OPINION
The Michigan Daily-
Friday, March 24, 1989
Page 4
0
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Never again:
Remember the
Holocaust
Vol. IC, No.119
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All ot1 ar
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
FBI chief tarnishes Law School commencement:
Say no to Sessions
IN KEEPING WITH the University tra-
dition of honoring offensive and in-
appropriate people at its commence-
ment ceremonies, Law School Dean
Lee Bollinger has invited FBI director
William Sessions to address the
school's graduating seniors this May.
If Bollinger does not rescind his
invitation and Sessions does not with-
draw his acceptance, Sessions will join
the ranks of such notably unworthy
honorees as the Shah of Iran, Ferdi-
nand Marcos, and Jean Kirkpatrick.
The Law School recently decided to
ban the FBI from recruiting at the
school because of a federal court ruling
that the Bureau was guilty of discrimi-
nating against several hundred Latino
agents in its hiring, promotion and as-
signment policies. Four percent of the
Bureau's agents are Black, four percent
Latino, and nine percent women. In
1987 and 1988, Black FBI agents re-
signed at twice the rate of whites. The
Justice Department also ruled that
Donald Rochon, a Black agent, was the
victim of "brutal discrimination" during
an assignment at an Omaha field office.
In addition, the FBI has a history of
harassing and violating the civil rights
of organizations and individuals com-
mitted to social change, including
Martin Luther King Jr., anti-Vietnam
War activists, the American Indian
Movement, and the Committee in
Solidarity with the People of El
The Law School should be com-
mended for taking a stand against the
FBI's institutional racism, but
Bollinger's invitation calls into ques-
tion the sincerity of that commitment.
Bollinger's insistence that Sessions
does not represent the policies of the
institution he directs is a weak attempt
to justify his violation of what appeared
to be the Law School's principled
decision. Sessions is not an "individual
representing the qualities valued by our
school," as Bollinger would like him to
be perceived. Despite his promises to
make reforms in the Bureau, Sessions
still represents the FBI and its racist
policies. By inviting him to speak, the
University lends credibility and institu-
tional support to an agency which has
been declared racist even by the U.S.
Justice Department.
Bollinger made his decision unilater-
ally, with no student input.
The Law School Student Senate held
a referendum this week in which the
majority of the graduating class stated
that they do not want Sessions to
come. Bollinger should acknowledge
the students' right not to have their
graduation marred by Sessions' visit.
The Law School has taken several
positive steps this year to begin to ad-
dress its institutional inequalities. The
decisions to offer a teaching position to
Catherine MacKinnon, a feminist
lawyer; to add sexual orientation to the
school's anti-discrimination policy; and
to ban the FBI from recruiting, are all
commendable. But inviting Sessions to
speak violates the self-imposed ban and
undermines the affirmative stance the
Law school appeared to be taking.
Bollinger should rescind the invitation.
By the United Coalition
Against Racism
Next week Hillel is sponsoring a con-
ference on the legacy of the Holocaust.
The United Coalition Against Racism
(UCAR) urges students, faculty and mem-
bers of the community at large take
advantage of this opportunity to learn
more about the history of anti-Semitism
and the global and historic implications of
Nazism. Such lessons are particularly
germaine in the context of rising racism
and anti-Semitism worldwide and in out
own nation and communities. Signs of
this trend globally include the rising
popularity of neo-fascist skinhead cults
throughout Europe, the sustained presence
of neo-Nazi groups in West Germany such
as the Freiheitliche Arbeiterpartei (FAP,
Freedom Workers Party); the growing
popularity of the fascist and racist Le Pen
movement in France; and the increasingly
open and brutal attacks on Asians, West
Indians and Jews by Britains National
Front skinhead thugs.
Nationally, we have witnessed a simul-
taneous upsurge in racial violence toward
people of color, including Arab Ameri-
cans, and increasing anti-Jewish anti-
Semitism as well. All of this has been
coupled with rising vigilante violence
against gays and lesbians - another
frightening parallel to Nazi Germany.
