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 7( } itit ES a a v 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. ....AN~D HERE'S"5 [HERE r=Ac H SENATWP. CHECKS VERSONAL gIClc-N C-5 tDURING, A ~CON(,REI55bNAL S s45 r N ! -., ., r c C, l// i 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