4
OPINION
Page 4
Friday, December 2, 1983Ti
The Michgan Dai
A time to begin
thinking about
being dead
By Jonathan Ellis
Now that we have given thanks for being
alive, it seems time to think about being dead.
While talking about death, I want to celebrate
life.
The television movie The Day After presen-
ted a mild version of how we all may die in a
nuclear war-maybe in the next few years,
maybe later, maybe never. The first questions
the film asks are: will this happen? How much
longer do we have?
I CANNOT write more before answering: we
have today. We have the people we love,
whatever is dear to our hearts, the earth. We
are still here. We have not died.
To confront death-and in a nuclear war not
only our own, but perhaps the death of
everyone, the death of the future - brings fear
and even despair. After these, with work,
comes hope.
If the bombs go off, it will be darker than we
saw last week on television. Carl Sagan said
the burning cities could send up enough soot
and smoke to block 95 percent of the sun's
light, cooling much of the planet to sub-freezing
temperatures.
"THINGS WOULD be pitch black in the
target areas within a few days," said Sagan.
Another commentator quoted in The New York
Times added: "You wouldn't be able to see
your hand." No good for TV shots.
So, it will be worse than we saw in the movie.
and each added detail can bring in a new wave
of fear. This is the second question The Day Af-
ter asks: will be let ourselves feel afraid?
"You guys can't have a nuclear war; I have
an exam on Tuesday." Why ask us to be afraid
when we have work to do? Won't the fear
paralyze us?
I WAS MOST afraid watching the missiles go
off, more than when they landed in the film.
For me, the most frightening part is the time in
between, when we know that death is coming,
those thirty minutes - or with the Pershing II
and submarines off the coast, only ten minutes
or even less.
One can avoid the paralysis of fear by tur-
ning away, or by looking straight at what we
fear.
When we can face fear, then comes the next
challenge, despair: to walk around, to sit and
talk, eat, study with the thought that the worst
is not only possible, it is likely. Many believe
we have come to the point - so many
warheads, so little reaction time, so much.
distrust, so little communication - that The
Day After is not far off.
DARK HUMOR is one reaction to despair:
"almost" only counts in horseshoes and
nuclear warfare. In spite of the fundraising
'Raise the question of how
to prevent nuclear war as
the first item of business in
every meeting you attend,
no matter what the group
or subject.'
"Campaign for Michigan," there will be no new
Chemistry Building after a nuclear war, not
even an old one. No job after all those "As"; no
faculty raises after all that research.'
But it may be necessary to feel personally,
both fear and despair - to imagine the
mushroom clouds over us, in order to stop
them. Says Elizabeth Kubler-Ross:
"There are five different stages a person will
go through when he faces the fact of his own
death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression,
and acceptance. These stages will last for dif-
ferent periods of time, they will replace each
other, or exist at times side by side ... But the
one thing that usually persists through all these
stages is hope."
WE CAN HOPE because this is still the day
before; with action comes hope. What we each
decide to do to prevent nuclear war may be dif-
ferent, as we are, one from another. But there
is one action I hope we all will take.
Let's not put this away any longer. There is
an immediate threat to all our lives, and to the
lives of all who would come after us. This
threat of annihilation in a nuclear war is as
real as all the things on which we focus instead,
and more important. The first action is to open
our eyes and our hearts to the kind of death just
ahead of us.
And then to live. The problem of how to
prevent a nuclear war is so complex that
possible individual actions may not come
easily. Here are some simple ways to begin. If
we start with the simple and the obvious, more
can follow.
* Raise the question of how to -prevent
nuclear war as the first item of business in
every meeting you attend, no matter what th
group or the subject, everytime friends gather
at all activities in which you participate, ever
service, every class;
" Go out and find an organization you feel
doing something concrete to prevent nuclea
war and join it. Start looking today; join thi
week; -.
" Write one letter every week to one of thos
people who control nuclear weapons, their fun
ds, research, production or use. Tell them Wha
you feel;
" Make a decision about electoral politics. 4
you believe in it, go to work for a candidate wh
will make nuclear war less likely than it i
today;
" Consider the more demanding alternativd
Civil disobedience, for one, is a non-violen
path which people have chosen in the mos
serious of situations;
" Set aside one hour, go for a walk, make yot
own list of possible actions, share them.
