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OPINION

Page 4

Wednesday, November 2, 1983

The Michigan Daily


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Et aedbystudnttnveio Michig an i
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

Aiming for the top of
The sacnifices for pe

the 'U':
rfection

Vol. XCIV-No. 49

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board

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Jackson: It'
J ESSE JACKSON'S presidential
candidacy promises to invigorate an
anemic Democratic Party and awaken
more than a few sleeping voters, to the
ultimate benefit of both the party and
the electorate.
These gains will not, however, come
without risks.
The announcement of Jackson's
candidacy prompted a flurry of
criticism that the civil rights leader
would pull black support away from
the Democratic frontrunners, further
fragmenting an already divided party.
Further, his critics claim, Jackson's
"symbolic" presence among the 1984
presidential hopefuls will raise the
hopes of black voters unrealistically, the
result being bitterness among the
Democratic party's most loyal voting
bloc:.
Jackson will change the pattern of
the presidential campaign, but his
candidacy should yield impressive
returns.
Jackson's candidacy stands to net
he Democrats a unified black elec-
torate, and an impressively larger
Grenading
P RAISED BE THE Department of;
Defense - it finally allowed
reporters to roam around Grenada by,
themselves Monday. Thanks for small
favors.
The DOD and the Reagan ad-
ministration failed in-their respon-
sibility to uphold the First Amendment
right of a free press by first refusing
and then restricting media access to
the Caribbean island nation during the
initial days of the invasion. As a result,
the American public was mis- and ill-
informed on the events and circum-
stances of the invasion.;
President Ronald Reagan's first
reason for restraining the press was to,
protect journalists from the dangers of
war. But journalists have never asked
for or received such protection. They,
died while reporting on every war the
United States has fought since the Civil
War. They died trying to get at the
truth.
In Grenada they were denied that
opportunity.
As a result, the administration
viewpoint was all the public had to go
on for the first days of the fighting.
That viewpoint kept changing: the
number of Cubans changed; the

s about tilme
one : Most political observers estimate
Jackson will reach from 500,000 to
three million unregistered blacks,
mostly young men, that would other-
wise probably not vote.
As an inspiration to blacks nation-
wide, Jackson says his exercise will
spawn a surge in the number of black
candidates for local, county, and state
offices across the country.
Perhaps more importantly,
Jackson's presence will force his
Democratic partners to reevaluate
their strategies and finally form a
legitimate basis for their claims of sen-
sitivity to minorities.
It will be painful, but the experience
will cleanse the Democratic party of its
most undesirable contingent -
namely, a patronizing, conspicuously
white leadership.
Yes, Jackson probably will threaten
Walter Mondale and boost John Glenn
early on, and yes, his views on issues
are relatively unknown.
But the presence of Jesse Jackson, of
a vital black candidate, portends
greater ideological health for
Democrats and the democracy.
a free press'
reasons for invading changed; the
number of U.S. troops involved
changed.
How can anyone accept the ad-
ministration's statements without the
independent verification of a free
press? Was the administration afraid
that the press would discover somethig
that would make the U.S. look stupid?
What exactly were the facts of the bat-
tles and resistance?
Perhaps these questions would not
have been answered had the media
been allowed to do its job. Perhaps the
answers would have squared with
Reagan's answers. Sadly, no one will
ever know for sure.
Reagan's invasion of the First
Amendment, if not his invasion of
Grenada, was a rousing success.
Correction
A sentence in the last paragraph of
yesterday's editorial, "Faculty
priorities skewed," should have read:
"That cost is the damaging of the
diversity of the student community."
Due to an editing error the original
statement misrepresents the Daily's
position.

By Robert D.
Honigman
This is the first of two ar-
ticles examining the pressures
students face to succeed. This
article focuses on the search
for excellencesand the destruc-
tion of interpersonal relation-
ships. Tomorrow 's article
examines how students readily
accept the University's values,
though those values differ
from "the real world."
The daughter of a friend of
mine has anexoria. She's just a
teenager. It seems as though it's
not enough nowadays to be just a
person of average weight, height,
or average anything. There are
tremendous pressures on us to
be better than anyone else, or
else we are a nobody, a loser.
In the University there is a win-
ner-loser philosophy. The
University prides itself as being
among the top ten in the nation. It
competes hard for that distin-
ction and pays a price in high
tuition, overcrowded classrooms,
and research-oriented faculty,
who have little interest in un-
dergraduate students. In the
classroom, students are graded
on a curve and only those at the

'To get good grades you have to give
up social activities; to pay high tuition
you have to work part-time. There is
no time to write poetry, have candle-
light dinners with friends, or learn to
love.'

