Page 4-Thuriday, September 15, 1977--The Michigan Daily
Life
o
a
lety
left
out
in
the
cold
By JULIE ROVNER
In 20 years, when we think back over
our time spent at this dignified institu-
tion of higher learning, there will cer-
tainly be at least one thing that will still
produce an involuntary wince of anger
or frustration. For a large number, that
will be CRISP. For others, it will be the
memory of standing in seemingly end-
less lines for everything from football
tickets to a hamburger at McDonalds.
For me, that thing will be the desks in
Angell Hall.
Not all the desks,, to be sure. Only the
ones with the three-inch-wide slivers of
wood on the far right side that are
meant for people to take notes on.
YOU SEE, I am left-handed, and for
me, trying to use one of those desks is
like a bad joke. Unfunny. So I end up
with my spiral notebook (also not de-
signed for left-handers) perched on my
knee. Needless to say, the resulting
product would flunk me out of penman-
ship 101. I have even spent many an all-
nighter just before finals trying valiant-
ly to figure out not what the notes mean,
but just what they say.
I wouldn't be so emotional if all of the
offensive desks were built circa 1900, as
many of them were. Last Friday, how-
ever, when I walked into my first class
of the term, the first thing I saw, to my
dismay, was a whole room full of bright
new orange versions of the discrimina-
tory objects. My heart bleeds for the
left-handers of the class of '99, who will
most likely be using these same orange
symbols of the hardship of living in a
right.handed world.
One out of every ten people in this
country is left-handed, making us one of
the largest minorities. And yet we are
still oppressed. When was the last time
you heard about an affirmative action
program aimed at recruiting left-
handed people?
MANY OF THE Daily activities that
all you right-handers take for granted
are nearly impossible for us. Fountain
pens are a total loss because, since the
hand follows the pen instead of leading
it, everything turns into one big smear.
In junior high school,, I used to walk
around with a green hand. Knitting and
crocheting instructions are always key-
ed to right-handed people. Guitars are
strung for right-handers. (I had already
been playing for two years when, I
figured out how easy it would be to re-
string it, but that would have necessita-
ted a complete re-training, so I decided
not to bother).
Wine bottles become a trauma to
open because corkscrews are grooved
for you-know-who. Scissors present the
same problem. And then there are
those desks.
These problems, though, aren't that
difficult to overcome. A few of the
many ingenious left-handers figure out
how to do these things and proceed to
write books for the rest of us to follow.
Our major problem is the attitude that
the rest of the world holds of us.
I AM SICK AND TIRED of being
viewed as a genetic freak. To this day,
whenever my right-handed father sees
me writing something, he shakes his
head in awe and says, "Look, she's
doing that left-handed." It ceased to be
funny about fifteen years ago.
When I looked up 'left-handed' in the
thesaurus, I got "clumsy, careless,
gauche; see awkward." And everyone
knows that a left-handed complement is
not the highest form of praise.
How these myths about left-handed
people (Please, not leftys or south-
paws) got started is of little importance
today. What is important, though, is
that we start getting treated like the in-
telligent, upstanding citizens that we
are. Ben Franklin, Harry Truman,
Michaelangelo, and Charlie Chaplin
were all left handed. So start giving us
the respect we deserve. And remem-
ber, Richard Nixon was a righty in
more ways than one.
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Militant blacks turn
to, religious leaders
Eighty.Eight Years of Editorial Freedom
°w, bts 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Vol LXXXVIII, No. 7
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Students deserve an equal
shot at good football tickets
i
I
By ASKIA MUHAMMAD
"God of our weary years, God of our silent
tears . . ." implored National Urban League
Executive Director Vernon Jordan as he
opened the organization's recent annual con-
ference here, quoting famed black hymn wri-
ter and poet James Weldon Johnson.
In Chicago recently, Atlanta Mayor May-
nard Jackson told guests at the 10th annual
Men's Day of the Cosmopolitan Community
Church that the removal of religion from poli-
tics contributed to the election of what he call-
ed a "sho-nuff crook" like former President
Richard Nixon.
T HEUNIVERSITY Athletic Depart-
ment's allotment policy for student
football tickets is grossly unfair to the
student body. This year, more students
than ever will be forced to view the
games from the outer limits of the end
zone, while alumni and friends of ad-
ministrators will be sitting in the choice
seats between the goal lines.
At present, the student section starts
at the fifty-yard line on the western side
of the stadium and stretches around the
northern end zone over to the visiting
side of the field. This means that stu-
dents are allocated one one-fourth of the
between goal line seats. While it is cer-
tainly true that alumni deserve a chance
to get good seats too, they shouldn't get
three-fourths of the prime seats. A more
equitable system would be to reserve all
the seats between the goal lines on the
western side of the field for students,
and save those choice seats on the east-
ern side of the field for alumni. This sys-
tem is used successfully by many
schools nationwide, and there is no rea-
son it can't be used here.
