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Opinion
Page 8
Friday, June 12, 1981
The Michigan Daily
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n
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Walksar
Death of the ol' swimmir
ye osuddenly you're encased in a wilder- joying life on both sides of the Huron.
or bike out Huron Parkway ness womb divested of the slightest en- Such are the wonderments of Ann Ar-
m Ann Arbor. Several miles croachments of civilization, save for bor's own, bona fide skinny-dip hole -
fad tracks. If the weather's the railroad overhang looming far in Washtenaw County's answer to
adu'l tracs. gfoterater's the distance. California's celebrated nude beaches
ou11 see a conglomerate of THERE'S NO sounds at all, save for minus the voyeuristic garishness that
kpright s d ofthoc park those of the forest, river and an oc- regularly despoils the latter. On the
casional human shout. Almost at once Huron you feel cloistered instead of ex-
nother half mile or so to where you sense a shedding of inhibitions, a posed, ingenious instead of commer-
release from societal doldrums - as, cialized
MT. do the collection of bare-assed folks en- The nuisti mvtine hans heennnrnc-
By Christopher Potter
the parkway overpasses the Huron
River. Shinny down the enbankment
beside the overpass, walk south along
the river's edge under a railraod
bridge. Continue'another hundred yar- *
ds through occasional muck and dense
greenery, and suddenly you'll come
upon it:
Naked people. Honest-to-God naked .
people. frolicking or reposing amidst .
primeval woods and bubbling rapids.
The feeling is akin to stepping into Eden -
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 27-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
A long summer
T HE MOST hated man in America this
morning is surely U.S. District Judge
Henry Werker.
The good jurist's unexpected denial Wed-
nesday of an injunction request by the National
Labor Relations Board appears certain to cur-
tail America's love affair with baseball for a
drastically long period - possibly the rest of
the 1981 season.
Neither club owners nor players seem
prepared to give an inch in their years-long
wrangle over free-agentry and compensation;
this the long-dreaded baseball strike is today
upon us, with no settlement in sight.
How will America adapt to the sudden
disorientation? What can the true believer do to
fill the yawning void those long summer
evenings and hot, endless weekends? Watch
golf? Too slow. Tennis? Too elitist. Soccer? Too
European. Auto racing? Hell, that's not even a
sport.
There are, blessedly, other diversions. One
must learn to contemplate the sky, the water, a
good book, not least the opposite - or the same
- sex. If one exerts the effort and creativity,
the next four months may prove tolerable, if not
electrifying.
And yet, some sweltering night in mid-
August, the thwarted fan will inevitably stop
and poignantly wonder: What if the Tigers had
continued their hot streak .........
A tranquil afternoon in paradise
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Israel 's action just
To the Daily:
Israel has not, as stated in a
June 10th editorial in The
Michigan Daily, played
"bean-bag" with the security
of the global community. If
anything, she has protected it.
The French-built breeder
reactor built in Iraq creates
massive quantities of nuclear
materials in the form of pluton
ium. This plutonium would
have armed all of Israel's
enemies with nuclear ar-
senals.
Israel acted out of self
protection, not due to the fact
that her prime minister is
seeking re-eletion. She saved
not only herself from nuclear
holocaust, but also the world
from the ever-increasing
threat of nuclear war.
-Charles Rosoff
June 10
i'hole?
ticed for at least the last five years at
the Huron. Rumors vary as to just how
the tradition commenced and how it
manages to continue relatively
unarassed by authorities. The most
persistent therapy is that some private,
liberal philanthropist owns all the
surrounding land and has given the
sunbathers his tacit blessing regarding
its use.
True or not, save for an occasional
visit by the Sheriff's Department, the
Huron's bare revelers have - until now
- been allowed to cavort and recline
pretty much to their hearts' content.
ON ALMOST any summer day you'll
find at least a score of nudists at the
river; on a sunny weekend there you
may find 100 or more during the course
of a single afternoon. Though male
bathers are usually in the majority, a
sizable percentage of women also put in
an appearance.
.nEgalitarianism runs rampant: - In
contrast to the studied exhibitionism of
Western beaches, the atmosphere at
the Huron is thoroughly anti-sexist and
platonic. The site is anything but a den
of debauchery: Though an erotic tinge
definitely permeates the proceedings,
the dominant feeling is of communal
unity - of a bare-skinned equality in
the eyes of nature. Tumescence is
rarely a problem.
Weekend nudists of all colors,
backgrounds and age groups abound
- from bikers to professors, from tod-
dlers to septuagenarians. Entire
families occasionally show up to swim,
sunbathe, or plunk themselves down in
the middle of rapids so deliciously
swirling that they put the most swank
Jacuzzi to shame.
The Huron atmosphere is mercifully
free of the gawkers and voyeurs who of-
ten infest similar settings - the river
regulars don't go for such intrusion. It's
doubtful you could find a more benign
example o human beings flouting
social convention in a non-injurious,
mind-your-own-business unanimity.
REGRETTABLY, it may all come
splashing to a halt very soon.
Inevitably, some people are offended
by naked bodies: Complaints are
regularly filed against the sunbathers -
not only by nearby Huron residents, but
by passing canoeists who profess not to
want their kids corrupted by the sight of
men and women in their natural state.
The Sheriff's Department has now
produced a new trump card: Claiming
the entire area is now County property,
the Department is threatening fines
and even arrest against swimmers
caught "trespassing" at the river.
Deputies have been ordered to patrol
the area far more rigorously than
before - after all, an official commen-
ted, "Being naked is against the law."
By golly, that's true. Accordingly,
nudists must be apprehended - even if
they're not hurting a soul. After all,
whoever said enjoyment was an excuse
for immorality?
Thus one of the gentler traditions of
the Ann Arbor Experience may soon be
extinct. Score another for the the Moral
Majority.
Christopher Potter is the
Summer Daily editorial director.
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