Summer Daily
Summer Edition of
T HE MICHIGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Tuesday, August 14, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
Camwbodia bomb.
ver say die
PENTAGON SPOKESMAN Jerry Freidheim has set the
pace for the latest bout between the U.S. government
and the civilized world on the question of Cambodian
bombing.
Freidheim, a man whose principal function is the
verbal communication of obfuscation, said yesterday the
bombing would end tomorrow as demanded but that in
the near future the Pentagon might have to "reassess
the situation" if any U.S. reconnaissance or cargo planes
are shot down.
Moreover, the B-52's won't be rushed home to fill
military museums just yet. In a moment of extraordinary
clarity, Freidheim remarked, "I wouldn't look for all the
aircraft to come home in the first few days."
HE ALSO SAID, "We have no intention of becoming in-
volved in hostilities after the 15th of the month."
That statement had a funny ring to it. The words sound
very much like those spoken in 1969 and 1970 when the
U.S. professed to observe Cambodia's neutrality:
And now we know what was really going on: numerous
bombs ostensibly slated for visits to. less-than-neutral
Vietnam were actually dropping in on many surprised
Cambodians, "neutralizing" them out of existence.
PE OLD don't - mess - with-our-unarmed-reconnais-
sance-planes line shouldn't fool anyone. For months
during the last bombing pause the Nixon administration
policy was to send bombers out every time the North
Vietnamese so much as locked their radar systems in on
U.S. reconnaisance aircraft. Bombing runs became justi-
fiable homicide in that "other" Indochina war.
We shudder to think that even Congress can't stop
false reporting of bombing runs.
Yet we have at least learned to keep our eyes open.
In the future it will be very difficult for Mr. Freidheim
and others to present justifiable homicide as an excuse
for getting away with murder.
Rennie Davis: A rare leader and
the Guru's most famous convert
By TOM PAYTON
JN A SMALL building on farm-
land (a radio station!), 'twixt
the dials and the glass we await
Rennie Davis, driving out from
Detroit to speak with the D a i I y
and WNRZ. Incisive, clear-headed,
gentle, this is how we remember
Davis from the days of the anti-
war movement, we know what he
has achieved and now we know
that he has proclaimed a fifteen-
year-old boy an a motorcycle the
savior of our poor planet. We are
curious. He enters slowly through
the door and he is beaming, fresh
fromia good mood. Ansattractive
girl in a maroon pants suit ac-
companies him. Sensing that we
have no mood to offer (just stand-
ing around, we), Davis mocks him-
self and asides with a laugh that
he is "wandering around like an
invalid." The radio people give us
a room and the interview begins.
SO DAMN HAPPY he is,-you see
it right away, just one of us, but
infinitely relaxed and alert. "You
just take your mind, which tradi-
tionally is like a grasshopper -
jumping everywhere, going here,
going there-and just focus it on
a sound, and you. focus your mind
on this one point and the mind be-
comes 'more steady and you ex-
perience something you might call
steadiness of mind, which is ac-
tually something approaching
peace of mind. And in this state,
it makes you high." Well, we loos-
en up a little and hear the sound,
but we will not be able to loosen
into a real dialogue.
His tone is alernately woman-
ish and cocky, he is essentially in-
tinimate and kind but he will defy
us with a touch of arrogance. He,
will pause, thoughtfully qualify a
phrase with "rather," and end the
sentence grinning with "you know,
man?" - still a student, bell, yes.
He tells us frankly that there are
no words to describe his exper-
iences with the Guru, but he finds
his words easily enough, with eyes
closen he has seen "a light bright-
er than the sun" and this is clearly
beyond the range of any sceptical
probe we may launch. The resonant
exuberance of his voice is m o r e
than once to remind us of Allen
Ginsberg. Questions about the Guru
Maharaji always elicit gleeful
laughter, and Davis himself could
easily be fifteen at these points
save for the lines in his face. "I've
seen him push what I regard as the
most spiritual people in India into
swimming pools."
CROSS-LEGGED he meditates
for ten minutes in a dark room
before going on the radio to re-
peat his truth. He wants us to feel
always within us "the energy that
supports creation." He tells the
story of finding out about the Guru
and its cannot help but seem sym-
bolic. He has been in Paris for the
signing of the peace treaty and
has spoken at length with Madame
Binh and other leaders of the Viet-
its depth and subtlety, Rennie tells
us that "it's like the world has
been waiting for a lover." For a
long time. For a very long time.
