OIL CO. OIL CO. PUBLIC PROOUCTON TIO P x r Thoughts and feelings: between self and so ie~t n er nm o f lnv PULIG w,(/ Y THE Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Saturday, July 27, 1974 . ........._ - - - - - - News Phone: 764-0552 Sail on, Shipwreck of State FROM THE POLITICAL high seas there is still no indi- cation that the nation's President is planning to desert a sinking leader ship. The impeachment storm that has been darkly brew- ing on the political horizon for the past year has gained considerable wind velocity and is succeeding -in making ominous waves. Yet those who expect the Nixon Administration boat to capsize easily do not give either the sturdiness of the vessel or the personality of its captain enough considera- tion. The Nixon presidential ship is a calloused, barnacled and politically battle-practised man-a-war. The Repub- lican platform deck planks are traditionally expensive and thick, and the boat is laced with intricate and relia- ble political rigging. Although most of Nixon's original crew is gone, the President still has the faithful services of Kissinger as a foreign steward, St. Clair as a legal navigator, and Ziegler as a cabin boy. BY NOW OUR Presidential Captain should be doubting the strength of supoort in the main massed, and should be concerned by the increased leaking. But it will take more than windy Congressional squalls to cause Nixon's political boat to founder. Even the Supreme Court's decisive 8-0 vote did not constitute a broadside hit with any imnact: it managed only to take more wind out of the already sageing Presidential sails. A political shipwreck will be a result of the actions and judgment of the Captain. Because of the nolitial m'lritime policies of its cap- tain, the entire shin of the American Presidency must face the gales of public upset, the battering of legisla- tive inquiry and outrage, and judicial definition. The captain seems to use both ship and crew for a personally glorifying voyase rather than the profitable completion of an elected mission for the voting members of the ship's ownine company. The citizen stock-holders cannot relinquish their share in the shio's venture: they have too much at stake. They can only try to save the shio by court-martialing the cantain and on the basis of existing evidence, decid- ing whether or not to politically keel-haul him in. Like the fictional Cantain Bligh, Nixon does not seem to be a man who will relinquish command easily or throw himself overboard. HIS ADMINTSTRATION ship will probably continue to serve his purpose for a while longer, unless the leaks in- crease, more plank rot is discovered, his remaining crew mutinies, or more unaccounted-for doubloons are found in the ship's hold. Nixon seems determined to stand firmly at the helm and drop anchor when attacked. If it is necessary, he will go down with his ship; he will not go down alone. We are in a time of waiting, a calm before battle. Public sentiment and impeachment clouds darken, while, perhaps hoping that the threatening storm will blow over in hot gusts of verbal puffery or dissipate into apa- thetic mist, the presidential leader ship of Richard Nixon sits silent and stagnant on the water. -BETH NISSEN We pointe you the way to go And scratched your name in and, ' 'hough you Jtst thought it was nothingm ore - Ttan a place for you to stand . . . Teats of rage, Tears of grief- Why tt,,st I alwas, e the thief? tome to r me .oou knows we're so alone And ite is. hiet -tobI ylan -hi, the wett is hIe symbol of that social st ructroe ohih, evolved h bmankind in meeting its most pri- mitive needs, is idependent of all political form'. P'oitica 'structures. chang, a'. do natio', ht the ie of man wih it'. need rmtain'. eternallyteate- this cannot be cihanged. -The I Ching, lexagram 4: The Wei TUE PLACE WHERE thoughts and feelings meet may be the font of all human creativity if both thoughts and feelings are nurtured by the environment-both the social and the natural environment. Life, as adaptation, may require change in either thoughts or feelings when they are not nurtured, or it may require a change in environment, or both. Sometimes, we try to change the social environment by persuasive ex- pression, perhaps trying to avoid changing our- selves. The following letter is one such attempt. Martin, This is the first day in awhile I awoke for work early. It's always Itard to change, at least for me, when change involves shaking myself loose of the influence of people I've loved. I feel a lot of pain and turn the resentment and hostility either toward the object of past affections, or toward myself. Ultimately, resentment stems from fear, and fear can be confronted and conquered. And yes, we all do this in different ways, and maybe it leads us in different directions. To the extent that we want to be free agents, it's our responsi- bility to accept this. This is an inner responsibility, but its lessons can be valuable to others who might run across similar situations in their own lives. TIS IS A TIME of consolidation. Not the time when highway construction pushes outwardly at a boundless New Frontier, but a time when highways stand as expressions of an integrating force. (Only the police and military can use them at the wild speeds for which they were designed