4 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 10, 1994 E Chigtttt ttiig 'The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is totally meaningless.' --Leo Tolstoy 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan JESSIEHALLADAY Editor in Chief SAM GOODSTFN FuNr WAMESS Editorial Page Editors LITTLE 1ThLL 1 IDlNL5., HOOZ) Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters, and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. MSA: back on it f Huge slate of candidates marks possible MSA renewal loop_ t 40 1 I i 50ME CGOODf-S. . . 1S N&c As this semester's MSA elections, to be held March 22 and 23, approach, the field of candidates is quickly forming, and the're seem to be more options than ever for students. Eight candidates and five parties are running for MSA president and vice presi- dent, and, in total, 80 candidates are running for 24 positions on MSA. The multitude of parties demonstrates a revived interest in our University's student government. Hope- fully this interest on the part of the candi- dates will spark renewed interest and par- ticipation among the student body. MSA suffers terribly from lack of inter- est among most students. Students simply do not care about their student government and know next to nothing about its activi- ties. This is highlighted every semester as student turnout for MSA elections rarely jumps above the 10 percent mark. As candi- dates and parties come and go, MSA has continued to make little difference in stu- dents' lives and, until recently, MSA leaders have made little effort to get students both interested and involved in their organiza- tion. Now it seems that interest in MSA among students is on the upswing as parties repre- senting diverse student interests have come to the forefront. Traditionally, MSA elections have been bipartisan battles between a con- servative and a progressive party. This two- party system limited the number of opinions being expressed within the student govern- ment and alienated many students who sim- ply did not fall into one of two polarized categories. Last year saw the creation of many new student voices, specifically the Keg and Michigan parties. This brought about the beginning of the end of two-party domi- nance in MSA. While voter turnout has not increased substantially in the past year, these new parties initiated a trend that continues into this election. The increased number of parties running for MSA positions ultimately gives students more representation within their student gov- ernment. With a more diverse choice avail- able, more student interests have the potential to be served by MSA. A spectrum of choices and ideas now exists, making it easier for students to find a niche within the broad agenda of their student government. But this will only happen if students take the initiative - and vote in the upcoming elections. Now is a perfect time for students to make a difference in their student government. MSA is literally up for grabs and the future of the University's student government will be de- termined in less than two weeks. We hope the large number of parties will make stu- dents become more aware of relevant issues in trying to decide on who they believe is best for MSA. Students need not be discour- aged by the increased amount of parties running for office, but rather view the situ- ation as offering them more choice and more involvement. Certainly, these new candidates are a positive. But they are only as good as the students who vote for them. It is imperative that students take it upon themselves to vote and to further the revitalized interest that the candidates have already initiated. A response to the Michigan Party platform To the Daily: The Outsider Party would like to respond to the Michigan Party platform for the March MSA elections. Currently the Michigan Party controls the leadership of the student government, Quick research into the success of their last 10 months eludes to the facts of willful negligence concerning the conduct code and the restrictive use of the Diag. This past academic year, there has been zero progress in regaining lost user rights of the Diag and zero amendments to the conduct code. The Michigan Party has recently proposed six amendments to the code which have not yet been heard by the student jurors because of bad weather and a failure of at least 26 of the 50 student jurors to attend the meeting. However, to put things in perspective, why has it taken the Michigan Party over nine months to even propose an amendment? If the reason for their inaction is because the amendment process is complex and does not favor student input, then it would seem that the Michigan Party would adopt a more adamant approach to the code. However, as can be witnessed by all press organizations on campus, the "new" Michigan Party platform - which is five pages long - contains only two sentences concerning the code and only one sentence concerning the Diag policy. It is therefore obvious that the Michigan Party will continue to fall down on the job of representing student rights. Two students have already been suspended from Michigan, but only because a more serious charge of expulsion was successfully appealed. The code is of utmost importance in this election. Students have the right to know how powerful the code is. One notorious rule of the code stipulates that through University ordinances, a student can be sent to jail