4- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 25, 1995
AwAoAd
(The atic4toutt:49tettv
'This is an inside job.'
- Dante Stella, MSA Representative, referring to where a mysterious $796,
that was sent to the MSA bookkeeper, came from.
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan
Jessie Halladay
Editor in Chief
Samuel Goodstein
Flint Wainess
Editorial Page Editors
COATS
SPIN
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.
Paying for pages
New computing policy needs further explanation
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Students have grown accustomed to the
use of free services at the University's
Campus Computing Sites and ResComp Sites.
By the end of this year, however, there will be
one less free service from which to choose.
Many students have recently received an e-
nail message from the Information Technol-
ogy Division (ITD), explaining that begin-
ning in May they will be charged for printing
at ITD sites.
While many students are indignant at
being asked to pay for printing, the new
policy is indeed reasonable. However, the
University has left some questions unan-
swered.
ITD justifies the fee as a response to the
steady increase in printing costs and the
volume of unclaimed printed materials at
the sites. This second point is especially
convincing: There is no reason for students'
tuition to subsidize wasted paper and toner.
Also, the University claims that the money
raised will allow ITD to purchase color
printers for the sites - a worthy goal.
The structure of the fee makes sense also.
Each student with a uniqname and password
is currently given a University of Michigan
Computer Environment (UMCE) account.
Each month, every undergraduate account is
provided with $15.00, while $30.00 goes to
each graduate student. Out of an
undergraduate's monthly allocation, it is
estimated that the average student uses two
dollars a month for basic services such as e-
mail, allowing over $12.00 per month for
printing - the equivalent of 300 single-
sided pages. As it is rare that any under-
graduate needs to print this much in a month,
Catch 22
Roe v. Wade anniversary
A s the 22nd anniversary of the Supreme
court's monumental Roe v. Wade deci-
sion passes, Americans are left to take a
somber look at what has been accomplished
since abortion was legalized. The right to
abortion has been impeded in many small
ways over the past two decades, adding up to
a major blockade. Several Supreme Court
decisions in recent years - while upholding
the basic tenets of Roe - have cleared the
way for paralyzing restrictions to be enacted
at the federal and state levels. What was for
several years a judicial issue has shifted to
legislative grounds, placing responsibility
for abortion rights almost solely in states'
hands.
And many states are dropping the ball. In
particular, Michigan has several nullifying
laws in place, such as a ban on Medicaid
abortions that denies low-income women a
fundamental reproductive right. Another re-
pressive law dictates that minors must obtain
parental consent in order to have an abortion,
or-in the alternative --go before a judge to
obtain permission. Many family situations
make telling parents an insurmountable ob-
stacle, while getting permission from a judge
implies that a stranger, most likely a male, can
better decide what a woman should do with
her body than she herself can. Furthermore, if
the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest,
making a woman go through the ordeal of
pleading with strangers is nothing but harass-
ment.
Of all Michigan's underhanded abortion
laws, the most insidious is so-called "in-
formed consent." Under this law, a woman
requesting an abortion must view pictures of
developing fetuses, then wait 24 hours be-
BRAINS BALLS
b -
only a small minority of students will be
forced to pay any real money for printing.
Still, the University needs to explain bet-
ter how the new system will lead to color
printers at the Sites. Draining UMCE ac-
counts and paying out of the pocket for print-
ing seems far less attractive if the funds disap-
pear into the University, never to be seen
again. The University must provide students
with a detailed explanation of how the print-
ing fee will improve computing services.
Furthermore, the University needs to al-
low for exceptions to the new policy. There
will always be a number of students who will
need more than 300 printed pages in any
given month. Students with special circum-
stances should be exempt from the fee or
given discounts. Someone who is writing a
dissertation must not be forced to forgo a
draft for financial reasons, while student
elections - requiring a great deal of flyer
printing and posting - are already prohibi-
tively expensive for many students. Other
situations, such as fiction contests, should
be examined also. At the very least, students
with onetime projects should be able to bor-
row against past or future months to balance
their UMCE accounts.
The University is wise to address the
problem of waste in the computing sites, and
its goal of using the new funds for equipment
purchases is admirable. However the Uni-
versity needs to explain in detail how the
money will be used. Furthermore, it must
ensure that those people who rely on the
computing sites will not be undercut by the
reforms. If the new fees can be implemented
properly, they will be well worth paying.
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recalls gains, losses
woman who cannot make rational decisions
on her own. In addition, forcing women to
view pictures of fetuses is a blatant attempt to
impose guilt on them for their decision, put-
ting abortion providers in the position of moral
judges.
The ideological battlefield extends from
the legislature to the front of the clinic.
Underneath the protests and lobbying, it is
evident that those on both sides of the issue are
rooted in careful examination of right and
wrong. All participants have the best of in-
tentions - they simply disagree on some of
the fundamental questions, such as the exact
moment life begins and what it means to
choose.
