18 - The Michigan Daily -- Tuesday, April 18,_1995
LETTERS
University's food
prices cheat
students
To the Daily:
It seems strange to me how the
University has been effectively charg-
ing first year students ridiculous prices
for cafeteria food for so many years.
The four plans offered to the students
in the residence halls do not work to
their advantage but rather to their
disadvantage. The university encour-
ages students to choose the "any 13"
meal plan providing them with the
most versatility. But in reality, the
plan does not work. Most students
find that their classes are conflicting
with the limited hours the cafeteria
serves meals. Therefore, ending up
with an excess amount of meals at the
end of each week which they cannot
use toward meal credit in the snack
bars in most dorms. The "weekday
nine" meal plan allows students to eat
nine meals a week but not on week-
ends. Because most students have
classes when the cafeteria serves
lunch, again the students find an ex-
cess amount of meals on every Friday
which they cannot use towards that
weekend. The last plan, "one a day,"
also contains flaws, Students can only
dine in the cafeteria only once each
day. If you miss one day's meal, you
lose the credit. It seems almost insane
that you can't use that credit towards
another meal on a different day. After
all, it's paid for. In addition, if a
student does not wish to eat dinner or
lunch in the cafeteria on a given day
of the week, one has the opportunity
to use the meal credit in the snack bars
in the most of the dorms. Yet if you
use meal credit for dinner, which cost
some six odd dollars per meal you
only get the equivalent of three dol-
lars and five cents in the snack bar.
Why doesn't the student deserve to
receive the full amount of snack bar
meal credit for the meal that he or she
is missing? I am currently of South
Quadrangle and I have changed my
meal plan from the "weekday 9" to
"one a day." The lines at the Entree
Office in the Student Activities Build-
ing in the beginning of the Winter
term are very much self-evident of
the problems that exist in the resi-
dence halls Entree program. I strongly
fell that some sort of change must be
made to provide first and second year
students living in the dorms with meal
plans which give the students a good
quality of food at a fitting price with
fixible hours to eat. I believe that this
1a
chage could possibly make living and
eating in the dorms a more pleasur-
able experience.
Alison Goldman
First-year art student
Students should
protest code
To the Daily:
I encourage everyone passing by
to check out the Code Protest on the
Diag at noon on Thursday. The Code
(the University's code of non-aca-
demic conduct) might not effect ev-
eryone at the university today, recog-
nize that no one is immune. The fact
is, of the thousand or so students who
have been involved in the process,
few knew much about the policy be-
forehand. In fact, knowing about the
policy, knowing what you can and
can't do on your own time (according
to the University) is the best insur-
ance policy against having to become
an expert the hard way.
The other reason you might be
interested, is that barring an unpopu-
lar war, little gets students motivated
anymore. Activism is at an all time
low and if we keep rolling over, it
makes it very hard to pinpoint our
own moral and ethical standards. We
don't have powerful, simple issues
today, and we may very well miss out
on the opportunity to feel what it's
like to be a part of a collective effort
if we don't try...
Vince Keenan
MSA Student Rights Commission
Remember
WWII crimes
To the Daily:
In the continuing effort of remind-
ing people the potential brutality and
destructive power of human nature,
memorial activities of the Holocaust
can be seen regularly in this county.
We paid fair amount of attention to it
of course. But what really caught our
hearts last week was a special report
that appeared in the New York Times
of March 17. It was about the story of
the notorious unit 731 of the Japanese
Imperial Army and the unthinkable
crimes they committed during WWII.
As two international students from
Asia, we are well aware of the exist-
ence and some facts about this unit,
but we were still shocked emotion-
ally when we saw the report on one of
America's leading newspapers. Yes,
it was an old, old story. It was a long,
long time ago. People seem to forget
all of it. All these cruel vivisections
without anesthetic, all these gas cham-
bers surrounding innocent children,
all these whole-body specimens... all
these unbearable so-called medical
experiments which cause direct deaths
of at least thousands of civil people,
most of them were Chinese, Korean
and Russian, in the concentration
camp of unit 731.
