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OPINION
Friday, March 27, 1987
_
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Vol. XCVII, No. 121 420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
Pizza,
College is about making decisions. It
teaches you to evaluate arguments, weigh
your options, and keep an open mind.
"A liberal arts education gives one the
critical thinking skills and problem
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Sibling city strangled
Dov
Cohen
-ELEVEN MONTHS AGO PROPOSAL
A, establishing the sibling city
,project with Juigalpa, Nicaragua,
received overwhelming support
from Ann Arbor voters. As the
mayor of Juigalpa arrived in Ann
Arbor, four Republican city council
members blocked continuation of
:the project ignoring the
:improvements it brings to life both
:in Ann Arbor and Juigalpa.
The sibling city project allows
the people of Ann Arbor to aid
Juigalpans who are victims of
:violence financed by the U. S.
.'Federal government. Juigalpa
received humanitarian and medical
aid, most notably a garbage truck
to relieve the cities' life-threatening
sanitation problems.
The sibling city project also
resulted in an extremely beneficial
cultural exchange program. Funds
for the sibling city project paid for
-.a delegation from Juigalpa that
arrived in Ann Arbor this week. In
activities ranging from the Fiesta de
::Juigalpa at the Michigan Theater to
:.a "Face the People" political forum
:in Angel Hall, residents of Ann
Arbor have the rare opportunity to
meet some of the people of
SJuigalpa who they are aiding with
~their local tax dollars and harming
with their federal tax dollars.
Last November, Mayor Ed
Pierce led a delegation to Juigalpa
that brought medical supplies from
the people of Ann Arbor. While the
delegation was in Nicaragua, U.
S.-funded contras killed six
:Juigalpans. This graphic display of
U. S. foreign policy pitted against
the will of the people of Ann Arbor
shows the need for Ann Arbor to
act in an international manner.
At the Feista del Juigalpa, Mayor
Pierce asked that, "peace not
become a partisan issue." Nonethe -
less, city council split along party
lines when the sibling city project
did not receive the eight votes
necessary to continue the project.
Republicans argued the city council
should not take on problems in
other countries and that proposal A
only mandated a one year existance
for the Juigalpa project.
The enthusiastic turn outs at the
fiesta honoring the people of
Juigalpa show that Ann Arborites
enthusiastically continue to support
the Juigalpa project and Ann
Arbor's involvement at the
international level.
Last year, voters of Ann Arbor
showed that they wanted to have a
say in the affairs of Nicaragua in
opposition to the policy they
support through federal taxes. This
past year, Ann Arbor demonstrated
solidarity with Juigalpa through
community events as well as
financial and material assistance.
If Republican council members
perceive themselves as acting on a
mandate from the people, they are
ignoring the events that are going
on around them. If theasibling city
project is brought up again after the
elections, it will need only six
votes to pass. Hopefully the newly
elected city council will continue to
act in good faith with the citizens of
both Ann Arbor and Juigalpa.
Then, Ann Arbor can continue to
think internationally and work
globally in order to improve the
lives of the citizens of Juigalpa.
solving ability that one can use in later
life" - or at least you wrote something
like that on your resume and cover letter.
Indeed, the college student is con -
tinually bombarded with choices. But the
hardest decisions are not: Should I believe
in God? What should I major in? or What
will I do with my life? These are rather
easily solved in quiet consultation with a
6-sided die.
Rather the hardest decisions are
encountered in everyday life. For instance,
there is the typical beginning-of-the-term
dilemma after one has walked into the
wrong classroom. Should I sit this out,
or should I get up and look like a fool?
And if I stay, do I pretend I'm "just
checking this class out"?
By far, the hardest of the everyday
decisions are group decisions. Take, for
example, what the average student has to
go through after deciding he wants to go
out that evening.
Act I The Phone Call (In which there is
a problem making decisions)
"Hey, John, want to go out tonight?"
"Sure, what do you want to do?"
"I don't know. What do you want to
do?"
"I really had no idea."
"Me neither."
"Well, what did you want to d
"Hmmm."
"Well, we got to decide on so
"Yeah, but I don't know what.
"Well, what can we do?"
"I don't know."
At this point, one of the per
usually come up with the helpfu
making strategy of changingl
"Well, why don't I come over
then we'll think of something."
Acts II, III, IV A Change of P
which there is no problem m
decisions)
After John and Steve finally
go to a party, they call Jeff.
calls Bob, and together they
party idea and decide that the gre
much rather see a movie. I
Ralph, who likes the idea of
just not the idea of movie A. "
Yuck," Bob and Ralph conc
group would much rather see
With movie B firmly planted in
Ralph calls Rob, who saysl
terrible review of movie B. M
out, so they decide the group w
the bar instead. Rob calls his f
to tell him about going to the
Jim has this friend Pete who
VCR and is showing movies
"Great, we can all do that," says
Act V In Which The Group Ge
After a 10 minute deliberat
where to order the pizza from,
finally decides.
