4- The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 18, 1993 ~Ije £bidgn &aigl 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JOSH DUBow Editor in Chief SAM GOODSTEIN FLINT J. WAINESS Acting Editorial Page Editors 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. 2:SURE NMEEE DmfPqA V C. MZ T WAS5 hUNC.Y yt AIDS Awareness Week U AIDS is an issue that affects all students Today marks the beginning of AIDS Awareness SWeek. Cosponsored by the University and the city of Ann Arbor, this week is designed to bring the issue of AIDS to the forefront of people's minds and hearts -in our community and in the world around us. Activities include exhibits, performances, lec- tures, discussions and workshops, spanning the cam- pus from the Union to Bursley Hall. Some resent the idea of an AIDS Awareness Week. They see AIDS as an issue solely of gay men, or of drug users, or prostitutes. To these individuals, leading "moral" lives, AIDS seems a foreign issue, as remote to them as the war in Bosnia or the famine in Somalia. In our protected world of Ann Arbor, it is very easy to feel that nothing dangerous -espe- cially not a horrifying, deadly disease such as AIDS -can touch us. Yet in reality, this is far from true. According to University Health Services, 20 percent of people infected with the HIV in this country are in their twenties. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control estimates that for every 1,000 college stu- dents, there are 2.3 HIV-positive individuals. What this statistic means to us is that there are approxi- mately 80 people walking around the University of Michigan who live with AIDS every day. These 80 are male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, and come from all different socioeconomic and racial.backgrounds. There is no single profile. They are part of us, students just like any others, yet with one major difference: they know that AIDS can touch anyone's life. Even for those who recognize this fact, AIDS Awareness Week may draw objections - yet on entirely different grounds. Many students, fresh from sex education classes in high school and "aware- ness ads" on television and "Safer Sex" workshops in their residence halls, feel they already know everything there is to know about AIDS. Their most common reaction, when told of an event or work- shop, is "again?" They begin to tune out, thinking there is nothing more to be said about the issue. This too is a mistaken attitude. It is true that if classes and workshops have been effective, students will know how to practice safer sex and to prevent AIDS. Yet prevention is only a small part of the story. This week is dedicated to all facets of the AIDS issue, focusing as much on the individual as on the community as awhole. Few sex education classes cover "Taking Care of People With AIDS," awork- shop on Thursday night, or study "The Individual's Response to AIDS," a collection on display at the Graduate Library. Clinical knowledge is essential and good - but it does not exist in a vacuum. To ignore the political, social, and emotional aspects of AIDS is as much a denial as refusing to learn about prevention. Education at the University comes from many sources, most of them outside of the classroom.' AIDS Awareness Week is one of the best examples of this. Events are running all week, at all hours of the day. To go to one of the events this week takes very little effort on the part of most students, for very great rewards - not only greater knowledge but greater feeling and compassion for this issue. In short, greater awareness. Opposition is not discrimination American hypocrisy Clinton's policy on China needs to be rethought The recent explosion of a nuclear warhead in U China reaffirms the need for the international community to exert political pressure on the Chinese government to shape up. A direct message must be sent by all international powers, especially the United States, that China's rampant human rights abuses, weapons proliferation and especially nuclear prolif- eration must be halted. The explosion ruins hopes for a global testing moratorium proposed by President Clinton and rep- resents a serious step backwards in the struggle to begin the process of shifting toward a nuclear-free world. But the Clinton administration could have responded to the disturbing actions of the Chinese in several different ways. The most prudent course of action would be for the administration to lead by example. Instead, in typical American fashion, Clinton decided to lead with threats. If China is going to test nuclear weapons, then the administration decided it was also going to get ready to continue nuclear testing. Somehow, this is supposed to en- courage China to follow suit. It won't. The United States is acting hypocritically. For example Russia has a significantly cleaner record on nuclear weapons' testing than the United States does. are a few that would be much more productive than simply continuing the Clinton policy of two wrongs equalling a right. The most recent international message sent to China was the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to award the 2000 games to Sydney, Australia over the high bidders in Beijing. This was a solid move by members of the IOC and it served to show that the rest of the world was solidly opposed to China's