OPINION III: "OF I Page 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wednesday, November 12, 1980 The Michigan Daily Higgins 4 Vol. XCI, No.0 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, M1 48109 19 OTNEDAII-Y v i ' NoR1NWE5TERN J .10 Al- /00 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Abortions in miHE HEALTH AND Social 5 Services Committee of the Michigan State Senate would normally :be responsible for formulating any bill ;related to abortion. That's the way it normally works in the Michigan legislature and in other states, most of which have generally similar procedures. A But in Michigan's case, the Health Committee has a fundamental flaw, at least from the perspective of certain "pro-life" senators. Most of its mem- bers, including Chairman Ed Pierce (D-Ann Arbor), believe that abortion is a woman's right, even if she doesn't have the money to pay for it. So in October, when SB 124, an unrelated bill, came before the Senate, some of the anti-choice senators had a brainstorm; they amended the eight- page bill so radically that it no longer had anything to do with its original purpose (home heating assistance). It* had become instead a one-paragraph ban on state-funded abortions. The " Pro-lifers" were persistent, as well as devious. When Lt. Governor James Brickley, who presides over the Senate, ruled that the amendment violated the state constitution (any trouble again change that redirects the basic intent of a bill is proscribed), his judgement was overruled by a two-thirds majority of the body. Some of the more moderate senators next attempted to tack on some amen- dments that would allow state funding for abortions necessitated by rape or incest, at least, even if the vast majority of Medicaid funding was to be eliminated. Those sensible proposals failed as well. The transformed bill now must go before the Michigan House of Representatives, and if passed (which the pro-choice lobby predicts it will be), it will go to Governor Milliken. Milliken has long supported Medicaid-funded abortions in the past, and he -probably will veto the current - bill. But. this time; the more conser- vativeclimateat the state capitol could lead to an override of his veto. In the past, we have pressed for state abortion funding strictly on ideological and practical grounds. Senate Bill 124, in its current form, is assailable for constitutional reasons as well. We ex- pect and hope that the bill-and its at- tendant spectre of a return to the back alley-will fall by the wayside, even if it takes a court ruling to put it there. Iran uses Soviet-made tanks and U.S.-made ammunition-News Item 'What a sexy voice ': A tale of .sex harassment at work A victory for consumers T'S A VICTORY for free trade, free enterprise, and mostly, American ponsumers. Monday's vote of the U.S. Inter- hational Trade Commission to reject import quotas and higher tariffs for foreign automobiles offers hope that American- automakers will not be permitted to find a scapegoat for their problems. Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers had asked the commission to impose trade restrictions on imported cars because they claim foreign :automakers-especially the Japanese-have caused financial lpsses and unemployment in the United dates. Translated into less diplomatic ter- iis, the American auto companies are stuck with big cars when Americans wart small ones, and they want to blame the Japanese-who produce economical, efficient, quality automobiles Americans want-for their own lack of foresight. Import quotas and high tariffs run counter to free market prin- ciples-they establish artificial '_, barriers behind which American com- panies can hide from competition. The result is almost always shoddy workmanship. And in the case of the U.S. auto companies, their products are already perceived as lacking quality. To have denied American con- sumers the freedom to choose quality, efficient cars over inferior, inefficient autos would have been a backward move indeed. Certainly the auto firms are in a sorry state right now, as they scramble to produce fuel-efficient cars. The retooling of plants and the recession have necessitated massive auto worker layoffs. But it is their own fault-they failed to respond to changing consumer preferences. And it is the fault of the government, which controlled the domestic price of oil at artificially low levels, encouraging Americans to waste fuel in gas-guzzling cars. It's a difficult time right now for the economy and the auto companies. But we must suffer through it, and let the free market system compel the automakers to build better, smaller cars. Strident feminists who work themselves in- to a frenzy over the issue of the word "chair- person" where "chairman" will work fine are trivial. I have no objections to ridding- this less-than-perfect world of sexism. But the furor of women who live in liberal Ann Arbor and rant about sexism in language is sterile, because it ignores the real issues. I should know. I transplanted myself into the real world of white-out carbon paper this summer, as a secretary for an engineering firm. To a political science major, engineers make very dull company. Having spent two previous summers in the company of math- and-physics types who couldn't discuss Yeats, let along John Stuart Mill, I did not relish the idea of spending the next 16 weeks with these people. Still, the job paid well, and I didn't think it very likely that I would find another. MY EMPLOYERS -OPERATED a small firm of about 30 engineers, most of whom were quite young. Not surprisingly, they were all men. For the first two weeks, before I got to know people, the job seemed to be routine. But for the next month, my fellow employers behaved in a way that lent new meaning to the word "sexist." Finally, after several weeks, I began to realize that I held a distorted percep- tion of reality. Although I'd been confronted with sexism and sexual harassment before, I had always assumed that people who really knew me couldn't possibly consider me a mere decorative piece. This wds a new breed of