4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 28, 1993
,Cbe £idlJctu ttaiv
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed
by students at the
University of Michigan
JOSH DUBOW
Editor in Chief
ANDREw LEVY
Editorial Page Editor
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board.
All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
Sharp as Toast by Jim Lasser
coTv\. E
LOVE ALL IT
ST sA DS Fo~'
1 A C TPA TINC xAM LE OF
N M-DAWATTITU DE5 ABOUT AMERICA.
insight
Living life on the verge.o adu thooMd
When the back ofmy car slammed
into the Mazda parked behind me, I
heard my adult-
hood crash
aroundmy ears. I
was lucky - I'd-
only been going
about three MPH,<
and there was no
damage (it's
amazing what
they can do withEa
bumpers these PE
days). But it still
left me contem- JeanT 'g"
plating this big thing called maturity.
I'm a first-year graduate student
in psychology, which puts me in a
precarious position where adulthood
is concerned. For all intents and pur-
poses, this identity means that 1) I'm
qualified to teach undergraduates and
am beginning a professional career,
and 2)I don't have a clue how to get
to my next class (I'm sure you've
seen me - I'm the one with the
crumpled campus map who keeps
doubling back every five minutes,
asking where University Ave. is, and
why it's in three places at once). And
as you can see, I'm not too great at
driving, either.
September is the time for these
things - first-year undergrads learn
how to live away from home, seniors
realize that they'll soon have to start
looking for (gasp!) a job, and first-
year grad students start all over, their
B A degrees doing them no good when
they're trying to find the Wendy's in
the Union (where is it, anyway?)
I spent my own undergraduate
Twenge is a Rackham graduate
student. Her column will appear
every Tuesday on the Daily's
editorial page.
years at the University of Chicago,
where in the space of my first week I
learned how to avoid a mugger and
how to call collect to ask for money,
not to mention finding out the details
of most of my dormmates' sex lives
(they had some really cool books,
too).
Money is always one of the big-
gest issues in a first-year undergrad's
life. According to my trusty Ameri-
can Heritage "college" dictionary (the
only kind they seem to make - I've
never been able to figure that out),
definition four of "bounce, v." is
"what college students do with
checks." You know what it's like -
it used to take you a year to save $100
to buy a bike, and to and behold,
here's $1,500 in your checking ac-
count! Never mind that it has to last
all year - that new stereo system
looks awesome, and it's only a third
of the money, after all (As one of my
friends who's perpetually in debt says,
"Don't worry. It'll work out."). Of
course, by April you won't be able to
buy pencils, but hey, it's eat, drink
and be merry, for tomorrow there
might be a midterm (I really should
find out for sure ... I know that sylla-
bus is around here somewhere.)
Whatever you do, don't buy a
very expensive plane ticket to visit
your boyfriend in California over
Thanksgiving when your parents
wanted you to come home and then
ask them for the money for it. Yep,
you guessed it - your favorite bad
driver did this when she was 18. This
is the funny thing about adulthood,
though: that was a very immature
thing to do, yet it was the first thing I
ever did totally on my own, and I
wouldn't change it for the world.
What I might go back and do,
however, is buy a second alarm clock.
At home, the invisible force called
Mom could always be relied upon to
wake you up (this same force is also
why the dirty glasses you left next to
the recliner would always magically
disappear). But unless your mom is
bored enough to call you long-dis-
tance every morning, you're now on
your own. As for going to class, this
isn't high school anymore: it's your
responsibility. Just remember-each
class you miss is worth about $62.50
(by calculations of out-of-state tu-
ition - you in-staters have it easier,
bul you'll pay it all back in taxes
anyway.) And as for the intricacies of
fraternity parties, co-ed dorms, and
why there are three University Av-
enues, Mom can't help you much
there either.
All that I learned at 18, but the last
few weeks have been yet another step
along the road. Not only have I been
busy running into parked cars, but
I've also dealt with furnishing an
apartment for the first time, learning
how to cook, and spending my fel-
lowship money on my cat, Calvin
(whose hobby at the moment is climb-
ing people's bare legs with his claws).
My parents have even suggested that
I look into retirement accounts. Yet I
still sleep until 9:30 every day and
ride my bike to class with my back-
pack slung overmy shoulder. I haven't
yet done formal research into what
Tom Lehrer calls "the attempt to ex-
tend adolescence beyond all previ-
ous limits," but I'm trying. College
and grad school are great for that -
enjoy it while you still can.
