pinion
Page 8 Wednesday, May 20, 1981 The Michigan Daily
Hillsdale: Somewhere in time
I
You've just arrived at Hillsdale
College, and the first sight you see is
pickets.
Funny - pickets at Hillsdale. Like
seeing tropical birds at the North Pole.
Maybe a dozen of them, carrying ban-
ners and signs protesting the commen-
cement visit of Secretary of State
Alexander Haig. You've returned to
- _~ - - _ -
Coming
Apart
lB Christopher Potter
your alma mater to cover the
secretary's graduation address, and at
first you wonder if you've landed in the
right town.
A closer look at the demonstrators
reassures you of locale. The participan-
ts aren't really demonstrating at all:
no chants, no marches - no movement
whatsoever, in fact. They're not even
waving their placards. They stand
forlorn and silent, self-consciously
aware of just how out of place they are
in this particular setting.
For Hillsdale is different. You drive
into this tiny community (pop: 8,000),
and you realize you'd forgotton how
astonishingly lovely the place is. The
town nestles bucolically in the low hills
of southern Michigan - Untouched,
unchanging. If there's ever an atomic
war, Hillsdale will survive - no one
will ever find it.
The town's high trees arch
privevially over its quiet streets - their
branches so thick and lush they touch at
mid-street, forming a dark, green
cathedral that almost blots out the sun;
Ann Arbor's fabled elms and maples
seem callow sprigs by comparison.
Hillsdale is an inveterate seductress;
you feel you're driving through a
resplendent time warp - an American
Brigadoon.
The college itself is no less mermeric.
Hillsdale's campus spans little more
than one, large square block; its
snythesis of modern and 19th-century
red-brick buildings never clashes,
merely heightens the silent aura of the
scores of trees that envelop the college
like a giant womb. One strolls through
this serenity, and instinctively senses
T he Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 11-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Am~rerica alone
HIS COUNTRY'S refusal to sign a
proposed international code restricting the
marketing of infant formula adds little lustre to
an American foreign policy already tarnished
The code, which contains no legal force
behind it, urges individual nations to reject
high-powered sales campaigns by formula-
manufacturers aimed notably at the
populations of Third World countries. Critics of
infant formulas claim the effect of such super-
salesmanship has been to discourage mothers
around the world from breast-feeding their
babies, thus depriving them of the most
nutritious form of infant nourishment.
Moreover, the critics assert, the lack of clean
water and adequate medical knowledge in
many developing nations adds grave health
peril-formulas improperly mixed or blended
with contaminated water can trigger serious
and even fatal infant diseases of varying kinds.
The United States stands totally alone among
all nations in opposing the new code. The
Reagan administration abhors the philosophy
of corporate regulation, either at home or
abroad; to urge international restric-
tions-even without the force of law-on the
policies of private companies apparently
strikes the White House as the height of in-
decency. Free enterprise is free enterprise.
America thus stands exposed to the scorn of
the world-impervious to human suffering, ap-
parently beholden only to the claims of the rich
and powerful. And we wonder why terrorism
flourishes.
Equality for all
To the Daily:
I am responding to the
comments of Karre L. Slakin
'(Daily, May 7) in which she
responded to the letter from
Ms. Malika A. Mutakabbir
(dated April 17). Ms.
Mutakabbir states that
because of her undergraduate
experience at the University
"as a minority" having been
permeated with racism, she
can "understand why Leo
Kelly Jr. allegedly reacted the
way he did!!"
Slakin responds by saying,
"What nonsense!" any by ex-
pressing her "great pity" for
Ms. Mutakabbir. Well, Ms.
Slakin, keep your pity beacuse
we brothers and sisters don't
need it. What we do need is
equality!
In reading the write-up in
the Daily concerning the
history of Leo Kelly, Jr., I
noticed that his home was
firebombed while he was in
Houston. Coincidentally, an
article appeared in the paper
stating that the Vietnamese
who had settled in Texas were
likewise having their homes
and boats firebombed by the
KKK. The Klan now threatens
further violence if the Viet-
namese do not vacate the
premises by mid-May, when
the shrimp season begins.
Now I ask you, if one of
these Vietnamese were to
return this violencehborn of
racism to the white com-
munity at large, would he be a
criminal? Or would he be a
racially persecuted person
"whose actions might be "un-
derstood" by others?
As it is difficult for the vast
sea to realize or even care that
a single fish in its depths is
starving, so is it likewise dif-
ficult for the majority race to
realize its minorities are star-
ving: starving for freedom,
for equality and happiness -
and yes, even starving at the
University of Michigan..
-Jasper F. Ferguson
May 12
there has to be something special about
Hillsdale.
The college's overlords agree. They
think Hillsdale is very special - so
special they never cease talking about
it. You arrive at the press area of last
Saturday's commencement exercises,
and the college PR flack immediately
hands you a publicity packet. You begin
to read, and you swiftly realize that
nothing has changed at Hillsdale since
your own days of matriculation -
nothing at all.
"Since 1975 Hillsdale College has
been courageously waging a principled
battle against the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare to
preserve its private autonomy and
freedom ... .
"(Hillsdale) has never accepted
governmental funding of its
operations... freedom of the mind it-
self is at stake .. .
"Pervasive, uniform governmental
control means a monolithic oneness, a
sameness, an enslaving conformity
that denies individuals the freedom to
ho different."
Whew.Still fighting the good fight.
Hillsdale would simply lose its purpose
if it couldn't e a martyr The school
has been playing the sufferer's role for
years, righteously milking the David
vs. Goliath mystique for all it's worth in
publicity and in alumni contributions.
You see, Hillsdale doesn't accept
federal aid. Not one penny. To do
otherwise would go against the school's
doctrine that the federal government is
the malignant personification of all that
is evil in our nation. No intrusive
regulations, no stifling dicta -
Hillsdale toughs it out on its own. It's
enough to warm the cockles of every
heart on Wall Street.
And warm they do. A lavishly colored
brochure overflows with tributes from
conservative luminaries: "Hillsdale is
one of the truly exciting liberal arts
colleges in America, vibrant with en-
thusiasm for learning" - Williai F.
Buckley, Jr. "I take my hat off to the
school" - William E. Simon.
The brochure declares with prim
self-congratulation: "From New York
to Honolulu, we have come to be regar-
ded as one of the nation's most exciting
campuses." In still another leaflet,
Hillsdale president George Roche III
assures us "Hillsdale College will con-
tinue to fight the battle to preserve the
individual's secular and religious right
to be different, to make choices, and to
follow the honest and moral dictates of
his or her own heart."
Funny. That's not the Hillsdale you
remember.Might not a college so
stridently, flamhoyantly political be
obscuring the educational purpose it
ostensibly exists to serve; more
crucially, can an institution so locked
into a rigid ideological mindset really
pursue "the individual's secular and
religious right to be different?"
No, it can't. The doleful memories
come flooding back, as you sit waiting
for Saturday's ceremony to begin, and
you ponder how difficult it is for an
orgnization to practice what it
presches.
End of Part One
Christopher Potter is the
Summer Daily editorial direc-
tor.
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