al OPINION Thursday, October 31, 1985 Page 4 The Michigan Doily Stagnating protests A disease is infecting Ann Arbor. It tends to affect people with soft hearts and a passionate desire to be arrested. It's called protester chic, and it's playing at a sit-in near you. In the past few weeks, I think we've all gotten a little bit sick of seeing stories about protesters. They're everywhere: in EriC Mattson front of the Union disrupting George Bush's speech, at Carl Pursell's office protesting about Central America, at the Student Activities Building protesting the CIA. But now they've gone too far. Tomorrow, they will be on President Shapiro's front lawn during his open house to express their feelings on a potpurri of issues. You name it, they'll protest it. The agenda for tomorrow's protest includes the code, Star Wars, and "repression of political dlissent." I don't buy that knee-jerk reaction - that the protesters complain, complain. complain and they just don't know when to shut up. But I can understand the sen- timent that a lot of students are irritated by the protesters. The act of protesting has become an issue by itself, and it becomes more and more complicated the more you think about it. One of the biggest arguments so far has been over the First Amendment, which really has very little to do with what's going on. Everyone invokes the First Amendment when it's convenient and disposes with it when it gets in the way. The protesters claim that they had a First Amendment right to interfere with Vice President George Bush's speech at the Union, and they claim they had a First Amendment right to interfere with CIA recruiting on campus. Another group, the "anti-protesters," say that the protesters interfered with Bush's right to free speech, and the CIA's right to recruit students for their organization. Neither side is right. Actually, the con- troversy is over whose rights prevail. It's a very, very funny line between legitimate protest and simply angering people who want to hear all sides of the issue. The vast majority of students, however, are just bored. Let's face it, all these protests are getting dull. The same old chants, the same old slogans, and the same old forms of protest just don't cut it anymore.I Back in the good old days (i.e. the 1960s) protests were new and original. They were a great way to meet new friends and buy new drugs. The onlookers always had something to look at, too, because history was being made. But now, we need something more ex- citing than sit-ins - like a "No Code!" square dance on the Diag. Or a "Free Nelson Mandela" bonfire, with toasted marshmellows. Maybe even a "U.S. Out of El Salvador" bake sale. Another reason most students are tired of protests is that the same courses are discussed over and over: El Salvador, Nicaragua, South Africa, the -code, and "Star Wars." These issues are too impor- tant for most people to handle, because if you think seriously about one, you might start to think seriously abut the rest. And that can drive you crazy. That's really the main problem. It's easy to be apathetic because it's hard to think seriously about the world's problems without getting so frustrated that it doesn't seem worthwhile to even try to do anything about it. Even back in the "good old days" of the '60s, the greatest protests in the history of the United States didn't end the war in Vietnam. So the easiest way to avoid the frustration is to be sarcastic and fatalistic about all the problems. I'm sure some of the accusations people level at the protesters are valid. Some protesters like getting their names and faces in the Daily. Some protesters enjoy martyring themselves by getting arrested. Nearly all of them misunderstand the idea of free speech and interpret the First Amendment as if it were made exclusively for their benefit. They also tend to overestimate the esteem other students hold for them. At the Shapiro's house tomorrow, the main thing on most students' minds will be the brownies and what the big white house looks like on the inside. The protesters are walking on a tightrope. If they protest too softly, nobody will hear them. If they make too much noise, nobody will like them. Un- til' students give a damn about "the issues", the protesters can't afford to be obnoxious. I wonder what Tom Hayden would do. Mattson is a Daily reporter. His column appears on alternate Thursdays. Chassy '9r I A I Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Logocide threatens language 0 Vol. XCVI, No. 41 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Understanding obj ectives T he recent arrests at the CIA protest might have been avoided if protesters and the ad- ministration were more aware of each other's demands. The Administration wanted to insure that the interviews would go uninterrupted, and the protesters wanted, first to educate potential CIA recruits to the policies of the organization and, second to hear from the CIA representatives themselves some justification for the organization's activities. The arrests might have been avoided if there had been some sort of forum, where protesters and job candidates could ask questions of CIA officials. Such a forum was disrupted last year by protesters, yet there were no arrests. The CIA is not the only recruiter that protestors might be interested in confronting. Some students have considered similar demon- strations for companies doing business in South Africa or holding large defense contracts. It would seem appropriate, then, that the University's Career Plan- ning and Placement Center develop some mechanism for bringing about such forums. This suggestion is, in. fact, an established policy at Brown University. As a result of similar concern at Brown, students have been granted the right to demand an open forum with any private or government organization scheduled to recruit. Their career planning and placement center has agreed to wage recruiters to hold such a forum if students can gather petitions with a minimum of 75 signatures. The Career Planning and Placement office would then serve all students' needs. The office is obliged to provide as much infor- mation as possible about potential recruiting organizations for all in- terested students-regardless of whether a student is an immediate job candidate. A policy like Brown's could prove to be a very valuable precedent for similar policies at universities nation-wide. The, key, however, lies with student initiative. Responsibility falls primarily on the students to generate 'awareness and support among the University community in order to present any substantial request to the Career Planning and Placement office. Nevertheless, such efforts would be indisputably worthwhile. -If student efforts should prove suc- cessful, the adminsitration and the student body will be taking a significant step toward understan- ding