0 OPINION Page 4 Monday, November28, 1988 The Michigan Daily :' e £ibdieastyfi Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Stripping the Vol. IC, No. 56 420 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. Protesters close clinic QN SATURDAY, November 12 - a few days after Proposal A had passed - a, group calling themselves Operation Rescue attempted to close down the Women's Advisory Center in Livonia. They sat in front of the doors, allowing no one to enter. Counter-protesters were also there, to show public oppo- sition to these actions. The police ar- rived by 8 am, but took two and a half hours to clear these people out. Through their actions, the police showed their sympathy with the group which had closed this clinic, forming a barricade line to "protect" them from the pro-choice counter-protesters. The police justified the wait for the arrests to begin by the delay in arrival of their wagon. But during the hours of wait- ing they did not even request that the protesters move away from the door. And when the clinic doctor tried to open the door to get in, the police threatened to arrest him. Now that Proposal A has passed, we can expect the attacks on women's right to choose to increase, in number and in scope. Clinics, and the women using them, will be attacked. Employee medical insurance plans may be limited; other legislative restrictions may be en- acted. Women's basic right to choose the option of abortion may be taken away by a right-wing Supreme Court. This consequence is concrete, the state is already changing the rules and procedures of its medicaid system. What Bush's election will do is less concrete but perhaps more menacing. Right now, concerned groups can still attempt to fund poorer women's abortions through voluntary fund- raising efforts (Planned Parenthood is doing this), thus preserving some chance that a poor woman will be able to make her own choice. But, in a Supreme Court about to veer even farther to the right with Bush appointees, a review of Roe v. Wade is likely, and all women could easily lose their right to make this decision. Recent events give us an idea of what other repercussions we can expect, both in the legislature and in the streets. Senator Jack Welborn of Kalamazoo plans to introduce a constitutional amendment in Michigan to ban cover- age of abortion in the employee medical insurance of state employees, legisla- tors and legislative staff. The next logical targets are public school teachers, and then the faculty and staff at public universities. Chrysler got a loan from the government; would their female employees be the next to lose abortion coverage in their medical insurance? Proposal A's passage has also encouraged anti-choice groups to step up their tactics, including their attempts to close down abortion clinics. Sometimes they do this through violence, as in December of 1986, when Planned Parenthood of Kalamazoo was burned to the ground. At other times, their methods are less drastic: they protest in front of abortion clinics, screaming at the women going in, calling them murderers and attempting to limit their freedom to choose. The passage of Proposal A is a victory for anti choice activists and supporters of the status quo idea that women should not be allowed the independence to make their own choices. By Sandra Steingraber We couldn't believe it, you know. Here, this happening in America. Oh, they were cruel. - mill worker describing police brutal- ity against women unionists during the Bread and Roses strike, 1912. Last week I proposed that the police al- ternately serve two diametrically opposed roles in regards to women rights: In their capacity to enforce laws against rape, bat- tering and sexual harassment, police serve as our protectors. In their capacity to brandish clubs, guns, handcuffs and the power of arrest, police serve to brutalize women activists fighting against injus- tices not remedied by recognized legisla- tion. With the increasing tendency to view police as a panacea for social ills, women need to understand how these dual roles operate in their lives and affect their inter- ests. "Safety" and "enhanced protection" have emerged as popular buzzwords among administrative authorities to justify in- creasing police powers. George Bush suc- cessfully used his now-famous story about the Black rapist on a rampage to whip up fear of a lawless society and paint his op- ponent as "soft on crime." "More police!" is a popular rallying cry here on the local scene as well. Police will soon be regularly patrolling the corridors of certain Ann Arbor public schools - a move which ostensibly creates a safer learning environment but which also This is the second of a two-part series on women and the police. functions as a psychological operation to get students used to the presence of police in their lives. The Ann Arbor News re- cently endorsed this decision. Allowing Ann Arbor cops to carry semi-automatic weapons is another move city officials are currently mulling over. And down the road in Detroit, the authori- ties are considering beefed-up police squads - and the possible use of helicopter pa- trols - as a response to rapes of high school women. Moves such as these strengthen the hand of those who both protect and