I OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, November 24, 1987 The Michigan Daily ---- - ------ I 1 LETTERS Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 4 'Epton's anti-U.S. tirade out of place Vol. XCVIII, No.54 420 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. Protest CIA tomorrow W HILE THE STUDENTS have an interest in having potential employ- ers recruit on campus, there must be some moral standards for organiza- tions who avail themselves of uni- versity facilities. The CIA, as a ter- rorist organization, could not meet any such standards, and should not be allowed to recruit on campus. Students should therefore protest its attempts to do so on Wednesday, in the Student Activities Building, at the office of Career Planning and Placement. The CIA's status as a pariah can be seen from the fact that it is re- cruiting tomorrow, when most of the students will be gone. It has good reasons to be camera-shy. The CIA's list of crimes, committed in the course of a never-ending effort to impose the U.S. government's will on the rest of the world by force, violence, and corruption, is too long to print in this space. People who think that the CIA's primary function is to gather intelli- gence should think again. What in- telligence the CIA gathers is for the purpose of action - often covert and barbaric, as when the CIA helped overthrow the elected government of Chile, and then pro- vided the military dictatorship with thousands of names of political ac- tivists, many of whom were subse- quently tortured and murdered by the U.S.-backed junta. The CIA's institutional racism can be seen from its collaboration with the South African government in terrorist attacks on Angola and Mozambique. And most recently the CIA helped organize and finance a car bombing in Beirut that killed 80 people and wounded 200 more. Organizations like the CIA dis- grace this nation and foster anti- American sentiment throughout the world. Even on the basis of its own internal rules, the CIA should not be allowed to recruit on campus, since it explicitly excludes lesbians and gay men from employment. The University community should be proud of the fact that the CIA has had trouble recruiting on campus, as a result of persistent protest over the last three years. Since the agency avoids any publicity that inevitably brings its crimes to light, it cancelled its re- cruitment efforts last year, rather than face continued demonstrations. This shows that public protest can be effective, especially against an adversary that has so much to hide as the CIA. To the Daily: Last night, November 22, at Rackham auditorium, a crowd who had gathered for the sole purpose to hear recently re- leased Soviet dissident, Natan Scharansky, speak of his or- deal, was instead made subject to hear the gross and insulting remarks of a Mr. Jeff Epton, an Ann Arbor City Councilmem- ber (D-Third ward), who chose to pervert the evening's affair into an anti-U.S. rally. Clad in corduroys and an open at the top oxford jersey, rolled at the sleeves for that dignified look, Epton transgressed all borders of good taste by preaching his malicious, empty rhetoric so inherent to his liberal line of thinking. Beginning by boasting about his unwillingness to defend his own country at time of war, Mr. Epton then proceeded to cite examples ranging from the United States' invasion of Grenada to the homeless as acts of blatant violations of human rights. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with the United States' foreign and domestic policies. Here in the United States, as opposed to in oppressive societies such as the Soviet Union, the right to dissent is recognized as a right of the people. But there is a proper time and place to make such opinions, however ludicrous they may be, made known. The crowd last night came to hear about one man's struggle against Soviet oppression and his de- termination to exercise his in- alienable rights, not a one-sided and distorted ranting condemn- ing the United States for its alleged abuses of human rights. Epton went on to assert that the United States maintains an atrocious record of human rights suppression comparable to that of the Soviet Union. This is a disgusting affront to every decent U.S. citizen. How can Epton claim with a sane mind that the United States is no better than a nation that consistently and in a deter- mined effort subjects its citi- zens to cruel, inhuman and de- grading treatment, arbitrary ar- rests, and other minor infrac- tions, and denies them the ba- sic human rights of life, lib- erty, security and privacy of person? If Epton had so eloquently discoursed his opposition against the State in the Soviet Union, he would have been shot. Send me to Siberia if I'm wrong, but the last time I looked around the government here was not sending its citi- zens off to prison or "insane asylums" for treacherous of- fenses against the state such as teaching your children how to read, or hanging banners from your window. It's a funny thing, isn't it, that you don't hear about too many people wanting, let alone being denied such a desire, to emigrate to the Soviet Union. Despite my fervent abhor- rence