Suaner Daily
Summer Edition of
THE MICH IGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Wednesday, August 8, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
A wee of insanity
UNITED STATES war planes are nearing the end of the
line in Cambodia. With the August 15 deadline fast
approaching, the bombers have but a single week to ham-
mer away at Communist positions or drop accidental loads
on our "Cambodian allies."
In.that remaining week hundreds and perhaps thou-
sands more Cambodians will die largely because the Con-
gress agreed to a 45-day extension of the bombing.
This grace period according to American officials is
being used to pressure the Cambodians into a peace set-
tlement. The pressure, however, is being applied in the
forms of U. S. bombs, which seem to be having no effect
other than tremendous physical and human destruction.
THE BOMBING could have been stopped, however.
In a ruling over the week end, Supreme Court Justice
William Douglas ordered the bombing halted pending a
court hearing on the constitutionality of the fighting.
Though he was immediately overruled by his eight col-
leagues, the logic of Douglas argument bears repeating.
In his decision Douglas stated: "This case in its stark
realities involves the grim consequences of a capital case.
"THE CLASSIC capital case is whether Mr. Law, Mr. Low
or Mr. Lucas should die. The present case involves
whether Mr. X (an unknown person should die.)
"No one knows who they are. They may be Cambo-
dian farmers whose only "sin" is a desire for socialized
medicine to alleviate the suffering of their families and
neighbors.
"Mr. X may be the American pilot or navigator who
drops a ton of bombs on a Cambodian village. The upshot
is that we know that someone is about to die.
"SINCE THAT is true I see no reason to balance the
equities and consider the harm to our foreign policy
if one or a thousand more bombs do not drop."
Douglas' decision would have prevented the unneces-
sary carnage that will result from the bombing exten-
sion in Cambodia.
His fellow justices and those congressmen who voted
for the extension, on the other hand, will have to share
in the blame for the deaths of those countless Mr. X's
who will lose their lives in Cambodia before the Aug. 15
deadline expires.
Menace of pornography worries
citizens right here in Ann Arbor
Monday night Mr. Raymond Gau-
er, national director of the Los
Angeles-based Citizens for Decent
Literature (CDL), addressed the
local Knights of Columbus, Coun-
cil 587, on the subject of the "Men-
ace of Pornography."
Although Mr. Gauer proved to
be something less than a fire-
breathing pornography-baiter, he
was adamant in his approach to
the subject.
"PORNOGRAPHY," he told a
ligt summer's evening audience,
"has as its only purpose the arou-
sal of lustful sexual appetites sod
has certainly contributed to the
proliferation of promiscuity, vener-
eal disease, illegitimacy, and di-
vorce in this country."
The CDL, his organization, offers
advice and legal assistance to cit-
izens and local communities in need
of help in the fight against porno-
graphy.
The people who came to h e a r
Mr. Gauer were interested in just
that kind of advice. Though it was
an audience in which my own faint-
ly liberal mother might have fit in,
several persons afterward express-
ed strong convictions about t h e
University's relation to the larger
community - and in particular to
standards of "decency" set by the
larger community.
"being lost in the courts. " Gauer
explained low the "enormous pro-
fits" of pornographers have allow-
ed them to hire specialists in ob-
scenity law with which to defend
themselves in the courtroom.
WHILE LOCAL prosecutors are
usually "overworked and under-
staffed" and must expend most. of
their energies on other law en-
forcement priorities, he said, "the
defense is so highly motivated, so
highly paid that they are willing to
appeal their case all the way to the
Supreme Court is necessary."
Gauer is not exaggerating when
he speaks of the tremendous
amounts of money controlled by the
pornography industry - particular-
ly in the field of movies. D e e p
Throat - considered the class of
the hard-core circuit grossed sev-
eral million dollars for its creat-
ors who produced the film for a
measly $25,000.
Supreme Court decisions, accord-
ing to Gauer, have created "tre-
mendous confusion, and that con-
fusion has been tremendously mul-
tiplied by defense attorneys" who
have been "challenging every last
phrase in the decisions."
SINCE THE recent Supreme
Court ruling was handed down,
however, law enforcement officials
around the country have been hav-
"I live here. My kids run around S t a t e
Street and are influenced by U students.
You're big guys to them. I think the University
is part of our community and as part of our
community I think it should be aware of and
react to our actions and standards."
BASING HIS TALK on the June
21 Supreme Court decision which
gave back to local communities
the right to set their own stand-
ards in the matter of obscenity,
Gauer stated that "most respon-
sible, mature adults" are "turned
off" by hard-core pornography.