oppress us. It is hard for women to know how to think about this. The police force that hunts down rapists with its ever-more-so- phisticated arsenal of weapons and surveillance techniques is the same police force that will show up in force at a WAND protest (Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament), for example, or at a picket line of striking clerical workers. And the same woman who calls on the police to protect her against sexual assault could very well find a billy club in her face and handcuffs on her wrists. Recently the Ann Arbor News ran a rosy, upbeat article about the police dead meat at the Miss America pageant. These women demonstrators were met and driven back by double rows of armed mounties. Whose interests are protected by this kind of police action? Who is made safer? The campaign against abortion currently being waged by right-wing partisans of Operation Rescue poses a curious set of questions. In this case, women counter- demonstrators lawfully fighting to keep abortion clinics open against the efforts of the Operation Rescuers should find plenty in common with the police. But eye-wit- nesses to O.R. maneuvers in Livonia and Chicago tell me that it ain't necessarily so. Instead, police have allowed demon- strators to successfully block the entrances for long periods of time (no double rows of mounties) while responding brutally to counter-demonstrators' own efforts to clear a path to the doors themselves. It seems the lines were more clearly drawn at the beginning of the century. According to their own words, women fighting for their rights as workers and voters saw the police as their enemies. Period. In my favorite story from the an- nuls of women's labor history, the Bread 6 0 'The police force that hunts down rapists with its ever-more-= sophisticated arsenal of weapons and surveillance techniques is the same police force that will show up in force at a WAND, protest... or at a picket line of striking clerical workers.' "controversial and colorful" law enforce- ment techniques used by Washtenaw County Sheriff Doug Harvey during a wave of unrest in 1968. Ann Arbor ac- tivist Jim Kirk wrote a letter in response reminding readers that such techniques in- cluded unleashing attack dogs on welfare mothers and other women supporters dur- ing a sit-in (Ann Arbor News, 11-21). In this same year, women gathered from all over the country to display pieces of and Roses strikers of Massachusetts took. to the streets with sewing shears concealed in their dresses. When met by the official club-wielders, the women simply snipped their suspenders and, in some cases,; managed to strip their uniforms com- pletely - leaving them standing around with a lot of naked flesh. . Watching the Ann Arbor cops and Uni-' versity deputies patrol the streets here, I have to admit... it's a great fantasy. I L.Et'S Ste- PDRUG 'ISIrS foe.AN AM'I"AOt~Ow WRGT.V. luwv4 AND Socthj ~L -c~tly ASW Sy INSHOW FIZ- Ioci~o~vp% FOR TA g A$F,~pTtot Lt AW.utf Tvfl1 ' ov -ME6 cu~KFOR tI kLways L'E M likefkfegs,. W~t S,..LADES,. bq ES.. OLDFotV-5. .g'-1N din4 Rights long overdue a MONTH AGO, the Michigan Civil Fights Committee passed a long over- ue decision regarding the insensitive tie of American Indian names,,sym- b0ls, and rituals. The committee's de- oision echoes the actions taken by oth- ers across the country - recognizing that the misuse of Native American Culture by schools, fraternities, etc. is a continuation of the historical oppres- saon of American Indians by white America. :The systematic genocide of the Na- tive American population by the domi- nant white power structure is most powerfully recounted in the history of the Trail of Tears. "In 1838 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act - or- dering the forced removal of the in- digenous population from their home- lands in the Southeast - in order to give more of Native Americans' lands to white settlers. Fifteen thousand members of the Cherokee Nation were rdunded up as if they were cattle, chained to wagons and forcefully nrarchedfor over a thousand miles to a reservation in what is now Oklahoma. Four thousand died from frost expo- sore, malnutrition, beatings, and dis- ease during the march. . Conditions on reservations are well below national norms. High levels of alcoholism, low education and poverty on reservations are indicative of the low priority the government places on the lives of Native Americans. When the Reagan administration does pay at- tention to the reservations it is only to violate Indian treaties, particularly when mineral and oil exploration or nuclear testing is at stake. Native Americans lived here before white settlers instituted the Trail of Tears and other systematic practices which nearly erased an entire race of people from the face of the earth. In the context of the historical op- pression Native Americans have expe- rienced it is obvious that the illicit ap- propriation of their culture by white culture -in such forms as team mas- cots and fraternity rites - is danger- ous. The atmosphere of ignorance and contempt for Native American culture which has produced these derogatory team names has a long history in deleted, Eurocentric history texts, movies, slogans, mascots, and here on