Page 4-The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 30, 1992 1ie 3ichigau &il Editor in Chief I 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 764-0552 MATIIEW D. RENNIE Opinion Editors YAEL CITRO GEOFFREY EARLE AMITAVA MAZUMDAR Edited and Managed by Students at the University of Michigan 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. C E CO *D SPIKE -x -< LSE - - - - - - )a 4)l 41 I [" 0 MCC cut wrong,' M SA Rep. Tobias Zimmerman brought the art of political grandstanding to a new level by filing suit against the University Board of Regents. Zimmerman naively asserts that when the regents cut funding for the Michigan Collegiate Coalition (MCC) - a lobbying group that includes some of his best friends - they violated students' First Amendment rights. Even worse, to compensate for the loss, MSA appropriated $15,000 to the group. However, MSA wisely postponed the au- thorization of the funds until the situation involv- ing the assembly's tax-exempt status is resolved. Still, Zimmerman insisted on delivering the funds to MCC immediately. Considering the fact that MSA's past funding of MCC has caused consider- able problems and confusion with the Assembly's tax-exempt status, Zimmerman's religious war to protect MCC was reckless, and could have cost students thousands of dollars. When the regents eliminated the 35-cent man- datory fee that all students pay to MCC on their tuition bills, it was a slight to students and MCC - an organization that lobbies for student causes in Lansing. It is clear that at least some regents voted on ideological grounds. In particular, they op- posed the strong lobbying MCC has conducted in favor of a state-wide tuition cap, which the regents oppose. President Duderstadt, too, was politically mo- tivated. In a memo, he cites upcoming IRS audits as "yet another strong reason for ceasing the Uni- versity-funded political activities over which we do not have absolute control. "But as it stands, (the University) is providing most of MCC's money ... and it continues to work at cross purposes with us," he said. These cynical motives should be unsettling to Kevorkian strikes L ast week Lois J-awes became the fifth woman to take her own life with the help of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. State legislators are scrambling to pass legislation that would ban, or at least inhibit, such doctor-assisted suicide. But Kevorkian has shown that his method is neither reckless nor inhumane. Rather than working to ban doctor-assisted sui- cide, the state should be working to regulate and legalize this sensitive medical practice. This is not the first time legislators have tried to interfere with this practice. The state of Michigan has endlessly tried, and failed, to prosecute Dr. Kevorkian on various murder and manslaughter charges. To government officials, Kevorkian is a rogue doctor and an embarrassment to the state. What they fail to realize is that doctor-assisted- suicide alleviates the dangers of reckless, unsuper- . vised suicide attempts that in many instances leave the victim physically paralyzed or psychologi- cally scarred for life. The guidance of a trained medical doctor to end a life plagued by chronic illness, with the support and approval of the fam- ily, is more consistent with professional medical standards than it is to sit by passively and allow the 6 victim to take death into their own hands. Kevorkian's methods were anything but hastily conceived. He contacted all of Hawes's family doctors to verify her terminal condition, and made sure that she was making an informed decision. The patient signed a release statement and made a videotape of her decision to die peacefully and painlessly. A Michigan House subcommittee has proposed but legal students. Clearly, what regents did was wrong. But was it unconstitutional? Of course, Zimmerman has the right to give his own money to MCC or any group he wishes. But the idea that he has a consti- tutional right to make the entire student body do so is simply ridiculous. In order to reinstate funding for MCC, Zimmermanturned to MSA. MSA's Budget Priori- ties Committee recommended giving $25,000 to MCC. Fortunately, MSA Reps. Brian Kight, Rob- ert Van Houweling, and Sejal Mistry convinced the assembly to cut its allocation to $15,000, and insisted the money be held until MSA resolves its financial situation. But, if the spending is authorized, the $15,000 the assembly allocated could still put it in serious jeopardy. Federal law states that an organization which gives a certain percentage of its internal budget to fund lobbying loses its tax-exemptstatus. Some representatives claim that percentage is 5 percent; others insist it is as high as 20 percent. MSA's continued misunderstanding of the situa- tion is shameful, and needs correcting. Add that to the fact that for 10 years (again, some say 24), the Assembly has neglected to file papers with the federal government to apply for its tax-exempt status. The current leadership is hur- riedly trying to balance a quarter century's worth of books to confirm that status. If the numbers don't turn out right, the assembly could be in dire finan- cial straits, and it