Page 4 -The Michigan Daily -Tuesday, October 9, 1990
Ulbe Sidtgau Bau
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Viewpoint
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NOAH FINKEL
Editor in Chief
DAVID SCHWARTZ
Opinion Editor
I
-.
4 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons,
signed artictes, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
C:.,I C .z:CC*~'.',.. C:C. CCC 'C F rm t h e D a i ly ..
Choice?
Education proposal doesn' t address problems
(rY'Aa' Jo~ i C~&~ (
67,1A-A
vii? .A~
iC
IN THE LATEST TELEVISED ADVER-
tisements for the Michigan
Gubernatorial race, incumbent James
Blanchard and challenger Richard
Engler boast their continued
commitment to education, learning, and
academia.
,A cursory glance at their records
reveals nothing of the sort.
Michigan is currently in the midst of
an educational crisis and in dire need of
educational reform at all levels. In fact,
the state now ranks 36th in the nation
in state allocated funds to education.
In the past few years, budgeted
funds for public education on all levels
have been severely cut.
On the primary level, attempts have
been made to remedy the failing public
school system with a "Choice System."
This system would allow parents to
send their children to the public school
of their choice. It would also provide a
money voucher to parents wishing to
send their children to private schools.
Band aid reforms *such as these
remedy little and more importantly fail
to address the inherent inequities in the
present system.
On the surface, the voucher system
seems to offer new options for those
who currently have none; but upon
closer examination, the problems with
such a system are enormous.
The root of the problem is that stu-
dents who live in districts where the tax
base is low receive less money for
education than students who reside in
"'wealthier districts. This creates an
extremely inequitable opportunity to
receive adequate education.
Under the "Choice System" these
students in poorer districts will end up
traveling to the more wealthy districts
to attend school.
Not only will this system create prob-
lems of overcrowding, but also will
present logistical difficulties like
transportation.
In addition to these inadequacies, the
system threatens the jobs of those who
teach in inadequately funded school
systems. Inevitably teachers in schools
that lack the funds to provide adequate
educational instruction will suffer when
students flee to the "better" schools
elsewhere As enrollment drops and the
need for these teachers decreases lay-
offs and unemployment will follow.
Also not taken into account is the
vast bureaucracy that exists in many
school districts which inhibits proper
educational expenditures.
The calls by Blanchard, Engler and
others for "quailty education" are
simply attempts to win approval from
those who situation is desperate.
Dealing with the current crisis in edu-
cation necessitates reform in the system
by which education funding is
allocated. A more.equitable process in
this. system will create equity in
education which is the ultimate goal.
The "Choice System" proposal is
merely another stop-gap measure that
fails to take into account long-term
desires. As long as funds for learning
are slashed and misused and the
problems of disparity in the current
system denied, the future of students in
Michigan is grim. .
47 LO7
1 J
. v
Relief may not be just around the corner on S. University
by Glynn Washington
True Story.
Police recently ticketed a friend of mine
$55 for urinating on a public road. When
he appealed to the judge on the basis of
cultural ignorance (he had been living
abroad two days earlier), the judge re-
sponded. "Well, you'll learn!!" before
slamming the gavel...
With this fresh in memory, I staggered
down S. University Saturday night -
with a few of my closest friends. For
some odd reason I felt the urge to find a
potty. So I strolled into McDonalds.
"Hey buddy, where's the little boy's
room?"
"We ain't got none."
So, with a bit more urgency, I went
next door to Little Ceasers. They didn't
have one either. But the fellow was kind
enough to give us directions to the Brown
Jug. I ran (waddled), and it was their that I
inet the "Potty Guard."
"Yo, man, I gotta use the bathroom!"
"NO."
"What do you mean no? I gotta use
the pot!"
"Sorry, you gotta find somewhere
else."
Washington is an LSA junior and a
member of the Daily's Opinion Staff.
"Will, your leg do?"
He didn't think it funny, and I wasn't in
the mood to joke around. I darted out, de-
termined to find a bush somewhere. I was
just about ready, when I heard the sound of
dogs barking in the near vicinity. Noth-
ing causes me more fear than genitalia ex-
posed in the presence of dogs.
So I ran.
And screamed.
And finally I came to a little booth
with campus security people in it (You
know - the ones they want to give guns
Donalds."
