4 OPINION Page 4 Friday, January 18, 1985 The Michigan Daily I ie m dtgan t oa lt Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Freedom to make mistakes Vol. XCV, No. 89 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Nuclear madnes S T oday marks the last scheduled day of fasting for 40 members of the Ann Arbor Peace Community. The 40 have been fasting since January 4 to demonstrate their sympathy with protesters who were jailed during a civil disobedience action at Williams International in Walled Lake on December 3 as well as to express their own concerns about the nuclear buildup. Their fast has been a provocative and effective call for an end to the insanity of the nuclear arms race. There is a clear necessity for some sort of action to halt the production of nuclear arms. Efforts to do away with them must begin with their produc- tion; production which takes place at Williams. Those efforts have taken many for- ms There have been letter-writing campaigns, peaceful vigils, and civil disobedience actions. All of those ac- tions have contributed to the effort, and all of them are valid. Civil disobedience, however, demands a high price of those who par- ticipate in it. They are branded with criminal records which follow them for the rest of their lives, and they often face extended jail sentences. In the case of the Walled Lake protesters, the sentence remains indefinite. Until they promise not to return to Williams they will remain in jail, and they have already stated that their consciences will not permit them to make such a promise. In spite of its price, civil disobedien- ce is an effective tool for focusing at- tention on the otherwise low-profile proliferation of nuclear weaponry. It is most effective, when it receives the most attention. The 40 members of the Ann Arbor Peace Community have made the Williams civil disobedience all the' more successful by bringing more at- tention to it. Their sympathy fast has further validated the action by bringing the jailed protesters back into the news. In addition, they have been holding open houses at Canterbury House to further discuss the incident and to provide -interested people with an opportunity to explore in depth the topic of civil disobedience. The actions of both the protesters and the fasters serve as examples of methods of working towards nuclear disarmament. Our society needs to en- courage others to act in similar ways. It is fortunate that so many would be willing to make sacrifices to work for a safer world. Both the protesters and the sympathy fasters deserve the thanks and sympathy of this com- munity. By Neil Chase The front page of The New York Times of- fers "All The News That's Fit To Print." The Detroit Free Press announces that it has been "On Guard for 153 Years." And the Southern Digest, the student newspaper at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., proudly declares itself "Louisiana's Leading College Weekly." There are those who would suggest that the Daily have a similar slogan on its front page. It could be "All the News That Fits" or "Michigan's leading six-day-a-week-during- the-school-year daily." But that's not what it says. It says "Ninety- five years of editorial freedom." Editorial freedom means many things. It means not having a faculty advisor telling the staff what to do. It means no outside interest telling the paper what to print and what not to print. Far more important, however, is the im- mense responsibility which comes with the freedom. On the lowest level it is ..the obligation to make sure that everything writ- ten in the newspaper conforms to the stan- dards of truth and objectivity every newspaper must abide by. At most other college papers there is an adviser who can be the final word on the appropriateness of .an article or statement. Editorial freedom means that the students have the right, and therefore responsibility, to enforce the stan- dards and pay the price if they are not enfor- ced. On a higher level, editorial freedom obliges the staff of the Daily to tackle and solve serious problems. Over half a million dollars flows in and out of the Daily's coffers every year. Few of the students who must ad- minister the handling of that money are business or accounting students. Many major in English and the social sciences. Last week two people -' one majoring in sociology, the other in political science - had to sit down with that $500,000 budget and figure out what it said. This week 30 members of the staff met until 2:30 a.m. to debate the publishing schedule for the coming summer. That group had little to go on in the meeting other than personal experiences and knowledge of what previous editors and managers had done. Editorial freedom means that the tough decisions made last week were not made in toltit,, ,~\ C44°N VGUARD P0 l~i P 'VJ 3 41(/4, i VC46- a the most efficient way possible. People with very little experience in such matters had to make crucial decisions. Last week editorial freedom also meant the opportunity for two sports reporters on the road covering basketball to try and cut ex- penses by staying in a hotel cheaper than the one they had originally reserved. But it also meant accepting the consequences of editorial freedom. If we had an adviser, the adviser would probably have realized that the more expensive reservations were guaran- teed and had to be cancelled by a certain time in order to avoid paying for them. We ended up paying two hotel bills. Maybe a faculty advisor' would have helped us decide how to spend the money allocated for Holiday