The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 28, 1984 - Page 3
Suicide pills face uphill battle
Associated Press,
High there
A workman outside the state Capitol Building in Lansing starts to decorate the big tree on the front lawn for the Christ-
mas season yesterday. The top of the building's dome is in the background.
.-
Highlight
University Activities Center presents laughtrack and Tim Allen at 9 p.m.
in the U-Club.
Film
MTF-Liquid Sky, 7 p.m., Alien, 9 p.m., Michigan Theater.
Hill St. Cinema-Alexander Nevsky, 7 p.m., Hill St.
Performances
School of Music-"Basically Beethovan 3",8 p.m., School of Music Recital
Hall; Percussion ensemble, 8 p.m., Rackham.
University Activities Center-Laugh Track, Tim Allen, 9 p.m., U-Club.
The Ark-Lady of the Lake & Hoot Night, 8 p.m., 637 S. Main St.
Ann Arbor Libertarian League-Dr. Bette J. Erwin, "Psychodynamics
and Political Preferences", 7 p.m., 1412 Mason Hall.
Dept. of Chemistry-Organic Seminar, Yong Woon Jung, "TMSI and its
Use in Organic Synthesis," 4 p.m., 1300 Chemistry Bldg.
Division of Biological Sciences-Dr. Tahir M. Rizki, "Regulation of White
Locus Transcription in Drosophilia", 3:30 p.m., Natural Science Bldg.
Center for Russian and Eastern Europe Studies-Christine Worobec,
"Crisis in the Post-Emancipation Russian Peasant Family: Myth or Reality?
noon, Lane Hall.
Meetings
Rackham Student Govt. - 5:30 p.m., 4 Michigan League.
Black Student Union-7 p.m., Trotter House.
Michigan Gay Undergraduates-9:30 p.m., 802 Monroe St.
Academic Alcoholics-1:30 p.m., Alano Club.
Ann Arbor Support Group for Farm Labor Org. Committee-5:30 p.m.,
room 4318 Union.
Science Fiction Club-8:15 p.m., Stilyagi Air Corps.
Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship-8 p.m., 225 Angell.
Miscellaneous
Student Wood & Craft Shop-Power Tool safety class, 6 p.m., 537 S.A.B.
U-M Rugby Team-Benefit Bash, 9 p.m., Rick's American Cafe.
Transcendental Mediation Center-Introductory lecture, 8 p.m., 528 West
Liberty St.
Baby wi*th
new heart
imp roves
A six month-old girl believed to be the
youngest heart transplant patient ever
showed "signs of improvement" and
began oral feeding yesterday, a
University Hospitals spokesman said.
"Doctors at- C.S. Mott Children's
Hospital say that the oral feeding and
(her stable condition) indicate she is
improving," spokesman Dave Friedo
said. The girl, whose name was
withheld at her parents' request, had
been fed intravenously since the
operation last Thursday.
The girl needed the transplant
because "two arteries from the heart to
the body were in the wrong place ...
and prevented adequate blood supply to
the heart and body," according to'
Friedo. The operation was performed
by a dozen doctors led by Dr. Douglas
Behrendt. - Dov Cohen
Regan unmveil
tax proposal
(Continued from Page 1)'
$5,000 a year in an IRA.
THE RADICAL nature of the changes
was reflected in the long line of lob-
byists and accounting firm messengers
who waited for copies as Regan began a
news conference to outline the
proposal.
The plan virtually eliminates the
special tax breaks given business in
1981 for investment, saying they are no
longer needed because of the low rate of
inflation.
The plan is the department's answer
to President Reagan's call last January
for an alternative tax system that is
simpler, fairer and more efficient.
REAGAN, however, delivered only a
qualified endorsement of the proposal,
which has several controversial aspec-
ts.
(Continued from Page 1)
Health Service has already said that
it will not stock the pills. And SANS
members say they understand that.
Their goal is to make people think about
nuclear war by equating it with suicide
"We certainly take the issue of
nuclear war very seriously," said
Caesar Briefer, Health Service direc-
tor. "I certainly understand the intent
and share their horror (over nuclear
war)," he added. But still, Health Ser-
vice won't stock suicide pills.
HOWEVER, THE very word
"suicide" has caused some students to
hesitate about backing the proposal.
Earlier this month, MSA asked the
group to reword the proposal before the
assembly would vote to have it placed
on the ballot. SANS, in spite of
clarifying the proposal's language and
adding a sentence stating that the
group does not advocate suicide,
decided to gather 1,000 signatures on
petitions to have the measure put on the
ballot.
Some students, however, feel that the
suicide pills may seem to advocate
suicide.
MSA VICE President Steve Kaplan
said he opposes the use of the word.
