OPINION Tuesday, November 8, 1988 Page 4 The Michigan Daily I w+++ r wn+wwwnn+++w+wrr..r. r. e.ww w +r w rn..+ ... ..... ... .... !+.. +. o.-"!'T w L- 4 -4 ~Iiz rbojuu ai1Q Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 420 Maynard St. Vol. IC, No. 44. 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. .y Letters to the editor ____ Final pre-election comments No' on Proposal PROPOSAL A, which if passed would not consider the anguish i "restrict the use of tax funds for abor- carrying an unwanted ch tions for persons receiving public as- no provision for women sistance," is a dangerous attempt by and in so doing condemns anti-choice activists to restrict the re- lifetime of pain and discr productive rights of poor women. the argument is purely m( Since 1978, Michigan governors have longing the life of a child vetoed seventeen attempts to limit these substantially more expen rights. cost of an abortion. If passed, Proposal A would set a Proposal A does not precedent for the erosion of women's pregnancies due to rap( reproductive rights in Michigan and Women who are victimize nationally. It would be a successful rape and incest should not first step by anti-choice forces toward for being raped by bein overturning the Supreme Court's ruling carry a reminder of the cr in Roe v. Wade. months and, perhaps, ha The anti-choice movement, the with it for the rest of Committee to End Tax-Funded Abor- CETFA asserts that less t tions (CETFA), argues that stopping cent of welfare abortions the use of tax dollars does not deny rape, but the FBI says t poor women abortions, stating "In the mately 90 percent of rap thirty-six states that have stopped pay- ported. Apparently, CETF ing for welfare abortions, eighty per- also .do not recognize a cent of welfare-eligible women who rape, which accounts for' were expected to seek abortions still all rapes. obtained them using private funds..." The anti-choice movem Proposal A discriminates against fighting for the lives of women on the basis of social class, Proposal A will do nothin placing abortion out of their financial underlying problem of una grasp. It discriminates against that 20 education, birth control, p percent of poor women who may natal care, and day care choose abortion but are forced to have women. a child because they cannot pay for an Proposal A is unfair a. abortion. Those who choose to try to able. It discriminates again gather funds for abortions at expensive the basis of class and race private clinics risk complications dur- provision for women wit ing abortion because of the time they survivors of rape and inc must spend gathering funds. Those portantly, if it passes,i who can't gather funds for an abortion precedent against womer cannot be expected to be able to gather tive rights that will begin funds to adequately care for a child. erosion of these rights fo Proposal A has several holes. It does The Daily urges a "No" or 'No'Ton Proposal nvolved with ild. It makes nwith AIDS the fetus to a rimination. If onetary, pro- with AIDS is sive than the provide for e or incest. d and survive t be punished ng forced to rime for nine aving to live their lives. han one per- s result from hat approxi- pes go unre- FA's statistics cquaintance 90 percent of ent says it is people, but g to solve the availability of ?re- and post- for working nd unaccept- nst women on It makes no th AIDS and est. Most im- it will set a n's reproduc- e the gradual r all women. n Proposal A. PROPOSAL B, the proposal to include crime victims' rights in the constitution is an unnecessary and ambiguous pro- posal which would only serve to pre- vent state legislators from dealing di- rectly with the real social causes ofa crime. Proposal B ignores the most important issues dealing with crime and crime prevention and is a backlash of the conservative "tough on crime" position currently held by many politi- cians. Proposal B would provide for vic- tims to have certain rights within the judicial process and would include the right to: be treated with fairness and re- spect for their dignity and privacy; be reasonably protected from the accused; be notified of court proceedings; make a statement to court at sentencing; in- formation about conviction, sentence, imprisonment and release of accused. Proposal B is unnecessary because victims' rights are already provided for in the constitution under the rights of all citizens to due process of law. Also, the language of Proposal B is intentionally vague. Words like "fairness," "respect," and "reasonable" are all abstractions which can easily be manipulated. These, however, are the least compelling arguments against Proposal B. If it is in fact true that our judicial system operates on the presumption of innocence, why then is it necessary to provide the victim "protection from the 'accused?" This perpetuates,the notion -that all people who are accused of crimes are in fact guilty, and danger- ous. If in certain circumstances it be- comes necessary for individuals to seek Vote 'Y MICHIGAN'S Department of Natural Resources has identified 1778 toxic waste sites in Michigan. Proposal C would allocate 660 million dollars to begin clean-up 600 of these sites, pro- vide clean drinking water for residents in areas polluted by toxic waste, and to contribute to an eight-state Great Lakes A I ,protection they can do this under the current system in the form of court or- ders and injunctions. To allow a statement to be made by victims prior to sentencing is to admit that individual, subjective sentiment is part of the basis on which sentencing occurs. The judicial system ostensibly operates on formulaic, objective crite- ria. Given that this type of fairness is impossible to achieve anyway, why cloud the issue further by