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Page 4 -The Michigan Daily- Tuesday, October 29, 1991
20 Maynard Streeta
Arbor, Michigan 48109 ANDREW GOTTESMAN
747-2814 Editor in Chief
4
An
Readers respond to ad, Daily
V
Edited and Managed
by Students at the
University of Michigan
STEPHEN HENDERSON
Opinion Editor
L. ,y
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.
.......... ......................... ..{.:..........:...........................
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
SSAC report
Committee defends 'U' cops' inappropriate action
T he report of the Angell Hall incident where
University police drew their weapons while
arresting an unarmed man has demonstrated the
hypocrisy of the University's Safety and Security
Advisory Committee (SSAC). The report absolved
the police of any wrongdoing in the incident and
has now basically given police the go ahead to
draw their guns in situations that clearly do not
warrant such extreme action.
The incident, which brought about conflicting
versions from witnesses and involved a series of
complex events, has been put to rest by a simplistic
and far too general SSAC report. SSAC reviewed
an internal Department of Safety and Security
(DPSS) investigation and, without any thorough
research of its own, concluded that the police had
acted properly. This is incredibly insufficient
coming from a committee which, as it stands, only
has the ability to advise policy and procedural
changes.
Taking this incident and SSAC's response as an
accurate indication of what is to come, SSAC has
amounted to a University committee set up for
DPSS to hide behind when it acts in improper
ways.
The DPSS account admits that a second officer
arrived afterthe arrest and drew his weapon. SSAC
justified this as "back up." SSAC said it reviewed
the statements of 12 witnesses and that they
"generally" were in line with the DPSS report. The
vague and matter-of-fact nature of the report reveals
what many people were saying when the committee
first formed. It will not accomplish anything in the
way of stopping police harassment and brutality
because its members are hand-picked by the Uni-
versity administration and it has no actual decision-
making abilities.
Clearly, SSAC is not being honest with itself or
anyone at the University when it says, "SSAC
recognizes that the campus is aunique environment
and that the utmost restraint must be used with
regard to the drawing of weapons.and the use of
force."If it was being honest, it would not stand by.
as police continue to draw their weapons virtually
without restriction.
Finally, students must realize that SSAC will be
of no help in stopping the police harassment and
brutality that goes on every day and that other
methods should be sought to make them account-
able to the community they serve.
To the Daily:
I am very proud of the
response to the Oct. 24 advertise-
ment on the Holocaust, but I feel
that the anger was misplaced. The
letters cursed the Daily and other
papers for printing the ad. I feel
these bold publications should be
counted as a blessing. It gets the
issue "out in the open" and ready
for debate.
Just because an idea is not in
print that does not mean it does
not exist. The sad fact is that in
the future the revisionists ludi-
crous ideas can be readily
accepted because the Holocaust
survivors and their immediate
family will not be here to defend
themselves. It is important to
challenge these ideasnow before
it's too late.
If this issue is not confronted
now, as time rolls on, it will be
harder to dispute because the
history books cannot tell you how
the survivors felt or what ghastly
horrors they had seen. The history
books did not live the life of the
survivors and can never really*
express the severity of the
Holocaust.
I thank the Daily and the other
publications who printed the ad,
because it gives us a chance to
destroy the revisionists' views
and to tell them to take their half-
ass notions to the trash where they
most certainly belong.
My only problem with the
Daily in this ordeal is that they
did not handle the situation very
diplomatically. The paper knew
that this is a very controversial
issue. Therefore, it should have
made certain provisions in the
next issues of the Daily. For
instance, the paper could have
written an article on student views
about the ad, or it could have set
up an interview with the revision-
ists.
In fact, it could have at least
given an explanation of why the
Daily printed the ad and encour-
aged the readers to share their
views with the revisionists. At
least something good came from
the situation.
