4 Page 4 E *Vol. XCVI, Unsi The end of non-sm contingent uj Michigan Cle significant pi has the pot nation-wide p Presented and House la review by ti Health Comi prohibit smo :exc ept in areas. At th law mandat non-smoker smoking an in public plai discretion proprietor. Not surpr generated a tobacco in professionah flict of inter motivated b by profit. TI fearful of security, is call attentioj this legislati Neverthel( the legislatu majority pul the bill - enough t sophisticatet the tobaccc 4HE CO I.bill bef( Council whi d iser im in a homosexuals state of ga across the co If adopted protect h discriminat housing, ax modations. munities, ini Wisconsin, measures to homosexuals Leaders of and Jewish demonstrate however. Th Cardinal Q't would legal therefore homosexuali legislators recognizing natural' prac The bill homosexualil discourage discriminate orientation. recognition 4 y practice of h recognition homosexual democratic The Univ adopted a pol York propos current acz Presidential) sexual orien "irrelevant f employment decision ca University. timized may aid in nressin dited and managed by stude No. 95 gned editorials represent a OPINION Thursday, February 13, 1986 The Michigan Daily 4 ents at The University of Michigan Wasserman mmmwq \rU.~O- 'T'DLIVE To &IVG >tu U U rrlS pECTI\IG ON 12CMNT Q&N 2ETTF- ANEW LAW QU112SUSTo PrK V-NT WAN IN &.SON M AD5AM 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI °48109 ---, a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board Health vs. profit discrimination against received endorsements last year iokers in this state is from 20 senators and is now one pon the passage of the vote away from being sent out of an Indoor Air Act - a committee to the Senate floor. iece of legislation that The University, as a public in- ential to establish a stitution, would be immediately af- )recedent. fected if the bill succeeds. to the State Senate However, the University is con- st year, and now under sidering implementing its own he Public and Mental regulations for smoking in the mittee, the bill would workplace, regardless of the fate king in public places of the Clean Indoor Air Act. Such designated smoking intentions - if sincere - should be e present, there is no commended. ing consideration for For too long, smokers have had s; the existence of the unrestrained freedom in most d non-smoking areas public places to impose their ces is subject only to the hazardous health habit on others. of the individual Substantial evidence now exists that clearly illustrates the dangers isingly, the bill has to "second-hand smokers." The dispute between the absence of governmental smoking dustry and health regulations for public places is s. This is clearly a con- inexcusable. yest - between those If this bill can make it to the y secoce Senate floor and subsequently be and toscoivauted, approved, it will represent a major he tobacco industry, victory for non-smokers, as well as trying desperately to an end to discrimination on all tootryngtdealytso sides; by guaranteeing an area of n to Potential costs of clean, smokeless air, as well as on to the state. providing a place where smokers ess, the sentiment in may indulge. Even if the bill does re strongly reflects the not succeed, the mere proposal will bic opinion in favor of have proved immensely valuable a fact that may be - by raising consciousness about o overcome the non-smokers rights in the Univer- d lobbying efforts of sity community, as well as in the a industry. The bill community at large. Gay rights NTROVERSY over a may be discriminated against on ore New York's City the basis of their sexual orien- iich would prohibit tation. ation against Only federal legislation exten- is indicative of the ding to homosexuals the rights y rights movements against discrimination enjoyed by untry. other minorities, could assure , the legislation would every citizen the right to freely iomosexuals from make the fundamental decision of ion in employment, personal sexuality. ndpublic accom- . . Nation wide com- The goal of national legislation Nainwd, 42 com- cluding the state of has been set back considerably, by have passed similar hysteria over theAcquired Immune assure the rights of Deficiency Syndrome virus. AIDS has been labelled a "gay disease,, New York's Catholic exacerbating public persecution of communities have homosexuals. Supporting the d opposition to the bill, misconception that AIDS can be iese leaders, including contracted through casual contact, Connor, fear the bill cities closed bars and bathhouses. ize, legitimize, and Locally, harassment of encourage homosexuals continues. The ty; they claim that Lesbian and Gay Program Office, would be officially an arm of University Counseling and accepting an 'un- Services, has received several tice. complaints that one professor does not encourage repeatedly lectures that ty. Rather, it aims to