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OPINION
Page 4 Tuesday, February 28, 1984
The Michigan Daoiy;
Living it up in A2
over spring break
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By Naomi Saferstein
I can think of nothing worse than the
Monday after vacation. For those who
went to Florida, Colorado, or Mexico,
Monday means rolling out of bed, get-
ting caught in the alarm clock cord,
tripping on the way to the sink, looking
in the mirror to see you're peeling, then
having no hot water left in the shower
and finally arriving ten minutes late to
class tofind out that next Friday's mid-
term has been moved to this coming
Thursday and you don't even have the
book yet. For those of us who stayed in
Ann Arbor, Monday means having to
deal with the ones who went away to
Florida, Colorado, or Mexico.
There's no geting around it. And
living in the dorms is the worst because
it always figures that at least three-
fourths of the people on your hall have
spent the last week basking in the
tropical sunlight while you've been
stewing underneath the institutional
lighting in the Law Quad reading
Plato's Republic. But the epitome of
misery is always to be found in the
bathroom. If you're one of those people
who is sub-human before your morning
shower there is only one thing sadder
than being cordial on a Monday, at 8:00
a.m., when you have no clothes on and
all the showers are full. And that's
being cordial at 8:00 a.m. when you're
naked, feel like a clammy tuna, and the
girl standing next to you, the one with
the Gotex tan lines, says, "So how was
your vacation?" It's death. The best
thing to do is just tell the 6 ft. pair of
legs with the Christy Brinkley tan "Oh,
it was nice." Keep it nice and short.
You never want to come out and ask how
her vacation was because then you're
forced to listen to stories about pina
coladas, and how nice the natives were.
So you end it there and hope that you
won't have to wait too much longer for a
shower. But heaven forbid the Bain de
Soleil woman should leave the conver-
sation at that, she just has to ask, "So,
did you go anywhere?"
"No." You answer and cross your
fingers that that will nip her amiability
in the bud. However, when she looks at
you with those "'come on, ask me, ask
me, please, I'm dying to tell you where
half-hour, listening to tales of Acapulco,
93 degree weather, and all night dan-
cing at Baby-O's or the Club UBQ.
You'll hear tales of moonlight walks,
windsurfing, and at least four
'Sunshine and 70 degrees on the Diag
doesn't compare to Tom Collins' by the
pool-the pool with the waterfall and the
underwater bar.
what seemed so wonderful a week ago
seems baby pool material now. Sun-
shine and 70 degrees on ,the Diag
doesn't compare to Tom Collins' by the
pool - the pool with the waterfall and
the underwater bar. And boogie-ing to
the disco beat at the Rubaiyat's two-for-
one night appears meager in com-
parison to doing "La Bamba" to a 12
piece Latin American orchestra. Even
East quad's French cuisine, which was
food service's creme de la cremeof the
year, sounds obsolete when you're
talking about freshly caught and grilled
red snapper at "La Paradise." And
alas, when you have to say something,
all you end up saying is, "Oh, Ann Ar-
bor was pretty nice," and you find
yourself feeling like a gumbie doll for
the rest of the day.
But wait, my fellow loyal Ann Ar-
borites. After numerous "Oh my
vacation was productive, how about
yours?", I have, come up with a
solution: lie. I'm not talking about fib-
bing or stretching the truth, not a
weekend in Chicago or a four-day jaunt
to Toronto; make it big. Tell anyone
who asks that you went skiing in Swit-
zerland or traveling in Istanbul. Buy a
sunlamp, get some color, and tell the
gang about your wonderful- vacation in
Sagres, Portugal. Most people ar
clueless as to where Sagres is; they'll
feel too stupid to ask questions. Tell
them you visited a dying aunt in
Nairobi, or that you spent time with
your second cousin once removed 4Qd
is a game ranger in Kenya. When a
loss for words, Lithuania or Yugosla%14
are always good for diversity. I*i
sworn that to the next person I see wit
savage tan who asks me where I spelt
my vacation I'm going to see "India"
go on to tell how nice Bombay is tai
time of year. And as their mouth drop'
when I show them my silk sari (whic i
bought from Middle Earth) all I'll do is
smile and say, "Acapulco, eat youII
hear out."
I went" eyes, you really have no choice
but to ask. "So, did you go anywhere?"
you mumble while gritting your teeth,
bracing yourself for the flood. And
without fail, there you'll sit, for the next
amazingly sexy and rich men left
broken hearted because Coppertone
Sue had to go home.
And finally, finally, she'll ask, "So,
how was Ann Arbor?" But somehow,
Saferstein is
ter.
a Daily staff repor
6
Sinclair
Edited and managed by students nt The University of Michigan
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CrANIDiAT r
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Vol. XCIV-No. 116
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Admitting defeat
T IS DIFFICULT to say just what
Ronald Reagan's current policy in
Lebanon is, but it is not difficult to see
that the continued U.S. bombardment
of Lebanese targets is unjustified in-
tervention in a conflict that has not and
will not be resolved through the ap-
plication of American military force.
