4 - TheMichigan Daily - Thursday, October 20, 1994 41V 4w tlc [Juan Iqumwlw w !u t ww Ai rr .' Aft r AM s w W II NOTABL~:~Ea QUOTABLE 1 ii I 'School funding is a little more to the point than who can bunk the most prisoners in one cell.' 420 Maynard Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan Jessie Hallada Editor in Chief Samuel Goodstein Flint Wainess Editorial Page Editors 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. AI WH oK. - Political Science Prof. Greg Markus, ues in the Michigan gubernatorial campaign .I Communication's chaos Despite LSA defense, Goldenberg acted wrongly J ustice was ill served in the Senate Assem- bly meeting Monday. The Assembly re- jected a report prepared by the Senate Advi- sory Committee for University Affairs (SACUA) regarding the Communications department. In doing so, the Assembly ac- cepted the LSA Executive Committee's de- fense concerning the charges brought against it in the January takeover of the department by LSA. In other words, the Assembly diverted attention from a severe impropriety on the part of the administration. This decision aside, the fact remains that in her handling of the Com- munications department over the past year, LSA Dean Edie N. Goldenberg -who heads the Executive Committee -disobeyed anum- ber of important University laws, as well as codes set forth by the American Association of University Professors. Perhaps more im- portant, Goldenberg's behavior raises ques- tions of possible larger motives concerning the future of the University. In its judgement, the Senate Assembly seemed to be heavily influenced by a letter of defense prepared by Goldenberg and other high ranking officials of LSA. Lacking in any substantive points, the letter appears to serve the sole purpose of saving the Committee, and particularly Goldenberg, fromembarrassment. It is hard to understand how the Assembly could find any credibility in the Executive Committee's defense -until we realize that a significant number of the faculty serving on the Assembly are untenured. These members would risk a great deal by going against the Committee, since attitudes these highly placed individuals have toward them could seriously affect their future employment. The Execu- tive Committee definitely appears to have taken advantage of this fact. This leads to the ques- tion of just how independent the Senate As- sembly is. However, despite the Committee's maneu- vering, the fact remains that its actions con- cerning the Department of Communication were completely unjustified and didn't follow University guidelines. Led by Goldenberg, it stepped in and took control of the department without thoroughly consulting faculty and stu- dents, completely ignoring their fundamental stake in any change. Furthermore, these ac- tions were unnecessary. The department at the time of the takeover was of very high quality, consistently ranking in the Gorman Report's top 10 nationally. The faculty and students had confidence in the training provided. It was a good program. The incidents of the Communications affair lead to one formidable question: Why? Why is the administration working so hard to under- mine this department? Why is it going so far as to employ illicit means to do so? The members of the Executive Committee may not realize it, but they exposed an important irony in their defense letter. "We believe it is important to work cooperatively with the Senate Assembly, but we believe that this can occur only in an atmosphere of good faith, thorough honest efforts to pursue academic excellence and to rise above individual agendas," the letter de- clared. For the Committee to communicate this sentiment is surprising. Their behavior during this affair demonstrates a lack of "good faith" on their part, as well as a very real possibility that they have an agenda of their own - one that is not being made clear to the public. I .. _ ''' _ . .. . q, "\ r rM,. ,". " A ' .: '. ! t ." ", .i j . ' t Spoofing maize and blue fans Christie Gays in the military Meinhold's case illustrates stupidity of ban O nce again, in an all too familiar scenario, the U.S. government is engaging in double-talk on the issue of homosexuals serv- ing in the armed forces. The twist in this case stems from the fact that the confusing signals emanate from what is not being said, rather than from another change in policy. The main character in the latest chapter of the gays in the military saga is Naval Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, who, since being discharged from the Navy several years ago, has launched a series of court challenges against the pre- Clinton policy completely banning homosexu- als from the armed forces. Last week, the Clinton administration let stand a ruling allowing Meinhold to serve by not responding to a San Francisco Appeals Court decision saying the Navy could not discharge him merely on the grounds that he was homosexual. Despite its surface appear- ance, this lack of a response does not signal acceptance of homosexuals in the military - the position repeatedly embraced by presiden- tial candidate Bill Clinton. Instead, it shows the Clinton administration is willing to letonly the old policy of banning all homosexuals die, while vigorously defending challenges against its new version ofthe ban: the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" policy. "Don't ask, don't tell" was the atrocious 1993 compromise the Clinton administration drafted in response to the vociferous opposi- tion of Sam Nunn and other southern Demo- crats to lifting the ban entirely. While touted as a plan