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Page 4 -The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 3, 1992
l e 40Ytl igttn atilu
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.
Michigan should vote for change
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M ichigan voters will go to the polls today to
cast their ballots for the person they con-
sider best-equipped to lead this country out of the
recession and toward a prosperous future. Both
parties agree that Michigan will be the key to
victory, so Michiganders should certainly not be
under the impression that their votes are worth-
less. President George Bush has returned to this
state several times, trying to convince the people
of Michigan that trust and character are the key
issues. They may well be the key issues, but Bill
Clinton- not
the president
- deserves
our trust and
* has proven his
superior char- 3 v
acter over the
president.
Granted,
Clinton is not
the perfect
candidate.
Like it would
with any can-
didate, the
Daily has its
differences in
.opinion. The
Arkansasgov-
ernor could
have saved
himselfquite a
bit of trouble,
for example, by leveling with the American people
from the start about his Vietnam draft status.
But the half-truths, deceptions, covert opera-
tions and the disregard for human and civil rights
that characterized the Reagan/Bush years are far
more pressing than Clinton's attempts to worm his
way out of an uncomfortable situation. The lies
spoken by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bush are
too numerous to list, although we've tried in the
past.
Looking at the track record of recent presi-
dents, Clinton doesn't only pose a viable alterna-
tive, but a pretty good one. Those who recollect
about Clinton's past talk of his compassion for
minorities and the poor, and his efforts to help
them. They talk of his deep and heart-felt opposi-
tion to the. Vietnam War. They talk of his tireless,
albeit often unsuccessful, attempts as the youngest
governor in the United States to make all the
wrongs in Arkansas right again.
Since then, Clinton's political character has
changed. As a first-term governor, few of his pet
projects were implemented. As a resurrected Ar-
kansas political power, Clinton learned the power-
ful lesson of compromise and give-and-take. The
final product is a successful and adept politician.
Many confuse Clinton's political skill with lack
of principle. But Clinton's growth to political ma-
turity has been
marked by
firmstands on
education,
welfare re-
form and job
training.
Clinton's plat-
form to unify
the American
people is in
sharp contrast
homophobic
divisive rheto-
ric of the in-
creasingly far-
right Republi-
can party.
Cy Clinton
emerged after
APPHO the Demo-
cratic conven-
tion with the energy that impresses American's
young voters. Returning Bush to the White House
would only return lethargy, apathy and cynicism to
American politics.
So, let the issues be trust and character. Presi-
dent Bush has blown his opportunity to prove his
worthy of trust and has convincingly demonstrated
his utter lack of character. Clinton offers a far
preferable alternative. No Michiganders should
deceive themselves into thinking the race is over.
The daily network polls show that Clinton main-
tains a varying, yet continuing firm lead. President,
Harry Truman's experience should tell us that polls
are not accurate, and should not be assumed to be a
trustworthy prediction. Michigan's importance in
this election makes its 18 electoral votes that much
more important.
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Sex and the truth
To the Daily:
I am more than a little
disappointed by your recent
editorial entitled "Birmingham
Fights Fundamentalists," (10/27/
92) which supports the Birming-
ham school district's decision to
teach homosexuality. I am an
LSA junior who graduated from
Birmingham Seaholm High
School.
In our required health classes.
at Seaholm, we were bombarded
with messages saying that
premarital sex is fine, if it were
safe. As for sexually transmitted
diseases, abstinence was only
fleetingly mentioned.
It frightens me that in the age
of AIDS, our young students will
be presented with the idea that
homosexuality is a legitimate,
acceptble alternative life-style.
Granted that AIDS is no longer a
"gay disease," but let's face it, the
overwhelming majority of AIDS
patients have in fact contracted
the virus through homosexual
relations.
I must also express distaste for
the manner in which you target
the Michigan Family Forum. To
portray the Forum as a fringe
group of radical fundamentalists
is simply not accurate. The Forum
is a group to be commended for
its action to assist and encourage
the family structure and values
that made our country great.
For you to assert that any
argument declaring homosexual-
ty as immoral is "hardly worth
mentioning" is to close your eyes
to what's really happening in the
world. There are millions of
people throughout America who
believe that homosexuality is
wrong and should not be prac-
ticed. As for your claim that up to
10 percent of the population could
be gay - look at the study that
idea came. from; a sample of men
in prison around the country is
hardly representative of the entire
population. Such propaganda is
extremely dangerous.
John N. Damoose
LSA junior
Constitution is clear...
To the Daily:
There is nothing which makes
me more angry than people who
want to make my decisions for
me. I can respect that there are
some people out there who are
anti-abortion. But that gives them
no right to decide what anyone
else can or cannot do. The pro-
choice movement is not pro-
abortion - it is for a woman's
choice. Even if 99 percent of the
country were pro-life, abortion
should still be safe and legal for
the remaining women so that they
may have the opportunity to make
up their owns minds.
In response to Bridget
Hamilton's use of the Constitu-
tion to support her anti-choice
position ("Rights of the fetus
must be protected," 10/16/92),
that is fine and well but I encour-
age her look more carefully at
what the men who wrote the
Constitution actually wrote. The
...women have
To the Daily:
I would like to take this
opportunity to address a letter
that appeared in the Oct. 16
edition of the Daily's Issues
Forum. Bridget Hamilton
("Rights of the fetus must be
protected,") concludes her
argument by urging us to
"remember the words of our
Constitution," and recall that "all
people are created (not 'born')
equal and granted certain
inalienable rights, the first and
most basic of these being the
right to life."
