E1mC 1Mtfr4tan Dailg
Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom
42 0 Maynard S., Ann Arbor, N11 48109

VACATION OBSERVATIONS:

otor

City

Tuesday, November 30, 1976

News Phone: 764-0552

By KEITH RICHBURG

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
MSA: You're on your own

THIRTEEN DAYS AGO, when most
students' thoughts were focus-
ed on the Ohio State game, research
papers and the Almighty CRISP,
Michigan Student Assembly (MSA)
quietly backed a dump truck out of
their third-floor Union executive
suite, pushed the right buttons, and
unloaded the names of 35 men and
women seeking seats in this week's
camnus election.
They should have kept driving.
In 13 days, a good portion of them
consumed hv the Thankseiving holi-
dav, student voters were supposed to
pick 11 Assembly members and de-
cide on two important ballot Issues.
This is a joke., and a rotten one, for
which MSA must take the entire ran.
Without looking at the page on the
right. can you name even two of .the
candidates? Do you have even the
slightest idea where any of them
stand on the issues, or for that mat-
ter, what the issues are? All we've
seen are a few handbills and MSA's
own house organ, belatedly distribut-
ed only yesterday.
This shoddy scheduling has put us
under severe constraints in trying to
sensibly cover the election. Time per-
mitted us to do only the most cur-
sory telephone interviews with' each
candidate, and even then we could
not contact all 35 of them. And while
there may be some right-thinking,
well - meaning souls seeking seats,
you wouldn't know it from the con-
tent of the Interviews on page 5.
For these reasons we aren't endors-
FOR THIS EXECUTION THERE WILL
BE FIVE VOLUNTEER RIFLEMEN,
BUT ONLY FOUR RIFLES WILL
HAVE LIVE AMMUNITION?
.M ~

ing anyone in the MSA elections this
time around - a serious break in
precedent for The Daily - but we
invite you to take a look at the can-
didate's comments on the opposite
page and try to find one or two that
strike your fancy. You might even
want to call them up - their num-
bers are in the student directory -
and ask a few questions of your own.
Good luck."
We do offer one note of caution,
however. The candidates of the Bull-
shit Party are so obviously unquali-
find for the seats they seek that their
contemptuous act of seeking them in-
vites a well-deserved negative en-
dorsement. Bob Matthews and Irving
Freeman, both of whom have struck
us as immature, paranoid and politic-
ally imbecilic - have been conduct-
ing an offensive campaign that ex-
Ploits latent distaste for the old,
corrupt Student Government Council
(SGC) that begat MSA, daring voters
.to nick them for the sole purpose of
restoring the sideshow atmosphere to
student government here. Don't kid
yourselves - thev're definitely intel-
leetual lightweights. but like babies
with Magnums, they're dangerous.
As for the rest of the bunch, we
doubt if all of the bananas are as rot-
ten as Messrs. Matthews and Free-
man. but you're on your own to find

THAT'S FUNNY. It doesn't look like
a dead city.
Such was my first impression upon
returning to the city of Detroit, sixth
largest corporation in the United States
>f America, largest in the state of
Michigan.
Rounding the circular West Jefferson
exit of the Chrysler freeway downtown,
you are immediately dwarfed beneath
the newest addition to Detroit's post-
card skyline, the Detroit Plaza Hotel
which, flanked by four equally awe-in-
spiring officetowers, composes the
Renaissance Center.
Somehow, it just doesn't look dead ...
AND IF CRIME, financial crises, and
an eroding tax base have diminished
the city to rin, then someone forgot
to tell the multitude of early Christmas
shoppers filling both sides of Woodward
Avenue from Jefferson all the way to
Grand Circus Park. And the stoic cus-
todian of the City-County Building, The
Spirit of Detroit, still maintains his
Keith Richbtrg is a frequent visitor to
The Editorial Page.

watchful vigil, despite the rumors of
the city's decay. His female counter-
part, adorning the entrance to the Mich-
igan Consolidated Gas Company, still
stands naked in all her bronze splendor,
oblivious to the dangers of -rampaging
gangs of B.K.'s and Erroll Flynns.
The Cobo Hall marquis proclaims con-
ventions, dealer showrooms, Piston's bas-
ketball games, and a forthcoming con-
cert for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullett
Band. And traffic at Washington Blvd.
is momentarily halted while the new
Detroit trolley car chugs across Jeffer-
son to Cobo, with bells ringing and a
standing room only capacity on board.
IF DETROIT IS a dead city, then
I felt it my duty to inform those hun-
dred or so lunch hour mullers in Ken-
nedy Square - the secretaries, the
business executives, the lawyers, the
judges, the winos and the bums. How-
ever I just couldn't muster the courage
to be the bearer of bad tidings. I didn't
know how to break it to them that the
city was dead.
Somewhat disconcerted, I parked in
my favorite lot behind the Standard Fed-
eral Building on Griswald. It's strange
how in a dead city you can never find

