Page 2 - The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition - Thursday, September 7, 1989
A
note
about
this section.
Continuing the precedent set by last year's New Student
Edition, this section is devoted to those minorities which are
too often forgotten, ignored, unfairly treated, or marginal-
ized because of their religion, sex, disability, sexual orienta-
tion, the color of their skin, or their place of birth.
While last year's section was entitled Identity, we feel that
students on this campus have begun to not only discover
their identities, but have become proud of them. Therefore
we chose to entitle the section Speak Out.
This section was written primarily by non-Daily staffers
who through personal involvement in the organizations have
greater insight into the issues and an surfeit of experience
dealing with the problems of discrimination.
By no means have all people or points of view been cov-
ered here. Rather we hope to have alerted people to some of
the more pressing dilemmas and issues facing us all as stu-
dents at Michigan.
Special thanks go to Liz Paige and Sharon Holland for
their immeasurable assistance in pulling the whole thing to-
gether.
:"
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Seize your abortion rights
before the courts decide to
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In January, 1989, the Ann Arbor
Committee to Defend Abortion
Rights - AACDAR - organized
to defend and extend the reproductive
rights of women. Because the Web-
ster v. Reproductive Health case
posed the greatest and most indis-
criminate threat to women since
their right to have an abortion was
constitutionally recognized in 1973,
AACDAR's immediate objectives
were to maintain Roe v. Wade and to
deflect and stop attacks on women's
health clinics.
Specifically, we have defended
clinics against attacks made by
"Operation Rescue," a fundamental-
ist organization which claims to be
"Right to Life," while employing
methods of psychological intimida-
tion and physical violence in order to
impose its political and religious be-
liefs on others - particularly on
women seeking the privacy of coun-
seling and/or abortion services.
During the months in which the
Supreme Court prepared itself to re-
view the Webster case last winter,
media coverage of the debate in-
creased. Not coincidentally, OR at-
tacks on clinics also increased.
During this time, AACDAR orga-
nized six "clinic defenses" in the
Ann Arbor-Detroit area; five of these
actions led to the arrest of OR mem-
bers, and in three instances
AACDAR was successful in keeping
the clinics open.
Since April, AACDAR has be-
ds unity
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gun to focus its activities toward
changing current attitudes and legal
and institutional practices which, re-
gardless of the outcome of the Web-
ster case, continue to render the
status of women's reproductive free-
dom subject to various forms of dis-
crimination.
The most notable of these mea-
sures is the Hyde Amendment, a
1977 addition to a congressional ap-
propriation bill which barred the use
of federal fui'ds for any abortion un-
der the medicaid program unless the
life of the mother is endangered.
This bill left individual states to de-
termine whether or not to fund abor-
tion. Since then, 43 of the states -
including Michigan as of November
1988 when Proposal A was passed
by referendum - have in turn left
poor women with a restrictive and
paradoxical burden. Although poor
and rich women alike have the right
to choose an abortion, the right to
actually have an abortion is limited
to those who can afford it.
Because AACDAR advocates re-
productive freedom for-all women,
regardless of age, class, or race, we
will work toward rolling back Mich-
igan's discriminatory Proposal A and
thereby restoring Michigan medicaid
funds for abortions for all women.
AACDAR has staged pickets at
three phony "pregnancy clinics" in
the area in order to inform the public
that although they claim to be neu-
tral, they are funded by "Right To
Life" and that they aim their biased,
manipulative and explicitly anti-
choice counseling at teenagers.
These clinics risk the lives of their
clients. by asking them to sign a
statement saying they will wait two
weeks after counseling to come to a
decision.
AACDAR regards reproductive
freedom not only as the freedom to
choose an abortion, it also means
the freedom to say "yes" to raising
children in a healthy environment.
For this reason, AACDAR is work-
ing toward expanding social services
and improving the quality of child-
care on campus and the quality of
sex education.
Finally, AACDAR enthusiasti-
cally supports the Domino's Boy-
cott. Specifically, we object to
Domino's owner Tom Monaghan's
donation of $50,000-100,000 of
business and personal funds to the
"Right to Life" movement.
AACDAR is also in solidarity
with the truly life-affirming efforts
of other organizations such as the
Latin American Solidarity Com-
mittee and the Tenants Union to end
Monaghan's exploitation of local
and international communities.
