Page 4-Sunday, February 24, 1980-The Michigan Daily
-4
E
ie eaitoigan r
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedorm,
A challenge to end apathy
_Vol. C, No. 120
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Abortions for ti
CCORDINO TO public opinion tions las
polls, most Americans have shoulder
tbelieved for years that abortion is a life aren
woman's right. The Supreme Court true that
went along with that view in a can exp
monumental 1973 ruling that called same de
abortion restrictions an uncon- observat
stitutional abridgement of a woman's tion issu
right to privacy. Religious opponents poor wo.
of abortion who would impose their in- unreaso
sistent views about its evils took a governm
welcome fall, as the rights of women to support
control their own bodies were boosted. simple a
Safe, legal abortions seemed certain, procedu
in spite of the anti-abortion lobby. eliminat(
That victory won, pro-choice groups Some;
settled back, believing that the issue argued t
was settled once and for all. Wishful forced to
thinking. The next aspect of the abor- which po
tion issue to fall prey to anti-abortion them up
zealotry was the federal funding of is repreh
abortion operations for women on be force
Medicaid. Few Americans felt as scarring
liberal about this issue as about the the econ
overall general legalization of abor- danger t
tion; the funding question, after all, in- The kind
volved the use of tax dollars. Medicaid
For quite a while, arguments for.and' maternit
against funding of indigent women's contracts
abortions were tossed back and forth in "Pro-li
state legislatures and in both houses of the quali
Congress. The Catholic Church and its any imp
fellow travelers had their way at last rail abou
when Representative Henry Hyde (R- at most
Ill.) sponsored a 1976 amendment to a existence
x Medicaid bill that prohibited federal by most A
reimbursement for virtually all abor- The S
tions. From then until early last week, reinstitut
only pregnancies that clearly tion whil
threatened a woman's life, and those sound on
caused by rape or incest, could be lost in
federally funded. operation
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court final det(
issued an order temporarily reversing extend Z
the Hyde Amendment while the Court Declarati
studies the issue in greater depth. the purs
President Carter, when questioned America
about his opposition to Medicaid abor- pressure
On City Coucil
A NN ARBOR City Council tabled measures
action Thursday night on a city sulated b
energy plan for 1980 for the second members
ime because the resolution upon measures
which council would have voted to ap- Althou
prove the plan was poorly written. The council
blame lies not entirely on the authors proving t
of the plan-the city's community the resol
dIevelopment office-but partly with specific.
the council itself. resolutio
According to Barry Tilman, director the achie
bf the community development office, tives.
-he goal for 1980 essentially is to in- City Co
terest the community in saving energy commun
-nd to develop an energy program for however.
1he years to come. presente
The 1980 plan is part of a 28-page tabled. I
"document that outlines in six sections members
possible conservation measures for the learn m
future. -The document includes. such proposal.
possible mandatory conservative
ipoor
st year, merely shrugged his
s and said, "some things in
't fair." While it certainly is
t not all people in this country
ect to be able to afford the
gree of luxury, the president's
ion is irrelevant to the abor-
e. Abortion is not a luxury to
omen-it is a necessity. It is
nable and tyrannical of the
lent to demand that women
a child for 18 years when a
and relatively safe medical
re could easily have
ed the need in the first place.
self-styled "pro-lifers" have
hat poor women ought to be
carry their babies to term, at
int they would be free to give
for adoption. That argument
ensible: Why should the poor
d to endure the psychological
of surrendering a child and
omic hardship and physical
hat pregnancy itself brings?
s of jobs that most women on
have, if any, rarely have
y leaves written into their
s.
fers" refuse to concede that
ty of life of poor women has
ortance at all. Instead, they
it the potential life of the fetus,
three months old, whose
is not considered human life
kmericans, or by the Court.
upreme Court's decision to
e Medicaid funding for abor-
e it examines the issue is a
e; perhaps fewer lives will be
back alley, unsafe
s as a result. The eventual,
ermination of the case must
Tuesday's decision, if the
on's call for "life, liberty, and
uit of happiness" for all
ns is not to crumple under the
of short-sighted zealots.
