OPINION
Thursday, December 1, 1988



Page 4

The Michigan Daily



Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Vol. IC, No.59 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.
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Misgmded advice

U.S. out of Central America

By Mike Fischer and
Kathryn Savoie
Eight years ago today, a Salvadoran
death squad with clear links to El Sal-
vador's government raped and murdered
four U.S. missionaries in El Salvador.
Within one month, President Carter had
restored both economic and military aid to
the Salvadoran government.
The juxtaposition of these two actions,
the one involving a gross. violation of
human rights and the second demonstrat-
ing a clear willingness on the part of the.
U.S. government to ignore such viola-
tions, is paradigmatic of U.S. foreign
policy in both El Salvador and throughout
the Third World. In both, the U.S. will
justify the expenditure of billions of dol-
lars to defeat guerrilla movements such as
the FMLN in El Salvador, even though,

at the hands of the government. Those
who dare to speak up for human dignity
and against tyranny are targeted by the
Salvadoran death squads.
At the University of El Salvador at
Santa Ana, the University of Michigan's
Sister University, the army recently at-
tacked a peaceful protest organized by
teachers, students, and workers demanding
increased government funding. National
police riot squads attacked without provo-
cation, firing tear gas, live ammunition,
and water cannons into the crowd of 6000
marchers. Approximately 150 persons
were wounded and more than 200 students,
professors and bystanders were arrested.
Here in this country and in our own
community, we see the evidence of how
the Salvadoran government, with U.S.
support, contributes to the suffering of the
Salvadoran people. U.S. advisers direct a
counterinsurgency war which forcibly re-

'Here in this country and in our own community, we see the
evidence of how the Salvadoran government, with U.S. sup-
port, contributes to the suffering of the Salvadoran people.'

over his support for funding the contras
and the government of El Salvador. It is
actions such as these, taking place
throughout the country, that have pro-
tected El Salvador and Nicaragua from di-
rect U.S. invasion. In combination with
movements such as Sanctuary here in Ann
Arbor, as well as the University of
Michigan's Sister University affiliation
with the University of El Salvador in
Santa Ana, the campaigns LASC has par-
ticipated in over the past eight years have
not only aided the effort to prevent a U.S.
invasion of Central America, but have
also helped us forge a genuine solidarity
with our sisters and brothers fighting for
freedom throughout the region.
The LASC will participate in CISPES'
national call to action as a means of ex-
pressing that solidarity. Consequently, we
hereby signal our intention to join in na-
tionally coordinated protest action, be-
tween March 18-20, 1989 against the US-
sponsored war in El Salvador and the sham
elections that will take place there during
that week. The LASC will also call for a
"No Business As Usual Day" at the Uni-
versity of Michigan sometime during
Central America Week (which begins
March 19), on which we will promote
speakers, films, and workshops addressing
the situation in Central America as a vi-
able alternative to attending classes.
We also call for the media in the United
States to report more forthrightly and
consistently on what is taking place in El
Salvador. As night has fallen on the lives
of its peoples over the past decade, a
similar blackout has deprived U.S. citizens
of the opportunity to know what our gov-
ernment is doing in El Salvador as well as
how much money it is spending in doing
it. And even though the political and
military situations in El Salvador are at a
crucial point, with both the popular and
guerrilla movements at their strongest
since the civil war began in 1979, it is a
rare day when one finds any information
about the country in the newspapers, on
television, or on the radio.
Finally, we call for an inauguration day
protest this coming January so that we
might send to George Bush and the new
Congress a loud and clear message: we
will no longer tolerate U.S. support for a
regime that, in the name of democracy,
has butchered 70,000 of its people in the
last nine years. We will no longer tolerate
the double-speak through which, in a
haunting echo of the Vietnam War, the
U.S. justifies destroying El Salvador by
claiming to save it.