will need every penny it can get anyway. With good accounting and a little luck, the assembly may find its way out of this mess. But if it doesn't, perhaps Zimmerman can find a way to sue the IRS for violating MSA's First Amendments rights. again restrictive legislation that would make assisted suicide a felony punishable by up to four years in jail. Another bill would create a statewide commis- sion to further study the issue of doctor-assisted- suicides - and would likely result in little more than procrastination and delay. The most effective alternative, however, would be comprehensive state legislation that legalizes doctor-assisted-suicide and installs a number of safeguards for the patient. This is not an attempt to control the doctor-patient relationship, but to pro- tect patients' rights and uphold medical standards. The state has no business telling terminally-ill patients, suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, whether their lives are worth living or not. dp x -O TIC -TAC V 02 4 , a, ' .r.. r-,rlnv,, C. ^ J :tiff '}:tiff'?:" .": :":::.:v:.: . Put Duderstadt, Fisher on probation To the Daily: If I were a regent of the University of Michigan, I would vote to place President Duderstadt on probation. I would move to put Athletic Director Weidenbach on probation. I would agree to put basketball coach Fisher on probation. I would insist that the three youths immediately be reinstated to normal status. Why? Because President ("the buck stops here") Duderstadt appoints and continues an athletic director who is incompetent and does not remove him. Because Weidenbach heads a department that does not know the rules and a staff that does not follow them. Because Fisher is in charge of a sport where he does not know its rules and has led his players to break the rules of his sport. These are the mnei who should be ON PROBATION. Lastly, as a Regent, I would urge a transfer of a woman to be in charge of men's basketball. If Ralph Aigler was still in charge, the entire Athletic department would know the rules governing their performance! John Thomas Daily sports editor 1932-1933 Daily doesn't grasp co-op living To the Daily: Your Opinion piece on the Inter-Cooperative Council's share return policy ("Does the ICC have your money?, 9/24/92) was shockingly devoid of any real- world perspective in the matters of cooperative living and the ICC' s place in the Ann Arbor market. Even a simple analysis of the operations of the cooperative would have shown why shares are returned in October. Throughout the article, false comparisons to Ann Arbor landlords are made. In the ICC, the landlords ARE the members of the cooperative. Members set their own rates, cook their own meals, do their own maintenance and manage their own property. The members may even decide to buy a new property, which they have done four times in the past six years. The point is that the ICC is unlike any other housing system in town. And, most pertinent to the point of this article, if the membership of the ICC wished to return shares in May instead of October, it could do so very easily. But not only was the ICC founded, as clumsily stated in your article, "with the intent of offering cheap and affordable housing"(sic), but also to promote cooperative living. With that goal comes the responsibility of educating members about the machinery, management and the ideology of the cooperative. True; the ICC could hire more staff to take the place of individual house treasurers (there are 17 of them) which would certainly be more efficient. But the cost would be the disempowerment of the membership as well as that additional price tag of staffing, a burden few members would wish to carry. When one weighs the $200 cost of shares in the ICC with the standard Ann Arbor landlord security deposit of a month-and-a- half's rent (typically $450-$600 for a one bedroom apt.) the comparison is further strained. Finally, the most offensive aspect of the article was its snide attitude and, ultimately, empti- ness. To anyone remotely familiar with the nature of cooperatives the article rings false and unknowl- edgeable. If the Daily were more professional it would adequately research a topic before publishing an opinion piece: Perhaps then it would not need to refer to the Michigan Consumer Cooperation Act as some "obscure law." Rod Schoonover ICC president 1988-89,1991 01 Bush, Clinton are not the only choices \ ! ' , \ i ---_ " kfi _ .:... . To the Daily: In this election year it is no wonder people want to get rid of Bush. In his attacks on womens' rights and on minorities, he spews out reactionary values and attitudes that ought to have been bypassed long ago. He oversees an economic system that produces growing poverty, unemployment and misery. He waged a bloody war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. And he promises more of the same in the future. It is clear to anyone who is honestly looking that Bush is thoroughly rotten and has to go. But is Clinton (or maybe Perot) the answer? We are told that Clinton is the "lesser evil," that he is not as bad as Bush. Maybe. You certainly cannot draw this conclusion from his personal history, from his record