each others' concerns and ob- jectives. By Ron Schechter "I think the Daily has been really fascistic lately." This is what a young woman told me the other day on hearing that I write for the Michigan Daily. My immediate reaction was one of amusement. I had heard disparaging remakrs about the newspaper's political leanings in the past, but "fascistic" was a word I had never encountered. Ob- viously this woman was so narrow in her political outlook that virtually anyone who did not agree with her was fascistic, and I felt that arguing with her would lead nowhere. But later that evening I regretted my silence. Political bias had nothing to do with my change of heart. On the contrary, I felt that I had missed the opportunity to defend the honor of my favorite language, English. I had tacitly witnessed the violation of my mother tongue. On what grounds do I base this charge of assault and battery? On the grounds that my interlocuter had taken a word generally agreed upon to denote a specific meaning, and deliberately misused it for the ignoble purpose of- casting a political aspersion. Although a definition of "fascistic" as it applies to persons is open to interpretation, most English speakers would agree that the word suggests support of a totalitarian police state characterized by extreme militarism, chauvinism, xenophobia, a notable lack of human rights, tight cor- porate control, and usually a program of state instituted racism. According to this Schecter is a Daily associate arts editor. generally accepted definition, the Daily is hardly fascistic. So what is my point in at- tempting to prove what is obvious to nearly all educated speakers of English? What I venture here is neither an ex- pression of partisan opinion nor an ex- position on the editorial righteousness of the Michigan Daily. My point is that political name-calling, from the right and left alike, is a dirty business, and that is implications are detrimental, both to political awareness as a practice, and even more seriously, to the human thought process itself. Consider first the damage inflicted on political sensitivity. The ability to discern among the various shades of ideological thought is vital to the intellectual health and sophistication of decision makers. By dismissing opponents as fascists or com- munists, reactionaries or radicals, we lose the ability to perceive subtle distinctions in the political spectrum, and we ignore the specific issues over which we disagree. Political insensitivity emerges in the sambe way that artistic insensitivity sets in when all non-white colors in a painting are referred to as black. As John Stuart Mill pointed out in his argument for free speech, our decision making mechanisms, like muscles, require exercise lest they atrophy. We benefit by examining our adversaries' opinions, because in doing so we force ourselves to reassess our own assumptions. Even if we continue to accept our original principles, we espouse them with new understanding and commitment rather than stale com- placency. Political name-calling means closing the mind to ideological discrepancy. It indicates a refusal to think, an intellectual lassitude that results ultimately in bigotry. A far more serious implication of political name calling is logocide, or word-murder. The word, either spoken or written, is the physical expression of a thought. Occuring at the juncture between a thought's incep- tion and its subsequent comprehension, it is the most fundamental element, the very stuff of human communication. Without words, our thoughts would be a jumbled, primitive blur. If a word is repeatedly misused, however, it loses its ability to transmit meaning. In other words, it is murdered. If, for example, the word "fascistic" is used to describe the Michigan Daily along with Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler, what meaning does the word actually contain? What thought does it convey? Eventually, if this word is repeatedly abused, the language suffers the loss of an accepted expression signifying fascism in the meaningful sense. In Orwell's 1984, logocide is a chief weapon of the totalitiarian government of Oceania. By "vaporizing" such words as honor, justice, morality, internationalism, democracy, science, and religion, the leaders eventually destroy their subjects' ability to conceive of these notions, and the ultimate result is a language devoid of meaning, appropriately called "duckspeak." I am more optimistic about the future of language. The word is durable, resilient. It can suffer a great deal of abuse before it dies. Many words, however, such as fascism,; communism, imperialism, chauvinsim, Marxism, alienation, and love have been so consistently battered that today they are in critical condition. We can nurse them back to health if we follow this simple prescription: learn what they mean, and do not exhaust them through misuse. After all, their death is our loss. LETTERS: Bush deserves courtesy 0' To the Daily: We, the College Republicans of Central Michigan University, would like to publicly issue a statement deploring the actions of the students of the University of Michigan during the recent visit by the Vice-President of the United States, George Bush. We feel it is a blemish for the college students of Michigan that a minority of students could show such a blatant disregard for the office of the Vice-President. We do not deny the right of students to speak out or demon- strate; however, certain common courtesies shnld hE hnwn hv Bush will not take this as a representation of all ,students from Michigan colleges and universities. In conclusion, we realize that every issue has many sides and supporters that range from liber- al to moderate to conservative, and each has the right to voice their opinions. Although we, the Central Michigan College Republicans represent the con- servative side of the spectrum, we are willing to offer a speaker BLOOM COUNTY the courtesy of listening to his argument without simultaneously interjecting our own views and opinions. We believe that there are more suitable and persuasive forms of rebuttal. In the end, all the students at the University of Michigan did was tarnish the image of students at Michigan colleges and universities. Mr. Bush, out of respect for the office of the Vice President, we believe that the students of Cen- tral Michigan University would welcome you with open arms. -Michael Nunnely Michael Riemersma Suzanne Bovee October 17 Nunnel is chairman of CMU College Republicans, Riemer- sma a committee member, and Bovee the public relations secretary. by Berke Breathed .\ ... ...t t. .:. .. ...4..4.. nvr w"v:4:.v:::t4"vv.v.....::: ":: .::. :,':v; ...."" .....::":"": t.......:}}:J{'":: %"i}:$ {: y 4 .::: tv v .. t :"v4v: f ^::: .. ::.w..:.::v.:::.v:v.v,.": {.}. 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