allowing ob- viously biased and emotional state- ments to affect sentencing? Further- more, any pertinent information will be admitted as testimony by the victim during the trial. To provide victims information about the imprisonment and eventual release of the convicted is to open the door to vigilantism. Knowledge of where and when a person is released from prison gives a crime victim the power to pre- vent that person from effectively re-en- tering society. Crime victims will have the power to prevent people from being accepted by communities, getting jobs or education. This is intolerable and will establish a system in which the rights of people who have been victims of crime take precedence over the rights of individuals to re-enter society after serving time in prison. If state legislators are truly interested in crime victims' rights they will begin to address the real social causes of crime and effectively decrease the number of crimes and crime victims. Until then we cannot accept victim blaming and unfair laws which deal with effects and not causes. Vote No on Proposal B. Dukaki s for values To the Daily: What are American values? I ask this question because George Bush claims that he is, the candidate for American val- ues, implying that Michael Dukakis is not. I think that religious liberty is an American value. When Bush ridicules Governor Dukakis for vetoing legislation making the Pledge of Alle- giance mandatory in Mas- sachusetts public schools, it calls into question Bush's commitment to religious free- dom. By vetoing that bill, Dukakis was standing up for the rights of those groups whose religious convictions preclude them from taking any sort of oath or pledge. Would George Bush have us go back to a time when people who re- fused on religious grounds to recite the pledge were beaten and attacked in their churches and homes by angry mobs? Does George Bush remember this part of our history? He should, because in June of 1940 a mob of 2500 ransacked and burned down a Jehova's Witness Church in Ken- nebunkeport, Maine-George Bush's present hometown. I think that freedom of speech is an American value. When George Bush persistently attacks Michael Dukakis for his membership in the Ameri- can Civil Liberties Union, an organization deeply committed to defending the First Amend- ment, it makes me wonder. I think that separation of church and state is an American value. When George Bush al- lies himself with Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and others who would blur the church-state distinction, I grow more skep- tical. I think that individual pri- vacy from government intru- sion is an American value. And yet George Bush wants to make abortion a crime, thus denying women the freedom to make decisions concerning their own bodies. Mike Dukakis believes that women should be free from govern- ment interference with their re- productive freedom. I think that compassion is an American value. When George Bush talks of "a kindler and gentler nation" and "a thousand points of light", he emphasizes private charity. Mike Dukakis thinks that government can be compassionate as well. George Bush talks as if government were inherently evil. But the issue isn't big government or small government, it's good government or bad govern- ment, Mike Dukakis believes that government can help to improve the quality of life of its citizens. Remember civil rights laws? Or environmental and consumer protection laws? I agree with George Bush .when he says that we should vote for the candidate who rep- resents American values. That is why I am voting for Michael Dukakis. -Roger Kosson November S Proposal A cruel and arrogant To the Daily: In his response to Molly Henry's lucid and compassion- dollars pay for it." Well, Mr. Morrow, not only do I dispute, your statistics with respect to the percentage of pregnancies resulting from rape, but I would further assert that neither "abstinence" nor indeed sexual activity have ever been solely a matter of choice for women. Male violence has been there on either side, punishing sex with various technologies of repression, from the chastity belt to televangelism, and punishing abstinence and re- fusal with rape, beatings, hu- miliation and even homicide. There is another 100% effec- tive form of birth control that some women choose; it's called lesbianism. But that too meets with the hostility and punitive strategies of gyno- phobes like Mr. Morrow. Mr. Morrow shows his reac- tionary colors most openly when he equates pregnancy with a "lack of discipline." Anyone who hasn't been living in Jerry Falwell's attic for a long time should know that poor women have fewer alter- natives, sexually and finan- cially, than any other stratum of this nation's populace. They are more consistently subject to sexual abuse of all sorts; they are more consistently left alone to raise unwanted chil- dren, and their voices are heard less than anyone's. Who is Mr. Morrow to stand in judgment from an economically privi- leged position, to prescribe the rules of sexual activity, and to use his middle-class leverage as a "taxpayer" against the poor? As it needs to be said over and over, I will say it again: Proposal A specifically de- prives poor women of one of very few options left to them. To legislate their personal lives from a position of fiscal com- fort is certainly unethical, as Molly Henry reminds us. It is also cruel. And arrogant. -Simon Glickman October 17 Dukakis: demagogue To the Daily: Keith Brand's letter of October 18 urging students to vote for Dukakis goes a long way towards explaining the Democratic party's poor results in recent presidential elections. Mr. Brand (and-Dukakis) seem not to have learned a thing in the past eight years. Although