Letters; An Open Letter To President Robben Fleming And The Board Of Regents

September 26, 1975

I am not a conspicuous graduate of the University (Literary College 1942 and Law School 1946), but a concerned one. And you should be as concerned as I am. What should be our common concern emanates from statements attributed to Frederick E. Davids, chief of University of Michigan security, in the September 25, 1975 issue of the Ann Arbor News

"If you look back a page or two," said Davids, "public officials, including state representatives, publicly smoked marijuana on the campus and encouraged youth to do it right along with them. People continue to return these people to office," he said, "but as far as I'm concerned, they are unfit for public office."

When I first read the foregoing statement, I couldn't believe my eyes. So I read it again. Then I read it again, again, again, and again. Each reading elevated my temperature until finally the boiling point was reached. I then had no alternative but to dig my typewriter out of moth balls and write this letter.

The statement of Mr. Davids establishes, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that if anyone is "unfit for public office" that someone has to be Mr. Davids. Apparently Mr. Davids has been a policeman all of his adult life (Michigan State Police Director, and now chief of University of Michigan security). As such, he has been drinking out of the public trough for a lifetime, with the support of Democrats, Republicans, and any other stripe of politician who voted the appropriations to pay his salary and make possible his eventual pension (for the State, as well as from the University). The gas in his car, the clothes on his back, the food on his table, and the home he lives in, all have been bought and paid for with funds generously supplied by politicians of all kinds for decades. And now the ungrateful cur wants to bite the hands of those who have fed him! What a way to go. A real drag.

Far more grave is the contempt Mr. Davids expresses toward an inviolate tenet of our democracy, namely, SOLDIERS AND POLICEMEN STAY OUT OF POLITICS. If we want a police state in this country, all we have to do is tolerate and applaud the too plentiful likes of the Mr. Davids and their ilk, and they will oblige us in a hurry. 1984 will be here long before 1984.

Mr. Davids has hoed his row. It is time he was put out to pasture. His day and age are long gone. Modern problems demand modern solutions. Mr. Davids is woefully inadequate to supply them. He is a pitiful, obsolete figure, totally out of it, living in the past, and more than ready to take his place in a wax museum devoted to antiquity. In other words, get rid of him. And get rid of him fast.

In closing, I want to make one thing clear. I am not a political activist, nor do I follow any party line. And I am not in the corner of any particular politician. But after too many years of comparative indifference, I do believe I am gradually becoming a citizen, and it has been quite a shock to discover what a rare breed citizens are. If I live long enough, I may make it. Who knows?

Sincerely,

Donald E. Smith
Ann Arbor, MI

That's All, Folks-And Wait'll You Peep The Next One!
Gary Kell