Epton Driven From Lions' Den

Ann Arbor City Council man Jeff Epton lost his audience Sunday night in Rackham Auditorium, leaving it up to former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky to win it back. Epton, D-Third Ward, had been invited by the Hillel Foundation to speak briefly about his view of human rights before Sharansky took the stage. The councilman's efforts were greeted by a widespread coughing campaign, hisses and chants of "We want Sharansky, we want Sharansky," which finally drove him from the stage, an early exit which drew a standing ovation from some members of the nearly capacity crowd. Epton told the heavily pro-Israeli audience that Americans shouldn't
spend so much time discussing and
debating internal Soviet problems.
He said such debate can detract attention
- and federal funding -
from America's domestic needs,
including socialized medicine, aid
to the homeless and support for
education.
The American government plays
on the fears of a Soviet military
threat to divert tax dollars froin
domestic social programs to military
and foreign aid purposes, Eptonsaid.
As Epton spoke on, his audience
grew more and more hostile.
"Obviously I haven't made it
clear to you the respect I have for
this man and his plight," Epton
said in reference to Sharansky,
"but I don't think that these other
problems should be ignored."
He drew a particularly angry reaction
when he started to speak
about Israel's continued occupation
of the West Bank, formerly
. part of Jordan.
"And how can we condone permanent
Israeli encampment on the
West Bank when ... , " Epton was
saying when boos, shouts and
chanting forced him to abandon the
thought in mid-sentence.
This morning, Epton called the
incident "sad" and "unfortunate."
He said he was "troubled" that no
one from Hillel has called to apologize
or discuss the incident.
Epton said that he discussed his
remarks ahead of time with an official
from Hillel, whom he declined
to identify.
"He spent two hours at my
house, and I shared my concepts
with him," said Epton;
· Epton said he expected his remarks
to be controversial, but said
he did not intend to anger the audience.
In the question-and-answer period
' that followed Sharansky's
speech, someone asked him if he
had heard Epton's speech. "No I
didn't," Sharansky said, "but had I
known it was going to be so interesting,
I would have come out and
sat in the audience."
J'ljews special writer Jay Forstner and
News staff reporter Julie Wiernik
contributed to this report.