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Opinion
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Pane 8
Wednesday, June 10, 1981
The Michigan Daily
...yam .,
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The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 25-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Usmg the world
as a bean-bagr
O NE OF THE MOST de-stabilizing forces in
international relations is the interlocking
nature of a nation's-domestic politics with its
foreign policy.
To suggest that internal pre-election
pressures were the prime motivator in Israel's
decision to bomb an Iraqi nuclear reactor may
be unduly cynical. Yet only a genuinely naive
observer would deny that political con-
siderations might have at least constituted a
significant byproduct in the Israelis' unexpec-
ted attack.
It is fond tradition to regard a nation's
relations of state as a separate, solemn entity,
unsullied by domestic squabbles. Yet any
democracy's foreign policy becomes
periodically intertwined with considerations
which may have no direct connection with
diplomacy. Politicians everywhere like to stay
in office; they like giving the voters something
to cheer about-the more internationally
breathtaking, the better.
In 1968, Lyndon Johnson called a dramatic
halt to our bombing of North Vietnam just two
days before Hubert Humphrey was to square
off against Richard Nixon; in 1972, Nixon
gained revenge by leaking the Vietname
"Peace is at hand" revelations a week before
his re-election. Reports indicate a planned elec-
tion-eve strike by the Carter administration in-
to Iran last year was aborted only because news
of the planned attack leaked out beforehand.
If Israel's Iraqi bombing was similarly
motivated, it has surely produced the desired
domestic result: Israeli politicians of all stripes
have voiced their support of the raid with a
unity-in-time-of-crisis patriotism. Prime
Minister Menachem Begin, previously trailing
in the polls for Israel's June 30th elections, has
suddenly become the clear-cut favorite to
retain office.
Yet one politician's gain can prove the rest of
the world's loss. Once again a single nation has
played bean-bag with the security of the global
community-a security so fragile that a single
violent incident could send our planet hurtling
into nuclear apocalypse.w
Such are the inevitable fruits of recklessness
and selfishness in a world too delicate to
tolerate such impulses. We must find an antidote
to international irresponsibility, both in our-
selves and others. Failure to do so will
ultimately insure doomsday for the human
race.
Ordinance perils rights
To the Daily:
We strongly oppose the or-
dinance which would require
parolees and half-way house
residents to register with the city.
Our reasons are as follows:
- The personal informations
required by the ordinance for the
City's records is already on
record at, and available from.
the Parole Office, located two
blocks from the City Admin-
istrator's Office. It seems more
reasonable to simply Xerox, and
then transfer the information
from one office to the other.
- The ordinance is neither
cost-effective nor time-efficient.
Duplicating information, as well
as promulgating, monitoring,
and enforcing the ordinance,
wouldbe costly.
- The stigmatizing effect of
the ordinance would treat
A turn from lo gic
To the Daily:
Regarding the recent letters exonerated for punching out an
from Malika Mutakabbir and Arab-speaking student because
Joseph F. Ferguson: Mutakabbir we are frustrated in our attempts
understands why Leo Kelly Jr. to understand our foreign T.A.'s;
(allegedly) reacted the way he a woman should be forgiven for
did in shooting two university exploding in violence against a
students, and Ferguson is upset young man because some young
with Karre Slakin's rejection of men are raping and robbing
Mutakabbir's implied acceptan- women in Ann Arbor and are
ce of the killing. The crux seems therefore taking away her
to be whether or not we accept security and freedom; a black
violence as an outlet for person should be understood for
frustationasdan e(inthisr murdering two white students
frustration and anger (in this because he was frustrated with
caser due trcial prejudice and being discriminated against
discrimination), because he is black.
Neither Mutakabbir nor This philosophy is not logical or
Ferguson imply that those par- civilized or moral. Neither is
ticular victims were in any way racial discrimination or
connected with Kelly's troubles prejudice, but the first
except of course by the color oR philosophy seeks nothing of a
their skin. They were not killed pemsdysIt snyturngfom
because they had added to the remedy. It simply turns from
(presumed) prejudicial treat- logic and decency and avoids
ment of Kelly - they were killed dealing with the problem. It is
in Kelly's venting of his apparent, from the letters of
frustrations. Mutakabbir and Ferguson that
If we condone this kind of violence is an acceptable alter-
violence against people as a native to a solution, that logic and
natural result of pressure and self-control and humanity can be
frustration then we should con- thrown to the winds.
sistently follow the following -Gordon A. White
philosophy: We should be May211
parolees as outcasts. Such treat-
ment would not be likely to
promote law-abiding behavior.
- The effectiveness of the or-
dinance in improving public
safety is highly questionable. We
suggest considering measures
which seem to be more effective,
such as improving street lighting,
initiating a late-hour police
escort service, or improving
public awareness of community
education programs which in-
form people of what they can do
in the event of an attack on a per-
son or property.
- The ordinance would violate
guaranteed rights to privacy,
equal protection, and freedom of
association.
That no ordinance of this kind
exists anywhere in the United
States strengthens our position
that it is fundamentally unjust.
When one group is singled out
this way, we must all ask our-
selves: Who's next? Denyingthe
rights of some citizens will hardly
safeguard our own.
-Lillian Jarman
Katherine Edgren
June 3
Greedy?
To the Daily:
The Reagan administration
continues to argue that U.S.
capitlists need tx breaks and
other incentives to increase
profits and generate capital for
investments that will supposedy
revive the economy. Meanwhile
report after report is revealing
that many of these same
capitalists are reaping huge
profits, paying next to nothing in
taxes, and sitting on top of huge
capital accumulations.
A report, issued by UPI on
April 22, noted that although
domestic corporations were
ostensibly "assessed a 48 percent
federal income tax rate in
1978 ... the Energy Department
has calculated that the top 26 in-
tegrated oil firms actually paid
only 11.9 percent" down from 12.3
percent in 1977. Putting the 1978
figures in persective, the UPI
item pointed out that Americans
earning $20,000 to $25,000 paid
even more taxes that year than
the oil giants - an average rate
of 13.4 percent.
Similar reports in Business
Week, Fortune Magazine and
Monthly Review show many U.S.
capitalists complaining - all the
way to the bank! In the light of
these facts and others, the
Socialist Labor Party points out
that working people have nothing
to gain and much to lose from the
budget-cutting schemes against
the poor now in such favor on
Capitol Hill.
-Archie Sim
June 2
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