Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 20, 1990
Eb Akb igrn ?ailg
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
.
ARTS
NEWS
OPINION
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764 0552
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PHOTO
SPORTS
WEEKEND
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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.
N* ,
peath peddlers
.J. Reynolds targets the poor, disempowered
AFRICAN MEN AND WOMEN
were brought to America in chains to
pick in the fields, mainly on cotton and
tobacco plantations. Their slave labor
gave today's tobacco giants their start.
In return, the companies peddle their
death to them.
Last year R.J. Reynolds unveiled a
new cigarette brand, Uptown, and a
marketing scheme to go with it: the tar-
get audience was to be young, urban
Blacks, and Philadelphia was chosen
as the first victim. In a city where the
police have dropped bombs on a Black
neighborhood and the Black poverty
rate triples that of whites, community
leaders organized a boycott against the
new form of oppression. R.J.
Reynolds was forced to pull out.
Fewer people are smoking, and the
tobacco companies are running scared.
Lately, they have begun to dedicate all
their energies toward the demographic
groups who buck the trend. Statistics
show that the poor and poorly educated
are less likely to quit than their oppo-
sites - two percent of high school
dropouts over the last generation have
given up smoking, as compared with
52 percent of college graduates. So
RJ. Reynolds picks on them.
A * Now comes Dakota cigarettes, "for
t 11 virile woman, aged 18-20." (The
lower-end figure is deceptive. Selling
cigarettes to minors is supposed to be
illegal, so the companies do not pub-
licly say that they are targeting women
as young as 12 - the average age for
starting.) R.J. Reynolds' marketing
memos, published in The Washington
Post, speak for themselves. They're
looking for a woman who spends her
time "cruising," "partying," attending
"Hot Rod shows" - "with her
boyfriend whatever he is doing," as
they say. Reynolds believes such a
woman chiefly aspires "to get married
in her early twenties."
Nobody said marketing plans had to
be kind, but with the Uptown and
Dakota schemes, R.J. Reynolds is
clearly aiming at the dependent and dis-
empowered, those least able to fight the
hype. Its poorly concealed intentions,
dressed up in the dubious ethics of
marketing, are essentially the same as
early slave-dealers: ruthless exploita-
tion of a defenseless minority for quick
profit.
Parallels with ads for junk-food
breakfast cereals on Saturday-morning
TV are quickly drawn, but inculcating a
sweet tooth only leads to a life of obe-
sity and dental disease. Cigarettes kill
- they can do nothing else - and
pushing them on teenage women is re-
ally equivalent to dumping infant for-
mula on Third World mothers who do
not have the means to prepare it safely.
R.J. Reynolds' advertising cam-
paign highlights the moral degeneracy
of a free market run wild. The more
efficiently this operation works, the
greater the suffering of those least able
to protect themselves. What won't a
multinational corporation stoop to to
make a buck?
A&T Noy,)1tvR1 EaA
An open
The following letter was sent byi
thor to University of Michigan H
Coach Red Berenson. Severalr
were omitted by the author.
To the Daily:
Coach Berenson,
My name is Elizabeth Rosman.
writing to you with hopes of alley
the anger and sense of utter disbelief
feel right now.
I think that your lax attitude to
Todd Copeland is absurd. I watched
lose control of himself at KappaI
Gamma on Thursday, Feb. 8. I saN
use his full force to kick, hit an
. I saw him bite faceL
bled. Neither of these men pro
Todd's attack; nor could either of
men defend themselves against T
combined rage and strength.
I saw Todd throw and
across the room. I felt my head h
wall when Todd threw me.
I saw Todd steal a chair from ou
ing room, run out the front doo
smash it against the pillars on our
porch. I also saw the damage done
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letter to Coach]
its au- house from the two bricks that were figure
Jockey thrown through our dining room and tele- not th
names vision room windows. mirabl
More significantly, however, I saw the think h
emotional effect that Todd's uncontrollable that w
violence had on the 63 women who live in this an
the house. Every single woman was awake Mo
. I am all night long wondering if Todd was go- your o
'iating ing to come back and hurt someone or de- in this
f that I stroy something. Everyone was petrified. tion. I
The most unfortunate thing is that we are sexistE
wards still scared. Some of the women here are not th
l Todd afraid to sleep alone in their rooms, watch team
Kappa television at night downstairs or even Copel
w him walk down the stairway at night. cure o
d beat .respec
ntil itodd Copeland should be charged with than y
untkld a lot more than two counts of malicious lack o
oked destruction of property. Todd Copeland sentfu
these should learn a lesson from this incident. I an
Todd's He should be forced to feel as vulnerable words
as each member of this sorority feels. fense.