Yes, people forgot all of this, and
forgot it quickly. While the Allied
and Jewish were trying to capture the
Nazi leaders and execute them, the
US government, who hold mostof the
evidence on the crimes, promised not
to put the members of unit 731 on trial
in order to get a hand on their "experi-
mental data." Was this data so impor-
tant? Get real. We would rather say it
was because the lives of these victims
were simply of little concern to the
US government. The Cold War was
once again used as an excuse for in-
justice. Today we can only feel deep
sorry for these victims. Their lives
were not respected by the Japanese,
their own countries and the US gov-
ernment. Their lives were simply not
respected by the world!
Without punishment, ex-members
of unit 731 would lead their lives
peacefully (what a luxurious word!)
Some could even climb the career
ladder quite successfully: among
them, a governor of Tokyo, president
of the Japan Medical Associations
and head of the Japan Olympic Com-
mittee. Still the Japanese government
hasn't taken any step to express the
nation's remorse of those "logs" (what
they called the prisoners). And we
heard that President Clinton just re-
named the V-J day as the "end of the
Pacific War."
We see clearly how the history can
be ignored and even changed (recall
the Japanese attempt of using "in-
outs" instead of aggression in text-
books) if everybody just stops caring
about the history. That's also a basic
theme that appears again and again in
ceremonies of the Holocaust. So,
please, here we have to say, while you
mourn for the dead of the Holocaust,
while you feel sorry for the people of
Hiroshima, please, also try to give
justice back to those people who were
dying in horrible fear, in the cold
chambers of the concentration camp
of unit 731.
Tzu-Hsien Sang and Hyunmog
Park
EECS graduate students
Responding to
Notre Dame ban
To the Daily:
I felt compelled to respond, at least
in part, to April L. Opper's letter
appearing in the March 31 iussue of
the Daily (entitled "Notre Dame en-
titled to its priciples"). I do not wish to
express an opinion concerning what
Notre Dame did, as i agree that as a
private and religious institution it was
well within its rights to disallow a
homosexual group to meet on cam-
pus. However, even as a conservative
Catholic, I do take exception to Ms.
Opper's characterization of the teach-
ing of the Cathollic Church on the
subject oof homosexuality. Perhaps I
am not reading Ms. Opper's letter
charitably enough. Howevr, I think it
is safe to say that my reading of what
she has written is possible and that
others have probably also read her as
I have. Ms. Opper is quite right to say
that "[homosexuality is forbidden in
the Catholic religion..." this is clearly
stated in the new Catechism of the
Catholic Church at 2357. But, to sug-
gest that homosexual people people
"do not 'have a place' at a Catholic
university" seems contrary to 2358-
2359 of the Catechism. To suggest
that homosexual people are not de-
serving of "'support and understand-
ing"' and that "being Catholic and
homosexual...os as oxymoron," is in
my belief, contrary to the basic teach-
ings of Christ and the Church. The
Church has long taught that we should
hate the sin and love the sinner. The
Church teaches us that homosexual-
ity, that is, engaging in homosexual
acts, is sinful. (Indeed, the Church
teaches that all sexaul relations out-
side of Christina marriage are sin-
ful..) Nevertheless, we are instructed
to accept homosexual people "with
respect, compassion, snesititvity," and
that "[e]very sign of unjust discrimi-
nation in their regard should be
avioded" (2358). So we should sup-
port and try to understand homosexual
people, just as Christ supported and
understood many people who were
outcasts in Jewish society when He
was in the world. Further, homosexual
people have a place in the Catholic
Church. The Church teaches that ho-
mosexual people (as everyone) should
remian chaste. Being homosexual is a
great burden for many homosexual
people, especially Christian homo-
sexuals. The church teaches that
through self-mastery, prayer and sac-
ramental grace, and also through dis-
interested friendship, homosexual
people "can and should gradually and
resolutely approach Christian perfec-
tion," just as the rest of us can and
should (2359).I wholeheartedly agree
with Ms. Opper's suggestion that the
press should be careful not to be intol-
erant of some one group's beliefs in
order to fight aperceived intolereance
of antoher group. However, not only
the press can be or is guilty of this.
Indeed, whether intended or not, Ms.
Opper's letter seemed to me to be
approaching intolerance of homo-
sexuals in her zeal to point out intol-
eranceof (supposed) Catholic beliefs.
As a Christian, I believe, that we all
have faults and that all humanity is
cullpable for Christ's passion. We
should pray for and love one another.
