Page 4 OPINIONry__ Saturday, January '10, 1981 4 .Y w. k hired laus looks back onl w SANTALAND, New York-It's over. Another Christmas under the jolly fat man's big black helt, and for this and hundreds of other depar- Iment store Santas the pillows and boots and 4)eard and slightly frayed bright red suit go flack into mothballs for another 11 months. And :we ourselves go back to our comparatively mundane jobs, or to the unemployment lines. But for a few weeks there, we were-gods! g-' THIS CHRISTMAS, as part of Western Tem- :poraries' Santa Division, Class of '80, I have Ho-Ho-Hoed at Macy's on Herald Square. The "largest Store in the World. Santaland. The Miracle on Thirty-fourth Street. ~ Nearly two dozen Santas, 100telves, dozens of, technicians and managers came together to create a grand illusion, a once-a-year festival of sight and sound-all focused on that venerable institution of wish fulfillment-Santa Claus.. It is quite a process. The store figures it received more than 350,000 visitors through the maze of six Santa houses this season. On a busy afternoon early in the season, more than 1,400 persons saw Santa in one hour. That translates, subtracting for parent companions, into a minimum of 60 lap-sitters per hour per Santa. That day the photo concession rang up $10,000 in sales. THIS ENORMOUS undertaking requires the smooth coordination of a theatrical production kept running 12 hours a day for nearly a month. That explains why nearly all Santas and elves are actors drawn from the ever-swelling ranks of New York City's unemployed thespians. And the Santas, seen as the crucial link in the chain of Christmas joy, have to be trained to live up to their role as guardians of the spirit. Western Temps, which operates Santa con- cessions around the world, holds interesting af- ternoon training sessions for the hired Clauses. "Santa is there for his public," goes the ideological line pitched by the manager. "He is not there to sell photographs. He is there to see that good photographs can be taken.'' We Western Santas are warned not to fall prey to the temptation of linking our venture with commercialism. It is emphasized that Macy's does not have Santa there to increase store revenues. Santa is a kind of corporate respon- sibility program, a way to pay back the com- munity for its support of the stork over the years. The stifled chuckles around the table do not seem to dim the enthusiasm of the trainer. THE REAL ESSENCE of Santa, we are told, is his metaphysical role. He is magic, he is spirit, he is, apparently, a moment of pure gold light transcending the bounds of time and space in a vaguely Eastern sense. "Santa is a =public figure, and once you have By A. Lin Neumann put on that suit you have become a legend, a symbol-you have become God to many, many children," we are told. To be honest, most of the Santas see this as a gig, a source of meager income. Chuckles grow in volume as our religious nature is em- phasized. FINALLY, WE ARE whipped into a frenzy by our trainer. Robert Schuller, the preacher of Tower of Power fame, is invoked along with culture icon Dr. Joyce Brothers on the meaning of, Santa. We are to attempt a combination of arm-waving evangelistic joy with TV talk show understanding. In conclusion, we are united with the broader forces of football and collective consciousness as a sort of benediction is spoken: "You are all Santa, part of one team, you are all one thing." But the training has just begun. The week before Thanksgiving Santas were united with their underpaid associates, the elves. (Elves work for Macy's and receive a minimum wage of $3.20 per hour; Santas work for Western and are paid $4.50 an hour.) Here, the Macy's team takes over in grand style. We camp out in a lounge for three days of detail over photos, traffic control, rules, regulations, and boosterism. PERHAPS THE ODDEST moment of the training came when a longtime Santa strode to the lecturn to codify the class division between the elves and Santas. "We are the attraction, not you. Remember that. There are certain elves whom I found it impossible to work with last year. As the star system is imposed, tense stares circle the room as the elves size up the Santas to see whether this is a consensus speech or just the musing of one too caught up in the act. The latter is the case, yet the division between the two groups will remain. But the elves and Santas do work as a team. You have to. The traffic on a weekend is nearly unbearable and without good humor everyone would climb the walls. GRADUALLY, AS THE season gets into full swing, the dressing room acquires the trap- pings of the trade in the form of gifts, lists and offerings brought to Santa. There is the oddly disconcerting sight of a couple of Santas, coats off and debearded, taking a break with rosy cheeks and strapped-on pillows. And, of course, this being a theater crowd, bits emerge - tag-team Santa wrestling, for example - "This is Killer Kowalski and I'm gonna HO IO HO you this Saturday night and I don't think you're ready!" The Michigan Daily is gig But there is, despite all the mechanism and form and systems of Santaland, despite the pretense and the absurdity, despite it all, a kind of warmth attached to being Santa. You become the man of a childhood memory, a manifestation of joy and contradiction for the collection of souls that wander through the maze. You can't help but wish you could fulfill the dreams of a ragged youngster who straggles in alone, or of the emotionally distur- bed man who chats with Santa as frankly as he might talk to a therapist or a priest. Even the more formalistic "Have you been good this year?" carries more than a hint of religious rite. Finally, gazing into the open eyes of a daz- zled three-year-old, I find myself wishing that the camera would not click, that the gifts could be delivered, that there really was a Santa Claus. When not being a Santa, A. Lin Neumann is a freelance writer and photographer and works with the United Methodist Seminar Program in New York. He wrote this article for the Pacific News Service. ..I Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCI, No. 86 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Doily's Editorial Board Louisiana and njustice NAO RSTERED BY'ArVOTH-ER Rty NvIrTOR I uR EROES coNrwNuE Trl1R SWON A~tE OMPHLDfier4QlnR )4OSRIL oP OLW 'ilL VJFD &ET RoM1T', NEEDS5 +I4& OU1! 