as in the case of the FMLN, such move-
ments represent the legitimate democratic
aspirations of the indigenous population.
In both, the U.S.' top priority is defense
of what Noam Chomsky has referred to as
the "Fifth Freedom" - the U.S. govern-
ment's "right" to pillage and destroy in
order to preserve its own economic and
strategic interests. And in both, the U.S.
props up repressive, totalitarian regimes
willing to work for these interests, and
calls them democracies.
There is a war going on in El Salvador
and the U.S. is involved*in it. During the
last nine years, the United States has spent
more than $3.6 billion to maintain the
Salvadoran government in power, a gov-
ernment so weak and divided that it is able
to keep control only through extreme re-
pression and by waging war against its
own people. During 'this same nine year
period 70,000 Salvadoran citizens have
been killed, slaughtered by government-
controlled death squads and the armed
forces. Most Salvadorans live in incredible
poverty and suffer unspeakable repression
Mike Fisher and Kathryn Savoie are
members of the Ann Arbor Latin America
Solidarity Committee.

locates civilians in order to create "free-
fire" zones. Scorched-earth operations have
driven more than 1.5 million people
(almost one third of the population) from
their homes. Almost one million Sal-
vadorans are living in forced exile in the
United States as a result of these cruel and
immoral policies. And right here in Ann
Arbor are Salvadoran families who have
fled their country fearing for their lives,
seeking sanctuary from the brutal
Salvadoran government.
As residents within the country whose
foreign policies have promoted such
atrocities, it is our responsibility to do all
we can to pressure the U.S. government to
stop the war. Consequently, in conjunc-
tion with CISPES, we of Ann Arbor
LASC are calling for the initiation of a
campaign of active protest and non-violent
direct action to bring the war in El Sal-
vador to an end. Our campaign in Ann
Arbor will build on the momentum
generated by a long series of such efforts
directed against CIA and FBI recruitment
on campus, George Bush's visit to cam-
pus in the Fall of 1985 to commemorate
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Peace
Corps, and the protests against our Con-
gressional Representative, Carl Pursell,

IN THE WEEK BEFORE Thanksgiving
break, LSA Student Government
(LSA-SG) sponsored an advertisement
in the Daily entitled "Having Problems
With Your T.A.??." The advertisement
gives names and numbers of University
services to contact for academic and
discriminatory problems. Harassment
demands attention, and undergraduates
with academic problems deserve coun-
sel, but an appeal to the University ad-
ministration involves trusting a bureau-
cracy unable to deal with discrimina-
tion.
The first portion of the.ad states that
students who have problems with their
TAs can seek out the professor, the
head of the department, or student
counselling services for help. This is
legitimate advise for negotiating aca-
demic problems, especially considering
the power TAs are generally given over
undergraduates.
The ad then advocates turning to a
variety of administrative sources for
cases of harassment such as the Affir-
mative Action Office, Student Discrim-
ination Policy Administrator, and the
Department of Public Safety and Secu-
rity. Students who turn to these
sources for help or protection will only
succeed in helping the University con-
ceal the harassment which takes place
here.
Teaching assistants are accountable
for their actions, but not to the same
degree as the administration, which
provides no training for TAs (or other
students) on the issues of racism and
sexism or even discrimination in gen-
eral.
By running the ad, LSA-SG chose to
join the administration in holding TAs
up to a standard which is not applied to
any other member of the Univeristy
community. There is no course of ac-
tion in the ad for students who have

been harassed by an administrator or
the Department of Public Safety.
By implicitly suggesting that TAs are
a major part of the harassment problem
at Michigan, LSA-SG is running inter-
ference for the administration's own
discrimination and failure to address the
problems of harassment put forth by
student organizations. The University
still harbors the likes of LSA Dean
Peter 0. Steiner and Regent Deane
Baker (R-Ann Arbor), who have pro-
moted racism and homophobia through
remarks and actions made in their ca-
pacities as University administrators.
Telling the administration about TA
harassment of students will either lead
to a cover-up - as several complaints
to the Tell Someone campaign have -
or the administration will choose to
discipline an employee on a completely
different criteria than it applies to its
own bureaucrats. Don't Tell Someone,
so the University can cover it up.
Even worse is LSA-SG's collabora-
tion with the administration in encour-
aging students' to attack other students
(in this case graduate students) rather
than working on a campaign for
education about discrimination. The
administration has no right to punish
teaching assistants, or students in gen-
eral when it refuses to create a manda-
tory course on racism, recruit minority
faculty and students in representative
numbers, and pay women faculty and
staff members as much as their male
counterparts.
Students having problems with other
students should turn to the anti-racist,
anti-sexist student organizations for
support, not the administration. LSA-
SG should spend its money and time
working against harassment through
means such as the mandatory class
rather than writing propaganda for the
administration.