There is a specter haunting this campus,
and no, it is not the specter of communism. In
no way does it even resemble a revolution.
Some have called this spectre apathy, others
have called it ignorance or vapidity. I prefer
to call it frightening.
I am currently pursuing a degree in English
in addition to a certificate in Secondary
English Education. Although I am not
enrolled in the School of Education, I am
currently taking two education classes.
Frankly, I am appalled by what I see before
me. First of all, I see professors who are
quantitatively oriented. One professor's idea
of an interesting classroom presentation is
reading definitions from three-by-five cards.
Most issues are viewed as if they existed
within a vaccum. Some days I feel as if we are
being programmed to teach little automatons
instead of flesh and blood human beings.
I COULD GO on and give hundredds of
examples as to the irresponsibility of this par-
ticular professor. I won't bore you with the
details, for each one of you could probably
city your own examples from your personal
experiences at this Universiity.
However, I am not going to spare you from
my second horrifying observation; the
irresponsibility of the students themselves.
While professors dictate meaningless and
irrelevant information that will simply be
regurgitated at exam time, students fran-
tically scratch pages and pages of notes
without even questioning the validity of what
they are writing down. When I so much as
dare to raise my hand and question the dic-
tates of one of my professors, my classmates
lower their eyes or stare blankly out the win-
dow. There is no support, no sense of com-
munity. Is it fear that dissention might bring
about a lower grade, or is it that no one cares
about the quality of what they are learning?
Although I have come to expect this type of
behavior in many LSA classes, I can't quite
reconcile myself to the fact that this same
type of behavior is being demonstrated by
potential educators; men ahd women who
might very well end up teaching our children.
BUIREAUCRATIC institutions such as The
University of Michigan are easy to blame for
our own apathy. Moreover, so are irrespon-
sible professors. But rationalization will get
us nowhere. We are only propagating the
system by choosing to remain mute in its
wake. I was intrigued by a letter from
Marlene'Malinas in Sunday's Daily (Feb. 10).
She complained that the University's policy of
closing courses is "closing" her out of life it-
self.
Although I respected Ms. Malinas for her
courageous attempt at dissention, I did not
feel sorry for her because it was obvious that
she did not object to the system so much as
what it was doing to her. For real change to
occur we must not work within the system as
we have always been told we should. We have
to attack it from without. The best strategy is
By Linda Groh
to use dissention, for the system as a whole
does not allow for this.
Jonathan Kozol, one of the most highly
respected educators of our time, has pointed
out that the socialization process operating
within our current public school system has
continually punished any form of dissent. We
are products of that socialization process, and
the University is reaping the benefits.
WHAT DOES ALL this mean? It means that
in a very subtle yet extremely propagandistic
way, we have, been predisposed -to an
apathetic attitude. Within the schools that we
attended prior to this University, in addition
to this University itself, we have been
repeatedly told that it is "bad" to dissent. Ob-
viously, by virtue of the behavior of most of
the students within my classes, the
mechanism is still operating very efficiently.
I challenge each and every one of you
reading this article to bring this machine to a
dead stop. Tomorrow when you go into your
classrooms, raise your hand and object if
anything is saidtor done that strikes you in the
same way that the irresponsibility of my
professors has struck me. This is your
education and your life: What is it worth to
you?
Linda Groh is an LSA senior majoring
in anthropology and English. She is also
pursuihg a certificate in Secondary
English Education.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
'Deflate the 'bloated military monster'
4
To the Daily:
A leading threat to world peace
is the U.S. military establishment
which daily grows larger with the
addition, among other items, of
three nuclear warheads and
which is supported by an ever-
growing military budget financed
by some half of all taxpayer
dollars.
This bloated military monster,
which is perpetuated out of fear
of ghosts (currently the Soviet
Union) and in the name of
"national security," only makes
the U.S. and the entire world
more insecure. It exists as an un-
controlled independent entity,
holding in thrall whatever ad-
ministration is in office along
with a good many members of
Congress.