And if college starts to weigh you
down and you start to long for the
responsibility-free days of high
school, just remember: at least here
you don't need ahall pass to go to the
bathroom.
House erred in passing casino bill
Daily editorial
trivialiZes growing
fascist threat
To the Daily:
As a member of the Ann Arbor
Committee to Defend Abortion and
Reproductive Rights (AACDARR),
affiliate of the National Women's
Rights Organizing Coalition
(NWROC), I have been helping to
organize Urn versity students to stop
the Nazi/Klan march in Auburn,
N.Y. on September 25 called by the
fascist "USA Nationalist Party."
Your editorial ('The right to free
speech," 9/20/93) criticized our
flyers, which are headlined "All
Out to Smash the Fascists!"
"People shouldn't be persecuted
for their beliefs," "Violence
shouldn't be used to demonstrate
opposition to an opinion, no matter
how offensive," and other such
arguments were made for doing
nothing about the growing fascist.
threat.
Since this is not a question of a
few sick individuals worshipping
Hitler in the privacy of their
demented brains, it is impossible to
pose the question in terms of the
eastern Texas - and more
unpublicized incidents.
We are organizing to smash the
USA Nationalist Party and other
fascist groups because they put
their ideology into action. They
organize to carry out more and
more attacks like these on the road
to their ultimate goal: mass murder
of blacks, Jews, other minorities,
lesbians and gay men, and all
progressive people, and the
smashing of all working-class
organization. We organize to smash
the fascists as a matter of
elementary self-defense for those
who are their targets. We cannot
allow them to march, recruit, and
build their deadly movement.
"When university students run
off to 'smash' a group of people
who are merely exercising their
beliefs, it is hard to differentiate
between them and the Klan." It's a
shame that you can't discern
between the actions of the Klan
who "merely exercise their beliefs"
by lynching black people, and the
actions of black and other
oppressed people who must use any
means necessary to stop them. You
defend the slavemaster from the
slave. You urge your lofty
views that have gone about the
campus tearing down our flyers.
Unlimited rights to plot racist
murder, but no right at all to
organize to prevent it. We
understand your attitude too well.
The continuing economic crisis
will provide the fascists with
growth opportunities among
downwardly mobile white middle-
class youth. The fascists offer false
racist and anti-Semitic myths to
explain the economic crisis. The
fascists can be defeated only by a
militant, integrated, mass civil
rights movement that offers real,
antiracist, working class solutions
to the economic crisis such as black
and white working class unity to
fight for jobs for all at union wages.
But rebuilding such a movement is
inseparably linked to delivering the
fascists tactical physical defeats
now to impede their growth. Hitler
himself recognized that he'd never
have come to power had his fascist
bands been broken up while they
were small.
We of AACDARR/NWROC
will build contingents to join
regional mobilizations against
Klan/Nazi marches in Indianapolis
(Oct. 16); Columbus (Oct. 23); and
0
By JOSEPH F. YOUNG, JR.
I would like to take this opportu-
nity to express my firm opposition to
the actions of the Michigan House of
Representatives on Tuesday, Septem-
ber 21, 1993, where approval was
given to the Tribal-State Gaming
Compact negotiated between the
Governor of Michigan and the repre-
sentatives of the Bay Mills Indian
Community, the Keweenaw Bay In-
dian Community, the Lac Vieux
Desert Band of Lake Superior
Chippewa Indians, the Grand
Traverse Rand of Ottawa and
also lays the groundwork to expand
gambling, particularly casino gam-
bling, in the State of Michigan.
I have always believed that citi-
zens from local units of government,
including the City of Detroit, who
have voted against casinos being lo-
cated in their community, have made
a clear statement on the direction
they have chosen for their commu-
nity. With the approval of this gam-
ing compact, they have lost.
When I took office in January of
1979, casinos existed on Indian Res-
ervation Todav. I still do not he-
I have always felt and supported
the position that self-determination is
a vital fabric to any community's
success. Constructive planning and
positive community ties enhance the
quality of life for friends, loved ones,
and community.
At a time of great need it is unfor-
tunate that the Michigan House of
Representatives has irresponsibly
chosen to abrogate local autonomy
for purposes of self-advancement
under the guise of state government.
People's frustration will exhibit it-
self. in my oninion. the day that an
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