etr4ian Daty
420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
Thursday, May 20, 1971 News Phone: 764-0552
NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT SCHREINER
City budget priorities
AST WEEK, Ann Arbor's City Council approved a budget
of $13 million - larger than any previous one but
sorely inadequate to meet the city's needs. Officials,
naturally, were dismayed because it meant increased
public dissatisfaction as the level of city services inevit-
ably dropped. They also knew a personal income tax
would not be long in coming.
But sympathy granted to these men and their efforts
would be misplaced. When it came right down to it,
the needs of those least represented and most oppressed
were those most ignored in the city's budget.
The only black on council, Democrat Norris Thomas
from the First Ward, expressed what are likely to be
the sentiments of his constituency when he spoke before
the budget was unanimously ratified. "It's hard to see,"
he said, "why a few thousand dollars should keep us from
funding community programs when we have a budget
of $13 million."
What Norris was saying was thatit had taken weeks
of haggling to insure even modest funding for programs
for the poor and minority groups in this community. City
Administrator Guy Larcom - a veteran at his post who
should have developed some sensitivity to minority needs
by this time - had no money slated for the experimental
child care center or summer youth employment and had
planned a $3,000 cut in funding for the recently estab-
lished post of city grievance officer in his initial budget
draft.
Supposedly, according to Larcom, this was because
there was no indication of whether there would be ade-
quate private support for these programs to add to city
funds. To go along with this reasoning, one would assume
no community program could be established by the city
alone. And the only reason for devoting $15,000 to a
program to improve conditions in the black community
would be because a federal program called Model Cities
also dished out $15,000.
j TNFORTUNATELY, a close approximation of this rea-
soning forms the basis of city decision-making here
in times of financial strain. Cuts are made where they
are expedient, and the values which go into these decis-
ions are difficult to discern.
New programs to help the disadvantaged are likely
to be cut first, since they have not been in existence long
enough to have developed an elaborate bureaucratic
justification.
City officials in high administrative posts received the
same nine per cent pay hike low paid employes will get.
Because the city's garbage collectors still have a weak
union with no political punch, they absorb the brunt of
the slated 43 city layoffs.
And because it is much easier for the city's govern-
ment to treat the heroin epidemic as a police problem, a
scant $10,000 is allotted for a methadone program to
rehabilitate addicts, rather than imprison them.
The list, or more accurately, the lack of one, is end-
less. Despite the fact that city officials found about
$50,000 more to give to community causes after a group
of angry mothers protested the decision to cut off child
care funds - a relationship which officials claim is not
causal - the change is little reason for celebration.
Even though the child care people will get $18,060 and
the city's grievance officer $10,000, the lack of funding
for these programs is still deplorable.
Before the community is willing to give our evenly
split council its gratitude for their generosity, it might
be useful to consider other political considerations at
work. Though $11,000 for a summer youth employment
program is an improvement over nothing, the astronomic
prospects for unemployment among city youth this sum-
'mer make it only logical that a pittance would be allocat-
ed out of fear of the consequences rather than concern
for employment problems peculiar to youth. Similarly, the
$6,000 reluctantly allocated to Ozone House for helping
young people this summer appears more a frantic effort
to temper the increasing tensions between police, schools
and youth rather than a significant effort toward seek-
ing solutions to these problems.
THUS, WE HAVE once again witnessed the kind of
government we have been assured by officials will
not exist, where the first thought is to see that the
machine works in an orderly manner rather than in a
way in which the community's needs - especially those
generally ignored in wealthy Ann Arbor - are served.
-MARK DILLEN
Letters to The Daily
Ensergency plea
To The Daily:
AT 4:15 TUESDAY, May 18, I
received a phone call from my
good friend, Prof. Bernard Lewis
(School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London), in
which he gave me the latest de-
tails on what is fast becoming an
international scholarly cause cele-
bre - a case which demonstrates
the raging inhumanity, callous-
ness, and cruelty that can be
practiced on a human being in the
Soviet Union.
Mikhail I. Zand, a renowned
Soviet specialist in Persian and
Arabic studies and member of the
Institute of Peoples of Asia at the
Academy of Sciences in Moscow,
requested that he and his fam-
ily be granted exit visas to emi-
grate to Israel. This request was
submitted on March 12. On March
25, he was arrested during a peace-
ful demonstration in the office
of the Moscow Public Prosecutor,
R. Rudenko. Zand was then sent-
enced to 15 days in prison on the
charge of 'hooliganism. He spent
those 15 days on a hunger strike
and was close to death when re-
leased. On May 10,. the Zands
were granted their exit visas.
