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Page 4-The Michigan Daily- Thursday, October 29, 1992
OTe Ltrbign ?&ziul
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
764-0552
Editor in Chief
MATTHEW 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.
Return Bill Ford to Congress
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O ne of the most contentious elections facing
Ann Arbor voters this fall is the race for the
13th U.S. congressional district. The Daily be-
lieves that after 28 years of dedicated service, Rep.
WILLIAM FORD (D-Ypsilanti) should be re-
tained by his new constituents in Washtenaw
County.
Thanks to redistricting, Ann Arbor, which has
elected Republicans for more than 20 years, will
have the opportunity to elect a Democrat. Ford,
one of the more important members of the House,
is the Chair of the House Education and Labor
committee, responsible for federal appropriations
for the nation's universities.
As committee chair, he was the principle author
of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act of
1992. This act ensures that parents can borrow
what they need to meet the full cost of a college
education and expands financial aid to older and
part-time students. This is one of the most impor-
tant pieces of legislation - especially to college
students - passed during the 102nd Congress.
Ford also authored the Family and Medical
Leave Act of 1991 (killed by a presidential veto),
which would allow employees in large-size com-
panies and small businesses 12 weeks of unpaid
leave each year to care for any family member or,
for the employee's own medical treatment. This is
a concrete example of his dedication to family
values, which is in sharp contrast to the faulty
rhetoric of the Republican party.
Ford's opponent is State Sen. Robert Geake (R-
Northville). Geake has been running on a platform
that includes strong support for the reactionary
Human Life amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
which would impose a criminal ban on all abor-
tions, except for those conducted to save the life of
the mother.
In addition, Geake doesn't feel that any major
investment or jobs programs are necessary to get
the economy moving in the right direction. Rather,
sharply reducing taxes - primarily on the wealthi-
est two percent on Americans - is the only plan
Geake considers necessary to jump start the
economy. Moreover, he regards entitlement pro-
gram as an expendable part of the government's
budget. This is trickle down economics, and the
current economic situation is testimony to its fail-
ure. To send a Republican whose primary concern
is to cut taxes on the wealthy to the House would be
a grave mistake.
Ford has been working to pass legislation that
would create jobs in Michigan to rejuvenate the
economy. He co-sponsored the Urban Aid Bill, a
$27 billion aid package to U.S. cities. In addition,
Ford has introduced legislation to reform the health
care system. As a member of the House, he has,
time and again, displayed his concern for easing
domestic social problems and in finding legislative
solutions that won't increase the deficit.
Removing Ford from office would cost this
state and the University a powerful and highly
effective voice in Congress. By returning him to
Washington, voters can insure that progressive
social and educational goals remain in capable
hands.
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Don't use Holocaust Maoncoephttsels
and slavery atrocities To the Daily: in the store that allowed minors to
.I believe that a solitary view it freely. When a friend
To the Daily: university-daily paper should phoned the Daily to give his
As a Jew, I was deeply express all perspectives in its opinion, an editor replied that no-
offended by Bridget Hamilton's efforts to uncover the facts. This one else was complaining. To add
letter ("Rights of the fetus need to does not appear to be so in the insult to injury the editor then
be protected" (10/16/92). The case of The Michigan Daily. It mockingly pointed out, that in
suggestion that "pro-abortion endorses a single political party addition to this controversial
mentality is as prejudiced as that and represents only particular picture, the Daily had placed a
of slave owners and the Nazis"opinions.Bible in the same photograph.
desecrates the memory of the The Daily's apparent align- I suggest that the Daily doesn't
untold millions, Jews and non- ment with the secular and liberal only desire to promote secular and
Jews alike, who were murdered perspectives seems to be in liberal agendas, but also it
by the Nazis, and the Black slaves contradiction though, with the encourages the deterioration of
who died in bondage. appearance of the nude photo of fundamental Judeo-Christian
The proposition that a fetus is Madonna on its front cover (10/ values. A few decades ago the
a human being from the moment 23/92). Surely, your feminist- media chose not to display even
of conception is not supported by activists counterpart would be an uncovered navel. Now there is
Jewish law, by the English- outraged by this debasing and no point at which it will stop by
common law or by U.S. Constitu- chauvinistic portrait in an allied choice. Where will today's media
tional law. To equate a principled paper. draw the line (if it can draw
belief in the basic right of people Also, it seemed inappropriate anything straight)? Where does
to control their own bodies with to only display such a controver- the Daily really stand? Or, like
the systematic and heinous denial sial photo without even some certain politicians, do you just
of that right is a staggering and editorial comment on its social straddle the winds of popular
offensive error in logic. impact. For example, there could opinions?
