ilje AMrtiigan Batlu
Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Ml 48109
Psychoactive drugs
forced
on
Tuesday, October 5, 1976
News Phone; 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
B utz's exit Painfully slow
THE RESIGNATION yesterday of
Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz
removed an ugly racist from Presi-
dent Ford's Cabinet, but it most as-
suredly did not signal the end of out-
rage against the cruel slur he com-
mitted, nor did it leave Ford with
anything but shame for his mis-
handling of the matter.
Butz's comment was truly stag-
gering in its offensiveness, even to
those who are familiar with sexual
and scatological slang. The slur was
so vulgar and full of hate that it
could not be repeated in broadcasts
or quoted in most newspapers. Butz
has earned himself a vile reputation
for indecency and prejudices which
should rightfully dog him for the
rest of his life.
Just as offensive were the Secre-
tary's attempts to pass off his re-
marks as a private joke, that stirring
racial hatred is somehow excusable
if confined to a group of friends. In
fact, however, there can be no de-
fense at all for such thoughts. They
are evidence of a twisted, loathesome
mind which has no place in a posi-
tion of responsibility and decision-
making.
Butz should have been fired on the
spot without a moment's delay. The
news linking Butz to the slur hit the
wire services late Friday night. Were
Ford a man of any integrity at all,
Butz would have been out of office
by Saturday morning.
But Ford, instead, merely "punish-
ed" Butz with a "severe reprimand".
The reprimand was never made pub-
lic, so we can only take the Presi-
dent at his word. But his failure to
publicly repudiate the Secretary's
behavior was a shocking example of
insensitivity to an entire race. Butz
said yesterday that the White House
put no pressure whatsoever on him to
quit - an indirect indictment of
Ford's lack of leadership.
And Ford still has given the public
no indication that he would have
dismissed Butz had the man not re-
signed. Just what kind of behavior
will the President tolerate? Is he so
uncaring of any offense, no matter
what its degree?
Even the act of resignation was
enacted repugnantly. Butz said he
hoped his action would "remove even
the appearance of racism as an issue
in the Ford campaign." The obvious
question, almost unbelievable in its
implications, is whether Butz quit
as atonement for his repulsive racial
clur or to prevent Ford from losing
votes in the election.
Whatever the reason, the damage
has been done and the actors in this
brief, shoddy political drama have
probably suffered the worst of their
reviews. The revulsion which all de-
cent Americans have felt in the last
few days, however, will never and
should never completely dissipate.
The Butz-Ford debacle has helped
up discover just a little more truth
about the men who rule this nation.
And the truth has turned our
stomachs.
By SUSAN STERN
Pacific News Service
WHEN 30-YEAR-OLD Bay
Area carpenter Donald
Stein refused to take his medica-
tions at California's state mental
hospital at Napa, a team of
psychiatric technicians followed
him to his bed, cornered him
and forcibly injected him with a
needle.
Despite evidence that psycho-
active drugs cause brain damage
in a significant number of users,
the nurses at Napa, where Stein
was formerly a patient, round
up the patients and pass out the
drugs four times a day. Those
like Stein who refuse to take
them are then forced to.
Mental patients' rights groups
across the country call that
"chemical rape"; mental health
authorities call it chemotherapy.
Both agree that psychoactive
drugs have become the standard
treatment for more than six
million Americans now involved
in the mental health system. In
Cadifornia, for example, 90 per
cent of state mental hospital
patients are on drugs, according
to state hospitals director Don
Z. Miller.
California recently joined a
handful of states with laws re-
stricting involuntary treatment
by electroshock and lobotomy-
but no state allows involuntarily
committed patients the right to
refuse psychoactive drugs.
DONALD STEIN is going to
court to try to change that. This
fall, the case of Stein vs. Linn
joins another in Massachusetts
as the first lawsuits challenging
the right of psychiatry and the
state to violate the civil rights
of persons labeled "insane."
After Network Against Psy-
chiatric Assault (NAPA), a San
Francisco-based patients' rights
group, sat in at California Gov.
Jerry Brown's office for one
month this summer, state hos-
pitals director Miller conceded,
"I think we use drugs too
much."
ANOTHER Patients' rights
group, the Committee Aagainst
Forced Treatment, has been un-
successful in enlisting a legisla-
tive sponsor for its right-to-
refuse - medications proposals.
And the psychiatric establish-
ment, organized health workers
and the pharmaceuticals lobby
have already indicated opposi-
tion to any legislation granting
patients the absolute right to re-
fuse drugs.
Attacking the use of psycho-
tropic drugs is like attacking
the foundation of the modern
mental health system. The U.S.
now uses $570 million worth of
psychoactive drugs annually-
and usage is increasing by 11
per cent a year, according to a
Sciuibbs Corp. survey.