"As a result of our efforts," he
said, "more arrests, prosecutions,
and convictions have been achiev-
ed. That was before the recent
Supreme Court decision. Now there
will be more."
He also said, however, that the
battle against pornography is still
-Dr. Jerry Hertogg
ing a field day seizing "porn)gra-
phic material." In their zeal, a
number of small town southern
sheriffs have scooped up copies of
Playboy and Penthouse along with
the so-called "hard-core porn."
One municipality in Georgia,
even confiscated the film "Carnal
Knowledge" which has been ;iven
an R rating by the film industry.
"I have no right to impose my
own standards on the community,"
Gauer cautioned toward the close
of his talk." No individual group
like the Knights of Columbus, has
the right either, but the commun-
ity has the right to impose its
standards upon its members."
AFTER GAUER had left, this
reporter retired downstairs to the
bar in the basement of the K of C
lodge with several knights. Talk
for a while centered on whether
the Ann Arbor community as a
His court's ruling has touched off
the new wave of anti-pornogra-
phy sentiment.
whole had the right to set obscen-
ity standards for the University
community.
Dr. Jerry Hertogg, a veterina-ian
and local K of C official, said that
the community did.
"I live here," he said. "My kids
run around State Street and are
influenced by 'U' students. You're
big guys to them. I think the Uni-
versity is part of our commun-
ity and as a part of our commun-
ity I think it should be aware of
and react to our actions and stand-
ards."
"WHAT IS A community, " iner-
jected Frank Koenigknecht, a state
K of C official from Lansing, "but
people living in the same prox-
imity? They should be able I0 set
community standards for them-
selves when these standards are
violated."
"But what if sexually explicit
films are shown, and books sold,
and poetry read, in the name of
culture?" I asked Mr. Koenig-
knecht.
"Camouflage," h e answered.
"They use the word culture but
its really a camouflage. T h e
pornographers, because of their tre-
mendous monetary concern, have
the real ability to take advantage
of young people and sell them a bill
of goods."
"SOMEONE HAS to protect the
people from themselves," observed
Hertogg.
"People are intelligent and know-
ledgeable, they're not going to go
overboard," added Koenigknecht.
"And the fact that communities
have the right to set their own
standards is another safeguard. If
the Amish don't want motion pic-
tures in their own communities,
that's their prerogative."
David Stoll is an assistant-nihaf-
editor of the Sunimer Daily.
tr
RAt
4
THE ILWAUKEE JOURNAL ,
'Attention Cambodians: This 45-day bombing extension is
brought to you courtesy of the U.S. Congress!'
Letters to
Correction
To The Daily:
Contrary to the report in Fri-
day's Daily, (1) I have not been
cited for failure to file a detailed
list of campaign contributors; (2)
I am not an election law offender
(potential or otherwise); (3) I have
committed no offenses (possible or
otherwise); (4) I am not ignorant
or stupid; and (5) there is no
need for me to "clarify" my con-
tributions and expenditures be-
tween now and Sept. 6 (this last
point from the horse's mouth).
After reading Mr. Krost's article,
I went to the County Prosecutor's
office to find out what the prob-
lem was with my reports and what
he wanted me to do to correct
same. It seems that three organiza-
tions which contributed to my gen-
eral election campaign "may (and
may must be emphasized) be in
violation of the law because they
have not submitted statements of
contributions to candidates. It must
be pointed out that there is serious
question as to whether these organ-
izations are required to file such
statements in any case. Thus, if
there is a violation (and that is. a
big if),- it certainly is not mine.
It does not surprise me that your
reporter misinterpreted the County
Prosecutor's statements and the
implications of the list that the
Prosecutor compiled and distribut-.
The Daily
ed. This whole matter of alleged
violations of their Fair Elections
Act has been handled by the Coun-
ty Prosecutor in a manner that can
only be characterized as chicken-
shit. It is precisely what o n e
would expect from a man who
found Doug Harvey's behavior as
Sheriff illegal but could do noth-
ing about it. By providing no ex-
planation as to what the "possible
offenses" were for each person on
the list, the Prosecutor, at best,
leaves it to one's imagination to
decipher what is going on. His
manner of presentation borders on
libel through insinuations t h a t
there is all manner of hanky-panky
going on and that all candidates on
his list (shades of Joe McCarthy)
are equally guilty.
But just as I'm sure that the
prosecutor is not acting out of
criminal intent when he commits
these errors - so I am sure that
there were no irregularities or
"possible offenses" in my cam-
paign reports.
-Liz Taylor
Washtenaw County
Commissioner
District 15
Editor's note: Saturday's Daily
had a correction box concerning
this same story. The box clari-
fied several of the "errors" re-
ferred to in Ms. Taylor's letter.