homosexuality is a pathological those who would disease in lectures. The office also on the basis of sexual mentioned reports of harassment The bill is not a in residence halls and the Univer- or acceptance of the sity hospitals. omosexuality; it is a Gay civil rights legislation, like of the rights that being considered in New York s enjoy under City, provides hope that sexual ideals. orientation discrimination and ersity of Michigan harassment may eventually fade licy similar to the New from American society. These bills al at the start of the are not the work of homosexuals ademic year. The presuming to impose their Policy Statement adds morality on heterosexual America. station to the list of Legislation cannot condone or en- actors" upon which no courage the practice of t or educational homosexuality, but it can recognize n be made at the homosexuals as full citizens who Any person so vic- merit complete protection under receive counseling or the law. Realizing this, a charges. aimam. Ami i- sI.."a r I _l TOBACCO INDUSTRZY 0 KA 1N fr I EA&FR LA EL WILL PD9C1I2Ie A D\F~rNT l 7UD of 9MDVIN& TOBACCO F- )I~TTT OUP. PosITION IS -START NOW AND~ CoLLWEcf t \ MALLiff TOBAC 7I!DJu r T N J 4 U L LETTERS: Arabs can overthrow Zionist apartheid To the Daily I have followed with great in- terest the debate over Israel and Palestine taking place in the pages of the Daily. I want to commend the editors for allowing the Daily to be the vehicle for such an extensive exchange of views. I am a Marxist and a Jew. As both, I agree completely with Hilary Shadroui's article, "Zionism is Racist in Israel," in the January 20 Daily. I also agree with the central point of Ibrahim Dawud's letter, "Zionism is Racist as Apartheid" dated January 10. Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of Dawud's letter, so I cannot say whether I agree with all its particulars. Shadroui's article makes a series of absolutely correct poin- ts. 1) whatever the legal or financial pretexts, the Palestinian Arabs were forced off their land in order to create a "Zionist state in Palestine. 2) The expelled Palestinians and the Palestinians remaining in Israeli-controlled territory are oppressed by Zionist policy. 3) Zionism in action is essentially racist, however pious the wishes of its practitioners. 4) The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and other Palestinian groups are fighting a legitimate fight for the liberation of their country, whatever one may say of their tactics. 5) Palestinian terrorism is small compared with Israeli terrorism, for example, in Labanon and in the West Bank. 6)A person can be against Zionism and against anti-Semitism at the same time, as Shadroui clearly is. Dawud's comparison between Zionism in Israel and apartheid in South Africa is also quite valid. In fact, the Zionist letters them- selves make this clear. The Zionist argument runs as follows. "Israel is the Jewish homeland. Jewish settlers tran- sformed Palestine into an advan- ced agricultural and industrial country. The Palestinians have their own homeland: Jordan. The Israeli government is simply defending itself against Palestinians and other Arabs who deny its right to exist. So long as the Palestinians follow the PLO and Arab- leaders who support terrorism, the government is right to refuse to deal with them." Changing a few words, we get exactly Botha's argument for apartheid. "South Africa is the Afrikaaner homeland. The white settlers transformed South Africa into an advanced agricultural, situation in South Africa. In par- ticular, there is no escaping the problem that the existence of a Jewish state of Israel is based on the nonexistence of an Arab state of Palestine. The national rights of the Palestinians cannot be realized without the abolition of Israel as a Zionist state. Abolition of the state of Israel is not at all the same as driving the Jews in Israel into the sea. Rather, it means creating the conditions in which 3 million Jews and 4 million Palestinians can live in Palestine in complete economic, social, and political equality. The starting point for a solution is the PLO slogan for a "democratic, secular Palestine." Accepting this slogan does not mean accepting the political leadership of Yasir Arafat, who in fact is quite prepared to aban- don the PLO goal for a West Bank Palestinian mini-state in federation with Jordan. The question, though, is how to get a "democratic, secular Palestine." Israel, the Arab governments - not only Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, but also Syria - and the US all have a stake in the status quo which denies the Palestinians their national rights. A fight for Palestinian national liberation means taking on all three. The question is broader than Palestine, however. A struggle which could defeat the Israeli army - which also means defeating the US and overcoming the sabotage of the Arab leaders- would