Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 17, 1990
Ewe ITdjtgan BaiI
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
ARTS 763 0379 PHOTO 764 0552
NEWS 764 0552 SPORTS 747 3336
OPINION 747 2814 WEEKEND 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.
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Fresh hopes
MSA has the chance to forge a new beginning
TONIGHT, A NEW MICHIGAN STU- students for their off-campus cond
-dint Assembly president and half of the and should be strongly opposed by
:bdy's representatives will begin their new assembly.
one-year terms on the assembly. Also, a new bill before the s
incoming President Jennifer Van legislature would, if passed, allow
Valey and the rest of the assembly have University to set up its own po
"much to do, but nothing as crucial as force. These so-called cops would
efiding the infighting that has plagued able to carry guns, and would repl
MSA for at least a year. This term, the many Ann Arbor police patrols
assembly deteriorated to the point that campus. Such a possibility warr
iepresentatives would vote against a student response, as Van Valey has
rbposal simply because "one of them" ready demonstrated in a trip to Lan
bad written it. It's time MSA represen- to lobby state legislators.
tives, who have taken on the respon- Still, MSA should do more to F
sibility of standing up for students' mote student safety. Increased ligh
'concerns, focus their attention on the both on- and off-campus, as wel
problems facing students, instead of education about crime prevent
conflicts with each other. would benefit all students. The ass(
MSA shouldn't have trouble bly should take a leading role in
remaining busy, either. The most couraging the University to recycl
important of student concerns, high waste, in pushing for longer libr
and rising tuition, still needs to be hours, and in standing up for the c
,combatted, and it's time the assembly cerns of students, whatever they
-took a leading role in the fight against be.
the ever-increasing cost of a University
education. Whether by lobbying the
administration in Ann Arbor or Over the last year, students h
lobbying the state legislature in suffered because of an assembly
Lansing, MSA needs to actively work ranked the concerns of students sec
for stable tuition. to their own agendas. We can
In addition, a slew of other prob- hopeful, though, that our new ref
lems awaits the new assembly. Uni- sentatives will stand up for our c
versity President James Duderstadt has cerns and work hard to make sure
shown he intends to institute a policy dents have a loud voice at the Uni
governing students' out-of-the-class- sity.
room behavior, which would severely So as we wish the new assem
limit students' expression and activity. well tonight, let's hope it will b
Such a code of non-academic conduct fruitful year - both for MSA and
would allow the University to punish the students they represent.
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Daily forgets LAGROC rally, week's other events
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A horror show
Don't stand for Showcase's outrageous prices
LIGHTS!
CAMERA!l
MONEY CARD?
,.
It used to be that a trip to the movies
for two, including popcorn, would cost
about $10. In that not-so-long-ago past
it was actually affordable to go see a
movie - but that's all changed now.
Ann Arbor's mega-movie metropo-
lis monstrosity, the Cinema City out on
Carpenter Road also known as Show-
case Cinemas, doesn't want to give
students, a large chunk of its business,
a break. As a result, a trip to Showcase
for two with popcorn costs about $20.
The admission price for a movie is
$5.50. Last year it was $5, and the cost
paused briefly at $5.25 before rising to
its current level. So we better hurry out
-there before it becomes $6, which will
happen any day now.
Showcase also doesn't offer student
discounts, which many other theater
chains do. Consequently, a trip to the
movies for the average student presents
some serious economic concerns,
especially when that film is playing at
Showcase City. Showcase also no
longer offers matinee prices on week-
ends, so a Saturday afternoon movie
will hurt as much as one on a Saturday
night. In a college town where many
moviegoers are full-time students, this
is insensitive.
The number of movie houses on
campus has dwindled over the last
decade. First the theater on South Uni-
versity closed, and since the fantasti-
cally large, 14-theater Showcase com-
plex opened a year and a half ago, the
State Theater has also closed. It is not
only getting economically difficult to
go to the movies, it is getting physi-
cally difficult as well. There are still thC
Michigan Theater and the Ann Arbor
Theater, which both offer student dis-
count prices, but it seems that the stub-
born giant on the edge of town won't
budge.
Obviously, there are many more im-
portant things to students' lives than
inflated movie prices, but a movie
escape is still a recreational favorite for
many people. The next time you are
considering a trip to the movies, check
out what's playing at the campus the-
aters. Also, don't forget Briarwood,
which still has matinee prices and that
ancient $5 admission fare.