isn't
a streetside parking space ... .
I decided to stroll down Griswald to
Lafayette for a luncheon favorite, two
coneys and a coke. Lafayette Coney Is-
land and American Coney Island are
side by side, and if you stand outside,
their respective proprietors will give you
sales pitches worth the price of the hot
dog, each trying to get you to come
into his establishment. Theirs is a friend-
ly rivalry though, the owners conversing
casually with each other until the next
potential customer happens down Lafay-
ette Street.
FROM AMERICAN CONEY ISLAND,
("Maybe next time, Gus"), I sauntered
dfown Woodward to J.L. Hudson's, won-
dering if anyone had broken the news
of the city's untimely passing. To my
s'irprise, the Salvation Army Bell-ring-
ers were churning out merry carols,
Hare Krishna worshipers were celebrat-
ing with a chant of "Hare hare, hare
krishna! ", a well-dressed vendor was
peddling "Muhammed Speaks," and
someone in a moth-eaten tweed over-
coat was shouting "Rings! Watches! In-
cense! !"
The city of Detroit was dead, and these
people were carrying on as if nothing

e
had happened. Have they no sympathy?
Can't they show a little respect for the
deceased?!
ACROSS THE STREET from Hudson's,
in front of S.S. Kresge's, three huge
vans lined Woodward, respectively bear-
ing the familiar emblems of CBS, NBC,
and ABC. Workmen were busy putting
up scaffolds and mounting television
cameras high above Woodward. Police
were setting up white "no crossing"
barricades along the street.
"Thanksgiving parade," I was inform-
ed. The next morning, hundreds of thou-
sands of city-dwellers and suburbanites
would converge on Detroit, and Mayor
Coleman A. Y oung would present the
key to the city to the jolly gentleman
in red.
Is everyone crazy? Is everyone unfeel-
ing?! Detroit is a dead city! It has an
eroding tax base! Crime is rampant!!
The city is dead!! I know, because I
read the obituary myself in the De-
troit News!
No one heard me. If Detroit was really
a dead city, then the Detroiters and sub-
urbanites in downtown Detroit just
weren't listening. .If Detroit is dead, then
long live Detroit ...


Letters

to,

the

them.
Editorial
consensus of


positions represent a
f The Daily Editorial staff.


RIGHT! THAT WAY, NO MAN WILL
KNOW FOR SURE IF HE ACTUALLY
DID THE KILLING! IT HELL'S
RELIEVE THE BURDEN OF GUILT!
, \ :y

HEY! I GET THE FIRST RIFLE,
WARDEN! -
SNO!ME FIRST!
WHATTYA MEAN? I
WAS HERE FIRST!
WHEN DO WE
GET THE $175

WELL, IT SOUNDS GOOD IN
THEORY!
-

ticket procedures
To The Daily:
I AM QUITE UPSET by the
unfair, shabby, unprofessional
manner in which tickets to the
Russian Gymnastics event were
sold. Ever since an article ap-
peared in The Michigan Daily
announcing this event, I have
been checking weekly with the
Ticket Office for information
concerning when the tickets
would go on sale. Each time
I called, I was told the date
was to be November 15, 1976-
the last time I called was Fri-
day afternoon, November 12,
and I was given the same in-
formation, 8:30 a.m., Novem-
'ber 15, 1976.
My love for gymnastics ex-
ceeding football, and being on
a tight budget, my husband and
I sold our football tickets to
the Illinois game so that we
could attend the gymnastics
event. If I had known that an
announcement would be made
at that game acknowledging the
fact that the tickets to the gym-
nastics event would go on sale
after the game, that Saturday,
November 16, 1976, I seriously
would have gone to the game,
as well as buying the tickets
to see the gymnastics anyway.
There is no way that prepara-
tions of such a large scale sell-
ing of tickets could have been
organized without prior knowl-
edge as to the date. To tell
someone who calls on Friday
that the selling' date is Mon-
day, and then turn around and
sell, actually sell the tickets on
Saturday is quite dishonest, in
my book. This procedure is
quite unprofessional, and quite
honestly, appears to be con-
sniratorial!! Many of the peo-
ple who were at the ticket of-
fice on Monday were as sur-
prised as I was that the tick-
ets had gone on sale Saturday,
apparently quite a few'- of us
were told Monday was the day.
The general feeling was that
the "wool had been pulled over
our eyes" once again by a
bureaucracy.
So, Mr. Renfrew, you are
probably asking yourself what
the purpose of my tirade is,
right? To get to the point, I
now have six tickets in sec-
tion 4, row 35. I want six tick-
ets in 'a better position to see
what is going on down on the
floor. For a man who organ-
ized the selling of 8,000 tick-
ets two days before any prep-
arations had been made, get-
ting six tickets now should be
a snap of the fingers.
To top it all off, when I went
to buy the tickets, the sweet
little man behind the counter
first bit my head off when I
asked him when the tickets had
gone on sale, telling me "that
has nothing to do with it, do
you want tickets or not?," and
then proceeded to tell me that
the best $7 tickets left in the
Arena were in section 4, row
34. Well, I seriously doubt that
tickets that are 8 rows from
the top of Crisler Arena are
$7 tickets, at least I find it
hard to believe that they were
$7 tickets on Saturday, and sec-

