Page 4 --The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 21, 1990 t 19, t *g n B IV I EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Viewpoint NOAH FINKEL Editor in Chief DAVID SCHWARTZ Opinion Editor 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. Electoral process Reform the system to eliminate money as an issue IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS BECOME obvious that the American people are becoming increasingly disaffected with the U.S. political system. In the last presidential election, the turnout was under 50 percent, the lowest in U.S. political history. In midterm and local elections, the turnout is substantially lower than even that. These statistics were confirmed again this week by a Times Mirror survey analyzed by Princeton Research Associates which demonstrates that most Americans feel the two party system denies them a full range of choices. Thus, while we stand by our call last week on all U.S. citizens to exercise their constitutional right to choose their leaders, it is also important to recognize that the prevailing political structure severely circumscribes the meaning of such choices. The Survey found that most Americans associate the Republican Party with "wealth and greed" and the Democrats with "incompetence." In fact, both parties are driven by wealth and greed, which in turn makes it nearly impossible for either to adequately represent the society they are pledged to serve. In a political system dominated by money from Political Action Committees (PACs), individual voters are effectively prevented from influencing their elected representatives. A few examples can underscore how serious this structural deformation is. In 1984, Senator Robert Dole (R- Kansas) voted $300 million in tax breaks to commodity traders, despite voicing violent opposition to a similar measure three years earlier. His switch may have had something to do with the $85,000 dollars contributed to his campaign by commodity traders in the interim. Even as each taxpayer prepares to spend thousands of dollars bailing out this country's savings and loans institutions, questions about the currently jailed Charles Keating's hefty campaign contributions to members of the Senate remain buried. Yet many Senators who received such contri- butions and were members of the Senate Banking Committe were responsible for rewarding Keating his fraudulent contracts. In the 1988 elections, over 99 percent of all 435 congressional representatives were re-elected. The fact that PACs gave 88 percent of their money to incumbents, and that in- cumbents outspent challengers by a three to one margin certainly played a role in this high rate of returning representatives. The increasing use of television by electoral candidates also helps to explain much of the estrangement felt by American society. In recent years it has become commonplace to learn about each candidate's position through 30-second and one-minute commercial spots which spend more time attacking their opponent's position than articulating their own views. This trend has become symptomatic of the entire electoral process. While live debates at one time meant a chance to see how candidates defend their views under pressure, today's carefully choreographed television format, with questions and answers prepared in advance, prevents genuine exchange and thus gives the viewer a false, polished depiction of the candidates. While these examples only begin to suggest the problems inherent in our current political structure, they do shed light on possible solutions. To the extent that it is possible, money must be removed as the determining factor in the political process: corporations should be prevented from donating to any candidate; their ability to outspend indi- viduals by a long shot together with their inability to actually vote should disqualify them from the electoral process. In addition, television coverage of elections should extend beyond the major party candidates by giving quality time to all contenders on the election roll. Finally, both electoral campaigns and their television coverage should be publicly funded so that candidates can be genuinely accountable to those they would like 'to represent. Let's make elections about politics and keep the drama out. Center of Champions: Is it a4 By Patricia Maran We, the members of the University of Michigan Varsity field hockey team, are writing in response to Jim Crockaert's September 2nd article in the Ann Arbor News. The article discussed the newly erected athletic building Center of Cham- pions. To say that this report angered us is to downplay what a large obstacle of dis- crimination this building has become. While the Center of Champions as a "bizarrely designed building" might be ready for action, the administration who conceived the idea are for from recognizing what actions are actually needed. First, the Center's training room facil- ities must be accessible to athletes other than football players. There are two major reasons for this need. At present, all stu- dent athletes, with the exception of foot- ball players, who need preventative and re- habilitative treatments for injuries must use the training facility in the natatorium. But this room is currently being renovated into a banquet room. As a result of this remodeling, the training room space will be decreased. Trainers anticipate overcrowding and complications which might impede their ability to efficiently treat the students' ath- letic injuries. A possible way to mitigate this problem would be to increase the number of athletes who can use satellite facilities of which the Center of Champi- ons is one. If this option were available, the natatorium would not be as crowded. Considering the construction which has now altered the natatorium training room, it would seem logical that athletic teams which practice in close proximity to the Center of Champions should use this fa- cility. The playing surfaces for the baseball, Patricia Maran is an LSA senior majoring in English, and is a co-captain of the Field Hockey team. ice hockey, softball, and field hockey teams are all less than one-hundred yards away from this new building. But because we cannot enter the building on State Street, we are required to use a room which is upwards to one-half mile away from our fields. This is both inconvenient and ineffi- cient. Much time - a commodity of which all student athletes do not have any excess - is wasted in walking an unnec- essary distance (These extra miles become especially apparent when one is injured and must resort to the use of crutches). Why, when Michigan Athletics seems 40 ccessible? building. Suddenly this state of the art fa- cility which has a training room with "fourteen treatment tables and five whirlpools" could not handle eighteen more