q OPINION Page 6 Sunday, August 12, 1984 The Michigan Daily Vol. XCIV. No. 36-S 94 Years of Editorial Freedom Managed and Edited by Students at The University of Michigan Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily Editorial Board Prescription for responsibility A REPORTER, somewhat baffled by University Hospitals' hesitancy to release information about the recent fatal hepatitis outbreak, asked a hospital spokesman why his office had waited almost a week before it bothered to tell the public anything was (CRr - Z\UAMT US TO SfEPSK W ~j-h ONE V\IjCE - N FAGTC WE NE AAVNO SUREY WE PLP\N \PMPSToEVCE2 MVESOME FANS~ / a ENE 1 AVE NO ?A-S FOR p5 Tkt"N Q s§E t5 1$T TCLARX Gr--O~eE - 5/U'E lAD& Ne z, 0 6 9 I wrong. The spokesman's reply: Notone asked. N ucle it was a bizarre answer, to say the least, suggesting that the community and the press are somehow supposed to know that a aim s hi potentially fatal disease has appeared with alarming frequency in one of the state's largest hospitals. The spokesman's stinginess By Andrew Eriksen both before and after the story broke contributed to the apparently needless public This week marked the 39th an- anxi about the situation. niversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Of course the roads weren't clogged with At Hiroshima, 39 years ago, a people attemptingto flee the city out of fear of few pounds of Uranium were con- .tverted to energy and a nuclear contaminaton, but there was public fireball with temperatures apprehension. The hospital was flooded with reaching 7000 degrees calls from employees and~ community Fahrenheit. Almost instantly, .t50,000 people were killed and. members who feared their health was in 100,000 were injured. By the end danger. of the week, one third of the in-' jured had died. The problem could have been avoided, SERVICES WERE held this, however, if the hospital had released some week to remember the destruc- type of statement on-the situation earlier. tion of the two cities and to pray. for the dead. Some services were On July 26 or 27, the office became aware a focal point to voice continuing of the problem: Four people who all worked in concern for the growing problem the same area of the hospital had become of the arms race. infected. On July 31, a nurse who was infected Several groups maintain that died. The following day, a television station the military is at fault for ac- reported the story on their late-night news. On celerating the arms race; others; after considerable public put the blame on the politicians August 2 - a tepossideor on scientists. speculation about the possible impact of the Peace groups say that unless outbreak - the hospital had its first, meager we change the military leaders or news conference. the politicians, we will fall: But according to hospital spokespersons, the headlong into a global nuclear, entire release was bogged down by vacations war and the end of human civilization as we know it. and a lack of awareness. Part of the delay, WHILE CHANGE is certainly they said, was caused by the fact that the needed, the greatest threat is hospital's chief infectious disease control from an uneducated public. Our officer was on vacation. They say they wanted greatest need is to educate the public not only about the arms to consult with him before releasing anything. race but about conflict and Naturally, any organization the size of violence in general. University Hospitals is going to have In striving to educate the communications troubles from time to time. public, we must recognize the dif- Nevertheless, the hospital has a special ference between short term reesponsiilitys the citen s of A r s ad political goals and lasting, effec- responsibility to the citizens of Ann Arbor and tive responses to the arms race. the members of the University community to An example that comes to mind inform them of possible hazards as soon as is the proposal to make Ann Ar- possible. They need to do better in the future. bor a "nuclear free" zone. The proposal says in part that "no gar free proposal igh, but scores low person, corporation, university, laboratory, institution, or their entity shall engage in any work a major purpose of which is to design; research; develop; test; cr produce nuclear weapons." WHILE THE supporters of this proposal may be sincere in their efforts to end the arms race, I think their efforts are misplaced. Instead of seeing a "nuclear free" Ann Arbor, I would much rather see Ann Arbor become the home of a peace institute like the proposed United States Academy of Peace or of special research grants in conflict resolution. A commission formed in 1978 and chaired by Sen. Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii) examined various proposals for a National Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution. The committee released its final report in 1981. "There is a great feeling of need for an academy of peace or some national institution of peace which could not only serve as a symbol of the leadership which this great nation of ours has played in the past, but also as a practical tool toward main- taining, and some say regaining, the leadership in the area of peace that this country at one time enjoyed and, in my mind, still enjoys. We must firmly establish our nation as one which leads all others in the search for peace-for the security of all peoples, including our own," said Matsunaga in the report. THE COMMISSION felt that the Academy should be a federally funded, non-profit in- dependent corporation. "The commission finds that the absence of a coordinated national commitment to research, education and training, and in- formation services from the field of peace learning has caused neglect of peacemaking knowledge and skills to the detriment of the nation's effec- tiveness in policymaking and policy implementation in inter- national affairs, conflicts, and war," said the final report. Some critics of the proposed academy, however, felt if it was federally funded that it would become politicized. But, if such an institute were established at a major university like Michigan, it could be protected by that ar- mor called "academic freedom." FURTHER, IT seems that the nuclear free Ann Arbor proposal might cause more problems that it is going to solve. If a resear- cher is working on a new type of integrated circuit at the Univer- sity, that circuit presumably has the potential to be used in a nuclear device. Will that person be in violation of the proposed "nuclear free" zone? Will this proposal compromise the concept of "academic freedom"? It does not seem likely that the "nuclear free" proposal will make the November ballot. While the proposal deserves a critical examination, Ann Arbor has a social responsibility to go beyond the issue at hand. We need to engage in a critical examination of what a positive and effective response to the arms race would be; we need positive steps toward peace more than we need questionable political gestures. Eriksen is a Daily staff writer.