America's handed out death. Africa's handed out life. 'African American' is a confusing title. That's like Jewish Hitler, Black KKK, whatever." "Female soldier." "Female soldier, right. (Laughs) It's that sort of ... ideology is very confusing. I think that there could be a duality of consciousness. We are living in that duality. We don't have to live in that duality. We can look where our genes are looking, to see who we really are. Really ... we don't have to be stuck in that ideology.. . duality of consciousness ... That's what it is, though. I agree with it. We need to change it. We don't have to think American. Why? No one is really from America." "Ecet ... I was going to say Native Americans, I might be wrong." "No, they don't even call this place America. They're from, they're the closest you're gonna get to America. American. But they don't even call this place America. So what is America? Really ... It definitely is not the people who live in America, because the correct title of this . . . is the United States of America. And that of, meaning that the states are coming out of America, or from America, or is owned by America, clearly shows that we are United States-ians." "How about the idea of giving Africans their own share of America?" "The one thing that stumps me every time is who's gonna own and control the land. That's the biggest question. If Africa was to go to Africans, still, who's gonna own and control the land?If America gives us sixteen states in America, who's gonna own and control those sixteen states? That's ... it all boils down to the same thing all over again. Socialism says we all own it. Capitalism says a few people own it. Both of these systems worked out on paper ... we all would be fine. But in real life, it doesn't sound right. In real life, it isn't acted out right. Until the consciousness of the masses of the people change.. .. then the systems will work. If the consciousness don't change, no system will work. And even if Africa was for Africans, we'd be fighting each other for the land all over again. Who's gonna own and control the distribution of the land? Or the distribution of the wealth of the land? Who? So I can't even think on that level, 'cause it bugs me out all the time. I haven't even given it thought." "This is another question of opinion. Should we work within the system or try to break the system?" I Get into folklore fashion and rustic romantics. City smart formals or be just plain cool! Global flair, all American looks, head to toe. 612 E. Liberty, in the heart of the campus. SHOP Jacobso[n s "I think we should master the I system. We don't have to work within it, we should try to understand it. We should try to understand it, and we should try to work ... we, I say that the masses of us should work within the system ... but the people who have control, like these 240 bullshit mayors we got in this nation, Black mayors. We have 240 Black mayors in major cities. We still ain't makin' no noise. Still. And that's my answer to working within the system. But, the average Joe who gotta work nine to five, I wouldn't urge them to do anything out of line, just go to work and chill. The ones who want to make a change should be true to their struggle, and not front, like these mayors." "Like my beloved mayor, Coleman Young." "Coleman Young, Mayor Goode, Marion Barry, David Dinkins, all of these house nigga, foot shufflin', tap dancin' niggas. Stop frontin' and do somethin' for their people." "We got a lot of people coming up, people my age and younger, who are ready to try and break the system. Or get broken. What do you think on this?" "The system's too powerful to break. We're really not gonna end up breaking the system. But we can change it. We can definitely change it. These kids that are coming up now is the system for the future. The biggest fight is to keep them blind, so they can continue, the blind leading the blind. That's their fight, that's the government's fight, keep everybody asleep. So we can continue to rule, while they're asleep. The biggest thing ... I'm the worst enemy they've got. Because I wake the people up. And if I wake up people all my life, say I live to be seventy-five, thirty-five, or forty, whatever. If I wake people up, for twenty years, I'm waking up the people. Someone's gonna get into a higher spot, and say, 'well, KRS-One said this, that and the other, maybe I should think about that now that I'm in office.' That's a person whose mind is awoke. Not 'cause they listened to me, but by the matter of fact that they even considered another way. Just considered it ... And I think that you can't beat the system, because it's a mighty system. It's just a mighty, mighty beast. This beast is the beast. It takes an even mightier beast to destroy this beast. "The best thing you can do is revolt within your own frame of thinking. Change your frame of thinking. You have to also ask yourself some fundamental questions. Are you on this planet to get paid, or are you on this planet to find self? And both of them are legitimate, though. Most people think if you say you're on this planet to get paid, there's something wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with getting paid on this planet. Matter of fact, getting paid is better than finding self in a capitalist system. But you have to ask yourself the question, what are you in it for? If you're in this system to find self, then no political system will ever ... should ever make up your mind. Me personally, I set my goals from a universal standpoint. I think as a universal being, a human being, my responsibility is to serve humanity. The plagues I see humanity with, I try to cure. That's it. That's all I'm about. That's it. I'm not looking to get crazy paid, I'm not looking for all this other nonsense. Now I do enjoy money. Of course. I'll get as much money as I possibly can. But that's not my basis for existence. That's not my state of being. If I had no money, I would still be saying the same thing that I was saying back when I was homeless. "Money gives you the ability to say it to more people. You either hoard it to yourself, or you invest it in others. That's it. And I think people need to stop frontin' and be honest with themselves. Are you in this life just to get paid, or are you in this life to find self? Both are legitimate. Although, I think the ultimate reasoning is to find self. I think we're all on this planet to find self. But that's my opinion. Period. It starts as an opinion, it ends as an opjnion. I think we're on this planet to find self, I don't think we're here to work ... We're here to work, but not nine to five, summer electricians, bakers, cooks, whatever. I think we're here to find self. To conquer self, and to master self. After that's done, all of these systems will fall. The human spirit will always be here. It always has been here, and it always will be here. So these little people that wish to control Earth can go right ahead. The universe is what we're looking to be one with. "That's an ideology for beatin' the system. It's not even about the system. It's more or less what you're in the system for. Everyone's ideology is different. I'm not looking to beat the system. I'm looking to educate people. I think the system's a great system, personally, for