Page 4-Sunday, November 20, 1977-The Michigan Daily
OKINGBCK THE WEEK IN REVIEW
FE and senators
JST BEFORE Gov. William Milli-
J-en cleated the slate for Republi-
ci to enter the race for Robert Grif-
ftif Senate seat by pulling out of the
ring the hat he never really threw in, he
w in Ann Arbor announcing another
uimortant development: the opening of
tpeirst facility in the state to provide
rof2ge and live-in counseling for the
vo Qms of domestic violence.
he Shelter Available for Emergen-
c i (SAFE), heralded by Milliken and
c?hty officials as one of the finest
ne sures taken toward the prevention
of -lomestic violence in the country,
won't actually open its doors to clients
ultij Jan. 2. Until then battered women
w1 have to depend on the county's only
otier available program, which in-
volVes volunteers letting victims into
their homes for three-day "cooling off
periods."
However, after the opening of SAFE
- which will provide accommodations
for battered women and children for up
to four weeks at a time - facility di-
rectors predict they will counsel over
365 families during the first year of op-
eration.
"Our main purpose is to help the
spouse and provide safe, temporary ac-
commodations for her and others who
would be in physical danger in their
present living conditions," said county
Domestic Violence Project Director
John Hayes during SAFE's christening.
"Otherwise they worry in a place by
themselves in a hotel or go back not
being any smarter."
Later that day Milliken refocused his
attention on party considerations. With
competition warming up for Griffin's
soon to be abandoned Senate seat,
many people in the state GOP assumed
readily that the governor would
represent the Republican on Novem-
ber's ballot. Tuesday night, however,
the governor said 'no'.
The announcement came as a sur-
prise to many people, but nobody was
more surprised - or pleased - then
state Democrats.
"When you don't have an incumbent
to beat, the race becomes easier," said
one Democratic party leader. "Our
candidates have had a longer time to
get out and get organized."
Republican leaders, however, deny a
Democratic advantage. "I think we
have a number of potentially strong
candidates," maintained Dennis
Cawthorne, GOP caucus leader for the
Michigan house. "No strong candidate
has yet emerged for the Democrats."
State Sen. John Otterbacher would
disagree. He made a non-committment
committment to vie for the office
several months ago and has been run-
ning hard, but cautiously, ever since.
Former Detroit City Council President
Carl Levin's name has also been men-
tioned by Democratic party leaders,.
but he has not confirmed (or denied)
those rumors yet.
As for the GOP, it is now left without
a candidate. Left without a candidate,
that is, except for University Regent
Deane Baker whose name, once again,
has been whispered in GOP circles as a
possibility. BakeF, however, tried the
senate game last year. And if last
year's results should'have taught the
Republicans anything, it should have
been to save Baker, and the party, from
election-day humiliation once again.
"
Just the (frightening)
facts, ma 'am
" HE RAT," "the spoiler," and
Imost recently in a contribution to
Esquire by Gordon Liddy, "the prize
canary of the Watergate Special Prose-
cution Force," have all proceeded John
Dean's name since the unveiling of
Watergate. Last week in Ann Arbor
"banana cream" came before that
popular Watergate moniker, but the
bold threat of delivering desert to Dean
right between the eyes turned out to be
an idle one.
His speech was just too damn inter-
esting.
Students of Blind Ambition weren't
handed any new revelations of that
scornful period in American politics -
Dean pretty much said it all in his book,
and then repeated a lot of it in his Hill
Auditorium address Wednesday night.
And he didn't sweat blood, either, while
untangling the history of his corrupt in-
volvement in Watergate before the rel-
atively passive audience.
What he did do was strike a quiet note
of fear in the hearts of the listeners.
Watching Dean, calm and reconciled
with his past, it was hard to believe that
the eloquent, well-meaning, charming
man on stage got himself so messed up
with the like of Richard Nixon and com-
pany.
Indeed, Dean finds it hard to believe
himself. "I just wanted to prove
myself," he said, describing the men-
tality that dominated the thinking of
White House fledglings when he first
took his post as special counsel. The
thinking was: 'Do what you're asked.
You're only being tested.'
"I'd heard stories of what happened
to the careers of people who were black-
listed at the White House," Dean re-
called. "I didn't want that to happen to
me.
Nothing wildly complicated, said
Dean. It was the promise of prestige
that lured his type into the Watergate
cover-up, and it is the promise of pres-
tige that could guarantee a repeat per-
formance with any other White House
staff.
The thought is frightening.
Fig - r -
EighIy-E igh I )'CarS (4 Edih.ri(II Free(IomI
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Vol. L XXX VIII No. 64
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
MSA needs our support
SOME THINGS never change. Prior
-Jto this week's election, all the MSA
candidates said one of their priorities
was to get more students interested in
MSA. There was a lot of fancy talk
about changing MSA's focus to proj-.
ects that benefit all students, and prom-
ises to better inform students of MSA
activity. Yet despite the perennial
rhetoric, no one seems to care. Bursley
RA Eric Arnson topped the field this
week with a whopping 320 votes, or
about .9 per cent of the electorate. Not
exactly an overwhelming mandate of
the masses. And worse still, the second
place finisher had only slightly more
than 100 votes. In all, less than 2,000.