favorable to all sides, the newer policy has in many ways echoed the spirit, if not the specific words of the older statute. Under both official and enlisted ranks. The reasoning behind both policies comes from the thoroughly discredited notion that having openly gay service members would undermine the morale, and therefore the com- bat preparedness, of the armed forces. This theory has been exposed as fallacy by the number of soldiers that came out following Clinton's pledge to end the ban. More specifi- cally, in one of the larger ironies stemming from the Meinholdcase, Meinhold made state- ments to the effect that, after he openly de- clared his homosexuality, he was not harassed by (low-level) Naval personnel; instead, his problems came from representatives of the federal government, trying to implement their shortsighted rules. If the people who come into everyday contact with an openly gay Keith Meinhold have no qualms about his sexual orientation, why then should military brass consider his conduct a problem? The Clinton administration should dump the "don't ask, don't tell" policy into the same trash bin that houses the old blanket morato- rium on gays in the military. In the same way that the Truman administration took the bold step of integrating the armed forces in 1948, the Clinton administration must re-engage the debate and end one of the last remaining bastions of blatant discrimination in our gov- ernment. Homosexuality does not diminish one's love for his or her country, or the ability to act in its service. Each service member must be judged on his or her own merit and achieve- ments, not on the basis of sexual orientation. .nr~a: l ,., Mo VmthAX~nMA A arv h dishonest with voters To the Daily: I'm writing this letter in response to Mike Christie's campaign for the Washtenaw County Commission. I would first like to commend Mike for getting involved in politics while still a student here at the University. It is encouraging to see young people becoming active in our political process. However, I am concerned with the way he is running his cam- pagn. Mr. Christie claims to be running a bipartisan campaign targeted at students.. I must question his bipartisanship. Mike is aRepublican, no doubt about it. He is running on the Republican ticket, he was a member of the radical right- wing College Republicans and he is working on the campaign of an ultra-conservative candi- date for U.S. Congress. Mike Christie is far from being a bipartisan candidate. On November 8th, I en- courage all students to elect Democrat Dave Mon forton to the Washtenaw County Com- mission. Mr. Monforton has not hid his ideology from the students in his district. Unlike Mr. Christie, Dave Monforton is not afraid to make his true political beliefs public. Mr. Christie, there are only a few weeks left before elec- tion day. Isn't it time that you were honest with the very stu- dents whom you wish to repre- sent? Mike Pokrywka Co-Chair, U of M College Democrats Bikers must obey traffic rules To the Daily: In light of the recent inci- dent between a pedestrian and a bicyclist, I would like to illu- minate this dark void of bi- cycle traffic behavior which is prominent on campus. Myth: Bikers are a special case when riding on the road. Fact: Bicycles, when driven on the road, are legally consid- ered vehicles. Hence, bikers on the road are drivers. Myth: Bikers can drive whereverthey want, whenever, at their discretion, they want. To the Daily: Two years ago, I came to Ann Arbor from California to study geology, and before I came, I heard many stories about life in the Midwest and at a Big Ten school. Mostly, people just commented on the cold weather, and there's no refuting that. It is damn cold. But, coming from the parched landscape of the California desert, I found Michigan's lush vegetation and beautiful lakes simply amazing. Much of the state remains undeveloped, unlike California's raped coun- tryside. Aside from the cold weather, lack of topography (mountains), and the lack of diversity of a city like San Fran- cisco or Chicago or New York, I enjoyed my stay here. Yet, Michigan and Ann Arbor are two completely different worlds. While I found myself impressed by the quality of the graduate and graduate students at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is, without a doubt, the most trendy place I have ever seen. I have met plenty of undergrads that I love and re- spect, but as I prepare to head back to California in the next couple of days, my impression of Ann Arbor is clouded by the following joke, partially in re- sponse to the intense reaction over the loss to Colorado in football the other week. A man with an IQ of 200 looks around and witnessed all Daily photo goes too far To the Daily. I think the Daily went too far this time. I am referring to the picture of the Arab terrorist that was shown shot to death on the front page on October 11. This is just bad journalism. How could the editors display such bad taste by printing that picture? I thought it was cold and heartless to show the bloody corpse of that man. The Daily was ignorant of the feel- ings of that man's friends and family. So what if he was a terrorist, he was just doing his job. Everyone knows what it is like to be under stress at work. The article was done in an ap- propriate manner, but the pic- ture above it was just unneces- sary. Please, no more pictures of dead folks. Jeff Hodak LSA Junior Sportswriter the fun that dumb people have. They can laugh at the inane and nevercease tobeeasily amused. Yet he finds no humor, only triviality. His only wish is to be more dumb so that he can en- joy himself. One day, to his surprise, he sees an advertise- ment in the paper for a doctor that can manipulate one's IQ. So the next day, he goes in and asks the doctor to lower his IQ, but not too low. He wants above average intelligence. The doc- tor hooks him up to the ma- chine, presses go, and watches as the readout signals down... 200... 