OPINION

Page 6

The Michigan Daily

Tuesday, July 19, 1983

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The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCiII, No. 24-S
93 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by students of
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board

'Nanny city': hope for women


Of cold beer
and car bombs
SUMMER IN AMERICA. It's a time for out-
door barbecues and baseball games, for
sipping cold beer and listening to the Beach
Boys. Summer in America, for most of us, is the
best time of the year.
Summer in far away places - Europe or the
Middle East, for instance - although equally
pleasant and probably more romantic, differs
drastically from American summers in one im-
portant respect. Terrorism.
So far, Americans have pretty much been
spared from the ugly and vicious occurrence.
What little terrorism we do have does not occur
on a regular or predictable basis.
Not so in Europe and the Middle East where
terrorism, especially during the summer mon-
ths, occurs frequently.
To condemn terrorism, which of course we
do, is hardly profound. But from time to time it
is good to remind ourselves that while we can
step into a city bus or walk through an airport
with relatively little fear, our counterparts in
Europe and the Middle East cannot.
This was painfully brought to our attention
once again with the news of Saturday's bom-
bing at Paris' Orly Airport that killed six
people. Among the dead were a French child
and a man with dual U.S.-Greek citizenship.
Last summer in Paris it was bombings on the
Champs Elysees and a machine gun attack on a
Jewish delicatessen. In London, it was neatly
placed cluster bombs that highlighted a sum-
mer of terrorist activities.
As for the Middle East, one need only oc-
casionally glance at a newspaper to know that
terrorism is a way of life there.
Unfortunately, many groups that carry out
acts of terrorism have themselves been the vic-
tims of oppression. To use that as an excuse for
violence, however, is terribly wrong. Contrary
to what many of the terrorists claim, the ends
don't justify the means. For many of these
groups, in fact, the means and the ends are one
in the same. For them, killing is done for the
sake of killing - and no end goal is strived for.
We ought to keep that in mind the next time
we read about the latest car bomb blowing up in
Belfast, or see a video tape of dead bodies being
carted off in Lebanon.
For what is a painful reality for Europeans
and Middle Easterners, is only a passing con-
cern in yesterday's newspaper for most
Americans.

By Mary Ellen Leary
SAN FRANCISCO-When
Democrats from all over the
United States meet here next
year to choose a presidential
candidate, they could well be
seeing a major feature of the U.S.
political future already in place.
Amid widespread talk of a
"gender gap" dividing American
voters-dramatized recently by
Republican activist Kathy
Wilson's withdrawal of support
from President Reagan-women
in this area have become prime
political players. Key to their
achievement is an extraordinary
growth in women's financial
backing, a pattern which appears
to be spreading to the rest of the
country.
San Francisco itself is
represented in the U.S. Congress
by two women, Sala Burton and
Barbara Boxer. Both are
Democrats, as is the local head of
government, Mayor Dianne
Feinstein. Six of 11 members on
the city's lawmaking Board of
Supervisors also are women.
And preparations for the
Democratic Convention here are
in the hands of Nancy Pelosi, who
was last year's statewide party
chief.
This is not simply happenstan-
ce. Women in Northern Califor-
nia have been emerging as effec-
tive local politicians for some
years, running for office,,
managing campaigns and raising
funds.
"San Francisco is a trend-
setter for women," said Wilson,

who chairs the National Women's
Political Caucus. "They have
greater participation in politics
there, a visibility that shines all
the way to Washington."
Britain's Prince Philip, when
visiting the United States with
Queen Elizabeth this spring, was
so struck by the pervasive
feminine political presence in
San Francisco that he dubbed ita
"nanny city."
Money is the newest force
through which women are asser-
ting their political leadership.
The proliferation of women's
"PACs"-Political Action Com-
mittees-at national and local
levels alike, marks a transition to
greater sophistication in
organizing and means an earlier
impact on the direction of cam-
paigns. These PACs have
become crucial vehicles for
.aiding women candidates, and
also for male candidates whose
platforms reinforce the positions
women advocate on key issues.
Although the National
Organization for Women (NOW)
did not form its first PAC until
1978, it had become powerful
enough by 1982 to pump some $2
million into political campaigns.
These dollars "can make the dif-
ference by providing early
money-that's where women are
weakest: getting known at first,"
said former NOW head Eleanor
Smeal.
Washington organizations
tailored to help women can-
didates-including NOW, the
National Women's Education
Fund, the National Women's
Political Caucus and the

Women's Campaign Fund-are
planning extensive forums,
workshops and seminars to
maximize political effectiveness.
And groups once aloof from
politics, such as the American
Association of University Women
(AAUW) and the Business and
Professional Women's Clubs, are
showing new interest in elections.
Said AAUW president Mary Pur-
cell, "After 102 years we are
finally coming into our own in the
political sphere and turning more
than ever to political activism."
Other signs of growing in-
volvement are multiplying:
-The first women-focused
political newsletter was launched
in June with the Eleanor Smeal
Report, a twice-monthly
periodical for which subscribers
pay a $75 annual fee.
-The first woman to form her
own opinion-polling firm has just
opened shop in the nation's
capital. Dotty Lynch, who was
long associated with Democratic
pollster Patrick Caddell, says
that Lynch Research, Inc., will
give special attention to women's
opinions.
"It can make a difference to a
candidate in clarifying a
message," she explains, "to
recognize that women are
making independent decisions
these days on political issues and
have their own scale of values, of-
ten very different from men's."
Leary, the West Coast
correspondent of the London
Economist, wrote this article
for the Pacific News Service.

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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:

Adding to AIDS hysteria

To the Daily:
This letter is in reference to
your July 12 article entitled
"People overreact to threat of
AIDS, officials say." You grossly
misquoted me and instead of
lessening the hysteria around this
new disease you have managed to
heighten it.
I said that 75 percent of people
with AIDS are gay men. This is
very different than 75 percent of
gay men contract AIDS! I also
said that a few of those with AIDS
were children of a parent with
AIDS. This does not imply that
"many children of AIDS victims
also catch the illness," as you
erroneously stated.
Of those people who have AIDS,
as defined by the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC), 75 per-
cent are gay men, another 20 per-
cent are hemophiliacs, Haitians
or IV drug abusers. The
remaining 5 percent are, by and
large, very close contacts of the
four groups above. There is
enough fear and misunderstan-
ding concerning this disease

without erroneous statements
and implications as occurred in
your paper. I would hope that
your commitment to accurate

reporting improves in the future.
-- Eve Mokotoff, MPH
Lambda Health Project
July 14, 1983

- . -and again

To the Daily:
The intentions of the Daily to
help combat the AIDS hysteria is
laudable. However, the article on
page three of the July 12 edition is,
a good example of the negligent
and careless journalism that has
led to the panic in the first place.
The wording in paragraph seven:
"...about 75 percent of gay men
contract AIDS..." is not only un-
true, it is sloppy and careless in
the presentation of the facts of
AIDS. 75 percent of known AIDS
victims have been gay men -
less than one tenth of one percent
of the (known) gay male
population in this country. Also,

to respond to a statement in
paragraph eight, while children
of AIDS victims may be more at
risk, there is no evidence at this
time to support that. Casual, non-
sexual contact between AIDS vic-
tims and friends, housemates or
family has not been shown to lead
to contracting AIDS.
If the journalists at the
Daily wish to present facts and to
clear up an already confused and
rumor ridden situation, I suggest
that they use more care in that
presentation. Anything less is not
only negligence, but irrespon-
sible journalism.
- Susan Gold
July 12, 1983

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