ondly, after I had bought the
tickets, and looked at them one
hour later, I found that they
were not in row 34 but in row
35!T hat was too much. I either
want 6 tickets that are decently
placed, or I want some money
back on the crummy seats I
was forced to take, because of
circumstances I couldn't con-
trol and misinformation I was
intentionally given.
Barbara Reed-Polatty
November 15
security suggstions?
To The Daily:
AS. A UNIVERSITY housing
resident, I received a letter
this week from Dave Foulke,
mgnaeer of S5Curity Services,
informing is of the recent as-
sailts on women in Ann Arbor
and advising us on security
measures. We were advised not
to walk alone after dark and
to use only well lighted routes.
We were also advised to call
for an escort from the Housing
Secority Officers and asked not
to ston on the wav for shonning
and other personal errands.
While I annreciate the good
intentions behind these ideas, I
fail to see the logic in them.
It would seem that with less
women on the streets and few-
er security officers being used
to natrol the dangerous areas,
we are further endangering the
woman who must travel alone.
That woman now becomes the
criminal in society's eyes. (Aft-
er all, she was warned, wasn't
she?)
A logical and much more ef-
fetive way of dealing with this
problem is to get the rapist
off the street. A curfew could
he issued stating that all men
mst be escorted by one or
more women after dark. Any
man canaht wandering the
streets alone should be arrest-
ed and questioned. (We all know
that thetype of man who would
travel alone at night is just ot
looking for trouble and would
prohabhy do it with anyone.)
Of course it's not fair to pun-
ish all. men for the crimes of
one. But we, as women, have
been victimized, terrorized, de-
humanized and had our freedom
taken from us because of that
one male criminal and no one
has thought a thing of it. As
a woman, I cannot travel to
most places in Ann Arbor alone,
and many places I can't go to
at all. If I decide to exercise
my independence and am raped
in the process, then I was "ask-
ing for it." If I want to pro-
tect my body and my integrity,
I must either stay home or rely
on someone else for safety. Per-
haps if men were forced to rely
on the company of a woman
for protection, they would be-
gin to understand how humili-
ating these security measures
are.
Why should womankind be
penalized for the actions of a
man? We are the victims not
the criminals. Perhaps we
should organize bands of vigi-
lantes to protect ourselves and
our sisters. The present securi-
ty system is degrading and in-

efficient. Maybe it's time for
woman to change it.,
Sandy Williams
November 29
public transit
To The Daily:
THE EXPANSION of parking
ramp facilities in downtown Ann
Arbor is being fought on the
basis of funding procedures. I
raise the point of inappropri-
ateness of additional parking fa-
cilities.
Downtown Ann Arbor and Cen-
tral Campus enjoys especially
good public transportation. Ad-.
ditional downtown parking space
will effectively discourage the
use of AATA facilities.
I believe a person-centered,
community -centered solution
will support and augment pub-
lic transportation and say "no,"
to new parking structures.
W. Thomas Schomaker
November 24 0
profane language
To The Daily:
I MUST COMMEND Lionel
Biron's protest against the in-
discriminate employment of pro-

Daly
fane, obscene and vulgar lan-
guage. It is a very minor thing,
to be sure; so many things are
worse. But we all thought a
little less of President Nixon
when his tapes revealed the
sort of vocabulary he himself
had piously condemned when
Truman used a few round oaths.
I have always thought too
well of God to suppose he is
much annoyed by verbal blas-
phemies; and obscenities do
nothing worse than cause us
oldsters to wince a little. But
they reveal an appalling vacui-
ty of mind. With all the magnifi-
cent resources of the copious
English language open to them
for invective, they can think of
nothing better than to repeat
a few stale four-letter words.
What issthe good of a college
education if you can't do bet-
ter than that?
Preston Slosson
November 24
taiwanese repression
To The Daily:
CHEN MING-CHUNG, a na-
tive Taiwanese, aged SO, was
arrested by the secret police in
Taipei on July 3 this year for

