TinE Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Friday, May 10, 1974 News Phone: 764-0552 How can you run when you know? PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT ways of remembering the passage of years. Some recall where they went for holidays and vacations, some think back to birthdays or school years or places that they lived. I remember time by where I was on May Day, observing the spring ritual of my tribe. And since we were bound for Kent, the Dienbienphu of the American peace movement, one memory was especially clear: the day I stood on the New Haven Com- mans, May 4, 1970. Bobby Seale's Birthday Party, a gath- ering for the man who was bound, gagged, and chained to a chair for demanding his constitutional rights, and at that point under indictment for murder. The sun was hot, three fat Huey helicopters bristling with machine guns snarled above the rally, the air still stunk with the tear gas they'd thrown at Allen Gins- burg the night before, the speakers were intense and angry. I remember my disgust when Jerry Rubin grab- bed the microphone from the woman who was speaking, but the disgust changed to horror and fatigue when I heard what he came to say: "They've shot a bunch of students at a place called Kent State-it's in Ohio, I think-I don't know yet if they're dead." We realized then that America was still a colony, like Vietnam and all the others, as long as the powers that be can murder those who dissent. FOUR YEARS LATER, the situation has changed enough to inspire some hope for those who care about the victims at Kent and Jackson and the others. But the war rolls on: more people died this year in Indochina than ever before, and the American taxpayer footed the bill. We've come a long, long way, but there's a long way yet to go. -MARNIE HEYN Regent censorship THE RECENT THREAT by the Board of Regents to ban all film screenings on campus because of the alleged obscenity of one particular screening represents such an abortion of reason that one begins to wonder exactly what it is that ticks in the minds of University admin- istrators. Do the Regents honestly feel the need for censorship here at the University? Apparently they do, though they would rather call it something else, such as forced "self-regulation." While demanding that certain films be banned from the cam- pus, the administrators are unwilling to stand up and admit what they wish to be: censors. Instead, they would rather use their nearly ubiquitous power to foist this ugly role off onto the students. Unfortunately, more is at stake here than the right to watch Ms. Lovelace's victorious suppression of the gag reflex. If nothing else, some very fine movies are rated "X". -RON LANGDON Ford's, Ann Arbor visit an all around failure sounded like warmed-over Angewisms. Ford made only one reference to Watergate and attendant troubles in Washington. "I would in- sult your intelligence and the vote which is yours if I remained silent of the political torment which our country is undergoing with its center in Wash- ington," said Ford. He then proceeded to do exactly that - insult our intelligence and keep silent. He made an attempt to defend the presi- dent "for taking his case to the people" and was met with a cacophony of boos and hisses. It was understood that the inevitable would happen sooner or later. Ford is the first Michigan graduate to "hit it big" and it was expected that the university Regents would honor Ford in some way. The usual such fare is, of course, an hon- orary degree and a speech. In normal times, this -4 rrobably be accepted by the public, BUT THESE are not normal times. Gerald Ford is the surrogate for a president who is ac- cused, at the very least, of criminal negligence. To try to keep such a public appearance apoliti- cal is absurd, not to say impossible. But that is exactly what happened. The visit backfired. For one day, the pollu- tion of Watergate hung over the university like a noxious cloud devoid of any silver linings. It was as if Richard Nixon himself came to campus to speak and talked about football, avoiding the issues of the day. The word I'm looking for to describe that day is, I suppose, boring. Even the demonstration against Ford lacked cohesiveness and organiza- tion, resorting instead to hackneyed chants left over from the Vietnam protest era. Although it was a sincere effort to call attention to an issue, cliches on either side of the political fence are ineffective. So the day ended, for me at least, with a cold beer that helped to wash away the stale taste left in my mouth. That, at least, helped to drown the political sorrow I felt Saturday. By GARY THOMAS LYNDON JOHNSON was right about one thing in his life: Gerald R. Ford cannot walk and. crew gum at the same time. And if the avowed purpose of this institution of higher learning is to turn out intelligent, informed, educated in- dividuals, then somehow, some way, one of Michigan's products came out all wrong. This is not to say Gerald Ford is dumb; far from it. The man is a calculating politician who knows which side his bread is buttered, even with the ersatz margerine of Richard Nixon. But if this country's first instant vice-president, were really smart, he'd offer some palatable fare for public consumption instead of the pap delivered here Saturday. His visit showed that mediocrity is no bar to success. The team of Ford and Fleming gave a com- mencement show that, quite frankly, bombed. If dullness could kill, then they would have been carting bodies out of Crisler Arena by the thousands. Robben Fleming delivered a short speech of insipid platitudes and trite cliches for which any professor of speech would have flunked him. "There are problems with which we will simply have to learn to live with," said Fleming. "If this is the best inspiration that can be offered to graduating students, then I'm afraid President Fleming himself is a perfect example of his own words. THEN TO THE headliner, Gerald Ford. His act consisted of a badly ghostwritten speech muddied by references to Chairman Mao and the American political system. For an added zing, he added a few references to the protestors that FM A CAME HOM6N THC TO TflEU 'II65 -ATh S1X0LiWHAT Ag3VT CCN4&)& tY FXMVUT? ER45 CAK7 FMI? ooe. r A )I"cn