Lastly, allow yourself to breath in all of life
Then send it out more fully than you took it in
If life is the answer to death, total life must b
the answer to total destruction. Live.
Ellis works at Canterbury Laft.
Stewart
Edte d tuaten t f ig
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCIV-No. 71
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
YITZI-AK, I THINK
E~ SHOULD SERIOUSLY
DISCUSS CONCESSIONS
ON THEWESTR ANK
AND GAL STRIP
ETTLZWM HS,, ,,
SOVE-T IN
I
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Administration lp service
40
A
E LVIS COSTELLO sang it best:
"Lip service, that's all I ever get
from you." After listening to LSA Dean
Peter Steiner at Wednesday's Campus
Meet the Press, students in the college
should be singing that disconcerting
line.
Steiner said student voices on the
college's decisions are important, but
not at the most influential levels.
"Student input into decision-making
can be very viable in certain areas,"
the highest ranking administrator in
LSA said. But that does not mean
students deserve a vote on the LSA
Executive Committee - the group that
makes or recommends all the crucial
decisions for the college.
If Steiner is willing to grant that
students have some important things
to say about the policies of LSA, why
not give them the full voice they deser-
ve? The executive committee is the
powerful guiding force behind
decisions that have direct import on
students. It formulates recommen-
dations for the regents on tenure. It
makes final decisions on course of-
ferings and the diversity of the
college's programs. Though all of
these decisions affect LSA students
these students have no impact on
them.
LSA Student Government has been
fighting for just such a voice for years.
Its leaders have tried and tried again
to get a full voting student member on
the executive committee. The college's
and University's administrators, in
their infinite paternalistic wisdom,
keep saying no to such a move, as they
do for the vast majority of similar
student pushes for deserved votes on
University policy.
Eric Berman, the newly-elected
president of LSA-SG, made gaining a
student non-voting member on the
executive committee one of his main
goals. His hope is that once Steiner and
the committee members see that a
student can formulate rational, sound,
and well thought out arguments, they
will be more willing to go one step fur-
ther and give the' student member a
vote.
It isn't a bad strategy, but Steiner's
comments Wednesday make the goal
seem a little more distant. Steiner ap-
parently recognizes the importance of
listening to students. He said he is
willing to allow students to sit on
departmental -committees - where
they won't be able to impact the truly
influential decisions. But it appears
that Steiner believes that the "viable"
student voice ends when it matters
most.
J)
of
WHAT DO YOU
AIA.E NEED- A LOAN?
4FWENCE, TANKS? ROCKET-
t-AUNCI1RS J? NT
FIGHTERS? -yOU
NAME ir!,,
,w43
I I
rfJ
.
t
1
p?
,a
K
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:.
Not a fad; Saints'
Ladies (of the evening) night
ECAUSE THERE'S just nothing
else to do in this town, and since
all the old ideas have already been
used, Theta Chi, a campus fraternity
has kindly invited all the women on
campus to attend a much-needed
"Pimp and Prostitute" party. Par-
ticipants have been urged to "dress
appropriately and come ready for a
night full of fun," according to leaflets
posted around campus. Though it is
unclear how a prostitute might dress
appropriately, it does promise to be a
good time, as the exploitation of
women is feigned by the light-hearted
partygoers.
Beach parties are so passe that
presumably a more socially relevant
theme had to be found. The pimp-
prostitute relation certainly fills the
ballet. Sure, it's all in "fun,"
mimicking the institution of
prostitution, the world's oldest
profession. With any luck, a wide
range of services will be rendered at
low cost.
All of it is understandable, of course.
Ann Arbor doesn't have anything else
to offer. No films, no theater or music,
and no athletic events to brighten the
,dismal social calender on campus. So
the chance to dress up like a sleaze
has to sound appealing. Pimps can be
nice guys in disguise and prostitutes
can be fun-loving young women under
a lot of makeup. Sure, male-dominant,
sexist attitudes are reinforced by this
creative role-playing, but that's
alright. It's only for one night, right?
