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OPINION
Page 4
Monday, October 2, 1989
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Vol. C, No. 18 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.
Stop domestic violence
Conservatism and Liberalism have both failed:
Settling for more
EVERY 15 SECONDS in this country
a woman is beaten. Every 15 seconds.
In AnnfArbor alone, there were 234 re-
ports of "domestic violence" made to
the police during a six month period.
There were only 104 arrests, and those
:were just the reported cases.
A Police Foundation study in Kansas
City and Detroit discovered that in
more than 85 percent of "partner"
homicides police had been called to the
home at least once during the last two
years, and in more than half of the
,cases they had been called to the home
five times or more. In hospital emer-
gency rooms across the country, 20
percent of all patients are battered
women.
Only 10 percent of battered women
leave after a single incidence of abuse.
For those who stay, the cycle of abuse,
apology, denial and regret continues
for much longer; for some women it
,ontinues for the'duration of the rela-
tionship with an abusive partner.
Those who won't accept the statistics
on battering claim the problem is not
just woman abuse, that women are just
as violent. But in more than 95 percent
of domestic assaults, the man is the
perpetrator. Until that statistic changes
dramatically, people must accept that
violence against women and children in
the form of rape, battering and emo-
tional abuse is a deeply embedded part
,of our social fabric. Battering is sanc-
tioned to such a degree in this society
'that a television network, in the pre-
views for "The Preppy Murder," can
advertise, "Was it really murder or was
#it something else?" That something else
is the something she must have done to
provoke an obviously brutal and un-
warranted attack.
The problem of battering on cam-
puses is even more hidden from view.
Some of the problem with identifying
'battering on campus stems not only
from the myths which surround do-
a
mestic violence, but from the name it-
self. Domestic violence or battering is
not something that occurs at home be-
tween married people over the age of
30. It crosses all socio-economic and
racial barriers. Educated men men do
abuse their partners. Physical abuse
does happen on this campus.
In a study compiled by Bernice
Sandler on the status of women in
higher education, 55 percent of college
men interviewed believed that it would
be alright to "slap around" their girl-
friends if they were caught "cheating"
on them.
It's time for students to demand that
the administration take a look at the
problem of battering here before more
damage is done. It took a 1985 court
case, Thurman v. Torrington, to begin
passage of the mandatory arrest laws in
some states. (Michigan, four years
later, finally has a similar law.) In the
Thurman case, a survivor sued city po-
lice for their failure to protect her from
her husband's abuse. The $2 million
judgement she won scared some states
into passing mandatory arrest laws to
protect their collective coffers.
What if we did something before we
lost another life, another woman, an-
other child to battering? October is
Domestic violence Awareness Month,
and students can begin by asking ques-
tions, demanding information from
University officials. But education and
understanding are the beginning.
The Domestic Violence Project/SAFE
House is offering a month of activities
and events to raise the collective con-
sciousness. Call then at 973-0242
(business phone) or 995-5444 (crisis
phone). They need your help and wel-
come your participation in this month's
events. Help fight the power and stop
the violence, because every 15 seconds
is a statistic we can't live with.
The following editorial is reprinted with
permission from the 15th anniversary is-
sue of Dollars and Sense, a Somerville,
MA-based magazine produced by a collec-
tive of economists and journalists.
Liberalism took perhaps three decades to
discredit itself. The Right has flunked out
in less than one. Now, after too many
years of resisting assaults on what passed
for a welfare state, it's time for progres-
sives to take the initiative.
Amidst falling corporate profits in the
1960s and 1970s, the New Right and its
alter ego, neo-liberalism, undermined the
idea that government can and should inter-
vene in the economy to regulate, redis-
tribute, and control wealth. In the process,
the Siamese twins of deregulation and pri-
vatization gained popularity, public pro-
tection for the workplace languished, and
ever-more-stringent eligibility tests re-
placed the notion that all citizens are enti-
tled to government benefits. Hastening the
retreat, militant anti-tax rhetoric drained
the public sector of its revenue lifeblood,
sapping the strength of needed programs.
The rise of the Right put many radicals
on the defensive. Backed into a corner, we
fought to protect the New Deal legacy and
often settled for less than our ideals would
But its faith in capitalism renders it inca-
pable of addressing the roots of inequality.
When liberalism loses direction, we see
a signpost. Each government program is
not just an end in itself but part of a con-
tinuing battle for fundamental change. For
radicals, the state is the terrain for ongoing
struggles based on conflicting class, race
and gender interests. Building on broad
movements that defy the conservative on-
slaught, progressives seek nothing less
than a transformation of the state into a
democratically controlled and equitably fi-
nanced government.
