OPINION Saturday, September 26, 1981 Page 4 The Michigan Daily ®lw Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan A 19th-century streetperson Vol. XCII, No. 15 420 Maynord St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Toward Salvadoran reform Among Ann' Arbor's unique cultural landmarks are a group of familiar inhabitants referred to as "streetpeople". A list of Ann Arbor Streetpeople would include Shaky Jake, Crazy Mary, Dr. Replay By Will McLean Greeley Diag, and the Pencil Man. The Pencil Man? Surely none of us recall the Pencil Man, but he was Ann Arbor's resident Streetperson of the nineteenth century. The University community had a soft spot in their hearts for this man, as the following article from the September 25, 1900 Daily points out: THE FAMILIAR OLD PENCIL MAN DIES AT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL Every upperclassman in school remembers the familiar figure of a grizzly bearded old man who for a number of years has attracted the attention of passers-by with his plaintive cry of "Pencils-two for five!" Wrapped up in his great long overcoat and partly concealing his features with an old "slouch" hat, the "Pencil Man" at once became a familiar figure to the students. Many of the boys bought his wares as they said "to help him along." But few of them probably ever realized and still fewer knew of the thrilling experiences that old Capt. Edward L. Dormer (for this was his name) had lived through. A few weeks before his death ... the old man became reminiscent and reeled off stories of adventure that would make a dime store novel fiend forget his dinner. HIS STORY sounded like a romance. Cast up on an island in the Iadian Ocean in thg early 1840's, his companions murdered, him- self spared by a chief's daughter, his escape on a pirate ship, and, finally, after over three years of thrilling adventure his return to civilization, formed a most interesting story'- when told by the old pencil man. A smile crept over his face as he narrated his marvelous escape from the savages, showing that though 60 years have come and gone, this incident is still quite clear in his memory. The old Pencil Man is gone-another one of the student landmarks is removed. NEXT WEEK: Arthur Miller's letter to the Daily, 1936. Greeley's column appears every Satur- day. T HE SENATE took a small but meaningful step Thursday to bring about a real resolution to the political and social strife in El Salvador that have kept the tiny Cen- tral American nation in violent civil war for years. Over objections from the Reagan administration and El Salvador's president, Jose Napolean Duarte, the Senate tied r future U.S. military aid to the junta there to political and economic reforms and an improvement in the nation's human rights record. The Senate's 51-47 vote to link con- tinued aid to Salvadoran reform recognizes that El Salvador's problems are not primarily military, and therefore cannot be solved simply through military might. El Salvador's bloody civil war is only the most visible, if horrifying, result of that country's long-standing, gross social, economic, and political iniquities. And, thus the violence of, El Salvador's rebels, who seek to right th'ose injustices through revolution, will never by quelled merely with the import of more American helicopters, guns, and advisers.Not until the Duar- C IA re HE CENTRAL Intelligence Agency ; was on Capitol Hill this week, lobbying intensively for changes in :feddral laws that would, if approved, severely restrict the access of the dress and the public to information on the agency's activities. In the past, Congress has been able to withstand most of the pressure from the agency. But this Congress is dif- Jerent. The CIA seems to be winning its ;fight, and the civil liberties of Americans stand an excellent chance of being the losers. The CIA managed to pursuade the House this week to pass-by a margin of 354 to 56-a bill that would make it a crime to disclose the identity of any of the agency's spies. The bill, which will now go on to the Senate where it faces fairly good chances of approval, would, among other things, make it a criminal offense for journalists to report the names of CIA operatives. Over in the Senate, CIA Director William Casey in remarks before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, urged Congress to grant the agency "total exclusionn" from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. He te government institutes sweeping reforms, at least of the magnitude of its aborted land redistribution plan, will El Salvador's. people begin the work of rebuilding their country in- stead of tearing it down. The