qe 4--Friday, October 28, 1977--The Michigan Daily k ~Ile Sirb!WEn ?tUIIQ Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 LXXXVIII, No. 44 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Aq SA needs new fuel to i change things at the 'U' _ _...._. 7 ERE ARE MANY times when, as Sstudent, one is filled with a son- se o frustration over the inability to solve those problems which affect stu- den tsmost. Too often, the helpless feel- ing imunnecessary. Rules can be changed, people can bo convinced, and lo, even this Univer- sty ycan alter its objectives. The pro- cess of bringing this about is a rela- tively simple one - it's called demo- cracy, and it is fueled only by people. A government exists on this campus which functions for the benefit of students and only students. It is called the Michigan Student Assembly. ( (MSA). Whether it operates with or without, any degree of efficiency, it is the only group at this University recog-. nized as the representative of the tu- ition-paying person. I n recent.years, student support for 1SA has 'dropped to levels so low that people wonder whether the group can aetur lly claim it represents anyone. There is, in fact, an energy crisis going on in MSA right now. Perhaps it's bec ause the wrong people are in power. Perhaps the problem can be at- tributed to apathy. What really matters is that fall , elec ins to the assembly are ap- prahing, and if you want to change the ay things are around you, student . govenment is just about the only way yoU n do it. M 1 day, October 31, is the deadline ' . R for becoming 'i candidate for MSA. Think about what you could do with the time you do nothing with now, and then contact the MSA office. What MSA really needs is new blood. It needs serious students who are just a bit more concerned with events at the University than they are with themselves. It's a tough challenge to inflict on yourself, but if you can wade through all of the muck which goes with the job, you can make a mark on this campus. All you need to qualify for office is a good complaint. e3in ai By PAULINE TOOLE EDITORIAL STAFF ANN MARIE LIPINSKI Editors-in-Chief JIM TOBIN LOIS JOSIMOVICH.............. ..... ... Managing Editor GEORGE LOBSENZ .......Maanaging Editor STU McCONNELL ....................Managing Editor JENNIFER MILLER .................Managing Editor PATRICIA MONTEMURRI ............... Magaging Editor KEN PARSIGIAN. ....................Managing Editor BOB ROSENBAUM........... .......... Managing Editor MARGARET YAO ...................Managing Editor SUSAN ADES JAY LEVIN Sunday Magazine Editors ELAINE FLECTCHER TOM O'CONNELL Associate Magazine Editors JEFFREY SELBST Arts Editor STAFF WRITERS: Susan Barry, Richard Berke,.Brian Blan- chard, Michael Beckman, Lori Carruthers, Ken Chotiner, Eileen Daley,'Lisa Fisher, Denise Fox, Steve Gold, David Goodman, Elisa Isaacson, Michael Jones, Lani Jordan, Janet Klein, Garth Kriewall, Gregg Krupa, Paula Lashinsky, Marty Levine, Dobilas Matunonis, Carolyn Morgan, Dan .Oberdorfer, Mark Parrent, Karen Paul, Stephen Pickover, Christopher Potter, Martha Retallick, Keith Richburg, Diane Robinson, Julie R~ovner, Dennis Sabo, Annmarie Schiavi, Paul Shapiro, R. J. Smith, Elizabeth Slowik, Mike Taylor, Pauline Toole, Sue Warner, Jim Warren, Linda Willcox, Shelley Wolson, Tim Yagle, Mike Yellin, Barbara Zahs, Mark Andrews, Mike Gilford, Richard Foltman Weather Forecasters 'I was worried when plans for last Saturday's rally at Kent State were announced. Worried for fear that it would be a disap- pointing anticlimax after the rally of September 24. But I wasn't worried about police. When I arrived, my initial re- action was amazement at the number of cops. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined, much less experienced. In com- parison, the number of protesters seemed woefully small. We were dwarfed by the immensity and extensiveness of riot equipped po- lice. For me, violent confrontation was a relic of the past. It was a reality in the sixties but it was alien to my generation. We were in grade school during the protest years, and were left un-scathed by the bitterness of the sixties radicals. Getting 'gased and busted' were removed from our reality. We could joke about it because it was science fiction. But it became real. Saturday's really became a hostile confrontation between 150 law enforcement officers and ap- proximately 800 students. It was both unprovoked and unjustified. The shootings at Kent State oc- curred over seven years ago. Re- percussions continue to echo through the deceptively peaceful Ohio campus and throughout the country. When university officials un- veiled plans to build a gym- nasium on the site of the shoot- ings, a coalition formed to pre- vent construction. Throughout the summer, the May 4 Coalition held rallies. One hundred and ninety-three protesters set up a tent city on the proposed site and lived there for two months. They were all arrested. In the course of five months, over 300 people were arrested for demonstrating against building the gym. The Coalition obtained a court order that halted construction and advanced a legal battle to permanently stop construction of the proposed facility. But Ohio courts ruled at the end of August that construction could start once again. In the beginning of September, crews began to raze the hill. The tall, old trees were chopped down and the topsoil was carted away. Nearly 3,000 people attended a national rally at Kent on Septem- ber 24. It was calm and peaceful. Par- ticipants came away feeling strong and unified. There was an unending flow of energy; sud- denly I caught a glimpse of what was happening in the sixties. Thousands of people gathered for a common purpose - it was ex- hilarating and exciting. The majority of the protesters viewed that demonstration large- ly as a symbolic gesture opposing Dejal vu-seven years construction. It was a last effort - admittedly futile, but neces- sary. Nobody believed that Kent ; officials would heed the voice of ; 3,000 demonstrators. At the same time it was very necessary for those to voice their opposition. 