4-Wednesday, October 5, 1977-The Michigan Daily rI ean Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No.X24 News P it Phone: 764-0552 idited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Abortion By GERRY WOLKE must do w islative res More than a century ago Henry David unwilling t Thoreau went to jail because he refused to abortion e pay taxes to support the Mexican war. The tions. This logic behind this principled gesture is superb- Governme ly set forth in his essay, Civil Disobedience. next electi( Thoreau is no longer with us, of course, but his spirit has arisen occassionally most re- INTER cently with the civil rights movement and the heard from antidraft demonstrations of the '60's. He ap- ject to hav pears ready to be ressurected once again. thing they Abortion is not an issue which collectivists Would pas can easily invoke their myth of "the will of the mass civil people." Few issues have split the people's substantia will as much as abortion has recently. governme Naturally, then, congress has been highly re- Congressv luctant to treat the issue decisively since con- this were n gress will only approve a proposal that has considered substantial public support (think about that people dr the next time you claim that government with Nur / --------- - It r l / and politics L hat the "people" won't). The leg- sult has been that Congress appears to approve Medicaid payments for xcept in certain emergency situa- is certainly no cause for surprise. nt tunnel vision extends just to the on. ESTINGLY, one of the arguments n abortion opponents is that they ob- ving their tax money pay for some- consider immoral ala Thoreau. ssage of an abortion bill instigate disobedience or further disaffect a i portion of the people from their nt? That is a question I don't think wants to face. More interestingly, if not a pragmatic age but an age that d principle or philosophy, would aw the libertarian lesson that, as tmburg, no one should be com- pelled to support that which they do not ap- prove of morally? I don't think the govern- ment will'wait to find out whether the founda- tions of the welfare-warfare state can be threatened. They will just plain wait ... until the session expires or until Congress is sure that abortion foes become sufficiently few to be safely stepped on. David Friedman pointed out that if a man is hungry and a majority want him to be fed the government will feed him, but then it's un- necessary as someone will feed him anyway. If, on the other hand, the majority will not see him fed, the government will not either. But someone willtstill feed him. For those who ap- prove of abortions as most libertarians do (and I do not) probably the best advice is the usual: ignore the state. What is moral is ulti- mately practical and certainly no province of politics. Health Service Handbook I - -- 7 t i),A) A secret' vote is sacred N WASHTENAW COUNTY Circuit Court yesterday two University stu- nts, Susan Van Hattum and Diane zinsky risked going to jail before vulging who they voted for in last pril'smayoral election. We found their actions heroic and otionally stirring. Van Hattum and Lazinsky had beent Mistakenlyregistered as citizens of the 4ty,, when< they actually resided in a wnship peninsula' jutting into the y. They have-clearly done nothing :rong. They merely registered to vote bI Ann Arbor, and were told they were eligible to do so. No voter, under any circumstances should be coerced into divulging his private ballot. The concept of the pri-. vate ballot has roots in the very basis of democracy. Their stalwart stand in the face of coercive questioning by Monroe County Circuit Court Judge James Kelley, were the most patriotic defenses of freedom in this town in re- cent years. Judge Kelley had informed several witnesses subpoenaed in the case, they would not have to answer questions pertaining to who they had voted for. Indeed the lawyers, Robert Henry, and Robert Grace representing Belcher and Wheeler respectively, had ap- parently agreed that no witness would be asked who they voted for. B UT HENRY yesterday changed his tune, citing two precedents in which the Michigan Supreme Court had ruled that voters who had cast illegal votes had to divulge who they voted for, if asked to do so in court. Kelley agreed with Henry's inter- pretation of the case law and the coer- cion began. We find the cases cited, and there application in yesterday's trial ex- tremely repressive. How can any voter feel free to express his opinion in a voting booth, if there is a chance, no matter how slight that the vote will later become public? By SYLVIA HACKER and NANCY PALCHIK QUESTION: This may sound like a silly question, but I have been wondering about it for a long time. I have dry skin (e.g., I "can't wash my face with soap), but occassionally I get pimples on my chin and around my mouth which I always thought were re- lated to oily skin. What causes this? What is the best thing to do about them? Is it bad to pop them? ANSWER:' According to Dr. Albert Girz, one of our physicians with a special interest in derma- tology, what often appears to be dry skin may in fact be a condi- tion known as seborrheic derma- titis. Most persons with sebor- rheic dermatitis have a tendency to an oily skin and may at times have pimples. The condition is even considered by some a sort of "first cousin" to acne. Yet it also resembles what we usually think of as dry skin. The skin seems to be irritated and is flaky after washing with soap. Seborrheic dermatitis may occur in the scalp as ordinary dandruff. Another major site of involvement is the nose-chin triangle (seborrheic triangle). In order to answer your ques- tion a precise diagnosis would have to be made to differentiate seborrheic dermatitis from true dry skin, as the treatment for each is different. So why not come in to our medical clinic? In regard to your question about popping pimples, super- ficial pimples may be drained by "popping." However, it is not wise to squeeze deep abscess-like cysts or pimples sinceyou may spread infection to surrounding tissues. QUESTION: I've heard that it's healthy to take two aspirin a day, especially if you're a tense type of person. Somewhere else I heard that this will only serve to corrode the stomach lining. What's the real story? Also I've heard that the mixture of coke and aspirin is unhealthy. Is it bad, for instance, to take a couple aspirin and have a coke an hour later? ANSWER: As with most things, there is much speculation on this subject. However, some researchers feel that low doses of aspirin (i.e., two tablets per day) are valuable in the possible pre- vention of strokes and heart at- tacks (myocardial infarctions). This theory is based on the