4 BUCKEYE IS A small, backwater town in the center of rural Louisiana. Those who feel that America is changing too fast, who can only shake their heads sadly as America is eroded by the liberal disease of the federal government, can look with hope to Buckeye. # Buckeye is a bastion of traditional gican values. uckeye h '4ound its fiercest : defender of those same values in N Louisana District Court Judge ' Richard E. Lee. Judge Lee, who a proudly displays a portrait of Con- :: federate General Robert E. Lee, a A distant ancestor, on his office wall, is a a man of the finest Southern tradition. ' When the federal government star- ted to reach its long arm into Buckeye's Rapides Parish, mum- bling something about racial equality, Judge Lee, with all the .: judicial authority he could muster and more, rushed to the cause of one "~ of the South's finest . traditions-segregation. The federal government enacted a plan to desegregate the Rapides Parish schools by redefining the at- tandance zone of the all-white . Buckeye school so that some students who attended the Buckeye school would be bused to an almost all-black s school in nearby Alexandria. The y= parents of three of the students who --r M'A 41t.. w would be bused to the Alexandria school petitioned Lee's court to tran- sfer custody of their children to frien- ds' families still living within the at- tendance boundaries of the Buckeye school. Lee, of course, obliged the parents' request and even personally escorted the three junior high school girls to class on several occasions to ensure their safe passage. Local observers say Lee has become a folk hero and claim he is guaranteed to fulfill all of his many state political ambitions. The only catch seems to be that it is not at all clear Judge Lee has the authority to fight the desegregation plan. In fact, he is being threatened with a federal contempt of court charge for interferring with the execution of the plan, which falls un- der .federal jurisdictipn. But, if his authority is not clear, his motivation is. It is readily apparent that Judge Lee has plunged into this affair not because of a higher concern for the law, but rather because of his per- sonal political opposition to busing. We are resigned to accept such behavior in the capitol, but not in the courthouse. As long as we have men like Judge Lee to lead us, we need not fear for America's future. Inequality and in- justice will remain firmly entrenched among the finest of American traditions. cz~ 0 9 j t~l p w- 0- a, .: A t ..,,^ ^ T 6 r O ©tqsgTire yewLMA,.)D135reA',ei0 LETTERS TO THE DAILY: 6 An ex-member defends Moonies' To the Daily: For the past four months, I have read every article that I could get my hands on that per- tained to Rev. Moon and the organizations that he founded, such as the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles and the Unification Church. To my surprise, most of the articles were based on the comments of ex-members who were extremely negative about these organizations. Some of the former members were so negative that hey lied in some of their stories. One man, for exam- ple, told of how he was held against his will, but later in the article gave accounts of fun- draising alone in different cities. There are also tales of people not getting enough sleep or enough nutritious food, and, of course, there are many accounts of the dreaded "brainwashing." Since most of these articles are based on the comments of ex- members, I would like to see an article based on the comments of positive ex-members. That is where I come in. For the past four months, I have been living with the "Moonies" (which ex- plains my interest in newspaper articles), but now I am preparing to return home. I feel I should give my view on some of these 4(l matters before I leave. First of all, the matter of sleep. While I was at home I averaged five-and-a-half hours of sleep per night during the week, and around ten.hours sleep over the weekends. Both of these I feel are ridiculous. I now get an average of seven-and-a-half hours sleep each night. Also, there is the tall about the quality of the food. I am a chemistry major and my minor is biology. I have taken just about every biology class I can think of, so I feel I know just as well as anyone else what foods are good for me, and the food that I am eating here is good for me. That brings us to the infamous subject of BRAINWASHING. If Rev. Moon brainwashed me in any way, it was by showing me that I should love my brothers and why. In that way, I think the world should be brainwashed, and that the communists, Klansmen, and Nazis should be given a double dose. I guess two more questions need to be answered before I end this letter. First, where are all of the other positive ex-members, and, second, why am I leaving? Well I know a few more people who have left here, although thei have a good impression of the movement and its members. The reason these people do not ex- press their feelings is that they still have to make a living in the world, and people connected with Rev. Moon do not command very much respect in society as yet. As for why I am leaving, I do not really connect with some of thei ideals, but I still have a great respect for everyone in the movement and hope that others will see that they are entitled, to their beliefs. -Brian Roman December 18 Wcp p \ I King, queen self-centered .k k I iz_ To the Daily: In response to the article that appeared in the. January 8th Michigan Daily, as well as the Detroit Free Press, the Kalamazoo Gazette, the Grand Rapids Press, and the Los Angeles Times, among others, I believe that the behavior of the Michigan "royalty" - Homecoming King Timothy Lee and Homecoming Queen Sherry King-has been self-centered, arrogant, and totally ridiculous. In the first place, Homecoming king and queen presentations are only in their second year here. It is unreasonable to expect their benefits to be similar to those of king and queen should, indeed, end with Homecoming. Further- more, I find it utterly amazing that any member of any minority would have the nerve to cry "racism!" as an excuse for not getting everything he or she demands, as Sherry King did on several occasions. In the second place, all can- didates for Homecoming king, queen and court positions were well aware of the benefits they were to receive at the time of ap- plication and interviewing. These positions are an honor, not something to be taken advantage of. Sherry King and Timothy Lee have made a imockerv of this To the Daily: One must assume, after hearing President-elect Reagan's remarks about gun control in the wake of John Lennon's murder, that Reagan does not support capital punishment. It is difficult to see how one could implement a 5 to 15 year additional sentence on top of the death penalty. Perhaps the rack could be brought back? The incidence murder with guns could be diminished by an intelligently devised gun control policy. The disturbed and the wicked will still be with us and will find means to act out their intentions. Ask Andy Warhol (knifed some years ago) who is nonetheless still with us. -Sharon Katie Decenber 10 Bring back the rack? W"ALI 1,77 _ a