4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 11, 1994 UJ ,ie idYitgn dIg 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. RL ~M Souhe s one-ay A train that only travels one-way4 0 As the train pulled out ofAnn Arbor I watched this pe- culiar world of ideas and learning. fall away behind me. Within 15 minutes the- University's cof- fee shops, book- stores, and inher- ent youth yielded to the normal ex-J T istence we all en-H ter as we go home for break, back into the real world. Outside the window the small towns of southern Michigan roll by; indus- trial smoke rises from factories with broken windows as men with lunch pails walk slowly home. Abandoned cars sit in backyards and piles of rust- ing metal are scattered everywhere between the patches of brown grass. Children's construction paper Santas decorate the windows of the trailer houses, and there is a swing set in every backyard. On the way to O'Hare the fine grains of snow blow like the cold mist of a dream over the gray highway. In the terminal the sound of "Jingle Bells" jazzicized on a saxophone drifts through the corridors, and I accept the homeless musician's nod of gratitude as my coins clink in the black felt of his instrument case. On the plane the flight attendants come by peddling warm nourishment in neat white packages wrapped in pro- tective plastic; when I am done I pass it away as we pass away all of our trash, without a single thought as to where it will go now. The plane begins to descend over the sprawl of suburban Dallas, the streetlights in the mall parking lots making fuzzy yellow circles on the pavement far below, each separated from the other by an arch of gray and darkness. I spot the area amusement park below, its tall tower an unmistak- able star of Bethlehem, just waiting for the wise men and their paper money to come, bearing gifts of plastic keychains and pens with boats in them back to their children. My mother is there to meet me at the gate, wearing a sweatshirt decorated with green holly and red berries. My father and grandfather accept half-hugs from me reluctantly, looking down at their brown shoes. We walk to claim my baggage as always; my grandfather asks me if it was this cold in Milwau- kee, and I remind him that I live in Michigan. I do not add that I have never been to Milwaukee. They drive me home in my grandfather's car, which after two years still smells of chewing tobacco and distant, dusty farms. I go into my room which is no longer really my room and put my bags on the meticulously clean rugs. From the bed with the starched sheets and sham pillows I can see the perfect Christmas tree with the perfect presents underneath; in the living room my father and grandfather sit down to watch yet another rerun in silence. The next day the ring of the phone lifts me out of sleep, the insistent sound harsh against the fuzzy transom of my mind. It is an ex-boyfriend of mine, one I'd talked of marrying years ago. He asks if I have plans for the day; I tell him he's welcome to come Christmas shopping with me if he wants. As I wait for his father to drop him off I tell my grandfather about my cat; he tells me I should have a dog because then I could go hunting. The doorbell rings and I greet my long-haired ex-boyfriend, consciously turning off switches in my head as I hug him. I ask him if he's proposed to his girlfriend, the woman who he cheated on me with once. He describes their trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea - the hotel on the beach, the natural rock formation they stood under, how he asked her@ marry him. I ask him what the engage- ment ring was like, all the time remem- bering our own trip to the jewelry store three years ago, ascertaining ring sizes. and trying on diamonds. It was the first time I'd ever slipped a ring onto my left hand, and also the last. We drive to the mall, stopping as my ex-boyfriend leans out the window and takes a picture of a pickup tru6 with a Bush '92 bumper sticker an large red letters proclaiming "Jesus Saves." We enter a busy department store, trying to find the exit to the mall. But the winding paths lead only to the mirrored and glass perfume counter; stymied twice this way, I remark that I hate these stores because you can never see the way out. I had meant it matter-of-factly, yet as I watch the people around us su rounded by colorful shopping bags, I realize that they don't know a way out exists. Two weeks later I'm back on that train in southern Michigan. It is like a train between two worlds - between the factories and the classrooms, the children on the swing sets and the single people at the coffeeshops, the material culture of the mall and the discussion of ideas. I've always been sure I was heading in the right direction, but as I watch the little girl wave to the train from the carseat I can't help but won- der just a little. Dropping the ball on NATO U Clinton's refusal to allow Eastern Europe in is wrong With a host of polemic issues confronting Presi- dent Clinton at the NATO summit, one above all stands out: the administration's decision to quash former Soviet-bloc Eastern European nations' desire to become members of NATO. Critical to the long- term security of the United States, administration members have made a mockery of just that. Leaders of East European nations have even joked that in order to get NATO membership they would best call on Moscow instead of Washington. While a case can arguably be made to block; immediate admittance, the decision to appease Mos- cow by creating vague requirements for "possible" membership stand as a serious threat to shoring up Eastern Europe and freeing them- once and for all - from Soviet dominance and undue influence. ME. Throughout the adoption of Perestroika and Glasnost under Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, during the mid-to-late 1980s, the Soviets continued to extend a great deal of influence over Eastern European domestic and foreign issues. This was principally accomplished through the maintenance of a large number of Soviet troops and Soviet aid. But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its collective economy, troops and aid were no longer available as tools of foreign policy, allowing East-bloc states to rebel and ultimately throw off repressive Communist governments. In the wake of its "satellites" spinning out of its control, a broken economic infrastructure and a loosely confederated group of Soviet states came apart at the seems. The Ukraine refused to place nuclear weapons under a single centralized author- ity. Numerous ethnic conflicts threatened to boil over into over republics and the Bush administration privately muttered that the former Soviet Union could become not unlike the former Yugoslavia. Jump ahead to Jan. 1994. Yeltsin has been weak- ened by a strong showing of ultra-nationalists - nearly one-quarter of the electorate favoring them -- who are headed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a leader who calls for Russian expansion to the Indian Ocean and re-occupation of the Baltic states. The Clinton administration has ignored the re- quests of Eastern Europeans to set a timetable and requirements for membership. The joint military exercises do not go far enough to dislodge the Eastern Europeans from the sphere of Russian influ- ence. Russia - liberals and conservatives alike - have a vested interest in maintaining influence over Eastern Europe for security and economic reasons. To assume any less is shortsighted. But Russia interests do not merit its extreme pressure and threats made on the Baltic states and other former satellites who desire membership and protection before Soviet expansionism rears its ugly head once again. The United States has a unique opportunity to prevent this. Put simply, it must not allow a historic opportunity to pass. A complex entanglement of issues face NATO. The status quo-plus "Partnership for Peace" puts off critical decisions for another day. A historic oppor- tunity to "destroy the old boundaries awaits" as Vice President Al Gore put it. To short shrift true reformers to appease the unappeaseable smacks of the failures of Munich and another lapse in American leadership. Without the fans, where is sport? By ANDREW LEVY What happened to Nancy Kerrigan at Cobo Arena in Detroit last Friday was the inexcusable act of a crazed fan. Whoever did it should be found and put in jail. What happened to Monica Seles at a tennis match in Germany last spring was the inexcusable act of a crazed fan. The man who did it should have been put in jail. But not all fans are crazed. In response to the Kerrigan incident, New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica commented on Sunday's edition of ESPN's "Sports Reporters." He said, among other things, that this incident (and those like it) reflect an increased sense on the part of fans that they are involved in the sport - more than just mere spectators. As evidence of this, he pointed out the rise of sports talk radio programs, references to the "12th man," and the increasing influence of fans on the hiring and firing of professional coaches. And, Lupica argued, it is this sense of involvement that leads fans Levy is a recent LSA graduate and is editorial page editor of the Daily. to try to take a more active role in sports - thrusting themselves into the limelight by stabbing at or attacking the athletes. Well, I may not be as good a writer as Mike Lupica, but I have been around long enough to know that - in this case - he is wrong. Fan involvement is the one thing that keeps sports alive in this day and age. As best I can define modern sport, it is an exhibition or showcase of athletic talent as applied in competition. I'm not talking about six guys in a gym playing three-on- three basketball, I'm talking about the kind of sport Lupica writes about - the sport we see on television and read about in the newspaper. So if sport is an exhibition or a showcase, somebody must be watching. Look at it this way. Would Troy Aikman be making $6.25 million a year if nobody was watching? Would the Fox network have paid $400 million a year to the NFL if they wouldn't get any viewers? No. The simple answer is that amateur and professional athletics would cease to function on their current scale if it weren't for the interest of the public. And that sure sounds lik involvement to me. There is so much more to sport than simply the players on the field and their coaches. Let's look even beyond the league front offices, NCAA committees, and international regulatory organizations. Who is the next most involved in sport? I don't think Lupica would disagree if we concluded that the media are the next most involved - along with the corporate sponsors that keep the media afloat. So why should Mike Lupica, civilian, writer for the New York Daily News, be any more involved in sport than you or me? It seems to me that if it weren't for us, he really wouldn't have anybody to write for, either. The public is more than an impartial observer in sport. Forget the money people pay and just think about three words - home field advantage - that affect the outcome of nearly every game in sport. Lupica's conclusion that this is a bad thing is selfish and unfair. Because not every spectator wants to stab their way into the limelight. Most of us would rather just enjoy the game. 0. Clinton's year wasn't that productive By REP. DICK ARMEY Following the loss of Republican control of the White House in the 1992 election, the media were full of reports of a GOP fractured and out of fresh ideas. In the year since, however, House Republicans have risen to the chal- lenge, crafting a comprehensive, inno- vative police agenda and standing more united today than at any time since perhaps the early Reagan years. Rumors of our death were greatly gridlock" portrayed by White House spin doctors. We voted unanimously againstthe largest tax increase inAmeri- can history for the same reason we voted overwhelmingly for a pro-growth trade package: Principle. Republicans believe, first and fore- most, in the principle of individual freedom. This principle of freedom is the cornerstone of the emerging Re- publican agenda, which stands in stark contrast against a backdrop of a Demo- 1992 campaign. His Administration has pursued that same tax-and-spend, business-as-usual approaches of past Democrat administrations. The largest tax increase in American history (in- cluding new taxes on the very middle class he had promised relief) will fuel an explosive 20 percent growth in the size of Federal government in a scant five years. House Republicans are also in the process of drafting legislation on im-