Page 4--The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 17, 1990 EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 V~tL-L3 PWo'T L1 KC &F-[ 'FAC-AA@ > C IN FA CT, (CE0 )Dao 0 IT, -DoN' i U PE NOAH FINKEL Editor in Chief DAVID SCHWARTZ Opinion Editor I T1INKt ' M T 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. From the Daily Jerusalem killings Israeli action continues a long-standing policy LAST MONDAY'S MASSACRE OF mainstream media in the United States, Palestinian civilians in Jerusalem has was still presenting this as fact. been the subject of great speculation The Israeli government, not the and conjecture, heated debates at the Jewish religious zealots seeking to United Nations, and enormous intema- construct a Third Temple, is responsi- tional outrage. The incident resulted in ble for the killings of unarmed Pales- the deaths of at least 24 Palestinians tinians by instigating the violence, and and the injury of more than 300 others. then shooting Palestinians who reacted Hundreds more were rounded up and by throwing rocks. Israel has shown detained in Israeli prisons, without time and again that it reacts to rock charge. throwing by indiscriminately shooting Eleven Israelis were reported any Palestinian unfortunate enough to wounded, none seriously. be in the vicinity. The Israeli government's official According to the Israeli League for explanation for the violence the mom- Human and Civil Rights, there were no ing of Oct. 8 was simple: hostilities confrontations in the Temple Mount were initiated - and in fact premedi- area until Israeli police surrounded tated - by Palestinian youth and di- women praying on the upper tier of the rected at peaceful Jewish worshippers. plaza and fired tear gas at them without The attack, they say, was planned in provocation. collusion with Saddam Hussein and In fact, some Israeli sources are other nefarious characters and was a claiming that undercover Israeli agents clever ploy intended to shift the focus were among the Jewish protesters, and of world attention from events in the they helped Israeli troops initiate the Gulf to the streets of the occupied terri- killings. Regardless, the massacre of tories. innocent Palestinians by Israeli troops While much of the U.S. press has - who were later defended by Israeli done an effective job of reinforcing the leaders - shows Israel's neglect for government's story and obfuscating Palestinian human rights. some very important facts, Israel's Clearly, the misinformation released own Hebrew Press and other sources by the Israeli government following the in the country have been far more hon- klgs is just that - misinformation est and forthright about the role the Is- If Israeli officials were confident in raeli government played in last week's their version of the story, there would killings. be no reason for them to be hostile to a An Israeli military analyst wrote UN delegation investing the causes of Oct. 10 in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz that the violence. the Israeli government's statement con- cerning the violence could not be sub- The events of Oct. 8, then, do not stantiated, and not a shred of evidence represent some "aberration" from nor- exists that the hostilities were either mal Israeli government behavior. They provoked by the Palestinians or rather provide stark confirmation of a planned from abroad. consistent, concerted state policy to Even an Israeli government spokes- oppress Palestinians. As controversy person, when pressed to present proof continues to swirl around how to re- of a "premeditated Palestinian holy spond to last week's tragedy, the media war," could provide no such evidence and politicians alike would do well to to substantiate the government's claim. remember how broad and long-stand- Yet the government, and much of the ing the scope of that tragedy actually is. 'Matter of dignity It's time for Michigan to enact 'living will' laws IT'S "A MATTER OF DIGNITY." THIS document void simply by indicating the is how Michigan State Rep. Perry desire to do so. Bullard (D-Ann Arbor) describes the Research conducted by Rep. right to decide one's own destiny. Bullard's office has shown that 88 per- In general, an ill person in the state cent or more of Michigan adults would of Michigan has that right. But what support a living will law. Beyond that, happens if the ill person is incapable of living will legislation has been en- making a decision on matters of treat- dorsed by the American Association of ment, nutrition, and hydration? Retired Persons, the Michigan Medical In 41 states, there is a legal provi- Society, and the Michigan Bar Asso- sion for so-called "living wills." These ciation. documents allow people to delineate Living wills apply not only to the specific guidelines for their medical elderly, but to the young as well. care, should they ever become termi- Karen Ann Quinlan, a resident of New nally ill or be in a state where they Jersey in her twenties, was kept alive could not rationally make decisions in a permanent vegetative state, against about theirown care. Twoother states the will of her parents. They eventually allow individuals to appoint a medical won the right to end treatment, after a trustee, who would be responsible for long, bitter legal battle. decisions on care if they lose their abil- Nancy Cruzan was in her twenties ity to make such choices themselves. and rendered helpless by an auto acci- However, Michigan has failed to legit- dent. She has been kept alive for seven imize living wills. years because the Supreme Court could Currently pending in Lansing is not find compelling evidence that House Bill 4174, the Michigan Medical Cruzan would have chosen to die. De- Self-Determination Act, which would spite this, even if a living will doesn't provide a legal basis for these docu- exist, the right of the terminally ill or ments. The bill would specifically rec- those in a permanent vegetative state to ognize the right of any person in the die should not be withheld. state to elect certain types of medical Legislators in Lansing, in a failure treatment, entirely voluntarily, without to respect the desires of their con- bias to the type of treatment to be pro- stituents, have elected not to support vided. living wills since they were first dis- For example, a person could specify cussed in the 1970s. Perhaps with the maximum relief from pain, no artificial widespread acceptance of these docu- nutrition and hydration, or any measure ments elsewhere in the country, these to prolong life. The proposed law puts legislators will finally take this long no limit on the right of any individual overdue action. to choose how he or she will be Michigan should follow the lead of treated. Also, the bill states that the the majority of the nation, respect pub- living will is revokable at any time, lic opinion, and help preserve the dig- meaning the individual has the right to nity of those for whom dignity may be change his or her mind and declare the all that remains. - - - ---- " r ) CR~t\Tm L B\2sN I OUT 1-I Faculty vote deserves cautious praise By Ellen Poteet A former faculty member of Dillard University, founded in 1930 in New Or- leans as a Black institution of higher learning, once