"Ok, what do we want on the
"Mushrooms and olives?"
"Anything but mushrooms."
"How can you not like mush
"Olives."
The Michigan Daily
democracy
"Green peppers."
"Pineapple."
to?" "Ugh. Anything but green peppers"
"How can you not like mushrooms?"
mething." "Cheese! I hate cheese on my pizza.
L" want no cheese. Does anyone want to go
in on a pizza with just crust and tomato
sauce?"
rsons will "I hate tomato sauce."
Li decision "Pepperoni."
locations. "I'm allergic to it."
there and "How can you not like mushrooms?"
Epilogue
?lans (In The pizza comes and the group begins
iaking to decide which movie to see first.
The preceding events were broken uf
decide to into acts because the evening's progres -
Jeff then sion can be viewed as one views the plot
veto the and characters of a play. Indeed the entire
up would evening of pizza eating can be analyzed as
Bob calls an Aristotelian tragedy. A tragic flaw in
a movie, a character leads him to make a decision
Movie A. which will cause his downfall in the later
:ur. The acts.
movie B. Like Hamlet, Steve's inability to decide
his mind, leads to a chain of events that ends witl
he saw a him eating anchovy pizza. Like Julius
ovie B is Caesar, John is too trusting of his
ants to go friends. One can almost see him as he
riend Jim bites into the dreaded pizza with
bar. But mushrooms - "Et tu, Ralphe."
rented a The difficulty in making group
all night. decisions is that everyone gets one vote.
Rob. Democracy is a strong part of our cultural
ts Hungry heritage, but the often sluggish way in
ion about which it brings about a consensus has
the group always been a weakness.
pizza?" Al Smith once said, "All the ills of
democracy can be cured by more
democracy."
rooms?" This may be true, but nobody ever
wanted to order a pizza with Smith.
Regent Deane Baker spreads ignorance:
Buthelezi and Mandela
LAST WEEK University Regent
Deane Baker once again demon -
strated his die-hard opposition to
progressive causes by vociferously
"opposing an honorary degree for
',"Nelson Mandela. While there may
exist an informed conservative
argument against giving Mandela a
degree, Baker provides no
evidence of it.
Regent Baker stated that there
were two factions amongst the
Blacks fighting to overturn
:,apartheid - "one of which favors
non-violence and one which favors
killing people."
Nelson Mandela is the
imprisoned Black leader of the
African National Congress (ANC),
which does favor the use of
violence to overcome apartheid as
Regent Baker pointed out.
Baker is also right that Zulu
Chief Gatsha Buthelezi tries to be a
Black political alternative to the
ANC in South Africa. Regent
Baker is wrong, however, to say
that "Chief Buthelezi and his
'followers believe in non-violence
to achieve their goals."
In fact, Buthelezi himself
contradicts Regent Baker: "The
black civil war I warned about has
now materialized. I cannot see
what can break the spiral of this
violence in the light of the reluc -
tance of those who have opted for
a violence to talk to us." (Los
recently told an interviewer: 'With
this I will leave hundreds dead on
the battlefield."' A former
Buthelezi follower also claimed that
"police stood by and watched while
Inkatha members with flame
throwers attacked a township that
didn't want to be incorporated into
Chief Buthelezi's territory."
The Los Angeles Times has
reported other incidents of Inkatha
violence including one (9/16/86) in
which Buthelezi adherents killed
three people with pistols and
machetes.
It is understandable that Regent
Baker finds Buthelezi so worthy of
praise. Buthelezi is among what the
Wall Street Journal calls a minority
of Black South Africans who
oppose divestment. "Most whites
who can imagine a black president
of this country can do so because
they imagine he would be Chief
Buthelezi," according to the Wall
Street Journal.
On the other hand, many Blacks
in South Africa view Buthelezi as a
quisling because the apartheid
regime appointed him as the chief
minister of the Kwazulu homeland
in 1970.
As for Nelson Mandela as a
symbol of Black aspirations in
South Africa, Buthelezi has occa -
sionally acknowledged him as his
senior in the anti-apartheid struggle
and has said he could work under
LETTERS.
'U' shoz
To the Daily:
We are writing in response
to "Colleges Warn Students on
AIDS," which appeared in The
Daily on March 13. In this
article, it was explained that in
contrast to the efforts that other
universities are making to
combat the deadly disease
AIDS, the University of
Michigan is doing relatively
little. Free distribution of
condoms and "safe sex" kits is
one measure which is being
implemented on other cam -
puses. The distribution of these
devices serves to both reduce
risk of disease transmission and
to bring attention to the issue
of AIDS.
