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Opinion
Page 8 Saturday, August 1, 1981 The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI No. 53-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Reagan's romp
T HE PRESIDENT RESTS proudly atop
Capitol Hill this weekend, resting after
his vigorous conquest of the steep and thorny
grade. Like a victorious lion reposing -after a
vicious battle, President Reagan can lick his
lips and savor the sweet taste of victory.
One by one, the Democrats of Congress
fell-succumbing to intense pressure from
constituents, and promises of reciprocity by
the president himself. His speech on television
Monday night caused such an avalanche of
public pressure-one Oklahoma holdout
received 400 calls in 24 hours after the ad-
dress-that the loyal opposition couldn't
resist.
For students of American politics, the
Reagan victory is a landmark in the history of
executive-legislative branch relations. The
president, unlike others in the past who have
tried and failed, simply-went above the head of
Congress-appealing to the TV-watching
citizens personally-and, by winning their
hearts, won the heart of Congress.
A little 'muscle. A little horsetrading. A
friendly handshake and a toothy grin.
Conquest.
Even before the tax cut battle, there was
bipartisan acknowledgement that the federal
government had grown unmanagably large.
The federal bureaucracy needed-and could
afford-same slimming here, and trimming
there. Concurrently, many tax laws had
become obsolete, unfair to specific sectors of
society (married couples, Americans working
abroad, etc.).
In this sense, the cut that was passed Thur-
sday could have been a positive accomplish-
ment. But the question remained, where
should the government slim itself down?
Sadly, the process of slashing the federal
budget has concentrated on the wrong areas.
Valuable assistance to the poor and elderly,
along with students, the arts, mass transpor-
tation, and the environment has been reduced,
while the military budget goes through the
roof. Many economists, who have praised the
concept of restraining government spending,
fear that the soaring defense outlays will
keep the budget imbalanced, interest rates
exorbitant, and thus, the economy sluggish,
Regardless, the Reagan Revolution is over
for now, and the glaring question bares itself:
Will this Congressional acquiescence remain
for the crucial social issues-of abortion;
equal rights, and freedom of expression?
"Return, Bani-Sadr!"
t o<
r r,. .
r"
L.t-? c 1ACAtV1
tval 2tx donfia-, urnal
"Repent and take a step toward (god, and
.God will accept Yonr return.'
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Hail! to the new.
bachelorhood school
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To the Daily; i
Applause, applause, for the
newly announced Bachelorhood
B.A. After reading the story
(July 18) and assuming that the
University. will soon be deluged
with prospective students, we
wanted to get our names on the
list right away.
Our concern is that 1983
is some-time off, and those who
wait eagerly for enrollment in the
bachelorhood school feel that we
could benefit from a newsletter
or bulletin on a regular basis, so
that we may prepare for this
curriculum while we are waiting.
A few encouraging articles,
such as "Sub-group dynamics of
Happy Hour," "Coping with the
Truculant Trashmasher," or "Ten
ways to Insure the Return of
Your Apartment's Safety
Deposit," may be most instruc-
tive, and would help us establish
the appropriate mindset before
classes start.
By the tone of the article, we
assume that "Bachelor",is a non-
sexist word. Only Jim Lange
("The Dating Game") and other
assorted Neanderthals deign use
the term "Bachelorette."
Also, among those persons who
don't qualify for enrollment
today, but may in the near future
due to unstable home lives, many
have expressed an interest in the
new program. May they sign up
now and take advantage of early
registration?
Good going, Michigan. We
praise your progressive attitude
and your ability to forecast the
educational needs of the future.
Please sign us up and assign
our student numbers right away.
-Ernest Lazlo and
workmates
July 22
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Wordprocessors
harassed to' death
To the editor,
For the last two years, The
Wordprocessors has been under a
virtual siege from a large group
of individuals with strong com-'
munist influence. They initially
sought to compel the company's
legal owners to give over control
of the business to them and when
their illegal and immoral
demands were resisted they
dedicated themselves to the
destruction of The Wor-
dprocessors. They have picketed
the shop on frequent occasions,
threatened and harassed those
employees who. did not share
their belies, driven away our
customers, intimidated our sup-
porters and in general employed
every tactic their destructively
fertile minds could conceive of to
accomplish their ends.
At last their storm trooper tac-
tics have been successful. We no
longer believe it is possible to pay
our bills. We can no longer
provide our customers with the
levels of service and quality to
which they are entitled. Con-
sequently, we have decided to go
out of business. After two years of
struggling with every resource at
our command; in spite of the con-
tinued patronage of many of our
customers; in spite of the best ef-
forts of those employees who
were willing to do their jobs and
in spite of the continued for-
bearance of those to whom we
owe money who tolerated our
delinquency because of their
belief in the potential of this
business, in spite of all these
positive factors we have come to
realize that our irrational adver-
saries will not come to their sen-
ses and even make an effort to be
reasonable. The contract deman-
ds which they have submitted to
us were specifidally designed to
destroy the company whether .
they were accepted or rejected.
We have reached the limits of
out ability to deal with their in-,
sults, their vicious calumny, their
irrational behavior and their
unreasonable demands. They
have made it perfectly clear to us
that they will accept no resultion
of our differences short of
destroying our business. They
won't even let us go out of
business peacefully. We thank
our customers, our friends and
supporters, we apologize to our
suppliers. As for the union-to
hell with them.
-June K. Smith
July 31
June Smith is the owner of
Word Processors.
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