Press enter after choosing selection

They Take A Look At The New Year

They Take A Look At The New Year image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
January
Year
1971
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
Related
OCR Text

They Take A Look At The New Year

(Editor's Note: The News Asked Persons In Various Fields For Statements On New Year's Resolutions, Predictions Or Hopes. They Appear Here And On Page 3.)

William J. Bott
(President, Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce)

"Basically, the Chamber's thrust for 1971 will  be to achieve a balanced program directed toward the economic and environmental health of the community.

"Future Role of the Central Business District: The Central Business District: The Central Business District has shown great vitality and has experienced the investment of several million dollars in the past eight years since the adoption of the Guide to Action as an official part of the general development plan for the City of Ann Arbor. We need to take a fresh look at the economics of the Central Business District in relation to total community development and to give serious thought to revising the restrictions on high-rise developments in the CBD.

"Metropolitan Growth: We need to direct our attention to the whole problem of growth, concerning ourselves as to how growth can be properly managed, with special attention to the environmental concerns. We need to direct our attention to the best governmental structure that can be devised to properly accommodate this growth.

"Jobs: Through the National Alliance of Businessman we will implement "Hire First - On the Job Training Programs" for the disadvantaged. Our goal is to place 400 persons in this program.

"Financing of Schools and Local Government: We will direct our attention and efforts toward working with appropriate governmental officials to devise ways of financing local city government and public education.

"Consumer Affairs: It is our goal in 1971 to develop a program of consumer education directed toward pupils in the public  schools as well as the general public. We will continue our cooperation with The Ann Arbor News in its weekly column on consumer affairs.

David Ponitz
(President, Washtenaw Community College)

"The past five years have seen Washtenaw Community College grow from a well-conceived dream and goal of county citizens to a dynamic institution serving 400 students 14 hours a day. The new campus, amidst 3,000 apple trees, has caused many to refer to WCC as the "miracle in the apple orchard."

"Contemporary miracles don't just happen. They are made to happen. The progress of the first five years can be accelerated if these New Year's resolutions become reality:

"1) That the 350 members serving on the college advisory committees continue to make sound recommendations for growth and improvement of the 70 occupational programs of the College.

"2) That the College continue working with the great variety of individuals and groups who see WCC meeting their educational expectations.

"3) That the College staff and community listen to student needs -- and respond to those needs in a creative, compassionate manner.

"4) That the citizens of the county continue to elect officials to the Board of Trustees who are dedicated to policies which will meet the aspirations of the 250,000 people in the college service area.

"5) That the public and students recognize the devotion and skills of the college staff and continue to give the necessary moral and financial support needed for the college to meet its citizen-established goals.

"6) That each citizen of this county honestly reassesses the difficult challenges which Washtenaw Community College and all higher education will undoubtedly face during the coming years, and be willing to help resolve these questions in the public interest."

Robert J. Harris
(Mayor of Ann Arbor)

"I hope that all the people of Ann Arbor enjoy good health, happiness and fulfillment of their best aspirations, and that Providence spares us from calamity and brings us blessings.

"I hope the New Year will bring an end to the war in Indochina, and will see our young men return home safely and our nation's resources devoted to the works of peace.

"I hope that in our politics we continue to return from polarization to reconciliation, because all Ann Arborites have more in common that we have dividing us, and we all live better when we share ideas and work toward common solutions to our common problems.

"I hope that although we have passed through a harrowing period of campus unrest, we will discover that it is behind us. I hope that our painful efforts to deserve commendation for law enforcement that is both effective and respectful of individual rights will pay dividends--giving us less crime than other comparable cities and sparing us the shoot-outs and sniping that have made some other cities virtual battlegrounds.

"I hope the public will continue its support for environmental protection, good planning, and good housing for all citizens. I hope that we will develop ways to improve government's performance in all these fields.

"I hope that we will see the discussion of public affairs conducted on a high plane, in which matters which are complex are treated rationally in all their complexity, and decisions which must be made on limited data are approached with humility and open-mindedness."

Albert J. Samborn
(Executive Vice President, Ann Arbor Board of Realtors)

"At the 'reflection and projection' point between 1970-71 we can't resist applying Dickens' famous lines from Tale of Two Cities -- 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.' A paraphrase could well describe our current dilemma...At a time when man can reach the moon, he still solves international disputes by force of arms; when our economic and political systems face their most severe tests, they spawn the greatest distrust; when our technology seems on the threshold of ultimate achievement, it threatens to destroy us. The best and the worst.

"Narrowing our perspective to the here and now, it still applies. With business through the Ann Arbor Board of Realtors setting another new high (exceeding 28 million in the first 11 months of 1970), the housing supply, at least in the lower price range, seems more inadequate than ever; with mortgage money finally appearing in ample supply, the increased cost of money discourages the necessary activity; with development of a new local awareness of the need for moderate and low cost housing, Ann Arbor citizens seem to have picked up a "no-growth" syndrome; with new peace hopes and return of veterans, comes increased fear of worsening housing and job shortages. The best and the worst.

