OPINION

Page 4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCVII, No. 88 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board
Allothercartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent theopinion of the Daily.
Endorse PIRGIM

Tuesday, February 3, 1987

The Michigan Daily

LETTERS:
MSA should keep out of foreign affairs

PIRGIM has long been a voice for
students and others concerned
about issues related to the public
interest. Tonight, MSA votes
whether or not to endorse an effort
to keep PIRGIM alive on campus.
The University Board of
Regents forced PIRGIM to look
for/ support from MSA after
indicating that PIRGIM would not
appear on the SVF. This decsion
came about despite - a petition
signed by 16,800 students, a
majority of the campus, favoring a
refusable fee on the SVF.
PIRGIM's funds previously came
from the SVF.
After PIRGIM took its case to
MSA, an ad hoc committee
produced two reports. Neither
received the full endorsement of the
committee.
One of the two reports endorses
a ballot proposal for the MSA
election ballot this March. This
proposal would, if approved by the
students, provide a $1.25 refusable
fee for PIRGIM in addition to the
mandatory fee each student already
pays to MSA.
The other report, supported by
committee members Eric Schnaufer
and MSA president Kurt
Muenchow, rejects associating the
funding of PIRGIM with MSA and
suggests that PIRGIM ask the
University Board of Regents. to
vote on putting them on the SVF.
If passed, the Schnaufer and
Muenchow proposal would kill
PIRGIM. Regent James Waters,
PIRGIM's strongest supporter on
the University Board of Regents,
already has indicated that if the
issue is put to a vote the regents
will reject PIRGIM.
Schnaufer and Muenchow
contend that any association with
PIRGIM would make MSA liable
in suits against PIRGIM. They also
claim that MSA does not have the
time or administrative capacity to
facilitate a funding scheme.

In reality, the liability of MSA
would be no greater than that faced
by the University when PIRGIM
was funded through the SVF.-
Since the University Board of
Regents still must ratify any
funding system that involves a
change in MSA's fee. A case could
made that the University would be
just as liable as MSA in any suits
because MSA funding is approved
by the University. If a claim was
made against MSA, PIRGIM has
promised to pay all of MSA's legal
fees.
Additionally, PIRGIM has said
it will pay the salaries of any work-
study students needed to provide
the administrative help to allocate
the money.
The strongest argument which
can be made against the passage of
the proposal is that a refusable fee
takes advantage of students who
may not support PIRGIM, but who
do not take the time to refuse to
pay.
In the petition to put PIRGIM on
the SVF, the student majority
endorsed a refusable fee in
principle. It would be irresponsible
for MSA not to add its voice to that
of the majority of the students.
MSA should support the ballot
proposal which allows students an
opportunity to reject the MSA
sponsored funding mechanism in
the March election. If students have
changed their minds either about
PIRGIM or the concept of a
refusable fee, they can indicate this
in the election. Regardless of
whether or not MSA endorses the
pro-PIRGIM proposal, PIRGIM
will still need to collect 1,000
student signatures in order to
appear on the March ballot.
PIRGIM has long been a strong
voice on both the state and local
level. By endorsing the ballot
proposal tonight, MSA can help
keep it that way.

To The Daily:
Many students at the
University are angry. They are
tired of having their views
misrepresented, again and
again, by the Michigan Student
Assembly (MSA). These
members feel that it is their
duty to use their seat on the
council as a method of
endorsing certain political
stands about issues which have
no direct bearing upon
University life. What's
probably worse, however, is
that these statements often do
not reflect their views of more
than a minority of students at
the University. furthermore,
MSA has no means of
measuring student opinions on
these questions, as issues are
not put forth to the student
body.
The biggest problem stems
from the fact that these
members are not elected upon
their views on international
events. In fact, this stance has
never been brought up as an
issue during the elections.
Instead, I believe, that students
assume the candidates to be
interested only in campus
issues (i. e. the code, military
research, etc.) and are voted on
in light of their views on these
topics.
On Tuesday February 3, in
the fishbowl and the MUG,

members of IMPAC (Involved of MSA. have the potential for extreme
in Michigan Political Action The "Referendum Petition" misrepresentation of the views
Committee) are doing reads as follows: of the University of Michigan
something about this blatant It is inappropriate for students.
misuse of power. They have members of the Michigan If you agree with the
created and organized Student Assembly, acting on statement above, please come
something about this blatant behalf of the student body, to to the fishbowl or MUG any
misuse of power. They have propose and endorse petitions time on Tuesday February 3,
created and organized a petition and resolutions on issues of and voice your vote. WF
to have a ballot question on the international affairs which have NEED YOUR HELP.
topic, in order that students no direct bearing on University
may vote on what they life. Such actions are an Eddie Mehrfar
consider to be the proper role abusive use of privilege, and February 1
Drunkeness is no justfi cation or rape

To The Daily:
I am writing in response to
the letters by Michael Lustig
and Julia Baron because I
cannot contain my disgust at
the attitude expressed by them
in their defense of the raping of
drunk women. by fraternity
members. Both of these wri -
ters condemn women for
getting drunk, a condition the
writers seem to feel condones
anyone doing anything to
them. Well, do these writers
also condone the stealing of
wallets off drunk people? How
about necrophilia? The dead
person is certainly not going to
put up a fight against the
abuses inflicted on its body. I
would also like to know what
these writers would have to say,
if a drunk young man at one of

these parties was homosexually
raped by the conscious mem -
bers. Would they be so quick
to thrust the blame for the
attack on the victim?
The blame for all of these
crimes, and with the raping of
drunk women, rests solely on
the conscious abusers. The
viewpoint illustrated by Lustig
and Barron, that helplessness
justifies and-condones violence,

is the root of many of the
social problems we have in
this society. When the frtern
ities put this philosophy into
practice, they justify their own
destruction to the community,
which is what happened at
Amherst, and which is what
can happen here.
-Andrea Diss
January 27

