O PINION
EDITOR IN CHIEF
James M. Nash
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan.
i
Patrick Javid Unsigned editorials present the opinion of a majority of the Daily's
Jason S. Lichtstein editorial board. Alt other cartoons, signed articles and letters
do not neressarily reflect the opinion of the Daily.
W elcome to spring term 1994. Ah is
tradition, when the temperature rises,
people become friendlier, untanned legs in san-
dals abound and students relax on porches, the
time has come for the first issue of The Michi-
gan Daily (OK, the Summer Weekly). We on
theEditorialStaff, like most ofyou, are looking
forward to our times in Ann Arbor. Although
the workload is lighterand alaid-back, carefree
mentality pervades the psyche and soma of
University students, we will provide you with a
comprehensive page that will challenge, in-
form, de-mystify and spur you to act. This is our
job as journalists and fellow students.
The spring and summer months are crucial
months at the University, especially this year.
Together, we must keep abreast of potential
tuition increases and challenge the regents to
come up with better ways to increase revenue in
rechannellingdiscret ionary spending. Also, the
movement to expand student representation
both on the Board of Regents and on the Ann
Arbor City Council are important issues that
affect us all - the student constituency. If
something sets us apart from the administra-
'Welcome to the
Occupation'
Students must be aware, attentive
tion, from the faculty, from local politicians
and local residents, it is that collectively we are
students at this University and as such, we have
cotnmon interests and common dilemmas.
One is to keep tuition down to reascmnable
levels. Anothi is to ensure that basic sodent
rights-inaccess and epresentation-ire not
furtherintringed upon. The adverse, de-tiberal-
izing effect of the Diag Policy, the Statement of
Student Rights and Responsibilities (the code)
and the new smoking and alcohol policies vio-
late fundamental guarantees of liberty. We, as
students, are still citizens in the University
democracy, and our voices and opinions need
to be heard with utmost urgency.
We, as students, are also entitled to live in a
safe, Iree, non-violent college envirsonmenit -
a learning atmosphere not infested with hatred,
rape, assault and orthodoxies that stymie free
thinking. The editotial page is dedicated, first
and foreniost, to providing this academic coM-
munity with local commentary on pressiig
University issues - we feel more attention
needs to be paid and more action needs to be
directed toward seeking (ot better alternatives
in pursuing a different course of political ac-
tion. As a student-run independent newspaper,
it is vital to us that the lens of the press be
properly focused on the issues thait matter, and
that students not just relent theii rights to thg
amorphous and subtly powerful University
administration.
This page will be on top of everything from
the University level to the international com-
munity. Significant issues that will grace our
page include the restructuring of MSA, the
1994 Michigan gubernatorial and senatorial
primaries, NATO and U.S. action in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, President Clinton's health care
legislation, City Council decisions, and D0
Jack Kevorkian's drive to legalize doctor-as-
sisted suicide. We sincerely hope, however,
that our emphasis and force will reittain fo-
cused on local issues as they have the unnerv-
ing potential to affect every student on this
campus.
So we, the editors, hope that yo rad our
page each week. and gain someithig fruitful
from it. Please feel free to write us, cal los, ore-
mail us throughout the spring and sutmmer. A*
editors of the editorial page, we feel it is our
responsibility toworkourhardest in improving
the University. As students, we can do no less.
Kevorkian acquittal
Doctor-assisted suicides must be legal
South Africa - free
Mandela wins first democratic election *
Dr. Jack Kevorkian was acquitted Monday
of all criminal charges related to the as-
sisted suicide of Novi resident Thomas W.
Hyde Jr. Kevorkian has been arraigned and
unsuccessfully tried four times by counties in
and around the city of Detroit. These ill-con-
ceived legal feats were made possible by the
Michigan Legislature's wrongheaded 1992ban
on all assisted suicides. In enacting the law, the
Legislature acted to ban the likes of Dr. Death,
while a state commission studies the issue.
More than ever, the cause of doctor-assisted
suicides has been clearly legitimated by the
court of public opinion. Kevorkian's outspo-
ken lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, is right in pro-
claiming that no jury -no court of law -has,
or ever will, find Dr. Kevorkian guilty of a
crime. What Kevorkian practices - albeit a
threat to the skewed moral code of Operation
Rescue and Right to Life-is a philosophy that
people in pain, who are suffering from terminal
diseases, have the basic human right to die in
peace and dignity.