"In such a time with such conditions, it would seem logical that our broad goals for 1971 should include: proper planning for growth, equitable financing for reasonable services, and clear identification and consensus on community priorities.

"Situated along the corridor of the Chicago to Pittsburgh megalopolis, at the southern terminus of the Toronto to Detroit megalopolis, in a city renowned for its education, research and medical complexes, it's totally unrealistic to question whether we will grow. To be deluded into believing that by choice we can exist as an island only jeopardizes our ability to influence the growth which affects us. Whether you agree with the projected need for 2,200 new units per year locally is unimportant, but being prepared by advance planning to cope with such growth is extremely important since planning can't follow the growth.

"We can all agree that a master plan for community development is needed now. It's important that in our haste to get it we don't ignore the real world in which we live. If we don't somehow accommodate the development of moderate and low cost housing, we won't have it. If we don't structure the protection of our environment, it won't be protected. If we don't help develop an area respect for mutual developmental goals, we will continue as a burgeoning city bullseye for a target area of unordered growth.

"Being confirmed optimists we accentuate the positive and project a rosy 1971 for the real estate business. We see great housing demand, increasing second home ownership, more mortgage money at cheaper rate, continuing efforts to respond to legitimate tenant complaints with improved investment climate as a result, new community awareness of problem areas and general willingness to become oriented to problem solving."

R. W. Fleming
(President, University of Michigan)

"A few years ago there was a popular Broadway show entitled, 'Stop the World, I Want To Get Off.' In 1970 that didn't seem like a bad idea!

"What will 1971 be like? I am reminded of an old joke. Two male neighbors, meeting one another on the street, exchanged greetings and one then said to the other, 'How is your wife?' The second looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, 'Compared to what?'

"Compared to 1970, one can draw the conclusion that 1971 will be better or worse, depending upon how he reads signs which can be said to point in either direction. It is probable that one's conclusions have more to say about himself than the future.

"The single most hopeful sign which I see on the horizon is the emphasis which young people are placing on human rather than material values. This fact is often obscured by the more bizarre behavior of some of their generation, and it needs to be tempered by a realization that young people have less reason to be acquisitive than they will a few years later. Nevertheless, the sentiment appears to be real, and it is important because society may be intolerable without it. There is no way in which an already complex world can avoid becoming even more complex. Population growth will continue despite our best efforts to slow it down, and the accompanying crowding will place an even greater premium on inter-personal relations. We will continue to puzzle over how to make economic growth compatible with reduced environmental pollution. The problem of reconciling inflation and full employment will remain. Racial tensions are in a critical stage where they can slowly improve or get worse. An expanding, now dominant, female population will be more concerned with independent status.

"In this country our resources are such that poverty does not have to be eliminated by the utopian dream of asking all to share in it. A level of adequacy for all is possible, though it may mean less affluence for others. If this is indeed what the young people are trying to tell us, would we not do well to listen in 1971?"

Harold E. Sponberg
(President, Eastern Michigan University)

"Perhaps the most important new year's resolution any of us could make would be to do all we can to resolve world conflict. The end of that conflict would give us all more freedom to do what we all want to do--improve humanity through our search for truth.

"I think we could all profitably resolve to hold close to the basic principles of our profession, using them as landmarks in these turbulent times.

"We can resolve to renew our devotion to students, to good teaching, to sound scholarship and research.

"We can resolve that we will try harder this year to reason calmly with those who disagree with us, so that we can make more progress toward truth.

"We can resolve that we should meet the explosion of knowledge with more devoted efforts to give that knowledge order and purpose so that we can turn it to the benefit of man.

"We can resolve that we will not use our position or title to force our views on others, but that we will reason together, and us logic and fact to reach the most reasonable decisions.

"We should resolve, on the other hand, that we will not abdicate the responsibilities of our profession to allow a new position to prevail simply because it is loudly stated or because it would be uncomfortable to challenge it.

"We should all resolve to make new efforts to insure justice for all peoples everywhere.

"We should resolve to search out racism in our own hearts and clean it away if it is found.

"We should, I think, resolve to work harder toward the simple old values of peace and brotherhood. There was never a time when they were more needed, and they will be at the center of any resolutions made in my home or office."

Charles Thomas
(President, Black Economic Development League)

"In 1971 I am going to live my life around a new Bible. My 'bible' is the book, 'Praise the Lord for Tax Exemption--How the churches grow rich while the cities and you grow poor' by Martin A. Larson and C. Stanley Lowell. And I am going to join a new 'order.' It is called Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"What are my aims and goals--resolution for the New Year? I am going to have to prove to some of the senior ministers that their churches are part of a gigantic operation second only to the federal government of the United States. I will aim to establish my credibility with facts and statistical information.

