October 8, 1977--The Michigan Daily Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 /oI. LXXXVlII, No. 27 News Phor Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan ne: 764-0552 lI Some roses, some thorns ship residents being required to reveal /1 urrav an a their votes for mayor in last April's he miess HOUGH THE DUST has barely be- gun to settle over City Hall this eek, it appears that the personnel hake-up is justified. In the wake of a ighly questionable investment deal iade by two city financial officials, rd a subsequent cover-up, it seems lear that City Administrator Sylves- r Murray has taken the proper action >start clearing up the mess. City accountant Marc Levin was red and assistant controller Steven :endel was temporarily demoted. evin's boss, Lauren Jedele, resigned >r physical reasons that he said re- ilted from stress over the controver- Regardless of the obviously dubious ature of the "arbitrage" investment, is clear that Levin tried to cover up ie whole matter when it was apparent hat the city was bound to lose over $1 pillion because of it. The facts of the entire affair are not 11 certain, but Levin, at least, was uite clearly quilty of misconduct. The ear disaster demands a full accoun- ng, and it appears that Murray has aken the appropriate first steps. W LUdefense It's no surprise, but the Michigan imerican Civil Liberties Union ACLU) deserves congratulations for imping to the defense of the 20 town- election. Their constitutional rights seem patently clear. The possibility of their being sent to jail for the mistakes of whomever told them they were elig- ible to vote in the city election is abom- inable. We hope the ACLU lawyers ac- quire just treatment for them immedi- ately. * * * Thanks anyway, Perry The Book of Wapy and Ayk Our own Rep. Perry Bullard not- withstanding, the Michigan House of Representatives this week came down firmly against liberalization of the state's marijuana laws. Bullard, for years an articulate advocate of de- creased penalties for possession of pot, led the fight to eliminate jail terms for possession and nearly won. But the op- position squeaked by with a three-vote margin. The arguments against Bullard's bill were those archaic standards which have been peddled around and around for years - namely: that a reduction in penalties for marijuanaj will inevitably lead the pink-cheeked youngster to hard drug addiction. Not' quite so inevitable, perhaps, as knee- jerk conservative reaction when a marijuana bill hits the floor of a state legislature. Jl I Nth'' 4 BtLLV cARr' CNce 'w*u.s . c oti4o .c ou~n SHOULCG EEt4 KNEE- NIGH BY NOWYV/ ,.l~ "}IIIirk<. .r' { I : . _ ; . a. i . i By JEFFREY SELBST O NCE IN A FAR-OFF land called America (no one alive remembered how it came by that rather quaint name), there lived two men, named Wapy and Ayk. They were of a profession known, in the fashion of the time, as "elder-stud- iers," but they preferred the term "arch- aeologist." The major thinking in the field of elder- studying was at the time seriously split: the question - was there or was there not a society, cultured, civilized, whatever - before the Great Catastrophe? THE THEOLOGIANS of the day be- lieved that there had been people on the Earth once; but that God had chosen to punish them by delivering unto them the Great Catastrophe, which was supposed to have been a rainfall on enormous propor- tions. Two people, and a few animals, were reputed to have escaped in a vessel, which the religious leaders termed the "Ark." And thus, they said, did we get our be- ginning. Wapy and Ayk believed that there was a flourishing civilization before the Catas- trophe, and organized expeditions to dig up much of the planet to (this was their hope) uncover relics of a society whose ways were foreign to them. Lately, some proof-was beginning to sur- face. Scientists had checked radiation lev- els, carbon-dated certain rocks, and de- termined that the Catastrophe was in re- ality a nuclear eruption of mammoth pro- portions, and the resulting fallout had killed everything alive, and destroyed most of the tangible artifacts. THESE SCIENTISTS published (their findings; public reaction was all outrage. "Against God and nature!" cried the churches. "The raving of unsound min- ds!' cried the teachers. But Wapy and Ayk were not so sure. Again and again they drove themselves to new sites, new "digs." Until one day, in a cave in the mountains of the eastern part of America, they found stone jars sealed with paraffin. Excited they were, amazed and ec- static! For when they opened the jars, they discovered scrolls, written in a strange hieroglyphic. "Here it is!" cried Ayk. "The proof we have sought! The chroni- cle of a lost people!" Ayk and Wapy em- braced each other and wept. THEY RETURNED with the scrolls to the laboratory, and gave them to the ex- pert linguists, Rosetta and Stone. Rosetta set to work immediately, though Stone was against the project. "Waste of time," he scoffed. "Foolish." Rosetta broke the code in a week's time, and laboriously translated the message contained therein. She gave it to Wapy, who read it with transcendent delight. Naturally, the contents of the scroll had to be made known to the citizens of the country, and full accounts were published by the newspapers. Headlines screamed: SCROLLS UNCOVERED! LINK FOUND TO WORLD BEFORE CATASTROPHE! FOR WEEKS, as the world outside could speak of nothing else, and cocktail party chatter wore thin with repetition; Wapy and Ayk pondered the significance of the strange words that were written on the Scrolls. A reporter made his way up to Wapy one day, as he was taking his lunch break, and shoved a microphone into his face. "Would you care to comment, sir?" "It seems to me," said the scholarly Wapy with care, "that we have uncov- ered the religious roots of the society that pre-existed our own." "Would you care to elaborate?" he was asked. "CERTAINLY. There appears to have been a series of gods, known as Carol, Jay, and Monty, Carol and Jay being the lesser deities. There was a ritual in which people had to dress up in vegetable costumes, and they traded idols."' "Idols, sir?" "Items of real and