described to me the memo- rable day after the Brown v. Board of Edu- cation decision in 1954. All classes that morning were cancelled for a general school assembly. As my friend reported it, the hall was filled with the voices of students, faculty, and staff raised to a high pitch of excitement and exultation. The president of the university then stood up to speak. The celebration, he announced, was not yet ready to be convened. The decision handed down by the Supreme Court was momentous, but now the struggle of Blacks for equal education had to be waged harder than ever. Indeed, that struggle might be entering a very difficult stage for the condemnation of de jure segregation in public education left untouched the de facto segregation permeating almost every level of the lives of Blacks at home, work, in the cities, and in the schools. In a similar manner, the vote by the LSA Faculty for a diversity requirement is an important juncture in debates about cur- riculum content and reform. But whether that vote marks a step forward or a mere re-wording of the status quo will depend upon the evolution of the requirement in the semesters ahead. The Universitydis a community where racism and discrimination have a harsh day to day reality. The racist flyers distributed in the pendaflexes of law school students Poteet is a graduate student in History. are evidence, if any more were needed, that students cannot turn to the University as a haven from the inequities of the outside world. Therefore, student and faculty involve- ment in restructuring present courses and creating new ones for the diversity re- quirement needs to recognize the intercon- nection between a University education and the social inequality and prejudice' manifested on this campus. From the Daily's report of the LSA Faculty's Oct. 8 meeting, it appears that amazement that no faculty members had sought to use that course as a basis of ex- perience for deciding which classes were eligible for fulfilling the requirement and by what criteria. The Faculty Proposal, as amended, has struck off a sub-committee of review and oversight whose members would have in- cluded individuals participating in UC299.0 The Curriculum Committee now is to de' cide what courses are part of the diversity requirement. The passing of the Faculty Proposal is Whether (the LSA Faculty's) vote marks a step forward or a mere re-wording of the status quo will depend upon the evolution of the requirement in the semesters ahead. there was a high degree of self-congratula- tion by faculty and administration: with this vote, the University had proven itself in the vanguard of higher education. The debate over a mandatory course on racism, however, occurred at the instigation of students of color on this campus through the demands of UCAR set forth in 1987. The Faculty Proposal has strayed a long way both from those original de- mands and from the comments of students of color at the LSA public forum on the requirement. The students of color supporting the requirement specifically called for a con- sideration of the issues of racism and of al- ternative cultural perspectives in the United States. Further, a student presently enrolled in UC299 expressed frustrated to be supported, but not uncritically. Un- less serious discussion begins in consulta- tion with students and faculty of color about integrating the requirement with the rest of the curriculum, the University will have, in fact, voted to retreat from the vanguard. As one speaker at the public forum de- dared, any required course, no matter how perfectly devised, remains an affront to the students of color on this campus if unaG- companied by substantive change through- out the University in the battle against racism. The celebration may lie ahead, but, as the president of Dillard warned, let's not hold it too soon. We still have a struggle before us. I Racist flier was protected by First Amendment By Stephen Henderson Law School Dean Lee Bollinger has come under heavy political fire for his de- cision in the matter of the racist flier inci- dent of three weeks ago. The Michigan Student Assembly has passed two resolutions condemning the in- cident and called for a full investigation. According to MSA Rackham Rep. Corey Dolgon, the perpetrators of this act are not protected under the First Amendment be- cause "racist speech isn't free speech." While Bollinger's decision to refuse further investigations into the incident may not be the most diplomatic, it is the most practical. The reality of the situation is that he has no power to levy any sort of sanctions against the perpetrators of this incident. The flier that was distributed, while be- ing blatantly racist and offensive, is not in violation of the University's discrimina- tory harassment policy, or, for that matter, the First Amendment. The University's harassment policy is based on the Supreme Court's interpreta- Henderson, an LSA junior, is an associ- ate Opinion editor of the Daily. tion of the notion of "fighting words." This states that speech meant only as in- sult and intended to incite another to vio- lence is not protected by the First Amendment. However, also included in this interpre- tation is the stipulation that this speech must take place between two individuals, and must be, in fact, speech. The flier that Daily and the University community to point out how inappropriate and fallacious the flier was. Some have referred to a local law pro- hibiting "ethnic intimidation" as a possi- ble recourse for action against this inci- dent. But once again, First. Amendment protection must be guaranteed. Dean Bollinger is exactly right in his The flier that was distributed, while being blatantly racist and offensive, is not in violation of the University's discriminatory harassment policy, or, for that matter, the First Amendment. was distributed was not aimed at any par- ticular individual, and was not in the form of the spoken word. Thus, this particular incident was a per- fectly legal form of expression. Just be- cause something is offensive and inappro- priate - as the flier most blatantly was - doesn't mean that it can be excluded from First Amendment protections. The only appropriate responses to the incident are actions taken by MSA, the decision not to investigate this incident. He has condemned the flier, but he realizes that neither the University's policy on dis- crimination and harassment nor the laws of this country prohibit this sort of ex- pression. A concerted effort on the part of the University community to express disdain for the content of the flier, but to also rec- ognize the Constitutional provisions that protect this action, will result in the only justified end of this incident.ti Daily neglects to cover North Campus events To the Daily: I want to voice my displeasure at the Daily for failing to report news about North Campus. First of all, the North- wood bus route was changed Oct. 8. Last Mnndav neonle were nretty nnfned tn see about 1:00 and students were told to get away from the building. About 200 stu- dents stood around the North Campus Diag for at least a half hour. There was even a fire engine that pulled up next to the Dow. But not a single thing was said l .. .... ___ ,.:':