Todd Copeland should act like a man and Todd t
hit the stop hiding behind the athletic department. for his
it t h eF i r .
Further, the athletic department, and of thi
ur din- you in particular, Coach Berenson, should causei
r, and be ashamed of the way you are protecting tauseo
front Todd Copeland. He, as a varsity athlete at tion 0
to our the University of Michigan, is a public
....
f
Berenson
and somewhat of a role model. I do@
ink that Todd Copeland is an ad-
e person who should be emulated. I
he should be reprimanded in a way
ill set an example for all athletes at
id other universities.
oreover, I am extremely offended at
ffer of hockey tickets to the women
sorority as some sort of compensa-
find this to be the most blatantly
gesture I have ever encountered. I do*
ink that a free ticket to see your
play, with or without Todd
and, will make anyone here feel se-
Fr soothed. I have a great deal more
t for myself and for my housemates
you have shown us; and, for your
f understanding and respect, I am re-
I.
m fully aware that you have used the
"emotionally troubled" in Todd's de-
I do not find that to be acceptable. *
Copeland should be held responsible
s actions.
nally, I have sent a modified version
s letter to the Michigan Daily be-
I do not trust you to take proper ac-
r to act responsibly.
Elizabeth Rosman
LSA junior
:0
A. DOxN'T
RUdIMBEKI,
±
Bo don't know schools
To the Daily:
This letter is in response to the inci-
dent that happened Feb. 6 - Bo Schem-
bechler's comments about the Detroit pub-
lic school teachers.
Schembechler seems to think that the
problems in Detroit's school system are in
some way related to the quality of teachers
that they have. In his opinion, the fact
that teachers didn't come from good uni-
versities like Michigan or Michigan State
is the reason for the poor education that
kids in Detroit are getting.
A large number of the Detroit teachers
did receive their degrees from Michigan
schools. So, Schembechler made an error,
anud talked about something he shouldn't
have. That's all fine and dandy, but the
real problem here doesn't have anything to
do with where the teachers came from.
People who have graduated from sub-
&ban schools could probably come to a
consensus that there are some pretty rotten
teachers in all schools, wherever they may
be located. Everyone can look back on
their high school days and come up with a
few bad memories of teachers who didn't
care, couldn't teach, or didn't want to be
bothered. They may also agree that there
are some bad teachers teaching today who
came from Michigan universities.
Indeed the problems lie in the attitudes
of the people - especially the parents. It
would be ridiculous to say that the reason
Detroit's Denby High School has a 33
percent absentee rate each day, that parent-
teacher conferences are attended by less
than 1/6 of the parents, and that the school
has been forced to make weapons checks
on incoming students - that all of this is
due to bad teachers?!
It is not the teachers who wake the kids
up in the morning and make them go to
school. It is not the teachers who should
have to visit the houses of parents whose
kids are failing classes. It is also certainly
not the teachers who tell the kids that it's
okay to walk around with loaded guns.
My mother has been a teacher in the
Denby High School for eight years. She
drew colorful posters to hang on her walls,
day are not getting a good education, I
think of what my mother has given up for
those kids. When I hear what Schembech-
ler had said about how "they do not have
the type of people in there teaching our
young people... that we ought to have," I
think of my mother, enduring all those
years of torture and depression, dealing
with parents who didn't care and a public
who blamed her. And I wish I had my old
mother back, the bright, cheerful woman
that she used to be, instead of a depressed,
worn out soul of broken spirit.
The fate of the Detroit schools rests in
the hands of the people - the parents -
of Detroit. The longer we continue blam-
ing the problems on someone else, the
greater they will become, and the harder
they will be to fight. So, Bo Schembech-
ler: think before you speak. And everyone
else: try to see the problems for what they
are.
Thank god my mother still passes out
candy.
Bill Dwyer
Engineering senior
Bo: Stick to baseball
To the Daily:
The Feb. 7 issue of the Daily describes
a scholarship program proposed by Bo
Schembechler that would require new
teachers from the major Michigan univer-
sities to teach for five years in the inner-
city schools of the area in exchange for fi-
nancial help during college. It seems that
the program may be one way to retain stu-
dents that Michigan taxes educate in the
state.
However, two points should be made.
First, a football coach, no matter his
record, does not have the credentials or ex-
pertise to solve the multi-faceted problems
that plague inner-city schools. These prob-
lems cannot be solved solely by teachers
from Michigan universities, as Bo im-
plies.