University
needs a
new ad
To the Daily:
When I graduated in May,
the University had just selected
a new president: a president
who, although having a back-
ground in engineering, has
supposedly committed himself
to the goals of a liberal educa-
tion. There was much concern
during the selection process in
regards to the emphasis the
new president would place on
teaching, as opposed to re-
search. Those who have been
around the University commu-
nity are aware of this conflict.
While I feel I received a supe-
rior education at the Univer-
sity, ignoring the gradual ero-
sion of the values inherent in a
liberal arts education has
clearly been wrong.
Indeed, my and others'
avoidance of the issue is what
has led me to write the
University today. What in-
spired me to start this letter?
Anyone who has watched a
Michigan football game on
television and seen the promo-
tional piece for the University
knows exactly why I'm writ-
ing. The piece creates a picture
of a university wholly different
from that which I attended. Or
does it? The advertisement
speaks solely of research,
engineering, and technical ex-

science, or a foreign language?
The University would do
well to model its promotions
after those of Indiana or Min-
nesota, who, although arguably
less distinguished than Michi-
gan, have promotional pieces
that are much more attractive
to a budding liberal arts major
than is Michigan's. I'm not
advocating that the University
replace its emphasis on techni-
cal education with an emphasis
on the liberal arts, but it would
be nice if Michigan could at
least strike a balance. It's fine
to mention the slick "high
tech" corridor the University
has helped create, but distin-
guished achievements in the
liberal arts should be high-
lighted as well.
I only hope that those of you
at the University right now do
your best to obtain a great and
thorough education. Be con-
cerned about the issues raised
herein. My pride in having
graduated from the University
lies with a lot more than only
its technological feats and ca-
pabilities. Let's reexamine the
priorities at Michigan. And
let's film another promotional
clip, one that reflects the Uni-
versity I know has existed, a
university in which I would
like to continue to believe.
-Mark Perrin
November 7
Review

Superstar is a great musical.
One of the things that makes it
great is its brutal honesty
about Christ and what we hu-
mans make of Him; it serves
to warn us of the dangers of
hypocrisy, and that's good. but
to take it as a blanket indict-
ment of Christianity in general
is to miss the point. Ms.
Colquitt writes, for example,
of the apostles' (sic) "am-
bition" implying Christian
"hypocrisy" ("Then when we
retire we can write the
gospel/(sic) so they'll all talk
about us when we die (sic)").
Does she think Christians at-
tribute the gospels to any other
source? Stone tablets, perhaps?
Maybe she has us confused
with the Mormons.
-Catherine Arnott
November 7

and the Bible is very clear in
these places. For example,
Romans 1:27, I Corinthians
6:9-10, and especially in
Genesis 18:16-19:29, where
God destroys Sodom and
Gamorrah for their rampant
homosexuality.
Let there be no mistaking
this fact: people who believe
the Bible literally believe that
homosexuality is a sin. What
shall we do here at U of M,
then? There are many Christian
groups on campus (Campus
Crusade, Intervarsity, Naviga-
tors, Christians in Action, and
others) which believe the Bible
literally. Thus, there is a high
likelihood that they believe
homosexuality is morally
wrong. Shall we withdraw
recognition from every Chris-
tian group on this campus?
This would surely be religious
discrimination in its purest
form, for MSA would be act-
ing against these groups on the
basis of their religious beliefs.
-Kevin J. Clarke
November 2
Mail Dave

Bible

says

anti-gay is
Okay
To the Daily:
I have some contentions
about Jim Randall's letter con-
cerning the CCF controversy,
entitled "CCF removal lauded,"
(Daily, 11/1/88). Randall pro-
fesses to be a homosexual and
a Christian, and makes several
allegations which I would like
to discuss.
First, he says that in places

postcards
To the Daily:
I recently heard on the air
(WNIC, Dearborn) an appeal of
a friend or family member of a
child in West Palm Beach,
Florida who is dying of bone
cancer. The kid is trying to
break the world record for re-
ceivinry the most nngtcardsg

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