0 Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 28, 1990 l he Srrigan aflu 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. WELL? DOs THESNAG OF -0h I6OL~UjlDof CF flNSNAHlN LOO HR APB-?it ~V1f~ / City Council Consider Ackerman, Marsh before you vote 84~[~1c5!fT 1 FAN c~ SOMMINC! !? 4A1 QAEA!__ a NI N~ ~WE'RE o a 4 " - y , v " '"'=- . ' 1 i . C. { .., r r x,. // . ANN ARBOR CITY COUNCIL ELEC- tions will be held next Monday, April 2nd. Two candidates for council seats deserve special consideration before the vote is taken Valerie Ackerman is a Democrat running in the Second Ward. Acker- man is committed to environmental protection in the Ann arbor area, and promotes a progressive stance on local issues such as housing and drug abuse. With respect to the environment, Ackerman calls for: : Controlling development and im- proving roads in order to preserve the natural features and beauty of the land. Retaining wetlands and green space that are of particular ecological value to the Ann Arbor area. Implementing long-term waste solutions. Ackerman believes that full- scale recycling is necessary, and advo- cates a regional Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to begin addressing the solid waste disposal crisi§: In addition, Ackerman wants to clean up the con- tamination resulting from Ann Arbor's inadequately-constructed landfill. Ackerman supports the call a Zone of Reproductive Freedom in Ann Ar- bor, and believes that drug abuse must be dealt with at the source of the prob- lem. She holds that problems such as low self-esteem, feelings of hopeless- ness, and disenfranchisement from so- ciety must be addressed with solutions providing far more resources toward education, prevention and treatment. Ackerman recognizes the need for more housing for the low-income citi- zens of Ann Arbor. She believes that building more parking structures should not take precedence over the construction of affordable housing. Ackerman maintains that the city must initiate public and private enterprises to create more low-income housing op- portunities, and she plans to hold the state and federal governments account- able for part of the housing solution. Ackerman also wants a Citizen's Review Board established to oversee the functioning of the Police Depart- ment. With respect to international is- sues, Ackerman calls for continued commitment to the city's Sister City relationship with Juigalpa, Nicaragua. Also worthy of special mention is Fourth Ward Democratic candidate James Marsh, who is a third-year Law student at the University. Marsh has opposed an increase in Ann Arbor's long-standing $5 pot law, and has lobbied the current City Council to put a solid waste referendum on next week's ballot. Marsh has taken a strong stand on the environment and has endorsed a plan of mandatory recycling for the city of Ann Arbor. He has endorsed a law designed to protect certain lands from development, and his push for envi- ronmental reform earned him the sup- port of the Huron Valley Greens. Marsh also attended the University as an undergraduate, and would be a councilmember willing to stand up and fight for student concerns. Please give special consideration to Valerie Ackerman and James Marsh be- fore next Monday's election. Prr W1 \~ *= Daily must do more about lifted editorial To the Daily: The Daily has yet to adequately respond to the charge of plagiarism printed in the editorial criticizing Steve Cokely (2/26/90) in which several passages and the entire idea were lifted from the New Republic. There is no question that the editorial constituted an act of plagiarism - which can mean "borrowing" actual passages verbatim, as well as specific ideas, with- out attribution - as I will make clear. Here are the two passages - the first from the New Republic of August 8 & 15, 1988; the second from the Daily's edi- torial. From the New Republic: "[Cokely's] November speech was one of a series of four speeches delivered be- tween 1985 and 1987 at the Final Call..-- In the four speeches, Cokely had vehe- mently attacked both Jesse Jackson and Harold Washington for retaining Jewish advisors. He had alleged that Jewish physicians were injecting black children with the AIDS virus. He had denounced Christopher Columbus as a Hispanic Jew, described the cross as a symbol of white supremacy, and accused Jews of creating a 'secret society,' the purpose of which is to form a world government controlled by Jews that would oppress blacks. 'The Jew,' Cokely had stated, 'hopes to one day reign forever.' The ADL did not protest Cokely's right to make such speeches. It insisted only that he should not remain a paid employee of the acting mayor." The Daily's editorial ran, in part: "Between 1985 and 1987, Cokely made a series of four anti-Jewish speeches at the Final Call... Cokely accused Jewish physicians of injecting Black babies with the AIDS virus, attacked Jesse Jackson and then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington for retaining Jewish advisors, and said Jews have created a 'secret society' for the purpose of forming a world government controlled by Jews that would oppress Blacks. 'The Jew,' Cokely stated, 'hopes to one day reign forever.' ... The ADL did not protest Cokely's right to make such comments, but insisted he not be a paid employee of the city." There is not a single line in the two paragraphs of the editorial's "background" which is not lifted directly from the New Republic article. (Although there were a few painfully obvious attempts to cover up the plagiarism, one of which resulted in an unfortunate error, when the Daily ac- cidently changed a reference to "Washington" - meaning Chicago Mayor Harold Washington - to "the U.S. gov- ernment.") The Daily is a student newspaper; mis- takes are inevitable. But the plagiarism in this case is so obviously deliberate that the "mistake" defense is inadequate, espe- cially for an unsigned editorial. As a regu- lar reader, I hope the Daily takes whatever action is necessary to prevent this kind of embarrassment from happening again. Judy Ruttenberg SA sophomore As stated in an earlier apology, parts of the Daily's editorial on Steve Cokely should have been attributed to the New Republic. - Ed. Get rid of Dave Barry To the Daily: Why is it that, at a university of the size and supposed