We now have an opening, because the
Right was wrong: a decade of unrestrained
capitalism has demonstrated that the mar-
ket won't solve society's problems. The
market is the problem. From an antiquated
health-care system and a polluted envi-
ronment to lackluster schools and insuffi-
cient and overpriced housing, attacking the
crisis plaguing the United States means di-
rectly questioning the very premises of
capitalist free enterprise. As long as capi-
tal remains in private hands, the conflict
between the economy and justice will per-
sist.
As the conservative devastation mounts,
it is clear that we can't fund social justice
without tax equity. We can't educate our
ihe Michigan Daily
Mubarak
revisited
By Greg Rowe
Last Wednesday's Daily editorial on the
Mubarak Plan for elections in the occupied
territories of Palestine, "Camp David re-
visited," gives grounds for dismissing the
notion from serious consideration. I offer
an additionalanote for anyone who still
thinks the Plan represents "the road to
peace."
Herodotus tells the story of a vicious
tyrant of Corinth named Cypselus, who
was succeeded after a reign of 30 years by
his son, Periander. At first, Periander ruled
benignly; but, being a young man, he was
unsure of himself, and he presently sent a
messenger to Thrasybulus, the tyrant of
Miletus, to learn from him the art of
statecraft. Thrasybulus did not give his ad-
vice in words. Instead, he brought
Periander's messenger to a field of corn
and, seeing one stalk growing taller than
the rest, he cut it down. For a number of
days, he repeated this demonstration, untiW
he had cut down all the strongest corn-
stalks. Then he sent the messenger back to
Corinth.
The messenger had not understood
Thrasybulus' dumb-show, but, loyal and
full of only the best intentions, he told
Periander just what he had seen. Periander
understood, and he enjoyed a long and
bloody rule thereafter.
Elections were last held in the West
Bank in 1976. By 1980, many of the
Palestinians' representatives were in Israeli
jails or had been killed by the Mossad, the
Israeli secret police.
"As much as Cypselus had left behind
in his murdering and prosecuting,"
Herodotus concludes the story, "Periander
completed."
Greg Rowe is a member of the Opinion
Staff, and a senior in the Department of
Classical Studies.
'A decade of unrestrained capitalism has demonstrated that the
market won't solve society's problems. The market is the prob-
lem.'
dictate. We battled cuts in fundamentally
flawed and undemocratic programs, and we
struggled to maintain woefully inadequate
regulatory standards. In so doing, we often
adopted conservative, cost-conscious lan-
guage to protect programs that exclude
most of the people they were designed to
serve.
Our weakness has in great measure
grown out of the limits of liberalism.
That ideology rightly recognizes that the
state has the potential to act in the inter-
ests of poor and working-class Americans.
youth or provide health security without
challenging the notion that these are privi-
leges to be bought or sold. We can't stop
environmental destruction or rebuild
communities as long as corporate profits
are valued more than social needs.
On all these basic issues, both liberals
and conservatives have failed to deliver. It
remains for progressives to seize the ini-
tiative.
For subscription information write to
Dollars and Sense, One Summer Street,
Somerville, MA 02143
Wasserman
CONGRES~ S 4AFERMEIL TS
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IN OUR NATION'S capital, George
Bush announced a new quarter-billion
dollar program for the development and
;production of chemical and biological
weapons, while his administration un-
tveiled new initiatives for an 80 percent
reduction in chemical and biological
weapons (CBWs) worldwide. In Ann
}Arbor, Isadore Bernstein received The
Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays
with Neck Ribbon, from the Emperor
,of Japan this past April, for contribu-
tions to Japanese education and friend-
ship between Japanese and American
scholars.
Bernstein - now the associate direc-
tor of research at the Institute of
Environmental and Industrial Health -
4from 1982 to 1987, received $975
'thousand from the US Army to re-
search "Chemical Blistering: Cellular
and Macromolecular Components."
:This project researched antidotes to
mustard gas. However, given the ra-
pidity with which mustard gas operates
Zand the difficulty associated with iden-
tifying a particular CBW in combat sit-
uations, the antidote would be used
most effectively to protect troops who
"had prior knowledge of mustard gas in
the area - that is to say the troops who
used the mustard gas initially.
Ironically, Bernstein received his acco-
lades from Japan, a country which
used mustard gas against China during
the 1930s.
The call for an '80 percent reduction
in deployment of CBWs is not as
heartening when one analyzes the new
administration proposal for CBW fund-
ing. The proposal includes funding for
the development of new, longer-range
CBW delivery vehicles. If the weapons
could be delivered over a longer range,
they need not be deployed in as many
locations.
Chemical and biological weapons
have long been used to suppress
demonstrations: from tear gas in the
United States to choking gas in South
Africa and the West Bank. More deadly
weapons such as nerve gas have been
used recently in the Iran-Iraq war. The
United States has also attacked Vietnam
with defoliants and napalm, and the
contras have used crop-specific agri-
cides against Nicaragua's coffee har-
vest.