have to involve at least all the Arab Middle East and quite possibly North Africa, Turkey, and Iran as well. It would mean the development of a unified Arab nation and a United States of the Middle East and North Africa. A a socialist supporter of the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL) I believe there is only one way to achieve this transfor- mation. Terrorism by a handful of guerillas will not achieve it. Only mass struggle will. The Arab workers, leading the Arab peasants and allied with non- Arab workers and peasants in the region, will have to overthrow the power ofalltheir oppressors. What role Jewish workers in Israel will have in this transfor- mation remains to be seen. In this regard too Palestine is like South Africa. Sooner or later the black workers will overthrow the apartheid regime. In this struggle the white South African workers can fight either on the side of the white racists or on the side of the oppressed blacks. Similarly, sooner or later the Palestinians and other Arabs will overthrow the Zionist regime. In this struggle the Jewish workers can fight either on the side of the Z ionists or on the side of the op- pressed Arabs. At this point the white South African workers seem almost certain to fight on the side of the oppressors. This will mean a far more bloody and difficult tran- sition. It is not so clear with the Israeli workers. As the Progressive Zionist Caucus poin- ted out in its January 22 letter to the Daily, there are encouraging E signs of opposition to Zionist policy in Israel itself. I feel strongly that every Jew - and every non-Jew who cares about the fate of Jews - must take a stand against Zionism. That is the best hope for a humane solution to the problem of Palestine. It is also the best way to fight anti-Semitism. Today, the Nazis and other an- ti-Semites use Zionist racism and I oppression of the Palestinians promote anti-Semitism against the 3 million Jews in Israel and the 10 million Jews outside Israel. By fighting for Palestinian as well as Jewish rights we can take that weapon away from them. Paul Green February 5 ine print sure students understood the provisions of the petition before they signed it." One could 'imagine what would happen if, say Detroit Edison tried a similar tactic. PIRGIM members would be everywhere screaming "con- sumer fraud!" If it's consumer fraud for a company to bury its true intentions in fine print, then where does this leave PIRGIM and its misleading petition drive? Perhaps PIRGIM has learned a little too much from their big business adversaries. Steve Angelotti Dan Baker February 6 fans sleep sider changing the name oE Crisler Arena to the Coma-Dome. The crowd's lack of enthusiasm is unexcusable. Sure the alumni get the best seats up front, sure there isn't a student section, and yea, it ishard sometimes to cheer on a Saturday afternoon with a hangover. However, Michigan has a great basketball program. The fans can't wait for the team to spark the crowd. The fans PIR GIM's petition hasif To the Daily: Those who will be approached to sign PIRGIM's funding petition should be aware of a few facts: PIRGIM is seeking a "negative" donation system, also known as "refusable/refun- dable." Under this con- stitutionally questionable system, students would be assessed a $2 PIRGIM fee and would have to request a refund. In previous, similar petition drives PIRGIM has used the argument that non-donators are attempting to "defund" PIRGIM and thus must take action to get their money back. The "refusable/refundable" aspect of the proposed new system is buried in the fine print and unless the student questions the petitioner extensively, the student will not understand what exactly he/she may be endorsing. In talking to several petitioners; we have noted that the type of funding system is the last thing PIRGIM people want to discuss. The opening line they use has little to do with any fun- ding system: Have you signed (eaa- ta Ae _M nm it:nn vat') ters of the true nature of tile petition drive, they said that they regretted their decision to sign. Students should also question PIRGIM members' occasional claims of poverty. By signing up non-student community mem- bers over the last two years, PIRGIM has expanded its war chest well beyond what it could ever receive from University students. One may argue "caveat em- ptor;" that if students are willing to sign something without knowing its meaning then it's their tough luck. However, this does not square with PIRGIM's claim that petitioners "made Basketball, To the Daily: We have to congratulate and commend sports staffer Tom Keaney for his observations on Michigan sports fan's behavior at Crisler Arean. His article in The Kean Eye column, "Hey you ..., how 'bout some noise," finally spelled out in harsh terms something we have observed constantly at Crisler. Wolverine ,.nt orn hni:d n A lo._ Wm