Big beads of sweat poured down m
agony-ridden face, "I - have - to - use
- the - bathroom..."
The idiot took great enjoyment in re-
fusing me entry, and by that time I had to
go so bad I could almost taste it. I knew
that if I didn't find a place soon, I was go-
ing either lose consciousness, explode, or
ruin a cool pair of jeans. The place was
crawling with police, all of them ready to
hand me a $55 dollar ticket for breakir
the urination law.
I darted out, determined to find a bush somewhere. I
was just about ready, when I heard the sound of dogs
barking in the near vicinity. Nothing causes me more
fear than genitalia exposed in the presence of dogs.
to). I pounded on the door.
"Augghh! I gotta use the bathroom!"
"What?"
"I GOTTA USE THE BATHROOM!!"
"What's yer name?"
"I GOTTA PEE! !"
"Sorry, we don't got no public re-
strooms here, mebbe you should try Mc-
What to do?0
What to do?
With time running out, I hit upon a
plan. I pulled down my pants and assumed
a Gothic pose. Relief came quickly, but
pigeons kept landing on my arm.
So the next time you pass an odd look-
ing fountain, perhaps you shouldn't play
in the water.
t ivism
Universities must respect
IN THE LATEST PHASE OF THE.
increase in student protest sweeping the
nation this Fall, students at the
University of the District of Columbia
(UDC) have just concluded a sit-in that
effectively elosed the university for 11
days. Once again, the catalyst was a
university administration and its
inensitivity towards the needs of
students. Once again, both this
insensitivity and the student response
stiggest stark parallels with the
situation in Ann Arbor.
Long before UDC's students moved
into action, its administration had been
igporing student concerns. Though the
campus had no university child-care3
facilities and no Afro-American studies
department, its administration was
pouring massive funds into the athletic
department. Then, last month, the ad-
ministrators' reinforced their commit-
ment to UDC's cosmetic image rather
than the quality of its education by allo-
cating $1.6 million to "renovate" the
school library in preparation for an art
ekhibition.
On Sept. 26, students decided to
lake action in protest. Hundreds
streamed into the main administration
building, staged a sit-in, and initiated a
boycott of all classes.
The impressive unity of the protest
gave the administration little option but
10 listen, and respond, to student con-
kems.
- Last Sunday a tentative settlement
was reached. The students gained in-
icreased library hours, an allocation of
funds towards child-care facilities, and
,a guarantee of increased classes in
Afro-American studies. They also
student wishes
forced the resignation of the Athletic
Director, and a commitment to the re-
organization of the department; three
other administrators also resigned, in-
cluding the chair of the board.
Finally, they won a complete
amnesty for all student and faculty
protestors.
University administrators must be
accountable to the students whose in-
terest they are meant to represent. Stu-
dents at UDC have shown that with
effective and unified protest, such ac-
countability need not be begged for,
but can be demanded.
Our own administration is preparing
to invest $35 million to improve air-
conditioning in laboratories, yet there is
no Chicano Studies Department, no full
Latino Studies Department, and wholly
inadequate child-care facilities.
The University is preparing to invest
$5 million in a deputized police force,
against the wishes of a vast many stu-
dents, and yet ignore measures such as
increased lighting, safewalk services
and education which are proven to in-
crease safety.
President Duderstadt has dismissed
student demonstration as "basically
theater." Regent Philip Power has said
that "Ceaseless repetition of a chant is
not a particularly enhancing way to
make a comment."
But events at UDC prove them
wrong. If students, deprived of any
democratic say, shout loud and long
enough with a unified voice, they de-
mand respect. Universities should be
run to provide students with the educa-
tion they need, not to pander to the
aesthetic desires of bureaucrats.
Rush criticism ill-founded
To the Daily:
I am writing this letter in response to
Mike Molitor's review in the 9/26/90 edi-
tion of the Daily. In that particular issue,
Mr. Molitor wrote a review of the new
Rush album, Chronicles, that not only
showed a tremendous lack of information
about the band, but also showed his
musically ignorant opinion, which was
not wanted or appreciated by many music
fans.
I am therefore writing this letter more
as an editorial reply than simply an
editorial.
