Page 4-Wednesday, April 9, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Some advice you've never seen in
the papers
One of the more widely-read columns in
American newspapers is "Dear Abby," in
which people delight in the tragedies and suf-
ferings of their fellow human beings. Not only
do the questions make one's own personal
problems seem miniscule, they can be clipped
and read at parties.
Well, Abigail has just finished editing a book
0 <-
called Confidential Letters De-Classified, in
which she betrays the trust of hundreds in or-
der to pay for a new psychoanalyst. A copy of
the book was obtained three weeks before its of-
ficial release date, and owing nothing to Abby,
we have decided to print some excerpts from
the new book:;
Dear Abby: My small son and daughter don't,
get along. When my daughter is playing quietly,
my son sneaks up on her, grabs all her dolls;, i
runs into the bathroom, locks the door, and at-
tempts to flush them down the toilet. He often
does this when we have guests. I have many af-
fairs and wonder if this has anything to do with
my son's problems. My daughter is 3 years old,
my son, 16. Should I stop running
around?-Confused and worried.
Dear Confused: If you had a head on your
shoulders, you'd stop giving your daughter
dolls. If that doesn't work, stop having guests
over.
Dear Abby: My husband died last summer,
and since then I've become very sad. I just sit
at home all day. I don't have a radio or
television, can't read, can't see well, never
have enough to eat, and have stopped receiving
my social security checks. Please, please, can
you help me?-Miserable.
Dear Miserable: You're in sad shape.
Sounds like you need some activity. This is
America, honey, where opportunities are plen-
By Nick Katsarelas
tiful. Get out and shovel snow or maybe deliver
the Shopping News. But just don't sit there and
gloat in your pity.
Dear Abby: I've been having a lesbian affair
with my daughter's college roommate for
about a year now. Last week, my daughter
found out, accused me of trying to be "hip,"
and told me to act my age. What should I
do?-Despairing in Ann Arbor
Dear Despairing: Who does your daughter
think she is? Hold your ground, and if she
doesn't like it, take away her Peugot.
Dear Abby: I'm 84 years old, and people
refer to me as a "senior citizen." I find this a
little disgusting. Do you?-Young at Heart
Dear Granny: If you're not a senior citizen,
what are you? A wild tigress? If it makes you
feel better, ask people to call you
"chronologically advanced."
Dear Abby: Whenever we visit the con-
dominium of my husband's mother in Miami,
she always makes me feel real guilty. She says
things like, "How many towels did you get dirty
this morning?" or, "I thought I left Chicago to
get away from the bad elements." Should I say
something to my husband?-Scared from
Skokie
Dear Scared: No dearie, But next time
mother-in-law mouths off to you, hide her
glasses. Why get hubby involved?
Dear Abby: My son is a mess. He's only 14,
and so far, he's been in and out of juvenile
homes, gets into fights, drinks, smokes, does
chemicals, often stays out all night, and
associates with young hoodlums. When I tell
him to behave, he just says, "Aw, mom," and
pouts. Any advice?-Puzzled
Dear Puzzled: You should try to stop
mothering the poor kid, despite the fact that
you've probably already wrecked him beyond
rehabilitation.
Dear Abby: For 35 years, I have faithfully
served my husband, cleaning up after him,
washing his clothes, preparing his meals,
disciplining his kids, putting up with his
drinking and carousing, and spending all my,
life as his housewife. I have just been offered a
job, about 10 hours a week, at the local publi
library. Should I take it?-Restless
Dear Restless: What? And be unfair to your
husband. Listen, sweetie, no one forced you to
marry the oaf. Your husband needs you at
home.
Dear Abby; These boys in my high school
chemistry class were talking about harming
Mrs. Schafer, our chemistry teacher, with
some contact explosives, so I told Mr. Green,
the principal. Did I do the right
thing?-Theresa
Dear Theresa (your handwriting 0
atrocious): First of all, you should mind your
own business. Next, wouldn't it have been fun
to watch? And finally, how do you ever expect
to be a cheerleader if you tell on your friends?
Some of Nick Katsarelas' best friends are
daily newspaper columnists. Kat's play ap-
pears every Wednesday on this page.
V
0 A.1190ii, -
NittelY Year()f (Editorial Feedom
Vol. XC, No. 150
News Phone: 764-0552
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Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Another election foul-up
I
DIDN'T THINK it could happen.
It's like a nightmare come true.
The Michigan Student Assembly elec-
tions have been fouled up for the
second year in a row.
