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OPINION
Page4 Tuesday, March 5, 1985 The Michigan Daily
Ie 13fl dman 1 aiI
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
MSA elections
approaching
Vol. XCV, No. 120
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
A Super fund
By Steve Kaplan
and Scott Page
The annual Michigan Student Assembly
(MSA) elections will be held on April 9 and 10.
The filing deadline for candidates will be
March 20 at 5 p.m. Anyone interested in run-
ning for an MSA position as an independant or
as a member of a party or coalition should
stop by the MSA offices an pick up infor-
mation. No petitions or signitures are
necessary to be a candidate, only an interest
in serving on the assembly. Also, represen-
tatives are elected from every school and
college, so anyone can run for MSA.
We strongly encourage people to run for
MSA. MSA offers a unique opportunity to be
involved in the University's decision making
process. Each year, the University ad-
ministration makes (and does not make)
hundreds of decisions which directly affect
the quality and diversity of student life. MSA
represents the most effective avenue for in-
cluding student input into those decisions. The
quality and extent of that student input rests
with the individual MSA members. If an MSA
member feels that a particular issue, such as
the proposed code or security on campus,
needs to be seriously examined, then MSA
possesses the organizational and financial
resources to voice that concern to the Univer-
sity community.
MSA also offers the opportunity to directly
serve fellow students. Through our Budget
Priorities Committee we allocate over $20,000
to student organizations. Our Student"
Organizations Board registers student
groups, assigns office space in the Union and
in the Michigan League, and puts together a
guide to student organizations to help studen-
ts find the organization that is best for them.
Our Personnel Interviewing Committee
selects the student representatives for all of
the faculty and regental committees, such as
the University's Budget Priorities Committee
and the Board in control of Intercollegiate
Athletics.
In addition, MSA offers the opportunity for
tremendous personal growth. Participation
will enhance your leadership skills and your
ability to contribute to a delibrative body.
More importantly, though, the decisions that
are made by MSA are real, impacting both
the student and University communities. The
skills you develop will enable you to better
serve the students and better yoice their con-
cerns.
This year we are very concerned with get-
ting highly motivated candidates from the
smaller schools and colleges. MSA benefits
greatly from qualified representatives from
the smaller schools and colleges, such as
Social Work, Library Science, and Art. Also,
graduate student participation has been 4
lacking in recent years, we would encourage,
graduate students to come in and learn about
how MSA can address issues of concern to
them.
Again, we would encourage people to stop
by the offices and find out the responsibilities
of assembly members. The deadline for filing
is March 20.
A MIDST THE Reagan administra-
tion's unhealthy attitude toward
the problem of toxic waste disposal, it
appears that not all of Washington is
unreceptive to the necessity of clean
and healthy environment. The Senate
Environmental Committee voted last
week to approve the $7.5 billion Super-
fund hazardous waste cleanup bill.
Congressmen in the House are expec-
ted to approve an even larger sum.
Last year the House approved a five-
year, $10.2 billion cleanup bill which
failed to clear Congress.
Although the Senate bill will yet be
reviewed by the Finance Committee -
a major stumbling block for last year's
toxic waste legislation - the current
trend of responsible environmental
legislation that the bill represents is a
welcome change from the negligent
policies and proposals of the Reagan
White House.
Sierra Club -Legislative Director
David Gardiner called the bill "a
strong repudiation of the ad-
ministration's proposal." If passed,
the Superfund legislation would call for
an expenditure of $2.2 billion higher
than Reagan's cleanup proposal.
The bill would also require com-
panies to report to federal, state, and
local authorities on the use, storage,
and spills of any industrial by-products
containing more than one percent of a
hazardous material. All federal in-
stallations would be required to
develop cleanup plans for their own
toxic waste within 26 months of the
date the law would take effect. The law
would also set up a $30 million program
to pay the medical expenses of people
exposed to waste from Superfund sites.
The problem of hazardous waste will
become more severe if its danger is
underestimated. The Senate decision is
a small step in the right direction, but
the country will continue to be plagued
with unhealthy and life-threatening in-
dustrial waste unless governments on
all levels make concerted efforts to
keep those companies in check.
Although the Superfund project is far
from ratification, and the problems
posed by hazardous waste disposal are
far from solved, it appears that
Congress has accepted the challenge of
making the country safe from harmful
waste products.
It's about time.
Page is president of MSA,
is vice-president.
and Kaplan4
Sinclair
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Working for peace?
NICARAGUA has thrown the ball
into the U.S. court, but so far the
U.S. has bobbled it.
In the wake of the concessions
Nicaragua has recently offered,
Secretary of State George Schultz has
played down the importance of the
concessions and claimed that his rec-
ent meetings with Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega accomplished
very little.
Nicaragua has offered to dismiss 100
of its Cuban advisors, halt
procurement of some new weapons
systems, allow a bipartisan
Congressional delegation to inspect its
military bases, and remove some of
the stumbling blocks in the Contadora
peace talks initiated by several Latin
American countries to work for overall
peace in the region.