1 Since the September demon- stration, no additional clearing or construction has been undertak- en. The university threw its ener- gies, al'ong with $30,000, into building a ten foot tall fence around the area. They built a fen- ce around a hill of bare soil and scattered bricks. For last Saturday's rally, I an- ticipated more of those feelings of unity and hope. Bret Eynon had attended the September demon- stration and he too was taken by surprise at the reception on Sat- urday. We stood next to each other in the column marching away from the police before the descent of the tear gas. "My God," he said. "I never expected this." Laughing ruefully, he ex- plained, "We brought two bottles after demonstrators attempted to meet on the Commons, an open, grassy area close to the construction site. They were greeted by police dressed in riot gear and carrying shotguns, teargas cartridges and billy clubs. Mounted officers moved into the edges of the crowd. It was impossible to turn around without seeing police armed and ready. For what, I couldn't say. They looked in- congruous and out of place amid- st the youthful protesters gath- ered on the gentle slopes. The police twice relocated pro- testers by prodding with their batons. The scheduled rally was begun on a third site and after about an hour, the police moved in again. The protesters prepared to move. The protesting groups' tactics were to move in an orderly fashion to another spot. Everyone wanted to avoid any type of con- frontation. That was stressed. The group formed a column eight "My God, " he said. "I never ex- pected this. We brought two bottles of wine, some cheese - I was ex- pecting a picnic." Demonstrators pulled handker- chiefs up over their faces to make breathing easier. It was reminis- cent of childhood's masked out- laws, but it wasn't a game. Finally the sky cleared - although the acrid, acidy smell still hung about. I felt untold re- lief just to be able to sit and breathe freely. "You should be grateful," said Bob Malone, the chief of Kent State Security, as he surveyed the scattered protesters. An am- bulance stood nearby and one of the wounded protesters was being taken away. "You can only be thankful that the law enforce- ment officers have had a lot of pa- tience. You should be thankful that you weren't arrested." It was at that point the shooting of four students in 1970 became real. "Four dead in Ohio" emerg- ed from a bizarre horror tale at- mosphere into the glare of present day reality. The shootings were no longer distant. I could picture the array of 1970 and. could envision a recurrence. Scattered groups began to reas- semble and confer. People milled around discussing what had hap- pened and what had to be done next. Nobody wanted to confront the police, but at the same time nobody wanted to stay hidden in their little corners. To reassem- ble was to say "we are still here and we are-together," The rally that never really began ended soon afterwards. I came away from Saturday's experience filled with a bewilder- ment that I can't shake off. It still seems incomprehensible that the police would take such action against us - incomprehensible, but not impossible. I cannot ac- cept a logic or frame of mind that leads to such violence. We are an idealistic group. In many ways I feel betrayed by my own naivete. We are soft in our hardness and express a willing- ness to trust. What happened Sat- urday will probably happen again and again - because we are not a bitter group. Perhaps we view the world through rose colored glasses. Perhaps we are being unrealistic. But our nature precludes the bit- terness and hatred that charac- terized so many of the activists in the sixties. More shocking than the use of violence against us at the rally were the comments of a small number of Kent State students. There were anonymous voices yelling from a dormitory window. "Hey, you got them. That'll teach you. Get off our campus. Next time shoot'em!" That last phrase echoes in my mind. The horror is no longer distant. Pauline Toole has cov- ered the events surrounding the construction of a new gym at Kent State for the Daily. of wine, some cheese - I was ex- pecting a picnic." On Friday, October 24, the Kent State trustees obtained a court order against members of the May 4 Coalition and up to 2,000 protesters. The four-day injunc- tion made the next day's demon- stration illegal, and provided for the presence of police on the cam- pus. Tony May, Kent State director of communication, explained the police action. "The primary re- sponsibility of the police was to carry out the court order and prevent the demonstration," he said. "Their action - the use of tear