Ms. Hamilton, if you insist on
quoting the Constitution, please
use words that actually come
from the text. The ideas you refer
to are expressed in the Declara-
tion of Independence, not the
U.S. Constitution.
In referring to the Constitu-
tion, however, it is my opinion
that you have built your own
coffin. The portions that are most
relevant to abortion, the ninth and
fourteenth amendments, have
been consistently interpreted by
phrase she used says "men" and
not "people" and obviously the
writers were not including women
into an all-encompassing "men."
The writers of the Constitution
did not see women as equal to
men because if they still had their
way Hamilton would still be
unable to vote thus, making her
opinion worthless. If women lose
the right to choose it will be a bad
omen for the future of the United
States. After all, if a woman
cannot be trusted to make her own
decisions concerning her own
body how can anyone be trusted to
make such an important choice as
the election of the president?
Personal freedom must be fought
for at every chance because with
the Bush Court tomorrow may be
too late.
Kincaid C. Brown
LSA Junior
right to choose
the U.S. Supreme Court to protect
a "penumbra of privacy" to
paraphrase William Douglas, that
a logical extension of case-history
extends to abortion.
It has been the tradition of
American law not to regard the
unborn as persons, as the four-
teenth amendment implies - a
break of which would violate legal
continuity. It is the opinion of a
majority of legal experts, that laws
prohibiting abortion are a substan-
tive violation of the fourteenth.
amendment's due process clause
and constitute an invasion of the
right to privacy established in
cases beginning with Meyer vs.
Nebraska and culminating in
Griswold vs. Connecticut and Roe
vs. Wade. Ms. Hamilton please
refrain from citing the Constitu-
tion incorrectly when arguing your
position. It does an injustice both
to your credibility as well as that
great charter we rightly call the
supreme law of the land.
Bryan D. Lauer
LSA first- year student
Daily's Election Day endorsements:
President and Vice President
of the United States
Gov. Bill Clinton and
Sen. Al Gore (D)
U.S. Congress, 13th District
Rep. Bill Ford (D)
SMich: Ri nfi: T : u .::":;t;:it;et ~ t~:t;{
:::e. naivs~i~..
52nd District
Mark Ouimet (R)
53rd District
Lynn Rivers (D)
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Supreme CAre they real.
22nd Circuit Court
Jerome Farmer (D)
Laurence Deitch (D)
Rebecca McGowan (D)
xj: :j:
9th District
Grace Shackman (D)
11th District
Dave Monforton (D)
10th District
Christina Montague (D)
12th District
Mari Lou Murray (D)
Ann Arbor District Judge
State Rep. Perry Bullard (D)
Washtenaw County
Prosecuting Attorney
Brian Mackey (D)
The Supreme Court recently
decided that it wasn't the Court's
place to interfere with the forced
rehiring of a sexual harasser. The
justices did not comment on the
Chrysler Corporation's argument
that the lower
court's or
der to re-
hire the of-
fender harms M
Chrysler's ef-
forts to com-
bat sexual ha-
rassment. By upholding the union
arbitrator's argument that the pun-
ishment was too harsh, the courts
have allowed blatant assaults on
women's bodies.
Whether or not harassment took
place was never at issue. Worker
Ronald Gallenbeck grabbed the
breasts of a woman conducting an
inspection at the Beaver Dam plant
in Wisconsin. After squeezing her
breasts, he commented into a phone,
"Yup, they're real." After firing
Gallenbeck, Chrysler received re-
norts of four similar nrevious inci-
agreed to exclude this evidence,
and the courts did not challenge
him. Chrysler must now rehire the
harasser and give him back pay,
minus 30 days salary.
Even if the firing was based on
a single incident, Chrysler was jus-
tified in its decision, because the
harassment was such a blatant and
invasive attack. The arbitrator said
firing would only be justified for
"extremely serious offenses, such
as stealing or striking a foreman."
This reasoning implies that since
the victim was not a foreman of the
worker, she can be attacked with
impunity. Traditionally, when a
woman has suffered sexual harass-
ment in the workplace, her only
recourse has been to leave the job.
Chrysler's resolve to force the of-
fender to do so is far better.
Although the union arbitration
- an arbitrary process -deserves
much of the blame for this breach
ofjustice, the courts' failure to step
in is even more appalling. The fed-
eral district court held that although
"the nublic nolicv against sexual
sion "draw[s] its essence from the
collective bargaining agreement."
This agreement stipulates that an
employee cannot be fired without
"just cause." Essentially, Chrysler's
enforcement of conduct standards
fell victim to the judgment of one
man, the arbitrator. The courts de-
ferred to precedent that had allowed
this before.
Only the Supreme Court has the
power to overturn precedent. Their
judgment not to hear the case means
a majority did not concur that there
was a clear trend of a problem in the
way the courts were interpreting the
law Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 prohibits workplace
conduct which constitutes sexual ha-
rassment, but legal precedents have
undermined the enforcement of this
statute.
One has to ask, if there were
more women justices, or if the inci-
dent involved the squeezing of a
man's testicles, would the Court
have been so complacent? Would a
testicle squeezer have to be rehired
so he or she could be "rehabili-
0
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Proposal A
(Limits annual increases in homestead property
tax assessments and provide separate tax
limitations for different property classifica-
tions.).
Vote NO
Proposal C
(Reduces school operating property taxes and
limits annual increases in all property tax assess-
ments.)
Vote NO
n .U -
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