potentially injured athletes. How can something of such magnitude and luxury have so little ability for expansion to we women competitors? It seems ironic that the day Crockaert's article was published we watched a dog - yes, man's best friend - follow its owner into the Center of Champions. Despite a huge yellow sign which reads "Football Personnel Only," we had just watched a canine enter a building from which we Why, when Michigan Athletics seems so fond of expounding on its every success, does it deprive the majority of its athletes an opportunity to enter the Center of Champions? so fond of expounding on its every suc- cess, does it deprive the majority of its athletes an opportunity to enter the Center of Champions? Isn't the term, "champion" indicative of the goal of each Michigan team member, not just football players? Why have we field hockey players used the inaccessibility of the Center's training room as the focal point for our argument? Very simply, we compete on Tartan turf: that field which is enclosed by the brick wall on State Street. It is the same field on which the football team practices. This year we started our preseason training before the football team had re- turned to Ann Arbor. For two days we women were allowed into the hallowed, 64,000 square foot blue building. No ques- tions were asked. No problems arose due to our presence. Coincidentally enough, as soon as football practices resumed, we were no longer allowed entrance into the women were excluded. And as if this ex- clusion were not enough, we have spent the last week of our preseason climbing underneath a padlocked fence in order to reach our game field. This is a difficult skill to master when one has both equip- ment to wear and carry. In writing this letter, we field hockey players are not asking for our own 64,000 square foot building. We do not expect that our every move will be computerized and then reexamined in a coach's balcony office. What we do suggest is that the ath' letic directors continue to "chart new wa- ters." If the fundraising for the Center of Champions is to prove itself to be a truly beneficial undertaking, then the building must be used by a larger majority of the Michigan athletes. All of the men's and women's teams must feel included in this commitment to excellence - this Center. of Champions. Mohawk standoff Quebecois officials must respect Indian rights IN MARCH, THE OKA, QUEBEC government legislated the expansion of the existing golf course to eighteen holes and the building of condominiums to increase the community's revenue and tax base. The council, without any consultation with the Kanesatake Mohawks, overwhelmingly passed the expansion on Mohawk burial grounds. In response, the Mohawks set up an armed barricade leading to the Kanesatake "concentration camp." Four months later, on July 11, Oka Mayor Jean-Guy Ouellette, frustrated by the uncompromising militancy of the Mohawks and by the lack of response by the federal government in Ottawa, ordered the Quebec provincial police to raid the barricades. In the ensuing fierce gun battle, Corporal Marcel Lemay was killed, many suspect, by police bullets. Hours later, neighboring Mohawks in Kahnawake barricaded the Mercier bridge, the main artery from the South Shore of the St. Lawrence to the Island of Montreal causing massive traffic jams for white commuting suburbanites. In the following weeks, the situation remained tense. Police erected their own barricades. They prevented Red Cross and others from entering the territories to bring essential food and medicine. in violation of international to the imperialist and expansionist mentality of Canadian officials and citizens from Oka to Ottawa. The whites initiated the bogus legislation to destroy vast burial grounds. They also took the offensive to raid the barricades. For a superficial gain of revenue and tax base, the Oka town council is willing to ramble over Indian sovereignty. These despicable assaults clearly demonstrate the unrelenting desire to kill an indigenous culture to win the power struggle for land in the name of Western ideas. The legislative and military attacks on Indian land in Oka is merely a small snapshot of a long and horrifying history of overt exploitation of indigenous people by the imperialist forces from Australia to Guatemala. At Wounded Knee, in a struggle similar to the current Oka crisis, 69 Indians were killed by the U.S. government over a three-year period beginning in 1973. Continued militant occupation of Highway 344 and the Mercier bridge is strictly essential for the Mohawks to exert their right for self-determination. These tactics strike the faces of their oppressors and nothing must be compromised. Among the demands: -restoration of their title to the disputed 22 hectares of land -withdrawl of military forces from their territories Cartoon is offensive To the Daily: I'm offended at the political cartoon drawn by Russell Baltimore in the Sept. 14 issue of the Daily. He depicts a help wanted sign for the University police force which advertises the requirements of: "If there is any possible way, you must be dumber than the average existing U of M security officer." This ignorant and insulting affront demonstrates Baltimore's immature and re- actionary fear of anyone representing au- thority. Having been an RA for over a year, I have several times depended on University security officers as backup in emergency situations. In every single instance these officers have demostrated professionalism and courage in confronting dangerous situ- ations. These officers are well versed in regula- tions, sound in their judgments, and de- pendable in their performance. Further- more, these officers are generally college graduates who have undergone extensive training in an in-house academy here at the University. This training includes instruc- tion in community relations, crime pre- vention, dealing with University commu- nity life, self defense, and other related is- sues. If there is any "stupidity" to be found, it is in their willingnes to on into dan- themselves. Since security is not allowed to use force unless they are first attacked, and even then they are not allowed the use of nightsticks or any other type of weapon, they certainly do appear stupid to be defending University students against attacks. Yet, in the incident that took place at the Union two weeks ago, several officers did protect our students, and were injured in the process. I am appalled at the Daily's unfair treatment of the U of M's security person- nel and can only conclude that I would much rather have these "stupid" security officers backing me up than the "intelligent" Daily cartoonists. Reg Goeke LSA senior t 0i If a .. t':. h .. "k ' .' ..', V ...'"' .. . a ^-s'" b . : ' ' tiw ~fix,,;. { .m?,. ... 5 Y3. .xa'' .;", 'i