', A Y OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, January 26, 1982- The Michigan Daily Ypsilanti's 90-year-old poet { He was born "back in '91." It's a jarring when you first hear him say it. makes him 90 years old; 91 on August 12. Let me make this pledge to her who will not wear a coat offur: Wose every thought is clear and kind and'bears no cruelty in her mind. little That, Howard Witt My credo is fur-bearing seals to spare nor shall Iin their slaughter share, But hunters of that precious fur I shall make efforts to deter. That also makes him one year older than Ar- chjibald MacLeish, the man who immediately jumps to mind when you think of very old Anerican poets still plying their trade. And while Paul : Hubbell is not nearly so famous-to buy some of his poetry you have to be down the block or at the grocery store or in front of the church when he happens to be stan- ding there peddling it-he is certainly as sin- cere. And nearly as prolific. For those who fight no more the message comes across clear. "No longer send the youth to war, you aged men, too old for battle, Whose dreams of glory passed yester eve, when once the field you won." Paul Hubbell. Football player, Rhodes scholar, world traveler, World War I soldier, high school teacher, college professor. And sin- ce about 1975, poet-in-residence on Grant Street in Ypsilanti. You can do a lot in 90 years. It's difficult to really comprehend just how long that is. Hubbell came to Ypsilanti in 1923, to teach modern European history at Eastern Michigan University. As a young man, he in- terviewed a soldier who served under Stonewall Jackson. He retired two years before I was born. Yet despite his age, the man simply refuses to fit any of the popular stereotypes about the elderly. Oh sure, he's not nearly as strong as he once was, and his voice falters in labored breaths, and the arthritis in his right knee makes it hard to get around sometimes. His blue eyes tare rheumy and his thick hair is white. The atoms to Democritus did not mean what they do to us; He thought they held the earth together for Greece's scientific part, We have no doubt whatever; our scientists are far too smart, For with atoms now they know how to blow the world apart. .But damned if he doesn't read six "I've written about almost everything you could mention, I reckon. The problem of racism, abortion-I'm in favor of abortion. And about-oh, it sounds kind of ridiculous, I reckon-but the stars. My barber used to say I was a romantic." You can still hear a little of the South in his words, the South where he moved around as a boy with his father, a Baptist preacher. His wife died some 15 years ago; he lives alone with his only daughter in a small white house just a few minutes from the EMU campus. The living room where he works is overfull with books and papers and shoes and plants. "Why is it that I'm so liberal?" he repeats my question. "I reckon it's sort of a broadmin- dedness. I was always tolerant of people. I lived in a lot of places; went to military school for a year; taught at different schools; went to Egypt with the YMCA to work with the troops during World War I, before I enteted the ar- my" To the Salvadorans: Fight on forfreedom lost though life be the bitter cost! Bread and peace you most need to hate and hunger pay no heed! Oppressors shall be overthrown until the land the people own. Rich and proud enemies, helped by foreign subsidies, Strike hard with desperate blows- win vic ory from the fqrmers'foes! Five decades dictators failed to see they cannot crush the instinct to be free! aureate Hubbell started dabbling in poetry during the Vietnam War, when he worked with. several anti-war groups. Encouraged by friends and neighbors, he submitted a few poems to local newspapers and neighborhood circulars But that was about as far as he could get-no major publishers were interested in his work. While new poems I can write with small effort day or night, That does not bring me wealth or fame and I remain an unknown name. So the Grant Street Poet, with a few hundred dollars from his pension and Social Security in- come, published his own book of poetry in 1975. At $1.50 a book, he sold all 500 copies. He's produced a new book every fall since then, each with some 30 or 40 poems on nature, emotions, politics-you name it and he's probab- ly written a rhyming couplet on it. Things have been getting tougher lately, however. "I usually canvass the neighborhood in late summer until I come out about even. Sometimes, I just give the books away,: sometimes people give me a little more than I. ask for. But last fall was harder. I doubt if I sold mare than one house in ten, where I used to get maybe four to six. Next year I won't order so many, I think." You can put me down for a copy, anyway, Mr. Hubbell. You may not be as . well known as Archibald MacLeish. and your poetry is certainly a little rougher around the edges. But I respect you for your effort. And, besides, it's fun to read. Witt's column apear's every Tuesday. 6 4 The Grant Street Poet newspapers and various magazines to keep up with the world every day. And write a few lines of verse every morning. And worry about the oppressed Guatemalans and Salvadorans and women's rights and nuclear power. For Paul Hubbell is about as liberal and enlightened as they come. Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wasserman SIR,THELIA T ECONJOI ARE oujr INFAgTION i5 VOWN PERCEN4T 6 6 Vol. XCII, No. 95 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board {^ , France' S F RANCE'S DECISION to buy natural gas from the Soviet Union demonstrates that the countries of Western Europe will not follow their political rhetoric with political action. Sunday's announcement of a French agreement to buy 280 billion cubic feet of gas per year from the Soviets makes France the third West European coun- try io sign such a contract with the Russians. Italy and West Germany have agreed already to buy gasfrom the Soviets. Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands are all, still negotiating for a similar contract. I'he French, prior to this agreement, had been Europe's strongest critics of the crackdown in Poland. By-trading with the Soviets, and thus refusing to gb along with President Reagan's economic sanctions, the French have demonstrated that they are back to "business as usual' with the Soviet Union. With these actions, the French are allowing the Soviets to enforce their will without censure on a neigh-w boring European nation. French rhetoric against the Polish ngirtial law had been severe before Sunday's agreement. The French led Western Europe in criticism of the Palish government's crackdown, which was undoubtedly. directed by guidance from the Kremlin. The Fren- ciwere not afraid, as were the West Soviet gas Germans, to bellow strong statements of outrage. Now it seems as if they too find the shadow of Soviet power too threatening to oppose. Such hesitation, however, on the part of the Europeans is not completely unreasonable. Their proximity to the Soviet Union puts them within the reach of immediate Russian political and military influence. This influence can only be minimized through a con- solidated reaction to Soviet excesses, such as those in Poland and Afghanistan. So far, West European action has been anything but consolidated. The West Germans have expressed the most ambivalent approval of the Reagan sanctions. NATO, as a whole, claims that a statement on the san- ctions is upcoming, but none has yet been made. If the Europeans are to expect the Americans to lead the West in the sphere of international relations, as German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt claimed they must, then they should follow America with actions, not words. American economic sanctions cannot be fully effective without Allied support. With the French/Soviet gas deal such concerted allied support has suf- fered a serious setback. ( / j '/ vvJT U'JEMMLYMA-NT 15 U?'To 8.9 w'ETy Yloet) A AN E AA~c T"E Up&6T? /f 6 Ag LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Ho w MSA stoppee _ To the Daily: Congratulations . to The Michigan Daily for covering MSA initiative concerning ,hazing. Un- fortunately your Jan.:22 editorial mistakes our activity for procrastination.-Let me point your misdirected finger at the hazing issue and its respective facts. The University of Michigan faces the problem of hazing as do many colleges and universities across the nation. Disciplinary action usually involves a Central Judiciary Board that imposes sanctions on students according to a Code of Misconduct. Such sanctions include expulsion and suspension for a physically and mentally destructive act such as hazing. The University imposes similar sanctions, yet only for misconduct on academic grounds and for intermittent cases of gross non-academic violations. What are those? In the summer of 1979, an ad hoc committee of the University decided that hazing incident involving the University Hockey Team' prompted the committee to step up their ac- tion. After a year and 2 months of transient membership, the com- mittee delivered a definition of hazing to be adopted by MSA on Dec. 8, 1981. The committee's aim was to ensure that the University incorporated their wr- itten policy and therefore raise the consciousness necessary for further action. MSA defeated a motion to ratify the committee's proposal at their Dec. 8 meeting. On Dec. 9, MSA created its own ad hoc committee to investigate possible sanctions that each of the University committee's "target" groups could adopt. Again, the Daily blames us for dragging our feet, when in fact we were attem- pting to create necessary enfor- cement mechanisms for the University policy. MSA felt that the time delay was important since an im- mediate ratification might d hazing remedy. At the Jan. 12 MSA meeting, members saw a proposed list of MSA sanctions that they were to comment and vote upon the following week. On Jan. 18, the ,hazing committee agreed to push for the University policy only if sanctions were guaranteed by March 1. MSA voted for this addendum and the policy on Jan. 19. They also ap- proved the MSA sanctions with suggestions. The suggestions im- plied further strengthening., The MSA committee promotes all viable means of an- ti-hazing enforcement. Uniquely, the University does not own its sorority and fraternity property (as does Stanford the example used by the Daily) so it cannot expel entire "greekdoms", responsible for hazing. The committee can push for decen- tralized sanction formulation in the short-term. MSA is rallying the forces of the BGA, Panhell, IFC, the Athletic Department, incidents the Housing Department, and the Student Office of Accounts and Programming to produce a coor- dinated and effective front again- st hazing. Did you know that if your group is caught hazing next year that you might not gain ac- cess to Michigan Advertizing Works, MSA funds, or national recognition? In the long-term, the MSA committee must weigh the ad- -vantages of a University Council with the power of punishment for non-academic violations. Should the students make such decisions or should a faculty-dominant . body decide? Finally, the most formidable obstacle, is the peer pressure and the drive for iden- tity that precludes many victims of hazing from coming forward. -Amy Hartmann Michigan Student Assembly Vice President January 25 6 6 'l i"+ : : . 30 ' { $ir . "..::4 "> r..4 ~4~'U i Abi