6
e 4-Tuesday, February 26, 1980--The Michigan Daily
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Vol. XC, No. 121,
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by 'students at the University of Michigan
k
Class boycott a good idea
F SEVERAL THOUSAND
students at the University of
ichigan were to boycott classes in
potest against registration and the
draft, such action would certainly
dhaw national attention. Millions of
Amnericans, caught up in a new Cold
Xar fever, might, stop and consider
tlat students are really serious in their
opposition to war and their desire for
p ace.
if this one-day class boycott were
part of an entjire anti-draft educational
teach-in, the message would be even
s onger.
n fact, such a boycott is planned for
Regents and
ITH POWER AND influence
comes 'respon-
ility-something the Regents seem
t have forgotten when they granted
veloper John Stegeman an option to
some University land two weeks
a. Stegeman needs the land for a
king structure to go along with a
gh-rise complex that he wants to
ild just north of University Towers.
It is not clear that the proposed 32-
ory complex-a combination of hotel
oms, apartments, and con-
'ominiums-would be beneficial for
ther the University or the com-
unity. But such a massive develop-
'aent would surely have a significant
impact on the surrounding area and
would seem to merit careful analysis
«iy anyone with any sort of control-over
the future of the project.
But the Regents-specifically
Thomas Roach (D-Saline)-chose to
inore their responsibility to scrutinize
lhe project that 1n ght -bem made
ossible by their land oj
Although some ^ "community
epresentatives expressed their con-
cern that the planned complex would
;e detrimental to the largely student-
dccupied S. University area, Roach in-
isted that the Regents should not con-
y ern themselves with the building's ef-
ject on the area because such a worry
Sohdarity In
HE IMPOSITION of a threat from
Tabroad has a way of drawing a
Iation together. The Vietnamese
eople, to whom nationalism was a
ew idea, summoned strength enough
'o chase one superpower from its bor-
ers.
4 Now, diverse and poverty-stricken
Afghanistan has found strength and
fortitude as a result of an invasion by
,he other superpower. The Afghan
people, recent reports indicate, are by
ho means meekly settling down to ac-
'eptance of Soviet domination. They
are fighting, both militarily and sym-
bolically, to be free of the bear from
$he north.
On Thursday, reports came from
Thursday, March 20 as the culmination
of a week-long teach-in about
registration and the draft. The entire
program is being organized by the
Public Interest Research Group in
Michigan (PIRGIM) and is supported
by some fifteen studert organizations.'
It seems almost unnecessary to urge
all students opposed to draft
registration to participate in both the
teach-in and the boycott. To under-
stand that widespread participation in
this program could have a real effect
on policy makers in Washington is to
understand the need for such a united
effort against registration.
responsibility
is "properly the control of the Ann Ar-
bor City Planning Commission."
Such an attitude is both puzzling and
disturbing. It is true that the planning
commission would carefully examine
the building plans before granting ap-
proval, but when a project is prac-
tically in the University's own
backyard and would affect a sizable
portion of the University community,
the Regents must take advantage of
any opportunity they have to influence
the development.
Instead, Roach was pleased that the
University would get at least $5,000 for
the option even if Stegeman decided
not to buy the land. Deciding to grant
an option authorizing such a large
project for such a small sum is unwise.
Stegeman's plans for the building
sites have changed several times in the
past; they will probably change again.
Actually city approval for the project
seems unlikely now, but Stegeman has
wrangled, approval on ,xnumerous
pro ects b>efore and ,he could do it
again.
There is no reason that the Regents
cannot at least discuss such issues with
the city officials who could provide
some helpful insight. The University
dominates a large portion of this city;
it's high time the Regents recognize
this and accept their responsibility.
Afghanistan
Kabul that the, city's merchants
responded unilaterally to shut down
their stores in defiance of the Soviet-
backed regime. The next day, actual
rioting against the invaders was repor-
ted across the nation by insurgents.
The Soviet suggestion that only a small
band of religious fanatics is fighting
the Russian presence is beginning to
look rather absurd.
The State Department has estimated
that the Soviets will need to station half
a million men in Afghanistan to control
the ongoing widespread rebellion.
Perhaps the heroic acts of insurgence
already performed-and yet to
come-will thwart the Soviet ambition
altogether.
A 'space
WEST LEBANON, N.H.-Jerry Brown is
challenging some fundamental assumptions.
In the process, he is also defying some accep-
ted political wisdom.
His critics dismiss the California Governor
and Democratic presidential candidate as a
"flake," a "space cadet," and as a political
opportunist because of his seemingly un-
predictable stands on major issues.
BUT IF HIS audiences and his political op-
ponents have a hard time understanding
Jerry Brown, it is because he does not speak
in the usual nuances and euphemisms which
they are accustomed to hearing from
politicians. He is blunt, caustic, and willing to
say practically anything, unrestrained by
traditional formalities, and niceties (for in-
stance,.he refers to the incumbent president
simply as "Carter").
