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Ninety-nine years of editorial/freedom
Vol. IC, No. 136 Ann Arbor, Michigan -- Tuesday, April 18, 1989 Copyright 1989. The Michigan Daily
Committee charges Wright with wrongs
WASHINGTON (AP)- The
House ethics committee, with
N Democrats and Republicans united,
formally charged Speaker Jim
Wright yesterday with 69 violations
of the chamber's rules including
what the panel's chair called "a
scheme to evade" limits on outside
earnings.
After a 10-month, $1.5 million
investigation, the committee of six
Democrats and six Republicans
voted unanimously to issue a report
finding "reason to believe" the Texas
Democrat had run afoul of House
rules requiring reporting of gifts,
barring acceptance of gifts from per-
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sons with a direct interest in legisla-
tion and limiting outside earned in-
come.
"I know in my heart I have not
violated any of the rules of that in-
stitution," Wright said in a speech to
a labor meeting shortly after the
ethics report was released.
He said he had asked "very ur-
gently, very earnestly" for a quick
meeting with the committee "to
confront them, to confront the alle-
gations head-on, face-to-face."
At a news conference, committee
chair Rep. Julian Dixon, D-Califor-
nia, emphasized that Wright is pre-
sumed innocent until the charges are
proven, and he underscored that
proving them requires a much higher
weight of evidence than the step
taken yesterday, which is the panel's
equivalent of an indictment.
The move set in motion a series
of steps in which Wright can defend
himself and the panel must prove
that the violations occurred. That is
likely ultimately to throw the matter
before the full House, where
Wright's position as the nation's
highest elected Democrat, or even
his House seat, could be on the line.
Wright immediately began his
defense in earnest, operating what
one supporter, Rep. Charles Wilson,
D-Texas, called "a war room" out of
his office. "At some point we've got
to start figuring out who's on our
side and who's on the other side,"
Wilson said.
Wilson predicted Wright would
win on the floor, "losing a few
cowardly Democrats and picking up
some brave Republicans."
The most serious allegation
against Wright, that he accepted
some $145,000 in gifts over a 10-
year period from George Mallick, a
Fort Worth developer, also had the
narrowest margin of support on the
ethics committee.
According to the records of inter-
nal committee votes released along
with the report of the panel's special
outside counsel, Chicago attorney
Richard J. Phelan, Democrats
Chester Atkins of Massachusetts and
Bernard Dwyer of New Jersey joined
the six committee Republicans for
an 8 to 4 margin on that issue.
The panel agreed with its counsel,
Phelan, that Mallick's major inter-
ests in real estate and oil and gas
ventures and in redevelopment of
Fort Worth's historic stockyards
district gave him a direct interest in
legislation on taxation and on certain
appropriations bills.
Wright
Criticism of Sheffield
.police actions grows
SHEFFIELD (AP) - Criticism. grew of
how police handled the stadium crush that
killed 94 soccer fans, and the government said
yesterday it may ban standing-room only sec-
tions like the one where the tragedy occurred.
Officials and fans accused South Yorkshire
police of letting thousands of late arrivals
into Hillsborough stadium, then reacting too
slowly when the surging crowd crushed peo-
ple against a steel anti-riot fence in one of the
concrete terrace areas packed with standees.
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, speaking
to a hushed House of Commons, said an in-
vestigative panel led by Lord Justice Taylor
would begin work today and "make recom-
mendations about the needs of crowd control
and safety at sports grounds."
"We have to set our sights high and find a
better way for British football (soccer)," Hurd
said. "We owe a duty to these passionate
supporters of football to examine urgently
and thoroughly the cause and background to
do all in our power to prevent such a thing
happening again."
Hurd told the Commons the decision of a
senior police officer to open the gate because
he "considered that there was a possible dan-
ger t ,he lives of the spectators at-the front"
would be a central question for investigators.
Survivors said about 4,000 fans were pushing
at turnstiles to get inside.
Hillsborough gatekeeper Jack Stone told
the Sheffield Star he refused police orders to
open the outer gate and was forced to hand
over his keys to a police inspector.
"I handed the keys to him and told him it
was his responsibility and not mine," Stone
was quoted as saying.
'We owe a duty to these pas-
sionate supporters of football
to examine urgently and thor-
oughly the cause and back-
ground to do all in our power
to prevent such a thing hap-
pening again.'
- British Home Secretary
Douglas Hurd
Liverpool fan Stephen Mitton, who was
caught in the crush outside the gate, told
BBC-TV:
"The steward put his hand on the gate and
said, 'Don't open it.' The police said, 'Open
the gate. There's going to be a crush.' Then
the two police officers opened the gate."
Speech
policy
debate
continues
BY JOSH MITNICK
Daily News Analysis
Are the racist fliers distributed on
campus last week examples of free
speech? Do students have the right
to drown out a campus speaker dur-
ing a protest of the speaker's views?
