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Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Doiy express the indcivdual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1972 News Phone: 764-0552
Busing: What next?
JUDGE Stephen Roth's long awaited decision on how to
integrate Detroit's public schools raises delicate con-
stitutional questions.
Roth ordered Tuesday that a massive cross-district
busing plan be implemented, combining Detroit and 53
suburban school systems to achieve integrated education.
Almost immediately after, state officials said they
would appeal Roth's order. In addition, federal judges
may intervene to stop the largest mass busing plan ever
ordered.
And not long ago, a U.S. Court of Appeals overturned
a lower court's order to implement cross-district busing
in Richmond, Va.
CONGRESS, too, has entered into the busing snafu. The
Higher education bill finally passed last week, but
attached to it was a rider to ensure that lower education
pupils would not themselves be riders-on buses, that is.
The bill states that no busing orders may be implemented
until all appeals have been exhausted.
President Nixon has come out against busing, not
unexpectedly. The Supreme Court - no branch of gov-
ernment has stayed away from this one - will probably
issue a clarification this fall of the 1954 ruling which
overturned the separate but equal segregated schools
practice.
The high court will have much to decide. Which
circuit court ruling is proper? Does Judge Roth have the
power to consolidate school systems; or does the latest
Richmond decision prevent that?
Politicians babble on and on, white suburban parents
grit their teeth and black parents worry whether anyone
cares what kind of education their children may receive
once they get where they're going.
Meanwhile, George Wallace, one of the first promi-
nent politicos to express open and racist - it might be
added that he was at least honest - opposition to bus-
ing lingers in the hospital. George must be pleased at
all those persons bothering themselves about his con-
trived issue.
THOSE who care so much about busing plans should
walk outside, take a whiff of air, pass a supermarket
with outrageous prices posted, glance at a newspaper de-
tailing the devastation of Indochina and then decide
what is really important to them.
ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
Co-Editor
I- I
s.I V -
Splashing in the NYC pool
By DONALD SOSIN
Three recent dips in the New York cultural
pool proved refreshing and entertaining-one
opera, one concert, and an evening of theater.
The opera was performed at the tiny Cubicule
Theatre, an offshoot of the National Shakespeare
Company that presents a continual assortment
of plays, dance, poetry and music. The night I
went they were doing a brand-new work called
"The Four-Note Opera," by Tom Johnson, a 32-
year-old New York-based composer and sometime
critic for the Village Voice. The work is an hour
long, yet makes use of only four notes in the
scale: A, B, D and E. The result is not boredom,
but wonderful entertainment.
The five members of the cast sing about noth-
ing but themselves and their arias - the tenor
laments that he has but one aria to sing; the
contralto announces that the soprano will sing
her first aria after she changes and docs her
deep-breathing exercises. The accompaniment is
for piano alone, and that coupled with the small
cast would make the opera an ideal choice for a
small repertory company.
Johnson's Scene for Piano and Tape, the cur-
tain-raiser, was additional proof of the compos-
er's wit and imagination, as the taped voice con-
verses with the pianist, plays duets, decides it
wants to make it on its own, and dares the pianist
to cut the speaker wire.
The Cubiculo is looking for ways to bring these
and other productions to campuses around the
country.
Music doesn't generally spring to mind when
one mentions Pepsi-Cola, but this past year the
corporation has presented a series of concerts at
their headquarters in suburban Purchase, in as-
sociation with the State University of New York
College at Purchase.
The six performances by the sensational young
Concord String Quartet gave listeners the oppor-
tunity to hear some of the newest works in the
repertoire, as well as familiar classics.
On a recent Sunday afternoon the quartet of-
fered the Dvorak "American" Quartet and a bril-
liant work by George Rochberg, his Quartet No.
3, written a few months ago for the Concord
Quartet, and premiered May 15 in N.Y.C.
Rochberg's work is an important step in the
direction of what one might call "the new eclec-
ticism;" Bartokian rhythms play leapfrog with
soaring lines reminiscent of late Beethoven, and
one hears echoes of Ravel, Dvorak, and Mahler
in between.
The result is surprisingly well unified, and
provides hope that composers may still find
something new to say in older musical languages,
The performance was superb. The Dvorak had
some good moments, but the Rochberg was
first-rate from beginning to end. A performance
in March of Crumb's Black Angels was equally
exciting, and one looks forward to recordings of
these and other new works, to be issued later this
year.
Back in the city I caught one more show-
a double bill by Tom Stoppard. In the two plays,
After Magritte and The Real Inspector Hound,
the characters are involved in cases of mistak-
en identity, and a general confusion and help-
lessness in dealing with events going on around
them that recalls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead.
But these plays are not philosophy lessons,
they are whodunits, and very funny ones.
After Magritte is a real-time conversion of
what one might get out of a painting by that
surrealistic master. The characters and set are
nitty-Magritty, and the dialogue, a la Ionesco,
convinces us that either everyone is mad or that
they ought to take out their earplugs and listen
to one another.
Inspector Hound is the most ingenious play
I've ever seen, maybe excepting Sleuth. As the
Four-Note Opera deals with operatic convention,
so Hound is about theatrical device, and how two
critics interact with the play they are attend-
ing. Murder is involved, and there are more twists
in the plot than Chubby Checker ever dreamed
of.