As a Jew, and the member of a have been some remark about the David Twede
religious minority, I find any choice of placement of this book Rackham graduate student
attempt to restrict the rights of the
citizens of a free country frighten- Vo e s h ul n tbed c i d
ing. I am equally frightened byters should not e e eived
the inability of many "pro-life"
advocates such as Ms. Hamiltion To the Daily: Abraham Lincoln-John
to engage in the reasoned dis- I would like to give a short Breckridge debate, which oc-
course demanded of the citizens analysis of the Presidential curred during a time of great
of a democracy. It may be debates. First, the Constitution unrest in this country was an open
possible to make a reasoned states the Electoral College has debate. This insured more
argument against abortion. Ms. the responsibility to determine integrity and honesty for the
Hamilton, however, has not who will be the next President of people.
provided one. She has only the United States. The Electoral As far as the National Debt is
demonstrated the triumph of College is made up of just a two concerned, don't fool yourselves.
irrational emotion over factual party system. Perot is a candidate, The current politicians are
research and logical reasoning. yet it is unlikely that the College partially responsible for this debt.
would ever elect him. Popular We should not continue to borrow
Jeffery Dine votes are irrelevant because the against the futures of America's
First-year Law student College ultimately determines children.
who the President will be. It is All the campaign promises will
The Daily encourages its read- easy to see'why there is so much not be kept, so don't be that naive.
ers to voice their opinions. All let- apathy in the voting process when A President is just an elected
ters should be150 wordsor less. All in reality we don't necessarily official and is only a good as his
op-ed pieces should not exceed choose the president. Congress. Our president cannot
3,000 characters. Sendsubmissions I feel that the debate, having pull out miracles for that will take
to The Michigan Daily, 420 been controlled by monitors and us all.
Maynard, Ann Arbor, MI 40109. specific questions, short changed
Or via MTS: The Michigan Daily: Americans. We should have an Col. Charles D. Tackett
Letters to the Editor, open Presidential debate. The Ann Arbor, Mich
MSA: Can you spell boycott?
01
Electoral College: an anachronism
S
0
O nce again, Americans will go to the polls and
vote in a presidential election that is demo-
cratic only so far as the goodwill of the wholly
undemocratic Electoral College permits. What
seems to be an accepted procedure for electing a
president is only a complicated mess that the
framers of the Constitution developed to create an
electoral buffer between the White House and the
American people.
When voters go to the polls, they don't actually
cast their votes for the president, but for a slate of
electors to be sent to Washington to choose the
president. Depending on the state, the electors are
usually not obligated to vote with the state's popu-
lar vote.
For instance, if the Republican slate is elected
in Michigan, the electors may go ahead and cast
their electoral votes for Gov. Bill Clinton. The
mechanism was constructed to make sure the
president would be chosen by informed and wealthy
aristocrats, who could disregard the popular vote if
they deemed it necessary.
Moreover, whoever receives the majority of the
popular vote (in all but two states) receives all of
the state's electoral votes. If Clinton receives a
single popular vote more than Bush in California,
for example, Clinton will receive all 54 electoral
votes. This all-or-nothing method institutionalizes
the two-party system and marginalizes minority
voting blocs.
The Electoral College does enable third parties
to create solid voting bases in which to influence
the election, but this advantage can unfairly throw
an election. Three times in the history of the United
States (in 1824, 1876 and 1888), the Electoral
College hays elected a president with fewer popular
votes than one of his opponents. In addition, some
electors have cast their electoral vote for someone
other than their state's popular-vote winner -
most recently, a Ford elector voted for Ronald
Reagan in 1976.
To illustrate the continuing danger of the Elec-
toral College, Clinton's popularity has fallen dur-
ing the past week, while he has solidified his
standing in key states, representing a near-majority
of the electoral votes.
The Electoral College is an anachronism, cre-
ated in an era when the concept that the people
should pick their leaders was still a controversial
proposition. Unfortunately, it may take a disastrous
usurpation of the popular vote to spur an elimina-
tion of the Electoral College. Until then, democ-
racy in America will carry on, despite this outdated,
elitist system.