scholarship of the Uni- versity of Michigan, the Daily's Opinion Page cannot find enough people whose writing they find worthy of print. The Daily is a University paper, and until now it was written, edited and pro- duced by students. Now the Opinion Page has started running David Barry's view- point from Miami. No student or student group ever mer- ited such special treatment as to be al- lowed to print their viewpoint regularly once a week. So why is someone who writes a humorous article about issues un- related to the university given this forum? Is he representing white men who work for Florida newspapers? If so, I think this opinion is already very well represented. I'm sure that the Editor of the Opinion Page could have found a student who would be happy to write a regular column for the money Barry is receiving (and this is a lot of money). I am insulted that the Opinion Page thinks there is not enough diversity of views on this campus to fill up one page of the newspaper. Dawn Paulinski School of Education junior Ugliness of shanties is necessary reminder To the Daily: I'd like a beautiful campus as much as the next student. Tulips and modern art and rotating cubes set my heart and aes- thetic sensibilities quivering. But I also understand the need for blatant ugliness, especially when such ugliness directs my attention away from hypnotic blooming flower beds and re-focusses my thoughts on the vile crimes of racism and ethnic bigotry. Until recently, I had believed that the luxury of ugliness as protest was protected not only by the First Amendment, but also the University administration. Yeah. Sure. Regent Thomas Roach finds the shanties on the Diag to be ugly. He has called his desire to remove/demolish/de- stroy them a "campus beautification" is- sue. Such removal, he has stated, has nothing to do with free speech. Yet what Roach and his supporters fail to recognize is that these shanties, by be- ing quite unattractive, to say the leat deride not only bigotry prevalent on global level, but also question the admiin istration's failure to address and eliminat racism on campus. Or perhaps they do recognize this latter purpose of the shanties. Perhaps they know that the political message behind the shanties directly protests the administra- tion's laissez-faire attitude towards institur tional and societal racism. Perhaps Roach and his supporters realize that the term "campus beautification" might be a viable euphemism to describe a movement de signed to silence any criticism of the rp- gents. Regent Roach and his ilk are not sin- cere about beautifying our campus. Th UGLi, the LSA, and the Frieze buildings have not been slated for demolition. I have heard of no plans to prohibit or restrict 14e miles of grotesque banners which strangle the trees surrounding the Diag. The sculpO ture in front of the Fine Arts Museurm (which, by the way, looks a lot like a pushed-over shanty) has not been soldfor scrap. Roach is sincere about silenctng any kind of protest which sticks in his po- litical gullet. The shanties are damn ugly; so is what they condemn. To remove them or restrict their construction is censorship. Such "beautification" would make this Univer sity look far worse than any rotten woo or splattered paint. Eric Baumann English Languages and Literature graduate student BSU misses the mark* on racism course To the Daily: On the subject of a required course on racism, I find statements by member df the Black Student Union in favor of such a course sadly ironic. One BSU member, Crystal Gardner said, "White people need to be more edu$ cated on racism... If they learned Black history, there would be a lot less racism because there would be a lot more respect between the groups." If members of the BSU were really in- terested in eliminating racism, they would not be inviting people like Steven Cokely to this campus to spew his frightful hate- filled lies about Jewish people and whites in general. If anybody on this campus needs a re- quired course on racism, it is the members of the BSU. Sanford Per third-year Law student Presiden-tial debate Sunday April 1 { { 8 8:00 p.m. Michigan Union Kuenzel Room * Meet the candidates * Open to the public Be an informed voter . Sponsored by LSA Student Government and The MiChigan Daily Action VP candidate criticizes the Conservative Coalition. By Angela Burks After spending some time around the Michigan Student Assembly offices, attending the meetings, and serving on one of its committees, I became really con- cerned and somewhat angry. MSA is controlled by the Con- servative Coalition Party. For ex- ample, a couple of weeks ago, someone called MSA and the per- struction of symbols of human struggle. A CC member said he wanted the shanties down because "they are ugly." Racism, harass- ment, and people being beaten to a pulp is very ugly. I am really glad that he is not Black and not in South Africa because he would find out what ugly is really quick. People struggle every day. I guess he and other members of the important; if it did not exist where would we be standing? We need a committee to encour- age the amount of attention given to the area in which we live. We need to do more than fund Earth Day - every day must be an earth day. The CC has failed to bring diversity to its committees. It really bothers me when I go to MSA and Asian males, five Indian males, five handicapped women, five white women, five African American women or men? I guess the CC doesn't think five exist on this campus. It's as if they feel students of color or other minorities are not dynamic leaders. Outstanding mi- nority leaders do exist at the Uni- versity (Karen Mines-MPA, Devlon president," because throwing all the minorities on one commission and having a Black president who voted against the proposal of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, just ain't gonna get it.) * The CC is against the dis- crimination and -harassment code. Someone could be called a nigger, chink, jap, or spic and not go Why they are called a coalition I do not know , because I don't know what coalition they are represent- ing. They make me angry and qf- fended. I am an out-of-state student and my mother makes too many sacrifices to write that $18,000 check for me to sit and watch these injustices quietly being done g this campus.