These weapons are much less techno-
logically intensive, and cheaper to pro-
duce, than nuclear weapons and certain
conventional weapons. It is not alto-
gether surprising that the Bush admin-
istration w nts to eliminate this cate-
gory of weapons while not making
such sweeping statements concerning
nuclear weapons. Indeed, the adminis-
tration has stated that it wants to place
human rights and global issues at the
center of super-power summits, a place
previously held by talks on nuclear
weapons reduction. Worldwide main-
tenance a nuclear arsenal, with the
elimination of chemical weapons,
would give the United States clear
military superiority over all less
technologically-advanced countries.
Bush must be taken at his word, and
the production and deployment of
CBWs must end. But the University
and Japan's decisions to honor and le-
gitimize CBW researchers makes the
disarmament process more difficult.
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A tree for
every edit
To the Daily:
Last school year the
Michigan Daily printed over
100 anti-Israel editorials, ar-
ticles, and letters. Of the un-
signed editorials concerning
the Arab-Israeli conflict, all
of them were anti-Israel.
Nine pieces condemned Jews
collectively, in addition to
condemning Israelis.
It would seem that the
1989-1990 school year is no
different. Incoming students
were met with anti-Israel ma-
terial in the Orientation Issue
of the Daily and in its first
few issues.
In an attempt to rise above
the slander of the Michigan
Daily, the undersigned
Jewish and Zionist student
groups on campus make the
following commitment: As
of the beginning of the cur-
rent semester, we will plant
one tree in Israel for every
negative and unsubstantiated
statement which the Daily
prints about Israel, Zionism,
or the Jewish People. We
feel this is an appropriate and
positive response to the
Daily's destructive actions.
We have arranged to have
the trees planted in the forest
of the Americas, located in
the south-west corner of
Jerusalem-one of Israel's
most beautiful areas.
17 trees have been planted.
-The combined
leadership of:
Hillel Orthodox Minyan,
Institute of Students and
Faculty on Israel-
Michigan Chapter,
Involved in Michigan
Political Action
Committee,
Jewish Law Students
Tagar,
Union of Students
for Israel
September 27
~ h-
.
Recycling:
both kinds
help
To the Daily:
Like many environmental is-
sues, recycling products is not
as simple as it appears on the
surface. As a member of
Recycle UM, the student recy-
cling group, I appreciate any
tings. But higher consumption
of pre-consumer recycled paper
diverts the supply from another
important class of products -
namely tissue. Tissue mills
(which make anything from
paper towels to toilet tissue)
using recycled paper stock will
then substitute the shortfall
with more post-consumer pa-
per. Blow your nose or visit
the rest room and you could be
using last year's recycled term
paper.
Look for recycled paper fact
sheets from recycle UM on not
only where recycled paper is
sold, but also what sort of re-
cycled paper it is. In the
meanwhile, let's ask recycled
paper suppliers how much
post-consumer content is in
their "recycled" paper, remem-
bering that even pre-consumer
recycled paper saves trees.
-Andy Duncan
September 28
Such
Garbage
To the Daily:
I have just sent the Opinion
Page of your September 27 is-
sue to some friends in Israel. I
am sure they will appreciate
your hateful, anti-Israel edito-
rial, the two cynical cartoons
depicting human suffering as
humorous, and Philip Cohen's
analysis of hj own self-hatred.
Peace in Israel will not come
from such garbage.
-Robert Levy
"biases" and "self-hate." Thi.
type of self-righteous finger-
pointing is precisely the least
effective way to address the
ambivalence of alienated Jews.
To respond to legitimate con-
cerns with a haughty "shame
on you" is to ensure that the
feelings of disillusionment be-
come irreversible.
Philip Cohen is right to be
concerned with how Israel isO
portrayed as unassailable in
Jewish religious schools. He is
right to be outraged about the
suppression of the Palestinian
people. But he is wrong when
he says our only choices are to
"drop our morals or... aban-
don... Judaism, and become a
statistic." These are not the
only choices. Cohen, despit~
himself, has been influenced b
that "right-wing Jewish propa-
ganda in the mail." He has lot
ultra-conservative Jews define
Judaism for him. He has suc-
cumbed to their "No real Jew
speaks out against Israel" men-
tality. In fact, it is possible to
be an observant Jew and ques-
tion Israel's policies. It is pos-
sible to be a Zionist and advo4
cate Palestinian statehood.
Cohen is cheating himself by
not searching for alternatives to
the right-wing zealots.
There is a community of lib-
eral, progressive Jews out
there, and though not as loud
as its'right-wing counterpart, it
is at least as big. Tikkun
magazine, one of the fastest
growing journals in the counp
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