OPINION
Page 4
E d Adm dbtde an U f Ig
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Saturday, October 9, 1982
Sinclair
The Michigan Daily
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Vol. XCll, No. 27
420 Maynorci St.
Ann Arbor. 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Out of
THLIE UNEMPLOYMENT rate stands
today at its highest level since the
Great Depression, and all the
president can do is blame the
Democrats.
On Thursday evening, the day before
the newest unemployment figures
came out, President Reagan blamed
the Democrats in advance for the bad
news. The Democrats, he said, had
turned Washington into "fat city," had
put the nation's economy "on a
toboggan slide," and are responsible
for the 10.1 percent unemployment. He
said the recent jumps in the stock
market were evidence of an
"onrushing surge of confidence" in the
economy..
The president's analysis couldin't be
further from reality, and his response
to the latest economy news could har-
dly be more shameful. No, there can be
little question that, even if the
downturn started late during
the Carter administration, the
president's policies are directly
responsible for the recession's severity
and length.,
The claim that the president's
economic policies have suddenly in-
control
spired confidence on Wall Street is ab-
surd. Nearly all stock market analysts
agree that the current rally is being
driven by the decline in interest
rates-in other words, by the hope that
the administration's previous
monetary policies are being reversed.
Interest rates are falling because the
president's recession has so battered
business that the demand for loans has
decreased dramatically.
And what's the administration's
response to the news that the nation
now has depression-level unem-
ployment? A reexamination of
economic policy, or even just a public
works program? Nope-it's all the
fault of the opposition party; nothing
new shall be done.
How high will the unemployment
rate go? When might the nation get out
of this mess? "No one knows," was
Treasury Secretary Donald Regan's
answer yesterday.
. All the administration seems to haver
are these strange, troubling, and in-
credibly self-righteous answers. They
seem to be the hallmarks of an
economy-and an economic policy-
that are out of control.
Nothing's simple anymore
THINGS USED TO be simple. Life
was, as they say, uncomplicated.
For sweetness without sugar, there
was saccharin, for nervousness there
were cigarettes, and for headaches
there was aspirin. When you were
hungry and in a hurry, there was Mc-
Donald's.
Just a quick jaunt down William
Street, take a right on Maynard, and
there were the golden arches. Stand in
line for a minute, mumble the magic
words (BigMac-smallfries-chocolate
shale), and then it was fast food
heaven.
That's how it used to be, but no more.
A creeping paranoia has made its way
into America's favorite cardboard food
factory. A disease caused by eating
hamburger meat (specifically Mc-
Donald's hamburger meat) has been
discovered at Kroc's place.
The disease-called hemorrhagic
colitis (yuck)-causes severe stomach
pain. It has appeared in the intestines
of Mac fans in a small town in Oregon,
and now in Traverse City, Mich. There
were 21 cases in our fair home state, 58
nationwide, but none of them were, or
ever could have been fatal, experts
say.
Nonetheless, severe stomach pain at
the golden arches? If students want to
get sick to their §tomachs, they can or-
der Chicken Mc . . they can go
someplace else.
There once was a sense of security
about McDonald's. Tastelessness bred
assurances of non-nutritious hygiene.
One never worried about a bum
milkshake, or.a burnt fry. Things like
that just didn't happen. A buzzer saved
the cheeseburgers from a charcoaled
fate, and master mixers made the
cokes just right-never too syrupy.
And then there was that wonderful
styrofoam that kept the edibles away
from nasty germs that float in the air.
Never again. Now it will always be
"Should I order a double cheeseburger
without the pickle, or should I go down
the block?"
Another decision in an already con-
fusing life. A perfect order has been
tainted by the stains of the imperfect
world. God preserve Burger King.
It's time for the true foot
soldier of professional football-
the fan-to stand up and force the
National Football League to pay
its debt to society.
After all, the sport we love is
not delivered to us on a silver
platter. We pay the freight when
we buy tickets and television
sponsors' products, when we
cough up millions to build and
maintain NFL stadiums, when
we put in countless of unpaid
hours to help train tomorrow's
gridiron heroes.
IF THE fans remain in their
seats, football as we know it is in
danger of extinction because of
growing cracks in football's very
foundation. Professional football
exists only by resting atop the
vast pyramid of amateur foot-
ball.
But NFL owners do not con-
tribute one cent to the peewee
leagues, high schools, and
colleges which combine to form a
huge and highly effective farm
system for the pros. The in-
dispensible service these feeder
systems perform is clearly
illustrated by the incompetence
of the occasional speed merchant
who tries to sneak into the NFL
without previous football ex-
perience.
Yet in this age of cutbacks,
where the warm sun of education
is increasingly eclipsed by the
rising moon of military spending,
schools are often unable to make
ends meet unless they reduce the
size of their athletic programs.