Sadly, rational debate is being eroded by
right-wing antiabortion fanatics. After shoot-
ing sprees in Massachusetts and Virginia, an
earlier shooting in Florida and other incidents,
the injuries number seven, the death toll five.
Neither the pro-life nor the pro-choice side
advocates violence. However, a few radicals
are turning a conscientious debate into useless
bloodshed.
This carnage must stop. Abortion provid-
ers -- whose numbers are dwindling in the
face of danger - and those seeking abor-
tions must be protected. The Clinton admin-
istration has done a commendable job in this
area, and must continue its work against
abortion-related violence. In addition, Ameri-
cans need to elect legislators who support
abortion rights and will resist pro-life efforts to
make abortion nearly impossible to obtain.
Abortion has been legal for 22 years. For-
tunately, the Supreme Court seems disinclined
to overturn the historic decision made in 1973.
However, the right to safe and funded abortion
Japan: in need
of assistance
To the Daily:
12:46 p.m., Jan. 16, 1995.
My family and I were in down-
town San Francisco, shopping
and enjoying a day in the city.
Little did I know that at that
very moment, another "city"
- where I was born and
reared, on the other side of the
Pacific - was transformed
from a commercial, industrial
center into a helpless chaos,
devastated by one of the worst
natural disasters in history.
Proud of being a Kobe na-
tive, I used to get disappointed
as many Americans had never
even heard of this great metro-
politan area of 1.5 million. Not
any more, unfortunately. The
whole world has now seen this
city - not in its grandeur, but
in its ruin.
First, we saw the big things
- a bus hanging on the edge
of a broken freeway, count-
less fires, toppled buildings
and crumbled houses. To me,
those were the shops and res-
taurants I used to go to, parks
where we played and trains I
rode hundreds of times. But
then, we saw the people -
living, injured, sick, hungry,
young, old, and some dead.
Only the ones with broken
bones were left untreated since
doctors were taking care of
the more seriously injured. My
fathersaw his old workplace
crumbled down and his birth-
place go up in smoke.
Since an ancient samurai
opened a port here long ago,
this innovative city had grown
to be a very culturally rich and
diverse community over the
last 200 years. But all this was
to change - in just 20 sec-
onds. A civilization swept
away by a jolt, gone with the
quake.
An American visitor once
saw the city lights from the
top of Mt. Rokko, the 3,000-
foot-high mountain within
Kobe, and gave the magnifi-
cent panoramic view the now-
famous phrase associated with
Kobe: a "million-dollar night
view." Foreigners and Japa-
nese alike have come to see its
dazzling beauty. But today,
those lights are out, and the
people gone.
It will undoubtedly take
years to rebuild the city and
businesses. But far more im-
portant now is to rebuild the
lives of those men, women
and children, thousands of
them, waiting for food, water,
toilets, diapers or simply a
To the Daily:
The word "peace" tends to
conjureup images of friend-
ship, love and a universal re-
spect for the integrity and im-
portance of human life. How-
ever, within the framework of
Middle Eastern politics.
"peace" takes on a whole new
definition. In this turbulent
area of the world, peace is not
necessarily advantageous to
all the sides that show the
strength of spirit and courage
needed to break down tradi-
tional barriers and put down
weapons used in a conflict
that has lasted for more than a
century.
Take, for instance, the dif-
ficult position that Israel is
faced with right now in its
negotiations with the Pales-
tinian people. Since Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Or-
ganization signed the Decla-
ration of Principles in Sep-
tember 1993, not only has Is-
rael not benefited from this
accord, but it has been forced
to pay a price for an elusive
and undefined peace.
The price that Israel is
forced to pay happens to be
her most precious asset -
human lives. Sunday's grue-
some suicide bombing, per-
petrated by a member of the
terrorist group Islamic Jihad,
left 18 innocent people near
the coastal town of Netanya
dead. This attack is another in
a long series of brutal and
disgusting murders commit-
ted by Palestinian terrorists
upon Israeli civilians and sol-
diers since the supposed
"peace process"' began. In fact,
since the Declaration of Prin-
ciples was signed, 110 Israeli
civilians and soldiers have
been slaughtered by Palestin-
ian terrorists.
Through many political
channels of pressure, Israel is
urged to actually speed up the
negotiations with the Pales-
tinians. Israel is expected to
make peace with a people that
shows support for groups like
Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
who openly call for the de-
struction of Israel. The Hamas
charter states, "Israel will ex-
ist and continue to exist until
Islam will obliterate it." Peace
is not a conceptualized goal of
these groups, but, in fact,
Hamas believes that, "the Day
of Judgment will not come
about until Moslems fight and
Jews kill them."
Even an organization that
has supposedly renounced ter-
rorism, like the PLO, has yet
to amend its constitution which
also calls for the destruction
of Israel. Currently, Israel is
actually negotiating with an
entity ideologically dedicated
to throwing Jews into the sea.
