i Opinion Page 8 Friday, June 12, 1981 The Michigan Daily -"' I i i 1 1 1 ilin i n You dri west fror along thi of railro; decent, y cars, pick just off th there. 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. 4 4 - a t -. 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