*Page 4-The Michigan Daily- Friday, December 11, 1992
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Editor in Chief
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420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
764-0552
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.
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Holiday tip: buy your books
N ext week begins the final exam crunch for
those students whose teachers haven't held
finals early to get a head start on their holiday
sabbatical. Many students have one last chance to
buckle down (unless they prefer to squander the
weekend on snowball fights).
U Many universities have actual study weeks
to allow students to prepare for exams. But Uni-
versity of Michigan knows better. We have a study
day that takes place af-
;ter many professors
schedule their exams,
which encourages stu-
dents to read the mate-
rial they were already{
tested on and figure out
,what they did wrong.
gE But for those stu-
:dents who haven't pre-
pared, and for those
who haven't yet bought
the books, here are
some helpful remind-
ers:
Angell Hall is not
the only computing center. Actually, there are
several on campus. Those students who haven't
figured this out deserve the three-hour wait.
There are libraries on campus for studying.
Many students may prefer to study while watching
CNN, so that they don't miss the media taking
pictures of themselves in Somalia. Nevertheless, a
quiet, Brokaw-free environment is best.
r For those students who prefer some back-
ground noise when studying, they might want to
try one of the local bars or restaurants. There are
less distractions sitting on a barstool at Rick's than
in the Law library these days. While 100 drunken
youths produce a mere monotone blanket of sound,
just two undergrads whispering about Biology in
the reading room can drive a person to insanity.
For those students who would prefer simply to
skip the studying and get on with the holiday plans,
here are some other tips:
Sleep 14 hours a night to catch up on all the
sleep you lost.
Go to the Rose Bowl. A top source within the
Fleming building pos-
tulated that due to
some less than stellar
Michigan football per-
formances, and Wash-
ington State's trounc-
ing of Washington,
there is a decreased
demand for University
Rose Bowl packages.
This year, the Wolver-
ines will beat a subpar
Huskie team.
Use the ride
board. Make "The
KRISTOFFER GILLETTE/Daily Sure Thing" a reality.
Don't take a train. Ever. It will take 17 hours
to get to Lansing. This is even worse if you don't
intend to go to Lansing.
Don't forget to listen to President Bush give
another one of his God-awful speeches about our
Judeo-Christian values when he lights the National
Christmas tree (a mere pagan symbol). Not to
worry, though, January 20th is only two months
away.
This does not mean we don't share those
Judeo-Christian values. We love shopping malls.
Good luck on exams, and have a great
holiday. Go Blue!
,
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'Court ignores Mississippi burden
In the 1980's, the Supreme Court steadily eroded
women's rights to legal abortion. The regres-
sive trend seemed to finally stop with the land-
mark Casey decision, in which the Court reaf-
firmed the Roe v. Wade precedent, albeit in weak-
ened form. Last week, it refused to hear a chal-
lenge to Mississippi's restrictive abortion law,
sending a signal that it will no longer act as a
protector of abortion rights.
Mississippi's law requires women to wait 24
hours before having an abortion, supposedly to be
informed about abortion and its alternatives. In
reality, this allows anti-choice protesters to harass
and intimidate women seeking abortions.
The Supreme Court upheld a similar Pennsyl-
vania law, but hinted that the law was unconstitu-
tional only because it did not impose an "undue
burden" on women seeking abortions.
Trying to have an abortion in Pennsylvania is
not the ordeal it is in Mississippi, however. Missis-
sippi has only three operational abortion clinics,
and many women cannot afford private treatment.
. The 24-hour waiting period not only forces
women to run the gauntlet of anti-choice fanatics
twice, but it restricts abortions to those women
who have time, money for lodging, and access to
transportation. Married women are barred, in ef-
fect, from having an abortion withouttheirhusband's
permission. Teenage girls seeking abortions must
virtually run away from home if their parents do not
approve. The overall effect of the 24-hour waiting
period is to subject society's most powerless women
to the whim of their husbands and parents.
The court's refusal to examine Mississippi's
abortion law means that the Court will not consider
the actual effect of the waiting period. In other
words, the 24-hour wait can never constitute an
"undue burden," however severe the burden may
be.
By stepping away from this case, along with its
decision not to hear an appeal of Guam's abortion
law, the Court is indicating a desire to retreat from
the abortion battleground.
Without question, this represents a considerable
improvement over the Court's previous fervor to
overturn Roe.
Still, the Supreme Court, as the nation's most
powerful institution of law, has a responsibility to
uphold the civil rights of all Americans. As long as
abortion remains legal, the Court cannot turn its
back as women are denied control of their bodies -
in Mississippi or anywhere else.
