Page Four
THE SUMMER DAILY
Saturday, May 12, 97'
PageFourTHE UMME DALY Sturdy, My ,197
TIME
Summer Daily
S smeisr Jdstier of
S111 EMI(\ AN I)AILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Saturday, May 12, 1973 News Phone 764-0552
CarlnKing: 1,
" i
Discrimination
'AROLYN KING of Ypsilanti emerged Thursday night
as perhaps the youngest crusader for women's rights.
Twelve year old Carolyn decided that she was going to
play in the Ypsilanti chapter of the "girls not eligible"
Little League, and with the help of the Ypsilanti munici-
pal government, did just that. Her successful defiance of
official sexist policy now promises to pave the way for
the entrance of more females into traditionally male-
dominated sports.
The Ypsilanti Little League was hesitant about vio-
lating national "no-girls" rules, but Ypsilanti's mayor and
council threatened to take away their field if King did
not play. So Thursday night she walked twice and struck
out once as her team went down to defeat 15-0. Not a
spectacular performance, but surely no worse than her
teammates.
The national Little League now threatens to revoke
the Ypsi chapter if Carolyn remains in uniform. Robert
Stirrat, the L.L.'s national public relations officer, de-
fends this stand by citing research that girls are physio-
logically unfit to compete with boys.
JT IS PERHAPS true that at present, the reflexes of most
young girls are much slower than that of their male
peers. Yet how can girls be expected to develop reflexes
when they are encouraged to stay home and play with
dolls while most boys are trained to be rough and tough
Furthermore, it should be noted that there are many
boys who are physically unfit for Little League baseball.
It is unfair and discriminatory to disqualify any entire
group of neonle from a certain activity based on tradi-
tional beliefs about that group. The Little League has
every right to disqualify those who prove unfit to play.
But one's sex is insufficient proof.
It might also be added that many of the boys on
King's team as well as the opposing team Thursday night
expressed opposition to having a girl play baseball with
them. Indeed, it is because of these existing attitudes
which the young boys hold in their formative years, that
they must be exposed now to the attitude of equality for
females.
THE NATIONAL Little League can now either penalize
the Ypsilanti chapter for its rule "violation," or can
change their rules to permit qualified girls to play. We
hope that they choose the latter alternative.
Martha Mitchell stays true:
A srange seise of honor
By PETE HAMILL
'PHE DARK BLUE Lincoln Con-
tinental with the New York
plates numbered 779YSO was like
some polished memory of the old
days, as it carried Martha Mit-
chell through the jammed and cla-
morous traffic of West End Av. a
week ago Thursday.
She had been in cars like this
before, rolling up to the West-
chester Countrv Club to play
bridge, or heading for the recep-
Lions and the balls and the Inang-
orations; all in the days when Billy
Graham ran the prayer breakfasts,
and her husband's agents were
smashing the Bolsheviki on the
streets of Washington, ad all the
beady-eyed little California men
still commanded respect. A 1-ong
time ago.
BUT NOW, on this muggy after-
noon, Martha Mitchell was arriv-
ing at the office of a lawyer, to try
to keep her husband from going
to jail. There were no druarolls,
and no marital choirs; only a maul-
ing crowd of reporters and camera-
men, and housewives with baby
carriages, and doormen, and honk-
ing horns, all playing their small
part in the seedy finale to al ong
and squalid show.
"Hey, Martha," someone shout-
ed, "This way, turn this wayl"
And: "Do you think your husband
was part of the coverup?" A n d :
"Will your husband be indicted?"
And: "Are you gonna talk about
the dirty things you mentioned last
year?"
And poor Martha Mitchell replied
with a ghastly vacant grin, the face
of a person who has stunned herself
to avoid examining the contents of
the 'abyss. She took off the dark
glasses, and there was a scribiIe
of terror in the eyes; the red hair
seemed overrinsed and exhausted.,
Microphone cords were tangled in
her legs, as she tried to nove up
the steps of 232 West End Av. to
make a deposition to Henry Roth-
blatt, who is James McCord's law-
yer. "Oh, my," she said. "Oh, my "
She started up the steps, and
there was a surge, as almost 200
reporters pressed forward, and she
looked about to fall, a small dumpy
woman in a powder-blue dross,
cltching a worn family Bible. "I'm
glad I don't have claustrophosia, '
she said, laughing a dry laugh, and
then was pushed up again, into the
Martha Mitchell
hallway. It says a lot about the
character of John Mitchell that
he let his wife go through t h e t
scene alone. Carlo Gambino wsoitld
have had more class.
AND SO Martha Mitchell went
inside to an office, to tell what she
knew, while declining "to discuss
what she had learned in her hus-
band-wife relationship." And in
Washington and Los Angeles and
probably a lot of other places, peo-
ple were talking. Nixon's people.
were calling reporters, pointing
at each other, ratting on friends,
as the biggest political scandal in
the country's history continucd to
enfold. And Martha Mitchell, loyal
in an appealingly empty way, re-
mained the best of them.
