I
OPINION
Page 4 ,
Thursday, January 14, 1982
0%e d a n :3 a t4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCII, No. 85 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48},09
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
The Michigan Daily
morgasn
would be proud...
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Another policy flip-flop
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IDENT Reagan, after by Reagan, with the special backing of
umbing to political pressure South Carolina conservative, Sen.
eral of the nation's black Strom Thurmond. Though Reagan
ip-flopped on policy Tuesday claimed in his statement Tuesday that
ged his stance on allowing tax he did not intend the earlier decision to
status to racially be racist, the damage had already
atory organizations. While it been done.
ndable that Reagan finally The protest was immediate and har-
e the racist policy, the fact sh. New York Sen. Patrick Moynihan
ok extreme pressure from said the Justice Department decision
ders to persuade Reagan to was "surely immoral ... and illegal as
change demonstrates his well. This was a decision to give to the
sensitivity in civil rights forces in Congress that want to undo
the civil rights movement.
One would assume that the otherwise
tier decision by the Justice politically prudent Reagan ad-
nt which allowed schools that ministration would handle such
I racial discrimination to decisions with tact. However, the
x-exempt status with the In- Reagan administration repeatedly has
-venue Service clearly per- given little consideration to the
-and, in fact, supported- possible reaction to its policies.
cism. Reagan's earlier flip-flop on Social
president, an idealogue Security is a perfect example. His plan
y insensitive to the cries of to reduce Social Security benefits had
t deeply hurt byphis domestic to be quickly scrapped because of the
cisions, could not hold his popular protest the move stirred
nder direct accusations of across the nation.
The nation's activists should express
I's decision to call for their discontent with administration
)n reversing the Justice policy more often. Obviously, active
ant's ruling is laudable, but protest can work. When the -ad-
tude in forseeing the popular ministration makes a policy change
atrocious. that is obviously detrimental to the
stice Department's announ- nation, as its allowance of tax exempt
the ending of the 11-year-old status for discriminatory
n on racially discriminatory organizations was, the people must
ions was personally cleared organize their opposition to it.
U
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Support human rights i*n all nations
Letters and columns represent the opinions of the in-
dividual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the at-
titudes or beliefs of the Daily.
To The Daily:
As George Orwell once noted,
jingoists not only fail to disap-
prove of atrocities committed by
their own side, but display a
remarkable propensity for not
even hearing about them.
One sometimes wonders
whether the same applies to our
news media. Witness the
repression in Poland. From the
coverage given, one might be led
to believe that such levels of
repression are unprecedented
and unsurpassed in the free
world.
Compare, for example, the
sparse coverage given to
another recent suppression of
democratization. The cry for
humanitarian concern was
barely audible when General
Chun (who as the "butcher of
Kwangju" was responsible for
about one thousand deaths)
wrestled power and declared
martial law in South Korea last
year; 38,000 were soon afterwar-
Wf.asserman
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Explanation and apology
r-
To the Daily:
This letter is in response to one
written by Ms. Yvonne Duffy on
Dec. 7.
In her letter Ms. Duffy, a
physically disabled person, com-
plained about her difficulties at-
tending UAC Soph Show '81. Her
complaint was two-fold: first,
she said that she was unable to
reach the theater through the
Michigan League, and second,
once in the theater she found the
wheelchair patron area filled
with a video camera.
I would like to sincerely
apologize for the barriers en-
countered by Ms. Duffy and offer
her (and other disabled people)
an explaniation and advice. First,
with regards to the hassles within
the theater-the camera was
placed in one of two spaces
reserved for the handicapped af-
ter a prior check of our box office
had shown that neither of the
spaces had been sold. Upon Ms.
Duffy'Is complaint to me, the
camera was promptly removed
without any threats from Ms.
Duffy. Second, the difficulties she
faced reaching the theater were
not UAC Soph Show's fault, but
were caused by the management
and rental policies of the
Michigan League.
By way of advice, let me
suggest that the only way to
change organizational mentality
toward physical barriers is to
contact the organizations in-
volved and complain directly.
Neither the UAC Soph Show of-
fice nor the Michigan League
were contacted by Ms. Duffy or in
any way made aware of her dif-
ficulties.
If such contact had been made,
we could have taken action and
given Ms. Duffy the personal ex-
planation and apology she deser-.
ved.
Again, I deeply apologize for
Ms. Duffy's unhappy experience
and hope it did not detract from
her overall enoyment of our
show.
-Brian Uitvlugt
Producer, Soph
Show '81
ds arrested, including 200 leaders
of the Solidarity-styled
democratic labor movement
which had estoblished itself for
the first time in twenty years.
The response of the media then is
in stark contrast to that today.
For many months, the exploits
and fate of Solidarity's Lech
Walesa have been the subject of
many reports. Compare this,
however, to the seeming indif-
ference which accompanied the
struggles and subsequent im-
prisonment last year of Brazil's
internationally known,
charismatic labor leader "Lula"
(Luis Ignacio da Silva) or the
jailing of Ernesto Arellano, the
leader of the frowing independent
labor movement in the Philip-
pines.
Also noteworthy in this regard
is Secretray of State Alexander
Haig's overriding concern with
internationalism coupled with the
sometimes unquestioning media.
The civilian deaths last year in a
single massacre by U.S.-backed
security forces (such as La Sen-
ttada in El Salvador or the Pata
Island massacre in the Philip-
pines) can match the total num-
ber of accumulated deaths due to
international terrorism in any
given year.
The same could be said of the
number if dissidents abducted by
police and never seen again (the
"desaparecidos") in Argentina or
in Chile or the extrajudicial
executions in Guatemala.
Moveover, the victims of the,
ongoing Indonesian genocide in
East Timor vastly exceed, by or-
ders of magnitude, all deaths
from international terrorism in
the last few years. Presumably,.
the relatively faint moral outcry,
for this State-induced, sub rosa
terrorism is due to its noncon-
structive nature given the con-
text of East-West confrontations.
Between Fiscal Years 1950- to
1979; the eight above-mentioned
"free" world dictatorships alone
received $11.97 billion in military
aid from the U.S. government,
which included expenditures for
the U.S.-training of 81,30'
military personnel from those
countries in the given period.
These figures do not include tie
training in the U.S. of 1,808 police
officers from those eight coun-
tries between Fiscal Years 1961
to 1973 at a cost to U.S. taxpayers
of an additional $41.25 million. In
light of this, it is rather in-.
teresting that any complicity in.
terror within our sphere of in-
fluence and control is often con-t
veniently overlooked, while the
Soviet Union's role -in crushing
freedom in Poland and elsewhere,
- is sanctimoniously decried. Let,
us instead support the Polish
people. solidarity, as well as all
other movemnents for freedom,
and democracy, and move
towards a more balanced con-
cern for human rights.
-Jorge Emmanuel
January 11
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