The Athletic Department's position
is that upperclassmen will get good
seats, while the rest of the students can
wait their turn. But with the decision to
allow graduate students who are in their
5th (or higher) year at the University
senior priority, even some seniors are
getting bad seats. The last senior group
got goal line tickets this year.
BUT WHY SHOULD it be the stu-
dents who always get the short end
of the ticket? The same system is used
and guests should be given whatt
dents don't use.
It is too late to do anything
students being stuck in the cor
the endzone this year. But we ho
next year when Mr. Canham is b
in his profits and is viewing ti
completely pre-season sell
Michigan history, he will gi
students a few more of the better
EDITORIAL STAFF
ANN MARIE LIPINSKI
Editors-in-Chief
KEN PARSIGIAN......................Editor
JEFFREY P. SELBST..,... ...... ............
JAY LEVIN............................... Mana
GEORGE LOBSENZ ...................Maas
MIKE NORTON..............................Mana
MARGARET YAO..............................Mana
STU McCONNELL............................Man
SUSAN ADES g ELAINE FLETCHE
Magazine Editors
Weawther Forecasters
MARK ANDREWS and MIKE GILFORD
STAFF WRITERS: Gwen Barr, Susan Barry, Brian
Michael Beckman, Philip Bokovoy, Linda Brenner:
ruthers, Ken.Chotiner, Eileen Daley, Ron DeKett,I
David Goodman, Marnie Heyn, Robb Helmes, Mic
Lani Jordan, Janet Klein, Gregg Kruppa, Steve
Dobilas Matunonis, Stu McConnell, Tom Meyer, J
Patti Montemurri, Tom O'Connell, Jon Pansius,F
Stephen Pickover, Kim Potter, Martha Retallick,
burg, Bob Rosenbaum, DennisSabo, Annmare Se
beth Slowik, Tom Stevens, Jim Stimpson, Mike Tay
Toole, Mark Wagner, Sue Warner, Shelley Wolson,I
Laurie Young and Barb Zahs.
SPORTS STAFF
KATHY HENNEGHAN....................S
TOM CAMERON .................... Executive S
SCOTT LEWIS............ .......Managing S
DON MacLACHLAN.................. Associate S
Contributing Editors
JOHN NIEMEYER and ENID GOLDMAN~
NIGHT EDITORS: Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engelhard
dock, Bob Miller, Patrick Rode, Cub Schwartz.
ASST. NIGHT EDITORS: Jeff Frank, CindyGale
Hal pin, Brian Martin, Brian Miller, Dave Renba
Shiman and Jamie Turner
PHOTOGRAPHY STAFF
the stu-
AND THOUGH, as Jordan observed, neith-
about er he nor Jackson have "preaching licenses,"
ners of the influence of religion in the day-to-day af-
pe that fairs of black leaders in America has in-
basking creased dramatically.
he firstGone, almost entirely, from the civil rights
het ist front today are the voices of Stokely Car-
)ut in michael, H. Rap Brown, Angela Davis, Huey
ve the Newton, Elijah Muhammad, Eldridge Cleav-
r seats. er, Amiri Baraka, Ron Karenga and Harry
Edwards. Their opposition to almost every-
thing tolerated by white America in the late
1960s - including the mainstream of the civil
rights movement - fueled concern about the,
direction of black America, all the way from
the Nixon White House to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
JIM TOBIN Today, however, with blacks gaining public
rial Director office across the country, and with a
.Arts Editor burgeoning black middle class, blacks now
agaging Editor Eio
gng Edto haves a vested interest in the once-odious
aging Editor Establishment - even if they don't find it
aging Editor entirely to their liking.
aging Editor
R THE STRIDENTLY militant black
separatist or revolutionary leadership of the
late sixties has been replaced with a striving,
iBlanchard, achievement oriented kind of militant lead-
rs, Lori Car.
Lisa Fisher, ership that is completely at home in America
chael Jones, and that seems quite comfortable with the
enny Miller, concept of being - and remaining - Ameri-
Karen Paul, can.