to Mr. Epton's argu- ments, I cannot condemn his having those opinions. We live in a pluralistic society where opposing views are accepted. I cannot even take issue with Mr. Epton's being able to ex- press those views in public. Mr. Epton's actions, however, were disgraceful. To a predom- inantly Jewish crowd that can painfully appreciate Mr. Natan Scharansky's struggle against oppression and discrimination, it is shameful to regard the United States as morally equal with the Soviet Union, a na- tion which chooses to deny the rights of and continually op- press the indigenous Jewish portion as well as the rest of its population. If Mr. Epton feels so compelled to express his offensive opinions he can have the good taste to express them through proper channels, such as in a debate format, instead of taking the opportunity to offend and disgust a crowd that had gathered to hear a speech about the struggle for Soviet Jewry. -Amy Herrup November 23 4 Radicals charge racism' too much Support Scharansky NATAN SCHARANSKY embodies the spirit of the unrelenting political ac- tivist. After spending nine years in a Soviet labor camp for refusing to abandon his human rights goals, the Soviet Union finally released him to Israel after worldwide protest to the Kremlin. Sunday night he came to Rackham Auditorium urging every- one to keep pressing for free emigra- tion and the establishment of true hu- man rights in the U.S.S.R. At present, there are 382,000 Jews in Russia who have formally re- quested permission to emigrate. So- viet citizens must elicit permission from their government before they can settle abroad, or even travel out- side the U.S.S.R. In a move to fur- ther aggravate this restriction, Gor- bachev's bureaucrats made a law in January limiting emigration to only the Soviets who have relatives abroad. This act, taken in the heyday of glasnost, restricts the possibility of emigration to less than ten percent of Jews, and makes it almost impossible for other Soviets without foreign connections to ever leave. . With Gorbachev's arrival in Wash- iiigton on December 7, vital human rights issues will come up. As Scha- ransky pointed out though, the avoidance of nuclear war is the most important matter facing the world to- day, and quotas on emigration shouldn't be tied to multi-lateral mis- sile reductions. At the same time, work should continue towards miti- gating rights abuses and promote freedom for all Soviet citizens. Scharansky has consumed himself with this struggle even after his re- lease. He is currently travelling to the United States urging everyone to come to Washington on December 6 to let Gorbachev know United States citizens are not fooled on emigration and human rights questions. This protest, estimated to attract over 100,000 people from all back- grounds, will demand true human rights for all people within Soviet borders. As the United States and the So- viet Union hopefully conclude the important arms control treaty next month, there will also be high level talks occurring on other matters, in- cluding human rights violations. When Gorbachev peruses translated United States newspapers in Wash- ington, he will surely notice the justi- fied and unrelenting demands of those who came to greet him. To the Daily: A peculiar error has grown endemic to American Academia, to pertinaciously aver the truth of a proposition, which assent is unwarranted by reasonamerely because it is consonant with the mawkish dribblings of the mountebanks of two-bit radical human sophistry. A recrudescence of this fell fever has recently ap- peared on this editorial page. I refer to the numerous letters that have been printed in re- sponse to Mr. Lawrence Hamann's letter "Funky Black Bitch isn't racist" (Daily, 11/3/87). To scribe such an epithet undeniably bespeaks a certain lack of civility, but indeed lit- tle civility should be expected from one who employs a re- stroom wall as a billboard. But this epithet is - patently to the open-minded - demonstrably to others - not racist. "Racism" denotes a prejudice against a particular race. Con- sequently, to use a word in a racist manner is to use the word in such a way as to evince prejudice. (The reader is left to his own imagining to construct racist usages). But "Black" as it appeared on the restroom wall was not used in a racist manner. "Black," as Mr. Hamann has pointed out, was used to describe a personal attribute of some several indi- o ppressed America. The laws, what few there are, are not enforced by the government. Their interests seem to lie with the big corporations that own the land, not the people who are work- ing off of it. I was wondering how these laws could be enforced? Who could have enough power to carry this out? My answer, surprisingly enough, was me. My government is supposed to represent me. I intend to see that it does. A voice must be given for all the workers whose cries have grown hoarse from being ignored. I think the time has come for some action to replace the apathy of U.S.citi- zens. Some people, some chil- dren, are dying. Thank God they are not yours. -Amy Lynn Emrich November 21 To the Daily: I am sorry Noah Finkel was so shaken by the