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Opinion
Page 8 Saturday, May 30, 1981 The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCINa. 185
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Freedom fighter
F EW CONTEMPORARY world figures per-
sonified dedication to principle quite so
heroically as did Poland's Stefan Cardinal
Wyszynski.
Primate of the Polish Catholic Church for
more than 30 years, Wyszynski ascended to
power at a time the church he oversaw was
fighting for its very life. Poland's newly-
established Communist regime was deter-
mined to wipe all vestiges of religious worship
from the face of the nation; for nearly a decade,
Wyszynski was forced to combat his gover-
nment's ceaseless, often savage campaign to
dismantle the church.
He spoke out relentlessly, even in the face of
personal peril - the cardinal himself was
placed under three-year house arrest during
the 1950s. Together with Hungary's imprisoned
Josef Cardinal Mindszenty, Wyszynski's name
became a byword for humankind's fight for
religious liberty in the face of the most brutal
persecution.
And he won. Wyszynski's courage and
peerless negotiating skills eventually made the
most of the altered political winds of post-Cold
War Poland. He slowly forged an uneasy allian-
ce between church and state, which allowed the
Polish people - some 90 percent Catholic - to
practice their faith with a minimum of tem-
poral harassment. Today we witness in Poland
the remarkable, perhaps unique spectacle of
religiosity and state atheism existing side by
side in mutual respect - If not quite affection.
Though Wyszynski was no liberal in ec-
clesiastical and temporal matters, his simple
commitment to the concept of religious and
political freedom transcended dispute. "If a
citizen does not demand his rights," the car-
dinal once asserted, "he is no longer a citizen.
He becomes a slave." It was a state of existence
Wyszynski never allowed his people to descend
to.
V~ K
7Imade two big d gisions in life - to vote for
Ronald Reagan and take early retirement'
Coleman Young: Bad
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Detroit Mayor Coleman Young
has finally realized the cause of
his beloved city's financial
problems. The irony of his insight
is he either doesn't know or won't
admit he realizes it.
Apparently the expanse of run-
ning Detroit government services
has gone up faster than the
revenue has been entering city
coffers. In response to this
problem, the mayor has proposed
raising the city income tax of
both the residents and workers of
Detroit.
Common
Sense
By Mark Gindin
He has rationalized the "need"
for a larger burden on the in-
dividual by noting that "there is
no free lunch," and that
somebody has to pay for the ex-
penses of Detroit.
Mayor Young said, "Cities all
across Michigan are uptight
because they have more money
going out than coming in." The
mayor seems to have recognized
the symptom, but cannot or will
not see the cause.
Census reports indicate
thousands have fled the city of
Detroit during the past decade.
For the most part, they are the
productive members of society
who can afford to move to the
suburbs. This reduction of the tax
base, while the numbers of the
beneficiaries grows, causes a
decline in revenue with a growth
in expenses.
If the tax rate in Detroit in-
creases under Mayor Young,
even more people will leave th
city. As they flee, they will take
the taxes with them saddling the
remaining residents, mostly poor
ones, with an even larger tax
burden and a city on the verge of
bankruptcy.
But Mayor Young will not
acknowledge the cause - thus,
he will raise taxes to treat the
symptom. The only genuine cure
would be to reduce expenses and
cut back on services. Yet due to
the probable constituent
backlash triggered by any ser-
vice reduction, Young has
decided a tax increase is better
politics.
Eventually the mayor will have
to face the facts regarding the
city's lopsided budget. With the
defeat of Proposal A, the day of
reckoning has moved closer.
When the voters reject the in-
come tax hike in Young's special
election next month, doomsday
will be virtually at hand.
The collapse of the city of New
York in 1975 could provide many
lessons in city management if of-
ficials would only take note of
ne for Detroit?
what occurred in the Big Apple. The truth is that if Detroit goes,
New York spent beyond its in- Coleman Young will go. The rest
come, then raised taxes and at- of the state of Michigan will not
tempted to sell municipal bonds be affected by the collapse of a
to pay its debts. When investors city government - only Detroit
realized New York was financing will suffer. Mayor Young will be
its deficit by borrowing, and the blamed, and rightly so; but
tax base was eroding while ex- Coleman Young will not state the
penses were rising, they refused truth.
to buy any more bonds; the city Rather than "cause pain" am-
was financially devastated. ong city residents by cutting
Detroit is doing exactly the same services, the mayor would
thing. arrange the bankruptcy of a
It appears Mayor Young is at- great city. When the inevitable
tempting, as New York did, to crunch comes, he will call for a
blame and eventually tax state bailout of Detroit. When the
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meeting.
workers because of the fiscal
irresponsibilities of their elected
officials. Somehow, he reasons,
someone besides the city gover-
nment is to blame. Yet when a
private business declares
bankruptcy, the management is
held accountable for the failure of
the business.
Government is no different,
whether the mayor agrees or not.
If Detroit declares bankruptcy or
threatents it, Young and the city
council are to blame for the
predicament.
The mayor has been lobbying
in Lansing all week for a chance
to place his special income tax in-
crease on the ballot of a special
June election. He warns one and
all that if Detroit goes; Michigan
will go. Nothing could be further
from the truth.
state can't afford it, he will call
for a federal bailout.
To subsidize a city bankrupted
by its own elected officials sets a
grim precedent; the people of
Arizona are not responsible for
Coleman Young's actions, but
would, under such an
arrangement, be forced to help
pay for them.
Coleman Young is right -
there is no free lunch. Someone
must pay for city services. But
voters are in no mood to opt for
an increase in taxes. If the mayor
recognized the truth of the mat-
ter, he and people like him
wouldn't call for an increase in
the lunch price - they would face
reality and call for a decrease in
the size of the lunch.
Mark Gindin is a Daily staff
writer.
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