Never a Daily reporter
when you need one?
To the Daily:
On the morning of Dec. 1, a
27-year-old construction worker
lost his life at a University
construction site on North
Campus. The worker was erecting
the structural steel frame for the
new Francois-Xavier Bagnoud
Building for Aerospace Engineer-
ing when he fell approximately 40
feet to the ground. He apparently
had been sitting on a steel beam
he was installing when the beam,
which was allegedly held in place
only with C-clamps, started to
break free. After the worker fell to
the ground, the steel beam -
which apparently weighed about
800 pounds - landed on him.
The exact cause of the worker's
death is not known pending an
autopsy.
How is it that I know about
this tragic incident which oc-
curred on the University campus?
Unfortunately, I did not read
about it in the Daily. I happened
to notice a story about the
incident in the Ann Arbor News.
That the worker was allegedly
sitting on an improperly sup-
ported steel beam without any
back-up safety system raises
serious questions about the level
of safety at this job site. I guess
that still is not enough to warrant
a trip from a Daily reporter - all
the way up to North Campus.
The Daily seems more
interested in reporting silly
"news" stories from other college
campuses. I hope that the Daily
will focus its future attention on
news which either takes place on
the University campus or directly
affects the University campus and
students.
James LaFave
Rackham graduate student
Bicycle safety
issue not yet resolved
To the Daily:
I would like to clarify
something found in yesterday's
article "U-M to solicit student
input on campus bicycle safety."
The Campus Safety Committee
(CSC) has not proposed any type
of fines, let alone amounts, to be
imposed on bikers who ride
recklessly. At the moment, the
committee is just in the initial
stages of gathering information
on what the bicycle-safety
situation is on campus. After this
is done, we will attempt to come
up with a long list of possibilities
as to what, if anything, should be
done about bikes on campus. The
suggestions of imposing fines is
something that one of the MSA
members came up with in a
personal conversation with me,
and is no way binding on the
committee's decisions.
Joel Strimling
Student Chair CSC
Daily should present
all sides of an issue
To the Daily:
I am writing in response to
your Issues Forum, "Is military
policy on gays, lesbians just?"
(12/4/92).
I think that a forum should
To the Daily:
The Daily editorial team
writes: 'Spending student dollars
to foster a debate is an inherently
positive thing.' This is a some-
what extreme position. I would
have thought the amount of
money spent, and the kind of
debate fostered would have some
relation to an event's inherent
positiveness. For example, if
student government bankrupted
itself bringing speakers to debate
"The merits of racism," I person-
ally, unlike the Daily, would not
find this positive.
I agree that there is a critical
need for debate of both the'
criminal justice system and the
routine practice of police brutal-
ity. I, however, unlike the Daily,
don't believe that torture, beat-
ings, extra-judicial killings, mass
arrests of Latinos and African
Americans and curfews imposed
selectively on poor neighborhoods
- all documented under Gates'
regime in Los Angeles., as the
recent Amnesty International
report clarifies - can in any way
be legitimately defended. Surely a
Gates debate continues...
+
debate on how to end these
practices, rather than one which
provides a platform for their
instigator, would be much more
positive.
I agree with the Daily that it is
unfortunate when some choose to
impose their views on others. But-
who is really being silenced? I,
for one, hardly feel bombarded
by the opinions and feelings of
the growing list of victims of the',
Los Angeles Police Department.
It is more than a little ironic that"
myself, and the other students "
including Ede Fox, who took a
stand against UAC's decision to y
bring Gates to campus, are now
portrayed as silencers. Perhaps all,
students could make a concerted
effort to ensure that every victim.
of the Detroit and Ann Arbor
Police Departments are given a
$10,000 speaker's fee, and a
platform at Hill Auditorium -
though such an effort would
probably bankrupt more than
student government.
Mark Buchan
Rackham graduate studedt
f
..attack on Fox unwarrented.
I
To the Daily:
Do rporters at the Daily have
any sense of journalistic integrity?
Judging by your hatchet job on
Michigan Student Assembly
President Ede Fox ("Students:
MSA pres. misused title," 12/7/
92) - I would think not.
First of all, there are legitimate
reasons for protecting a source
that a reporter quotes. They center
around whether the source has a
legitimate fear of reprisal, such as
being fired or killed, or losing
access to inside information. If
your "RC junior" doesn't have the
guts to say her/his opinion in
public, then you shouldn't print
the quote, just as you don't print
unsigned letters.