Keith Rich. Probably the most popular of all black pub-
:hiavi, Eliza-
ylor, Pauline lic figures - next to Muhammad Ali, whose
Mike Yellin, own popularity is due in part to his devotion to
Muslim causes - is the Rev. Andrew Young,
America's ambassador to the U.N., who
preaches policy rather than practices dip-
ports Editor lomacyin the traditional "old-boy-club"
Sports Editor style.
ports Editor And of the nine or so black leaders outside
of government or corporate business who
t, Rick Mad- command public attention today, at least six
tziolis, Mike are now involved in some sort of religious
arger, Errol proselytizing, or have strong religious back-
grounds and credentials. The current theme
dominating most of the rhetoric on the na-
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And, since 1975,
he has expanded his philosophical base into
the "do-it-yourself" domain left vacant when
Elijah Muhammad died of heart failure.
The "PUSH for Excellence" program Jack-
son has emphasized for the last year to high
school blacks across the nation and his suc-
cessful efforts among progressive, youth-ori-
ented black ministers in large cities give him
probably as much influence as any black
spokesman on the national scene - though it
remains unorganized and diffuse.
THE CONSERVATIVE, self-help tone of
his current message has also earned him fa-
vorable editorials and considerable news
coverage in many of the nation's largest and
most prestigious daily newspapers. His de-
tractors even claim that his only currency is
his ability to get headline space in news-
papers and air time on the six o'clock news.
Close on the heels of the Rev. Jackson -
and considerably ahead when it comes to
having a faithful "registered" following - is
Wallace Muhammad, the Chief Exam
(minister) of the World Community of Islam
in the West (WCIW), also known as the Black
Muslims.
Muhammad moved quickly after the death
of his father, and upon his own succession to
leadership of the then Nation of Islam, to
eliminate racial restrictions on membership
in the formerly all-black group, and to em-
phasize traditional Koranic, Islamic teach-
ings as the basis of his movement.
AND THOUGH there have been many de-
fectors - disgruntled over the much more
moderate political philosophy and the seem-
ingly unsuccessful economic policies of the
new leader - he has attracted many follow-
ers and held the allegiance of most of the old
who relish his much more intellectually pa-
latable brand of Islam.
Muhammad views himself as the "revivor
of the faith," and he has openly discredited
his father's claim to have been the "Messen-
ger."
The younger Muhammad intends to rekin-
dle emphasis on Godliness, true religion and
morality, first in' the Muslim world, but al-
most simultaneously in the Christian and
Jewish communities in this country and else-
where. The truly religious community, he
says, is really one and the same community,
regardless of faith or belief.
One of the most popular politico-civil rights
figures to emerge out of the government mili-
eu and back into the "struggle" (the reverse
process that many now-important govern-
ment and corporate officials followed to get
from the National Association for the Advan-
cement of Colored People, which he has head-
ed since succeeding Roy Wilkins August 1.
Hooks also possesses an apparently genuine
sensitivity to the problems and conditions
that produce hard-line rhetoric among mili-
tant black youth. Publicly he is careful to em-
phasize either areas of agreement in principle
with, or carefully guarded criticism of,
figures seen as radical, such as Ugandan
President-for-life Idi Amin.
One of the most overlooked leaders on the
civil rights scene is the Rev. Martin Luther
King Sr. "Daddy King," as he is called, has
all but eclipsed his neighbor-minister and
leader of the struggling remnants of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
ANOTHER RELIGIOUS leader who has
parlayed his own commitment to the move-
ment into a considerable amount of political
and corporate influence is the Rev. Leon
Sullivan, an eloquent proponent of the "green
power" philosophy. Sullivan, who serves on
the boards of directors of several powerful
corporations including General Motors,
works quietly in comparison to the Jacksons
and the Youngs from the Philadelphia head-
quarters of his Opportunities Industrializa-
tion Centers (OIC).
OIC programs, with the substantial help of
federal funds, have been established in doz-
ens of cities. And OIC rivals the more pres-
tigious and media-conscious Urban League
with tens of millions it, like the League, spee-
ds on job training and inner-city manufac
turing and manpower development.
The only major black figure with a natioI
base who is not a religious leader or go*
ernment official is Vernon Jordan, possibly
the most important leader on the civil rights
scene at the moment.
AS A RESULT of his Atlanta "roots," Jor-
dan remains a close advisor to President Car-
ter, despite their heated public dialogue
during the Urban League conference. He also
has the closest black, connections with tle
corporate community.
Meanwhile, black movement figures of tfle
militant period of the late 1960s repair their
own broken-down machines in antibipation of
the next surge of militancy among the
nation's blacks, a militancy signalled by the
growing polarization evinced by the recent
sharp Carter-Jordan exchange.
Angela Davis is still making frequent ap
pearances on the lecture circuit. Huey New-
ton has returned to the U.S. to resume leader:
ship of the Black Panther Party:And Stokety
Carmichael darts in and out of the countr
from his home in Guinea, West Africa, f4i