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Opinion
Page 8 Saturday, May 23, 1981 The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 14-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Didn't even hurt
CEE, THAT WASN'T so painful after
Gall.
Wednesday's astonishing 96-0 U.S. Senate
rejection of two key elements in Ronald
Reagan's Social Security overhaul marked the
first time either body of Congress has
energetically attacked even a single element in
the president's blitzkrieg budget offensive.
The Senate's "Sense of Congress" resolution
declared its members' unanimous opposition to
proposed changes penalizing early retirees,
and more generally opposed all cuts which
would exceed those necessary.
Recent disclosures by the House Select
Committee on Aging assert that the president's
planned Social Security deletions go perhaps
twice beyond what is deemed necessary to save
the system. The alleged discrepancy once again
spotlights one's suspicions that the ad-
ministration's ambition is not merely to save
money, but ultimately to dismantle most of
America's social programs.
No sector of our federal system needs reform
more badly than does Social Security - yet the
Reagan remedy is far worse than the ailment.
It would capriciously chop off at the knees
everyone needing help the most; it is a cynical
breach of faith toward those who have put their
wages into the system for years.
It was nice to see Capital Hill display some
guts. Let's hope it won't prove an anomaly.
Welcome back
T HE DAILY IS delighted to re-welcome
the diabolical pen of Herbert Block - bet-
ter known simply as Herblock - to its editorial
page following more than a decade's absence.
Herblock is more than a habit - he's an in-
stitution. His lean, spare art and venomous
journalistic wit have made him the most
celebrated political cartoonist of this century;
tyrants, phonies and sacred cows of all
ideological stripes and sizes have been felled
year after year by the merciless accuracy of his
quill.
Herblock tilted with the excesses of Sen.
Joseph McCarthy and the Vietnam war long
before it was fashionable to do so. His relentless
"five-o'clock shadow" portrayal of Richard
Nixon may have been as responsible as
anything else for turning the tide of public
opinion against the ex-president. No left-wing
apologist, Herblock tirelessly disects The
Soviet Union's brute authoritarianism in the
knowledge that despotism is despotism,
Block's work spans the better part of five
decades - yet he seems to grow younger every
year. We hope this year will be the first of many
more to come at The Daily.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
West's firing ill-advised
4
To the Daily:
In reference to the article in the
Daily of May 20, 1981, we as for-
mer employees of West Quad,
were not only surprised but sad to
hear of Leon West's dismissal.
West Quad was just another
drab, uninteresting dorm before
Leon West was hired as director.
He turned West Quad into one of
the most popular places to live on
campus. He expanded the
library, made the house lounges a
decorative and enjoyable place to
T'S PART OF THE PLAI TO FREE PEOPLE
FROM GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE
4 i
fi&
"REAEAI 1S RIOtT! HERES PAGE AFTER PAGE OF WANT-ADS:
ARCNITECTS, BOOKKEEPERS. COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS,
DATA PROCESSORS EVITORS, EDUCATORS, ENGINEERS...'
e Vn'-
i E
1&
relax in, (at the first sign of cold
weather, Leon would have a big
fire going in the fireplace in the
main loungeto welcome staff and
students in from the cold),
created a new laundry facility,
and provided interesting
programs for each house. It was
a decent "home" away from
home.
Leon was a firm disciplinarian,
but respected just the same. If a
student or employee had a
problem, he would help them
work it out. It's true, he had his
own way of doing things, but
don't we all get tired of the
bureaucracy and the time it takes
to get things done?
The present residents of West
Quad will miss him, but future
residents of West Quad will never
know of his creativeness and
daring to try something different.
The spirit of West Quad has died.
-Betty Gumtow
Sharron Wenzel
May 211
Reporter
mistaken
To the Daily:
I am writing to clarify
statements attributed to me in
Lou Fintor's article on budget
cuts affecting the arts which ap-
peared in The Michigan Daily on
May 15, 1981.
Grants from the National En-
dowment for the Arts (NEA)
provide approximately h of 1
percent of the University's
revenue for sponsored projects 4
each year. While NEA cuts would
have a limited impact on the
University as a whole, they could
present significant problems for
individual units on campus such
as University museums, the
School of Music, Eclipse Jazz,
etc.
The, statement that NEA's
Challenge Grant program has
been eliminated is not true. NEA
hopes to continue this program at
a severely reduced level of
$2,500,000, down from $13,450,000
this fiscal year. My references
were to the Challenge Grant
Program of the National En-
dowment of the Humanities
(NEH) which has been
eliminated and to reductions in
NEH Gifts and Matching Funds.
-Paul G. Cunningham
Project Representative
May 21