Reagan administration, with its simplistic emphasis on military might as the solution to the problems of El Salvador, made little effort to en- courage this needed reform and progress. Instead it has only aided in the escalation of violence and war. The Senate's vote seems to be at least a step in the right direction. Duarte, the future of his regime hopelessly tied to continued American military and economic support, will have no choice but to make a greater effort to institute meaningful reforms. The reforms spawned by the Senate's vote should not only improve the quality of life for the majority of Salvadorans who are not counted in El ,Salvador's economic and political elite, but should also bring the coun- try's civil war to a swifter end by moving to right some of the wrongs that have pushed Salvadorans to rebel in the first place. )ression claimed that complying with the act cost too much money and risked leaks of information that endangered national security. The real motivation behind the agency seems clear enough, however. Casey wants the agency to be able to operate with impunity-he doesn't want to have to bother with all of those messy details like protecting the civil liberties and constitutional rights of Americans. It is precisely those messy details, however, which have provided needed restraints on the CIA. The measure of accountability that has proceeded from the ability of the press to generate public concern over the CIA's actions has kept the CIA's abuses from being even more monsterops than they have been. While it is disturbing that the CIA is pushing such repressive legislation, it is even more disturbing that the agen- cy has found a receptive audience on Capitol Hill. If Congress is looking fore ways to change the laws regulating the CIA, it should-if anything-consider making it easier for the public to have access to information about the in- telligence agency's activities. - a Weasel. By Robert Lence .S RE u- t APM-cloy tau s owiH ME AU, ft WAL- Pte, VE 456-. W14wzE AAF- .wf- Cow(-, to ttE t ? J r r 1.0 MWT ~'W A OKAY. F1gFtrF-- W6APF- UMmt4 L KNOW. THE ZOO! NO, WAIT-....TFIE CIRCQS? CENTR 1CE AT A HOCW(6AME. 2 61 vF- UP, WHERE. AR6 we? ll j r . AT Poo&-iY AtMEW 14 A- >O<.E Yt I- I pI Young 'white supremacists' RICHMOND, CALIF. - Brandy is the name she likes to call herself and she giggled when she spoke about the old days of "nigger- bashing" and "popping crank." She said she never was a full "sister" in any of the West Contra Costa County gangs that police believe were responsible for a series of attacks on black families here last fall and' winter.',. SHE WAS JUST an "associate" who used to hang out with them. And, she said, she never actually participated in any Ku Klux Klan ac- tivities even if she did buy coke and grass and crank (methamphetamine) from men who were Klan members.. Until a year or so ago Brandy was one of the countless teen-age kids, dropped out of school and stuck in dead-end jobs, for whom drugs and' gangs gave life meaning. Today she is slightly embarrassed by "all that crazy shit" that was a central part of her life when she was "just a kid." "Yeah, like once when we were all together and there were five bloods' (blacks) in the park and we decided to jump 'em. It was just something to do. We were bored." BRANDY IS NOT really a white supremacist, she said, although she believes a lot of her friends are. But her own attitudes toward black people are hardly positive. "I got my resents from school. Even in pre- school days they beat on us all the time." Brandy does not feel much Tondness for her parents-a supermarket manager and a legal secretary-nor does she recall that they ex- pressed much concern when at age 11 she started staying away from home for days at a time. The gang Brandy was closest to called itself the "Biceps Brothers." Its main antagonists, the "Blues Brothers" and the "West Santa Ritas," are suspected of responsibility for at- tacks on three black families in the Tara Hills district overlooking Richmond. According to one investigator, Sgt. Mike Barkhurst of the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department, the whole episode may have begun over a combination of gang rivalry and an altercation imvolving a drug exchange. YET IN THE view of investigators who prepared a report on Contra Costa County for the California Fair Housing and Employment Commission, which will hold hearings on racial violence next month, drug dealing, gang life, and race hatred all are part of a By Frank Browning complex fabric that has made this once- pastoral set of communities an increasingly violent place. Sgt. Rod Carpenter, who specializes in