sleeping minds. As long as the people stay asleep, the system's excellent. "My revolution is a mental revolution that leads up to a physical revolution. The mental revolution when you revolt against your own frame of thinking. After you revolt against your own brain, and you find out who you really are, then all you have to do is protect yourself from the people who now want to kill you. That's the revolution." SA you know WHERE to read this, only you might have trouble finding one in East Engineering - or any other University building for that matter - if you happen to be a woman S I It wasn't the first time it happened... I was maneuvering through the archaic rows of desks in the dilapidated auditorium of the E.H. Kraus Natural Science Building, on the way to the worse off East Engineering when I felt the calling. A gripping pull at my bladder. An overwhelming, dire urge to pee. I burst into the East Engine ladies room ony to join the line of disgruntled women. They were all waiting to use the two lone stalls in what seemed to be the only women's lavatory in the building. It was clearly time for action. I started by calling Ida Patterson, Supervisor of the East Engineering Building. Patterson acknowledged that the "north side bathrooms are all locked up" and might need some work. She further explained that the ongoing construction would result in something being done. She wasn't sure when. She1 maintained that to date she has "never seen any lines (for the bathrooms)." I discovered that she does not usually make her rounds until after 5 PM, when the daily bustle has petered out. So, something was under construction, but Patterson didn't know details. Nor did she convince me that it would result in more plentiful or effective curtailing of the overflow of urination. And there remains the question of whether the student voice will be heard with regard to this issue. The excess demand for bathroom facilities in East Engine, is a result of the fact that there are, according to the L.O.T. * Investigation, only four women's lavatories in the entire building (or five plus one unisex according to a blueprint that also indicates that there's a fifth floor in the East Engineering Building). I personally counted ten men's bathrooms, while the blueprint indicated eleven plus one unisex on the infamous (nonexistent) fifth floor. So, I couldn't even find these supposed bathrooms with blueprints. (I can't be that stupid - I got into U of M, didn't I?) Semantics aside, a problem exists. "I went to the bathroom in the East Engineering Building, and there were about 20 girls in there, and I couldn't even open the door. I think there's only one bathroom in the building," said Caroline Lawrence, a sophomore in the Art School. Still, the East Engineering Building is but one example of a larger "Piss Crisis." As the research has shown, the bathroom problem is not confined to one building. Stephanie Dolgins, a sophomore in LSA recalled that she had once left the Kraus Natural Science Auditorium about 15 minutes before her Biology class began but barely made it back in time for the start of the lecture. (No, it wasn't because she had cramps.) The supervisor of the E.H. Kraus Natural Science Building, Terry Coleman, said "The way the building's shaped (could make it difficult to find bathrooms). There's a men's and a women's bathroom on each floor." According to the building's blueprint, this is not the case. Neither the basement nor the fourth floor of the Kraus Natural Science Building has a men's or a women's bathroom. In total, there are only seven lavatories in the entire building. So how randomly are the decisions made on who will pee where? Robert Man of the University's Space Analysis Department found that there are 452 assignable rooms in the East Engineering Building, 450 in the Natural Science Building, and 754 in the Chemistry Building (new and old combined). Brent Terry of the Facilities Information Center, generous contributor of the blueprints, told me that these buildings are 279,342 sq. ft., 17,872 sq. ft. and 527,814 sq. ft., respectively. Thus, out of the three, Kraus has the highest ratio of bathrooms per square feet, but the lowest ratio of bathrooms per classroom, and the Chemistry Building, with its new addition, has the lowest ratio of bathrooms per square feet. I asked Meriamakich, Chemistry Building Supervisor, if she was aware that there are only four women's bathrooms in the old Chemistry Building. "Yes," she replied curtly. I then asked her if she thought this sufficient and if not, what action she planned to take in order to rectify this situation. "I've never had a problem with it, so I'd have to say I have no comment," she answered abruptly. Yakich's surly responses did not bode well. Maybe she is embarrassed about the aesthetic condition of the old wing of the Chemistry Building. Maybe she is ashamed of the lack of foresight in the planning of lavatory locations for the new addition. Maybe she has a bathroom in her office, and she doesn't care. On the other hand, perhaps Yakich is right, and there are ample lavatory facilities, but as Jamie Sheetz, a student in the School of Physical Education, said about locating a bathroom: "If you don't know where it is, you're lost." Perhaps if the administration has no plans (or remaining funds) for increasing the number of bathrooms in buildings on campus, they could at least make them more accessible. Signs indicating which way to walk (and an estimated time of arrival) would be a good start for aiding wash room warriors. The incongruity between the number of men's and women's bathroom facilities, combined with the overwhelming excess of demand by women for toilets raises some points. Do women simply pee more frequently than men? Are the women's restrooms more difficult to locate than the men's? Has the University failed to realize that this is no longer an all-male campus? It is about time that the amount and locations of toilets in campus buildings be made more equitable. I propose a take-home experiment. Bring an average female and an average male to the U- Club, send them to the john from the same spot at the same time and, adjusting for urination time, determine who returns to the commencement point first. It will probably be the man, and not because the woman had to pull her pants down all the way. This is not intended to be a grievance about the horrendous smells, deep floods and absence of toilet paper in a number of University lavatories. The purpose is to discuss the bathroom situation from the worm's eye view - the view of a person walking about campus who feels the need to 0 comply to the scream of her sat bladder but instead is reduced u squirming victim because of he locate a toilet. This is not the complete rec all toilet searches at the Univers Michigan. Without doubt, there horrendous untold stories. Jenn seems to sum up the dilemma c bathrooms around campus quite thoroughly: "They're fucking h find." * The L.0. T (Lac, Investigation was a methodica survey which consisted of m around the named buildings anc numbero We welcome Jacobson's Charge, MasterCard, VISA? and American Expresso Shop until 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. Until 6 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. 12 WEEKEND Njvember 30,1990