His is a common man, common sense ap-
proach to government. He offers a few
specific political alternatives, but mainly
prides himself on being the only major can-
didate of either party willing to question the
wisdom of past policy. In that respect, Brown
really is the "candidate for the future" that
he claims to be.
"Kennedy's been going around saying a
vote for Brown is a vote for Carter," Brown
recently told a student audience at Dar-
tmouth University. "I'll change that. I'll say a
vote agaist Brown is a vote for Bush. I don't
think you're goingto get Kennedy elected or
Carter re-elected. If you can bring a new for-
ce in this party, I think that person will have a
chance to win. That's Why I say a vote for me
is a vote for the future."
HIS USUAL approach is to point out the
contradictions and paradoxes in America's
policies at home and abroad. For example,
when asked for his analysis of .U.S.-Soviet
relations, Brown launched into this rambling
dissertation:
"Under Nixon, we started getting real
chummy with the Russians. That was when
-we had a right-wing, anti-communist
president. Under that anticommunist
president, we reduced our military spending,
we negotiated the SALT I agreement, we
opened up relations with Red China, which
was then changed to the People's Republic of
China, which became our friend.
"Now we got Carter, who ran on a platform
of love, now running on a re-election platform
of fear, reinstating the draft, increasing the
military budget, breaking off SALT II, and
playing what he calls the China card.
"NOW HERE'S THE point I want to
By Keith Richburg
make," Brown said at last. If under the c-n-
servative Nixon we started selling stu ffh'to
the Russians-fertilizer plants and wheat,
PepsiCola-then lo and behold something
happens to (Afghanistan) and it's all off;
boycotts, rhetoric, Cold War, take home con-
sulates. As we're getting so chummy with
China and we're sending a lot of technology
over there and building them up, are we going
to go through the same thing in five years
when China does something we don't like?"
Brown says he is "trying to point out that
there's a real arbitrary quality in much of our
foreign policy and our own thinking doesn't
add up." He asks his audiences to ask them-
selves why the superpowers spend billions of
dollars developingnuclear weapons while
billions of people are suffering from star-
vation.
Another example: Brown asks his listeners
to explain why Japan and the European ally
closest to the Soviet border, West Gemany,
are both decreasing military expenditures,
while this country-with a lower productivity-
than either West Germany or Japan-in-
creases defense spending annually.
"America is being sucked into subsidizing
other countries' military defense," Brown
says.
HIS CRITICS-and there are many-see
Jerry Brown as the consummate politician,
jumping on any bandwagon no matter how in-
consistent with his previous positions. TheO
obvious example is his call for a con-
stitutional amendment to balance the federal.,
budget.
But Brown is, if anything, the quintessential
'non-politician, defying traditional labels and
deciding issues on a case-by-case basis,
removed from any ideological framework.,.
His call for protectionist legislationto stop the p
flood of Japanese and other foreign imports
indicates isolationist tendencies. His idea for i
a U.S.-Mexican-Canadian energy common
market makes him look like an inter- 'iL
nationalist. His call for a balanced budget;r
makes people think him conservative, while y
his anti-nuclear stance-which has attractedi'
a large youth following here-sounds quite v
liberal.
If Brown is not a politician in the traditional
sense, he is most certainly a campaigner, and r"
he loves every minute of it.
He will stand alone on stage, gripping the -
microphone stand, and talk extem- "
poraneously for just a few minutes, pulling.
facts and statistics from his endless reper-
toire.
THEN HE WILL open the floor to the .
audience, and use each question to deliver a.
rambling monologue on America's current.
faults and failings. At Dartmouth, when one,
student asked his position on nationalized
health care, Brown spoke for twenty minutes
on "the medical-industrial complex," much
to the annoyance of his hurried. schedulers. "I.
know that's a long way from cost-
containment," Brownsaid in closing.
Brown's strategy now is to concentrate his
attacks on Kennedy, helping Carter knock the
Massachusetts senator our of the race early,
on. To that end, Brown has been trying to bait
Kennedy into a one-on-one debate over,
nuclear energy, challenging Kennedy to come
out of "his own rose garden."
Brown envisions a race between Carter and'
himself, which he confidently envisions win-,
ning. But in case that scenario does not.
emerge, Brown would not be deterred. He,,
says, "In the year 2000, I will be younger than
Ronald Reagan is today." 'In that respect,
Brown is the candidate of the future.
Keith Richburg is aformer Daily editor
currently in New Hampshire covering the
primary.
cadet' looks ahead
Jerry Brown
Baker hopes for
N.H.
bronze.
HANOVER, N.H.-Breezing through the
small New England towns, carrying his
message to the people, the man from the
South must get very frustrated when the pollsr
in the East show him far behind George'
Bust} and Ronald Reagan.
Just look at his Track record. He's the
Republican minority leader in the U.S.
Senate, one of the nation's chief foreign policy
experts, and a hero of Watergate.