[I 2i tIial/


The sixties' radicals: What
are they up to these days?

political reasons. He has just
been secretly sentenced to death
and will be executed within the
next two weeks.
Since his secret arrest, there
has been 16 other similar ar-
rests in Taiwan.
We abhor the above repres-
sive acts of the Taiwan Govern-
ment. We demand a prompt
public trial for Chen Ming-
chung and the other 16 politi-
cal prisoners.
Please help by:
1) sending a telegram to de-
mand a prompt public trial for
Chen Ming-chung and the others
to
Premier Chiang Ching Kuo
Executive Yuan
Taipei, Taiwan
or
Ambassador to the U. S.
Embassy of the Republic of
China (Taiwan)
Washington, D. C.
and/or
2) sending a donation to the
Justice - for - Chen - Ming-
chung Committee
c "o China Study Club
P:O. Box 36, Ann Arbor.
Justice for Chen Ming-
chung Committee
November 23

3

By Marnie Heyn


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SOMETIMES I SUSPECT my younger col-
leagues at The Daily of watching me out
of the corners of their eyes, waiting for me to
break out in crows-feet, grey hairs and a beer
belly. Sometimes when I use words like "venal,"
they suspect me of trying to run sixties slang
(akin to "the cat's pajamas") on them. We
clearly have some sort of gap, although I'm not
sure it's generational. They make sophomoric
jokes and ask questions about Conestoga wagons;
I giggle politely and try to bear with them.
The whole punch-and-judy would be bathetic,
if not humorous, were not it for the fact that I
still feel that there 'was substance mixed with.
our style-(I count myself part of the sixties even
though I spent most of that decade in public
school, with my feet at least metaphorically un-
der my father's table).
The serious import of this coy disparagement
of a decade was brought home to me last week
by a new friend's what-did-you-do-in-the-war-
daddy inquiry about my murky past. In a long,
roving conversation, I mentioned that, once upon
a time, I believed I had strong personal support
from my cohorts in a political living collective.
(If the words sound queer and funny to your ear,
see the glossary, following; or ask an older sib-
ling, or check a dictionary which has "rip-off"
as an entry.) With the typical callousness of the
young, my friend asked, "Well, what are all those
people, the committed radicals, doing now?"
HE HAD ME THERE.
Three of them are part-owners of chains of
tourist bookstores in southern California. One is
a trust and estate attorney in Marin County,
California; another is on the faculty of a law
school in Washington State. One pair is wed,
parented, and in training to be a behavorist
shrink and a theoretical mathematician. Others
have been absorbed into middle-manaeement
iobs and marriages. Some have disannearefi. To
n,, knnwledqe, only two of us carrv on any nsrt

It's not healthy, however, to disavow your own
past, which is precisely what two-thirds of that
small coterie has done. They claim not to have
heard of SDS. They deny going to jail to end the
war. They won't admit to having lived in a house-
hold of numerous hairy hippies. They cry when
I call them, but they never call back. And they
pass up too many chances to grow and learn
and integrate their lives, to improve other peo-
ple's lives.
THAT'S SAD. They diminish the importance
of all the positive changes we proposed and ac-
complished. That's sad, and dangerous as well.
I wasn't a Communist in the thirties, but I can
recognize that the persecutions of the forties and
fifties were possible only because former com-
patriots got cynical and self-protective, and be-
cause younger got the message that social reform
was a habit-forming fad which responsible citi-
zens kicked, somehow. In another time-frame,
jokes about love beads and waterbeds are harm-
less only so long as the laughter doesn't extend
to civil rights and pacifism. Some things are
sacred, you whippersnappers.
THE GLOSSARY
Good vibes first:
Marxist-Leninist - The point which wins an
argument, if you talk fast.
Commitment - rhymes paradoxically with
"calypso"; as in, "I got/have a political com-
mitment." Only evangelists and social secre-
taries say, "make a commitment."
Collective - Rhymes with "eclectic"; used
either to describe a rent-splitting arrangement,
or to slough off guilt feelings, as in, "Hey, that's
a collective responsibility," or "a collective de-
cision."
Baddies last: :
Coopt - A verb, meaning to trick a person or
class into denyine their own interest, or to ma-

Contact your reps


I