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Eighty-two years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
rd St., Ann Arbor, Mich. News Phone: 764-0552
Two opposing views on
'U'
420 Mayna
I
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1972
. for a long winter's night
FOR THOSE of you from Honolulu, Ha-
waii, or Bogota, Columbia spending
his or her first semester at the big 'U',
that white stuff you have recently seen
in front of your eyes is not astigmatism.
It is called snow, and it is defined as
Today's staff:
News: Debbie Allen, Robert Barkin, Linda
Dreeben, Cindy Hill, Judy Ruskin
Editorial Page: Lindsay Chaney, K a t h y
Ricke
Arts Page: Herb Bowie
Photo technician: Rolfe Tessem
Sports Staff
JOHN PAPANEK
Sports Editor
ELLIOT LEGOW
Executive Sports Editor
BILL ALTERMAN ............Associate Sports Editor
BOB ANDREWS............Assistant Sports Editor
SANDI GENIS ...............Assistant Sports Editor
MICHAEL OLIN........Contributing Sports Editor
RANDY PHILLIPS ........Contributing Sports Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Chuck Bloom, Dan Borus, Chuck
Drukis, Joel Greer, George Hastings, Bob Heuer,
Frank Longo, Bob McGinn, Rich Stuck.
"small tabular and columnar crystals of
frozen water formed directly from the
water vapor of air when its temperature
at the time of condensation is lower than
32 degrees F."
But for the student it is defined as
joyous and unrivaled fun, a time for late
night traying in the arb and snowball
fights on the Diag.
For the faculty it's just one more pain
added to the daily headache of trying to
find a parking space (or frequently the
copout of canceling class.)
For the maintenance crew it's a losing
battle to keep the highways and byways
passible.
For the weatherman it's a time of
never open phone lines.
And finally for the sun, it's a chance
to head South for the winter, not to re-
turn until late spring.
And while later months may find the
temperature dropping below anything
reasonable, for now it is ours to delight
in. Happy sledding.
-"SONNY" ALTERMAN
Weather Editor
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is
an exchange of memos between Kathy
Shortridge, Coordinator of the Day
Care Subcommittee, and University
President Robben Fleming.
* * * *
To President Fleming:
IN DISCUSSING day care at last week's
child care demonstration, you directed
attention toward the search for sources
of funds; this is certainly a valid line
of discussion. Unfortunately, some of
your other remarks seem to indicate
a gap between your +thinking concern-
ing day care and the views of many of
us who are interested in the subject. It
is to those remarks that we wish to draw
your attention.
Perhaps your most disturbing state-
ment was to the effect that women free-
11 choose to have children, and that if
this inhibits their ability to engage in
other rewarding activities, that's their
problem. We take exception to this on
a number of grounds. First, given the
possibility of contraceptive failure and
the illegality and expense of abortion, we
cannot assume that all mothers have free-
ly chosen their lot. Secondly, women do
not produce children alone; men also
choose to have children and are not
involved in producing them. However, be-
cause of a social institution - the wife-
mother - a father's ability to engage in
other activities is little inhibited by
parenthood.
IN ANOTHER comment, you seemed
to attach some importance to the notion
that women who can't go to school aren't
the principle problem in child care. We
believe, however, that the inabiilty of any
group to get an education should be a
matter of concern for educational institu-
tions. Furthermore, we know that the
whole spectrum of child care problems is
represented in the University commun-
ity; indigent women who can't get work
because of inadequate child care facil-
ities, professional women who are unable
to practice, women whose skills are be-
coming outmoded because their careers
have been interrupted, women who can't
attend school, and so on. We see no pur-
pose in quibbling over the proportion
each particular dilemma contributes to
the overall child care problem.
We do not question your personal com-
mitment to child care or the legitimacy
of the funding problem your raised. Ob-
viously, the development of adequate
child care facilities will take substan-
tial effort on the part of many members
of the University community. We hope
that this effort will come to involve the
informed interest of the University ad-
ministration.
-Kathy Shortridge
To Kathy Shortridge:
MY REMARK about women freely
choosing to have children was neither
wise not did it convey what I meant.
In thinking about child care facilities,
it has seemed to me that one must think
out a system of priorities because the
need is enormous. I would put my per-
sonal priorities in an order which would
serve first women with small children
where there is either the lack of a mar-
riage partner in the home, or one who
is incapacitated. The woman in that
case is in an impossible position. She
cannot earn money for the family be-
cause she cannot work, and she cannot
work because she cannot provide care
for the children unless she stays with
them.
A second priority would be those fam-
ilies in which the earning power of the
family is so low that both nembers of
the family need to work, and tney cannot
do so without care for their children.
In this scale, it does not seem to mean
jild care
care facilities, there are some very hard
questions to answer, such as:
" What is the clientele, and what is
the priority within the clientele? Do we
have responsibility just to those who
wish to become students and are ham-
pered because they have family? Or is
it also to our employees? Or is it to the
community at large? Depending on which
definition one takes, or which priority
one sets, the number of children expand
or contract.