Naomi Taylor
LSA first-year student
To the Daily:
On Friday, Oct. 25, in re-
sponse to the protests of the
"Holocaust Controversy," the
Daily printed "we, the editors of
the paper, believe the ideas .
expressed in the advertisement
were offensive and inaccurate."
The Daily also printed "the
opinions expressed in this ad are
not necessarily those held by the
staff of TMD." What is this "we
believe?" What does "not
necessarily" mean?
This is. not an opinion page
debate with two-sides. The
Holocaust is a well-documented
fact. The Jewish community, this
country, and the world know that
the Holocaust happened. To claim
that it did not take place not only
is a blatant lie, but it is the most
base insult that Smith or the Daily
could offer the Jewish commu-
nity.
The Daily only compounds its
original insult in running the
advertisement by implying that
the Holocaust is a matter of
opinion. The only matter of
opinion in this incident is that of
what kind of people would.
propagate such cruelty, but I think
that most of the people on this
campus have reached a consensus
on that.
Beth Frenkel
SA senior
To the Daily:
Tam shocked an appalled by
the advertisement published in the
Oct. 24, 1991 issue by a so-called
revisionist historical organization..
Bradley R. Smith, despite his
erroneous logic and shabby
conclusions, seeks to justify the
methodical and deliberate
genocide of six million Jews.
Smith's claims posit a further and
equally destructive violation of
the Jewish people: a denial of our
history.
This article was not published
in the op-ed column, which serves
as a forum for infinite and diverse
political platforms. I object to this
article's publication as an
advertisement. Any publication
has the right to reject slanderous
advertisements. How can money
justify-the printing of a hateful,
clearly anti-semitic advertisement
for a thinly-veiled hate group? For
shame, editors, to be so careless!
Claudia Aron Stokes
To the Daily-
I am responding to the Daily's
printing of the "advertisement,"
The Holocaust Controversy: The
Case for Open Debate. I was
extremely offended by the.
printing of this piece.. Not only is
it a complete distortionof reality;
not only does it try to lessen the
lives of those who perished in the
Holocaust; but it makes me
question the morals, or should I
say lack of morals, that the Daily
has in presenting this to. the
University of Michigan's students
and faculty.
The Holocaust, a tragic event
in human history, did happen.
Smith can tell me that the
interpretation of documents
pertaining to the extermination of
over six million Jews, "is always
highly qustionable." .He can tell
me, "that there was no German
policy at-any of those camps to
deliberately kill the.internees.".
- He can also tell me that there
never were any Black slaves in
the South, that the Japanese
invented the Hiroshima incident,
and that four months ago, 10,000
Kurds simultaneously committed
suicide.
He can also tell me that the
tattooed numbers on my.
Grandfather's arm wash of; that
my father's aunt's head was not
bashed in by Nazi billy clubs and
that the scars on her body had
nothing to do with the fact that
she was brutally beaten for three
days straight.
He can tell me that the sudden
disappearance of more than six
million .Jews as well as up to four
million homosexuals, Blacks, and
Gypsies, and anyone else who did
not cooperate with the Nazi
regime was purely coincidental.
That the mountains of baby shes
at Auschwitz were never there,
and that the accounts of thousand
of Polish witnesses living near the
camps, who smelled burning flesh
were forged. That my
grandmother's memory of
watching her baby brother being
ripped from her mother's arms
and smashed against a tree is all a
figment of her imagination.
And yet, the Michigan Daily
and its editors have the utter gall
to allow this disgraceful article
with a tiny disclaimer on it saying
"advertisement" to be printed at
the University of Michigan's
school newspaper?
I understand that a good
controversial piece can get
readers' attention, but one has to
draw the line betweeni a contro-
versial idea and an outrageous and
offensive account of one of man's
most horrid tragedies. I am
disgusted, hurt and angry at the
poor judgement of this journal.