CLEVELAND has eliminated
all junior high sports. Some high
schools in Idaho, Illinois, In-
diana, andMichigan have scrap-
ped football. Even mighty
Massillon (Ohio), the cradle of
bigtime high school football, had
to pass an emergency school levy
to insure the completion of the
Taxing the
NFL to
support the
amateurs
By Lee Ballinger
1981 season. Villanova was forced
to end an 87-year tradition of
college football when its program
sank in a sea of red ink last year.
The NFL makes a net profit of
$13 million each year just from
licensing its trademarks, while
high school football players in
California, Connecticut,
Michigan, Ohio and Pen-
nsylvania have to pay as much as
$50 apiece just to be allowed to go
out for the team. There are high
schools in Washington, D.C.,
which do not charge admission to
their football games because they
cannot afford to erect fences'
around their fields.
The school system of Warren,
Ohio, which has produced five
current NFL players, has been
forced to lay off several high
school coaches on the eve of the
1982 season.
THE TAXPAYING fan not only
funds the educational system
whose athletic assembly line em-
pties directly onto the NFL
loading dock, he also directly
subsidizes Pete Rozelle and Co.
Since 1953 the public has paid
hundreds of millions to build and
maintain professional sports
facilities and that was only the
down payment. The fans must
still come up with almost $7
billion before the mortgages can
be burned.
The local citizens of Pontiac,
Mich., already devastated by the
collapse of the auto industry, pay
$1.2 million a year in property
taxes to help keep the Lions and
the Silverdome in the black.
Meanwhile, their own school
system has been forced to lay off
coaches because of a decrease in
tax revenue.
THE ANAHEIM Stadium
Authority used public funds to
build 108 luxury boxes yet
donates 80 percent of the revenue
they produce to the Rams.
But while the public tries in
vain to call a play that will blunt
the rush of the economic down-
turn, the NFL continues to
prosper. Major league baseball
underwrites an entire farm
system, and the NBA helps to
support the minor league Con-
tinental Basketball Association.
The NFL does nothing.
I propose that 5 percent of the
league's gross revenues be set
aside for the support of amateur
football programs across the
country. At present income
levels, that would amount to $31
million a year which could be
placed in a fund administered by
players and owners. Shoulder
pads for; Pascagoula. Coaches'
salaries for Cabin Creek. A new
field for Fresno. A revival for
Villanova.
THE NFL not only has a moral
obligation to help sustain the
athletic infrastructure of the
United States, but common sense
should dictate that it preserve the
athletic bedrock upon which its
shining edifice rests.
There is honest disagreement
over the players' demand for a
percentage of the owners' gross
revenues, but surely it is gross
that no percentage of the NFL's
annual bonanza goes to those who
do so much to create it. Fans,
players and coaches at every
level of football must come
together and force the NFL to do
its duty before it's too late.
Ballinger is the author of
"In Your Face! Sports for
Love and Money. " He wrote
this article for the Pacific.
News Service.
"ONE OF YOUR GREATEST ACTING JOBS CHIEF'
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
LSA students are the exploited
To the Daily:
Kevin O'Connor's letter to the
Daily (Oct. 1, 1982) expressed the
"fact" that engineering students
"receive less money per student
than any other college at the
University".
The State of Michigan
regularly monitors the amount of
money spent per student class
hour as part of its funding
model for university support. I
checked on some figures for 1976-
78 to verify Mr. O'Connor's asser-
tion and discovered that Univer-
sity expenditures per student
class hour for freshmen and
sophomore engineering students
for this period was $50.69, com-
pared to $39.75 for students in
bio-sci.., $29.75 for students in let-
ters, $17.00 for students in
psychology, and $19.05 for
students in social sciences.
Junior and senior engineering
students also received com-
parably more than their counter-
parts in these subjects. In fact, in
a study of University expen-
ditures done by a reidential
college team under the super-
vision of Prof. Tom Weisskopf
(Econ.), it was revealed that the
average LSA graduate received
less in instructional expenditure -
per student than the average non-
LSA undergraduate.
My own calculations are that
LSA freshmen and sophomores
receive little more than their
tuition back in direct classroom
instructional expenditures from
the University. They are the most:
heavily exploited class in the
University.
One wonders where Mr. O'Con-'
nor got his "facts." If he got them
from the University, no matter:
how much they spend on him per
classroom hour, he's probably
right in perceiving that
e ngineerirg students are not get-
ting a good education at the:
University. Do they believe
everything they are told by
Headline shows racist intent
To the Daily:
I think you could have been
more upfront with your headline,
"Blacks Show Low SAT Scores,"
(Tues., Oct. 5) and added a
subheading, "Are Blacks Really
Less Intelligent Than Whites?"
displaced (as I did), I would see
this article as yet another nail in
the academic coffin that the
University of Michigan has been
working on since the day I set foot
on campus.
the caption ". . . and hopes for a
bigger fish to take home for din-
ner." For that alone you should
be stripped of any journalistic
license you have.
What is the point of the kind of