monitoring gang activity for the county sheriff's department, said about 30 gangs have been identified so far. They tend to be divided along racial and ethnic lines among blacks, Mexicans, Filipinos, and whites. Their central leadership may number no more than 100. F The very existence of a gang subculture has startled many residents here, where traditional urban decay is slight and the physical setting is mostly an idyllic vista of rolling hills sweeping down to the confluence of the Sacramento River and upper San Francisco Bay. Gang activists vary, but police as well as private investigators for the state's fair Housing and Employment Commission see them as both social and criminal organizations. DEPENDING ON THE -organization at hand, they deal drugs, commit burglaries and strong-arm robberieshextort money and fight with other gangs who try to challenge them on their own turf-especially if the challengers are black or seem to come from a different social background. In Richmond the two toughest gangs are black, as is much of the city. They call them- selves the "Together Brothers" and the "Hard Times." They have their own hats and custom-stitched jackets-called "flying colors"-and, said Richmond Police Lt. John Neely, "They're more sophisticated than earlier gangs and they have more money." The greatest growth in youth gangs here, however, may be 'among white kids-esecially those who live above Rich- mond in the hill towns of El Sobrante, Pinole and parts of San Pablo. The largest and most powerful, the West' Santa Ritas,,was started eight years ago and is believed to be less con- cerned with robbery than with drug dealing, particularly amphetamines. Its members range in age from around 17 to 22, but an af- filiate gang, the "Next Phase," reaches into junior high school and its members may be as young as 12., LAST NOV. 22 a group of Bicep Brothers, including President Donald "Shake" Lin- dgren, walked into a party dominated by the West Santa Ritas, Almost immediately, knives were pulled, a scuffle erupted and a shotgun blast caught Santa Ritas' President Kevin "Shake" Minnix in the stomach. 'One item of contentions between them 'was that both leaders used the nickname "Shake." A Biceps Brother now is serving time in San Quentin over the incident and Lindgren goe* on trial later this-fall. Lindgren, a lanky, soft-spoken, red-haired 21-year-old with a prior conviction for burglary, described the Biceps Brothers as mostly a "social club.' 'The Biceps was the white ghetto of gangs," he said. "The Santa Ritas, the Blues Brothers, those guys up there (in the hills), they got money and stuff and they figure they're too good to be around you." THE BICEPS BROTHERS have fallen apart since the shooting; many of'them, Lin- dgren said, were beaten up and run out o*~ town. Lindgren, now out on bail, said a $1,000 contract has been offered on his own life, and he pointed to bullet holes in the walls of his parents' house, allegedly made when a carload of Santa Ritas drove by and opened fire. Like his friend Brandy, Lindgren does not consider himself either a racist or a white supremacist, but both say it is not unusual to go to parties here where Klan members ar present handing out flyers. Brandy, who said she no longer sees many of her old comrades from the Biceps Brothers, did acknowledge that most of her friends "put down black people" and probably approve the attacks made on blacks. Of her own past she said, "I was a kid. It was a time to fight." Lindgren said he has had enough and that whether or not he is acquited of charges stemming from 'Last year's. shooting, he's finished with gangs. "Thirty years ago," he said, "everybod. dreamed of being a movie star. Now they're dreaming of being hoods. I guess the reality gets to them and they say, 'That ain't gonna happen to me. I ain't gonna be a movie star.' 7" - '- -' ___ -_-_--------- 'If 111111, if ' t jT T(t ft fl lfill _ -99" T'1RUST ME I___ Browning wrote this article for Pacific News Service. a LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Extension Service alive and kicking i To the Daily: I would like to correct an erroneous statement that ap- peared in the text of your editorial "Paltry pay hikes" (Daily, Sept.21). To nquote: "The TUniversity ,.ut- the citizens of Michigan. ' If you would oheck your own "morgue" (if for no other reason than for the sake of accuracy) you will find that the Extension Service was page 1 headline have us gone and buried. I would like to suggest that a "correction" on your part, on behalf of the University Exten- sion Service, is in order. -Jane Elgass Extension Service Promotion Coordinator Rornnvidprafp rnun'op a '