As the University Council works on
guidelines to implement the Univer-
sity's free speech policy, these are
issues its members have to grapple
with.
Questioning the limits of free
speech - whether in media, protest
or fliers - has been a heated issue
on campus lately. As the debate over
legitimate expression continues, the
campus speech guidelines remain
unnoticed.
The guidelines, drafted by the
University's Civil Liberties Board
and passed by the Board of Regents
last July, attempt to define what li
and isn't appropriate free speech on
campus.
Since January, the nine-member
council has been working on a pro-
posal to implement the free speech
policy.
Council Co-chair Jens Zorn, a
physics professor, said the focus of
the guidelines will be limited to the
"academic arena," addressing speech
confrontations that occur in public
forums.
Specifically, the guidelines are
intended to resolve potential con-
flicts between groups sponsoring
public speakers and groups wishing
to protest the speaker.
The council's goal is "to be able
to have an atmosphere on campus
where people know they can speak
and be heard, andalso not be afraid
to speak up," Zorn said.
The panel has been debating sev-
eral tricky speech issues, including
the limits of allowing protest groups
to exercise their free speech without
infringing on the rights of the
speaker.
"There's a delicate balance that's
hard to define; the policy is trying to
establish that delicate balance," said
Social Work Prof. Tom Croxton. "I
suppose one wishes there was a
bright line, but there isn't."
Put this way, exercising free
speech appears to be a zero-sum
game. Where one group gains free-
dom, the other loses. "To give more
latitude to one group's free speech
detracts from another's opportunity
See Speech, Page 3
Bush outlines economic
incentives for Poland
HAMTRAMCK (AP) - Saying the West
must respond to "yearnings for democracy" in
Eastern Europe, President Bush yesterday an-
nounced an array of economic incentives for
Poland aimed at encouraging the Warsaw
government to continue its newfound mo-
mentum toward political reform.
He lauded the Communist government's
reinstatement of the trade union movement
Solidarity, after eight years of banishment,
and authorities' agreement to hold Poland's
first free parliamentary elections since before
World War II.
Traveling to this Polish-American city on
the same day Poland's highest court legalized
Solidarity, Bush told a flag-waving crowd:
"The wings of change are shaping a new Eu-
ropean destiny. Eastern Europe is awakening
to yearnings for democracy, independence and
prosperity."
"Democratic forces in Poland have asked
for the moral, political and economic support
of the West," he told the crowd. "We can and
must answer this call for freedom."
Among the incentives Bush announced:
-Asking Congress to lower tariffs on se-
lected Polish imports under the Generalized
System of Preferences. Such preferential tar-
iffs are generally used to aid less-developed
nations.
See Bush, Page 2
Eye of the Storm
The constant patter of raindrops and roar of thunder disappeared for
man walked underneath the arch of the West Engineering building.
DAVID LUBLINER/Daily
a moment as this
Pharmacy counselor wants
students to do all they can
BY SHEALA DURANT
One phone call after another
interrupted the early morning inter-
view with Valener Perry, assistant
dean for student services at the Col-
lege of Pharmacy.
Most of the phone calls were
from students asking questions or
seeking advice from Perry. With her
easy going manner and motherly
tone, she answered each call and
spoke to each student as if she'd
known them for years. That day,
Perry congratulated newly-admitted
students to the College and told re-
jected students to try again next year.
When asked what her job entailed,
Perry answered, "The question is
what doesn't it entail." Robert Ross,
Editor of Interactions magazine at
the College of Pharmacy described
her as a "mother, sister, bully, a
teacher, a counselor... She combines
Pharmacy had a five year B.S. pro-
gram which forced Perry to recruit
straight from high school. Now the
college has its own degree, the
Pharm D., which requires students to
complete two years of college before
they are admitted to the four-year
program.
Shortly after arriving, Perry in-
volved herself not just in counseling
minority students, but all students.
"It's something I wanted to do. I just
didn't see myself dealing strictly
with minority students."
In addition to counseling over
100 students, Perry coordinates three
summer programs at the College:
The Summer Undergraduate Research
Program, The Minority High School
Student Research Apprenticeship
Program, and a two-week seminar
for admitted minority students .
The biggest change Perry has
students and Perry's job involves
helping people adjust to the rigorous
curriculum.
"Success is not necessarily mea-
sured in terms of dollars and cents,
but rather in maturity and developing
and seeing the kinds of things that
they want to do and go and be," she
addd.
As hard as Perry tries, she admits
that there are students who don't
make it through the program.
"The ones I lose, it kinda hurts,
but... I mean you can't help every-
body, because a person has to want
to be helped in order to receive help.
There's only so much I can do," she
said. "Sometimes you have to let a
person go in order for them to decide
what they want to do. I don't try to
badger anyone but I do try to show
them that I am concerned and that
my door is always open."
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