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February 14, 1976 - Image 4

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Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1976-02-14

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I

r Sgir jn Ia i
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedont
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Saturday, February 14, 1976

News Phone: 764-0552

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan

On Kissinger and secreey

IN A NEWS conference, Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger angrily
condemned the leaking to the press of
the House Select Committee report on
intelligence. Excerpts from the so-cal-
led Pike Report, which is highly crit-
ical of the Secretary and the CIA,
were published in the Village Voice.
The report holds Kissinger respon-
sible for the lives of thousands of
Kurdish Iraquis who were killed after
Iranian support for their independ-
ence movement stopped. It blames
Kissinger for being too secretive in
handling recent concern over possible
Soviet violations of the SALT agree-
ments. But most importantly, it blam-
es the CIA for provoking the Soviet
military build-up in Angola.
Kissinger charged that the report
violated an agreement between t h e
executive and legislative branch, and
used classified information in a dis-
torted manner. To top off his com-
plaints, Kissinger accused the com-
mittee of McCarthyism.
Kissinger's first charge may very
well be accurate. But all three com-
plaints are very reminiscent of a re-
cent vice-president and his boss.
Spiro Agnew seemed to think that it
was the duty of the press to always
cooperate with the administration's
policies and goals.
T[E PENTAGON Papers criticized
the Administration policy in
Vietnam. The Nixon-Agnew reaction
to their publication was clear a n d
prompt: The news media had leaked
out information very damaging to the
national security.Looking back, t h e
publication of the papers did no
damage at all to national security. In
fact, it had the benefit of hastening
the end of our senseless involvement
in the Vietnam War.
It is all too obvious that the issue
in Kissinger's complaint is not na-
tional security but his desire to con-
duct foreign policy in secrecy. When
the American people learn the whole
truth about Angola, chances are that
they will not think very kindly of
Henry Kissinger, or the CIA, or Pre-
sident Ford. And there is an election
coming up.
The Pike Committee Report is dam-
aming to the reputations of the CIA,
to the administration, and to Henry
Kissinger. An informed public will see
through the myth of national security
and judge the issue for what it is.
Editorial positions represent
consensus of the Daily staff.

Sgt. R
By GORDON ATCHESON
5GT. ROCK IS A no-nonsense guy -
he has to be. After all, consider
his plight. He's been fighting World War
II for the past 35 years.
And unlike some of those Japanese sol-
diers who've gotten stranded on woe-be-
gotten South Sea islands, Rock has been
in the thick of the campaign without
so much as a day of R and R.
Comic book character Rock regularly
leads his company against waves of
German tanks or into hand-to-hand com-
bat with Teutonic hordes at least ten
times the size of his force. Without fail,
however, he emerges victorious.
THAT'S NOT an easy record to main-
tain for a few months - let alone over
30 years. But the grizzled non-com does
it. And he does it by direct action, tough
talk, and eschewing any reflection on
the higher philosophical implications of
the job.
Those three qualities are just about as
important in surviving a good liberal
education. Direct action and tough talk
come into play in bluntly telling the guys
that you can't go out for a beer be-
cause you've got 20-page takehome to
polish up for that miserable 8 o'clock
Nat Sci course.
It would drive anybody insane to
contemplate the philosophy of spending
thousands of dollars and four years to
get a piece of paper that qualifies the
bearer either for law school or unem-
ployment.
BUT A BIT of Rock's wisdom has been
a great comfort to the University stu-
dents who are tired of tilting with wind-
mills and sensile economics professors.
On the wall of the UGLI's basement
stairwell are scrawled the immortal
words :
"Sgt. Rock's Maxim: Knowledge is
Shit."
N0 TRUER A thought has the earthy
. Rock ever uttered - I suspect he