Michael HarPaz
LSA sophomore
To the Daily,
I read the full page advertise-
ment the Daily printed Thursday
entitled "The Holocaust Contro-
versy: The Case For Open
Debate." I found its contents
disgusting and offensive. For
those of us who lost relatives in
the German effort to exterminate
the Jewish race, the Holocaust is a
reality that will never be forgot-
ten. The attempt to deny its
existence is horrifying. The
Holocaust should serve as an
example of the kind of atrocities
that hate can generate.
I am a true believer in the First
Amendment guarantee of freedom
of speech. The author of this
advertisement, Bradley Smith,
had every right to speak his
views. However, the Daily used
poor judgement in deciding to
include this piece in whati had
previously believed to be a quality
newspaper.
Stacey Sherr
LSA senior
To the Daily:
I was shocked and outraged
after reading the CODOH
advertisement that was printed on
the back page of the Daily on Oct.
24.
That an organization would
spend more than $1,000 for this
advertisement is eye opening
testimony to the legacy of neo-
Nazi hatemongers that survives in
our nation. The onlyconsolation
from the advertisement is the
focus that it will give to the
ongoing effort to educate our's
and future generations about the
horrors of the Holocaust and the
brutal Nazi regime.
Through education and
. discussion, we will have the
intellectual arsenal to recognize to
the beginnings of a movement
similar to that of the Nazi's,
further ensuring that a tragedy of
the Holocaust's proportion will
never again occur.
Bradley Keywell
first-year Law student
University prevents students from studying late in Angell Hall
L ast week, the University again demonstrated its University is falling in national polls.
general lack of concern for undergraduate stu- The administration continually argues that bud-
dent needs by chasing students out of classrooms get restraints limit the number of hours that librar-
in Angell and Mason Halls. Students traditionally ies and computing centers can be operated. At the
use these rooms to study while waiting for a same time, the University allocates thousands of
computer in the Angell Hall computing center or dollars to an unwanted campus police force - to
because they have no where else to study. keep students off the street but evidently not in the
Yet, despite the obvious need for the open use of library.
these classrooms, campus security guards informed Under -the current policy, hours are set to ac-
students that they would no longer be allowed to commodate the greatest number of students. By
use the rooms after midnight. following this policy, the University is acting un-
This decision to close classrooms leaves many fairly to those students who choose to study late at
students in a precarious situation. The only Uni- night. These students deserve more from their
versity building open past midnight is the Under- tuition money and less polite explanations of
graduate Library, which is often overcrowded and hudgetary constraints.
noisy. Even if students who desire a more quiet . It is time for the University to reconsider its
atmosphere study at the UGLi, rather than atAngell priorities and to think about opening a 24-hour
Hall, they are forced to leave at 2 a.m. Where are library. The exam period would be an excellent
these students to go? time to try out such a policy.
Certainly, the University does not expect them The University has simply gone too far by
to study athome where roommates maybe sleeping, chasing students out of classrooms that don't cost
listening to music or watching television. the University a whole lot to keep open. Students
Most reputable universities throughout the should take this cue to force a change in the
country offer a 24-hour library as well as a student University's priorities. How can we as students
union with extended hours. Unfortunately, this is refrain from questioning the academic integrity of
not the case at Michigan. The University admin- the University if the administration fails to do
istration does not see a need for adequate study something as simple as allocating space for late-
environments despite frequent complaints that the night studying?
+
0
Gene patent
NIH idea hurts genetic research
rThe National Institute of Health (NIH), along
I with various other agencies, is heavily involved
in researching the mechanics and applications of
human genetic information. With an estimated $3
billion dollars budgeted for the mapping of the
human genome alone, the research efforts of the
NIH are a top priority. However, last Saturday, the
NIH impeded progress in the area of genetic re-
search.
Biotechnology institutes, including many phar-
maceutical companies, regularly isolate bacterial
and animal genetic information that have particular
applications that may prove useful. They are per-
mitted to apply for patents to restrict anyone else's
usage of these sequences, securing exclusive
possession of the information for themselves.
