OPINION
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Page4.
The Michigan Daily
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Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
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Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of nhe Daily.
Cuba serves as example
115AA&y., "AA%
'U' shortchanges athletes
THE SUCCESSES of Michigan ath- football team, a player's class sched-
letes Glen Rice, Mark Messner and ule must fit into just a few hours per
John Kolesar, who were drafted by day. At CRISP, that translates into
professional sports, are exceptions those classes that begin between
to the rule: most college athletes do 8:00 a.m. and noon. Given these
not go on to careers in professional constraints, constructing a well-
sports. rounded schedule and working to-
Yet because the major college wards a complete BA becomes, by
sports, football and basketball, gen- definition, harder to attain.
erate huge revenues, athletes in these And what about missing the
sports must spend most of their col- classes they are scheduled for? Last
lege careers focusing on their sport year the NCAA Basketball Finals
and not on their education. This ob- took place during midterms. By not
viously shortchanges those students doing anything to change such
who do not go on to professional ca- institutionalized traditions, the
reers. University is obviously sending the
The values, attitudes, and modes message that winning is all-impor-
of operation which athletics pivot tant, and that playing should come
around need to be critically examined before all else.
and changed so that the interests of The University's attitude seems to
student athletes become paramount. be that since the University is pay-
Student athletes are caught in a ing their way for four years, student
catch-22. In order to gain access to athletes should concentrate solely on
higher education, many must market doing what the University is
their better-than-average athletic abil- "paying" them to do. This mentality
ity for entrance into an otherwise is exploitative and shortchanges the
cost-prohibitive institution such as students.
the University. Yet once they are in Sports at the University of
college, athletes are used by the in- Michigan is an industry - a self-
stitution as part of a revenue-general- supporting multi-million dollar cor-
ing team. This allows them little poration. And like any corporation it
time for involvement in activities is concerned with profit. It takes in
that would benefit them in any career student bodies and turns out a high
outside of professional sports. quality athletic-entertainment product
It also denies them both physical which is marketed to the commu-
and academic access to the nity, the media and deep-pocketed
University. In an attempt to make alumni.
student athletes "better," some are Why can't sports seasons be
provided with special housing near shorter and less tightly packed with
the athletic campus, special meals in games, allowing for more flexible
the dorm, special tutors, specialized time schedules and at least one term
physical care, and team-only "study per year of unencumbered learning?
tables," all of which isolates them The answer, of course, is loss of
from the rest of the University money. And that's not a fiscally re-
community. sponsible option.
Yet while these students are out Does basketball really have to last
becoming better athletes, they are more than five months? Does foot-
not allowed to become better stu- ball need to claim the schedules of
dents at the same rate. Not only do 120 or more students?
student athletes who are constantly Of course it does if we are to have
travelling and competing on other a $12 million athletic building so
campuses operate in a "different we can accommodate more players,
world," many are de facto academi- so we can build better teams, to win
cally denied access to the University. more titles, to draw more crowds, to
For example, given a 2 p.m. daily make more money, to pay for better
practice time, such as that of the facilities.. .
raordinary measure to Thomas Jefferson had been convicted constituting the hierarchy of
mational drug traffick- of crimes against humanity, for international drug trafficking. An
an government recently holding African people against their excellent example of this is
ar Cuban army officers wills as slaves. Or what if Presidents Panama's General Manuel Noriega,
involvement in smug- Truman and Johnson had been sent who was a C.I.A. operative at the
e into the U.S.. One of to the gallows as mass murderers for same time that the U.S. government
ed, General Arnaldo T. dropping the atomic bomb on tens knew about his active involvement
iez, was a highly deco- of thousands of Japanese civilians in the transshipment of cocaine to
,the Cuban revolution, and slaughtering millions of the U.S.. During the Iran-Contra
hrew the U.S.-backed Vietnamese peasants, respectively? hearings, it was revealed that many
tatorship in the late Suppose Kennedy had been indicted of the individuals airlifting weapons
as Johnson's accomplice. Finally, to the Contras also acted as a cocaine
the death penalty is un- what if Ronald Reagan were executed conduit to the U.S., and that this
r any crime and under for state terrorism, after a jury de- was known to U.S. officials in-
stnces, the Cuban gov- termined that he ordered the ship- volved in the operation, including
uld be commended for ment of weapons to death squads in the great patriot Oliver North.
