0 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, March 16, 1982- The Michigan Daily Where will ou be this Saturday? So much for idealism. in a few tailgate parties and you'll have it all. And if the experiences at previous neo-Nazi - There were a few of us-blacks, Jews, It's the old lure of blood-the same thing that marches around the country are any in- Mkhigan Briefing SPrs Catholics, laborers-who had hoped the com- draws thousands to boxing matches and dication, it will be the anti-Nazi demonstrators '-S CTONGRUPCo,~I i munity could simply ignore the neo-Nazis who bullfights. who will suffer the brunt of the injuries. When say they are coming to Ann Arbor on Saturday But before you go down to watch Saturday's the neo-Nazis tried to march in Detroit last i to march in front of City Hall. festivities, consider a few points: summer, club-swinging police officers bashed But now it's too late for-that. Now the " The neo-Nazis are looking for a fight. These a few heads in the unruly crowd-anti-Nazi radicals, revolutionaries, activists, com- vile cretins-many of whom are only pimply heads, mind you. The neo-Nazis fled to safety in munists, socialists, and unionists have announ- white-trash teenagers-are hoping for a big their rented van. And police officials had told -'Z, , ced plans to "stop the Nazis" with a counter- counter-demonstration. They know conflict everyone beforehand that they couldn't demonstration at City Hall. Jewish and breeds publicity, and publicity-especially bad guarantee anyone's safety. Ann Arbor City ....S77 publicity-swells the ranks. The neo-Nazis ac- Administrator Terry Sprenkel has declined Karl RdllSU RE tually reprint entire newspaper stories about comment on the city's plans for security at el rAN GYOURS! their rallies and distribute them as propagan- Saturday's demonstration. I d U r -der T. da. "Nazis parade in Birmingham." "Nazi " Although unsubstantiated, rumor has it that rally ends in wild melee." "Neo-Nazi pickets the neo-Nazis have invited their friends from defy city, police." The headlines are virtual in- the Ku Klux Klan in Howell to mingle amongHdtohdtihefBas- hghum O ~ rvitations to those bigots circling the fringe of Saturday's crowd-sans sheets, of course. That , HT the underclass who are looking for a good club way, when things start to heat up, they can bust PWER W ttto join. And a club with only a handful of mem- a few "commie-pinko" heads before the police bers that can stir up thousands of angry even realize what's happening. That's - -- citizens is a very good club indeed. right-the burly fellow standing next to you " The radicals are looking for a fight, too. while you're yelling "Death to the Nazis!" Newspapers: The neo-Nazis use them for ready-made Christian leaders have endorsed a peaceful in- "There is no sense in calling on the courts and might have a steel pipe up his sleeve. propaganda. ter-faith "solidarity" rally at the Federal cops to ban the Klan and Nazis," reads a flyer " Finally, suppose the worst happens over at Building a few blocks away. And student from the Committee to Stop the Nazis. "We City Hall-that a full-scale riot breaks out. governments and campus organizations and have the power to sweep the Nazis off the Sirens will start wailing, people will start the process? prophesies, hundreds of people are going to dorm councils are handing down endorsements streets of Ann Arbor." In fact, a neo-Nazi screaming-and meanwhile, over at the Damn it, I'm scared. I think we all should be. show up anyway. I can only hope to dissuade 6f both. demonstration is just the ticket to unite the Federal Building just three blocks away, a There are those who argue that writing about those who have not yet decided to risk personal No, idealism is definitely out. Realism is in. workers of the world into a ravenous mob- huge crowd is attending the peaceable the possibility of all this violence, engaging in injury, to contribute to a riot, to give the neo- And realism tells me that we're in for a real sort of a dry run for the Big Revolution that's solidarity rally. Does anyone really believe such detailed doomsaying, will only encourage Nazis the attention and publicity they crave. football Saturday this week, right down to the coming any day now. that the solidarity folks, hearing the screams more curious people to wander over to City God, I hope it rains on Saturday. helmets worn by the opposing sides and mobs " The police, although probably not looking and wails of a riot, won't rush over to City Hall Hall on Saturday. of spectators hoping to see a good show. Throw for a fight, likely won't hesitate to get into one. to see what's going on, broadening the chaos in Maybe so. But with or without my Witt's column appears every Tuesday.