0
9
OPINION
_ .
Page 4
Saturday, November7, 1981
The Michigan Daily
- 7
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Studts paid their ticke
V
V
back in 1 or
- -
ei..,.
Vol. XCII, No. 51
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
i
A royal conception
O H, WE'RE just in a tizzy. It
seems the royal couple is going to
have a royal baby. That's big news in
London and there's so many questions
that need to be asked.
First of all, when was the royal con-'
ception? During the royal honeymoon?
On the royal wedding night? Not, for
heaven's sakes, before the royal wed-
ding? Well, let's see. The royal birth is
scheduled for June--that would put the
royal act of procreation at about Sep-
tember or August. That's cutting it a
little close, but it seems like it was un-
der the royal wire.
Then there's the royal birth itself.
One of the big questions seems to be
whether His Royal Highness will break
royal tradition and be present with
Princess Diana at the regal event. The
royal couple supposedly is one for
breaking tradition-remember Lady
Di, in an unprecedented show of royal
feminism, did not promise "to obey"
Prince Chuck at the royal wedding.
But the-biggest questions seem to be
about the gender of the royal infant.
Whether a boy or a girl, the royal
couple's child will be second in suc-
Ann Arbor is really a very small town in
and around which a very big university
has been built. A scarce commodity in
Ann Arbor is the parking space, and
many students frequently receive parking
tickets. One novel but short-lived solution
to the problem of collecting parking fines
was undertaken by the Ann Arbor Police
in April of 1959, and is described in the
following April22, 1959 Daily article.
Replav
By
Will McLean Greeley
'U' Students From Class
About a dozen University students have
been taken from their classes in the past week
for not paying traffic fines, Ann Arbor Police
Chief Casper M. Enkemann said last night.
This is part of the crackdown by the Police
Department to reduce the backload of ac-
cumulated tickets that have been ignored by
both students and area residents.
"It isn't our standard policy to serve
students with warrants in their classes," ex-
plained Enkemann, "but these have been
aggravated cases."
ignored Notices
Enkemann said that in every case the student
received three notices over a period of at least
eight weeks and that he or she ignored them
all as well as phone calls.
"Most of the students have been pretty good
about paying their fines," Enkemann said.
"There are just a few who have given a black
eye to the rest of the student body."
One patrolman has been assigned to the
campus to serve warrants. Enkemann said
the deans' offices have been very cooperative
by giving the officers class schedules of the
delinquents.
Enkemann pointed out that a student is
taken from his classes as a last resort.
Call at Residence
"After 'the warrant has been issued the
patrolman calls the person at his residence,"
Enkemann said. "Buitt if there is still anothe
day's delay, we come and get him."
Those with parking violations need only pay
the fine or post bond to correct the situatiot.
But an additional penalty awaits those with
moving violations.
A notice goes to the Secretary of State's of-
fice and a notation is placed on the offender's
license plates' application, Enkemann said.
The person's application the following year is
then held up until an investigation can
made.
Asks Payment
Enkemann expressed the hope that all o[
fenders would pay their fines on their own ae-
cord.
"It's not only embarrassing to the studeit
to have us serve him with a warrant"
Enkemann said, "but it's a tremendously
costly and time consuming process for the
city."
Enkemann said that police will continueto
serve students with warrants in their clasgs
as long as all notices are ignored.
NEXT WEEK: Student Drinking durin
Prohibition. '
r
Greeley 's column appears every Saturday'.
Wasserman
i
Sly Di warms up in May 1981.
cession to the throne-ahead of the
queen's other children. Of course, if
the child is a girl, she will only inherit
the throne if she has no brothers who
outlive her.
So much for royal feminism.
tear Mr. Stockmn;
I am a Small businessmani
'who, is being ruinedl by
high interest rated .
If you dolth do somethn9
soon, I will be forced
into bankruptcy.
Hedging on voting rights
l-,
-'-
U~Anm MA. fle4'Jtnl;
Dtit T l
a4 ~ /eu~r B
\rO
1j~
...,
S
S
A fter months of equivocation and
delay on the extension of Voting
Rights Act, President Reagan announ-
ced yesterday he will equivocate and
delay a little more.
Ofqcourse the president didn't say it
quite that way.
The president, in one of his more
august formulas, proclaimed, "Every
American must know he or she can
count on an equal chance and an equal
vote. The right to vote is the crown
jewel of American liberties and we will
not see its luster diminished."
Having said this, however, the
president hedged. He said he would
support the extension of the act only if
changes are made in some of the key
provisions of the extension bill that
passed the House last month.
Specifically he said the law should
require minority groups to prove any
discrimination was intentional when.
they challenge election laws. The
House bill would only require
minorities to show that discrimination
resulted from a given law, and not
necessarily that it was intentional.
The stronger language in the House
bill is necessary to lift from civil rights
advocates the onerous burden of
proving intent. It assists civil rights
advocates in their struggle to end all
discriminatory voting laws, not just
those which can be proved to be inten-
tionally discriminatory.
The president's refusal to support
this provision, along with his refusal to
support a permanent extension of the
act, suggests that he has only a limited
committment to the protection of civil
rights, and that his support for the bill
itself depends on other factors.