Is true peace a realistic goal
when one side threatens to
wipe out the other?
Clearly, this latest disgust-
ing and vile act by the Islamic
Jihad should not derail the
much-needed peace process
between Israel and the Pales-
tinians. Fortunately, there are
segments of the Palestinian
people who do favor a realis-
tic and nonviolent solution to-
ward the negotiations. How-
ever, for a true peace to be
reached between Israel and the
Palestinians, Israel must not
be forced to "pay the price for
peace." While Palestinians
aspire to achieve self-deter-
mination through the peace
process, Israel also aspires to
obtain security from physical
harm. For the peace process to
be successful, both aspirations
must come to fruition.
Josh Ruebner
Executive Board Member,
American Movement for
Israel
LSA sophomore
Depraved, but
not deprived
Warning: the following contains
adult subject matter. Sensitive read-
ers are strongly cautioned.
And send the kiddies out to watch
the Power Rangers beat up on Barney
and derail Thomas the Tank Engine.
Violence is good for them.
But not sex. Or should I render
it s-x?
I may be feeling a wee bit de-
praved today, for I watched two Brit-
ish actors named Paul McGann and
Josette Simon engage in an act of
(simulated) consenting marital inter-
course. This was part of a British
miniseries called "Nice Town" now
showing at 11:30 at night on Cana-
dian TV. Don't look for it on Amei-
can TV anytime soon.
Aunt Sarah in Peoria would be
shocked. All a-twitter. And so would
Rev. Donald Wildmon, whose Ameri-
can Family Association monitors these
things.
Due to people like him, and the
threats of product boycotts and gov-
ernmental action, American TV has a
tendency to avoid offending the very
easily offended. After all, "children
might be watching."
Only what business do the chil-
dren have being up that late at night?
Where are Mom and Dad? And don't
they have the final authority to control
the on-off button?
I hope so. Only keep your finger
off MINE.
This is a prime reason why PBS
won't be showing any more of
Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the
City" dramas. You see, Maupin had
the temerity to write sympathetically
about gay people in 1970s San Fran-
cisco, who work, play and live next
door to the rest of us straight folk.
But after "Tales" was shown last
season, Rev. Wildmon and his ilk
raised such a fuss that plans for more
series were dropped. And I suspect
that this may be connected with the
proposal tocutthe federal seed money
for public broadcasting.
We Americans are uncomfortable
about sex. And let an actor drop his
pants on "NYPD Blue" and civiliza-
tion is doomed.
Pish-tosh.
I just don't care to watch. Once
was enough. But millions of other
people do care to watch. That's their
right. And this should reflect a free
market. If a station chooses not to run
a program, like some did, that was a
business decision. And in this case,
they're out the ad revenue.
But I dislike the notion that a pres-
sure group over a thousand miles away
ought to have control overmy choices.
I watch very little TV. News and
movies, mostly. But if I watch drama,
I'd like to see something that does not
treat me like an idiot, catering to the
lowest common denominator. If that
is elitist, fine. I still have a few guilty
pleasures: "Duckman."
What I like most about the Cana-
dian programming is that the dra-
matic stuff, whether it is homegrown
or British, is not afraid of depicting
people as whole human beings, in-
cluding the romantic-erotic side of
their lives. Not so much to shock or
titillate, as to enhance the story.
Violence troubles me more, par-
ticularly when it is aimed at the juve-
nile audience. Kids need to learn that'
people are not 'toons. And that they
cannot chop and smash their play-
mates the way the Power Rangers do
their foes. Just like in-my youth, some
TV hosts had to tell us that we
shouldn't try Three Stooges stunts for
real. But it was up to our parents to set
and enforce the rules. Not some third
party in Tupelo.
I suppose that if the Power Rang-
ers want to settle their conflicts by
beating the tar out of the bad guys,
they should be let alone to do so
When the audience tires of the show,
0
0
I
Political
correctness
corrupts
liberalism
To the Daily:
Classical liberalism has
espoused the gospel of objec-
tivity, tolerance, open discus-
sion, limited government and
protection of our individual
rights. Surprisingly, most of
the agenda of classical liberal-
ismis currently being promoted
by the intellectuals within the
neo-conservative movement.
Modern liberalism has be-
rnme nervertid hb the waned
modern liberalism by demand-
ing absolutism, crushing civil
rights, misrepresenting the
truth, rewriting American his-
tory, promoting intolerance of
other opinions, violating aca-
demic freedom and arrogantly
resorting to goose-stepping
tactics to require absolute obe-
dience.
Their nefarious ooze con-
tinues to clog the arteries of
the flow of free information in
our republic. They should
slither back into their caves to
conduct introspection about
their reactionary goals. Be on
guard against the political cor-
rectness drones pretending to
be liberals!
I arv D_ Vannrmnnn