- i I r Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan The Greek system revisited Vol. XCII, No. 129 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Economic predictions: eve 0new MIC Sand symbols trac'tionally are tough to decipher even when economists agree on their meaning. When the experts disagree, however, it's nearly impossible to tell what's going on. Last week the government reported that wholesale prices dropped by an annual rate of 1.7 percent in February - the first such decline in six years. That's good news. Several economists, however, felt that the drop only reflected the severity of the current recession and measure just how listless the economy is doing. That's bad news. White House officials, however, said the price drop was a good economic sign. President Reagan's chief economic advisor Murray Weiden- baum called it "an indication of the substantial progress we are making in reducing inflation." He predicted that the drop could lead to more consumer spending and spur the economy into a recovery. That's good news. Private forecasters said the drop was a temporary one, caused by a combination of good luck and unique economic conditions, such as a recent moderation in union wage demands. Reagan's proposed budget deficit will thwart permanent declines in wholesale prices anyhow, they added. That's very bad news. s, bad .,news Previoqs evidence, however, gives the most weight to the bad news. The economy certainly is suffering accor- ding to other production figures and forecasts. Even White House officials qualified their wholehearted pleasure by refusing to take full credit for the price drop - evidence of a hesitancy on their part to fully trust the figures. No matter which way you read the latest figures, everyone agrees that Reagan's economic strategy has not produced its promised solution. Another thing everyone seems to agree on is that the "bad -news" budget proposed by Reagan must be modified by Congress. Last week the leaders of several major U.S cor- porations met with the president and urged him to do what representatives in Congress have also urged - cut the projected $91 million budget deficit by reducing military spending and raising taxes. Businessmen fear such a huge deficit would push the economy into a worse state of recession. As price indexes rise and fall, the implications for our economy may remain unclear. But one thing is a sure bet. The administration's proposed budget deficit will harm any chance for economic recovery and growth. That congressmen and businessmen now agree the Reagan budget: needs to be changed is good news indeed. By Robert Honigman The recent revival of the Greek system recalls for me the heyday of the in loco parentis ("in replace of parents") doctrine. I don't know if the doctrine was at its height when I attended the University (1955-58), but it was certainly in its glory. Men and women were segregated at opposite ends of the campus, men in the quads and women on "the hill". Women were locked up on weekday nights at 10:30 p.m., but could stay out until midnight on Saturday nights. All women under 21 had to live in University-approved housing, such as dorms, co-ops, or sororoities, but not off- campus apartments. A large percentage of women rushed the sororities each year, and a large number were heartbroken when they weren't asked to pledge. Looking back on those days, I'm struck by how callous the University was. It placed men and women at opposite ends of the cam- pus, ostensibly for "their own good," but in effect, because the University was running a Victorian boarding school for young ladies in the middle of 20th centry America. This was not due to parental pressure, at least not the girls' parents, since they had sent their daughters to college to catch husbands (something the sexual apartheid effectively frustrated). THE in loco parentis doctrine was par- ticularly puzzling to me because I entered the University at the age of 16 and I was free, as a male, to come and go in the dorms and stay out all night if I pleased. My sister, who was already a sophomore at the University was locked up each night. In addition, by the time I was 17 I was free to move out of the quads into off-campus housing, while she was required to spend the rest of her University career in the dorms. I used to think that this callousness - this pseudo-Victorian morality (for the University could care less whether any of us lived or died) - was due to the idea of "mass solutions," or solving complex and difficult. human problems through the simplest and least complex means - a form of institutional efficiency designed for the convenience of administrators. Thus, rather than ten or LETTERS TO THE DAILY:, twenty girls geting pregnant each year (and giving the University a bad name), it was considered better form to have the girls as far away as possible from the boys - even if this meant that most of them graduated without husbands. Yet in recent years, as I came to study the University in greater depth, a deeper reason for the University's regulations surfaced. Men and women i were segregated at op- posite ends of the campus for the same reason that the opposite poles of a battery are separated - to create a tension which in turn generates a current and thus powers a system. The segregation of the sexes powered the Greek system. The Greek system's driving obsession was social com- munication - bridging the gap between the sexes with endless parties, mixers, and fix- ups. That was its purpose, and placing men's and women's dormitories side by side would have gutted its purpose by providing a frien- dly and informal social life to ordinary quad- dies and dorm dwellers. The University, in its