But don't choose Showcase. It's too
expensive, too far, you need a Ph.D. to
park, and it's obvious that students are
not one of their patron priorities. Be-
sides, on a Saturday night, the lines for
tickets and candy are longer than lines
at CRISP.
To the Daily:
March 26 marked the beginning of
Lesbian and Gay Men's Awareness Week
1990 at the University of Michigan. The
festivities, organized by LAGROC, began
this year on the central campus with a bal-
loon studded rally, which included both
speakers and entertainment. Of the 200-
300 people in attendance, emcee David
Horste estimated that 75 to 100 people
"came out under the rainbow." Horste was
referring to a rainbow colored "balloon
arch" LAGROC had constructed on the
rally site.
Sounds great! This is how the Daily
might have covered this story if it had
managed to get a reporter down to the rally
site that day. Their reporter might have
also written about our speakers, Tracy
Ore, President of Rackham Student Gov-
ernment and Ron Wheeler, U-M law stu-
dent and member of Black Lesbian
Womyn and Gay Men in Struggle. Both
Ron and Tracy delivered stinging attacks
to University administration officials.
They also provided inspiration to the U-M
Lesbian and Gay Men's community, a
large group of people on the U-M campus
who find themselves regularly marginal-
ized and diminished by the University's
harsh climate of heterosexist bigotry.
Oh well, never mind. Our community
is used to being ignored by the media.
We're used to having to fight harder to get
Hash Bash has an
important history
To the Daily:
David K. Leitner (4/9/90, "There is not
a need for a Hash Bash") totally misses the
point of the Hash Bash and the Univer-
sity's role with it. Leitner is unaware of
the events and reasons leading up to the
first Hash Bash and the latest one, and is
obviously more concerned with the Uni-
versity's image than the right of free
speech.
Just because a student does something
or voices an opinion does not mean that
the University approves and advocates it.
It's not as if Duderstadt and the regents
were sitting around trying to think of
some activity that would show how di-
verse and intelligent the students are here.
"Hey, let's have a Hash Bash!" pipes up a
regent. This is how Leitner seems to envi-
sion the University's role in the Hash
Bash.
However it is quite the opposite. The
University tried to stop NORML
(National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws) from obtaining a permit
this year, but the court ruled in favor of
NORML and free speech.
The first Hash Bash was held in 1972
and provoked was by the 10-year prison
sentence of John Sinclair, a political ac-
tivist unpopular with the majority, who
was convicted of giving a cop two joints.
Ann Arbor then decided that drug sentences
should not be due to political activism and
thus adopted the five dollar fine.
This year's Hash Bash had special
meaning because the day before Ann Arbor
was to vote on raising the fine, and the
Hash Bash was partially a rally against the
raise. The Hash Bash has always been, at
least in part, a protest for the legalization
of marijuana. Thus the reason why there
have not been any spinoffs in 17 years.
Leitner states, "It is the University's
duty to promote an atmosphere where
study is possible." The Hash Bash did not
interfere with any studying except for clos-
ing the front doors of the Graduate Li-
brarv. On behalf of the attenders nolo-
media coverage than many other groups,
and twice as hard to get accurate coverage.
So, we really weren't surprised when we
didn't get our article the next day, or even
the following week.
What we were surprised to see was an
attack on our community by people who
claim to be sensitive to the "intercon-
nectedness" of social issues. I am referring
to a letter written by Elise McLaughlin,
who I assume represents the Earth Week
Planning Committee.
At this point, I would like to say that I
resent having to write this letter at all.
There were two homophobic letters in the
Daily recently which desperately need a
good "answering" (one by MSA represen-
tative Brian Mistele and one by some
ROTC guy trashing L/GM's civil rights).
Aaron Williams and his buddies are going
to try to re-recognize the Cornerstone
Christian Fellowship tonight (7 pm). We
will be interviewing Affirmative Action
Office Director Zaida Giraldo on WCBN
this evening (6 pm) and also meeting with
President Duderstadt about the LAGROC
demands. The criticisms made, however,
do require a response.