Even our own so-called liberal community
of Ann Arbor has been host to racists and
fascists of all varieties. Most notably a
local band of neo-Nazis from Dearborn
have made routine annual appearances on
the steps of various public buildings
around the time of Hitler's birthday. For-
tunately, they have met with visible and
formidable resistance each time in the
form of counter-demonstrations. Less
threatening reminders of fascism have ap-
peared as well, including anti-Jewish graf-
fitti in University buildings, the painting
of a large swastika on a predominately
Jewish sorority house three years ago, and
on the West Engineering Building a year
and a half ago.
Perhaps one of the most important
Wasserman
lessons of the Holocaust and other major
human tragedies is that it is not only Jews
who need to remember and take responsi-
bility for fighting fascism; it is not only
Palestinians who need to understand and
defend their right for self-determination and
humane treatment; it is not only the Black
people of Southern African and the citi-
zens of Central America who must carry
the burden of fighting for justice in those
regions, it is all of us. Just as much of the
world stood by as the spectre of fascism
threatened Europe and as the genocidal
policies of the Third Reich consumed the
Jewish communities of Europe, we must
all take responsibility not only for what
we do in the face of injustice and inhu-
manity, but what we often do not do.
Holocaust survivors and others who have
experienced brutal oppression first hand
understand the need for this type of funda-
mental humanity, perhaps more than any-
one. We should listen and learn from their
stories. Never again must mean never
again to any people, at any time for any
.reason.
Events of the Tenth Annual Holocaust
Conference include: A Shayna Maidel,
presented this Saturday and Sunday by
the Ann Arbor Repertory Theatre, in the
Irwin Green Auditorium of the Hillel
building, 1429 Hill Street; "Education
the Third Reich: Blueprint for Mind
Control," a talk by author Alfons Heck,
this Sunday at 7:30 pm at Hillel; the
film Au Revoir Les Enfants, next
Tuesday at 7 and 9:15 pm at Hillel; the
film Murderers Among Us, next
Wednesday at 7 pm in Angel Hall
Auditorium A; and a presentation enti-
tled "An Evening With Survivors," next
Thursday at 7:30 pm at Hillel.
'Even our own so-called liberal community of Ann Arbor
has been host to racists and fascists of all varieties.'
Auschwitz concentration camp, the sight of hundreds of thousands of murders at
the hands of the Nazis during World War II.
Regents ignore process
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UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT James
Duderstadt and the Board of Regents
have circumvented the Michigan Open
Meetings Act, and escaped any ac-
countability to students, faculty, or the
voters of the State of Michigan, by
meeting in small groups to consider
candidates for the University's general
legal council. This avoids violation of
the act since the meetings do not have a
quorum and are not technically official.
The Open Meetings Act - to ensure
accountability - requires that public
institutions (such as the University)
have open meetings when a quorum of
their policy making body is present.
But disregard for the intent of this law
is nothing new. In interviews with
presidential candidates last summer and
applicants for provost this past fall, the
regents used this small group method.
The results were institutionally
incestuous; inside-track hiring
promoted Duderstadt to president and
Engineering School Dean Charles Vest
Regardless of the legal violation,
these meetings go against the interest of
fairness and participation of the stu-
dents and faculty. Even the media can-
iot observe the meetings.
This system favors those with con-
nections and promotes the old boy
network. As Richard Kennedy, Uni-
versity Vice President for Government
Relations put it, the regents are not of-
ficially interviewing the candidates, but
rather satisfying themselves (Ann Ar-
bor News, 2/14/89). There is no at-
tempt to satisfy the criteria of the stu-
dents and faculty, only a few select
administrators.
In conjunction with the disempow-
erment of University Council - the
president has taken away the student-
faculty veto power over rules govern-
ing conduct - and the passage of a
protest code which is enforced by cam-
pus deputies, this should be seen as
one in a series of anti-democratic ac-
tions by the Duderstadt administration.
The University is not interested in stu-
dent input.
Duderstadt and the regents hope to
snow the students into thinking they
have their best interests in mind. In re-
ality, student input is denied and stu-
dent rights are curtailed while the ad-
ministration escapes even its legal obli-
gations for accountability.