fact that the aggregation of platelets (one of the normal blood clotting factors) contributes to the devel- opment of heart attack. Low doses of aspirin appear to cause a mild defect in platelet function (reduction of adhesiveness). However, since many other fac- tors influence platelets, it has been shown that platelets can function suitably for clotting even in aspirin-treated patients. Fur- thermore, there is no evidence yet that taking aspirin now will prevent heart attack 20 to 30 years from now. Thus, much more research is needed in the area. The topic is of interest of course. because heart disease plagues Americans more than any other disease and there are certain types of personalities which may be more susceptible to heart at- tacks. Tense individuals are thought to be among those types of personalities. It should be re- membered that aspirin has its de- fects. Although it is the most commonly used and cheapest analgesic, it cannot be used by many people because it is upset- ting to the stomach due to its high acidity. Arthritic patients who of- ten take as many as 20 tablets per day, know full well the stomach' distress caused by aspirin, and a bakavi To The Daily: Some years ago, the news of re- source depletion, environmental damage and the exploitation of one people by another caused me to suspect that there must be a more appropriate goal for society than just expanding the GNP. Af- ter a lengthy study of problems and solutions as presented by concerned people, a basic set of guidelines became evident. The objectives are: * To develop an ecologically sound way of supporting human life. That is, one in which mate- rials are managed in continuing cycles and the energy necessary to manage those cycles is taken from continuously reliable sour- ces. * To encourage life-based pur- suits. These would include: inter- personal relationships, creativi- ty, co-ordination, appreciation, and spiritual, intellectual and psychic development. * To develop toward technolo-' gies which do not: 1) require con- tinual input of non-renewable re- sources, 2) have a cumulatively degrading effect on the environ- ment, 3) require more material than would be available if the world's resources were equitably distributed amongst the world's people. There are many people who be- lieve that it is essential to develop along these lines if we are to sur- vive. It is our intention to ask this question as widely as possible in search of public support to influ- ence decision-makers. For convenience, this question has been named the Bakavi Ques- tion. The word bakavi has been selected from the history of one of North America's native people; it refers to a vehicle used to survive problems brought about by people so caught up in their own creations that they acted without regard for the non-human crea- tion which makes life possible. Further information on the Bakavi Question has been pub- lished in the book Change the World, I Want to Stay On avail- able for $3.75 from: Bakavi P.O. Box 2011 Station "D" Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Mike Nickerson va To The Daily: An article in the September 29 issue of the Daily and an experi- ence in my own life could be a possible basis, in my opinion, for a "yes" to the urgent request of Filipina Narciso and Leonora Pe- rez for a retrial in the VA nurses tragedy. I refer to a well researched story in the Daily by Keith Rich- burg, "VA Article Gives Only One View - Author." Richburg details the purchase by officials of the Ann Arbor VA, of 1000 few unfortunately develop' gastric ulcers attributable to this treatment. Sometimes this prob- lem can be avoided by drinking a full glass of water with the aspirin or by taking it with food or antacids. Coca-Cola is also highly acidic and the combination of coke and aspirin can therefore be very irri- tating to the stomach. As you Letters to The Daily suggest, it is best to avoid con- suming them at the same time. Please send any health related questions to: HealthEducators University Health Service Division of Office of Student Services 207 Fletcher Ann Arbor, MI 48109 copies of an author-admitted bi- ased/slanted anti-Narcisco/Pe rez article and the action by these officials in distributing the artie cle as "balanced, accurate,' careful and objective." The arti- cle appeared in the Ann Arbor Observer and the author, Donald Hunt is insisting that the VA put his piece forward out of context, stating, "I think they (the VA. hospital officials) are misguid- ed." The Ann Arbor Observer ac- count, according to Hunt, was only intended to present the VA case from the perspective of the jurors who found Narciso and Perez guilty of poisoning five pa- tients at the Fuller Road hospital during the summer of 1975. His,, article obviously does not present both sides of the case. It is frighteningly, revealing therefore that VA hospital offic ials should hail the Observer ac- count as "the only publication" that "tells the whole story," as' reported ir the Daily story. This reveals the alarming bias of these officials, that defense law -- yers have maintained from the start existed, in the higher echelons of hospital administra tion at the VA. The defense claimed that the FBI and hospital leaders worked hand in glove to convict the Phillipine nurses as scapegoats in order to get the hospital itself "off the hook" in the public eye. I am a disabled veteran (as well as a grad student at the University of Michigan) and re- ceive treatment at the Ann Arbor VA Hospital. Several days ago this one sided and biased article arrived in my mailbox in an of- ficial VA envelope and postage' paid by the United States govern- rnent. I strongly resent this use of government funds and the VA computer list of outpatients to ram down my throat the opinion of certain VA officials that Nar- ciso and Perez are guilty of mur- der and the hospital is free of any responsibility for the deaths of the patients. I happened to be convinced of the truth that these overseas nurses are totally in- nocent and the victims of an FBI- VA frameup. Further, I visited the VA' Hospital today and learned that this Observer article was distrib- uted a few days ago to every em ploye tagged "must reading"! I believe strongly- that in this: case we have a right to expect" from VA officials a scrupulous neutrality and "let the chips fall where they may." Thanks to the Daily for revealing that such a neutrality at the VA has been totally absent. A retrial is the only path to justice for the VA nurses. Rev. Craig S. Wilder September 29 IT'S TaaAD WHEP~ RE }mtlNRL FNWarY'S CaY 1 ON LESS£.W CI-\WG5 beVhind d & R i?~~~iTALL FOR A FAIR aND IMPRTA. I / _____________________________ ev a of ThEi, EES C, " . " Contact your rens