199... 198.... The Doctor hasn't seen an IQ in ages, and realizing the process will take quite some time, leaves to get a cup of coffee. On his way back to the lab, the doctor runs into acolleague. After about 10min- utes he looks at his watch and realizes how long it has been. Frantically, he rushes back to the lab. As the doctor opens the door, he looks to the readout... 5... 4... 3... .He lunges for the plug and pulls it just in time to stop the IQ manipulator. The final readout is 2. He cannot believe what he has just done, and looks to the young man in horror and asks if he is okay. The man is staring off at noth- ing and blankly responds, "Go Blue." Goodbye, Ann Arbor. Andy Mughannam University alumnus Hayden fry ad his football team's lackluster performance ... about this he may be cor- rect. However, Mr. Rosenberg, who apparently fancies him- self an expert on Iowa City's social scene, erroneously stated that Iowa City is a town "with no night life." This is an ironic comment coming from a stu- dent at a campus whose social scene obviously pales in com- parison. Iowa students over the age of nineteen are provided a choice of over twenty bars within a four block radius, in- cluding sports bars, blues clubs, pool halls and dance clubs. Live bands perform nightly in at least five different campus locations. In Ann Arbor you can always rent a movie. Our point is, Daily sports writers should stick to sports and not venture into areas in which the impeach their cred- ibility. David Diamond Natalie Spears University of Iowa alumni Waldheim and the Pope His papal eminence, Pope John Paul II, late in the summer granted Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the former presi- dent of Austria and the Secretary- General of the United Nations from 1972-1982, the distinguished honor of papal knighthood for his service to the world community. Is the Pope and the earthly leadership of the Roman Catholic Church morally inept as well as historically con-4 fused? Isn't this the same Vatican that up until a few years ago still maintained that the earth did not revolve around the sun?ThatGalileo was wrong? Sadly enough, the Supreme Pon- tiff, born in Krakow, Poland-close to the heart of Jewish Eastern Eu- rope - either blindly ignored or simply glanced over the fact that Kurt Waldheim, inducted into the Germany Army at the start of Hitler's war, was indeed a willing member of the brown-shirted SAs and the Nazi Student Movement. He signed up for the NS-Studentenbund only three days after the German-Aus- trian aunschluss. He served the Ger- man military machine faithfully and ably from 1938 to 1941, and after a brief hospitalization, from 1942 to 1944. In 1943, Mr. Waldheim was promoted and transferred to the East- ern Front, where he served as a se- nior intelligence officer in Greece fortwo years, as well as in the former Yugoslavia. According to docu- ments obtained by the World Jewish Congress, Waldheim served directly under the command of General Alexander Loehr, a vicious and in- humane man, who was convicted as a war criminal and hanged after the cessation of the war. Waldheim also served for a time on the staff of General Von Shtahl, a man executed for war crimes by the Soviets. In conjunction with the SS,Loehr Sdirected and coordinated the depor- tation of 96 percent of the Jewish community of Salonika, Greece to gray, lifeless Auschwitz, Poland - the man-made hellhole that ate up more than a million lives. In two months, from mid-March to mid- May 1943,theGermans piled40,000 Jews onto trains bound for the con- centration camp. One fifth of the entire population of Salonika van- ished into thin air in a few short months, but Kurt Waldheim still maintains to this day that he knew nothing of the organized roundup of Greek Jews. According to U.S. Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), files from the Yugoslavian War Crimes Com- mission contain serious enough al- legations to warrant placing Mr. Waldheim on the "A" list of sus- pected war criminals. Historian Gerald Reitlinger says General Loer is "perhaps more implicated in Jew- ish deportations thanrany other Wehrmacht commander." In 1944, Mr. Waldheim finished his legal doctoral thesis on Konstantin Frantz. The Simon Wisenthal Center, a Jewish organi- zation renown for its Nazi-hunting activities, called Mr. Frantz "a noto- rious 19th century anti-Semite who believed one way or the other that the Jewish question would have to be solved, by chopping the head off of every Jew and replacing it with a head that does not refer back to the Talmud ..." Waldheim's ideologi- cally-tinged dissertation for the Uni- versity of Vienna School of Law extols and celebrates Frantz's call for a "Greater Germany." Mr. Waldheim concludes his disserta- tion with a quote from another Ger- man anti-semite, Friedrich Gentz: "Europe through Germany fell, through Germany it must rise again." Supporters of the Pope's move undoubtedly point to the fact that the U.N. General Assembly votedfreely and fairly to make Mr. Waldheim their Secretary-General -- a digni- fied post he held for over a decade. But it has been consistently docu- mented that Waldheim has misled the international community since M9 I