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.