* What kind of facility are we talking
about? It is a state licensed facility
which must both meet certain health and
code standards, and employ licensed per-
sonnel, or is it something like a drop-in
center?
* How do we fund such a center or
centers? If with state funds there are
problems 'of authorized expenditure of
funds. If with private funds, we need
gifts which we have so far not been
able to attract. Federal funds seem not
to be available at least until further legis-
lation is passed. User charges may not
be able to support the venture.
Studies are now being made by the
Office of StudentwServices, the Student
Government Council, and, I gather, the
Women's Commission. It will serve no
useful purpose to present the University
with a proposal Which excludes other
groups which can make an identical
claim for support because the University
is then placed in an indefensible posi-
tion. In short, I see little hope that the
University can mount a program, except
on a user-charge basis, until there is
some public financial support for the
programs.
-Robben Fleming
that college students, who are already a
privileged group, can claim much of a
priority on public money for care of their
children so that both can go to school.
In my own day most college students
were not married, and when they were
they thought a good deal about the
problem of trying to manage a family
until their school was finished. This does
not lead to a conclusion that children
are the woman's problem, but it does
lead to a conclusion that the marriage
partners have to work out some system
Daily Photo by DENNY GAINER
of priorities as to who is going to. get
the education and at what time, if they
believe it desirable to have children be-
fore both of them have finished their
education.
WHETHER CHILD care is a problem
for the University, or for the larger so-
ciety might be a matter of debate
among us. I think it has to be pri-
marily a problem for the larger society,
on which the University is dependent for
its resources.
If the University is to develop child
4
Letters.
To The Daily:
THE ANN ARBOR Democratic Party
condemns the massive election day er-
rors by the City Clerk's office which
denied many Ann Arbor citizens their
right to vote.
IT IS ABSURD that anyone should wait
five hours to vote. Voters in some areas
were still casting their ballots after the
results were determined for California
and Senator McGovern had conceded.
Whatever steps are necessary should
be taken to prevent this from ever hap-
pening again.
The mistakes were amazingly wide-
spread. Numerous voters were unable to
vote because registrations were lost.
Individuals waited in line for hours
only to find out they were at the wrong
polling place.
Voters spent hours trying to c o r r e c t
problems created by errors in the Clerk's
office.
PRECINCT LINES and polling places,
through no fault of the Clerk's office,
have been so altered that prospective
voters gave up in confusion and went
home.
The City Clerk should provide solutions
to these problems before the next elec-
tion and should assure voters that these
obstructions to voting will be eliminated.
-The Ann Arbor Democratic Party
Nov. 13
Wolf's Clothing
To The Daily:
I WAS shocked to read of the adver-
tisements in your paper last week. It
advocated the purchase of a coat with
genuine wolf muff.
The original design of the wolf muff
Election errors
was for extremely cold weather to keep
the moisture away from your face when
you exhale.
It never gets cold enough in Ann Arbor
to merit the use of these muffs.
Very few of the companies who manu-
facture the world's best cold weather
wear even include these muffs on their
jackets.
They find a substitute that works
equally well for the temeprature in-
volved.
THE WOLF is an endangered species
and I hope that the people of Ann Ar-
bor would not buy garments using wolf.
There are identical jackets that are
just as warm, but made with artificial
fur. They look the same and are even
somewhat cheaper.
ALTHOUGH wolves are still a ways
from extinction, they need all the help
they can get.
-Randy Watts
'76 Nat. Res.
Anti-abortion
To The Daily:
YOUR EDITORIAL by pro-abortionist
Kathy Ricke proposes a four point pro-
gram which, she implies, everyone who
voted against Proposal B is morally
bound to support to compensate for the
"damage" they have done in not letting
unwanted babies be killed before birth.
It is hard to tell how serious it is, or
how sarcastic. I choose to take her ser-
iously. I voted down Proposal B, and
influenced others to do so; here is my
reaction, typical of many in by opin-
ion, to her program:
* Government Day-Care: Well, it does-
n't have to be Government-supported
but one way or another, by all means let
us try to arrange things so that every
child has a place to be, with people who
care, whether his mother works or not.
* Complete pre and post-natal care on
demand: As long as no one is compelled
into such a system, it has a lot to re-
commend it; obstetrical care for the poor
is lower in USA than in some other plac-
es, and there is no good reason for this.
* Improved adoption services: Ab-
solutely! A lot of reform has been
done, but more is needed. Also, it would
not be amiss for members of Right To
Life groups to make a point of adopting
hard-to-place children, whether they al-
ready have children or not. Some have
done so; more should.