Michigan House Plan (1941-41) publicly promised that University housing would not compete with Greek housing. WHY DID the University want to encourage Greek housing? The answer can be deduced by reasoning backwards. The Greeks were predominantly social leaders; they dominated all campus activities (with the exception of the Daily), and they particularly dominated student government, which they thought of as a popularity contest for their individual houses. By draining off all social leaders from the quads-and dorms and giving them special status - living in their own housing units, un- supervised parties, etc. - the University ef- fectively separated the leadership element of the student body from the intellectual element, and placed them in two competing and isolated worlds. This assured the University that student government would be harmlessly narcissistic and deeply loyal to the University ad- ministration, because it would be dominated by fraternity and sorority types who had no interest in politics or social issues. OF COURSE, the 1960s ended the domination of the Greeks on campus. Co-ed housing, increasingly bitter contact with reality, increased grade competition, and an increasingly commuter community all com- bined to end the hegemony of the Greeks. The University now uses grade competition and the anonymity and isolation of off-campus housing to render students politically in- nocuous and apathetic - although it certainly must be grateful for the recent mindlessness of the Greek system's revival. The Greek system is indeed enjoying a revival and for the same reasons as in the 1950s - the lack of - any community at- mosphere or decent housing in the University environment, either dormitory or off-campus. The Greeks thus are a symptom of the bankruptcy of the University housing policies, mixed perhapsWith the unconscious self-interest of University administrators who find students easier to control when played off against each other. There's nothing wrong, with the Greek system itself as an alternative form of housing - it's better than nothing and certainly doesn't deserve to be suppressed. It's just that students deserve more alter- natives. Will we see a replay of the 1950s? I don't 7 think so. I think we'll see just an echo. In the 1950s, the University pretended to care about undergraduates. But since that time the University has become a major research en - terprise and professional training school. It will use the Greek system as it used it during the 1950s - as a safety valve for the more : socially active students and as a tacit means of allowing students to stupify themselves; while they are processed through the system.' The rules of the game, however, are dif- ferent today. The University has reached the stage of size and prestige where people are no longer important - not as they once were° (although they really weren't that important" then). People have become things, and the. system no longer serves them or their needs;, people now serve the system and its needs. The revival of the Greek system is just an echo of the past, not a return. Still, it's sad tow see students so divided and so easily manipulated by the powers that be. Honigman, currently a lawyer, is a 1958 graduate of the University. America must keep its w NICARAGUiAN Iiax - PRISONER C N R DI TM. .S ATiET-'t 7' CLAIMS ONli' N~< ~rEL SALVADo& i , , 1 D' t To the Daily: Recently, I have noticed both on campus and in this publication anti-military sen- timents. While I hope that we are never involved in another war, I feel that the people who have ex- pressed these opinions have an entirely wrong solution. The best deterrent to becoming involved in a war is to have a strong defense. As everyone remembers from their younger years, those in- dividuals who were weak and did not stand up for their rights were the ones who were picked on and taken advantage of the most. On the other hand, those individuals who had proven themselves to be tough and stood up for their rights were not bothered by anyone except for fools. It is the same way with nations. By having no or inferior defenses, we would be a prime target for aggression or possibly even takeover. I too realize that modern war- fare is deadly. I wish that wars were still foug and bayonets ones injured sonnel. But ti today and nev long as our technology an don't, we will defensive Therefore, we with and pu Russians in th race to avo predicament. The freedon " military strong ;ht solely with rifles living that we enjoy today were and that the only earned by the blood of our were military per- forefathers. America was foun his is not the case ded by individuals who felt that er will be again. As these principles were worth enemy possesses fighting for. Ld weapons that we We all need to become more be inferior in our aware of how good we have it capabilities, here in America and take steps to need to keep pace keep it that way. Should the need ish ahead of the arise, I would galdly lay down my he technology arms life to preserve America as I id being in that know it for future generations. -Scott sovereign m and standard of March 15 6 Weasel By Robert Lence ~Lt'6ET~ Cv3 I' ~PQ(ATIN'! 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