top of the curve get into exclusive
graduate or professional schools.
Then in those schools, only the
most highly rated get good job of-
fers. Even then, good jobs are
only entry ports into competitive
professions where only a few ever
make it to the top. Many are
called, but few are chosen.
NADEZHDA MANDELSTAM,
widow of the great Russian poet
Ossip Mandelstam, once wrote,
"Society is a complex structure
and can be reduced to a biparte
formula - the crowd, a seething
mass of humanity on the one side,
and leaders, giants, and geniuses
on the, other - only by purely ar-
tificial means involving the
deliberate destruction of all
cross-connections bringing
people together." In the Univer-
sity there are superstars -
famous faculty, famous athletes
- and the masses, anonymous
students passing through.

Perhaps in its search for ex-
cellence it doesn't mean to, but
something in the University
destroys the cross-connections
that form between people and
bind them together. The heavy
work loads, the intense com-
petition, the isolation of off-
campus housing, and over-
specialization strip the individual
of friends and cohorts. Student
government is powerless. Each
student is left to find his or her
way alone through the maze.
Failure carries a high cost -
there are proud parents waiting.
Hopes and dreams have been
banked. To get good grades you
have to give up social activities;
to pay high tuition, you have to
work part-time. There is no time
to write poetry, have candle-light
dinners with friends, or learn to
love.
The rate of suicide among
college age people has doubled

and even tripled in recent"
decades. Alcoholism, date-rape,
racial mistrust, breakdowns -
all the symptoms of social disin
tegration and loss of community
- are present in the University:
People shrug their shoulders and
go on with their own privatelives.
The world is unsafe and unsure.
Bad times fall upon good people
and must be endured. Yet, when 4
there is a community and there is
time for love and friendships and
shared experiences, the bad
times are also shared. Broken
dreams and failures are
redeemed by caring friends. But
when bad times are faced alone,
they are unendurable. Then they
cut to the bone.
The bad times in the University
must be faced alone. Something
in the University isolates studen-
ts, breaks down and prevents the
formation of simple friendships
and new avenues of thought and
feeling. And when times get bad
in the University, it is not enough
to be ourselves and let our own
natures unfold. For some reason
we must be perfect.
Honigman is a University
graduate and an attorney in
Sterling Heights.

Sinclair
HEY!ISENOR
SAM! SEEK FT EJ
VT
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Libertarian solution: Recall troops


To the Daily:
When the USSR and Warsaw
Pact armies invaded
Czechoslovakia, the U.S. led the
world in outrage and condem-
nation. Now, however, save for a
slight change of words
("democracy" for "socialism")
Washington has done exactly the
same thing in Grenada.
Over the last 30 years or so, the
U.S. has intruded itself in the in-
ternal affairs of and attempted
to impose its will on a whole host
of countries. And this has been
done regardless of the party in
power in Washington -
Republican, Democratic, liberal,
conservative.
Reagan, while giving lip ser-
vice to the free market ideals and
principles, has continued to
violate those nrincinle in a

would immediately recall all U.S.
military from Lebanon,
Grenada and from Central
America; immediately reduce
U.S. troop strength stationed
elsewhere outside our borders
(with a goal of eliminating them
altogether eventually); im-
mediately halt the deployment of
Pershing and cruise missiles in
Europe; immediately cut back
the number of U.S. missiles in
Europe (thus putting the ball in
the Soviet's court, forcing them
to do likewise or lose tremendous
credibility as peace advocates);
and begin a reduction of gover-
nment interference 'with in-
dividual lives and in themarket-
place (ending tariffs, special
monopolistic favors, regulations,
BLOOM COUNTY

laws governing the ingestion of
substances or the relationships
between concenting adults). Ex-
ploitation, the equal goal of both
the liberal-conservative and
Marxist-Leninist sides has suc-

ceeded only in enslaving and
destroying individuals. There is
only the Libertarian alternative
to this insanity.
- Jim Greenshields
October 25

Daily badmouthed Baez

To the Daily:
I believe reviewer Jim Boyd
missed the point on Joan Baez
("Joan Baez cheats neo-
revolutionaries," Daily, October
22). She is a marvelous human
being dedicated to a marvelous
ideal. She was' dedicated to her
ideal before he was born, and will
remain dedicated long after his
brilliant comments fade from the

pages of a college town daily.
Elevated sensibilities such as
Boyd's would do well to search
for less fertile material in the
creation of reviews.
Good show, Joan! You remain
a monument to much of what is
good about the human race.
- Michael G. Milne
October 22

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by Berke Breathed

24 um noI~E




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