I write these words this sa m e
Tuesday evening only an hour
after Bernard Lewis told me that
he' had just spoken to Eand on
the phone and was relaying the
latest details. On Sunday, t h e
Zands were ready to leave for the
airport when a message arrived
calling Mikhail to the office of
OVIR, the official Soviet agency
that deals with exit visas. There
he was informed that the visas
were cancelled; all of his papers,
documents, and plane tickets were
taken from him, and he was told to
return on Tuesday at 11 am. The
Zands returned to their now tot-
ally bare apartment - all their
furniture had been sold or given
away so they then spent the ne xt
two nights sleeping on the floor.
On Tuesday, he was kept waiting
all day in the OVIR office and
then was ushered in to an official
who informed him that since the
issuance of the exit visa on May
13 required his renunciation of his
Soviet citizenship, he and h i s
family were now 'stateless per-
sons'. Re was also told to return
to the offire this coming Friday.
Lewis told me that it was clear
from Zand's voice on the phone
that he was in a weakened condi-
tion and that the situation seemed
hopeless. It was clear that t h e
Soviet authorities are trying to
break him physically and psychol-
ogically. The only thing we who
are his friends can now do is to
bombard the Soviet Union with
telegrams declaring our support
of this most gentle and able schol-
ar.
One sidelight: while Zand was
in prison, a meeting was held at
the Research Institute where he
has worked for so many years and
he was denounced as a traitor and
expelled from his job. Who de-
a
"Has it occurred to any of you that he might-
withdraw A LL the troops and leave us here?"
of
*
nounced him? None other than his
own teacher, Joseph Braginsky,
from whose very lips I o n c e
heard these words, "You k n o w,
Mikhail was one of the two best
students I've ever had in my
whole life." At this meeting two
of Zand's colleagues, to their eter-
nal credit, voted in his favor.
Shortly thereafter, his daughter,
Inna, was expelled from her third
year medical school class because
of the treasonous activity of hav-
ing requested permission to emi-
grate to Israel;uZand's son was
also thrown out of his high
school. Such is collective respon-
sibility.
At the moment, I wait in fear
and trembling to hear of Zand's
fate. Lewis' closing words to me
were, "Herbert, I'm afraid that
now it's a matter of life and death.
We must do whatever we can
in these next few days."
I CALL ON EVERT concerned
scholar who is mindful of the fate
of a fellow scholar and human be-
ing to cable the Soviet Academy of
Sciences and/or the Soviet Em-
bassy to demand, request, urge,
plead, or otherwise register their
interest in Mikhail Zand's re-
lease and in the reinstatement of
his exit visa. I myself have t h is
night sworn that if any hurt
comes to Zand or to any member
of his family, I shall do everything
within my power to urge non-co-
operation with Soviet science and
its representatives. This action
against my friend and colleague
only confirms what Solzhenitsyn
has chronicled in fiction and what
Nadezhda Mandelstam has now
detailed inher memoirs. The
Soviet Union and its scientif ic
establishment stand further de-
graded and condemned by this
sadistic treatment of one of its
most respected scholars.
-Prof. Herbert H. Paper
Dept. of Linguistics
Dept. of Near Eastern
Languages and Litera-
tures
May 18
Pakistan appeal
To The Daily:
MUCH IS STILL confused and
uncertain about recent events in
EastrPakistan. But several points
seem clear to most observers in
the United States.
1. In the 1971 Pakistan election
the great majority of East Pakis-
tanis voted for candidates favor-
ing much greater autonomy for
East Pakistan.
2. The government of Pakistan,
largely controlled by West Pakis-
tan military officers, refused to
accept the implications of the
election and instead used force to
subdue the growing movement for
autonomy in East Pakistan. Amer-
i c a n equipment unfortunately
played an important part in this
military action.
3. Great devastation has result-
ed in East Pakistan, with many
lives lost, much destruction of
property, and considerable dis-
placement of persons from cities
to countryside and from East
Pakistan to eastern India. E as t
Pakistan was already one of the
poorest areas in the world, and Its
southern districts were only be-
ginning to recover from a disas-
trous cyclone in 1970. This new
man-made destruction promises
suffering and perhaps starvation
for many of East Pakistan's 70
million persons.
This is an appeal for funds to
be used to provide food, medicine,
and other non-military ,upplies
for East Pakistani victims of thin
latest disaster. Money collected
will be kept in an American bank
through a legitimate and effective
relief organization to East Pakis-
tanis in need. No money will be
used for weapons, and no money
will be sent directly to the gov-
ernment of Pakistan or to a n y
other government directly involv-
ed in the conflict. We expect to
use organizations ik e the Red
Cross, the American Friends Ser-
vice Committee, or other neutral
groups.
THE NEED is great. Please send
your donation to the East Pakis-
tan Relief Fund, Ann Arbor bank,
South University Branch. Contri-
butions are tax deductible.
--Prof. Howard Schuman
Dept. of Sociology
Chairman, East Pakistan
Relief Fund
The Editorial Page of The
Michigan Daily is open to any-
one. who wishes to 'submit
articles. Generally speaking, all
articles should be less than
1,000 words.
..
"Ithought you said that judge was a
friend of yours . .."
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