campus rituals such as those carried out by Michigauma. At Michigan, a school built on Native American ground, there are few Native American courses and only 0.5 percent Native American enrollment. Michi- gan's attitude toward Native Ameri- cans reflects its philosophy toward education. Language lab offers culture To the Daily: There is a resurgence of in- terest in the area of foreign languages and literatures, due to an increasing recognition of the nature of the changing world around us and of the in- adequacies of our educational system which fails to introduce students from K-12 to other cultures. New resources are be- ing made available to our lan- guages and literatures pro- grams. This year, through satellite transmission, authen- tic news broadcasts and other cultural materials are available, on a daily basis, for the study of foreign languages and cul- tures. News broadcasts are re- ceived from China, Japan, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Soviet Union, several Spanish speaking countries, France, and Israel. The LSA Project for Language Research and Devel- opment in cooperation with the Language Laboratory has made these materials available to all individuals who want to view them and to the various de- partments and programs who . want to incorporate them into their curriculum. In addition, the Language Laboratory re- ceives a number of programs produced in California by His- panic video stations. The University, through its many rich offerings and tive Literature, Afro-American Studies, Women Studies, American Culture, Asian Studies, Armenian Studies, Judaic Studies, Film and Video Studies, and others. The Resi- dential College has a long his- tory of introducing innovative courses which deal with diver- sity of cultures. Diversity of cultures is not an empty slogan. It is alive and well in Michigan. One only has to take advantage of what is available. More can be done and more is being done. The fact that many new student or- ganizations which represent ethnic and cultural communi- ties have emerged lately has helped raise the consciousness of the entire university com- munity to the diverse composition of its student body. These groups make an important contribution to the redefinition of goals within the University and to a heightening of awareness for the need for changes in the academic pro- gram. However, to claim that such a commitment does not exist at Michigan, is to deny the efforts of faculty and stu- dents, who participate in such courses, and administrators, who support these efforts. -Edna Amir Coffin November 18 Don't blame countries To the Daily: standing on the fringe of a larger group and asked who they were. I received two replies, the first being "Pledge initiation," and the other - "Students against Israel." I walked away, upset, and wondering if perhaps there re- ally was such a group. I am Jewish, and I am horrified at the treatment which the Pales- tinians have received from the Israeli government. These policies, though, should not be linked with Israel as an entity, because countries' policies can be changed. Likewise, our government is responsible for the contra war, thousands of deaths in El Salvador, -and much much more. Still, no one would consider forming an organization called "Students against the United States," or much less joke about one. Unfortunately the above comment is representative of the atmosphere of misunder- standing and ignorance we live in. Nations should not be op- posed - because nations are made up of people; govern- ments and policies should be opposed. Confusion of the two is tragic and and it is all-consum- ing. Look at the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War Two, the alienation of soldiers returning fror - Vietnam, and the abuse of Ira- nian-Americans during the hostage crisis. Examine, even, our modern conception of war - nuclear war - with mis- siles aimed not at government, not at armies, but at entire "evil" is to overlook this. Similarly, I prefer to say that I am Jewish, because being called" a Jew" potentially de- nies my being anything else; it puts me off in a corner. For example, to say that, with the knowledge that I am Jewish, you can presume that I support the Israeli government's policy towards Palestinians is erro- neous. Likewise, there area many Americans who do not associate themselves with their government's policies and are working to change them, ar arel even working around them. There is an all-important line". between misdirected abuse - that which I encountered= Thursday night -and con-R structive criticism, and unfor- tunately the voices of both of- ten get confused with one an- other. The former is born out' 4 of hostility and can only fosteu, more hostility; the latter cre-4 ates an environment for sincere, efforts for change. Hostility grows from ignorance - tor h which no one is immune. We should all work towards under- standing, to break down walls, to be not so quick to condemn, and to make that necessary leap of faith - to realize that we share a potential only attain- able together, We should examine our behavior and ask ourselves, where do we stand? -Eric Weltman November 19 Labels used to attack ON OCTOBER 26, a flier was When labels such as "woman driver"