Page 4-Tuesday, June 6, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Gmichigan DAILY
Eighty-eight Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI. 48109
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 24-S News Phone: 764-0552
Tuesday; June 6, 1978
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Discrimination bill
versus S.A. ties
A BILL WHICH could ultimately force the
University to sell all investments in cor-
porations doing business in South Africa passed
out of committee last week and now heads for a
tough struggle on the floor of the Michigan House
of Representatives.
House Bill No. 6341 would make it illegal for any
educational institution in Michigan, public or
private, to "encourage or condone"
discrimination. The bill is aimed at
discrimination in the form of investments in any
corporation which practices or condones,
"through its actions or inactions" discimination
on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin
or sex.
Although the bill in its present form would not
force the University to divest immediately, it
could be interpreted that way by Frank Kelley,
the state attorney general.
And Kelley would have a precedent to follow.
The Wisconsin attorney general's inter-
pretation of a similar law in that state forced the
University of Wisconsin Regents to "prudently"
sell all investments they held in corporations
operating in South Africa.
While House Bill No. 6341 cannot directly attack
the problem of University investments, it lays
essential groundwork for the solution for a com-
plex problem. Passage of the bill would bring to
an end the dilemma of all administrators at state
institutions of higher learning who have voiced
concern about the wisdom of cutting ties with the
only country in the world which practices,
legalized discrimination and segregation.
Some have questioned the constitutionality of
the bill, saying it infringes on the rights of private
institutions. While the bill may have to be limited
to pertain only to public institutions, passage of
the basic legislation is essential.
Both black and white South Africans have said
that, for the benefit of those in their country, the
University should divest. House Bill No. 6341 is a
small but concrete step to ending that suffering
known to most as apartheid.
TAT FLAKE WHO N T I CAGE AD T 0CORTWL OT AT
H 6 NAME TO A NUMBER UCH A FRVOLOUS PETTION
YOu MA CHANGE YOUR NAME PIT OK' HOWAOUT 5HAEU
ONI, TD ANOTHER NAME T1IGPEN TALLYWACKER .
ER TAT' MORE
LIKEIT!
RFK: A missing
igure
By John Ellis
Have you ever thought of
writing to the New York Times?
When Anthony Lewis took apart
California Governor Jerry Brown
in a column last January, I
finally wrote to the editors. It was
Lewis who replied, and in the end
our exchange was about Robert
Kennedy.
Anthony Lewis had not under-
stood Jerry Brown, I wrote. The
governor was bringing ideas
from the periphery into
American politics. I said Lewis'
description of Brown as
"arrogant, ambitious, contem-
ptuous, mean" reminded me of
attacks on the late Senator
Robert Kennedy by people who
did not know or understand him.
THE TIMES never printed my
letter. But about a month later I
heard this from Anthony Lewis:
in a new age
The train left Penn Station CERTAINLY MOST students
around noon after services at St. at the University today remem-
Patrick's Cathedral. All of the ber some of this. But I am afraid
politicians had been there, even they do not know or remember
Johnson, and most of them got on why Robert Kennedy was mour-
the train for the trip which should ned so.
have taken four hours. It took The following remarks are
eight. taken from a speech Kennedy
That was because the tracks gave at the University of Wit-
were lined with people along watersrand in Johannesburg,
most of the route. In the cities, we South Africa in 1966. It was an
had to go ten miles an hour to be address to students who were
sure people weren't on the tracks. protesting the apartheid policies
As the train passed, they made of the South African government.
signs. Some waved; some put President Fleming and the
their hands over their hearts. Regents would do well to read
OLDER MEN wore Veterans of this and reconsider their decision
Foreign Wars caps and saluted. on University investments in
There were hundreds of South Africa. But this quote of
American flags and many people Robert Kennedy's is mainly for
were crying. students.
The train tracks ran through "IT IS FROM numberless
the poorer sections in many diverse acts of courage and belief
places. The people who lived that human history is shaped.
alongside came out to catch a "Each time a person stands
glimpse of the casket of someone up for an ideal, or acts to improve
Robert Kennedy leads a motorcade down Detroit's Woodward Avenue as he campaigns for the 1968 election.
"The editors showed me your who talked about their problems.
letter about that Jerry Brown They had thought he would help,
column. I do not know whether and now he was dead. A band on
they will use it, but there was one the platform in Baltimore played
thing on which I wanted to com- "The Battle Hymn of the
ment. That was the parallel you Republic" and breaking voices
drew between Brown and Robert sang as we passed.
Kennedy. It was difficult for the Kennedy
"Kennedy was a person with staff to comprehend that it was
extremely deep feelings for his body we carried. In many
human beings: his family, ways, the funeral train was like
children everywhere, friends, the whistlestop train tours of
just ordinary people. He cared: Kennedy's brief presidential
that is what people sensed in him, campaign of 1968-like the
He often tried to hide his feelings; Wabash Cannonball in Indiana
he was shy, and he did not like to and one through the California
seem soft. But I knew him very San Joaquin Valley.
well, and I know what people sen-
sed was there.. ." IT WAS AFTER winning the
LEWIS WENT ON to further California primary that Kennedy
villify Governor Brown on the was shot on June 4th. Many of us
basis of having had "two exten- had already gone on to New York
ded conversations with him and for the next primary.
observed and read all there is to So when he died, little over a
read." I still think Lewis is wrong day later, we began feverish
about Brown, but I agree about preparations for this last trip.
Robert Kennedy, who died ten The Secret Service arrived and
years ago today. never ,again would a presidential
On the day of his funeral, June candidate travel without them,
8, 1969, there were over 1,000 even this dead one. We con-
people riding with Kennedy's sidered every angle, except no
body on the funeral train from one predicted the crowds, or the
New York to Washington; I was looks on their faces.
among them. It was dark wpen we got to the
THERE WOULD be no need to capital; the TV crews had hastily
retell this for my college class, erected lights at the station and
which had its commencement on at Arlington Cemetery. Millions
that day. But most students in watched on television as the old
college now were ten years old cardinal from Boston, who had
en.. I am, afraid they won;t also burikis bnr e pn aid
the lot of others, or strikes out
against injustice, he or she sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and
crossing each other from a
million different centers of
energy and daring, those ripples
build a current that can sweep
down the mightiest walls of op-
pression and resistance.
"Few are willing to brave the
disapproval of their fellows, the
censure of their colleagues, the
wrath of their society. Moral
courage is a rarer commodity
than bravery in battle of great in-
telligence.
"YET IT IS the one essential,
vital quality for those who seek to
change a world that yields most
painfully to change. And I believe
that in this generation those with
the courage to enter the moral
conflict will find themselves with
companions in every corner of
the globe."
In the ten years since Robert
Kennedy's death, few have been
able to inspire such feelings. But
we are still the hope of which he
spoke.
John Ellis was a member of
Robert'Kennedy's Senate and
campaign staffs and is now at
Canterbury House in Ann r-
..Ine wore o~oet~ ne~ R.,::. : ~s . a