4 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 SS I -~ _.- 4 N ! .. \ ' r E 4 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 I I I 1 s " u i- I... . >_ - ., s - : - , n \ SGLlA9Rl?'Y. p 0 t , M F. li _ ' ., ,- - - . d' . I a" I