University of Michigan
officials, including Dr. Caesar
Briefer (Director of Health
Services) have denounced these
measures as "sensationalistic,"
and instead offer the parental -
type advice that students should
be "less promiscuous." While
there may be some truth to the
idea that monogamous rela -
tionships may reduce the sex -
ual transmission of disease, we
feel that this type of response
to the current AIDS crisis by
University health officials is
both inappropriate and inef -
UCAR regrets
To the Daily:,
The United Coalition Against
Racism (UCAR) deeply regrets
the death of Regent Sarah
Goddard Power. We have
considered her an ally in our
campaign against racism at the
University of Michigan. She
made herself available to hear
issues from the student
perspective. We found her
warm, caring, fair-minded, and
supportive.
In the drive to divest
University funds from South
Africa, to improve the quality
of life of minority students on
campus, to grant an honorary
degree to Nelson Mandela, and
fective. Firstof all, it is not
the place of University officials
to preach morality to the
student body. University stu -
dents are adults and capable of
making their own choices.
Sexual activity on campus is
here to stay and the dangers of
sexually transmitted disease
must be dealt with in a
practical and effective way.
preoccupied with morality to
address issues of health. First,
we encourage free distribution
of condoms and "safe sex" kits
to all members of the Uni -
versity community. Second,
we suggest that the University
sponsor a campus wide infor-
mational meeting on AIDS.
Third, we suggest that resi -
dence halls and University
buildin s bhe blanke-ted by
I
V1ftgZalI ULCU y -j,. -
We believe that it is the informational pamphlets such as Dr. Caesar Briefer
responsibility of the profes - (which are currently available with people truly dedicated tc
sional health staff at the only at University Health preventing disease. Lessons 01
University of Michigan to Services) on AIDS. Finally, morality are not what is need
develop and implement com- we feel strongly that free, an - here. AIDS is a seriop
prehensive measures to combat onymous AIDS testing should problem and demands real
AIDS on campus. We, as stu - be made available at University solutions.
dents, would like to make the Health Services. -Phillis Engelbert
following practical suggestions Andrew Russell
to a professional staff too In closing, we wish to March 13
Athletics should respect National Anthem
a
t
f
tl
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3
Auld distribute condoms free
express our outrage at the
University's display of anti-
-gay bigotry, in that until
AIDS began to be perceived as
a threat to the heterosexual
community, it was virtuall
ignored. AIDS kills. It is time
that this university comes to
value the lives of all. equally,
regardless of sexual orientation.
Perhaps what this Univer -
sity needs is to replace officials
To the Daily:
The National Anthem is
synonymous with the
American patriotic spirit.
People from all walks of life
love and respect the powerful
refrains. The important
executive, as well as the
average blue collar worker, can
share in the inspiration the
song evokes. However, one
organization seems to have
overlooked the importance of
the Anthemathe University of
Michigan Athletic Department.
The glittering lights
provided for the national
telecast shone brilliantly on
Crisler Arena. Millions of
viewers across the country were
settling into their living room
furniture to view a battle
between two of the country's
finer basketball teams: UM and
Iowa. A full fifteen minutes
before the game was to
commence, the color guard
strode to the center of the court
for the playing of our National
Anthem. The Iowa team was
standing in a line facing Old
Glory in front of their bench.
The small portion of the crowd
that had taken their seats was
also on its feet, ready to pay
Half the crowd was still at the
popcorn stand, while the
national television audience
was still raiding the
refrigerator.
It is hard to believe the
athletic department treats such
an established institution so
shabbily. For some reason, the
pre-game player introductions
receive higher priority than the
Anthem. They seem to think
that showcasing their endeavors
is more important than giving
tribute to America. That, in
itself, is ludicrous. It makes
me wonder whether they would
play the Anthem at all, if it
weren't such a hallowed
tradition.
It is important that both
teams are present when the
Anthem is played. Like it or
not, atheletes are looked upon
by the public to set an example
for it to follow. Young people
are especially influenced by
them. Despite the inconviences
this will cause Coach Frieder
(he may have to start his pre-
game preparations three
minutes earlier), the players
should pay tribute to their
country; if not for themselves,
then for their followers--and for
Also, the National Anthem
should be performe
immediately preceding th
player introductions. This way,
all attention will be focused on
the flag because the crowd will
have sufficient time to reach
their seats. Also, this will
enable television to share tbe
performance with the millions
gathered around their television
sets.
-Rod Wright4
February :4
Corrections:
Yesterday, parts of two
different letters appeared
together in a letter signed by
Denis Dolgachev ("Humberto
Belli to speak on Nicaragua")
The first column of the letter
up through the words "the
situation could change" was by
Daniel Blank on the Latin
American debt situation. The
part that started with
"commitment to Marxist
theory" was by Denis Dol-
gachev on the speaker Hur-
berto Belli.
This was a serious mistak