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 763 0379 764 0552 747 2814 PHOTO SPORTS WEEKEND 764 0552 747 3336 747 4630 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 I/ CI I Fjk5T WiO 5 f '? t t,,.ra , , 1 f y It ( 6X&'i}T NY~A1-fe te. .Z5 . ..ic Thi'1 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