The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by Students of the
University of Michigan
Friday, August 13, 1976
News Phone: 764-0552
The sad end of 2001
THE UNIVERSITY'S clerical workers voted this week to
disband their union - UAW Local 2001. While an
astonishingly high number of union members voted in
the five-day election, thus providing an unchallenge-
able consensus, we feel the members will live to regret
their vote.
Throughout 2001's stormy history, factions have
clashed bitterly. The leadership has tilted back and
forth: fiery rhetoric and personal attacks have been
rampant. Thus, it appears that much of the sentiment to
decertify was the result of frustration and disgust with
the tactical struggles among aspiring leaders. Granted,
there was sentiment that decertification was the correct
course regardless of these struggles, but it seems prob-
able that endless infighting was the major provocation.
But the point here is that a union is simply a tool.
If wielded poorly. it should be turned over to someone
who will do a better job, not cast aside. Decertification,
no doubt, has put joy in the hearts of University admin-
istrators, and they will waste little time in taking advan-
tage of the situation. Clericals may soon miss the day
when they had a union to stick up for them, and they
may wish to revive ,it.
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Welcome to Leavenworth
By JEFFREY SELBST College. 'Thus, the proportion of professional people
to townfolk is probably higher than anywhere else
LEAXENWIIRT, KAN. - As you slide into town, in Kansas. The fact of the prisons themselves makes
not quite sure if you're really herd, the first thing for some fascinating juxtopositions.
yoU notice, are the cheap hamburger joints that
line Highway 73. The next thing you notice is a KSP, looking like a high school, is just across
sign: "Prison Area - Do not pick up hitchhikers." the highway from St. Mary's, and would fit in well
Welcome to Leavenvorth. with the surroundings but for the barbed wire atop
the cyclonge fence.
leaveasvorth is the home of an army camp, a
'Catholic college, some gently rolling hills, and four The town is weatherbeaten. The architecture is
prisons. The town also plays neighbor to the "Sa- of a poor variety, from the cheap, bright plastic of
viour of the World Seminary" in nearby Bonner Griff's, a hamburger joint, to the small houses that
Springs, as well as the whole state of Missouri situ- line residential streets. But Leavenworth has many
ated just across the Missouri River. old lovely homes along' the Esplanade, the street
Kansas, they say, is flat. That may be true of that traverses a bluff overlooking the Missouri
most sections, but not of the northeast corner which River.
encompasses Leavenworth County. The land here is Don't let the geography of Kansas fool you. In
pleasantly hilly, some of it quite scenic. One area many ways, Kansas is part of the South. There are
just north of town is known as "Little Switzerland," many transplanted Mississippians here, and the gen-
and the name is startlingly apt. But even while eral populace speaks with a decided twangy drawl.
watching the movie at the drive-in, soaking in the
light breezes of a balmy Kansas evening, one iseer- In Leavenworth, the term "nigger" is applied
ilv aware of the fortresses that surround the town. freely, at such times that blacks are noticed at all.
Their searchlights sweep the parking lot. There is a ghetto in town, reaching from Osage
Among the prisons are the Kansas State Peni- Street to the north. The town's blacks live in run-
tentiary (where, one local told, me, they executed down houses, keep largly to themselves, and oc-
the In Cold Blood murderers), and the United States casionally express their separation in the form of
Federal Penitentiary. Each of these buildings and riot. One building in this setaon has been put to
complexes carries an awesome emotional impact at the torch a number of times.
first sight. (Particularly the federal pen-as I drove The city is conservative, and not far from To-
by one afternoon,-I saw a. tourist stop his car and peka, the site of the famous 1954 Brown vs. Board
take snapshots to send back home), of Education of Topeka case. But another para
In addition, there is a VA center and a St. Mary's dox - this district is the only one in Kansas rep-
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resented by both a Democrat and a woman, Repre-
sentative Martha Keyes. Though it is true that
Keyes 'faces a tough battle in November, the fact
that she is in Washington already speaks for itself.
Part of it may be Leavenworth's proximity to
Kansas City. Kansas City, Missouri is .a booming
town and a surprisingly livable one. There are all
types of classes there, including a young profes-
sional class, and no lack of things to see and do.
Leavenworth's relationship to KC, then, is some-
thing like Dexter's to Ann Arbor-cut off, slower,
but undeniably influenced in many ways by the
presence of the larger town.
Still, Leavenworth is a small town first and last.
Everyone here knows eachother, and people indulge
in little conversations like, "Hot out today, by
crackeyt"
There simply isn't ;much to do here. Evening pas-
times include sitting on the front porch, watching
the world go by, or going to the Fort Drive-In for a
double - feature. The Fort is the only theatre in
town, and searchlights or no, if you want entertain-
ment this is it.
One is reminded of accounts of Japan before its
opening to the West. Attitudes are insular, and the
East- (anythipg east of St. Louis) is viewed with
intense distrust. The South and West are the ideal
vacation spots, and if emigration is ever consider-
ed, it is to Arizona that these Kansans look.
Time lags fourteen years behind the coasts here.
Welcome to 1962.
By
Pete Schneeberger
c nd
John Guillean
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