To the Daily:-
Contrary to the view of the
Daily, two politically effective
sit-ins do not constitute a sit-in
fad ("The sit-in fad," Daily,
November 16). The meaning-of
the Nuclear Saints of America's
recent intervention in military
research and the issue of
academic freedom are larger
matters than the Daily editorial
implies.
As an observer, not a par-
ticipant, of this pointed satire, I
was amused and intrigued by the
relative ease with which the Sain-
ts exploded the cult-like mythos
of scientific objectivity and
value-free, "pure" research
through a critical exaggeration of
both its logic and attendant
psychology. The French have a
word for it: detournement, i.e.
turning the thing on itself with an
eye to revealing its essense.
Prof. Senior himself was
caught in the reverse
mystification, identifying with
the NSA and, for a time, thinking
it to be a parody of the PSN sit-in
a week earlier. Nevertheless, the
event required him to make a
revelation of his own: with an en-
tourage of campus security and
Ann Arbor police he appeared at
2:30 a.m. to evict or arrest the
NSA.
It may be the case that "pure"
scientific research is immune
from the control of those who pay
for it; it may also be possible that
resources and people resulting in
hunger, disease, war, and death
for the many and priviledge for
the few.
Academic freedom is not an
absolute right. The defense of
research which endangersthe
lives of millions by appeal to
academic freedom is analogous
to the justification of shouting
"fire" in a crowded theater by
appeal to free speech. The
question posed by NSA is not
about absolute academic
M' fans ignore U; cheer only for themselve5
sit-in effective
freedom but about academic selves. In sum, the
freedom for whom and for what treme logic, maintena
purpose. surd roles and refusa
The NSA demanded that clean as to their actual
students with investments in should be seen as a r
defense industries be given the equally absurb log
tuition tax credits to make tran- Senior and the DOD a
sparent the University's fiscal to convulse the woi
and research policies. The NSA's horrors of nuclear
remaining demands - which the while speaking of
Daily must have received yet has peace, and every other
not printed - fall within the same turn inside out.
spirit of questioning received - Eri
truths by turning them on them-. N
NSA's ex
ance of at
al to com.
i objective
evelition a
gic of Prof
s they pla
orld Jit
apocalyp
freedom
r value the;
cSchnaufe
ovember 1
To the Daily:
Another terrific University of
Michigan football season is in the
books, and best of all, the
Wolverines dumped the
Buckeyes to end the season on a
great note.
Worst of all, some negative
things happened November 19th
that really did not need to hap-
pen. I'm speaking of the fans and
several incidents that reflect
nothing positive about the school.
I will not expound the incidents
themselves, the Detroit media
has taken care of that. Rather, I
want to discuss the attitudes
many of the students seem to
come to the game with.
Sitting in the stadium, it ap-
pears to me that many students
are not concerned about whether
Michigan wins, but are concer-
ned about creating attention for
themselves. They are not into
cheering for the University, they
are into looking for opportunities
to be animalistic.
When the crowd rushed the
goal post, no one seemed to realize,
or care, that Ohio State Univer-
sity still had a legitimate chance
to win the game. They are not in-
to cheering for our team, they are
into jeering the other team. Did
anyone notice that the first cheer
on November 19th was not "Let's
Go Blue," it was "Ohio State
Sucks." Granted, the majority of
the students are not like this, but
it is the minority that caused one
of the Michigan assistants to say
after the game, "I'm glad this
game wasn't on national TV."
There is nothing wrong with
having a good time at the game,
but it seems that the fans are
disregarding their duties of spor-
tsmanship and loyalty to the
principles of a great universit
They are taking advantage of the
fact that no PA announcer, polic
force, or security group can con
trol them if they are unified.
This is a classy school, with a
classy athletic program anc
classy students. They should b
100 percent behind their teams
and forget about attacking th
other school or officials, nomat
ter what the circumstances are
Let's prevent this thing from t
ning into a South American soc
cer melee.
Basketball season is upon u
and it should be truly exciting
Let's use 100 percent of out
energy to back Michigan, noimat
ter-who we are playing. :
-Bob Sac
November 2'
-w Q me«i -- r . Q~s a t