She had so little reason to re-
main loyal. They had made fun
of her, they had knocked her down
and drugged her. Anti here she
was, staying true. She might he
the only person who ever deferre'!
to Richard Nixon who actually
understands the word "honor."
Have we ever had such a crew in
power before?, All those slick ad-
vertising men, those loveless
champions of righteousness: t h e
Deans, Magruders, Ehrlichmaes,
Haldemans, Kalmbachs, and t h e
rest. It would require a very suec-
ial kind of jail to house such a
bunch. It was John Mitchell and
his boys who put the Berrigans in
chains - literal chains - and act-
ed as if they had sole possession
of the True Faith. Life will be
different in the can.
YET EVEN NOW, with the news-
papers looking like the Newgate
Calendar, there js the feeling that
we baveonly seen the tip of the
iceberg. These are people, after
all, who break into psychiatrist's
offices; that's like bugging a con-
fessional booth. Ehrlichman stood
in silence, and Ron Ziegler retailed
Nixon's lies, while some poor lag
oaut in California was doing time
for burglarizing Daniel Ellsberg's
psychiatrist's office. An innocent
man. A real man in a real jail,
when the actual crime was com-
mitted by the President's men.
There is the feeling that Nixon
cannot last, that he will have to
resign or be impeached, or this Re-
public will cease to function. Nixon
is a graduate of the University of
Murray Chotiner; he knew and
practiced every slimy trick in the
political bag on his way to power,
and to ask us to believe that he did
not take part in the Watergate cov-
erup is to ask one act of faith too
many.
Pe YeHamil Cis a wf erfor ite
Nesv York. Post. Copsycighti 1973
by the New York Post Corpora-
tion.
"rWHAT' IF NE 451C44 olt POLI17Iat. A'Yl~wuiM
F-
I Letters to
Child care center
To The Daily:
AS PART OF the Tribal Coun-
cil's development of cooperative
programs the Children's Commun-
ity Center was initinted to pro-
vide free child care at theBlues
& Jazz Festival and then at the
People's Ballroom in 1972 prior
to the burning of the Community
Center.
The Children's Community Cent-
er can now afford to expand serv-
ices beyond the presently small
program. With the $15,000 received
from Federal Revenue Sharing
funds we are presently seeking to
rent/lease/buy a building (church,
house w/yard, land & portable
classroom) which will enable us
to obtain a license from the Dept.
of Social Services. We will work
on a program for approximately 20
children, 2 to 5 years, primarily
for poor people.
Anybody with information or as-
sistance regarding a building, or
people with young children wanting
more information and an applica-
tion form please write: C.C.C., c/o
1520 Hill St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104.
-The Children's Community
Center
May 11
Boycott obligation
To The Daily:
THE REVERSAL of the historic
"Honeywell Resolution" Monday
night is both foolish and tragic.
While U.S. bombers are blasting
Indo-China without even the flim-
siest legal excuse; while Honey-
wel, Inc. is still producing weap-
ons which are used illegally; while
there is every reason to assume
that Honeywell's cruel and indis-
criminate weapons are mutilating
Cambodian and Laotian civilians;
while 200,000 civilian political pri-
soners are still being held illegally
and being tortured and starved in
the cages of South Vietnam's pri-
sons; the new City Council, domin-
ated by "law and order' advocates,
worries about propriety and pro-
cedures.
No court, not even the Interna-
The Daily
tional Court of Justice, has the pow-
er to impose effective sanctions
against countries, companies or in-
dividuals who violate international
law.
But citizens of the United States
have a clear moral obligation, es-
tablished in the war crimes trials
in Germany and Japan after World
War It, to do what we can to in-
stre compliance with international
law.
THIS IS A serious obligation. It
implies that all of us are reson-
sible for the modern weapons of
horror which have been used by
the U.S. government in Indo-China
and that it is our responsibility to
stop the production and use of such
weapons if they are illegal.
The Republican members of the
City Council, by voting to reverse
the "Honeywell Resolution", have
shirked their responsibilities as cit-
izens of Ann Arbor, of the United
States and of the world.
They have voted to continue the
mutilation of the men, the women,
the children and the land of Indo-
China. They are cowering behind
"propriety and procedures" to
avoid facing the world's most im-
portant moral and legal challenge.
We hope that men and women
of greater courage are leading Ann
Arbor if the civilian population of
this city is ever subject to the ter-
ror of illegal mass bombing, if
fleshettes and molten shrapnel and
jagged hunks of plastic from il-
legal, immoral bombs ever tear the
flesh of Ann Arbor's children.
We'll need more than excusos
then, and we need more than ex-
cuses now.
-Interfaith Council for Peace
May 7
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Rafferty in the Student Pub-
lications business office in the
Michigan Daily building. Letters
should be typed, double-spaced
and normally should not exceed
250 words. The Editorial Direc
tors reserve the right to edit
all letters submitted.
AN