4 OPINION Page 4 Thursday, January 17, 1985 The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigarr Ford's deceptive address By Adam Ruskin Vol. XCV, No. 88 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Improbable cause T HE SUPREME COURT recently continued the disturbing trend toward.: treating students as second- class citizens by denying them the same Constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure that adults enjoy. Citing "major social problems" in the nation's schools, the court voted 6-3 on Tuesday to allow teachers and ad- ministrators further leeway in sear- ching students who they believe have violated a law or school rule. Instead of the stricter "probable cause" stan- dard which police officers must follow, teachers and administrators need only suspect that a student has violated a rule-even something as trivial as the dress code-in order to search the student. The majority opinion, written by Justice Byron White, argued that school officials should avoid "ex- cessively intrusive" searches, but the need to maintain order is so important that student civil liberties aren't as important as adults' civil liberties. The only standard school officials have to follow is that they have to be "reasonable" about conducting sear- ches of students and their personal belongings. The problem with this argument is that it leaves "reasonable" undefined. It would be conceivable, for instance, for an ad- ministrator to rifle through a student's purse simply because the student has a history of smoking in the bathroom. To be sure, there are significant problems in the schools, but violating the spirit of the Constitution will only serve to exacerbate tension between school officials and problem students. Students will resent being treated as second-class citizens and may use the unfairness of the situation as a rationale for being more insolent. Theoretically, an education helps in- still a set of social values which reflect the somewhat hackneyed and tainted American ideals of democracy and fairness; the Supreme Court ruling undermines those values in the very institutions in which they should be most respected. The principal of the New Jersey high school which originated the case hailed the decision, saying that "reasonable searches, the same thing a parent might do" are appropriate in a school environment at any level of education, including the secondary level. But in loco parentis is utterly inap- propriate at any level of education, in- cluding the secondary level. Schools should have the right to discipline students who violate school rules or break the law? However, an "ends justify the means" argument is antithetical to everything an education is supposed to accomplish. Since many of us are graduating this term, I would like to share something that I came across the other day at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. Eleveniyearsrago, Vice-President Ford delivered the commencement speech at Crisler Arena to the graduating class of 1974. Like this year, the date was May 4. Ford began his speech by criticizing the protesters in the crowd. This was the height of Watergate, remember. He singled out one protestor bearing a sign that said, "Gerald Ford is a Neo-Fascist" and made a number of comments about the protest movement in general. "When I graduated here in 1935," he said, "a few of us in the student body were begin- ning to worry a little about some real fascists, Adolf Hitler and his allies in Europe and Asia. "Maybe we didn't worry enough, because about six years later many of us went off for four or five years to take on those real fascists, those old fascists, and not with signs and shouts under the shelter of the con- stitution. "So if Jerry Ford is a new fascist, I guess we tamed those old fascists fairly well. "And the exuberant signs, actually a safe form of telegenic streaking for those who have nothing to expose but their minds, add to the excitement of this happy homecoming." These comments did not appear on the copy of the speech released to the press. For those who graduated that day, it was a meaningful occasion, the culmination of four years of searching for truth during one of the most turbulent periods in our nation's history. Gerald Ford was a favorite son who had recently replaced Spiro Agnew as Vice- President. He was supposed to be a politician in authority whom the people could trust. But he wasn't. This incident at the class of 19'74's commencement was a deception. Ford planted that protestor with the ridiculous sign in the crowd himself. Two days earlier, on May 2, in Washington, Warren Rustand, Ford's Deputy Assistant for Scheduling and Appointments, noted in a meeting with Robert Hartman, Ford's Chief of Staff, that he needed to arrange for a sign that read "Gerald Ford is a Neo-fascist" to serve as a lead-in to the speech. I recently foundthe notes from that meeting. Moreover, Ford's printed reading copy of the speech contained the remarks that I .......... . .......... .. ........ .... ....... . .... ................. ......................... .............. ........ ........ ...... ......... .. ............. . ...... ......... .F/O Original documents in the Gerald R. Ford Library revealed his deception during the 1974 com- mencement address. quoted earlier. All that eloquence was not off- the-cuff. He was not that trustworthy af- terall. That Ford pulled a fast one at his Alma Mater is bad enough. But he also recounted the incident in his autobiography, A Time to Heal. There he wrote that he was dismayed at the vehemence of the protesting, and men- tioned the sign. This incident is significant for three reasons. First, it shows that Ford was not so clean a politician. His motto, "The truth is glue" rings a little hollow. All the doubts about how he was able to survive on the five dollars a week in pocket money he reported on his Congressional tax forms seem somewhat more founded now. It would har- dly seem below him to have cut a deal with Nixon after all. Second, by including the event in his autobiography, Ford made it an official part of history. Scholars may already have cited it in studies of the protest movement. In recor- ding the story he transformed a lie into an historical fact. Third, the intent of the deception was to un- dermine the validity of the protest movement. it was already hard enough for young people to rebel against the sources of power and livelihood during the Vietnam and Watergate era. They temporarily forsook their personal futures to work for a better collective future. Today, most of us place our personal lives over the well being of society. That's why we voted for Reagan and don't care about the code. Ask any political hack about the signifigan-A, ce of this story and he would brush it aside and say that this sort of thing happens every day. He would add that dismay over something like this is a sure indication of youthful naivete. In spite of that opinion, I am still outraged at the entire incident. Let's be sure that we young "naive" kids set the ethical standards for our politicians to abide by. Lastly, I wold recommend doing research at the Ford Library. The materials there represent an authentic slice of life from the highest echelons of society and it's right on our campus. Perhaps future students will un- cover even more frauds. Ruskin in a senior in LSA. Legal competition Cramer T TAKES A college degree, three years of intense graduate work, and a license to practice law in order to fill out the legal forms involved in a divor- ce case. Often, however, legal secretaries and paralegals are charged with filling out the forms for such menial legal tasks as divorces, wills, and other minor sales contracts while lawyers merely "review" the papers and send them on to the courts for processing. This delegation of ef- fort has proved to be a successful method devised by lawyers to keep even the most trivial legal matters un- der the control of their profession. At- torneys have built a lucrative monopoly for themselves that should be-and might soon be-broken. A 14-member committee working on President Ronald Reagan's agenda for the coming year has proposed a series of ideas designed to reduce "the bur- den of law, lawyers, litigation, and legal fees on our society." Among the committee's recommendations is a proposal to allow bankers, real estate agents, and other professionals to compete with lawyers to provide common and simple legal services. Few outside of the legal profession would argue that the proposal is a good idea, but its potential for taking money out of the hands of attorneys will most likely go over the crowded legal profession like a lead balloon. Lawyers will inevitably argue that the proposal would increase the amount of mistakes made by unqualified persons, and thus would further slow the legal process. But the fact is, most of the contracts involved in the proposal are already handled by paralegals and legal secretaries. The only difference is that lawyers would no longer be setting the fees. That means increased competition, which can't help but streamline the legal process. By giving banks and real estate of- fices the legal right to file divorce papers for their clients without an at- torney's approval, one unnecessary step in the legal process has been by- passed. Understandably, lawyers don't want to think of themselves as mid- dlemen. In spite of the drastic effect this recommendation could have on professional egos and pocketbooks, with its potential for lowering legal costs and speeding the legal process, it deserves serious consideration. I- I ~pUCt(AJ D~A ILX D " ti PF '- N _._.__ r,__-__ .----- ..---- - .w. - w - lorww LETTERS TO THE DAILY 'Business as usual' 0 'for the military LL to To the Daily: I am deeply troubled by Professor Birdsall's response to the PSN's protest over his poten- tially military-related research. "It's the price I pay for (the students') freedom of expression at the University," said Birdsall. "But it can get out of hand if it starts to disrupt work" (Daily, Jan. 15). In other words, freedom of expression is fine... as long as it doesn't interrupt business, par- ticularly military business, as usual. I believe our race towards nuclear holocaust is fueled by :such "logic" - which is to suggest that my remarks are not aimed at Professor Birdsall alone. The recent Geneva talks, as far as I can tell, were just the inter- national variation of this same perversion: we talk arms control in Geneva while developing Star Wars weapons at home. One last example, this one closer to home and ongoing. The 13 arrested Dec. 3 at the Williams International plant, Walled Lake, Michigan, acted; in blocking the Williams' entrance, they put their bodies in front of those who BLOOM COUNTY build the engine for the horribly destabilizing cruise missile. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Francis O'Brien was very happy to allow these citizens all forms of "freedom of ex- press ion ''-letters to congresspersons and newspapers, rallies, "lawful" protests-but just don't interrupt business as usual. The thirteen who did interrupt 5 minutes wor- th of Williams' business were given indefinite sentences. There is something wrong with our democracy when the only ac- tion permitted is the action (in this case, weapon-building) deemed proper by the powers that be; there is something wrongI with our democracy when freedom of expression has been reduced, in the words of Herbert Marcuse, to "repressive toleran- ce.' -Peter Putnam January 15 by Berke Breathed --s ' 17m mac hve ENTA JOHN I M 55 I&WcY16 I'm 9