in another age.) It's a time of the growing realization that it may be easier and more profitable to tighten the belt than to wine and dine on an expense account. A time, as both you and I have said, of reconstruction rather than of tearing down the walls betweens us., But the time has created a rift and a divided conscience. Perhaps we all placed too much faith in the possibility of reconstructing reality in ways different in the fundamental structure and substance of human interaction from that of our parents. Not only has this not happened; we have, it seems, succeeded only in deepening the comedy and the tragedy of the past by one generation. [HAT'S THE ESSENCE of th rifts. You as a Christian (or you might prefer, Post-Christian) seem to feel absolved fromr the pain. t'm quite sure no idol, fetish, or presently-existing ritual system will absolve me. I'm left with rules and contracts and, insofar as I see any possibility of further change, naked expressions of self, A certain humanism pushes professions and scien- tific orthodoxy as Kosher, while another, more native humanism sees the Self bound, borderless, in a seamless web of selves, at the same time standing free. Both point to the same soul, and that soul is hurting. WE ALL YEARN for an end to the opposition Uu~uF1Nul cl Xu;~ y- an economy M Juve rather than selfishness, a society impossible to rebel against while affirming one's own life, be- cause life in it, and all that affirms life, is sanc- tified. SELFISHNESS-STRANGE STUFF. I invited you to become a party to the relationship be- tween L--- and me, and ultimately I had to get out, because, in a sense, more of my love was drawn to you than to her. I said you could have her on a silver platter, though by then, this was a fait accompli. Acts of love, after all, are those acts which fill a need we feel in each other. You've called me self-righteous and vindictive, but you've also said you feel like a thief. I don't recall telling you you were a thief, no matter how defensive I may have been. When you can let go of the values that make you feel like a thief, I think you'll also stop feeling that I'm self- righteous and vindictive. I'm not pushing gay lib; the people I love, not a limiting group iden- tity, are what I'll fight for. I am pushing person- al liberation, and it's my goal to liberate every part of a person I love, man or woman, straight or gay. MEANWHILE, I HAVE doubts about whether I need a stable, singular relationship that will allow me to focus and discipline my energies on some form of creative and productive work. Again, the rift: My professors can no longer ac- cept the undiscipline; they'd have me brush off people like you, and a big part of me tells me most of my past success has been academic or literary, and that I should heed their admo- nitions. But what was I studying, what was I writing about? Life, myself, American culture and specifically a counter-culture, all of which I began to feel a couple of years ago I could not both be a part of and observe. To be a part of, and to be able to observe- Yes, this is the rift, my own 18-minute gap. It was my dream to close that rift; it had become the purpose of my life. That's what I mean by "personal liberation." And so I turned to feeling, regarding intellectual structures as dehumaniz- ing tools, knowing - or so I thought - that I alread had enough of these conceptual tools to send back messages to that other world, the world of my parents and professors. How deep is the wound when I realize that now I can't reach either side? . DO I THINK YOU'RE just a hype? No; tell ya' what I think. You got a lot of me away from L--- because you had me by the balls. There's nothing innocent (or guilty) about your sen- suous advances, caressing my hands or my head or sharing a tender, fluttering kiss the night I brought by a long-lost girlfriend. That first night, tripping when you broke down into that phe- nomenal mix of laughter and tears, and walked softly over and embraced me, and kissed me and told me that you loved me, it was an expres- sion of feeling that surpassed anything I've ever experienced, even, perhaps, the dissolving of boundaries that comes at the moment of orgasm. Orgasms are cheap, but every moment of shared life like life itself, is precious. You said that L--- and I were both "loves" of yours-many, many times. You also said I was the first per- son you ever really knew, maybe the first friend you've had. Where are you now? TRUE, YOU KNEW before I even met you that I'd wanted you to seduce me, and you did warn me that you couldn't satisfy my needs. Perhaps we both failed to consider the weight that these facts carried before it was too late to avert dam- age. It will always remain a question whether you couldn't - or wouldn't - satisfy my needs. Coontinued on Page S Contact your reps- Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), Rm 253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep), Rm 353, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Rep. Marvin Esch (Rep), Rm. 412, Cannon Bldg., Capitol lill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Sen. Gilbert Bursley (Rep), Senate, State Capitol Bldg., Lansing, Mi. 48933. Rep. Perry Bullard (Dem), House of Representatives, State Capitol Bldg., Lansing, Mi. 48933.