for 10 days for "throwing-up" on a University bus. These types of shortfalls concern our party greatly. However, we are not in the business of criticism alone; we have a very specific plan to address the code if elected. Our plan has already highlighted 19 amendments to the code which have the chance to pass the student jury board within our first two weeks in office; results the Michigan Party wishes it could point to during this election. Our amendments concern the right to have an attorney speak for the accused no matter who the accuser is. Another concerns the interpretation of "double jeopardy" as only allowing one court system to punish one wrongful act; currently, a student who has punched another student in the face can be severely punished by the University and also be prosecuted by the city of Ann Arbor for assault and battery. (The constitutionality of this has been upheld in many courts because the punishment is to right a wrong to two separate communities.) However, the University is not required to double prosecute; they just like to. In less than 14 days, the students of our great University have the chance to voice their discontent with the Michigan Party and elect a party that has a solid plan to not only restructure the student government but a specific plan to "negotiate" the conduct code. We wish to highlight the fact that our platform, which all press organizations are in receipt of, provides an extensive detailed list of what we would do if elected. In contrast, the Michigan plan provides plenty of rhetoric, no details concerning their ideas, and mainly deals with community service and providing safety lectures to students. The Michigan Party is clearly in disarray and has completely missed the mark concerning the seriousness of the conduct code. Throughout the next 13 days, our party will attempt to' demonstrate how important we feel the code is. We will also attempt to display our high level of organization, our laser focus on important issues, and our genuine desire to provide a strong voice for the students of our great University. TREVOR MOELLER MSA presidential candidate TERI STEINBERG MSA vice presidential candidate Outsider Party War: what it isa good for? I've heard much about war in my lifetime. Since 1975, the year of my birth, the United States has been in the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, an attack on Grenada, an attack on Panama, and a host of "peacekeeping" campaigns. War has an extensive history more confusing than anything imaginable, and the skirmishes the United States has involved us in are but a drop in the bucket compared with the wars fought among countries centuries and millennia past. I question the existence of any positive aspects of war, for I feel it rarely serves any virtuous purpose. War is simply the brainchild of those who love money and power more than they do humanity. Wars are seldom fought on behalf of the common man. Rather, they are forced to fight for countries' leaders who could care less about them. Can the U.S. government justify continuously sending - sometimes even forcing - Black, Native American, Asian and other minority troops to die fighting for the basic human rights of others they and their families are being constantly denied here? And why are ordinary, everyday men more likely to be drafted than snobby sons of senators and corporate lawyers? Are the rich allergic to guns? Do government officials prefer ordering others to fight so that foreign blood won't be spilt on their thousand dollar suits and $500 snakeskin shoes? Manufacturing companies and re-elected politicians are the only true victors of any war. Have you ever considered the thoughts racing through the minds of those on either side of the battlefield who are about to kill - and be killed by - one another? Do they truly hate each other? Or, are they more worried that a foolish battle, part of some asinine war, will separate them forever from their spouses, families and children? If those on both sides of warring factions talked, they'd come to an understandingthat it isn't theirwar; it's their leaders'. In their wisdom, these people would lay aside their guns and go home, leaving those leaders to fight their own damn war. When governments declare war on one another, politicians should be the one's to jump out on the battlefield and kill each other. The side with the most leaders standing wins. This would definitely decrease the number of wars fought as many who call for war are cowards who prefer to let others die on their behalf. Many governments, including our own, try and justify war by labelling it "humanitarian." There has never been anything humanitarian about war. Governments fight wars for money, power and prestige-nothing else. Governments are never by, of, or for the people. How then could governmental wars be for the people? This is not to say that fighting is always wrong. Many times the oppressed have had to take up arms in order to right the wrongs heaped upon them for ages. But, the far majority of wars are fought for very ignoble reasons. War is many times wrong. War is many times unnecessary. War is racist, classist and discriminatory. Those chosen to fight in wars are those who stand to gain the least; those who gain the most from war don't fight. War undermines efforts to increase world peace by making those who should, and otherwise would, love each other hate one another - to the point of murder. 