By extending the act, the president
has the opportunity to change what has
been an unquestionably dismal record
on civil rights issues. In order to
change that record, however, the
president must take more than just a
passive role in the extension of the bill.
The Voting Rights Act has been one
of the single most effective pieces of
civil rights legislation. Its extension is
essential if the nation is to preserve the
progress it has made in recent years on
civil rights matters. The president, if
he is genuinely concerned about what
he calls the "crown jewel of American
liberties," should take a more active
role in the passage of a strong Voting
Rights Act extension.
Is a U.'S.
-Libya war likely?.
By MichaelKiare
When the joint U.S.-Egyptian
military exercise Operation
'Bright Star begins Nov. 9 in
Egypt, the United States will
have sufficient forces on Libya's
periphery to mount a full-scale
invasion.
No one is predicting such an at-
tack will take place. But it is cer-
tain that Washington is
thoroughly prepared for such a
move, while Libyan strongman
Muammar Khadafy is unpredic-
table enough to supply the
provocation by an attack on
the Sudan, an Egyptian ally.
COLONEL.KHADAFY and the
Sudanese leader, Maj. Gen,
Gaafar Nimeiry, have long been
enemies, and the two have been
sparring over Sudan's support for
the rebel faction in the Chadian
civil war and Khadafy's support
for the regime of Chadian
President Goukouni Queddei.
In September, Nimeiry
charged that Libya was planning
an invasion of his country, and he
recently complained of daily
Libyan air attacks on his
western border. On Oct. 1-just
five days before his
assassination-President Anwar
Sadat of Egypt sent then-Vice
President Hosni Mubarak to
Washington to ask President
Reagan to aid the Sudanese with
emergency military assistance.
Scarcely had Mubarak com-
pleted his mission in Washington
when Sadat was murdered in
Cairo and the whole context of
U.S.-Libyan relations was tran-
sformed.
"IT IS CLEAR," White House
counselor Edwin Meese declared
on the day of Sadat's funeral, that
the administration would "take
necessary action in order to sup-
port the government of Egypt
against any external threat."
Since "any external threat"
obviously does not apply to
Israel, he could only mean Libya.
DA%41.9
These arms deliveries will take
time, however, and so the ad-
ministration has taken some
more immediate steps: two
AWACS radar patrol planes
already have been, sent to Egypt
(and are now flying surveillance
missions along the Libyan bor-
der), and several thousand U.S.
troops are about to depart for
Egypt to participate in Operation
Bright Star, one of the largest
exercises of its kind ever held in
the Middle East.
THE BRIGHT STAR
maneuvers were planned before
Sadat's assassination but have
been greatly expanded since
then.
Originally only one battalion of
paratroopers-perhaps 1,200
men-was scheduled to par-
ticipate. But now Pentagon of-
ficials are talking of a larger con-
maneuvers are aimed at in-
timidating Libya. The paratroop
element, part of the Rapid
Deployment Force created by
former President Carter, will be
dropped into the western deserts
bordering Libya, and then will
participate in several weeks of
combat maneuvers with Egyp-
tian Army forces based along the
Libyan frontier. Between 25,000
and 100,000 Egyptian troops are
believed to be stationed on the
border region.
When announcing these
maneuvers, moreover, Meese
declared that the United States
would take whatever actions
necessary to protect Egypt from
"subversion which has been
fomented by terrorists or those
from outsidle," a clear reference
to Khadafy.
At this point, there is no
vasion force. The RDF
paratroopers, along the the
Marine amphibious units, tam
fully capable of lightning assault
against key Libyan military in
stallations, while Egyptian forces
are available in strength to oyer-
come Libyan ground formations,
Ample air support is available
from thfe Nimitz and from U.S.
warplanes based in Italy, and the6
AWACS can be pressed into ser-
vice as a "flying war room". or
U.S. generals. Everything else
needed already is there or on4
way from the United States. .
MOST MILITARY specialists
believe that ,the U.S. and Egypt
would have little difficulty,p
subduing the Libyan army, which
is relatively small (perhaps
52,000 men) and poorly trained.to
operate all the modern weapony
acquired from France and the
Soviet Union. Nor do most exper-
ts believe that the Soviet Unioe
will take any military steps of-its
own to save the Khadafy regime
It is possible, however, that toe
Libyan masses-who
presumably would rebel at-.an
Egyptian occupation of their
country-might mount a stub-
borp guerrilla war that wouldbe
difficult to extinguish. Such, a
conflict would wear down Egyp-
tian forces and possible prgci-
pitate new attacks by Moslem 5w'-
damentalists on the Westerp-
oriented regime of President
Mubarak.
A sustained Libyan conflict
also could prove costly for the
United States, both in directg
monetary terms (we would foot
the bill for all Egyptian
operations) and through the
possible loss of Libyan oil s.up-
plies. The U.S. also would pay a
heavy price politically ,y
distracting attention away from
the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan, or, even worse,
facilitating a Soviet inyasion of
Poland.
Thus, while a U.S. invasion
might help rid the world of the
r "