The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, June 13, 1979-Page 3

Satirical T-shirt spar

PARTICPANT
961'I975
SECOND PCE

is controversy in
By ADRIENNE LYONS
The Vietnam war still sparks somie
controversy, as a California en-
trepreneur discovered when he
marketed a T-shirt intended to make a
satirical comment on the struggle in
Indochina.
Bruce Browne's creation is a yellow
T-shirt with a map of Vietnam
silkscreened on the front of the shirt. A
caption printed over the map reads
"Participant-Southeast Asia War
Games 1961-1975." Next to the map is a
ribbon with the caption "Second
Place." A "Taxpayer," instead of
"participant" version of the same shirt
is also available.
BROWNE, OWNER OF a company in
Bonita, California called the Watash,
intended the T-shirt to make fun of the
Vietnam War. Problems developed,
however, when Browne began
receiving hate letters, and oc-
casionally, death threats in the mail
from people who apparently felt the
shirts showed "no respect for the
government," Browne's 17-year-old
daughter, Cheryl, said."It (the shirt)
offends a lot of people," she added.
Browne was unavailable for com-
ment.
Most of the hate mail her father
received came from people who
weren't enlisted and didn't fight, Ms.
ited Browne said. Browne was a Navy
and helicopter pilot in Vietnam, she added.
e on MS. BROWNE said her father was
not upset about the death threats he

California
received, although he did turn some
over to the FBI. Most of the letters con-
tained threats which claimed Browne
did not "deserve to be alive," she said.
Ms. Browne said her father now
believes "It (the Vietnam war) was a
big waste of time." But she added, "I
don't think he regrets fighting in it."
According to Ms. Browne, her father
came up with the idea for the T-shirt af-
ter the company in which he was a par-
tner went out of business. Browne ob-
tained the silkscreening process from
the company, and two years ago,
opened The Watosh, which now
produces the controversial shirts.
Browne also owns two other businesses,
a fiberglass company, and a plastics
company in Chulavista, California.
High school
student shot;
police say
suicide
By TIM YAGLE
A Huron High School student,
distraught over prospects of not
graduating with her class, apparently
committed suicide early yesterday
morning, Ann Arbor police said yester-
day.
According to police, 17-year-old
Agnes Vass, dressed in her field hockey
uniform, apparently shot herself with a
.22 caliber rifle on the high school
playing field, 2727 Fuller. The rifle and
a hockey stick were found near her
body.
"SHE WAS apparently very up-
set ... over the fact that she had been
informed she wasn't going to graduate
with her class," said Police Major
Walter Hawkins. Hawkins added she
had been concerned with her grades.
An autopsy was scheduled, but police
investigators say the wound was self-
inflicted. Police said Vass died four to
six hours before her body was found by
the school's athletic director at 6:20
a.m. yesterday.
Police said a note from Vass which
mentioned her academic problems was
found at the girls' home.

A T-SHIRT CREATED by Vietnam veteran Bruce Browne has not only ign
controversy in certain circles, but has also caused a stream of hate letters
death threats to Browne. Browne originally intended the T-shirt to be a satir
the Vietnam war.

Anti-draft senators threaten filibuster

WASHINGTON (AP)-Opponents of renewing registrat
for a military draft threatened a filibuster yesterday
prevent the Senate from considering the issue as part o
major defense bill.
The subject remained one of the major items in dispute
the Senate moved into its second day of debate on legislat
authorizing $40.1 billion in weapons research and devel
ment. Registration was mentioned only breifly on the Sen
floor but was the subject-of intense-negotiations in priv
meetings.
By early evening, there was no decision on whet]
registration would be proposed as part of the weapons bill.
LEGISLATION APPROVED by the Armed Servi
Committee calls for registering men age 18-26 beginning n
January. Women would not be included. Classification
young men as to their eligibility for service would not st
until 1981 unless the president says it is necessary bef
rtodaY-

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to
f a
as
ion
op-
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ate
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ore


then.
Some senators had planned to propose the registration bill
as an amendment to the weapons legislation.
Sens. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) and George McGovern (D-
S.D.) served notice they would filibuster if an attempt were
made to add registration to the weapons bill: Hatfield in-
dicated he would filibuster regardless of whether it came up
as an amendment or as a separate bill.
ANY SENATOR COULD offer the registration bill as an
amendment.
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) planned to propose such an
amendment unless Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd
guaranteed that the Senate would take up registration as a
separate bill in the near future, sources said.
Nunn said he wanted the Senate to vote on the issue before
Senate conferees meet with House members to iron out dif-
ferences in the separate versions of the weapons bill passed
See FILIBUSTER, Page9

oft

Signatures against the draft
In a special "mailing" ceremony in front of the
Federal Building yesterday,, members of the
Washtenaw County Committee Against
Registration and the Draft (CARD) sent copies of
"Stop the Draft" petitions to President Carter,
Michigan's Democratic senators Donald Riegel and
Carl Levin, and Congressman Carl Pursell (R-Ann
Arbor). The petitions, which contain more than
1,000 signatures of Ann Arbor area residents, call
for the defest of the registration and draft proposals
in Congress.
Ford will lend a hand
Former President Gerald Ford will visit Ann Ar-
bor this month to help lay the cornerstone of the
.-building which will house his memoirs. University
Interim President Allan Smith will open the half-
hour long ceremony June 19. The Gerald Ford
Presidential Library is being constructed adjacent
to the Bentley Library on North Campus. Ford, a
University graduate, was the first U.S. president to
donate his papers while still in office.
Correction
The man whose picture appeared next to a quote
from Biological, hemistry Prof. Gordon Nordby in

Saturday's Daily was not Prof. Nordby, but
Associate Director of the Computer Center and
Chemistry Prof. Allan Emery. The Daily regrets
the mistake.
Happenings...
... are few and far between today, and begin with
a workshop, "The Job Search" at 9 a.m. in the
Multipurpose room of the UGLI. It runs until 4 p.m.
The workshop is free of charge, but pre-
registrtation is required. Call 763-1353 for infor-
mation . .. Akiko Matsuo, a pianist, is performing
at noon in the Pendleton Room of the Michigan
Union ... at 6 p.m., WCBN's "The Great Debates,"
aires its second episode: State Sovereignty vs.
Human Rights: Should Tanzania have interfered
with Idi Amin? Riase Jakpor of the People's Action
Coalition will debate State Representative EDward
Vaughn ... and to finish the day, Ann Arbor Film
Co-op is showing Daisy Miller at 7 p.m. and Women
in Love at 8:30 p.m. Both movies will be shown in
Aud. A, Angell Hall.
On the outside
Warmer temperatures are expected today, along
with showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon
and evening. The showers may cool things down,
however, leaving us with a low of 50, after a high of
820.

F k t i # r; t i i +o- d