Psychoactive drugs - mainly
Prolixin, Thorazine, Naldol and
Melleril-usually make patients
calmer and more manageable.
HOWEVER, the possible side
effects of psychoactive drugs
run for two columns in most
d r u g literature: drowsiness,
blurred vision and speech, loss
of libido, heart disease, fetal
deformation a n d permanent
brain damage in the form of
tardive dyskinesia - uncontral-
lable muscle spasms that ap-
pear in from 30-50 per cent of
users, according to Dr. George
C. Crain, the nation's leading
authority on the disease.
Nevertheless, much of the
psychiatric establishment, rep-
resented by the American Psy-
chiatric Assoc., now supports
the biological theory that mental
illness is caused by a chemical
imbalance that may require life-
long drug use. Even when psy-
chotherapy is used, doctors in-
creasingly rely on drugs to pre-
pare patients for therapy.
THE MOST universally ac-
knowledged benefit of the drugs
has been their ability to move
patients out of state hospitals
and into community health pro-
grams. As hospital populations
diminished through the 1960s,
liberals praised the drugs for
allowing patients to "lead nor-
mal lives" as outpatients.
And state healthsdepartments
were happy to close expensive
state hospitals and dump pa-
tients onto welfare rolls and
federally funded Medicare pro-
grams.
While long-term hospital popu-
lations have been cut with the
increased use of drugs, recent
statistics indicate that such re-
sults are due more to quick
turnover than successful treat-
ment.
According to the latest Na-
tional Institute of Mental Health
findings, year-end populations
in state hospitals have been
halved nationwide - but total
yearly admissions have continu-
ed todrise, except for a 9.5 per
cent dip between 1972 and 1974.
Drugs enable the hospitals to
comply with county and state
pressure to discharge patients
quickly. In California, for in-
stance, where county govern-
ments now pay 10 per cent of
the patients' hospital bills, coun-
ties have been pressuring the
hospitals to discharge patients
in close to three weeks.
ONE RESULT of such pres-
sure is even more reliance on
drugs, according to Carrie Mon-
thei, a psychiatric technician
who has worked at Napa since
1964.
Before the push to get patients
back into the communities, Mon-
thei says, state hospitals hed
the time and staff to prepare for
patients' release through psy-
chotherapy. But "we don't have
any programs any more," Mon-
ants: Chemical rape
thei says. "Now all we do is
take the patients from the coun-
ties, medicate them until they
calm down and shove them out
again."
FOR THESE mostly low-in-
come patients, life is a shuttle
between the hospitals and "psy-
chiatric ghettoes."
In Calitornia, for example, the
recidivism rate from the com-
munity hit 55 per cent this year.
Rather than being integrated
into the community, many ex-
and would-be mental patients
now fill the transient hotels of
the decaying inner cities or live
out their lives in psychiatric
ghettoes. One such ghetto, a 15-
block island of board and care
homes in residential San Jose,
Ca., was developed out of aban-
doned fraternity homes when
over 4,000 mental patients need-
ed a place to stay after the
state hospital there closed sev-
eral years ago.
"PSYCHOACTIVE drugs is
one of the biggest problems
we're dealing with," says San
Jose Urban Ministry social
worker Penny O'Hara, who has
worked with these patients for
the past seven years. "Most of
these people are over-medicated.
They can hardly cross the
street."
street."
ttZ
WUUI
F&AfFOfR f
i
,'i !
A OF
PLAWFORH
3HXS,
AFT1
A STPVL
W6E~C. Ac-
C0ES-
5'OLX6~H
HIO~F16 ,
PSAHO&t
I
FOPA.
A, Z, k7
If FEAT
UMIJIFIUP
Ak,)t
OSt5CLS.
Contact your reps
Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem.), 253 Russell Bldg., Capitol Hill,
Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep.), 353 Russell Bldg., Capitol Hill,
Washington, D.C. 20515.
Rep. Marvin Esch (Rep.), 2353 Rayburn Bldg., Capitol Hill,
Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sen. Gilbert Bursley (Rep.), Senate, State Capitol Bldg.,
Lansing, MI 48933
Rep. Perry Bullard (Dem.), House of Representatives, State
Capitol Bldg., Lansing, MI 48933.