The problem this time is not of the
magnitude of last year's widespread
fraud and ethical transgressions. This
year, a mere foolish oversight has
caused the name of one LSA candidate
to be left off one-fourth of the ballots,
and the name of another to be listed
twice.
The error occurred because there
are several versions of the ballot,
allowing a rotation of the order of the
candidates' names.
As the deadline for this page ap-
proaches, it appears that the Central
Student Judiciary (CSJ) - the body
invested with the power to certify the
election - is considering how it will go
about certifying part or all of the
balloting.
CSJ could choose to certify most of
the winning candidates, leaving one or
two seats open for a runoff election
between the lowest winning vote-
getters and the students whose names
were bungled. Yet it seems ap-
propriate to ask whether such a
solution would be fair, considering that
the candidates who are forced into a
runoff election - and whose competi-
tion was split among dozens of other
candidates - will face stiffer com-
petition against a single opponent.
Or CSJ could decide not to certify the
election at all. This choice, too, could
be questioned, because it would in-
volve much cost and injustice to can-
didates who won seats.
Please think carefully, CSJ. The
legitimacy of a student government
rests on your shoulders.
e3I
A tough sanction at last
It has become fashionable for
some of us to assume that white
racism is dead. Prejudice against
blacks in the sphere of political
activity is not always illegal, but
most assuredly frowned upon.
George Wallace no longer blocks
schoolhouse entrances; Strom
Thurmond now courts South
Carolina's black electorate with
candy-sweet promises of gover-
nment subsidies and programs
for the poor. In the cultural
arena, blacks are not as "in-
visible" as they once were. A
fragile but growing black middle
class now resides comfortably in
the sprawling suburbs of the
nation's cities.
It is something of a rude shock
to the satisfied and complacent
within the black community
when evidence springs up that
contradicts the myth of black ad-
vancement. Yet, in Connecticut
in February, virtually ignored by
the media, just such an incident
took place.
STATE Representative
Russell Reynolds of West Haven,
Connecticut received a question-
naire from a representative of
United Press International on a
variety of issues. When the third-
term Democratic legislator
reached the question on in-
creasing state taxes, he wrote:
"No! No! No! Income tax. No
more taxes. Limit spending. Put
the Niggers back to work."
Reynolds completed the
questionnaire and signed his
name, UPI revealed. When
Reynolds' statement became
public knowledge, angry black
state legislators demanded his
permanent expulsion from the
House on the grounds of racism.
PRESIDENT CARTER'S decision
to break diplomatic ties with
Iran, while it may seem-to be the
boldest and sternest of the retaliatory
measures he announced Monday,
might not have as much effect on the
Iranian authorities as another, less
publicized measure. The president
issued several directives which could
eventally land Iranian moneys
currently held in the U.S. into the-
'hands of the hostages, their families,
and other claimants against the
Islamic "Republic."
On November 4, Carter froze most
Iranian assets in the U.S. in response
to the Iranians' signalling an intent to
withdraw their government's billions.
from American corporations and
banks.
Since that time, the possibility of
using those assets to settle damages
against Americans has certainly
always been in the air, but it has only
rarely been mentioned.
While the complaints that Carter
waited too long before taking this kind
of meaningful action may be justified,
it certainly is commendable that he
has enacted several harsh actions
against Iran, in two different spheres
(diplomatic and financial) at the same
time.,
It could be years before any of the
complainants against Iran will see the
money; the assets cannot be made
available to the courts by a simple
executive fiat. Congress and the
president will have to approve
legislation formalizing the procedures
for disbursing the funds before they
can be seized. But Carter's initiatives
could serve as notification to Khomeini
and company that the months of
American passivity and tolerance for
the militants' claims are drawing to a
close.
'Putting the
niggers back.
to work'.
By Manning Marable
Reynolds issued a public
apology before his colleagues in
the House chamber. "I stand as
one who has brought shame upon
myself and this Assembly. I have
used a term that is derogatory,"
he admitted. "I am here as a man
to accept my responsibility for
my acts and ask your
forgiveness."
WHITE Democratic and
Republican leaders alike refused
to make an unqualified public
* stand against Reynolds' racist
slur. With few exceptions, the
only legislators who supported
his expulsion were black. In-
stead, House leaders decided to
sponsor a resolution which ver-
bally reprimanded and censured
Reynolds. Censure carries
neither legal penalties nor forces
a legislator from office.
Many conservative legislators
refused to censure Reynolds for
what was, in their opinion,
merely a verbal miscue. "This
man is ruined, politically and
financially," pleaded Republican
representative Eugene Migliaro.