Such is the power of this
military menace that we have
recently witnessed the
President's proposed sacrifice of
the 18-to-20 age group to its
MSA presC
To the Daily:
It is rather unfortunate when
one's representatives fail in their
basic responsibilities-to
represent the views of their con-
stituency with a real sense of
leadership and understanding.
MSA President Jim All and's
performance in Washington with
President Carter was a charade
of leadership, and an insult to the
Michigan Student Assembly and
the University of Michigan
student body he was supposed to
represent.
Mr. Alland did quite well in
echoing President Carter's views
on draft registration to Daily
reporters (Daily, Feb. 19).. His
"mixed feelings" on the issue ap-
parently prevented him from
questioning Carter on the Ad-
ministration's nebulous concep-
tion of our "national interests,"
and from broaching any of the
severe constitutional and
discrimination problems with
registration and the draft.
That student leader Alland
would fail to mention MSA's two
wishes, coupled. with an increase
in the military budget to an all-
time high $142 billion and
requested removal of constraints
on that many times discredited
intelligence agency (which also
operates secretly with no public
accountability), the CIA.
This is the President, one
recalls, who pledged to cut the
defense budget by $5 to $7 billion
when he was running for office.
Far from making for more
security, this ever-escalating
reliance on military solutions to
problems leads to greater in-
security. This is true not only
because of the increased risk of
nuclear war, but because the in-
creased spending for military
rather than human needs inten-
sifies inflation and unem-
ployment (see Marion Anderson,
"The Empty Pork Barrel").
As a result, compared with
other countries of the world, the
U.S. ranks 18th in doctor-patient
dent assailed
ratio, 17th in infant mortality,
15th in literacy, 15th in life expec-
tancy, but 1st militarily.
This is a shameful condition,
but will not be improved until
enough citizens get the message
to Washington that Americans do
not support depriving Third
World countries of their resour-
ces at the point of a gun, do not
want any more young persons
returned from foreign shores in
boxes, do not desire that their
country should be the policeman
of the world; that they demand
the government instead to em-
ploy diplomatic and non-military
means for settling international
disputes and that their hard-
earned tax dollars be spent on life
instead of death.
-Edith Hefley
Feb.18
Peck musically ignorant
'S
energy
s as requiring a house to be in-
efore it can be resold. Council
were wary of approving such
s even in concept.
gh, according to. Tilman,
would only have been ap-
he 1980 goals, it is clear that
ution should have been more
As it was written, the
nn simply allocated money for
vement of unspecified objec-
uncil is just as culpable as the
ity development office,'
The energy plan was first
d in late January and then
n, the interim, few council
s, it seems, even bothered to
ore about this important
resolutions against registration
and the draft (Sept. 18, 1979 and
Jan. 29, 1980) or take note of the
strong campus sentiment against
registration (as demonstrated by
the more than 700 people at the Jan.
30 diag rally) is bad enough. Yet
Alland went on national radio
that night and stated that draft
registration is significantly dif-
ferent from the draft itself. This
is simply not the case, as Mr.
Alland himself noted in the Daily
article. Registration and the
draft are two intimately related
steps in the U.S. Selective Service
System.
Registration is a step toward
war. It is not a way to bluff the
Russians out of Afghanistan. It is
an aggressive posture that will
only heighten, rather than lessen,
world tensions.
Mr. Alland also declared that
Mr. Carter's talk to the student
leaders was "inspirational." It is
sad that Mr. Alland lacked so
such inspiration himself.
-Dan Carol
Feb. 21
PIR GIM hea
To the Daily:
The Public Interest Group in
Michigan (PIRGIM) would like
to make a formal apology to Ms.
Susan Lutz and the University of
Michigan student body. Ms. Lutz,
in a February 20th letter to the
Daily, complained that a par-
ticipant in the February 14th
PIRGIM Anti-War Bucket Drive
had directed foul language at her
as he was collecting money on the
Diag.
PIRGIM specifically instruc-
ted . every bucketer not to be
abusive or in any way badger
people with opposing opinions.