.*fl.;.};v:m :. :{T:;Y}:;;ttfSt~tltp...t"y:?i::r;'. .oiC}? ..eiv:i:{;.. :"" d}
i
I FCCT SOPUF'C
1I&L$ FOR A
. ,
60T Ate
7ft
@UF A, couw 0a
So4c lpy. =
Letters to the Daily)
Columbus was a
pimp
Photography Staff
Pauline Lubens.............Chief Photographer
Scott Eccker .................Staff Photographer
Alan Bilinsky ................ Staff Photographer
Editorial Staff
CcConnell, Jennifer Miller, Michael Norton,
Jon Pansius, Ken Parsigian, Karen Paul,
Stephen Pickover, Christopher Potter, Don
Rose, Lucy Saunders, Annemarie Schiavi, Kar-
en Schulkins, Jeffrey Selbst, Jim Shahin, Rick
Sobse, Tom Stevens, Jim Stimson, David
Strauss, Mike Taylor, Jim Tobin, Loran Walker,
Laurie Young, Barbara Zahs.
Sports Staff
Bill Stieg. Sports Editor
Rich Lerner.. Executive Sports Editor
Andy Glazer.Managing Sports Editor
Rick Bonino Associate Sports Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Tom Cameron, Enid Goldman,
Kathy Henneghan, Scott Lewis, Rick Maddock,
Bob Miller, John Niemeyer, Mark Whitney.
STAFF WRITERS: Leslie Brown, Paul Campbell,
Marybeth Dillon, Ernie Dunbar, Henry Engel-
hardt, Jeff Frank, Cindy Gatziolis, Don Mac-
Lachlan, Rich Ovshinsky, Jim Powers, Pat Rode,
John Schwartz.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Phil Bokovoy, Jeff Ristine, Ann
Marie Schiavi, Margaret Yao
Editorial Page: Tom Stevens, Jeff Ris-
tine
Arts Page: Lois Josimovich
Photo Technician: Alan Bilinsky
bottle bill
To The Daily:
I HAD the privilege of grow-
ing up in Mivhigan and I lived
in Ann Arbor for over eleven
years. I am writing from Ore-
gon, where I now reside, to tell
you that Oregon's Bottle Bill
works. And everyone here
knows it does.
Our Bottle Bill goes a long
way toward decreasing litter.
It also saves energy because it
takes a lot more energy to
make a new aluminum can than
it does to recycle one. It cer-
tainly takes more energy to
make a new glass bottle than
to clean an existing one and re-
fill it.
The cost of beverages has not
gone up in Oregon, any more
than it has anywhere else.
There is some inconvenience in
taking the bottles back to the
store, but by survey, 91 per
Rob Meaclum
Co-Editors-in-Chief
. Bill Turque
Jeff Ristine...................Managing Editor
Tim Schickr..................Executive Editor
Stephen Hersh.. Magazine Editor
Rob Meachum ..Editorial Director
Lois Josimovich Arts Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Susan Ades, Susan Barry,
DanayBaumann, Michael Beckman, Philip Ba-
kovoy, Jodi Dimick, Chris Dyhdale, Elaine
Fletcher, Larry Friske, Debra Gale, Tom Go-
deli, Eric Gressman, Kurt Harju, Char Heeg,
James Hynes, Michael Jones, Lani Jordan,
Lois Josimovich, Joanne Kaufman, David
Keeps, Steve Kursman, Jay Levin, Ann Marie
Lipinski, George Lobsenz, Pauline Lubens, Stu
S YOUR - VALE-- IF
CLASS ?lkSIDENT Go'Nr ?
cent of Oregonians like the Bot-
tle Bill.
Because there are less cans
and bottles made ,there are cer-
tainly fewer people employed
in the production of cans and
bottles. However, more jobs are
created in handling and recycl-
ing of bottles and cans. Some
studies show that these jobs
even out.
You will hear a different
story over the next few weeks
from container manufacturers
and bottlers. They are paying
lots of money to spread the un-
true word. Don't be fooled,
Weigh the pros and cons:
On the plus side, less litter
and decreased energy consump-
tion.
On the negative side, the
problem of taking returnables
back to the store.
The Bottle Bill made Oregon
a better place to live and it can
do the same for Michigan.
Thad Stanford, M.D.
LSA '54, Med. '58
September 28
Lea let
To The Daily-
I must commend you and
your reporter Lani Jordan. The
article which dealt with my
leaflet, "The Luker Connec-
tion", contained more truth and
fewer distortions than any Daily
article in my memory. I must,
however, take exception to the
part in which you compare my
leaflet to last year's appear-
ance of bogus campaign litera-
ture. The bogus literature was
unsigned, the perpetrators were
unwilling to be identified; my
leaflet is signed, I take full
credit for it. The other litera-
ture at times misrepresented
itself and contained blatant
falsehoods, statements that had
no basis in fact. My leaflet
states its true purpose in bold
48 point type, "Remove Luk-
er", and of course my interpre-
tation of the facts is one that I
hope will lead to that end. I
By MARTIN BROWN
Pacific News Service
I E MYTH OF Christopher
Columbus' discovery of
America has been frequently
and convincingly punctured-
and yet it survives. But now, as
Americans prepare once again
to celebrate Columbus Day, a
new study of Columbus has ap-
peared that adds insult to in-
jury.