Competent adults have the moral choice -
free from unnecessary government sanction -
to decide if this temporal life is worth living or
not, and to take action in accordance with this
freely chosen decision.
Doctor-assisted suicides are by far the saf-
est, most humane and responsible way for our
society to help people end their own lives - if
they so choose. Some people with catastrophic
illness - conditions that bring with them great
emotional and psychological hardship, having
struggled and fought to maintain life - may
indeed come to the conclusion that death is the
preferred option at this stage of the illness. It
would make much more sense for the state to
acknowledge that such suicides are legitimate
and medically acceptable. From there, the state
can implement appropriate safeguards andregu-
lations to ensure that medically unnecessary
suicides are averted,
It is time once and for all for the Legislature
to rethink its position on assisted suicides,
which has been found unconstitutional.
Kevorkian and his allies areorganizing amove-
ment to place on the November ballot a consti-
tutional amendment thatswould ensure acitizen's
right to make such crucial decisions about life
and death. Even ifKevorkian fails to amend the
state constitution, the message is clear - the
people of this state vehemently disagree with
the Legislature and the religious right on this
issue of utmost importance.
The judiciary has spoken for the fourth
time. An Appellate Court decision, soon in
coming, should strike down -once and for all
- the misguided law. Says Fieger, "Every
person in this country and in the state who is
suffering from the type of diseases that Thomas
Hyde suffered from and wanted to have at least
the right to decide - their rights were on trial
here.. The courts and the people are on
Kevorkian's side. To ease pain and suffering is
a right we all must be free to exercise.
After 300 years of Apartheid rule -
marked by overt, brutal policies and ex-
treme actions of racism - South Africa has
completed a stunning transformation from an
exclusionary, white-run government to a free
democracy. All of the fanfare, accusations of
corruption, threatened boycotts and violence
aside, the simple fact that free elections were
held in South Africa is mind-boggling, and
heartening.
Despite the turmoil that surrounded the na-
tion during the weeks before - and the threat
that terrorist attacks by both white suprema-
cists and the Inkatha Freedom Party, led by
Mangosuthu Buthelazi, would frighten voters
away from the polls - South Africans demon-
strated their mettle and intense desire to live in
a free and democratic state, by voting in full
force. Fortunately, the election was not marred
by violence, and United Nations officials de-
clared the election fair.
The official tally will not be in for a few
more days - as South African law provides 10
full days for ballot counting - but there is no
longer any doubt that the victor will be Nelson
Mandela, the leader of the African National
Congress. Mandela, after serving 27 years in
jail as a political dissident, has since built his
political reputation around his uncanny ability
to persuade political opponents and his remark-
able lack of bitterness toward the politicians
who jailed him. Instead of acting out of bitter-
ness toward the all-white power structure,
Mandela has worked hand-in-hand with cur-
rent South African President F.W. de Klerk to
deliver reforms, and finally this election, to the
long-oppressed Black majority.
While Mandela, de Klerk and countless
other reformers deserve kudos for pulling off
this remarkable feat, a daunting task lies ahead
of them: assuring that the transition to democ-
racy is relatively painless, meaning violenc*
does not rock the brittle new government, and
ensuring that South Africa's entry into the
world political economy, as well as into the
United Nations, is smooth. Mandela, working
under the assumption that he will be the new
president, has wisely promised to include all
political persuasions in his new government.
De Klerk will likely assume the post of deputy
president and, under law written specifically
for this election, each political party that r*
ceives at least 5 percent of the vote will be
ensured a cabinet seat. The effect of this law,
and of Mandela's conciliatory behavior, is that
South Africa may be able to prevent the ethnic
and political strife that so often plagues young
democracies.
All of the political intricacies aside, one can
hardly look at South Africa today and not recall
the countless news articles, editorials, televi
sion clips, political speeches and the tike decry
ing the evils of the minority-led white govern-
ment. In what is increasingly becoming a more
democratic world, another bastion of oppres-
sion has finally fallen.