01 Haust conference Universal tragedies underline importance of conference O ver the course of time, those who were victims of the Nazi atrocities will pass away. It is the obligation of the youth of today to remember those who perished and to carry on the message to future generations. In today's world, when neo-Nazism and xenophobia are continually on the rise, when the Western powers have only recently awakened to the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and when more than 25 percent of the American public still fails to recognize the legitimacy of the Holocaust, all of us have an obligation to learn -and to pass on -the lessons of the Holocaust. This can be done during the 15th Annual Conference on the Holocaust spon- sored by the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation and theAnn Arbor Memorial Holocaust Foun- dation. For those who still question some of the truths of the Holocaust, this is an ideal oppor- tunity to learn more about it. The conference begins on March 12 and runs through March 19. The conference is set up not only to teach the lessons of the Holocaust but to teach these lessons in a diverse way. It is important to learn about the Holocaust for a number of reasons. First, it teaches that genocide can occur anywhere. In the 1930s, German society and culture was at the fore- front of the Western world in the fields of science, art and economics. No one would have ever believed that this tragedy could have happened, especially as there were Jew- ish German officers who fought in World War I. Yet, the German people in times of depres- sion gave in to the powerfully persuasive ways of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Holocaust education is important because it teaches us that even in the most socially integrated soci- Hitler can still flourish. Secondly, Holocaust education teaches us about the facts of the Holocaust. Many today deny that the Holocaust ever occurred. But to deny this is to deny the eye-witness testimo- nies of Holocaust survivors, the reports of the International Red Cross, the countless pic- tures and artifacts that still remain and the precise records that the Nazis kept of those who had been exterminated. It is important for students and faculty to learn about the Holocaust because only then will we have the knowledge to refute the lies of Holocaust revisionists. Lastly, Holocaust education teaches us that we have an obligation to watch out for those who are in need. Where were the people of Germany, Poland and other Nazi-con- trolled countries when millions of Jews, Gyp- sies, Catholics, trade unionists and others were being "cleansed?" Why did the world stand indifferent to the horrors of fascism? It is easy to dismiss the horrors of yester- day as the cruel result of a combination of anti-Semitism and economic hardship that could not possibly happen today. But two American presidents, and countless Euro- pean leaders, stood idly by for three years as the sovereign nation of Bosniawas dismantled. Moreover, German unemployment has reached dangerous proportions -approach- ing the pre-World War IIlevels that provided the impetus for the scapegoating of Jews. For the past 50 years since the Holocaust, survivors, community leaders and people of all races and religions repeat the words"Never Again" when referring to the atrocities that occurred under the Nazis. However these words need to be updated: "Never again ... means never ... for any person ... in any Support Men's Gymnastics IA To the Daily: On Saturday night, March 12, the fifth-ranked Michigan Men's Gymnastics team will take their home floor at Cliff Keen Arena, for possibly the last home meet ever. We come into the Michigan Invitational after breaking an all-time school record at Ohio State, and clinching a qualifying spot in the East Regional. The Wolverines are picked to make the NCAA Final Six in Lincoln, Nebraska. Regardless of the success of our team this year, the Athletic Department and your Board of Regents has decided to kill our program, now in its 50th year. The traditions that are dying with this short- sighted decision are disturbance is a cancerous and dangerous one that takes away from the very opportunities the University is here to create. 'Gender equity is a well needed policy to create opportunity for women. Dropping Men's Gymnastics is simply an accounting approach of addition by subtraction to the equity problem, making the numbers look better without benefiting any student. I urge you to support Men's Gymnastics and all non-revenue sports, by voicing your opinion and forcing policy that puts Michigan back to the position as "Leaders and Best." I am sorry to say that right now we lag far behind. Penn State, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Gymnastics, an Olympic sport that needs Michigan's support. This would all be possible if the administration cared in fulfilling our motto as much as the students do. At next year's Big Ten Championship, the Michigan Women's team will be the only team without a men's counterpart, leaving them the sole team unable to participate in the co-ed format. I leave Michigan this spring knowing what it was like to be a part of a successful team and a championship tradition. My younger teammates and friends who have dedicated their lives to take this Olympic sport to a collegiate level deserve opportunity as well. I want to ensure they have the I I I