Bowl coverage. While we argued among ourselves, down the road in Columbus the adviser at the Ohio State Lantern was telling the editors how the money was to be spent. The editor-in-chief disagreed with him, but the money was spent his way. Maybe he was right. We had a similar problem, and we hashed it out without the help of an adviser. With an adviser present we wouldn't have had to come up with every possible factor in the deicision and agonize over the final outcome. Editorial freedom also has its price. This year the Daily editor-in-chief makes $60 per month. At Ohio State the editor gets $1,200 per quarter. The OSU paper has a larger circulation than the Daily. Some of their equipment is superior to ours. The school gives them everything they need to put out a paper. The Daily has to go out and find whatever it needs. Somewhere between high school and the so- called real world' you have to break away from advisers and make decisions on your own. That applies to everything from newspaper operation to choosing a career. Editorial freedom necessarily makes that break happen. It's well worth the price and the risks. Chase is the Daily's managing editor. I 4 I NUCUEAR \U'A?'oNS ARETE GRETEST \1N VT AN MS EvIEQ CREATD NO TKY R . W4T- DSE RG1E ENO RVS Arts get the axe THE MICHIGAN Opera Company may take a final bow thanks to Reaganomics. President Ronald Reagan's center stage budget- balancing act has hit the National En- dowment for the Arts with 11.7 percent across-the-board cuts. As the largest single supporter of the arts in the United States, the NEA gives arts organizations operating on marginal budgets a legitimacy that attracts private secor patrons. Without the NEA funding, many of these perfor- ming and visual arts institutions might be dangerously depleted.- Once again, Reagan has targeted cultural activity as an area of "ex- cessive federal spending" which is open to attack in his battle to decrease the $200 billion deficit. Under the administration's proposal, the NEA's funding programs for opera, music, and dance would be most severely cut. Reagan has proposed a $144 million budget for the organization. The NEA is currectly budged for $163.7 million. With the decrease in federal funding, artists would have to rely more heavily on private sector philanthropy for sustaining and promoting the arts. Despite protests from the art world, Reagan and his budget writers believe that private foundations, corporations, and individuals should fill in the finan- cial gaps left by the cuts. Michigan Opera Theater Director David DiChiera fears that lack of NEA support will discourage prospec- tive patrons from supporting such "low priority" artistic ventures. New York City Opera Director Beverly Sills has called the proposed cuts "apalling" and "disgraceful." But Reagan's artistic priority system may yet face opposition in Congress. Lawmakers have consisten- tly allocated funds beyond the president's recommendation, and it is likely that congressmen will take a similar course for 1986. If music, dance, and opera programs become a low priority on the federal budget, art enthusiasts and perfor- mers will have to explore with more passion than ever before the possibilities of a "necessary" art: creative financing. r7 \ WN1T~koQvT PN N ULP- N\R ? pow, iF WEAle ' Ca L )A 'fCN YOU'D NAVEA ON~T N t N -N 4 A 'I, LETTERS TO THE DAILY Capitalism better than the alternative m3~A~I' loop 44% s To the Daily: In Brian Leiter's "The Failure of Liberalism" (Daily, Jan. 9), Leiter condemns both "conser- vatism" and "liberalism" for supporting capitalism, which in his opinion is inadequate at meeting everyone's living requirements. Both do have cer- tain flaws, but the fact they they stress capitalism and a free market is not one of them. The problems spring from the cry of both groups for gover- nment "protection" (interferen- ce) in the free market, which they want to preserve even more. The "conservatives," the sup- posed defenders of capitalism, have been known to use political "pull" to enhance their businesses (securing government contracts and lobbying for political-economic system is sup- posed to do exactly that. The pur- pose of the system of capitalism, however, is to ensure that one can make use of his/her talents and abilities of body and mind to, provide for his/her wants. The capitalist system is the only. system that recognizes the fact that each person requires freedom to work and deal with others for mutual benefit without the threat of force. One might say, "Liberalism does not employ force against anyone"; he then approves of legislation which will raise taxes (which must be paid under penalty of fines and imprison- ment), and this revenue is then given to those who have not ear- ned a living. The "redistribution" of wealth is not only legalized piecemeal expropriation, but (like communism) it is based on a philosophy of self-sacrifice, not the fulfillment of one's own life. If someone desires to. give his wealth or a portion of it to someone else, no one else has a right to interfere with what the giver does with his wealth, but some believe they have a license to interfere if someone does not "give enough." This is nothing more than subjective morality. Mr. Leiter condemns capitalism, yet he does not state the alternative. That alternative is sacrifice for the sake of others, out of either compulsion or rein- forced guilt and- ultimately- death. -Paul Hodges, Jr. January 14 I I if BLOOM COUNTY by Berke Breathed ", "THfIK! 7ftia6 I AM tquw! Alive OM~U I/SC 1 ,,,, IIs NJ 11. /: AYpA AWA A II '11/ r I I