The excellent cast (including Carrie Nye, Boni
Enten and Remak Ramsay) included eight per-
sons, making the plays perfect material for any
of the fine theater groups around Ann Arbor.
A
Letters to The Daily
Cancer and blacks
To The Daily:
IN THE JUNE 5 issue of the
Ann Arbor News an article entit-
led, "Detroit Blacks Lead in Can-
cer" points out that statistics
show that black men contract
cancer with nine percent greater
probability than white men. Fur-
ther, there is a 32 per cent in-
crease over 20 years ago in can-
cer for black men. The manner in
which these data are handled by
the Associated Press clearly re-
veals this society at work covering
up the institutionalized genocide
of black people.
According to Dr. M. J. Brennan
(formerly director of Ford Hos-
pital's cancer program), t h e
large increase in the last 20 years
is mostly due to better diagnosis
now that rural blacks have mov-
ed to the inner cities where med-
ical services are so much more
prevalent. Just in case this spe-
ciousness requires refutation, it's
convenient that the adjacent ar-
ticle on the same page of the
newspaper documents the fact
that in Kalamazoo for example,
there are two doctors ;serving
seventeen thousand inner city
residents while two hundred doc-
tors service two hundred thous-
and suburbanites near and in the
same city. The latter is a nation-
wide phenomenon.
Even more incredible is that Dr.
Brennan claims that a great deal
of the increase in black cancer is
due to a rising standard of liv-
ing for blacks. He goes on to say
that since blacks now live long-
er than years ago they are more
susceptible to cancer which at-
tacks in more advanced years.
One only needs to note the fact
that the average life span for
blacks is now shorter than 20
years ago to cancel that argument
' see the introduction to "The
Chemical Feast" by James Tur-
ner). The real reason for the in-
crease follows from the obser-
vation that two out of the three
most prevalent cancers, different
for whites, are cancer of the eso-
phagus, now related to dietary
deficiencies t Science, Feb. 25,
1972), and cancer of the lungs,
long related to bad city air. It's
clear that it doesn't take a PhD
or MD to make the simple connec-
tion that forcing formerly rural
blacks to live in the poverty of
the inner city gas chambers of
our society exposes them to the
deadly razor edge of our increas-
ingly nutritionally deficient and
chemically polluted environment.
Mark Green
Chemistry Prof.
June 14
Blow-up on Blow-up
To The Daily:
ON JUNE 13 the Ann Arbor
Film Cooperative exposed on the
screen that innovative documen-
tary of the mid sixties, Antonio-
ni's Blow Up. This film could oth-
erwise be titled "One Day in the
Life of a Typical Woman Hater"
or "How the Feminine Myth is
Perpetuated in Today's Youth
Culture". This "stunning master-
piece" (according to the film
coop) is a study in acute con-
trasts. Against the backdrop of
our modern era, Antonioni has
painted prehistoric cave drawings
once again: a dazzling portrayal
of Our Hero the Man, that dar-
ing courageous intelligent and
sensitive artist photographer, the
golden haired prince on his con-
vertible white horse engaged in
the heavy struggles of his exist-
ence. In every scene he must con-
quer anew. Nothing must threaten
Letters to The Daily should
be mailed to the Editorial Di-
rector or delivered to M a r y
Rafferty in the Student Pub-
lications business office in the
Michigan Daily building. Let-
ters should be typed, double-
spaced and normally should
not exceed 250 words. The
Editorial Directors reserve the
right to edit all letters sub-
mitted.
his creative genius or his over-
whelming sensitivity.
A masterful modeling job is
done by David Hemmings whom
we must view endlessly (or so it
seems) in every posture and ex-
pression of male glory of which
he is capable. Where is the dra-
gon to be slain, who is the fair
damsel to be saved?
No, this is not Love Story and
we are not subjected to the typ-
ical fairy tale or madonna myths.
Antonioni is much too intellectual
for that. It is the Bloody Bitches
themselves whom our hero must
forever fight off. They must not
taint him but be kept always
fawning in their corners com-
pletely subservient, obedient to
his every wish, beautiful and of
course with their eyes shut.
TO PREVENT a case of cog-
nitive dissonance with his mod-
ern audience, Antonioni has his
hero identify strongly with to-
day's revolutionary (?) youth
culture. The sixties began our
psychi delic era and Blow Up
treats us both to Vanessa Red-
grave's tits and a dope party. Of
course, everyone knows how rev-
olutionary dope smoking is, but
frankly I found myself more than
a little uncomfortable watching
Redgrave and her sisters with
their grotesquely made up faces
and unnaturally thin bodies (the
ultimate in fair weakness) pros-
trating themselves before our
curly haired hero to win his fa-
vor,
I hope the consciousness of our
"revolutionary" youth culture has
been raised enough since the mid-
sixties to recognize just Csow
counter revolutionary a d o p e
smoking rock culture is if it is
used to pejpetuate the age old
myths and repression of women.
"The social progress of man can
be measured by the social posi-
tion of women". A stunning mas-
terpiece by Karl Marx.
Nanci I. Palid
June 14
.-- --
I'm sending Spiro on a trip, too...
Back to Baltimore!
NIGHT EDITOR: CHRIS PARKS
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: ROSE SUE BERSTEIN
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITOR: DIANE LEVICK
PHOTO TECHNICIAN: DENNY GAINER