In her letter, McLaughlin made some
good points. The balloons LAGROC re-
leased at the rally site are destructive to the
environment, she says, and dangerous if
ingested by aquatic wildlife. These are
valid complaints. Many of the people in
the U-M Lesbian/Gay Men's community
agree. Many people in the L/GM's com-
munity are environmentalists. I'm sure
many people on the Earth Week Planning
Committee are Gay Men or Lesbians. We
certainly have no desire to fight our politi-
cal "allies" in the Daily.
In fact, if McLaughlin had confined
herself to environmental criticisms, this
letter probably never would have been
written. Instead, she chose to display her
arrogance and insensitivity to our commu-
nity by deliberately dragging the names of
two innocent people through the mud in
the pages of the Daily (emcee David
Horste and keynote speaker Ron Wheeler).
She did this without even attempting to
contact the members of LAGROC, who
actually organized the rally.
In her letter, McLaughlin discusses the
damage done to the environment by the
"wall of balloons" released at the L/GM's
Awareness Week rally. She accuses the
organizers of Lesbian and Gay Men's
Awareness Week 1990 of "narrow-minded-
ness" and suggests they lack the "moral
courage" to "do the right thing."
As the co-coordinator of this event, I
wonder if McLaughlin realizes how much
damage she has done. I wonder if she is
ready to "do the right thing."
Bran Durrance
LAGROC
ROTC should have no place on campus
To the Daily:
This is in response to William Gre-
gor's letter (4/12/90, "ROTC restrictions
are necessary and legal").
In lieu of recent court cases, the public
has been made aware that the government
condones this type of discrimination.-This
is yet another example of the common
misconception in our society that because
something is legal it is inherently benefi-
cial and "good."
The Constitution, in attempting to
give equal rights to everyone, is unable to
prevent the existence of blatantly offensive
groups such as the White Aryan Resis-
tance and the Ku Klux Klan. Because the
law does not or cannot eliminate the exis-
tence of these groups does not imply that
their views are acceptable or that we would
welcome or tolerate their presence on this
campus.
Although he states why this exclusion
is legal, I fail to see why it is necessary.
As homosexuals are enlisted when the
need for recruits is high, the military ac-
knowledges that homosexuals are compe-
tent and capable of military service. Ho-
mosexual service members, enlisted during
these times of need, have spent years in
the military and are now being discharged
solely on the basis of sexual orientation.
As they had been serving competently, I
fail to see how their presence was in any
way "inviting disorder."
The argument that the military has suf-
ficient combat power without this "very
limited pool of manpower" as justification
for excluding homosexuals is ludicrous.
Historically, our heterosexual, white male.
dominated society has been sufficiently
empowered that they have not "needed" the
skills and talents of any minority group in
the workplace - thus condoning the op-
pression of homosexuals, women, and
people of color.
Fortunately this mentality is becoming
less and less popular. I now can reason-
ably expect to be hired in the field of
engineering, in spite of the obvious fact
th , ati. - . - alto h ni ner nil rl }s..r
question: "If a university unit can be ex-
pelled because of its policies are lawful
and constitutional, is any unit or anyone
protected?" ROTC is not being protested
because of its constitutionality. It is clear
from recent court cases that our laws sup-
port this type of discrimination.
The question here is whether or not the
University should allow ROTC to be a
unit on this campus. The University states
that it attempts to provide an atmosphere
free of discrimination due to sex, race, or
sexual orientation. I call on the university
to own up to its promise and eliminate
from this campus an organization that ac-
tively discriminates against homosexuals.
Kim Watson
Engineering junior
Letter was hilarious
To the Daily:
I had to laugh at William Gregor's edi-
torial regarding the armed forces' exclusion
of homosexuals, not because anything he
said was particularly humorous, but rather
because Gregor's avowed purpose was to
"school the students in subjects they
scrupulously avoid." Nothing is more hi-
larious than when an individual makes un-
intelligent comments in a patronizing
manner, especially when those comments
are directed at an audience that could
clearly teach the good lieutenant colonel a
thing or two.
Gregor's entire article was filled with
nothing but insensitive and incoherent
drivel. Gregor proposes, without even an
attempt at substantiation, that allowing
homosexuals will "invite disorder." Why?
Your guess is as good as mine. If Gregor
is suggesting that the armed forces are
filled with homophobic individuals such
as himself who could not behave in a ma-
ture manner when confronted with individ-
uals who are homosexual, then there defi-
nitely is nroblem.
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