words of Mona Rishmawi and Mazen Qutby, two Palestinian lawyers speaking in the Lawyer's Club lounge last Wednesday, when they said that the Israeli gov- ernment commits "crimes ag- ainst humanity." Finkel im- mediately considered the use of the term a slap in the face to "all of the students at the Uni- versity who lost relatives in the Holocaust." However, during the talk, the Palestinians drew no overt par- allels to the atrocities the Jews faced in Europe. The person quickest to evoke a connection between the facts of Israeli oc- cupation and Nazi Germany was Noah Finkel himself. It is impossible to "belittle the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust" and to accuse two eloquent Palestinian hu- man rights activists of doing so is unfair. The entire tone of Finkel's editorial, however, appears to belittle the suffering of Palestinians. It is thus a slap in the face of students, such as myself, whose families lost homes, lives and liveli- hoods in the wake of Israel's creation. No one has a monopoly on suffering. -Jamal E-Hindi November 16 vidual. That black is an at- tribute belonging to other individuals of her race is irrele- vant. "Black" is no more racist' than is "blond," unless it is used to disparage one by at- tributing to him a stereotyped fault based on his race. True sympathy for the vic- tims of racism is better served by the univocal usage of the term "racist" than by cavils and tawdry ululations - like cry- ing wolf - of "Racist! Racist!" The squeaky hinge may get greased for a time, but in the long run it is discarded. Likewise, obstreperous ejaculations- win' few friends and even fewer debates. -Timothy D. Byrne .November 16 'Crimes against humanity' Don t ignore nurses Illegal, aliens To the Daily: I am responding to the recent lack of publicity concerning Cesar Chavez's speaking tour. I work for $3.90 an hour, six hours a week at a library. I copy documents sent to m y department, I answer the tele- phone, and occasionally work the cash register. The rest of my time is spent going to school so I can learn a skill which will enable me to make a lot of money. Every once in a while I stumble across some bit of reality from the outside world. My God, as a student, is to analyze it and thank God it didn't happen to me, and so I do. I thank God that I don't have to work twelve hours a day for 40 cents an hour. I thank God I don't have to go home to a small shack infested with mice and no hot water. I thank God that I have the right to learn to read, write, and question. I especially thank God that I don't have to watch my children starve because there is no work left to be done in the fields. When I first learned of the horrendous conditions that mi- grant workers must live with I thought, how could this be true? This is America. Every- one here is entitled to certain rights. This is the land of op- portunity. My naive vision of the American dream went To the Daily: I know this may seem trivial to most, but I was quite upset with the neglect of the writer of ("A Walk Through Old Main," Daily, 11/11/87). She neglected the people who are the heart of the hospital by not interviewing any of them, by forgetting that their feet are the ones that are doing t h e majority of echoing through "Old Main." She also did not realize that these people are the ones who help the patients be brave. Lixe the heart, these people assist the patients to become as healthy as possible by supplying nourishment, med- icine and care. And like a person without a heart, a hospital could not function without nurses. Nurses are trivalized by most because society has a problem with power. We tend to notice doctors, but not the nurses. I will bet if you asked most patients at the hospital who takes care of you, they would rattle off some doctors name. Yet, the nurses at the hospital, like a heart pumping, take care of us all day and all night every day of the year, supplying our needs for health. -David Fiske November 13 The Daily welcomes letters from its readers. Bringing in letters on personal computer disk is the fastest way to publish a letter in the Daily. Readers who can not bring their letters in on disk should include their phone numbers for verification.Call 747-2814 for details, 4 Stop deputization AT THE END of October, the State senate voted 26-6 to allow the Uni- yersity to deputize its public safety pfficers and possibly arm them with guns. Since then, students have mnobilized to oppose the creation of g campus police force that is not ac- countable to them. Those efforts should increase until University Di- rector of Public Safety Leo Heatley gives up on the idea. Along these lines, the efforts of AM-- T -- T%1-_/-fl /T1 A _ zation bill that passed the State Senate. State Senator Lana Pollack said, "the very nature of the University is independence, and that's a good reason not to have a police force." Previous editorials in the Daily agreed with Pollack and recalled actions by campus safety that have not been conducive to the atmo- sphere of free expression and in- quiry so essential to a University. Ever consider a career in murder, torture, rape, and the overthrow of sovereign governments? I IA W A; A