Schultz responded to the offer by
noting that tere -are enough Cuban
advisors in Nicaragua that at the rate
of 100 a year, "it will take until the
middle of the next century for all to
leave." In addition, he noted, the
Nicaraguans have been unsuccessful
in obtaining some of the weapons
systems, such as high performance
jets, that they are offering not to seek.
Nevertheless, the Nicaraguan offer
represents a significant effort to work
toward peace. By treating it lightly,
Schultz is running afoul of the
professed U.S. goal of peace in the
region.
The Nicaraguans have agreed to
give up custody of Jose Urbina Lara, a
Nicaraguan youth whose demand for
asylum in the Costa Rican embassy in
December halted the last round of the
Contadora peace talks. That con-
cession removes a stumbling block
from a path that the Nicaraguans have
been eager to follow.
Last year, Nicaragua supported a
draft of a treaty drawn up by the Con-
tadora group in which both
Nicaraguan and U.S. backed countries
would reduce their weaponry. The U.S.
claimed that there were not ample
means for verification of Nicaraguan
reductions, and has demanded that the
Nicaraguans negotiate with armed
rebel groups working out of Honduras
and Costa Rica.
The rebels have repeatedly attacked
civilians at random, and lack sufficient
popular support to win any foothold in
Nicaraguan territory. Until they cease
their terrorist tactics, it is entirely un-
derstandable that the Nicaraguans
refuse to negotiate with them..
In the meantime, with Nicaraguans
willing to engage in talks with the other
Latin American governments, the
Reagan administration has been
stirring up American support for the
rebels. Calling them "the moral equals
of our founding fathers," he seems in-
tent upon sowing seeds for public favor
of an imminent invasion of Nicaragua.
Considering the offer that the
Nicaraguans have made and the harsh
response they have received from the
U.S. government, it seems apparent
that it is the Nicaraguans who are
working forhpeace in the region, and
the U.S. who is bent on destabilizing a
duly elected regime and perhaps even
fostering war.
4
Letters
No sympathy for imprisoned pro testers
To the Daily:
You people state in your
editorial "Spring Break in Jail"
(Daily, February 22) that the rest
of the University community
should "take time out to remem-
ber the protestors and their cause
every day they remain in jail." I
feel that you are absolutely
wrong in your support of these
people, and intend to show why.
To begin with, you admit that
the protesters violated the law in
refusing to leave the laboratory.
You then said that civil
disobediencesrequires the
breaking of some laws to under-
score a greater cause. This is an
unfortunate feeling on your part.
Our country is based upon people
striving for. whatsthey believe is
right. As Patrick Henry said, "I
do not agree with what you say,
but I will defend to the death your
right to say it," we must defend
the rights of others to do things
which are legally their right,
.despite whether or not we per-
sonally agree with their actions.
Your scream loudly about an in-
dividual's right to have an abor-
tion, and say that it is no one
else's concern, but you refuse to
allow one researcher to in-
vestigate new frontiers of
knowledge. This is hardly a con-
sistent viewpoint.
Continuing along these lines, it
does not seem to me to make a
great deal of sense for LSA
students to tell Engineering
students or professors what
terrible people they are for doing
certain types of research. This
amnpr of Mon1 Mainritv inter-
of is evil, and should be stopped. I
feel that the PSN and similar
organizations which try to
restrict researchiare doing
nothing short of attempting to
practice mind control, which
definitely makes all of their self-
righteous rhetoric seem awfully
shallow.
A final point which you fail to
stress in your editorial is that
these students were given a
choice of penalties: they could
spend 56 hours of community
service5or paysa $120 fine, but
they chose to go to jail. If these
students were really interested in
making the world a better place
to live, they would contribute
their services to some com-
Imunity organization which could,
use the help, rather than forcing
taxpayers to put them up for
almost two weeks. This is blatant
grandstanding to, show what
poor, helpless martyrs they are,
and I believe that anyone with a
third grade education should be
able to recognize-that fact.
- Mark Gabriele
March 4
Pseudonym more revealing than letter
To the Daily:
It was with feeling of deja vu
that I noticed that the letter to the
Editor "Consider" was signed
Marion Delgado. "Marion
Delgado, live like him," was a
slogan of the Weatherman (later
the Weather Underground) Fac-
tion of SDS. That name was ob-
tained from an old "Life"
Magazine photograph which
showed a grinning five-year-old
BLOOM COUNTY
Chicano boy named Marion
Delgado who had just derailed a
train in California with a brick. In
the parlance of the Weathermen,
it was a capitalist train and a
Communist brick.
Perhaps the pseudonym tells us
more than the letter as to what is
appropriate to consider.
- Nathan Brittles
February 13
The Michigan Daily encourages input from
our readers. Letters should be typed, triple-
spaced, and sent to the Daily Opinion Page, 420
Maynard, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.
by Berke Breathed
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