Secondly, Bo's statement that teachers
and staff "from the South or some godfor-
saken place" that he has not heard of reeks
of ignorance. Are we to assume that if Bo
don't know (of a particular school or
admirable. But his belief that Michigan
graduates, rather than qualified personnel
from other areas, could dramatically im-
prove the state of inner-city schools is lu-
dicrous. Bo needs to spend less time poli-
ticking and more time worrying about the
Tiger's chances in the World Series.
Karen B. Farris
College of Pharmacy
Graduate Student
Brazen Hussies need
to reveal themselves
To the Daily:
Today, Valentine's Day, the Brazen
Hussies came into Stockwell Hall and
decorated my bathroom. They gave us, the
women of Stockwell, encouraging mes-
sages about being happy with ourselves.
They did this by writing with crayon on
the mirrors and the bathrooms stalls, and
by scattering candy hearts on the floor
with the instructions that we were to crush
them.
Did it ever occur to these women that
there is nothing very feminist about defac-
ing other women's property? Who exactly
do they think is going to scrub that crayon
off the walls? Who do they think is going
to have to walk in a mess of crushed
candy? So, hey girls, next time you want
to spread the word, why don't you act a
little more responsibly? And if you want
to live up to the title of "Brazen," why
don't you abandon your secret identities,
come back to Stockwell, and apologize to
the women here for what you did to our
home?
Julie Lyons
Stockwell Hall Resident Advisor
Suspend Copeland
To the Daily:
Not only am I embarrassed to be at-
tending the same university as Todd
Copeland, but I am extremely upset that
the University allows him to continue to
represent myself and my fellow students as
a member of a varsity sports team.
Copeland has now been involved in
two major harassment incidents in just
sion to Copeland, and stated "he
(Copeland) has assured the team that there
will be no further incidents." This is sim-
ply not good enough. Todd Copeland
should be suspended from the hockey team
indefinitely. His actions and maturity level
have proven him to be a threat to women
all over this campus.
By allowing Copeland to continue to
play hockey, Berenson and the Athletic
Department are completely disregarding
the continued efforts of SAPAC and other
campus organizations who work so hard to
create a harassment-free community where
all women and men can feel safe. The Ath-
letic Department needs to ask the question:
What is more important - winning
games or a peaceful and safe environment
where men and women can take advantage
of a higher education?
Some lessons need to be learned here.
Coach Berenson's "punishment" may have
been a little tougher had his daughter been
one of the women that was chased through
campus last winter.
As one of the premier institutions of
public education in the United States, the
University of Michigan has a responsibil-
ity to set an example to other athletes and
colleges across the nation. We need to
send out the message that the type of be-
havior displayed by Todd Copeland is
completely unacceptable and will not be
tolerated.
Tim Madion
LSA junior
Stop victim-blaming
To the Daily:
The Sexual Assault Prevention and
Awareness Center's Myth of the Month
for February: Women lie about rape.
Fact: False reporting of rape is 1-2%; the
same as any other violent crime (FBI
statistic).
Why, then, does a front page Daily ar-
ticle ("Police: Dorm Attacks May Be
Connected," 2/14/90) focus on questioning
the validity of the survivor's report? A
Victim-blaming is an easy way out of
dealing with this frighteningly common
occurrence in our society. An article such
as this encourages people to doubt and
blame a survivor of sexual assault. Rape
is real. It happens. And she did do the best
she could. We need to start focusing on
how we can support survivors of sexual
assault, and put the blame where it be-
longs: on the assailant.
Jill Plevan
Joanie Berger
LSA Seniors
CC works for students
To the Daily:
Jennifer Van Valey claims that the
Conservative Coalition "has waged a bru-
tal war against the progressive traditions
of MSA" (2/13/90). The only "war" waged
by the Conservative Coalition is on irre-
sponsible spending by previous assem-
blies, in particular on "fact-finding" trips
to El Salvador and the West Bank. Con-
servative Coalition feels that these trips
are an improper use of student funds.
Van Valey further claims that Conser-
vative Coalition has supported groups
which supposedly discriminate such as
Cornerstone Christian Fellowship,
Michigamua, and ROTC. The issue of
ROTC recognition has not even been
brought to the assembly for a vote. The
first two groups were determined not to be
discriminatory by the entire assembly.
Since CC has never had a majority on
MSA, this would seem to indicate that
other representatives voted for these
groups.
Finally, Van Valey asserts that Con-
servative Coalition has always been a
group working for itself. Is this the same
CC whose members chair Budget Priori-
ties, Communications, and External Rela-
tions, the most far-reaching committees of
MSA? Is this the same CC which initiated
outreaches to the students and who are
even now arranging ways for students to0
personally lobby against higher tuition In