Kahane spouts racism

Be quiet, Borowsky

To the Daily:
Another championship and
another excuse to demean and
insult New York and New
Yorkers. Like a fly that won't
go away, Mark Borowsky has
returned to the scene of the
crime to dampen the thrill of
victory with more senseless,
prejudiced, irresponsible
journalism ("New York
Fans...You Make Me Ill,"
Daily, 1/28/87)
Clearly, Borowsky holds
some sort of grudge against
New York and New Yorkers. It
is possible that when he was
an infant playing in the
sandbox, a five-year-old bully
from New York dumped a
bucket of sand over his head
and made him cry, or maybe,
more recently, he invested
money in the stock market and
lost his life savings. I do not
know the cause but I do know
the effect. Despite his denial,
Borowsky holds an obvious
prejudice against New York and
New Yorkers.
My dictionary defines
prejudice as "an unfavorable
opinion or feeling formed
beforehand or without
knowledge, thought, or
reason." Apparently, Borowsky
lacks knowledge, thought, and

reason and thus his
incompetence can be explained.
For the record, Borowsky,
prejudice is not what people in
Forsythe County or Howard
Beach "specialize " in. The sad
and unfortunate truth is that in
those places the issue is
racism. On-the other hand, the
issue here is-prejudice and there
should be rit place for this in
the Daily or in any newspaper.
Who do you think you are,
Borowsky, repeatedly insulting
one of the greatest cities in the
world and its entire population,
or for that matter any city in
the world and its entire
population? Haven't you been
told that if you have nothing
nice to say then don't say
anything? If you don't like
New York or New Yorkers
then keep your mouth shut.
One day, Borowsky, somebody
is going to print something
offensive to a group that you
belong to and you're not going
to like it. Maybe that is when
you'll understand what
prejudice really is. New York
fans might make you ill but
your articles make everybody
-Marc J. Berman
January 28

To The Daily:
I am appalled that the Daily
devoted half of the Opinion
Page 1/29 and 1/30 to espouse
the views of the fascist
Kahane. If the Grand Dragon
of the KKK asked the Daily to
voice his dream of a country of
only white Protestants, I
believe the Daily would not
hesitate to turn him down. So
how can the Daily justify
devoting so much space to
Kahane? It is because
Kahane's bigotry is aimed at
Arabs rather than Blacks and
Jews?
Jews have been fighting
bigotry and annihilation for,
over 2,000 years. To hear a
Rabbi speak of purifying a
country by ridding it of Arabs
sounds frighteningly like
Hitler.

I am a Jew. I am proud of
my heritage and culture. That
does not mean that I am a
Zionist. I try to understand
how important it was for my
aunt and uncle and so many
other Jews from across the
world to go to Israel in the late
1940s and help build a nation.
I will never understand how
that nation became one which
has institutionalized bigotry
against Arabs. If Arabs and
Jews can't live together in
peace in Israel, the West Bank
should be given to the
Palestinians.
I believe the Daily owes all
people an apology for helpi
Kahane spread his hatred and
bigotry.
-Julia Goode
January 30

Letter defames Palestinians

To The Daily:
The letter by Harry J. Nelson
on Palestinians (Daily,
1/19/87) seems to more than
fulfill your quota of racism for
the month. The thrust of the
letter was that because some
Palestinians have committed
terrorist acts, all Palestinians
are by their nature terrorists.
While the letter didn't explore
whether this proclivity to ter -
rorism was genetic or cultural
in origin, the unmistakable
implication was that Pale -
stinians needn't be treated with
the same respect or recognized

to have the same rights is
other human beings. It is dis'-
gusting that such open racisni
exists, but even more so ths(
the Daily would treat it as a
serious political view. It was
particularly ironic that this
letter appeared on Martin
Luther King's birthday.
-Dean Baker
Latin America Solidarity
Committee
Free South Africa
Coordinating Committee
A2mistad
January 29

Fight K ane s racism

MEIR KAHANE, A RABBI and
member of Israel's Knesset, came
to Southfield last week bringing a
message of racial hatred. This
message, if acted upon, would be a
disaster both for Arabs living in
Israel and, in the long run, for
Israel itself.
Kahane argues that Israel cannot
- accommodate the Arabs who are
currently living there. He favors
taking away the rights which
Palestinians, a group whose
existence Kahane does not
recognize, currently have. Kahane
fears that if the Palestinians in
Israel keep these rights they will
"vote Israel out of existence."
What Kahane is advocating, in
essence, is racial separatism. He
admits that his goal is to drive the
Arabs out of Israel. This would
only exacerbate the hostilities
which already plague the Middle
East.
In addition to advocating racial
uniformity, Kahane wants Jews to
leave the United States for Israel.

He plays on Jewish insecurities
which are rooted in the mistreat -
ment and prejudice towards Jews
that has existed for thousands of
years. If there is anything bene -
ficial about Kahane's racist tirades,
it is that he may increase awareness
in the the United States both of the
anti-semitism which he criticizes
and the anti-Arab racism he
represents.
Kahane represents hopelessness
concerning the Middle East
conflict. This helplessness and
desperation, unfortunately, mani -
fests itself in extremism on both
sides of the conflict. Moderates
should coalesce to defeat these
extremists that feed off one another
to prevent a peaceful solution.
Detroit and Ann Arbor rabbis
should be commended for con -
demning Kahane's visit and re -
fusing him use of a synagogue
from which to expound his views.
The only way to defeat the racism
which Kahane stands for is to fight
it.

Wasserman

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