continued imprisonment of purely politi- cal prisoners and its dismal record on nuclear prolif- eration. But this act must be seen in its proper context. It was a small step and will not, acting alone, encourage China to open up its political system. Revoking China's Most Favored Nation status with the United States, on the other hand, is a weapon which the United States could use to encourage China to change its status quo policies. But Chinese politicians know, however, that the United States would never rescind most favored nation status due to the economic interests associated with the worlds largest untapped market. As usual, economic inter- ests have become distanced from human rights abuses and the encouragement of nuclear nonproliferation. In light of past and recent transgressions by the Chinese government, the explosion of a nuclear warhead seriously points toward the need for US politicians to get serious. The time has come to find a way to pressure the Chinese government to cure its recent rash of human rights and nuclear weapon abuses without furthering American hypocrisy. To the Daily: The boycott of Colorado as proposed by the QLSA (Queer Law Students Alliance) is illustrative of several typical misconceptions by both gay individuals and "civil-rights activists" in their political agenda. All too often the gay-rights lobby seeks to cloud the real issue behind the opposition of the gay platform by using bogey-words such as "discrimination" and "homophobe" to silence critics. As an example to this point, the QLSA condemns Colorado for "discriminating" against gays with the passage of Amendment 2 in November. How can Amendment 2 be discriminatory? It merely states that there is no need for special legislation to protect the civil rights of homosexuals. But those of us who oppose the acceptance of homosexuality as an "alternative lifestyle"-surely we are guilty of discrimination? I suppose the answer will depend on how exactly we define discrimination. Is the refusal to accept deviant behavior as normal discriminatory against the deviant? Or is it the realization that there are "moral imperatives" which remain fixed and constant -and the refusal to alter one's convictions because they may be politically inconvenient orunsettling? If the opposition of homosexuality for moral or rational reasons is to be considered discriminatory then let's at least be consistent. We must also recognize (and vigorously oppose) the discrimination against smokers by non-smoking policies in restaurants and on airplanes, against drinkers by policies in the University bus system and in the dorms, against drug addicts and alcoholics, rapists, murderers and pedophiles in our legal system. The use of discrimination to describe opposition is truly unfortunate because it trivializes the very real cases that exist. Perhaps that's what makes the irony behind the Daily's espousal of the gay rights cause on campus all that more striking. After demanding an end to the "intimidation" of gays on the University campus, the Daily shows equally avid support for the ultimate form of discrimination-abortion. Hmmm. JOHN SCHAUBLE LSA sophomore Christian organization who thinks and does likewise concerning the new Regents' Bylaw, is in sharp deviation with the second of the greatest commandments: "love your neighbor as yourself." (Mt 22:39) I would also like to inform all of your readers that despite the rather vocal opinions of the Religious Right, not everyone believes that being a homosexual is a sin. In fact, this is not even an all-encompassing interpretation among traditions under the Judeo-Christian paradigm. Please do not assume that people that throw around the word "Christian" in such a loose manner, and then do not follow the principals entailed, are examples true for all Christians. JOSHUA SNYDER LSA Junior Too much emphasis is placed on research To the Daily: We read your editorial on "Publish or perish?" (9/28/93) with great interest. While your assessment of the value given to teaching in considerations of promotions and tenure may have been accurate in the Physics Department, it is somewhat removed from that in the College of Engineering. In recent discussions between a colleague and his Department Chairman on a tenure recommendation, the Chairman explained to our colleague that classroom teaching was simply not considered relevant to promotion/ tenure decisions any more. The Chairman's justification was that one naturally grew tired of teaching courses after having done so a few times, and consequently, only qualities like research into teaching and course development were considered as teaching contributions of value in promotion/tenure decisions. For the Chairman who aspires to be a Dean, and can get away with this attitude, excluding any recognition for classroom teaching while exclusively rewarding other things (predominantly securing research funding) is a rational action. Spectacular increases in Department funding a Chairmanship are often required credentials for appointment as a Dean, for whom many of the principal expectations concern fund- raising abilities. As long as this attitude is tolerated at Universities, this kind of action will remain rational and the decline in teaching will continue. CONCERNED MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FACULTY they cannot do