appreciate their bodies
and its effect on men, instead of
fearing them.
Statistics bear out this over-ex-
posure idea. In societies featuring
pornography in extensive amounts,
its sales have declined. The porno-
graphy trade in Germany, for ex-
ample, does the majority of its
business with tourists. The Ger-
mans have become disinterested in
the stuff. In Denmark, the sex
crime rate has dropped, a fact that
some attribute to the open atti-
tudes toward sex in that country.
BUT WHAT of exploitation of
the nude male body? What will be
the consequences? Will women go
about whistling at men, "taking
advantage of them on dates, and.
perhaps even gang-raping them?
Highly doubtful.
Indeed, 'exposure of the naked
male body will ;help to bring it
"out into the open," so to speak.
Just as men have begun to develop
healthy attitudes about the naked
female "bod," so it is that women
will learn to appreciate and ac-
cept the male body naturally.
LET THE nudies continue. It is
only a pasing fad. In the long
run we'll be able to look back and
laugh at our sexual immaturities.
And in the short run, how about
Frank Kelley and Bob Griffin on
a bear skin rug?
THE INDIVIDUAL
What good's
By SCOTT ZIMMERMAN
"FREEDOM'S JUST another word for noth
ing left to lose."
These words, uttered by Kris Kristofferson in
one of his songs, had an indeterminable
meaning at the time they were written, but al-
ready delineate the encroaching dilemma of
steadily increasing world population and in-
versely diminishing resources.
The concept of freedom, the philosophical
approach that each man is the best judge of
his own best interests and should be afforded
the freedom to pursue his interests, will inevit-
ably bring ruination to all. As the population
swells and the need for additional resources in-
creases every man's decision to act in his
freedom if there's nothing?
drilling; we are free to fly 100 people a
few hundred miles while the 50,000 inhabitants
below shudder from the noise; we are free to
consume in our homes endless kilowatt hours
for air-conditioning, television, and endless
household conveniences, and then curse river
damming, strip mining, and oil and gas drill-
ing, the providers of our power-consuming
lifestyles.
Individual consumption, though innocuous in
the singular is tremendously maleficent when
multiplied by similarly-acting individuals-
inducing a future where there really is noth-
ing left to lose . . . or gain . . . for any-
one
Far be it from truth however that these
considerations are taken into account by aver-
age citizens -when planning a family or a
home. In our contentment, we tend to dis-
regard the negative utility, of an action when
the consequences do not seem to entail pro-
found hardships during our immediate life-
time. Each, as an individual, benefits the
most by denying the truth. Society, by shar-
ing the burden of consequence, lessens the
impact felt by any one individual.
FREEDOM IS an erroneously idealistic con-
cept when, in our present crisis, it permits
breeding and consumntion for convenience's