"I wonder if Hoover Rupert of the First Methodist Church knows about the 10,500 shares the United Methodists have in Eastman Kodak? This is an excerpt from my bible: "The following were some of the church-holdings (in Eastman Kodak) noted: United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 3,628 shares; Reformed Church in America, 2,000; the Protestant Episcopal, 5,000; the United Church of Christ, 11,000; the United Methodist Church, 10,500; and others in lesser amounts.'

"Did you know you can get trading stamps from the Methodists? In their book Larson and Lowell say that the Evangelical Brethren United Church's Otterbein Press in Dayton, Ohio has been printing, selling and profiting from trading stamps. The Evangelical Brethren Church was recently merged with the Methodists. That merger meant a business merger also. Tax exempt.

"How about a holiday on a 20,000 acre ranch near Santa Fe, N. Mex.? The United Presbyterians maintain the "Ghost Ranch" year round. The 20,000 acres are tax exempt, say Larson and Lowell.

"Residents of Ann Arbor, of Washtenaw County, like people all over the country, want tax relief. You'd think the churches would want to help, and in the public interest pay taxes. How much more tax monies would the city and county have to work its programs with if churches, parsonage, school, hospital, retirement home, and cemetery lands here were taxed?

"My new 'bible' says that the Roman Catholic Church is the largest, wealthiest denomination in the United States? Why then are its schools in trouble? Why, because they drain the parish rather than going into their holdings and assets. I wonder if the New York Archdiocese that sold a half interest in Listerine for $25 million pulled its schools out of trouble."

Mrs. Emma M. Wheeler
(President, Ann Arbor Branch of NAACP)

"The NAACP has played a leadership role in the unending local struggle to create for blacks new opportunities for justice in employment, education, housing and the administration of criminal justice. In this fight we have been joined by many whites and blacks who love, freedom, promote justice and respect human persons of any race, creed or economic status. Unfortunately, there are individual gigots, racist organizations and a few self-seeking Negroes who obstruct the fight-for-justice either by crude, overt, divisive rhetoric and/or sophisticated, cunning, covert processes.

"The NAACP resolves to intensify its fights against racism, oppression and injustice and those who sustain these evils. We call upon decent Ann Arborites who have been involved to increase their efforts and on the previously uninvolved to join the battle at the polls, in the halls of government, in the courts and in those public and private institutions which rob blacks, the poor and especially their children of dignity, justice, hope, a decent material living and justice in the law enforcement and legal systems.

"The achievement of racial justice requires a revolution in individual attitudes, institutional practices and community morality. The primary and general elections in the spring of 1971 offer the first major opportunities for community leaders and individual citizens to determine whether Ann Arbor moves forward towards peaceful resolutions of racial justice or whether we give sustenance to the immature seedlings of physical confrontation in our midst."

Guy C. Larcom Jr.
(Ann Arbor City Administrator)

"Resolved, that in 1971 the city will achieve agreement on the planning, economic and social goals that should be the standards for this naturally-endowed and gifted community;

"The healthy divisions of opinion will yield unity of purpose to accomplish a better environment, balanced growth and development, and equality of opportunity in employment and housing;

"That there will be a fusion of the many diverse groups and interests to the common ends of substantial public support for:

"--Adequate sewer and water utilities; continued expansion and development of the parks and Huron River water and land assets; Model Cities social, economic and educational reforms; highways, roadways, bikeways and pathways and public transportation; police, fire, health and code enforcement; public and private housing; systematic land use controls for all levels of the economy; and equitable and sufficient levels of taxation to finance these programs;

"And that the citizens of the city take pride in the programs to achieve these goals, realizing that the making of the good city and good urban living today is a task of unceasing efforts and unlimited dimensions."

W. Richard Watson
(Vice President, Washtenaw AFL-CIO Council)

"Merry New Year and Happy Bargaining. While there were serious setbacks in labor relations in 1970 we look forward to better times in 1971.

"The bogey man of course was inflation. It set back the real wages of labor at least five years. While labor is making more money, the goods it would buy was less than five years ago. Labor asked for more money to make up for the decreased purchasing power.

"We hope inflation is on its last legs. On a national basis production per man hour has increased. This gives hope for better profits for business. This is most important. Samuel Gompers once said, 'The worst enemy of the working man is an employer who is not making money."

"With both management and labor understanding the situation we look forward to a prosperous 1971."

Walter E. Krasny
(Ann Arbor Chief of Police)

Police Chief Walter E. Krasny's New Year's resolution for the coming year involves crime prevention.

"I think it's been pretty firmly established by criminologists and others that for years now we've been treating the symptoms and not the disease in many phases of police work," Krasny says. "Our primary job as policemen is of course to apprehend and present evidence to the prosecutor for evaluation. But that's after-the-fact. The damage has been done."

The chief says he resolves to aim his department to a greater degree at crime prevention, at active programs of community involvement which in themselves prevent crime.

"And we can't do this by ourselves," he says. "We must work with the total community, with every segment of society here in Ann Arbor. My resolution is pointed at the destruction of that weird philosophy which tells people to choose up sides to see who you're going to hate today."

 

Exhibits