"With that word in there it will stop
some people (from) thinking beyond
the word suicide," Kaplan said.
"If MSA endorses (the proposal)
some people can say the student gover-
nment endorsed the stockpile of suicide
pills," Kaplan said.
Others agree with Kaplan. They say
the proposal appears to be an endor-
sement of suicide. But for whatever the
reason, only two of 12 students inter-
viewed yesterday said they favored the
proposal.
"IT'S KIND of like telling people that
(suicide is) alright when it's actually a
sin," said Lynda White, an LSA fresh-
woman.
"I couldn't commit suicide, I'd rather
just die," said Carolyn Cole, an LSA
freshwoman. "It seems like pressure (to
commit suicide) to me . . . and who
wants to think about nuclear war," she
said.
"If the world's bad enough that you
have to take a suicide pill ... you may
as well just go outside (and have the
nuclear war kill you)," said an
engineering school senior who refused
to be identified.
DOUG VENABLE, an LSA senior
said the proposal is too fatalistic. "I
think it's a bad idea because I think
people would be making nulcear war
more probable in their mind."
However, other students said they
disagreed with the proposal for another
reason - because, they say, it isstoo
politically extreme.
"It's just a political thing," said
Firas Atchoo, an LSA freshman.
AN LSA senior who refused to be
identified agreed with Atchoo. "No, I'm
not for it, I think it's going to extremes.
But then again, I'm not into radical
politics," he said. "I don't think it's ad-
vocating suicide. I think they're going
to extremes to get their point across,"
he added. "I just think its kind of
silly."
But according to SANS leader Karen
Mysliwiec, the proposal is not intended
to be silly or funny.
"I don't find nuclear war particularly
funny. In fact, I have nuclear night-
mares," she said.
"YOU CERTAINLY can't call a bun-
ch of people who believe in what they're
doing jokes," Mysliwiec said. "If we
didn't give a damn about what we were
doing, then I would laugh with people
who say this is a joke," she added.
The fact that some students have said
the proposal is silly and too politically
extreme has led others to question
whether or not the group will effec-
tively harness student support.
And according to Eric Schnaufer,
MSA's law school representative who
has worked with the group on the wor-
ding of its proposal, so far, most of the
excitement generated by this measure
has been on the printed page.
"THEY HAVEN't sustained anything
so far besides the media's interest," he
said.
The media has indeed been keeping
an eye on SANS. In addition to local
newspapers and radio stations, other
state news organizations have picked-
up on the proposal.
"We used it on page three," said Ron
Fonger, news editor at Northern
Michigan University's newspaper, The
Northwind. "We thought that the story
had some merit because of what is hap-
pening nationwide," he said. "We felt
that it was certainly important enough
for us to cover," he said.
According to Fonger, the students e t
NMU had mixed reactions about the
proposal.
"I COULD only say that reaction was
mixed," he said. However, he added
that "there was no laughing in the
streets" about the proposal.
The Detroit Free Press ran the story!
on page one. According to city editor'
Jim Crutchfield, the Free Press found,
the story interesting because it came
after a propoal.to make Ann Arbor a
nuclear free zone was defeated in the
city's Nov. 6 election. But above all, the
story was interesting, he said.
"It's certainly an eye-catching idea,"
he said. 'I wouldn't necessarily say it's
important," he said, adding that it will
be considered important if and when
the students vote on the proposal.
BUT WHILE students at NMU had
mixed reactions about the story, Joe
Serwach, a staff reporter at Michigan
State University's State News, said that
the story his paper ran on page three
received lots of laughs from student
government leaders there.
"They basically laughed at the whole
idea and think that it was pretty
preposterous," Serwach said.
SANS member Harvey admits that
this attitude is a problem. Some people,
he said, think that the proposal is
nothing more than a publicity stunt.
"They basically think it's just a
publicity hype right now," he said.
However, he explained that the
movement's goal is "not to get on the
publicity wagon, so to speak," but to
educate students about nuclear war.
"Whether it's a media ploy or
whatever, we feel it's drawing atten-
tion," said Ron Kost, a SANS member.
Mysliwiec said it is ridiculous to think
that the group is after the media's at-
tention. "I always laugh at them and
say I don't need my face plastered on
newspapers," she said. "I don't think
that anyone in the group is egotistical
enough just to do it for the media," she
said.
SYMBOL... young men 16-35
"OF THE MAN WHO
RECEIVES IN GIVING"
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Performing with string orchestra accom-
paniment, double Grammy-winner Wynton
Marsalis interprets standards like "Stardust"
"For All We Know" and "When You Wish Upon A Star" in his own
5~ U~T~ nT~ m.........