gas - in retrospect seems good. It was successful." May's explanation for armed officers displays a paranoia on the part of Kent officials. "In the past, police have not always car- ried firearms," May summized. "There was no communication this time. The local leaders of the May 4 Coalition were in jail or not on campus. The leaders of this rally could not be identified. The police had no idea how the crowd' would react." Upon arrival Saturday, the abreast and hundreds long and started to move away from the police. There was no violence in- tended or expressed toward the police. The idea was to get away. The police blocked the move- ment and began to fire gas into the crowd. They gave no orders to disperse. They just began charging at the crowd, firing gas. Confusion reigned as protesters were herded toward no place in particular. Everyone was run- ning and coughing and those who knew screamed, "Don't rub your eyes. Don't touch your face." The advice was picked up and repeat- ed again and again as those in pain tried to fight their hands from rubbing. Clouds of tear gas billowed in the air as students ran about trying to escape. Disorder. I grabbed the hand of a friend and ran, trying to get away. Trying to find the peace of trees and a sun- ny fall day. My face burned and my eyes itched. I felt that no mat- ter how far we ran, those cotton candy soft, lethal clouds would still be there. There was no place to go, but we ran, following the others, trying to get away. mom -.4 ast your vote to ease housing y STEPHEN HERSH used to see a lot of work toward pr,,) L - iegislation in Ann Arbor, bu 1s all grinding to a halt. The Demo- era -. re less apt to fight for reforms now tm they were in recent years - they " ,aid of alienating the middle- of the er. And the Human Rights R rt* P I is all but wiped out. Ibis so? It's because students dc C; their voting strength in city d ?ousands of them don't reg- Sism x i Ann Arbor, and many of th w do register don't show up at th = p x booths on electiondays. Ti - E IS now a very close balance M ks n ^" -M ahtlnm .M- - students. But with large numbers of students staying out of city politics, what's been happening is that progressive issues have been left untouched - and re- forms already scored have been over- turned. Recall what happened to Pref- erential Voting, the voting system which kept HRP alive. The Human Rights Party, the city's once-active third party, did a good job of repre- senting student interests, and it influ- enced the Democrats to do more for stu- dents than they had ever done in the past. But HRP and the Democrats ten- ded to split the liberal-left vote - throwing some elections to the Republi- cans. Preferential Voting helped solve that nrnhlem. Tt was u nlan annroved by out was poor in student areas and other places where Democratic and HRP support was strongest. Preferential Voting was discarded, and that began to push student interests off the list of important concerns in city politics. LOW VOTER turnout has hurt the Democrats on City Council in the past couple of years. A Michigan Daily polit- ical writer reported in April of 1976 that "Republican Wendell Allen crashed in on an off year (and) an appallingly low student turnout" when he scored "the first GOP victory in the First Ward sin- ce 1960." If Allen had not won his City Council seat, the Republicans would not now be enjoying a majority on coun- cil. And a Republican majority on coun- cil has tended to mean a moratorium on City Council's sluggishness in moving for improvements in housing can only be explained by the fact that the council majority doesn't care enough about ten- ants to do anything for them. There is an abundant supply of ideas which have been presented to council on how it could help the city's tenants. Shortly be- fore last April's election, the Mayor's Fair Rental Practices Committee drew up a list of recommendations for changes in the law which*would im- prove housing. The Committee suggested that the city take the follow- ing steps: - encourage the University to house more of its students; - enact a "repair and deduct" law, which would allow tenants to make any get legal advice on landlord-tenant problems. MORE recommendations for the im- provement of housing were made in a study. done for the city by the Commu- nity Planning and Management Pro- gram. That study was commissioned to examine why virtually no new housing is being built in the city despite a severe housing shortage. It examined ways to encourage the building of more housing. The study proposed that the city do the following: - create the position of City Ombuds- person for development to facilitate the process of getting permission for con- struction; - shorten the procedure for City show that they want such action. And if the voters are to show more support for housing reform, the extra support will have to come from students and other people who either don't usually turn out to vote, or who aren't registered to vote in Ann Arbor. Since students live in the city for at. least two-thirds of the year, Ann Ar- bor's laws affect their lifestyles and their bank accounts. If you want cheap- er and better housing, one of the most effective means at your disposal is the vote. An MSA-sponsored project is about to kick off a voter registration drive, with an eye toward the city election this coming April. If you're not registered to