NKi11ers' shou
OR ALMOST a week, 74 residents
of East Quad have been cavorting
around their dorm, shooting each other
dead with great eagerness 'and gaity.
It's a game, they tell us. The Killer
Contest. Participants arm themselves
with dart guns and play "hit man" un-
til all of their friends are assassinated.
"The whole thing is based on fair
play," said the coordinator of the
event, and he promptly analyzed three
different methods used to survive the
ordeal. The contest is no doubt harm-
less, but at-the same time, it is an indi-
cation of the sickness and hypocrisy
contained in our society. At one in-
stant, an individual can be upset by the
so-called Son-of-Sam atrocities in New
York City, and at another instant they
can be pretending they themselves are
Son-of-Sam in a "game" played at
East Quad.
But attempts to compare the shoot-
ings at the dorm to a game, are
misguided, to say the least. Beating an
opponent at a game of chess is quite
students took the time to cast a ballot.
MSA is now at the stage where it can
shuch the image of an ineffective bun-
ch of power-seeking kids, and make
some significant contributions to stud-
ent life, but it needs voter support. If
MSA is to lobby effectively with the
administration, it must be able to show
.it represents a majority of students. As
long as students remain apathetic
about MSA, the Regents and the ad-
ministration will continue to take MSA
with a grain of salt, and students will
still have no effective means of com-
munication with the University
powers.
id return to TV
different from pointing a gun at some-
one - whether it is real or not - and
shooting to kill. In the instant between
pulling that trigger and hitting the
target, the East Quad "hit man" is en-
joying the same' sensations which a
real killer - like Son-of-Sam - enjoys.
In that instant, the dart gun's ammu-
nition might as well be real.
This is not to say that participants
in such elimination contests are po-
tential killers. They are instead poten-
tial hypocrites. The hypocrisy emerges
in its truest form when a TV viewer
gasps and shakes their head through
the evening news and subsequently sits
through a weekly episode of S.W.A.T.
without the slightest twitch.
In the meantime it is useless to con-
demn the 2nd annual East Quad Killer
Contest, since everyone obviously en-
joys it so much. With some luck, if
enough people are "killed" in this
year's contest, there will be no one left
alive next year to organize the 3rd an-
nual Killer Contest.
By The Associated Press
CAIRO-Asked seven years ago if he was
prepared to recognize Israel if it withdrew
from Arab territory captured in 1967, Egypt's
newly chosen president snapped: "Never.
Our people here will crush anyone who would
decide this."
Yesterday, that same president, Anwar
Sedat, bucking a gathering storm of protest in
the Arab world but apparently supported at
home, embarked on an unprecedented 36-
hour visit to Israel-the first by a leader of
an Arab nation.
SOME OF THE roots of the trip can be seen
in the changes that have come about in the
policy of a man who is making it.
Flushed with the partial success of Egyp-
tian forces during the October 1973 war,
Sadat's hard-line position toward Israel sof-
tened-but not to the point where he could for-
see eventual diplomatic relations with the
Jewish state.
"How could you visualize that, after 26
years of bitterness, belligerency, hatred and
violence?" He responded to an interviewer in
March 1974. "It cannot be . . let our aim be
to end this state of belligerency officially and
openly. That will be a big achievement
. we cannot say what will happen after
that."
TWO YEARS later, with the Suez Canal
reopened and Israeli troops withdrawn
behind the mountain passes in the Sinai
desert, Sadat was talking about indefinite
coexistence between Arabs and Israelis. But
he still was not prepared to remotely consider
an exchange of ambassadors between Cairo
natomy of,
a turnabout
and Tel Aviv.
"I would say that after ending the state of
beligerency, our relations with Israel would
be like America's relations with China,"
Sadat said in November 1976. "You ended
your Korean war and coexisted with China for
a couple of decades, but during that time you
had no relations. In time, circumstances
brought you together. The same could happen
here."
During a visit to Washington a month
before last May's Israeli election, Sadat told
reporters that "for sure there will be nor-
malization" of relations with Israel after a
Mideast settlement. Significantly, he gave no
timetable for establishing ties.
AFTER THE rightist victory in Israel and
the election of Menahem Begin as prime
minister, Sadat's position hardened
somewhat.
In an interview with a Beirut magazine
early last summer, the Egyptian said he had
told President Carter during their
Washington meeting that, "if we resurrected
Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammed
together, they would not be able to persuade
Moslem or Christian Arabs to open the bor-
ders with Israel after 29 years of hatred, four
wars, rivers of blood and massacres."
He also dismissed Begin's role in the Middle
East peace process.
"Begin or no Begin," Sadat said, "it is the
United States that counts. America is 100 per
cent responsible for Israel's existence and
survival. So America also is 100 percent
responsible for peace in the Mideast."