Send letters
The following letter has
been sent to universities
around the country by a
mathematician at Columbia
University in New York City.
To my fellow mathematicians:
T am ,re vny uareas onncerned
To the Daily:
In regard to Mr. Joshua Peck's
review of February 20th entitled
"Disunity murders Rampal," I
have this to offer: Mr. Peck, in
the concluding paragraph of your
column you say, "Foolish as it'
may seem for a student critic to
offer advice to world-famous ar-
tists ..." No, I do not see a
student critic's advice as being
foolish at all, unless it is as unin-
formed and little-researched as
some of yours was. In particular,
I refer to your comments on Ravi
Shankar's "The Enchanted Mor-
ning," which was arranged for
flute and guitar by Mssrs. Ram-
pal and Lagoya.
Mr. Peck, you refer to yourself
as a "discerning listener," Yet,
how can you be discerning when
your comments reveal total
ignorance of the form of music
you are criticizing, specifically
Indian music. If you had read the
program, you would have noticed
that "The Enchanted Morning"
was based on Raga Todi. If you
had done your homework, you
wouldhave known that a raga is
a melody made up of ap-
proximately seven pitches which
are repeated over and over, the
"eternal plucking away at a sim-
ple octave interval" which "fur-
ther heightened the misery" done
to your ears by world-renowned
guitarist Alexandre Lagoya. Yes,
Mr. Peck, ragas are repetitious
and antiharmonic to our way of
thinking;- but is a different, but
equally logical, system any less
musical than our own systems?.
Does this make Schonberg any
less musical?
d apologizes fof
This inexcusable incident is cer-
tainly in no way indicative of the
philosophy on which "Public In-
terest" Group is based, i.e., a
philosophy which welcomes
public opinion.
PIRGIM is opposed to war of
any kind and therefore
discourages registration as a fir-
st step toward military conscrip-
tion which could lead the United
States into war.
At the same time, however, we
realize that many opinions exist
that conflict with those of
PIRGIM. PIRGIM does not in-
to Sakharov
The contents of the messages is
of little importance; I would
avoid strictly political or
"provocative" statements, but
would stress our admiration,
supportsand concern. Letters
should be sent registered with
Admittedly, the performance
was not of a caliber expected or
often encountered by those who
attend concerts given by Rampal
or Lagoya. However, Mr. Peck's
simple dislike' of Indian music
should not have colored his com-
ments about a perfectly
legitimate art form. Having been
exposed to a small amount of this
type of music, I would say-'that
"The Enchanted Morning" was
one of the decidedly more in-
teresting and "musical" pieces of
this nature that our Western ears
can hear.
But the above is not the issue.
The issue is that Mr. Peck blatan-
tly criticized an art form about
which his comments revealed
him to be totally ignorant. In the
future, I suggest to Mr. Peck that
he either cover his tracks more
efficiently or, better yet, reserve
comment completely. I'm sure a
few less lines of print would not
have hurt his byline status and
certainly would have improved
his credibility.
-Jane M. Carl
Feb. 21
Vocabulary
To the Daily:
Attn: Joshua Peck
A few words you might like to
add to your vocabulary: good,
nice, pleasing, enjoyable. We
won't go on to anything more dif-
ficult until you've had time to
grasp these concepts. Please feel
free to pass this lesson on to (film!
critic) Owen (Gleiberman) and
the rest of the gang.
-Mark Kamsler
Feb. 20
r Diag abuse
tend to slander those people with
opposing views, and we are
taking steps to insure that such
incidents do not occur in the 4
future. -Marian Langlier
PIRGIM U-M
Chairperson
Feb.21
WIQB hit
To the Daily:
When I first read of the sale of
WIQB last December, I became
fearful that a change in format
was forthcoming. I was very4
disappointed when this fear
became a reality on February 2..
I have been a faithful listenerto
WIQB for many years because this
station offered an interesting
alternativeto the commer-
cialized rock stations which
dominate the airwaves today.
I like to think of Ann Arbor as a
unique community and the diver-
se nrnarrammina nff~rad nn
Hjjigins
\ A