4 OPINION --f- Page 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Saturday, November 14, 1981. The Michigan Daily Ann Arbor: Drinking center Vol. XCII, No. 57 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, Ml48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board The mystical solution T HE REAGAN administration began sharpening its knives again Tuesday-and, once again, began pointing them at the food stamp budget. The administration says that the current farm bill provides $5 billion less than will' be needed in the next three years to pay food stamps benefits at current levels. So what mystical solution is there for these economic ills? Reaganomics; cut, slash, and chop away at the food stamp budget again. Reaganomics tells us that we should cutaway at all social programs- they are filled with waste and inefficiency. Haig b THERE WAS a fascinating exchange between Rep. Garry Studds (D-Mass.) and Secretary of State Alexander Haig during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Thursday. "Would you give assurances," Stud- ds asked the Secretary," the United States will not make a direct or in- direct effort to overthrow or destabilize the current government of, Nicaragua?" "No, I would not giye you such an assurance," Haig responded. But that,'' he continued, "must not bJterpreted by mischievous i uisitois to represent an articulation opolicy one way or another because that would be a self-defeating statement by responsible executive branch officials." 4{ypdthetical executive branch of- ficials aside, what Haig seems to be trying very- hard not to 'say too openly is: that the administration is con- sidering strong action-possibly military action-against the current Nicaraguan government. The Reagan' administration has shown hostility toward the Nicaraguan junta in the past, but opposition shown on Thursday was much more Reaganomics teaches us that the military is a sacred cow and its budget should remain unscathed. Let no Congressional hand soil the sanctity of that noble bovine lest the evil powers of the East overtake our nation. And, Reaganomics promises us, that in return for strict worship, inflation and our other economic ills will end. But wait a minute, didn't David, Stockman, the chief guru of Reaganomics just say the entire cult was a hoax and really won't achieve the things it promised? Yes, but don't worry, he's been silenced and is now being reindoc- trinated into the divine principle of Reaganomics. It is hard to imagine a college campus without a single bar or package liquor store. But after Congress passed the 18th amendment prohibiting the "manufac- ture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors, "in 1920 America was "dry" un- til Prohibition was repealed in 1933. However, a September 30, 1931 article in Replay; ByI Will McLean Greeley the Daily reveals that Michigan's campus was anything but dry. ANN ARBOR SECOND ONLY TO GOTHAM AS A STUDENT DRINKING CENTER Ann Arboes standing as a student liquor consuming center among universities of the country is surpassed only by that of the city of New York, according to a recent survey of the situation,/made by two Wisconsin graduates who discuss their findings in a recent issue of Campus Comics quarterly. Closely followed by Michigan, in the opinion of the investigators, are Reno, the seat of the University of Nevada, and Madison,, the well known playground of the Wisconsin students. GORDON F. SWAR THOUT and James S. Watrous, authors of the treatise, rate the city of Ann Arbor as being "lousily dry," and go on to explain the high rating the Michigan. campus received as being due to the weekly expeditions made by students to Detroit, well known as the alcoholic capital of the Middle West. While the favorite campus drink at Michigan is whiskey, according to the report, there is little drinking done in Ann Arbor ex- cept very'much on the quiet, since the University snaps the padlock on all places where liquor is found, even fraternity houses. Current prices in Ann Arbor for alleged genuine Canadian imports are: rye, $6 a quart, beer available within 10 miles $6 for 5 gallons, scotch $7to $10 a quart, alky $10 to $15 a gallon,. and gin $1.50 to $3 a quart, according' - to the writers. Swarthout and Watrous describe their owr alma mater as being a center for the spiker beer industry, with whiskey and gin also popular... IN DISCUSSING THE nation wide situation the survey names the University of Virginia. as a good drinking school, along with the others already rated. While the traditional .studentdrink of the nation is beer, the report concludes the Middle West, especially Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, is the only area where the beer ,tradition is being,' thoroughly upheld. * X* * -* NEXT WEEK: First Women at the 'U' Greeley's column Saturday. appears every Feiffer ilicosity OA/(- /0 / 4r. &W r ? r wLP H pRCWie1u. 0t aggressive than before. -For the first time, Nicaragua was portrayed by Haig as threatening the vital strategic interests of the United States. Even more disturbing was Haig's assertion that there was "mounting evidence in Nicaragua of the totalitarian nature of the Sandinista regime," and that the goal of American policy in the Western Hemisphere "should be to "preclude the outcome of totalitarianism." Haig seems almost totally oblivious to the fact that much of the antagonisni, Nicaragua has toward the United States is rooted in the willing support the U.S. gave former Nicaraguan dic- tator Anastasio Samoza; Samoza's regime, in fact, is probably a much more likely candidate to be accused of "totalitarian" tendencies than the Sandinista government. Improved relations with Nicaragua can only come through a willingness of the U.S. administration to discuss its problems with the Nicaraguans, not through veiled threats of force. If Haig really wants to ease tensions between the U.S. and Nicaragua, he should drop the bellicose polemics and start demonstrating an ability to listen. C1UEr - Ssc . 