I can sympathize with Mr. Brand's disgust about demagogic patriotism, phony promises, and distorted records, I think he really underestimates Dukakis' problems. For one, Dukakis has himself played fast and easy with the facts (his purported budget balancings are but one example), and has played the demagogue on the issue of economic patriotism (reversing his position in favor of protectionism). The main- stream media pick up on these petty conflicts and claims. Some Americans surely will vote on the basis of these smear campaigns. I fear that Brand does not perceive the ideological defi- ciencies of Dukakis' campaign. For one, most Americans are deeply suspicious of any ex- pansion of government coer- cion in their lives. Dukakis' Massachusetts has experienced an unprecedented growth in state power during his reign. The problem for Dukakis: his ideology impels him to expand the state's role in society, yet will not tolerate reckless ideo- logues' efforts to further gov- ernment interests against the public interest. In Mas- sachusetts Dukakis has failed to defend the common man against the excesses of gov- ernment. Governors across the U.S. strive to establish private-sec- tor initiatives and to scale back many programs. Bush under- stands this better than Dukakis. Perhaps it is because public opinion has changed so much, or perhaps because Democratic nomenclature is rigidly ideo- logical; in any event, Dukakis is out of touch with main- stream America. All of this is not good for America. When one party con- sistently gets routed at the polls, our polity suffers. I hope the Democrats do better in 1992. -David S. Bauders October 20 Election: more than two parties To the Daily: Your "88 Election Guide" (Weekend, 11/4/88) reeks of the political censorship that has been common throughout this campaign. Only two par- ties - the Republican and Democratic parties - are listed . and discussed. The listing is incomplete. There are numer- ous third parties running on local and national levels. One such party, the Workers Against Concessions Party, provides a clear alternative to the Republicans and Democrats. In Michigan, twenty-six working people - not professional politicians - are running on the Workers Against Concessions slate. They are running to make a stand against the attacks that people have been facing - plant closings, school cuts, rising unemployment, falling wages. They are running to provide a real alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. People in Ann Arbor have an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the policies of the Republicans and Democrats. In Ann Arbor, four Workers Against Concessions candidates are on the ballot: Sally Bier for U.S. Senate, Scott Jones for Michigan House of Representatives - District 53 (Ann Arbor), Verna Baird and Annette Johnson for the State Board of Education. -Jeffrey Miller Robert Kotchenruther November 7 Morris for Circuit judge To the Daily: I was extremely disappointed by the Daily's endorsement ar- ticle of the judicial candidate Nancy C. Francis. I respect the paper's privilege to state its opinion, however, the paper lacked responsibility by stating facts that are simply untrue. Here are a few facts about Melinda Morris: Melinda Morris is an honors graduate from the University of Michigan Law school in 1963. Soon after graduation, she gained extensive courtroom experience as an Assistant Public Defender, and acquired the skills necessary to be an effective trial lawyer. She has practiced for 25 years in Ann Arbor, and has shown leader- ship ability - past president of the Washtenaw County Bar Association. She is endorsed by the incumbent judge, Henry T. Conlin, as well as the Michigan Trial Lawyers Asso- ciation. She has wide commu- nity bi-partisan support. I believe that the Daily has a right to its opinion, however it is unfair to the reader, who trusts the judgement of this paper to misinform and mislead them. Therefore, I would only mislead the reader if I didn't state that I am Melinda Morris' daughter. -Molly M. Morris November 7 Yes on 'A' To the. Daily: The major problem in the presentation of Proposal A is the gross misconceptions pro- choice advocates proclaim. First, the idea of money be- ing an issue is false. Pro- choice advocates are eager to remind the public that without these abortions the number of welfare children will increase, thereby costing us more than medicaid abortions (approxi- mately six million). However, there has been absolutely no proof of welfare increases through the thirty-six states which discontinued the tax- funding. Second, pro-choice advocates are trying to tell the public that ending of tax-funded abortions will deprive poor women of abortions. This statement sim- ply has not been verified. Abortions will continue to be performed and there is no rea- son to believe that they will be beyond the means of poor women. Finally, the real issue is whether Michigan can take my tax contributions to finance the murder (and all semantics aside, it is murder) of thousands of unborn lives. I'm voting YES on Proposal A. -Rose Karadsheh November 7 Correction: In yesterday's editorial "Francis for Judge," the Daily incorrectly reported the en- dorsement of the Washtenaw County Bar Association for Washtenaw County Circuit Court judge. The WCBA en- dorsed Melinda Morris. The Daily apologizes for the mis- take. I I __________________________________________ I- "es yonC protection program. Corporations, including Gelman Sciences in Ann Arbor, contribute greatly to deterioration of Michigan's environment. The legislature has not appropriated funds to save Michigan's ecosystem, therefore voter initiative is the only solution. The Daily urges readers to vote 'Yes' on C. I T% .1.