sexism. Although I didn't know as much physics as the people I worked with, it was generally acknowledged that I could not only write better than any of them, but that I was, generally speaking, not unintelligent. So it was a real insult to find at the end of the summer that my gender would By Julie Selbst still be flung at me right up until my last day there. SFXISM IS ALIVE and well in the United States, outside of college towns and big cities. My discovery of this fact of the marketplace came early in my employment. I was typing a set of specifications for a conveyor belt the firm was designing. Actually, that is not at all unusual; it was what I did for four months. They designed conveyor belt specifications; I typed'em. Anyway, the day after they hired me, I had a question because I couldn't read the han- dwriting of the materials handling consultan- t" (no kidding, "materials handling con- sultant"). I brought the original document with me to ask him what he meant. He was, at the time, consulting with two other consultan- ts. As I asked, he stepped in closer, ostensibly to decipher his own writing, and put his arm around me. Addressing the two other engineers, he said, "She's ours now; we can molest her." Verbatim, that's what he said. AFTER MAKING IT abundantly clear that I did not appreciate that sort of treatment, that particular individual refrained from handling me for the rest of the summer. Goal achieved-but only partially. One individual changed his behavior. He and the rest of the office staff (unfortunately I was one of only two females), thereafter regarded me as some kind of slogan-chanting, effigy-burning radical college student. I was taken as an ac- cident of nature-a slightly hysterical female who did not want to be touched-and not an individual with as. much .privacy as anyone else. A close friend suggested that they were harassing me mostly because they knew it annoyed me. I had to infer that my friend's assessment was mistaken, because the other secretary received identical treatment, and' she loved it. Admittedly, her responsiveness didn't help my situation any. But it was ob- vious to me that they felt they had some sort of right to treat both of us that way because we are female. . Initially, my gruff reaction intimidated a few people. Once they were past the novelty of my actually being offended by their behavior, however, the comments and gestures resumed. Once when I paged one man on the intercom for a telephone call, he yelled back, not "OK," or "Thank you," or even "Who is it?" but "God, you have a sexy voice." He said this loudly enough for five or six other people in the area to hear. I AND ONCE AS I was typing, I was handed a letter to type from behind. Suddenly a pair of hands was massaging my shoulders. At one point, I was jokingly informed that if I didn't stop dressing as I did-mostly in skirts-I'd have the entire company "chasing me around the office." That was perhaps the most stunning blow. Who were they to dictate my attire, as long as it was presentable? Coming from my sheltered upbringing to intellectually elite Ann Arbor, it never occurred to me that the concept of equality for women wasn't widely acknowledged as necessary and inevitable. Most Ann Arborites fail to recognize that much of the rest of the world doesn't even see sexism as a problem. Sexist language is a trifle; we still have far to go in attacking the roots of sexual prejudice and mistreatment. And that is where the effort should be focused. The real issue is changing behavior and changing attitudes, not giving the language a' facial. 4 I I Julie Selbst is a Daily staff writer. Ipl ht *-. - , I I ll31 1 'I d' \ LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Fraternities ignorant of CIA issue To the Daily: On November 6 we participated in a rally at The University of Michigan Law School which protested the CIA's recruitment of law students. It is our belief that for the University to allow an organization like the CIA to recruit on campus is to endorse the many illegal and immoral ac- tivities the Agency has per- petrated over the past 20 years. The purpose of the rally was to protest the use of the University as a site for the selection and recruitment of potential CIA em- ployees. We believe that many of the CIA's activities directly con- flict with the ideals the Univer- sity attempts to uphold as an American institution of higher education. In allowing the CIA to recruit University students, these ideals are compromised. During the course of the rally, the nearby fraternities attempted to disrupt the speakers by playing "The Star Spangled Ban- ner" at an excessive volume. We are not denying the fraternities the right to express their opinion; however, the manner of their protest clearly demonstrated their ignorance of the issues. By playing "The Star Spangled Ban- ner" one fraternity implied that we were unpatriotic. Yet the basic motivation for dur protest was a desire to express our con- cern for preserving what freedom exists today in this coun- try. It is our strong belief that the CIA infringes on people's basic rights, and therefore must be opposed. The behavior of the fraternities during the rally epitomizes the general ignorance of students to critical issues that affect them. Their continued blind faith in the United States government will have the effect of allowing the CIA and other clandestine .organizations to continue their undemocratic operations. -Jeanne Greenblatt Dawn McMartin November 10 Volunteers thanked It's not histoplasmosis To the Daily:. Chore Day, sponsored by Neighborhood Senior Services on November 1, was a great success due to the overwhelming respon- se. Neighborhood Senior Services has found that help with seasonal chores (raking leaves, washing windows, and other chores Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi, Theta Xi, Triangle, and Zeta Beta Tau. Some of the other individuals who donated their time and "elbow grease" were Lucinda Stevens, Rick Goff, Leslie Koorhan, Eugene Thomas, RPnh~rt Thadrinr. ris MiaimMarkp To the Daily: common in the Ohio and U , E .1