Afraid of being accused of "cutting
and running" from Lebanon, the
shelling may represent nothing more
than an attempt on Reagan's part to
reaffirm strength and obscure what is
effectively a failed policy. This would
be a pitiful attempt to preserve the ad-
ministration's image, but it would
nevertheless offer the hope that the
U.S. forces would once and for all fully
withdraw from the area. But what is
more likely, and disturbing, is that
Reagan is pursuing a policy that will
continue to involve American military
force in support of the government of
aAmin Gemayel.
The administration would be moving.
no closer to a peaceful resolution
of the conflict in supporting
Gemayel. His presidency and recent
actions have been marked by political
favoritism and shifting loyalties, not
by desperately needed moves toward
unifying Lebanon's vying factions.
In the past Gemayel's lack of
willingness to compromise created an
antagonism between himself and the
Moslem population - an antagonism
that has recently resulted in the
resignation of Moslem leaders from
the government and mass defections
from the Lebanese army. But now as a
result of his government's weakened
position, Gemayel is attempting to
pacify those Moslems he once
alienated. As a signal to Syrians and
Moslems within his own country, he
has expressed an interest in cancelling
the May 17 peace accord with Israel
which was formulated by U.S.
Secretary of State George Schultz.
Should the Reagan administration con
tinue to support Gemayel, these shif-
ting policies within the GeiAyel
government would lead to a confused
American policy. Reagan would
have to think twice about committing
support to a government that is turning
away from Israel in favor of Syria.
Whether it be an attempt by Reagan
to show that his policies are still stan-
ding tall and that America isn't run-
ning away, or an effort to support the
ill-defined, ineffectual Gemayel
government, there is nothing to
recommend any further U.S. in-
volvement.
Reagan has said that, "We will stand
firm to deter those who seek to influen-
ce Lebanon's future by intimidation."
But no one in Lebanon has a monopoly
on intimidation. Syria and Israel, the
many conflicting religious factions,
and in a subtler sense, the United
States, are all attempting to influence
Lebanon's future. It will take a long
time, however, before the problem of
Lebanon's future is resolved, and the
presence of U.S. forces has not and will
not contribute constructively to a
peaceful settlement in the region. The
time is, long past for Reagan to realize
that nothing more can be done.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Sexism is written on the wall
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To the Daily:
I have just finished reading the
editorial and column about the
protest of the Marilyn Monroe
look-a-like contest in Wed-
nesday's paper (Daily, February
8). Considering the Daily's
reputation as a socially conscious
newspaper, I was surprised by
the insensitivity and ignorance
demonstrated by' the authors.
Both of these pieces consciously
trashed and trivialized not just
the protest itself, but the
women's movement as well.
The event was seen in Gary Ef-
fman's column as "all in good
fun" and therefore it was inap-
propriate for any group or in-
dividuals to tarnish that good
Saturday night fun by trying to
make participants and spectators
aware of the destruction their ac-
tions were causing to others. I
remember the Daily trashing
several other campus related
events that were also "all in good
fun". These included the recent
south sea party by a fraternity
where some of its members came
dressed in grass skirts and black-
face. The Daily's social con-
sciousness was at that event, why
wasn't it at the Michigan Theatre
last Saturday? Would the
Michigan Daily also have said an
Amos and Andy look-a-like con-
test was "all in good fun"?
Maybe if whites could try out for
it also that would make it OK.
In the eyes of the Daily and ap-
parently many of the spectators
ticipants is something largely
irrelevent. The child that calls a
black person a nigger because his
parents do it demeans the person
as much or more than if a mem-
ber of the Ku Klux Klan did it.
You are just as dead from a
drunken driver running a red light
as you are from a mugger's gun.
In fact, more than six times as
many people are uninten-
tionally killed on our highways as
are intentionally murdered. One
of the purposes of the protest was
to bring these arguments to the
attention of the spectators and
the general public. Whether in-
tentional or not, whether men can
do it too or not, the Marilyn
Monroe look-a-like contest and
accompanying movies glorified
the sexual exploitation and op-
pression of women and it failed to
take seriously Marilyn's or any
other women's attempts at being
BLOOM COUNTY
a human being as valuable and
real as any man.
Another major criticism
unleashed by the Daily on the
protesters as individuals andon
the women's movement was the
trivial concerns latched onto by
the activists to protest. Con-
sidering how trivial they thought
the protest was, it is beyond my
understandingtwhy the Daily felt
it necessary to have a lengthy
column and editorial condemning
the protest. Moreover, the defen-
siveness of the pieces was in-
credible. If the problem being
protested that Saturday night was
so trivial, why defend it as if the
30 or so protesters were attacking
some major edifice of American
society, a keystone to the social
structure of inequality?
Seemingly men in Ann Arbor can
handle attempts to take rape off
the streets by women, but they
apparantly cannot handle an at-
tack on the basic institutions and
activities that reproduce and
support the more insidious rape
mentalities they hold so dear. C
Marilyn Monroe died because
of exploitation by men. Een
though her goal in life was to be
taken seriously as a professional
actress, she was used solely aq a
sex object both in her movies and
by her fellow professionals who
sought her only after sharing lier
bed. She and many people like
her will undoubtedly have to die,
by their own hands or at the han-
ds of others, before the Daily and
most of the rest of the society will
look up and see the writing on the
wall.
John Boles
Jason Lee
Lynn Jacqupt
Paula Rust
February 10
by Berke Breathed
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