And just when it seemed sure,
quite sure, no lover . . . then, at
last, here he is: 1957! The young
miss smiles and nods.
AND THAT'S PRETTY much
how it went. He won us with his
warmth and openness. He had no
interest to argue. He spoke briefly
of the Stanford research being done
into mind-over-matter phenomena
and of the recent medical discover-
ies about the functions of the pineal
gland (see The Parable of the
Beast by John Bleibtreu). These
are staggering and portentous ad-
Guru Maharaji: Rennie Davis:
The Perfect Master? The Perfect Follower?
namese struggle. The bombing of
Cambodia will continue in criminal
secrecy, but this nevertheless must
be for Davis a victorious culmina-
tion of a long and heroic effort.
Who will deny that he has helped
change the shape of history? (One
recalls Henry Kissinger's startling
deference to the Vietnamese lead-
ers on the day of the signing, his
steping back as if to stay, "this is
your day." Kissinger's buried
shame surely has been forced to
reckon with the presence of Davis
and his people in Paris.) So he
speaks with Madame Binh after
the signing and boards his plane to
return home. On the plane he sits
next to a young French radical, be-
gins a conversation, and is soon
informed that the savior of the
world has been born in India on
December 10, 1957. Wholly incred-
ulous he is, but it begins for him
then.
1957? The girl on WNRZ pounces
on this arbitrariness. 1957? Why did
God wait? Surely misery was not
unknown to at least the nineteenth
century? Well, no doubt but that
logic cannot serve up anything at
al here, and Rennie resorts to
metaphor. With the voice of a man
who has surely known love in all
vances of science, but Rennie's
concern with them is always sub-
ordinate to his experiences of joy.
The Guru himself, however, re-
mains an enigma, establishing his
Missions here in America, propa-
gating "the Knowledge," managing
his company, which manufactures
business machines. At present
there are 150 Missions in the Unit-
ed States, all connected by Telex
wire service. The Guru last week
skipped an appearance on the Dick
Cavett Show, and Rennie has told
us most humbly that "there is a
sense that the Guru Maharaji will
not be in Detroit as planned." One
fears that a crazy kid in a Rolls
Royce has spellbound a rare and
fine political leader. Ever Rennie
shrugs his reluctance to believe
and welcome the Guru's prediction
of an imminent world catastrophe.
WELL, RENNIE DAVIS is or-
ganizing a massive festival for the
Guru, and he hints to us that peo-
ple from other planets may attend.
The festival is in the fall. In the
Houston Astrodome. In the Milky
Way. Yes, Quite clearly, in t he
Milky Way.
-Tom Payton is a g u e s t
writer for The Daily.
I
Letters to The Daily
Pious platitudes explain some salaries
will identify recente
To The Daily: . have had long servic
SPARE ME, please, your pious university before cor
platitudes about wanting to know Undoubtedly you
individual faculty salaries in order pndopbtedls aou
to see whether minorities or women press opinions aboui
are being discriminated against, judge. Do you feol
Your real motive,I suspect, is Judge a professor'sfi
simply to satisfy your curiosity his profession or fit
about what certain positions pay, ization? Will you kno
who is considered top dog in a de- salaries at other fron
partment, whether the professors versities? Can you
you like are paid less than those those you consider t
you islke, tc.teachers"? Your op
you dislike, etc. point is quite likely t
I DOUBT if you intend to publish five or ten years af
the names of all the thousands of the university, as als
employes and their salaries. You fessed.
will discriminate by selection. Then
what will you actually learn? Will nItd CETAIkNLY his
you be able to distinguish between versity spends on
those faculty paid for two terms theyd bu a
of' teaching from those* paid for they do; but I can't..
two, anda half orthreeaterms? of additional informs
And those paid for two terms plus one's individual salar
a third term of research? And the significant figure
those persons who work twelve -Howard Pec
months without observing the uni- Director of V
versity vacation periods? You may Clements L
s, but nothing
employes who
e at another
ing here.
intend to ex-
t certain sal-
competent to
competence in
ld of special-
w comparative
nt-ranking uni-
'even identify
to be "go o d
inion on this
to be different
fter you leave
mni have con-
k the public is
much the uni-
salaries, and
see the value
ition on every-
ry. The total is
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William
ibrary
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Pob ses-Hall Syndicte,1913 THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
You have to understand the complexity and importance of
issues involved in restraining US bombing of your country.'