First off, I would like to stress the fact
that I am NOT a diehard Rush fanatic. I
am simply a music lover who has a wide
variety of tastes, of which Rush is in-
cluded. I would like to address certain
points of Molitor's review which were
particularly distressing.
First, Molitor claims Rush's earlier
material "does get a bit ridiculous. The all-
too-frequent stops and starts make some of
the songs...just plain annoying." They
do?!
Perhaps the author does not understand
the complexity of the music to which he
refers. But everyone is entitled to their
own opinion. The problem I have is that
Molitor then refers to the pre-Neil Peart
days as "just as loud and as stupid as
most...heavy metal". Then, when Neil
does join the band, all of the sudden
bassist Geddy Lee doesn't "like or under-
stand Peart's lyrics."
This moronic statement implies that
the only thing Neil Peart brought to Rush
was some interesting lyrics.-However, it
was Peart's rhythmic genius that brought
those "ridiculous" and "annoying" stops
and starts to the band (those stops and
starts, by the way, became Rush's trade-
mark, and have a lot to do with their pop-
ularity today).
On the one hand, Molitor is praising
Neil Peart for his lyrics, and on the other
hand, he is telling us how annoying old
Rush music is. All the while, he is lead-
ing us to believe Mr. Molitor did not re-
ally think about what he was saving. Is he
changes and intricacies as the old. It is not
as apparent to the surface listener (such as
Mr. Molitor), but it's there.
Rush fans as a whole are not pop mu-
sic fans, so just because Rush is getting a
lot of airtime does not mean their music is
getting any better. Maybe for those who
like Pop music it is, but then most Pop
fans cannot appreciate Rush music.
One final note: when Mr. Molitor tries
to tell us that Rush music now is not the
same as older material, just remember the
quote at the end of Exit Stage Left by
bassist Geddy Lee: "after all, we haven't
changed, everyone else has."
Jeffrey Gordon
Show sensitivity in captions
To the Daily:
We have noticed a certain discrepancy
in the ideals represented in the editorial
policies of The Michgan Daily and the re-
cent tone of the captions.
The Opinion Page expresses concern
for many different oppressed groups, both
close to home and far away. The captions,
and sometimes the choice of pictures, ex-
press no respect for their human subjects.
The trauma of hospitalization is of
questionable taste for a human interest
photo. On the second page of the Sept. 29
issue, a photograph showing a man being
loaded into an ambulance was run with a
caption suggesting that he had "a little too
much to drink."
With no accompanying story, and no
real reason for the photo at all, the Daily
connected the man's face with the implica-
tion that he is a problem drinker. There are
many medical conditions that could appear
similar to inebriation, and a paramedic's
opinion is not a confirmed diagnosis.
To fill space next to a movie review, a
still was run with a caption comparing a
deity to a Disney character.
To advertise Griddes, a photgraph of a
food line was used.
The root of oppression of is ridicule
and dehumanization. Not respecting a
man's privacy, an unfamiliar religion, or
Expulsion for fliers?
To the Daily:
I hope and pray that I speak for the vast
majority of European Americans on this
campus in saying that I am shocked, ap-
palled, nauseated, and heartsick at the re-
cent distribution of a scurrilous racist flier
depicting Nelson Mandela as secretly lust-@
ing after white women (in the time-dis-
honored tradition of stirring up
racial/sexual paranoia used with such
tragic efficacy by the KKK and Adolf
Hitler).
The perpetrators of this crime of fo-
menting race-hatred - for it is no less
than a crime - should, if caught, be pun-
ished at the very least by permanent ex-
pulsion from the University. This might
serve as an object lesson for any other sick*
and twisted hate-mongers out there in the
University population. Racial slander
should be made as punishable as personal
slander or libel.
But beyond this, I am sickened at the
thought that this disease of virulent racism
- an index of total, willful ignorance and
psychopathology - has infected anyone
who qualifies for admission to Yale or the
University - or indeed any other college
or university. What does this say about
the educational level, prevailing attitudes,
or psychiatric health of our general popu-
lation? I shudder to imagine.
We European Americans must do all
we can to stand in solidarity with our
African American brothers and sisters in
containing and rooting out this vital dis-
ease before it spreads any further.
Thomas I. Ellis, Ph.D.
(F O DY NO i
IN MWPwiN GI
AN1MORE ?
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