as governor of Arkansas, or from what he has said in the campaign. His solution to the economic problems this system faces: give more to the wealthy. The same "solution" as Bush, Reagan, Carter and Nixon. Slick Willie is a different evil, not a lesser evil. Real change will not come from defenders of this decaying society and bankrupt economic system. Social and economic gains - public education, social security, women's rights, civil rights - have only been won when millions of people fight for them in mass social movements. The social movements of the 1930s and the 1960s established many of the rights and limited social guarantees that politicians today are trying to take away. In the face of mass social move- ments, politicians change very quickly. For example, in the late 1960s, the broadest abortion rights bill in the country was won in California - and signed by a right-wing Republican governor named Ronald Reagan. Our only real alternatives are those we create for ourselves. We don't have to be fooled; we don't have to accept that Bush, Clinton or Perot are the only "choices" we have. We can begin to organize today for the social movements of tomorrow. Jeffrey Miller James Wagner Rackham graduate students * co U 0 U I 0c Clinton health plan comes together COMMUNTI'Y INSIGHT Bush ignores oppression in Haiti 0 Bill Clinton finalized his plan to guarantee health coverage to all Americans. Though it has flaws, the plan is more promising than either the current policy or the one that President George Bush has proposed. The plan would require private employers to buy insurance for their workers. Smaller busi- nesses would be encouraged to join together to qualify for group rates or enroll in a public pro- gram. The government would then provide care for those who remain uninsured. To curb soaring health care costs, Clinton prom- ised to put price controls on prescription drugs and medical procedures. He would lower administra- tive costs by creating a universal claim form to replace the complicated billing systems used by different companies. According to Clinton, as much as 20 percent of health costs are squandered on administrative work. Cutting these costs would be sensible, though not as significant as Clintonclaims. Though a Canadian-style nationalized health costly to treat. And pre-natal care and frequent check-ups can foster a healthy population, while actually saving long-term costs. There are, of course, drawbacks to Clinton's plan. Although he has promised breaks to small businesses to ease the transition, the plan may place aserious burdenon employers. AndClinton's claim that administrative reforms and spending caps will save $700 billion over the next decade is a faulty number juggle. Clinton would ban insur- ance companies from turning away applicants with preexisting conditions, therefore pushing the in- surance rates up. Regardless of these problems, Clinton's plan is far superior to Bush's. After looking the other way for three years, the president has finally whipped out the administration's favorite cure: the tax credit Band-Aid. Bush says he would dole out tax credits to employers who provide health insurance, and to the uninsured to help them purchase a policy - the by Kenneth Brostrom September 30 marks the first anniversary of the coup that overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the first democratically elected president in Haitian history. During the year since the Haitian military shattered both the Aristide government and Haitian dreams of escape from a bitter past, the economic and social situation in Haiti has continued to deteriorate. Most immediately distressing are the brutal, lawless methods used by the Haitian security forces and army to impose the will of the junta upon the general population. Amnesty International, Pax Christi, and others have documented over 3,000 political murders and 1,000 disappearances since the coup; more than 2,000 people have been supporters, have caused several hundred thousand people to go into hiding, away from their homes; over 40,000 have taken to the open sea in flimsy boats, in an attempt to find temporary not for a president well behind in the polls. So for the first time in U.S. history, President Bush is returning large numbers of political refugees to an outlaw regime that the United States itself The relentless use of intimidation, extortion, arbitrary arrest, torture and murder ... have caused several hundred thousand people to go into hiding, away from their homes. political refuge in the U.S. Many have drowned. As far as the Bush administra- tion is concerned, it is difficult to see any motives behind its policy toward Haiti and Haitians other than cynical political calculation and racism. Certainly President Bush's May 24 executive order, which returns Haitian refugees ifltprtp( nt c a t Ha iti wiithnti refuses to recognize. The adminis tration has ignored Haitian appeals for a truly effective embargo involving strategic goods; instead; it has supported the leaky Organi- zation of American States embargo which, Haitians charge, harms only the people, not the junta. They add that it is quietly being used to protect American 0