When these patents are made, the function of
the DNA sequences is usually known. In sharp
contrast, the NIH has applied for a very unspecific
patent, which, if granted, would give it exclusive
use of millions of sequences of DNA whose
functions are completely unknown.
This could prove to be very detrimental to the
progress of genetic research. The purpose of a
patent is toprotect somebody's invention orcreative
and its own credibility
idea. Although the NIH has no specific under-
standing of this genetic information, it wants to
secure the information under a patent. This move
points out the NIH's greed. It is clear that the NIH
is merely trying to assure future royalties that may
result from the applications of this patented infor-
mation.
In addition, this move presents a great hin-
drance to worldwide genetic research. The way
research is now conducted, information from
various international centers for genetic research,
the largest being the NIH and the Human Genome
Organization (HuGO), is shared freely. This pro-
vides all the researchers with data which they can
use to generate new ideas which can lead to further
genetic discoveries. However, with this general
patent in effect, the NIH will no longer want to
share the data freely, thus ending the progress the
scientific community has made to date.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should
see the grave problems that approval of the NIH
patent will bring, and reject the application. In
addition, the NIH should be condemned for mak-
ing this move, clearly one that prioritizes economic
profits over educational gains.
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Pc. What are the rearl issues T
The term "political correctness"
has become a keyword for the me-
dia, politicians, conservative inter-
est groups, and many more status-
quo cheerleaders. From the Wall
Street Jour- -
nal, to NBC
news to CELEBRATES
T i m e 49 p4
Magazine,
to the Re- F
public an0
Party, the
term has by
been deni-
grated to a Julian
sound byte.
that now
evokes sar-_
casm and
disgust amongst the general popu-
lation, including some of the more
"educated" students on the most
critics have shifted the locus of de-
bate. Rather than addressing real
issues such as racial stereotypes in
the media, some people concentrate
on what is "PC." The issues have
been effectively blurred. The
question of whether or not racial
stereotypes really do perpetuate
racist. attitudes is simply not ad-
dressed, but rather, people concen-
trate on the "PC-ness" of the argu-.
ment, and noton the argument itself.
Thus,-.such discussions are easily
undermined.
The argument that critics of PC-
ness propose is that .it threatens
democracy. But by only concen-
trating on the political correctness
aspectof the argument, we threaten
democracy itself, for it reduces real
arguments into meaningless-dogma.
A democracy is based on open, in-
telligent debate, where real issues
are analyzed and discussed. But
when conservatives talk about"PC-
ness," they stifle debate about real
societal problems, leaving no room
which the media can easily latch on
to.
In the Cold War era, Harvard-
bred, intellectual liberals who ad-
vocated Keynesian social policies
were readily dismissed as the
communist "crimson crowd." In-
stead of analyzing the real effects of
policies such as social insurance,
McCarthyites analyzed whether or
not advocates of such policies were
Communist.
More recently, in the. 1988
Presidential campaign, Bush effec-
tively attacked any policies that
Democrats put forth by blanketing
them as "liberal." Through such
attacks, the ideals proposed by lib-
erals get ignored completely. Instead
of talking about -a program which
may benefit the poor, the masses
talk about meaningless labels.
Again, the debate becomes shifted
from real issues into key words and
catch phrases.
Hopefully, with'the benefit of
hindsight, we will soon be able to
Nuts and Bolts
LJItLE CUOf SM A CONTESTANT
ON AMMIcAN AVIAToRSt?
by Judd Winick
WHY NOT'!O OKAT HIMJP T'O ACtAL'CTINK I Ir
IHE'S TIN'?. OL GLADIATORS nA 11)LCAiitII wtoWGErT
COOLD SER100o&Y HURT HIMr. WATCH SOMEON~~ E M DID f T hu-YO
IT'S LIKE TELEVISING THlE C 'LE.TE (POI1MEL.ED'TO 1TI lN SEosa.E&'1
prestigious college campuses..
What began as an effort to in-
crease awareness and promote mu-
tual respect between various soci-