anything either. The University has a contract with the federal government to run the program. Besides, the University will not give up the millions of dollars it receives from the government, because of a policy neither they nor ROTC can change. Moreover, even before the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was in effect, *% no one was ever denied participation in ROTC because of sexual orientation. If that person so desired, they could take ROTC classes. They just could not gain a federal commission as per federal regulation mandated by Congress. Even your basic facts about ROTC are incorrect: ROTC does not recruit 70 percent of the military. According to Department of Defense statistics, ROTC last provided the military with 67 percent of its new officer corps. ROTC, as per its name, is a Reserve Officer's Training Corps. It is responsible for training new officers only. Therefore, it does not train the enlisted force which makes up the bulk of the military. Also, I am curious as to why most of the great things about ROTC go either unnoticed or are not reported with the same zeal as the homosexual issue. ROTC regularly has blood drives, donates time and money to charities such as Safehouse and the Ronald McDonald house, volunteers to work at the Big Ten Run, food and toy drives for the needy, and visiting patients at the Veteran's Hospital around holiday l time. These are just a few of the many wonderful community activities that ROTC performs. Moreover, the cadets and midshipmen love doing these activities. Do any of the organizations that take such pleasure in chastising ROTC, such as the ACLU, Queer Action and the Lesbian Gay Male Bisexual Program Office, for a policy they have no. control over, participate in any community activities that even compare to the ones above? Yet, every time they whine to the University about anything frivolous, it is front page news to you. There are many people out there, like myself, who know the truth and will no longer accept the lies that are reported by a very biased medium. * MAT HOFFMAN z Nursing Senior Burden is on Smith After wading through Bradley Smith's diatribe on the Holocaust ("Museum Lacks Evidence of Genocide" 10/6/93), Iwas hard pressed to find answers to the following: Exactly why is Smith so intent on proving that the Holocaust did not happen? An extreme form of denial, perhaps? What is he afraid of? And what kind of proof does he want? Pictures of a gas chamber in action? No one actually photographed the atomic bomb going off over Hiroshima -not from the ground, that is. So we don't really have proof that the Bomb killed all those people,* if we were to satisfy Smith's requirements. (We don't have proof that gravity truly exists, either. Mr. Smith, simply given the eyewitness accounts of the camps - from the victims or from the soldiers 0 m The options 'left for the world community to pursue in order to censure China are few, but there The Religious Right ROTC is inaccurately, does not speak for all portrayed by media Christiansp Campus 'Qu By JASON HACKNER This is a message to all campus queers (oh, and straight folks as well): Last month the Regents voted seven to one in favor of adding sexual orienta- tion into the University's non-discrimi- nation code. The vote was a major victory for the campus Queer commu- nity and indeed for the entire Univer- sity community as well. This event came as the result of years of work by community and University activists. After 20 years of debate, the "liberal" eers need to unite coming visible. Why, even on our "lib- eral" campus there was a storm of controversy less than a year ago when the Lesbian-Gay Male-Bisexual Pro- grams Office (LGMBPO) was in dan- ger of being closed (Associate Dean of Students Affairs Carter denied any moves to close the LGMBPO). The next question is "what's next?" How will the University follow up on this historic move by the regents? Given the University's track record in regards to progressive reform, it the vote will usher in a new era at the University: Where the LGMBPO will finally receive an adequate budget to do the kind of functions other major university LGB offices perform; where the Office of Multicultural Initiatives can drop its practice of institutional heterosexism and truly embrace the issues of queer people of color; where the University --in its role as leader and innovators in the national academic community - will create a Gay and Lesbian To the Daily: I am very tired of conservative Christians pretending to speak for all Christians always and everywhere concerning religious opinions on the issue of homosexuality. As a; religious liberal, I think that their interpretation of Christian doctrine sorely misses the mark of the1 universal love for all humanity, so central to that religion. In the article printed last Thursday, Oct. 7, the President of To the Daily: I am writing in response to your article on Oct.1 about homosexuals in the ROTC. As you mentioned in your article, this is not a new debate. Therefore, it still disturbs me that after all these years you still have not reported the truth; even though it is public information and the Daily has been informed about the truth several times. It is no wonder you have the local gay rights activists making statements that they want to change things within the ROTC system.