10- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 6, 1995

NATI N/W ti


First lady 'overwhelmed'
by Bangladeshis in journey

The Washington Post
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - In a Bangladeshi village of
the lowest of low-caste Hindus - often called "untouch-
ables" - dozens of children stretched their arms to touch
the hands of a beaming Hillary Clinton, the woman they'd
been told was Queen of the World.
In villages like Moishahati, where government officials
and high caste Hindus - much less foreigners - seldom
venture, it is believed that just touching someone of higher
caste will bring more respect
and honor to a person at the °~
lower end of the social scale.
But in a reversal the vil-'
lagerscouldn'tpossiblycom-
prehend, it was the poor in-
habitants of the mud and
straw huts of the rice-paddy
community who won the re-
spect of the first lady of the
United States.
"I've come away over-
whelmed," Clinton said of
theBangladeshivillagersandr
dozens of other women sher
encountered in a 12-day visit
across the Indian subconti-
nent that ended yesterday in
Sri Lanka. "What any ofus in>
America go through is minor
in comparison."
In the first few jet-lagged
days of her journey through Hillary Clinton stands with
India, Pakistan, Nepal, residents of Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,
Clinton recited numerous parallels between programs and
problems in the United States and those in South Asia, often
sounding as though she were plugging her husband's poli-
cies on the campaign trail in Middle America, half a globe
and worlds away. ,
But this was alien to the daily lives of most of her Asian
audiences. Before a group of Indian women ragpickers
and junk dealers - most of whom had never ridden in a
car - she mentioned a White House proposal to take
away drivers' licenses as punishment for certain offenses.
By tour's end, however, what Clinton first billed as a trip

to learn about different cultures and countries became a
journey of self-discovery both for her and her daughter,
Chelsea. "Chelsea has been writing many postcards to her
friends to explain in words what this meant to her," Clinton
said.

As for Chelsea'smother, she still seemed to be struggling
to come to terms with the sensory overload she experienced
on a trip that took her from extravagant palace dinners to
medical research centers where emaciated children writhed
with the pain of malnutri-
tion and dehydration.
Clinton said she and
Chelsea were "over-
whelmed ... by the condi-
tions some of the people we
met were living in, but also
very moved by how people
were attempting to make the
most of (their) situation ...
r knowing they have so few
of the advantages we take
for granted.
She listened toZahanara
Begum tell her how the lo-
cal Muslim religious leader
in her Bangladeshi commu-
nity refused to pray for the
dead children of women
who defied his wishes and
joined the Grameen Bank,
AP PHOTO which provides loans to
laughter Chelsea and some of the world's poorest
__________________ people.
She watched as a Paki-
stani woman, her arms coated in brown goo, smashed cow
dung into smelly patties to fuel her cooking fires.
She watched elementary school girls acting out a scene
repeated often in their homes: A mother telling a daughter
she cannot go to school because she is a girl and is valued less
than her brothers.
As she prepared to end her journey, Clinton said she was
impressed by having "seen women who are beginning to
find their own voice." She was particularly taken by a poem
composed in her honor by New Delhi teenager Anasuya
Sengupta.

MICHAEL F1TZHUGH/Daily
Return to sender
Ozzie Williams, a U.S. postal worker for 8 1/2 years, sorts mail yesterday at the Liberty Street Post Office. Since
his route includes student residences, he deals with many change-of-address cards round this time of year.
ouse leaders Gephardt and
Boni---or defend student loans

Id

i I -ft.P- i i. FYI i m MNW -alft. Imw .i IRIWNN- /tip ' Imppm- MIMF!W In

WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Democratic House leadership yester-
day told Republicans to "get your
hands off' federal guaranteed loans to
students.
Republicans are considering mak-
ing student loans more costly by end-
ing a subsidy that allows 4.5 million
low-income students to defer pay-
ment on their loans and avoid interest

I , I

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while in college. House Republican
leaders say up to $12 billion could be
saved over five years to help reduce
the budget deficit.
"The Republican proposal on stu-
dent loans threatens the future of our
children, our economy, our very soci-
ety," Minority Leader Dick Gephardt
of Missouri said at a rally of several
hundred college students on Capitol
Hill.
Minority Whip David Bonior (D-
Mich.) told the students: "You're here
to deliver one single message: (House
Speaker) Newt Gingrich, get your
hands off student loans.
"Students vote, too. Make sure
they know," Bonior said while six
other Democratic House members,
including Pat Schroeder of Colorado
and Charles Schumer of New York,
waited their turn to castigate cuts in
student loans.
"They're betting they can take
away your students loans ... and you
won't fight back" Schumer said.
In defending the loans, Bonior also
took a swing at the Republican tax cut
package being debated on the House
floor.
"If the Republicans think they have
enough money for Star Wars, and
enough money for tax cuts mostly for
the wealthy, then they'd better have
enough money for the education of
the next generation," he said.
Last year, about 6 million students
received some type of federal student
loan. Most loans are subsidized, mean-
ing taxpayers pay theloan interest while
the student is in school and for six
months afterward. To get the subsidy,

a student or family must show financial
need.
If the subsidy were eliminated;
students would have to pay up to $41:
more each month, according to Rep.-
Bill Goodling (R-Pa.), chairman of they
House Economic and Educational Op-
portunities Committee. The interest
payments, for example, could change
the monthly fee on $17,000 in loans
from $246 to $205.
Jenny Ritter, president of the Col-
lege Democrats of America and a
student at Southern Methodist Uni-
versity in Dallas, said she would not
be in college without student loans.
Gephardt recalled receiving a loan
from his church and working three
jobs to get through college.
Mike Jacobs, chairman of the D.C.
College Democrats and a sophomore*
at Georgetown, said his annual col-
lege tuition is more than his single
mother makes in a year but he wants
to get ahead.
"The Republicans want to pull thdt
ladder up behind them," Jacobs said.
"Leave that ladder down."
Matthew Ebert, chairman of the
Georgetown University College Re-
publicans, acknowledged being in a@
mostly Democratic crowd was "soit
of like being in a lion's den.
"But there's a whole lot of Repub
licans out there who believe this is a
mistake," he added.
"It's like a kick in the knee," said
Brad Morris, a sophomore at George
Washington University. "We're not
making money now while we're in
college. And it will just add on to the
burden when we get out."

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Strong support predicted
for prayer amendment

Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - Poised to
catch the second wave of this year's
Republican revolution in Congress,
the leaders of eight conservative and
Christian evangelical groups have
crafted a broad constitutional
amendment that would permit stu-
dent-led prayers in public schools
and government. aid to parochial
schools.
Backers of the proposed amend-
ment predicted that it will gain strong
support in Congress because it stops
well short of allowing teachers or
school officials to lead prayers.
They say that their aim is to pro-
tect the rights of students and all

Americans to express their faith in pub-
lic.
"This is not a Christian-right
amendment. We don't want to see a
return to the pre-1962 situation, with
a teacher leading the class in prayer,
said Jay Sekulow, counsel for the
American Center for Law and Jus-
tice, a religious-liberties legal grouj
founded by Christian broadcaster Pat
Robertson.
But since then the religious right'*
advocates have worked on draftinga4
more moderate proposal that would
protect the freedom of students to pray.
in small groups or to allow parents to,
get public stipends, or vouchers, to send,
their children to religious schools.

I EXTRA! EXTRA! 16
I f '
I Representatives of The Michigan Daily business I
I staff recently attended the National Association
of College Newspaper Business & Advertising
I Ma anar c Inc enrnvpntinnwhich was he ld in