never committed it to paper, either be-
cause he was too busy dodging German
bullets or because he's a functional il-
literate.
But the worth of the words cannot be
underestimated Just ask any student
toting an arm-load of books on the psy-
cho-sexual implications of Moby Dick
up those very stairs.
Perhaps the greatest testimony to
Rock's motto is the longevity and per-
sistence of the words themselves. I
came to the University in September.
1972 and stumbled onto Sgt Rock shortly
there after - conjuring up Easy Com-
pany exploits I'd read years before.
Of course, there's no telling how long
Rock has been immortalized in the
UGLI. Afriend of mine swears thatit
was there at least a year before by dis-
covery. But beyond that, the lineage
is lost to the ages and graduation.
DESPITE THE best efforts of the
UGLI's maintenance personnel, Rock en-
dures. Periodically, the janitors break
out the Top Job and brushes and try to
drum Rock's words out of academia.
But, thankfully, they always fail.
Each time the maxim is erased, some
one who appreciates its import appears
on the scene.
LAST DECEMBER, as my friend and
I labored over our typewriters whipping
out page after page of shit . . . er,
knowledge for a couple of courses that
ought to be retired faster than the Edsel
was, I chanced to mention that the
maxim had again fallen prey to an eag-
er. though unenlightened, janitor.
My friend stopped typing amid word.
He looked up. We both knew what had
to be done.
"Ill take care of it," he said bran-
dishing a black magic marker. le put
on his coat and made his way through
the snow-filled night air to the UGLI.
With stealth and cunning Rock himself
would have admired, my friend returned

ock versus intellectualism

Otis Pike

Sgt. Rock points victoriously to the
machine.
the golden prose to its rightful place.
THE NEXT day, I passed through the
UGLI just to see that the words were
intact . .. they were.
Having spent over three years as a
student at the big U', I recognize that
we cannot forget Sgt. Rock or we'll
come to take our tasks too seriously.
A lot of people - all gronks with four
points and designs on Harvard law -
probably dismiss the maxim with stone
faces and acid comments about juvenile
vandalism.
BUT TO those of us who have no

captured secret files of the Nazi war
qualms about Saturday Night specials -
papers researched and written between
8 p.m. Saturday and 3 a.m. Sunday,
with an hour and a half out for the
late movie - Rock provides the kind of
re-enforcement we need to slog through
this morass.
Whereever Sgt. Rock is today - still
battling the Nazi buzzards, sitting in a
comfortable armchair sipping a Bud, or
having gone to the "Big One" in the sky
-we salute him.
Gordon. Atcheson .is a former Co-
edi/or-in-chief of The Daily.

' placement and social responsibility

Henry Kissinger

El l1

Editorial Staff
ROB MEACHUME
Co-Editors-in-Chief

By DAVID SOBEL
Befitting the liberal education
offered at the University, many
members of our community are
quick to criticize, while at the
same time slow to act on their
stated beliefs. This syndrome
can be seen in the barrage of
condemnations recently directed
against the illegal activities of
the Central Intelligence Agency
and major American corpora-
tions.
One gets a sense from this
righteous indignation that If
only university students could
somehow be in the right places
(always far-off), this society of
ours would be the model of
morality that we all envision.
But in actuality, we are power-
less to implement change.
Or are we? It is baffling that
the moralists among us fail to
recognize the very real power
that we do, in fact, possess. The
university, and perhaps this one
more than most, is an integral
part of the American system.
Both government and industry
are tied more intimately to the
university than they are to any
other institution in the society.

YET WE continue to view the
world as if we were cut off,
trapped in an institution which
holds no relevance to the inner-
most workings of our system.
Perhaps a closer examination
of specific issues will clarify
the extent to which we possess
the potential to make our voices
heard.
We are supposedly outraged
by the gross transgressions com-
mitted in our name by the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency. from
assassination plots to the over-
throw of democratically elect-
ed governments. We are sup-
posedly equally outraged by the
illegal dealings of the largest
corporations, from the domestic
bribery of Gulf Oil to the inter-
national bribery of Lockheed
Aircraft.
But our outrage does not go
far enough to be heard at our
University's Office of Career
Planning and Placement, a fa-
cility which increasingly takes
on the appearance of a den of
thieves with each additional dis-
closure of governmental and
corporate corruption.

WE MUSTN'T be deceived,
however. Career. Planning is
merely the most visible sign of
the University's involvement
with these unprincipled govern-
ment agencies andmultination-
al corporations, though cer-
tainly not the most significant.
Day after day, we give these

'The University, and perhaps this one more
than most, is an integral part of the American
system. Both government and industry a r e
tied more intimately to the university than they
are to any other institution in the society.'
J.at:1:::::':"".. . . " . . "' . "f:?:. .i::
.,. 1l,:" :Xf:.tiM .:..".: ::: . :"'::...'::.....::tX-"-.'"h....... .. "1..... . .