ROBIN LOZNAKIDaiiy
Protestors, including LSA junior Michelle Fleischer, try to drum up sup-
port for their cause at a pro-choice rally last winter in Lansing.
WE MUST WORK TOGETHER
MAC aims towar
by Delro Harris
MAC Chair
All of our people have the same
goals, the same objective. That ob-
jective is freedom, justice, equality.
All of 'us want recognition and re-
spect as human beings. We don't
want to be integrationists. Nor do
we want to be separationists. We
want to be human beings. Inte-
gration is only a method that is used
by some groups to. obtain.freedom,
justice, equality and respegt as hu-
man -beings. Separation is only a
method that is used by other groups
to obtain freedom, justice, equality
or human dignity.
Our people have made the mis-
take of confusing the methods with
the objectives, As long as we agree
on objectives, we should never fall
out with each other just because we
believe in different methods or tac-
tics or strategy to reach a common
objective.
"We have to keep in mind at all
times that we are not fighting for in-
tegration, nor are we fighting for
separation. We are fighting for re-
cognition as human beings. We are
fighting for the right to live as free
humans in this society." (Malcolm
X, April 8, 1964)
Divisions. A simple enough
concept, yet we all have such a' hard
time getting beyond it. The "average
person" accepts them. Sociologists
study them. Filmmaker Spike Lee
has devoted two films to them. And
when it comes down to it, when race
is involved, we can't afford them.
Malcolm X's quote refers to the
widely publicized division between
the in'tegrationists and the separa-
tionists, but it can also be applied to
many of the groups on campus.
At the U, "diversity" is one of
the things that is being encouraged.
Yet, with over 100 different minor-
ity and ethnic organizations, diver-
sity is a*virtual given. Each group
exists with a certain toine, a certain
method, which helps to distinguish
it from similar groups. However,
when two groups share a similar
purpose, it's very easy to feel that
fine is going about things the "right
way" and the other is "wrong". A di-
vision is created and no longer are
people free to reach for their objec-
tives. People are forced instead to
take sides and energy is spent further
defining those divisions instead of
achieving anything positive.
Another way we tend to create di-
visions is to argue about who
"really" has it bad. Some Blacks
complain, "We've suffered more dis-
crimination than anyone else," and
some Asian-Americans complain,
"We get blown off more than any
other group." This helps to make a
wide gulf even wider.
As a new student, I was shocked
and surprised that, given the Uni-
versity's "diversity", there was no
group dedicated to the unification of
all our peoples. However, where
once there was nothing, now such a
group exists.
Within the Michigan Student
Assembly exists a group known as
the Minority Affairs Commission.
After a slow evolution of a number
of years, the MAC has emerged as a
leading organization promoting both
unification of a number of groups,
and the distinctions between vari-
ous groups. Based in the Trotter
House, representatives from a num-
ber of minority and ethnic organiza-
tions attend meetings in order for
their group to have input in- MAC
decisions.
On the individual level, MAC al-
lows a student to deal with issues re-
lating to a large number of people.
For the student who's unsure of
which group to join, it exposes you
to a variety of groups. MAC allows
for personal growth. You meet peo-
ple from a variety of backgrounds
and discover how real or imagined
are our divisions. By bringing to-
gether a diverse group of people, we
find that some "Black problems" are
also "Latino problems" and that a
"Native American issue" might also
DAVID LUBLINER/Doily
The Minority Affairs Commission has become the leading organization on campus for promoting both unification
between various minority groups and the distinctions between the groups.
be seen as an "Asian-American is-
sue". And if these issues are one and
the same, so we stand to lose any-
thing by working together? Trying
to prove that my problem can never
be your problem, and vice versa, is
ultimately a waste of time and en-
ergy. In MAC we don't play that
game. We all don't immediately
agree on every issue, and sometimes
we never agree, but that's okay.
I also want to encourage people
who know what group they want to
join, to join that group. Strength-
ening the many groups in MAC
only helps to strengthen MAC
itself.
This is a plug. I have no shame
whatsoever in admitting to that.
However, if this has made you think
a little bit, or inspired you to join
MAC or any other of the many
groups here, then it's more than just
a plug -- it's your objective.
MAC meets weekly in the
Trotter House. Call 998-7037. For
times and dates.
Welcome Freshmen!
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