1w(W t£rUc CoVYt i L/AP64~k5r PIM terfk~. /s/r .xis R. OF' OMR P g OF TaeWfJ I , a qrfr* -. LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Football seating policy should change To the Daily: Saturday's football game was fun to watch, but I once again ex- perienced theafrustrations of overcrowding and being unable to sit in my assigned seat. There are serious problems with the current policy of seating students by assigned section and seat at football games. Some in- dividuals are relegated to seats with a poor view, while lucky others get choice seats for the en- tire season. Consequently, the unlucky students sit in places where the view is good, not in their own seats. Thus the ticket-holder with a good seat must face the un- pleasant facts that he will be squeezed and/or not be able to sit in his assigned place. To compound matters, non- students holding student-section tickets often demand to sit in their assigned places, angering students and contributing to the overcrowding problem. Merely +Gnkktuc. P c3RAM IS 81 . O Soumo ASSuMMf'fL CLEA-CVY- ST h.4TUG/ AND mocAL dc*7"C77vr+E... " asking students to sit in assigned seats has had little effect in the past, and will probably do little to change the situation in the future. Seating students by section only (section assignments would still depend on number of U-M credits, as in the present system) could alleviate many of the seating problems. Although overcrowding would still occur for choice seats (and non- students would continue to sit in student sections) students could not bo forced out of choice seats beacuse seats would not be assigned. For the same reason, students would not have to sit in poor seats for an entire season. A ticket- holder's choice of seats within his section would depend on the time he arrives at the stadium; the early fans would get the choicest seats. The new seating policy could have other beneficial side- effects: as obtaining a good seat would depend on arriving early (for non-students with student tickets), traffic flow might be spread over a longer- period of time before the game, reducing the chance.of traffic jams. Ad- ditionally, time and money could be saved as a computer program would not be necessary fo ran- domly choosing student seats. Students can no longer tolerate the problems caused by the current seating policy. Change the system to seating by assigned section for students. -K. Timothy Mantyla November 12 Daily 's defeatist attitude To the Daily: Your editorial "A Noble Ef- fort" (Daily, Nov. 5) not only exemplifies but reaffirms the defeatist attitude maintained on this campus towards social change. What do you hope to accom- plish by first commending MSA for collecting over 400 letters from students to send to senators in regard to student aid legislation, and then concluding that, "maybe, by some fluke, Sens. Riegle and Levin will listen to what they have to say-but they shouldn't count on it." Where is your alternative strategy? Moreover, where is your coverage of student aid legislation? Ingrained in your defeatism is your negligence of the issue until after the vote has takenrplace, when you shock us with your mournful commen- taries. Every day you devote a full column to soliloquize your gripes- about the abuse of power, whether' it is Khadafy's belligerent foreign policy or the University pursuing defense research contracts. There seems to be no aualm as student and the legislator. That "syrupy" letter you receive from the senator's office is sure to be, loaded with diplomacy; however, it is an of- ficial position paper on the issue. Perceptive students will note that if they receive an uncommitted response, they aren't getting much help. They will know they need a new legislator. - Follow through with a second letter forewarning the direction of your vote in the next election. Expose the legislator's response in the newspaper. Identify targets for protests. It is precisely this technique that caused such an uproar in Congress over proposed Social Security cuts last summer. Sadly, it is also to the credit of the anti-government opposition that their active grass-roots lobbying payed off with the creation of a false mandate. More than 12.5 million college students, their parents, high school students, graduates, and other supporters of student aid bear the potential collective strength to make further cuts politically impossible. Even you couldn't deny the significance of 30.000 known letters sent from all Witt has bad timing To the Daily: Poor Howard Witt. He has terrible timing. If he had waited until Thursday to publish his column, he would have had the words of David Stockman to back him up. With his remarks on the "trickle down" nature of Reagan's economic program, the President's own budget director provides evidence for Witt's assertion that conservatism is in part a philosophy for the rich and greedy. If Witt had only been able to wait until Thursday, he could have looked to OMB for supportd But nooooo (as another Chicagoan used to say). The 'Fe iffer' car To the Daily:, The editorial cartoon "Feiffer" regular Tuesday publication of Witt's column gave two precious days to those who disagreed with- W him: one day to 'write affronted letters to the editor and another, for the Daily to print them. In' stead of being applauded for his insight, Howard Witt is now chastised for thinking of spitting,. when it seems his principal error is simply bad timing. Now that Stockman has made the views of the administration a:- little clearer, I wonder how many of Thursday's letter writers will reconsider their reactions-and perhaps their politics, as well. -Deborah Tyma November 13 toon unfair terest in peace and recognized Israel's right to exist.