Columbus, it seems, not only
wasn't the first European to
sight the New World - when
he arrived he introduced to
these shores all manner of may-
hem, murder and greed.
In "Columbus: His Enter-
prise" (Monthly Review Press,
1976), Hans Koningsberger, a
novelist turned historian, sets
out to take "a cold and hard
look at what Columbus was all
about."
In the process - involving ex-
amination of historical studies
and the writings of Columbus
and his contemporaries - not
even the most treasured school-
room tradition survives: Colum-
bus, says Koningsberger, was
far from alone in believing that
the earth was round. Most edu-
cated people of his time were
convinced of the earth's round-
ness.
Columbus -a self-educated
merchant seaman - differed
only in believing that the earth
was much smaller than it is.
His mistaken belief that Asia,
rich with spices and exotica, lay
just over the western horizon
prompted his promotional cam-
paign before the royal courts of
Europe.
Spanish monarch Ferdinand
and Isabella, who finally grant-
ed Columbus funds for his ex-
pedition, knew little about sea
exploration and considered the
effort a shot in the dark -
worth the risk only because it
was not very expensive - says
Koningsberger. They e v e n
agreed to Columbus' terms: 10
per cent of all trade with Asia,
habitants could be taken away
to Castile, or made slaves on
the island. With 50 men we
could subjugate them all and
make them do whatever we
want."
In fact, the natives of Haiti
-.which Columbus thought was
Asia - would never be convert-
ed to Christianity, but would
be subjugated and then exter-
minated by Columbus as he
tried to squeeze the riches of
the Orient out of the impover-
ished Arawak Indians.
Reporting to Ferdinand and
Isabella on his first voyage,
Columbus wrote, 'Hispaniola
is a miracle. Mountains and
hills, plains and pastures, are
both fertile and beautiful - - -
the harbors are unbelievably
good and there are many wide
rivers of which the majority
contain gold . . . There are
many spices, and great mines
of gold and other metals . ."
As Koningsberger comments,
"All of this was fantsy."
Later an agent of Colum-
bus promised Ferdinand and
Isabella, "On the next voyage
the ships will carry away such
quantities of gold that anyone
who hears of it will be dumb-
founded."
Trying to make good on his
promise of unimaginable riches,
Columbus quickly resorted to a
system of brutal exploitation
against the native Arawak In-
dians. According to Bishop de
las Casas, a member of the ex-
pedition, the Indians w e r e
treated "not as beast, for beasts
are treated properly at times,
but like the excrement in a
public square."
Every Indian man, woman
and child over 14 was reouired
to collect gold for the Snani-
ards. Those who failed to bring
in their quota had their hands
chonned off. According to Kon-
i-gsberger, "there are old
1ntnish prints that show this
h-ing done: the Indians stum-
blP awav, staring with s,1r-
mens" to send to Spain.
According to an eyewitness
account, the Arawaks who were
r e 1 e a s e d, terror-stricken,
"rushed in all directions like
lunatics, women dropping and
abandoning infants in the rush,
running miles without stopping,
fleeing across the mountains
and rivers." The slave trade
turned out to be unprofitable,
for most of the slaves died.
Unable to stand the horrors of
the new society, the Trawaks
started to kill themselves in in-
cidents of mass suicide, using
casava poison: After two years
of Columbus' administration, an
estimated one-half of the entire
population of Hispaniola had
been killed or had killed them-
selves. According to Konings-
berger, "twenty - five years lat-
er the entire nation had vanish-
ed from the earth. Not one In-
dian on the island had ever been
converted to what Columbus
called 'our Holy Faith."'
When the Arawaks were gone,
the Spaniards divided the is-
land into huge estates and im-
ported an estimated two mil-
lion black slaves to work them.
A century later, only 600,000 de-
scendants survived.
Eventually subjected to a
royal investigation for cruelty
and inefficiency, Columbus was
found guilty of mismanagement
and was brought back to Spain
in chains and in disgrace.
However, he never gave up
the idea that he had found a
western route to the Orient that
would enrich Spain beyond the
yildest dreams of the most am-
bitious monarchs. In his de-
fense to Queen Isabella he
wrote, "The gate is open for
gold and pearls . . . and we
can expect large quantities of
precious stones, spices, and
other things."
Is it worth spoiling Columbus
Day by telling the truth about
Christonher Coluimbus?
('YES
DAMOV.
s
,%~
(
1
F 1NEe
f
XYou NOD
'INY HEP
No °sxaNK *tovo
DAOOI! 'O'NE iurLS . '.
ARC. G'dtif U51tty NoV
AS 1T IS --w
ii