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Lettersto:::the-: editor:.":i ;
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Remember
Armenian
tragedy
To the Daily:
Every year on April 24th
Armenians all over the world
commemorate the first geno-
cide of the twentieth century,
the systematic annihilation of
the Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire. It was on the eve of
April 24th, 1915, that the Ar-
memian intellectuals in the Ot-
toman empire were arrested by
the ordes of the Youiig I uk
gove ment, niatched off, and
murdered. Following this,
convoys of Armenians, men,
women and children, also fol-
lowed under guard, never to be
heard of again. Well over a
million Armenians perished as
a result. All Armenian land and
property was seized by the
Turkish authorities and the
survivors were left to fend for
themselves. As a result, to this
day, there are no Armenians
left in historic wesitn Arme-
nia. These lands now constitute
the eastern provinces of the
Turkish republic.
This year the Armenian Stu-
dents Cultural Association
Club (ASCAC) will be host-
ing a number of commemora-
tive events which will include
S terilize
all men
To the Daily:
Having accepted that human
life starts at conception and
having accepted that ending
that life is unacceptable
morally-speaking as the New
Right proclaims, this comrade
proposes the sterilization of all
men. This is the only way to
ensure that abortion does not
occur, even in cases of rape or
incest.
Sterilize all men: we have
the technology. It is a simple
office operation. Every male
upon reaching a certain age
will put a lifetime's supply of
sperm in a sperm bank and
then have his tubes tied for the
good of humanity.
Sterilize all men: the Ten
Commandments outlaw mur-
der, not artificial insemination.
Sterilize all men: this would
be a much less controversial
way to resolve the abortion is-
sue once and for all - no back
alley abortions, no court fights
and no lengthy political mobi-
lization pitting feminists
against born-again Christians.
Sterilize all men: murder in
the womb will never happen
again under any morally diffi-
cult circumstances.
Sterilize all men: the anti-
ready France has a birth control
pill that automatically aborts
the fetus or non-fetus every
month in a way that makes it
impossible to tell if an abor-
tion happened.
Comrade anti-abortionists:
the time is now! Sterilize all
men before it is too late!
(The author is comrade 5 of
the Maoist Internationalist
Movement.)
-Anonymous
February 10
Food Co-op
'slandervine'
To the Daily:
The People's Food Co-op
(PFC) is having a banquet this
year instead of an annual meet-
ing. The notice, which the
People's Food Co-op sent to
the members, boldly displayed
"PFC Annual Meeting," was
about caterers and musicians.
There are no issues or agenda
for the members to vote upon
and thus no reason to have a
meeting of the members.
The PFC is having an elec-
tion to clean up the language
in its by-laws. Under the cur-
rent set of by-laws (section
4.6), the board must set an
agenda containing items
submitted by members. The
board was too lazy to set the
agenda for this annual meeting
a non-profit corporation. This
is sad because the members
used to run the PFC by having
members' meetings, before
submitting to a board-style co-
op in 1980.
The PFC put the Daily's
editorial in a file and selec-
tively showed it to members
who were shopping and told
these members that nothing in
the editorial was true. This
form of gossiping has been
called "the slandervine."
Unfortunately, no members
have asked the obvious ques-
tion: if the Daily's editorial
wasn't true, then what is true?
Members do not know what
records are kept, if any. This
makes it difficult to verify a
long string of logic, gossip and
events.
The sad part is that this gos-
sip gives the impression of
open information and an in-
formed membership. The sad
part is that the "co-op" says
(but doesn't print) that a total
of four committee or board
meetings were attended within
the last year by the nine candi-
dates running for the board
(aside from the current vice-
president and secretary.)
The People's Food Co-op
won't print this information
and relies on gossip and
misinformation to herd its
members.
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In honor of Michigan's Arab-American Awareness Week
(March 20-26), several student groups are sponsoring an Arabic
Cultural Night this Friday, March 24 at 7:00 p.m. in East Quad
Cafeteria. Join the celebration of the 13th anniversary of Pales-
tinian Land Day, featuring "Al Watan," the famous Palestinian
Debka Troup from Wahington, D.C.; the "Chicago Debka
Troup" and the "Detroit Folklore Troup." There will also be an
Arabic calligraphy exhibit; an art and handicrafts exhibit; tradi-
tional dresses; and Arabic Food.
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