BY JULY, Sadat was telling a U.S.
congressional delegation visiting in Alexan-
dria that "we should not start with open bor-
ders and exchange of trade and diplomatic
relations after 29 years of Arab-Israeli
hostilities. But we can open everything within
five years after a peace treaty is signed."
However, he added, he could not end the
existing state of war until the last Israeli
soldier left Arab land.
"How can I end the state of war while there
are Israeli soldiers on my land," Sadat told
the congressmen. "This would ,lie an official
invitation to them to stay."
Then, 10 days ago, Sadat made his historic
announcement to the People's Assembly,
Egypt's parliament.
"Israel would be astonished when they hear
me say this. But I say it. I am ready to even go
to their home . . . to the Knesset parliament
and discuss peace with them if need be."
Sadat is scheduled to make that speech in
the Knesset at4p.m. (9a.m. EST) today. Few
observers expect him to shift from often
repeated Arab demands for full Israeli with-
drawal and a homeland for the Palestinians,
but most see the visit as a major
breakthrough in itself.
Un4imitn-ukeplan liabilities
ATO HELL WITH ITI ~$
SOMEBODY GIVE ME
A KNIFE!
4nx
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By ROD KOSANN
A mishap occurs at an atomic
energy plant affecting an area of
hundreds of square miles.
Damages to people and property
total into the billions of dollars,
and suits for that amount are
filed against the power company
responsible. In accordance with
federal law the company deposits
with the court a check for $560
million, and asserts that this
amount should be distributed
among the victims in settlement
of all their claims. Those trying
to collect beyond that are
helpless.
It is the possibility that the
scenario could go beyond fiction
which has prompted the Supreme
Court to agree to hear a suit
brought by neighbors of a nuclear
power plant in North Carolina.
The suit challenges the con-
stitutionality of the Price-
Anderson Act (1957) which places
a liability ceiling of $660 million
on the total damages that may be
collected from a power company
in the event of a nuclear accident.
This liability limit has been ter-
med unconstitutional by a
Federal District Court on the
grounds that it violates both the
"due process" and "equal
protection" rights of potential
victims. It is their ruling which the
Supreme Court has chosen to
review.
to involve themselves in such an
endeavor. However, once Price-
Anderson became law it enabled
the power companies to embark
on nuclear projects with the
knowledge that only up to a cer-
tain sum would they be held ac-
countable for their negligence.
This lack of accountability in-
sured that atomic energy, and the
safety standards that accompan-
ty it, would develop not in the
laboratories of private com-
panies, but instead in the cham-
bers of the Capitol. What the
legislators failed to realize was
that their edict, making finan-
cially unfeasible power plants
possible, might well have
breached the constitutional
rights of those affected by a
nuclear accident. As the lower
court found, the principle of "due
process" was violated in that
liability limits allowed "the
destruction of property or lives
without reasonable certainty that
victims will be justly compen-
sated." At the same time "equal
protection" was abandoned sinep
what "Congress deemed to be a
benefit to the whole society" was
achieved at "the cost of an ar-
bitrarily chosen segment of
society-those injured by nuclear;
catastrophe."
Yet, it was not only these con-
stitutional rights which the
Congress ignored. Price-
Anderson effectively abolished
dealing with environmental
hazards than that which is
currently being followed.
THE MEANS USED most
frequently to cope with virtually
every form of pollution has been
some type of government
regulation. Whether the en-
vironmental element involved is
one of air, land, or water, it is
seemingly protected by an ap-
propriate regulatory agency.
Although it is still at a stage of
relative infancy, the state's role
in assuming these respon-
sibilities appears to be maturing
rapidly.
As the government bears a
greater share of this burden, one
can expect a corresponding
decline in private initiatives
directed at alleviating environ-
mental wrongs. Individual efforts
will focus not on the polluter, but
instead will act primarily as a
catalyst to a more stringent set of
state guidelines. It is this idea
which clarifies the folly of
establishing liability limits on
atomic energy plants. By setting
a $560 million ceiling, Congress
deprived the private sector of its
sole means of influencing safety
standards.
The threat of a lawsuit, crip-
pling in its impact on would-be
atomic polluters, met its demise
with the passage of Price-
Anderson.
-41L
dividual's holdings. The penalties
which exist for expropriating
another's property, could be ap-
plied on an equally stringent
basis to those who dump their
refuse on others without in-
vitation. An exercise of legal ac-
tion by private parties would ser-
ve not only to penalize the
polluter, but would also act as a
deterrent to those future com-
panies which own equipment not
meeting the standards of
cleanliness upheld by the courts.
To shift the burden of environ-
mental clean-up from gover-
nment edict to private lawsuit
would help retard the growth of
the bureaucratic regulatory
machine. - A Supreme court
decision that lifts the liability
ceilings on nuclear plants would
move us one step closer to effec-
ting this transition. More impor-
tantly, that decision might serve
to shift more environmental bat-
tles into the private sector,- while
at the same time saddling gover-
nment with the role of just a
curious onlooker.
Rod Kosann is a freqiient
contributor to the aIiis
editorialpage.
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