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 I I I w