We ought affectionatley to encourage
one another to aviod sin and even the
occasion of sin and to be mindful of
the burden others bear. In closing, I
would like to say that the Catholic
Church, Catholic institutions, and
Catholic individuals should, in accor-
dance with the Church's teachings in
the Catechism, love all people re-
gardless of the beliefs or practices. I
nloving, we do not neccessarily em-
brace the beliefs we find abhorrent,
rather, we recognize the infinite worth
of all people.
George R. Thomas
Second-year Law student
Women need
affirmative
action programs
To the Daily:
In the letter regarding affirmative
action ("Affirmative Action Harms
Quest For Gender Equity," 4/12/95),
Ms. Falconer, Ms. Dombdkowski, Ms.
Cessna, and Ms. Singleton state,
"Qualifications and ability should be
the sole means of determining the
suitable person for thejob." we agree.
However, they fail to realize thatquali-
fication and ability are far from the
determining factor in hiring practices
today; unqualified men are cosistently
hired over qualified women, dispel-
ling any idea that a level playing field
has been thus far achieved. the affir-
mative action that seems most prob-
lematic is the status quo bias towards
white men; barring goverment or cor-
porate policies women and minorities
are passed over - what's wrong with
an attempt to counter that present
bias? Ms. Falconer, et al, suggest "Un-
qualified women hired in this type of
situation further expand the notion
that women are unable to do 'men's'
work," but in fact women are given
little chance to prove their abilities to
do these jobs now. Affirmative action
provides oportunities for women and
minorities to work side by side with
white males - you can't compete if
you're not even allowed to be in the
game. Ms. Falconer and friends base
much of their argument on the as-
sumption that great numbers of un-
qualified women will soon displace
America's superior work force, but it
has never been shown that affrimative
action and lower work competence
go hand in hand. What is truly unfor-
tunate is that we have come to the
point where such drastic' action is A
neccessary. Most people would pre-
fer a color and gender - blind society,
but given the attitudes of many who
hold positions of power, this day has
not yet arrived. People who suggest
affirmative action policies may be
beneficial are not "victimizing" cer-
tain segments of society - these people
are merely realists. Before they label
this letter a whine, Ms. Falocner &
Co. should consider the possibilty
that one day they will be job-hunting
themselves, unable to compete with
the less qualified men solely because
they lack a Y chromosome. There's
something to be said for conscious-
ness raising.
Ellen Oberwetter
Amy Humowiecki
LSA sophomores
Daily covers
gay issues well
To the Daily:
Sincere thanks to the Daily for the
sensitive coverage and support that
you have continued to give lesbigay
people and our concerns. One hun-
dred years ago this month Oscar Wilde
was brought to trial. Twenty-ffiveyears
this srping we founded the Detroit
Gay Liberation Movement and the
Ann Arbor Gay Liberation Front;
AAGLF protested President Nixon's
bombing of Cambodia; we joined in
demonstrations against the killing of
students at Kent State University; we
picketed Angell Hall in support of the
Blavk Action Movement (BAM)
strike.Twenty-five years ago this sum-
mer, thanks to Gerry DeGrieck, a
vice-president of Student Goverment
Council, AAGLF hosted a statewide
"gay conference" in the Student Ac-
tivities Building, although then-Presi-
dent Robben Fleming had denied us
the use of the University facilities for
the event. Twenty-five years ago at
the invitation of the Board of Regents
I spoke to them about Gay Liberation's
purpose: we sought justice. Lesbigay
people seek justice today: we note
with particular concern the recent
murder of Scott Armedure, a gay male
resident of Oakland County; the
assualt perpetrated earlier this term
on a gay male U-M student near the
Arcade on State Street; .and the pro-
tests launched against Queer Unity
Project's "kiss-in" on the Diag. We
must remember also the many survi-
vors of discrimination and who do not
dare report the attacks they have en-
dured because of the fear of retalia-
tion and further unjust treatment. Os-
car Wilde is now memorialized in
Westminster Abbey. Will justice be
served in the case of Scott Amadure?
I urge lovers of peace and of justice to
support the concerns of lesbigay
people and of the agencies and insti-
tutions that serve us and our con-
cerns.: the many other University and
community groups, secular and reli-
gious. that speak for justice and for
freedom.
Jim Toy
Affirmative Action Representative
Human Resourses and
Affrimative Action
I
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