* Government supported psychiatric
care for unwanted children and reluc-
tant mothers: Nothing doing! In the first
place I just don't have that much con-
fidence in most psychiatry - (even to
help a person suffering from guilt af-
ter abortion.) But, if steps one, two
and three are followed, there is no real
need. All of us Pro-Life people agree
with the pro-abortionist slogan: "Every
child should be a wanted child." But, in-
stead of killing the children, we want to
get them where they are wanted. Our
society is not doing enough for victims of
cerebral palsy or brain injury, either; but
we don't assume the solution is to kill
them; we assume there is another so-
lution, and try to find it.
Seriously or not, Kathy Ricke has in
fact suggested some good solutions to
the problem of unwanted pregnancy;
though she may never have meant to do
so, she has proved that the matter is
capable of being handled by other means.
"Many a true word is spoken in jest."
-Edith Slosson Aron
Nov. 11
A
. -'V .rn y _. N N x and Tribune Syndicate -
"Come a little closer ... I have
something to tell you .0..
The ecocide of Vietnam:
U.S.
technology gone sour
By LOIS EITZEN
IN ALL the debate about Vietnam,
there is one almost forgotten
victim - the land.
Ecocide, the military destruc-
tion of the land, is the most last-
ing method of wartime destruction,
unheard of before American forces
began systematically destroying
cropland in Vietnam.
Ecocide is the extension of the
ancient "scorched earth policy"
whereby troops burned fields be-
hind them as they advanced. This
deprived the enemy of one year's
crops. Ecocide may destroy crop-
land for twenty years, and in some
cases permanently.
The United Staees began spray-
ing areas of South Vietnam with
herbicides in 1962. During 1967,
when spraying was at its peak,
about 1.5 million acres of forest
were defoliated and more than 200,-
000 acres of cropland destroyed.
According to the military, this
cropland was used only by the
enemy. But a team of scientists
from the American Association for
the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) reported that one of the
most heavily sprayed areas, Quang
Ngai province, had a civilian pop-
ulation cf 5000.
"Our observations lead us to be-
lieve that precautions to avoid de-
stroying the crops of indigenous
civilian populations have been a
fniir adta e al lltA fnd
White, a Dow Chemical Company
product, gives some idea of its ef-
fects: "Do not allow material to
contaminate water used for irriga-
tion, drinking, or other domestic
purposes. Dow also recommends
that no grazing be allowed on treat-
ed areas for two years."
Mangrove forests are perhaps the
saddest examples of ecocide in
Vietnam. Mangroves used to grow
in thick forests throughout Viet-
nam, but since they are peculiarly
susceptible to herbicides, one-fifth
to a half of them have been "ut-
terly destroyed", according to the
AAAS team. One member of the
team described a sprayed m a n-
grove forest as a "wierd and deso-
late scene of total annihilation".
Years after the last spraying, the
team saw no signs of new vege-
tation.
Before their destruction, m a n-
groves were considered to be of
little value. Since the spraying, salt
water has begun to invade the coas-
tal areas of iVetnam, showing that
mangroves served to maintain the
coastline. They also apparently
helped to hold the soil together, be-
cause areas where mangrove trees
have been eliminated now show
either severe erosion or lateraliza-
tion (a brick-like hardening of the
soil).
The destruction of many hard-
wood forests in Vietnam has result-
PHin ,the1,0lnofn 1 1 .rAnr .c.,..nlc
Filling them is logistically imps ac-
tical, and farmers wary of unde-
tonated explosives are unwilling to
reclaim them. The craters often
fill with stagnant water, a per-
fect breeding ground for mosqui-
toes and therefore a malaria haz-
ard.
Thus these craters may become
a permanent feature of the land-
scape. Ten years after World War
II, bomb craters in Okinawa were
still barren and red from rusting
shell fragments. Heavily bombed
areas of Verdun are still barren,
more than a half century after the
end of World War I.
The destruction of rice fields and
irrigation ditches involves m o r e
than just reduction of crops. The
Vietnamese people have b e e n
growing rice for 5000 years. Their
villages have evolved around irri-
gation ditch patterns. Rice is so
basic to their culture that a com-
mon greeting is, "Eat cooked rice
'yet?"
BUT THE reduction of crops in
itself has been extensive. In 1964,
South Vietnam exported 48,563 met-
ric tons of rice. In 1968, they im-
ported 677,000 metric tons.
The destruction of outlying vil-
lages has caused massive immi-
gration to the cities. Although the
military sees this as advantageous
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Speaking of napvf ST" m 9h alm andq& bombing_
and mistk=,, /upuon aes ~n
a high rate of stillbirths in one
heavily sprayed area, and an ap-
parent increase in two kinds of
birth defects. Other sources indi-
cate potential danger to cattle and
especially fish.
ing either massive bulldozing or
napalm. An early bulldozing oper-
ation, Operation Ranch Hand, was
so successful that its motto was,
"Only we can prevent forests".
Even without the use of herhi-
tion problems, crowding, crime.
"The cold, hard, and cruel irony
tential to upset this balance. Amer-
ican industry has spent millions of
dollars to 'homh snrav and huy n