NEVERTHELESS, Howard Baker of Ten-
nessee can't move up the ladder, and has thus
caused pundits to predict he may soon fall off.
The verdict is almost universal: He entered
the race too late, took two months to shape an
effective organization, and doesn't stir up a
crowd as well as his opponents.
At each campaign stop, however,-Baker in-
sists he still has time to rebound from his
early decline.
"I tell you, my friends, it's not too late-it's
too early," he says. "This is only the second
primary. There are still 34 more to go," he
adds, almost desperately trying to persuade
his supporters not to give up if he's ripped
today in New Hampshire.
SOUNDING LESS THAN a forecast for vic-
tory, the Baker strategy has evolved into a
battle for survival. Sights have been set low
for today's election. In fact, no one on his
staff expects him to fare better than third,
and some say he will do even worse than that.
The Baker scenario has Bush knocking out
Reagan here in the New England primaries,
starting with New Hampshire..Massachusetts
and Vermont have primaries on March 4. On-
ce the 69-year-old perennial presidential con-
tender drops out, the theory goes, only
Howard Baker will be left to stop George
Bush.
Enough dirt will leak out about Bush,
Baker's strategists say, that the party will
have no choice but to turn to the Senate
veteran.
By Michael Arkush
"A LOT OF Republicans want to stop
Reagan,,'and tbat's why Bush is doing so well.
But this isn't permanent support. George has
been c'fipaigning for 368 days; I've been of
the trail for much less," he said recently.
Baker claims he doesn't regret his late en-
trance into the campaign, though, because "I
had more important things to do in the
Senate." And that is the point atdwhichthe
starts to tell the audiences in this region why
he deserves to be president.
While the other Republican hopefuls can
Slaughter Carter's naive character analysis
of the Russians, only Howard Baker can say
he did something about it. "If I hadn't pushed,
so hard to stop MLTJr on srng
Brzhnev hirnself it yn't ir,
Russians would have had .t SALT and
Afghanistan," he 'skysprod, 'as if vin-
dicated by the Soviet's recent invasion.
LIKE THE OTHER Republican candidates,,
Baker favors a sharp hike in defense spen-
ding, plus additional strategic moves so the
U.S. does not fall behind the Russians.' Buto
only he has fought for them in the Senate.
Even more troubling to him, however, has
been the nation's plunge into economic"=
catastrophe. The inflation problem has
become so severe, in fact, that Baker told a
crowd in Litchbury, -Mass., Friday he would'
interrupt his busy campaign schedule to
return to the Senate to combat the issue.
He proposes a general tax cut to stimulate
more investment in the private sector, hoping
to cause higher productivity. The growth of
federal spending must be drastically reduced,
he says, or the inflationary rate will exceed 2Q.
per cent by the end of the year.
' To prevent that disaster Baker says he
wouldn't be afraid to use the "power of veto.''
"Congress must learn it can't spend so freely;n
that when it does, the American people are
the ones who lose,", he says.
Whether his message will be followed can'
not be determined now, but it seems that
wherever he campaigns he gains immediate"
converts. Qne of them, Scott Kennedy, i$,
Leominster, Mass., said, "when I came here,;
I was for Bush, but Baker seems much smar-
ter and more sensible, and he has all the ex!
perience."
Michael Arkush is
editor currently in
covering the primary.
a former Daily
New Hampshire
Howard Baker
I
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
'I
Teach-in is preferable to class boycott
To the Daily:
A boycott of classes asba protest
against the draft? Isn't that cut-
ting off the nose to spite the face?
Or if we say that we should quit
school for one day because
somehow school is like accepting
the draft, hadn't we all better
quit school forever?
In 1966, as I remember, there
was a call for a boycott of classes
in protest against the war in
Vietnam. A number of us argued
that the last thing we wanted to
do to protest against that war or
any war was quit learning things,
and Frithjof Bergmann and
America.
Let's do it that way again.
Boycotting classes is a form of
ostrichism-and sticking your
head in the sand is not a very ef-
fective way to protest against the
man who wants to cut your
throat, or the state which wants
your body.
What we know won't hurt us. If
we're going to protest against the
draft, let's be both reasonable
and moral about' it. Let's not
protest with ignorance. Rather,
let's protest by learning about the
larger issues we should be
protesting against-like the
whole idea of national defense,
and the presumption that
training in acts of violence is a
legitimate occupation for
anybody, whether he or she is
drafted or volunteers.
Learning is the really radical
act, always. I propose that we
all spend a night
together-soon-learning against
the draft and what the draft
means.
-Bert G. Hornback,
Professor, Director,
Great Books Program
Feb. 23
Carter-Mondale backroom politics
To the Daily:
Tif 1 ^.I..-....-. if"dirty h j'r,.' n'm~
system makes it easier for dirty
- I I"l A " AI 1, ti Z I tte11111tmm s mi
nrimarv since voting in a caucus