more socially conscious voca-
tions are not available, in the
end many of us must resign
ourselves to the economic facts
of American life.,
BUT WHAT of our outrage?
It seems that it might find a
voice in demanding that the ad-
ministration of our university

ficient numbers, the University
should act on behalf of its stu-
dents by taking the lead in en-
couraging and supporting the
establishment of such vocations,
rather than placing its students
in a position where they must
become parties to murder and
bribery.
For in the final analysis,
hasn't the univesrity, and per-
haps this one more than most,
always served as the consci-
ence of this nation?
THE GOVERNMENT and thW
corporations understand quite
well the "dangerous" potential
which is present on campuses
such as ours. Witness the great
sums they have set aside to
sell themselves in the pages of
this -newspaper. Allied Chemi-
cal tells us that "profits are
for people," while the National
Security Agency reminds,
"Think about your future; we
do."
Perhaps it is time that we
gave them their money's worth.
David L. Sobel is a senior in
LSA.

BILL TURQUE

JEFF RISTINE .. . ............. Managing Editor
TIM SCHICK.Executive Editor
STEPHEN HERSH Editorial Director
JEFF SORENSEN.. . .............. . Arts Editor
CHERYL PILATE .............. Magazine Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Susan Ades, Tom Allen, Glen
Allerhand, Marc Basson, Dana Bauman, David
Blomquist, James Burns, Kevin Counihan,
Jodi Dimick, Mitch Duntz, Elaine Fletcher,
Phil Foley. Mark Friedlander, David Garfinkel,
Tom Godell, Kurt Harju, Charlotte Heeg,
Richard James. Lois Josimovich, Tom Kettler,
Chris Kochmanski, Jay Levin, Andy Lilly, Ann
Marie Lipinski, George Lobsenz, Pauline Lu-
bens, TenManeau, Angelique Matney, Jim
Nicoll, Maureen Nolan, Mike Norton, Ken Par-
sigian, Kim Potter, Cathy Reutter, Anne
Marie Schiavi, Karen Schulkins, Jeff Selbst,
Rick Sobel, Tom Stevens, Steve Stojic, Cathi
Suyak, Jim Tobin, Jim Valk, Margaret Yao,
Andrew Zerman, David Whiting.
TODAY'S STAFF
News: Mitch Dunitz, Lois Josimovich,
Rob Meachum, Jeff Ristine, Jim
Tobin
Editorial Page: Michael Beckman,
David Garfinkel, Stephen Hersh,
Stephen Kursman
Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens

organizations access to our fa-
cilities and ourselves. We must,
after all, find gainful employ-
ment upon leaving the Univer-
sity and it increasingly seems
that the only place to find it is
with the government or the
giant corporations.
While we might regret that

withold its hospitality from
those employers of questionable
moral character and channel
the great resources of this in-
stitution instead into the com-
pilation of information dealing
with morally sound vocations.
If it becomes apparent that such
occupations do not exist in suf-

Letters

to

J'lhe Daily

Vor"16 ALL t. %NOWJ.6t46E ABCLII !NNWi &A

COWGRE55 ?%' '.

,

4

Frye
To The Daily:
The news that Billy Frye had
been chosen as the new LSA
dean comes as no surprise to
me or to any of the others
that had followed the case of
Jewel Cobb. It was easily ap-
parent after the farce in which
the University administration
offfered Ms. Cobb a two-year
contract with no tenure even
though the standard con-rait
offered is usually a five-year
contract with tenure. The whole
affair and now its supposed conT
clusion proves it as a move-
ment to maintain the status quo.
Even though the elected iepre-
sentatives of the - people of this
state voted for Jewel Cobb as
the new LSA dean, President
Fleming and Vice-President
Rhodes evidently felt it would
be over their dead body that
a black woman would become
dean of one of the outstandirg
Lit colleges in the country. Billy
Frye can take pride in know-
ing that he was selected as
second choice, and praferred
as first only because of his
gender and his sex. Jewel Cobb
was obviously as qualified if
not more qualified tha 1 Frye
or she would not have been the
unanimous choice of the Re-
gents when the time came for
voting their choice as dean.
And the regents have also let
us down. They are charged with
the responsibility of represent-
ing the interests of the people