Bush's campaign igores reality
President Bush hailed the 2.7-percent growth in
the .nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
as a sure sign of economic recovery. The 2.7 figure
was surprisingly high, considering an average
growth of less than 2 percent during the previous
four quarters. Both the president and his campaign
spokesperson insistthat the
new GDP growth figure
shows that things really
aren't all that bad - or as
bad as Democratic oppo-
nent Gov. Clinton insists.
Bush must take the Ameri-
can people for fools. New
England states and Califor-
nia are suffering from near-
depressions, and the presi-
dent campaigns on feel-
good rhetoric.
While the GDP did grow
at a higher rate than ex-
pected, the average rate of
growth since the end of
World War II has been 6 percent- Bush's average
is 0.8 percent. Workers' wages increased the year
endino ent .30 at the lowest rate since 1987.
the world worse off than Americans.
Vice President Dan Quayle tried to fool
Nightline's viewership Tuesday night by produc-
ing a chart showing that the U.S. economy is bigger
now than it has been in the past. Quayle must think
that late-night news viewers are idiots. The U.S.
economy always grows.
Naturally, it would be big-
ger today than ever before.
Clearly, the president has
yet to learn good campaign-
ing. Early in the primary
season, the president finally
admitted that the economy
and the American people
were suffering, and traveled
around the country apolo-
gizing for his poor perfor-
mance. However pathetic
Bush may have looked, he
managed to soften the det-
rimental effects of the ul-
AP PHOTO tra-right Pat Buchanan
onslought.
Now, Bush has switched tactics. Rather than
anoloizina for the economy.Bush now attacks the
In case you happen to be one of
the 35,000 students who forgot to
attend the last meeting of the Michi-
gan Student
Assembly,
I thought
I'd bring JONATHAN
you up to
date. The I
following
is an ex-
cerp ted
version of a
resolution proposed last Tuesday
by MSA President Ede Fox:
WHEREAS Ann Arbor and
University police have maced and
teargassed University students on
several occasions over the last five
years;
WHEREAS there have been no
ground rules for safe celebrations;
WHEREAS neither the city nor
the University provide facilities for
mass celebratory events the students
are forced to go to bars to celebrate;
WHEREAS approximately six
students a month are arrested for
shoplifting;
WHEREAS, these students are
arrested on the assertation [sic] by
merchants that a crime has been
commited [sic]
WHEREAS students spend at
least $1000 dollars a year a piece in
Ann Arhor on food, hars, clothes.
mend that students spend their,
money outside of the downtown
area if our concerns with parking
and the police are not satisfactorily
resolved.
BE IT RESOLVED, the Michi-
gan Student Assembly present this
resolution to the City Council of
Ann Arbor at its next meeting.
BE IT RESOLVED, this reso-
lution-be presented to the Ann Ar-
bor Merchant Associations (South
University, State Street, Main Street
and Kerrytown).
Sincevoter turnoutatMSAelec-
tions hovers around 8 percent, and
the image of our student assembly
is so low on campus, I do not want
to be too harsh on Ede's resolution.
Instead, I would first like to point
out one of the positive aspects of
this resolution:
Virtually all of the words were
spelled correctly.
Sure, some of you English teach-
ers and critics would point out that
three of the words were, in fact,
misspelled. Rather than dwelling
on these, however, I would like to
recognize just a few of the many
words that were spelled correctly:
"Whereas," (which was spelled
correctly every time) "narkine."
not saying that shoplifting is wrong.
I think we can all agree that mer-
chants have absolutely no right to
arrest students merely because they
tried to steal goods. But a total boy-
cott because of six lousy arrests per
month? Maybe we should start off
with a partial boycott, then consider
more drastic steps if Ann Arbor
merchants continue this blatant vio-
lation of student rights.
Another small flaw in the reso-
lution is that it urges students to
boycott Ann Arbor merchants be-
cause we were teargassed by Ann
Arbor police. I realize that it's easy
to confuse the two. Maybe we should
even boycott Ann Arbor merchants
just in case they were thinking about
teargassing us. A little preventative
boycotting could never hurt. But I
don't see how this would get the
message across to the police.
Also, and maybe I'm nit-picking
here, but if we do boycott all Ann
Arbor merchants, where will we get
food? Sure, we could all order out-
of-town pizza three times a day, but
the delivery would take such a long
time. And I suspect thatpizza deliv-
eryjoints outside of Ann Arbor don't
allow shoplifting, either. If we want
to be fair, we'll have to boycott
them, too, and grow our own food.
Now to be fair, I should point out
that MS A did not nass this resni-
r