g measures to combat a Central America? The U.S. government's refusal to
ich is not solely theirs. Although Ochoa's crimes certainly take action against high level drug
drug trafficking would aren't as heinous as these, their reve- traffickers serves to prolong the nar-
in the absence of lation must have shocked the Cuban cotics problem our society faces.
drug addiction in the people nevertheless. The Cuban Since there are only a few individu-
h that this trial and ex- government exhibited great courage als within this top echelon of the in-
caused for the Cuban for publicly exposing them. ternational drug network, they con-
lot be underestimated. The Cuban government's taking stitute a well defined target at which
oa was viewed as a great this measure contrasts markedly with governments can take aim, unlike
e Cuban revolution and the stance the U.S. government has the thousands of low level dealers.
the highest esteem by taken in relation to international nar- Eliminating this top level would do
on. The Cuban govern- cotics trafficking. The U.S. has put much to reduce the supply side of
gge lovuer its energies into busting low level the drug problem.
ople by bringing Ochoa pushers, who sell drugs in the ab- The Cuban government's actions
sence of jobs. should serve as an example for other
tand how traumatic this Meanwhile, it turns its back on - nations to follow. Hopefully, the
lave been for the Cuban indeed, in many instances actually U.S. will one day join the commu-
> imagine how early set- works as a cohort with - those drug nity of civilized nations by follow-
U.S. would have felt if barons and corrupt generals ing Cuba's lead.
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ANC representative to speak:
Brutal reality of apartheid
A S REAL as the brutality of
Apartheid, is the ongoing and deep
rooted struggle against it, led by the
African National Congress (ANC) of
South Africa, founded in 1913. One
of the key personal symbols of this
struggle is jailed ANC leader,
Nelson Mandela who has spent more
than 26 years in South Africa's pris-
ons for his political activity in op-
position to the fascist minority gov-
ernment.
On July 18, 1989 Mandela cele-
brated his 71 st birthday, and tributes
were paid to him throughout Europe,
Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Despite recent controversies about
Mandela's role in the liberation
struggle, instigated by the South
African government, he remains a
powerful and potent symbol of resis-
tance.
A 1986 publication by the
American Committee on Africa de-
scribes the system in South Africa
as follows: "Thirty-three million
people live in South Africa today.
Only 4.8 million whites have full
color of their skin 28 million Black there should be more determined than
people have no political power and ever to speak out on their behalf.
are subjected to controls which re-
strict where they live, work, go to On Wednesday, July 26, at 8 p.m.
school, be born and be buried. This in the Markley's Angela Davis
is the Apartheid system." Lounge United Coalition Against
While the crimes of apartheid have Racism and the Free South Africa
continued, a wholesale international Coordinating Committee along with
news black out for the past two the Nelson Mandela Ella Baker
years has built an iron wall of si- Center, will host a prominent
lence around that fascist country, at- speaker who will discuss the current
tempting to conceal its atrocities situation in South Africa and what
from the rest of the world. Sad to we can do about it.
say, much of the mass anti-
Apartheid activity in this country The speaker is Dr. Ahmod
has quieted as a result. However, Randeree, chair of the ANC unit in
simply because we do not see the Manatoba, Canada. Randeree has
brutality of apartheid on our televi- been a member of the ANC for
sion screens every night: the police nearly 40 years. He was arrested and
beating protesters, the tear gas, the held in solitary confinement in
children being chased by police dogs, South Africa before he escaped into
or shot in the back, or the faces of exile in 1964. He then worked with
hundreds of political prisoners, de- the health committee of the ANC in
tained without charge in the jails of Lusaka, Zambia for 16 years before
South Africa, does not mean that relocating to Canada. Everyone is
that these injustices have not con- urged to attend his talk to hear first
tinued. They have. And those con- hand about the realities of Apartheid
cerned with the plight of our 28 mil- and a cogent analysis of what is
lion Black brothers and sisters living, happening in South Africa today.
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