Secondly, balance in a story
involves more than merely getting"
quotes from people with different,
opinions on a subject. It requires
getting the whole story in the first.
place. If 150 students, faculty and
staff signed the petition, was Foxy-,
the only one identified by title? {
Certainly not. The convention 2
here at the university is that such'
titles are for identification ,
purposes only. That your story leI
these facts out is highly irrespon-2I,
sible. It seems clear that the
reporter was not reporting, but
attacking. We should expect betted
from our paper.
Hunter Van Valkenbur*l
MSA Vice Presiden
__ ___
U.N. must lead 'New World Order'
he on-going tragedies in Bosnia-Hercegovina
T and Somalia have dragged a reluctant United
States into the post-Cold War world. Predictions
that the U.S. military would no longer be needed
to fight bloody and extended wars, but would
instead be needed to address regional and humani-
tarian crises have proved correct. As thousands of
U.S. troops hit the Somalian beach and the U.N.
Security Council meets to discuss action against
Serbia, the responsibility of the United States and
the United Nations is becoming clear: the protec-
tion of the world's citizens against both natural
and manufactured disasters.
Since the Soviet Union's collapse, there has
been much talk about how the United States should
not be the world's beat cop. Certainly, the United
States hasn't the moral authority to do so. But the
international community came together to form
the United Nations to serve as an international
arbiter, as well as the watchdog of human rights
and the coordinator of humanitarian missions.
Before the Cold War thaw, the United Nations
remained impotent as the United States, the Soviet
Jnion and China vetoed crucial U.N. actions.
U.N. General Secretaries Javier Perez de Cuellar
and Boutros Boutros-Ghali guided the United
Nations to fill portions of the post-Cold War
,,4,v~ 1nmm A e n rPoiilt the Tniti-d ANntinnc'
Nations cannot send peacekeeping or peacemaking
forces without the approval of the interested parties
or host government.
Moreover, U.N. peacekeeping or peacemaking
missions should be only the last resort. Regional
organizations - such as the League of Arab Na-
tions, NATO, the Organization of American States
or the European Community - should act to solve
problems in their spheres of influence before call-
ing for the use of U.N. resources. When such
attempts fail, as in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the United
Nations ought to take action. The United Nations
could employ powerful tools - such as boycotts,
embargoes and sanctions - to coerce governments
who violate the human rights Helsinki agreement
or the sovereign rights of another state into abiding
by accepted standards of behavior.
Naturally, the United Nations would be unable
to complete these duties without the help of the
United States, still the wealthiest and most power-
ful nation in the world. The United States should
make its forces and hardware available to for U.N.
use.
Unfortunately, Uncle Sam has a history of not
participating in U.N. missions because of its reluc-
tance to place U.S. troops under U.N. command. To
maximize the efficiency of the United Nations and
to rneatir i ntnrnntinnnl rPennncihilitit-cthic nrlirv
Heidi Smith's essay and the two
pieces by Representative Patricia
Schroeder (D-Colo.). All of these
are well done and provide insight
to this controversy.
However, I only see one piece
- the Colin Powell letter -
supporting the policy. It can be
argued that the DoD policy is
also offered as support for itself,
but I submit that the policy
should be considered an exhibit
and not an opinion. Because the
policy is the center of the debate,
I think the only purpose of its
inclusion is to inform readers, not
to persuade them.
I do not know how I feel
about this issue, as I agree with
several arguments on both sides.
It is readers like me who need to
see an unbiased presentation of
the controversy so that we can
critically examine our own views.
I hope that, in the future, the
Daily will strive towards this
goal.
Allen Oh
Engineering senior
Daily shows poor taste
To the Daily:
Why is the Daily writing
about Deja Vu? It has nothing to
do with the University and is not
even in Ann Arbor. I found this
article extremely offensive and
revolting, especially the first
paragraph which was not only
because they are also selling thei(m
bodies but for visual sexual
entertainment not physical. These
type of places are filthy, disgust- I
ing and further contribute to the
objectification of women.
Nancy Walk
SA seniC
.*
Senior says good-bye :
.s
to North Campus :
To the Daily:
I figured that everyone else
wrote a letter to the Daily this
semester, so I might as well too.
This is dedicated to all those
undergraduate engineers still out
there.It is a poem entitled, "Good--
bye North Campus."
After four and a half years
I leave North Campus for good.
Can you say "no more classes?" '
I think I could.
I know north too well, s A
I've seen every inch of this place;.
still I wouldn't recognize a dean
if one punched me in the face.
Those tables in the Dow Library
are a little high I think,
north is a college campus
with nowhere to go for a drink. 4
I never got a 4.0,
maybe next time I can hack.
See ya later North Campus,
it'll be a while before I'm back.s,
Jon AlleG"
Engineering senior
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