pus. And this we must do. For
all black people and f)r all
women this was just ano'her
step in the same direcion of
sexism, racism and discrimina-
tion. And we cannot let it con-
tinue.
Cliffford Brown
February 13, 1976
Mideast
To The Daily:
The calumny of the Arab big
lie has seen print in the pages
of the Michigan Daily. Interest-
ingly, the Organization of Arab
Students now resorts to the
plaintive cry that the Arab peo-
pIe are being falsely pilloried
by the Zionists. To hear the
Arab spokesman put it, Jews
never had it so good in the
Arab countries wherein they had
resided for several millennia
before emigrating to Israel.
In fact, Iraq recently invited
all her erstwhile Jewish coun-
trymen to return to their for-
mer homeland.
This plea by the Organization
of Arab Students is rot. Although
Jews dwelt in Iraq and other
Arab states a full thousand
years before the advent of Arab
hegemony in the region, they
were subjected to constant ha-
rassment, taxed prejudicially
and placed in separate comnu-
nities.
The Star of David badge, pre-
sumed a Nazi German innova-
tion, was created by a 10th
Century Arab ruler who de-
manded that all Jews display

Lebanon, the only Arab state
that has not made the Moslem
religion the state religion has
disintegrated. What chance have
Jews or other minorities in the
Arab lands? The Arab students
are now telling Americans that
they too, wish to see changes
made in current Arab regimes.
Let them tell this to the Black
Christian Sudanese who were
massacred by the Sudanese
Moslems; let them tell this to
the Kurds whose penchant for
self-determination was quashed
in a bloody revolution; let them
tell this to the Maronite Chris-
tians who have become ourcasts
in their own land; but above
all, as Americans are wont to
say, let them tell this to the
Marines.
Eldridge Cleaver recently
penned an article from the con-
fines of a prison in California.
He elected to comment on the
'Zionism is racism' issue by
stating that the concept of rac-
ism is anathema to all Jews
and Zionists. He concluded, an
the basis of having lived in Arab
countries, that the most racist
people on earth are the Arabs.
I am one of 800,000 Jews
who were driven from Arab
lands bereft of all possep3sons
but not of dignity. My family
arrived in Israel from BogO nd
and spent the following 7 years
in a discarded Red Cross tent
in tent cities permeated by
muddy ruts called streets. Mvy
fellow Jews did not confine me
there, rather they sac-"iiced rand

and Assyrians. I do not choose
to return to Bagdad and provide
future sports by joining Jewish
martyrs who were hung in the
central square.
Aviva Mutchnick
Chairperson of
The Israeli Student
Organization
in Ann Arbor
February 12, 1976
MSA
To The Daily:
For the first time in three
years, I decided to attend one
of the now infamous student
government meetings. I waw, to
say the least, doubtful concern-
ing the Michigan Student As-.
sembly's ability to get oni ts
feet. However, my feelings were
unfounded. I witnessed a group
of people trying as West they
could to get a new and hope-
fully more stable government
off the ground. The meeting was
.handled in a most competent
manner and seemed to get
through the necessary business.
What I liked most was the
MSA's unwillingness to be in-
timidated by factions bent on
trning MSA into a tangle of
suits and petty political funds.
Although I didn't agree with all
of the specific actions taken,
on the whole, the MSA has earn-
ed my respect and aenhusiasm.
I think the MSA has taken the
first steps in achieving a repre-
sentative and responsible sIu-
dent government and hope they

method ffor appointing Commis-
sion members. The Court eY-
plicitely indicated that there
would be no problem with a
commission appointed by the
President and confirmed by the
Senate. By saying this, and by
allowing the present commis-
sion to exercise its powers for
30 days, the Court virtually in-
vited the Congress to pass new
legislation resurrecting tihe com-
mission on a constitutional bas-
is.
We of Common Cause believe
that a strong, indepnrdent com-
mission is an essential ingredi-
ent of an honest,, open cam-
paign free of under-the-table
financing. The Mikva-Frenzel
bill recently introduzcd in both
houses of Congress would re-
constitute the Federal Electon
Commission, and we are vigor-
ously supporting it.
We have written to Repre-
sentative Marvin Esch to urge
his suoport of the measure and
to ask that he oppose any
amendments to weaken the
commission's enforcement and
investigatory powers, or to
transfer its authority to other
agencies. Our hope is that if
enough citizens act to focus at-
tention on campaign reform, the
Congress will do its duty.
Paul Metz,
Media Relations
Chairperson, for the
Steering Committee
of the Second
Congressional Di trict

r

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