The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by Students at the University of Michigan Thursday, July 8, 1976 You have to know what a Louis Vuitton bag is... News Phone: 764-0552 By SARA RIMER IT'S NORMALLY OF NO CONSEQUENCE at all that you know what a Louis Vuitton bag is. But just this once you need to know in order The Supreme Court deals to get the point of my story. Sthe: a Louis Vuitton bag is any variety of handbag, briefcase, or luggage with the de- signer's initials patterned in real gold over the auow brown and gold colored vinyl surface. Those gold LVs on a 10-inch handbag cost $110. If you want something a little bigger to hangfrom ' HE DAILY FINDS the Supreme Court's recent decision your shoulder, you're up to $190. And if you're talking luggage - suitcases - you're up in to uphold the death penalty one of the most appal- the luggs. People like Jackie Onassis command ling violations of the inalienable rights of the individ- fleets of Louis Vuitton luggage just as they ual in recent memory. command fleets of cars. In fact, her luggage Capital punishment is, purely and simply, another might just cost more than your car. Two good plates to Louis-Vuitton-watch are form of the crime it was designed to punish and deter. nTon'spFift Avenunaar e The imposition of the death penalty is nothing more than around noon. Louis Vuittons hang from the wrists State-sanctioned murder. How can the taking of a life and shoulders of the executives, museum patrons, be justified as anything more than a cruel and unusual and wealthy suburban matrons who parade the punishment inflicted out of pure revenge? avenues on their way to important lunch dates. Proponents of the death penalty will argue that But watch out for the imitations on Fifth Ave- nue. That middle-aged woman straining for air statistics show a decrease in murders where the punish- nktpasadforlrithrtigtok in knit pants and floral print shirt might look ment is law. But studies also indicate that murderers like she's carrying-my God; a great big Louis are the least likely of all criminals to repeat their crime, Vuitton! - but look again and you'll see the and tend to be easier to rehabilitate than criminals, for LV's dissolve into the pattern. Probably an imi- instance, with a history of repeated robberies. Death tation from Macy's. penalty advocates maintain the punishment may save ONE PLACE THAT IS NO GOOD at all for the lives of potential murder victims. That is possible. Louis Vuitton watching is Philadelphia. That's There is, however, no question that it will terminate the why it was an event to see two - at the 30th lives of some. St. Station, of all places. That train station was distinguished two months ago when Philadelphia Clarence Darrow once argued that there wasn't "a Magazine acclaimed it as the best place in the single admissible argument in favor of capital punish- city to get mugged. Which means that two Louis ment. Nature loves life," Darrow said. Vuitton's have no business walking around 30th "The thing that keeps 'one from killing is the emo- St. Station. tion they have against it; and the greater the sanctity The story, then: At 9:48 a.m. last Wednes- day a couive, who tooked distinctly New York that the State pays to life. the greater the feeling of City and distinctly not Philadelphia, walked into sanctity the individual has for life." the station. She was the kind of svelte that must The Supreme Court justices would have done well to be nourished on celery stalks and seaweed and ponder a while longer that very essence of life they toned by a private exercise master. All that claim to protect. svelteness was zipped into a denim jumpsuit which was unzipped to there. A lot of smooth, tanned skin and silver chains showed at the t e r h o o neck. Her brown hair, a little long to be really m other's right to ab chic, was dramatically pushed back from her face. The effect was of Gloria Steinem in a 'HE SUPREME COURT LAST week maintained its posi- tion on abortion--that a woman has control over her body, including a fetus, for the first three months of pregnancy. The Court extended a pregnant woman's rights by ruling thatt she needs neither the consent of a parent nor of a husband to have an abortion performed. In thus rulin' the court has come down on what we see as the right side of this issue. Justice Harry Blackmun put the matter best in the majority opinion. The determination tob aort a fetus is the woman's, he wrote, because she 'is the more drectly and immedite'ly affected by the pregnancy." On the > 5 5 E matter of parenttat consent for a minor, he Wrote that no state has the right to give a parent "absolute, and possi-(r bly arbitrary, veto" over the decision of a pregnant, un- wed minor. While we agrev witha use dci'iOn, we do so witt some reluctance, for it is difficult to distinguish between the respective rights of a mother batd father concerning ° as abortion. Although we helieve the physical and psychological burden borne by the mother deserves the greatest con- sideration, the emotional burden of a father who desirestoa the birth of a, child should not be shunted aside too has- tily. A father deserves consultation and consideration in a matter so intimately involved his own life as the birth g of his child. jumpsuit. From her shoulder hung a Louis Vuitton bag-the real thing. He was about her height - five-foot-six or so - and also thin. Pulled over his thinness was a plaid suit of impeccable cut. His brown, wavy hair was styled back from his face with just the right amount of fullness on top. He wore light-colored tortoise-shell glasses with just the right degree of shading. Clutched in his hand was a Louis Vuitton briefcase - the real thing. A quick survey of the station showed that they were the only two Louis Vuittons. "All that svelteness was zipped into a denim jumpsuit which was unzipped to there. A lot of smooth, tanned skin and silver chains show. ed at the neck." - 'sgss a ss-,-N%.!v.,": ',tas:5c:' -# THEY ANXIOUSLY SCANNED the huge sched- ule board illuminated with track numbers and arrival and departure times. She hurried into a pay phone while he waited outside, checking his hair in the window of the station's drugstore. He caressed a few strands into place. When she had made her call, they sat down, tentatively, on one of the station's long, decay- ing wooden benches. She lit up a cigarette and he placed a hand - no doubt manicured - on her knee, not affectionately but rather as if to set the two of them apart from the masses of commuters and visitors rushing about for trains, taxis, newspapers, and coffee. They talked in rushes, as if to make arrangements, not con- versation. Then a loudspeaker announced a train, anid they stood up quickly. Rooted almost dead cen- ter in 30th St. Station, they embraced lightly, as his touch had been on her knee. Their bodies were perhaps too fragile for hugging. They held their bags high and apart. And then, in one clean, choreographed motion, they passed, al- msost through each other. Without looking back, the Louis Vuittons were gone. l r i U N i WL In the same vein, we are cautious in supporting the court's decision involving minors. Statistics show that girls as young as 11 and 12 have sought abortions re- cently, and at such grade school ages children hardly have the self-guidance to shape decisions the magnitude of an abortion. But parents of very young mothers may be partially responsible for the situation-early pregnancies result from broken or unstable home lives. Thus the court is correct in denying arbitrary control to parents. Young mothers should seek counseling with qualified adults elsewhere. / his ~ 25'5> 5--- '- ~---- - - 5' 5- - -~--~ - T1iE MI1WALi' F;IOUR. t 1 r-.-- .''N soT.' -.