"What the devil more do you
want?"
By a narrow margin, 70-67, the
vote to "reprimand and censure"
Reynolds passed. The- final
resolution declared that the
Democrat's statement had been
"demeaning, insulting, and belit-
tling of a group of citizens
representing a major segment of
American study and which
statement is further a derogatory
and racist one which is offensive
to public order and decency and
to be abhorred by all citizens of
the'State of Connecticut."
MANY LOCAL BLACK leaders
were still dissatisfied. Represen-
tative Thirman Milner correctly
termed censure for Reynolds as
''no more than a slap on the
wrist." State NAACP President
Benjamin Andrews complained
that the censure was "not a
solution, because "the at-
mosphere of racism" still
existed.
The public controversy
surrounding Reynold's censure
by the Connecticut legislature
obscures the essential questions
raised by the white politician's
original remarks. First of all,
neither black nor white taxpayers
appreciate higher taxes, wheth
federal, state or local. Everyone
wants to limit federal spen-
ding-the only debate is whether
to cut human services, like edue-
ation and health care, or to
diminish expenditures for defen-
se. And virtually every black
man and woman with a family to
support wants a job. In every
poll, blacks as a group are the
strongest advocates of full e
ployment.
So the real question becomes
this: Can America's economic
system, as it currently operates,
"put the blacks back to work?"
The answer isno. Unless there is
a major shift in political
priorities, from the White House
and Congress at the top to the
local level, which places the.
productive capabilities of people
ahead of the narrower, sel
interested profit motives of cor-
porate conglomerates, black
people will still have unem-
ployment rates above 15 and 20
per cent. And racist legislators
across the country will continue
to complain in public and in
private that "blacks don't want
jobs."
As long as we live in a racist
society, we will be plagued by t
backward epithets of men li
Reynolds. To believe otherwise is
to ignore four centuries of bitter
but very real history.
- Manning Marable is an
associate professor of history
at Cornell University's
Africana Studies and Research
Center and is a leader of the
National Black Politic
Assembly.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Prosterman has finally told the 'truth'
X SE W14ERe CA'RER AS
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'To the Daily:
All year I have been waiting for
H. Scott Prosterman (those of us
who know Yiddish will know how
well the name suits him) to tell
the truth about Israel and the
Middle East. He has come very
close to doing so in his last
analysis, which reports the views
of my esteemed colleague at the
Hebrew University, Professor
Shahak (Daily, April 5). I refer to
Prosterman's final remarks,
in which he notes that Zionism
now supports world-wide
fascism, which in turn made the
Holocaust possible. How true,
Mr. Prosterman. But this is not
the whole truth. As a historian,
let me explain what really hap-
pened.
The facts are as follows: At a
pseudonym, Hitler) as chancellor
of Germany, and Adolph Eich-
mannstein (well known by his
"Aryan" name, Eichmanrr) as
director of the "Holocaust plot."
Let me explain to the students of
this University that both these
men were, in fact, Jews. During
World War II, the Jewish-Nazi
regime did in fact destroy some
Jews (although it has been
proven beyond a doubt that only
50, and not six million, were done
away with-those who remained
secretly alive now rule the com-
munist countries of Eastern
Europe, as well as the U.S.S.R.)
Now why should the Jews want
all this to happen? Why should
they want even a few of their
brethren destroyed? The answer
is simple, and although Mr.
' Prneforman wil 1 l nrnIShhi.
This is a sad tale. But there are
some signs that the real story is
becoming well known. Mr.
Prosterman, an American
specialist in Arab affairs, albeit
of the Mosaic persuasion, has
performed a notable service to
the truth. Carry on, Mr.
Prosterman. And well done,
Michigan Daily, for giving him
the opportunity to let the truth bS
known. Yes, Pravda and the Arab
propaganda machine have poin-
ted all this out before. But how
many of our students can read
Russian and Arabic?
-Ezra Mendelsohn
Visiting Professor of
History
April 5
Police tolerant at Bash
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To the Daily:
As a freshman here at, the
University, I witnessed my first
Hash Bash on April Fools Day. I,
as one who was present when the
police made their sweep of the
Diag at 5:45 p.m., feel that the
Ann Arbor police deserve quite a
bit of credit for the way they han-
started busting heads; but that's
why I'm'not a police officer. There
is no reason why anyone should have
to take that much abuse.
Both my sister and my brother-in-
law are police officers, and to listen
to what they have to put up with for
such small salaries is beyond belief.
Granted, there are times when the
t