presumed value to this people, that's what I'm referring to. They traded goats, high-chairs, many, many cases of soy sauce, and other such essential items." "What else?" "WELL, AS A people they were a para- dox. They were highly competitive - high- ly! - so much so that the audiences who watched these rituals daily, and once a week in the evening, would work up intoa frenzy and scream and shout as each idol: was traded for one larger. The traders themselves were powered by a sort of - well, avaricious ecstasy. The more they acquired, the more they glorified Monty, so the harder they tried." "And the paradox?" "The paradox," smiled Wapy, "is that the entire ritual appears to have been vol- untary." The reporter gasped. "Yes," continued the venerable arch- aeologist, "the society seems to have fos- tered a religion which was not compul- sory, suggested by the name of the ritual, formed in grammar which suggests but does not command. Hence, Let's Make A Deal, rather than, for instance, Thou Must Make A Deal." "THESE CONCLUSIONS you draw -- all from these scrolls, doctor!" the re- porter said, beside himself. "Why, it opens a window onto another world." "Yes - and at times a cruel one. For you see, if they had angered Monty, then when they traded in their idols for better idols, he would give them nothing in return. Monty was great - yes, but Monty was terrible." The reporter thanked Wapy, and con- cluded the interview. Wapy's remarks were spread across the front page of every newspaper in the world. Wapy and Ayk became successful and famous, and immensely wealthy. They wrote a book, which sold lots and lots of copies. They appeared on talk shows, and did lectures, and went to hundreds and - hundreds of cocktail parties. ONE DAY, a little man approached 'Wapy on the street. "Are you the great scientist Wapy, the archaeologist?" "No," said the disillusioned old man. "You lie," twinkled the stranger. "I know the truth." "Yes," signed Wapy, "but I am sooo tired. Tired of my fame." "Tired of your fortune?" "Tired of my fortune." "Would you like to get rid of it?" "I'd like to trade it away - for peace - for happiness -" Wapy shrunk back. The twinkle had disappeared from the stranger's face. Suddenly he flashed his fangs. "For what's behind door number three?" snarled the stranger. "It's - it's -" "It's Monty!" snarled the old man, and he grinned evilly. It was over. ft_ .r a . . ! t 'IwI 'I . ." ,. a : N ' -" -. , ... ~ ,,, . , MN' ^ Jeffrey Selbst Daily's arts page. is editor of The . a ... , ., .. y 6' a s .. .-- .. . _ " _ ,..- . ' r . C 1: W wCS: it K TruK .K1 A flaw in the f~EMdta aI EDITORIAL STAFF NN MARIE LIPINSKI JIM TOBIN Editors-in-Chief SJOSIMOVIC...... . ..............Managing Editor ORGE LOBSENZ.......................... Managing Editor rIU McCNNELL....................... Managing Editor ENIFR MILLER.......................... Managing Editor BIKE NORTON........................Managing Editor EN PARSIGIAN .......... ....... Managing Editor OB ROSENBAUM ........ ..... Managing Editor [ARGARET YAQ. . ..................... Managing Editor SAN ADES ........................ .........Magazine Editor SY LEVIN .....:............ Magazine Editor LAINE FLETCHER ................Associate Magazine Editor EFFREY SELBST .................. ............... Arts Editor Weather Forecasters: RMark Andrew Mike ilfnrd ithOrd Fnltman lick, Keith Richburg, Julie Rovner, Dennis Sabo, Annmarie Schiavi, Paul Shapiro, Elizabeth Slowik, Mike Taylor, Pauline Toole, Sue Warner, Linda Wilcox, Shelley Wolson, Mike Yellin, and Barb Zahs SPORTS STAFF KATHY HENNEGHAN .... ..........iSports Editor TOM CAMERON ............ Executive Sports Editor SCOTT LEWIS .......................... Managing Sports Editor Don MacLACHLAN .................... . .Associate Sports Editor JOHN NIEMEYER ................... Contributing Sports Editor NIGHT EDITORS: Paul Campbell, Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engel- hardt, Jeff Frank, Gary Kicinski, Brian Martin, Bob Miller, Brian Miller, Dave Renbarger, Errol Shifman and Jamie Turner RTT TNTFC STA FF Preoccupied with the normal problems of mating, most people seldom think about homosexuali- ty. But sometimes they're forced to think about it. That's what happened when the Supreme Court refused on Oc- tober 3 to hear the appeal of James Gaylord, a Tacoma, Washington high school teacher who was dismissed from his teaching job in 1972 after admit- ting to school officials that he was a homosexual. Gaylord's pri- mary contention was that his fir- ing violated his constitutional right to equal protection under the law. SO THE EARLIER decision of the Washington Supreme Court, which held that Gaylord's homo- sexuatisty was sufficient arensr peals of the same sort will not be considered. In this case, it probably means that the court did not think it timely to decide the matter - just as it refused to hear abortion cases in the later 1960s. Sooner or later, however, the court will have to come to grips with the issue. And when it does, the decision will be more com- gay rig had any choice in the matter. Hence the case involved freedom of association. The children were compelled by law to associate with a man whose behavior under state law was, according to the Washington Supreme Court, im- moral. If Gaylord had been a no- torious libertine or shoe fetishist, the court might well have ap- proved his dismissal on those hts line great majority of American people consider homosexuality an immoral, abnormal, and devi= ant condition, which may pro- duce undesirable effects on close associates. Under conditions of forced association, such as in schools or the military forces, homosexuals may be dismissed: from their positions. In cases in-, volving'a more moderate degree of association - the engineer or truck driver, for example - dis- missal may not be justified. A common flaw in gay rights thinking is to compare the homo-. sexual's condition to that of a black, woman, or, for example, Roman Catholic. This is patently foolish. Being black or a woman is a matter of physical state.; Being a Roman Catholic is a mat- RIGHT ANGLE by CHUCK ANESI Alex than most gay rights advo- grounds.