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The Michigan Daily-Monday, April 1, 1991 - Page 3
Abortion activists
face off at clinics
*on Good Friday
'by Purvi Shah "Rescues are important because
Daily Staff Reporter on a particular day at a particular
DETROIT, Mich. -- In an annual site particular babies are given a
Good Friday ritual, more than 100 chance to live," she added. "This is
groups representing Operation just a small effort, but it's an effort
Rescue demonstrated against abor- to help."
tion clinics nationwide. Despite the showdown outside
Pro-lifers successfully pre- the clinic, a yellow sign proclaim-
vented patients from entering an ing "Clinic Open. Escorts
Americore Center in Novi, Mich. Available. Defend Abortion
after picketing a Women Center in Rights" indicated to patients that
Farmington Hills. the center would not be shut down.
Approximately 175 pro-lifers Pro-choice advocates wore yel-
clashed with 100 pro-choice advo- low-green armbands in contrast to
cates at the Women Center. the red "Jesus Saves" material worn
Police arrived at-the scene before by pro-lifers.
the groups arrived and helped to In the vocal volley, pro-choicers
keep the clinic open. Patients had to chanted, "It's my body and I'll do
pass through a police checkpoint be- what I want to/do what I want
~fore being allowed into the clinic to/You'd want to too if it happened
parking lot. to you" and "We got to beat back
"As far as we know, all the pa- the abortion attack/We've got to
tients got in," said Ann Arbor beat beat back the abortion attack"
Committee to Defend Abortion and while pro-lifers carried rosaries and
Reproductive Rights (AACDRR) sang hymns: "Praise Him in the
member Dawne Morano. morning/Praise Him in the noon-
An estimated 35 people had at- time."
tended a Clinic Defense Training University of Toledo first-year
Session in East Quad Tuesday in student Katie Booth drove to
preparation of the third annual Detroit to help pro-choicers in the
Good Friday clinic attack, clinic defense.
In addition to the presence of po- "First of all,, the clinic just
lice, pro-choice advocates attributed needs to be open for abortion pa-
other factors to their success in pre- tients and also because Operation
venting Operation Rescue members Rescue is a huge lie and needs to be
from closing down the Farmington told," she said. "It's just to be here
Hillsclinic. to come to show them we will be
'Basically, the presence of the wherever they go - in that way it's
police and the fact that Operation successful."
Rescue can only mobilize the same Also on Friday, Kalamazoo
;people every time - their forces are County Circuit Judge Philip
dwindling," said Eastern Michigan Schaefer refused to block a new
University student and AACDRR Michigan law requiring teens to
member Michael Cooper. have parental consent for abortions.
"Now we've cut them down to Vanderwalker argued the
two (clinic attacks) a year. But at parental consent law gives an op-
the same time, women are being ha- portunity for parents to fulfill the
rassed getting in," he added. responsibility for their children's
Pro-life activist Virginia lives.
Vanderwalker said the purpose of Two abortion rights groups filed
their demonstration was "to pre- appeals Friday after the decision.
vent the abortionists from entering The new law allows teens to get ju-
the building if possible and to give dicial permission in lieu of parental
the girl the opportunity of receiving consent, however. One teen has al-
information... that there are people ready been granted judicial consent
who will help her. to obtain an abortion.
Native Americans
celebrate cultural
*
unity at Pow Wow#
by Jami Blaauw formed complicated, almost acro-
Daily Staff Reporter batic movements.
Native Americans from all over
North America converged at
Crisler Arena this weekend to re-
new cultural, political, and spiri-
tual identity at the 19th annual Pow
Wow.
The corridor surrounding the
arena was filled with endless tables
of crafts, jewelry, artwork, and
clothing made by Native Americans.
Among other crafts, one could
find items such as mink jaw neck-
laces, onyx claw necklaces, and even
buckskin fashions for Barbie dolls.
One ceremonial piece used by Navajo
Indians was the jaw of a deer painted
with the seal of the four winds for
power and the medicine wheel for
health.
The craft tables were crowded as
visitors clustered around to look at
the displays. One merchant ex-
claimed he had sold everything but
six pieces of pottery.
Some of the craftspeople were
self-taught or had learned their
skills from a parent or grandparent.
"I learned beadwork from my
mother and have been doing it for
three years. I use the money to get
through college," said Dora Winter,
a 19 year-old Ojibwa and Cherokee
woman who attends Central
Michigan University.
One of the tables also served as a
political activism booth for Native.
American issues. An active group of
Mohawk Indians distributed infor-
mation protesting the loss of sacred
land as the result of a broken treaty
with the U.S. government.
The main performance at the
Pow Wow was a dance contest
where Native Americans in tradi-
tional and "fancy" costume paraded
the floor of Crisler to the drum
beats and cries of Native American
music groups.
Traditional dancers wore natural
colors and moved slowly to the
drumbeat. The fancy dancers, how-
ever, were dressed in impressive and
often flourescent fantails and per-
Prizes were awarded to dancers
based on the authenticity of their
dress and their dancing ability.
For some dancers, Pow Wows
and dancing have been a part of life
for a long time. "My family' ias
always been doming to Pow Wows,
and I've been dancing since I' was
two years old," said Sophie
Pheasant, a 15 year-old Ojibwa
Indian from Ontario.
'The reason we do.
this is to gain unity,
and togetherness'
- Jose Marcos
Pueblo Indian
Maurice Fresina - or Eagle 1oy,
as his adopted Lakota family calls
him - participated in the Pov
Wow for the first time this year; .le
said he enjoyed getting back tofra-
ditions and spirituality.
Last year, Fresina was adopted by
a Lakota medicine man's family in
South Dakota. To do this, he partici-
pated in a ritual "sweat lodg4"
with them to empower family
members and bring them closer t9-
gether. He plans to travel to South
Dakota again this summer to prepare
for a "vision quest."
"When you do a vision quest, you
stay upon a mountain for one to fo ir
days with no food and search for di-
rection and insight for your life,"
said Fresina. When he is not dancing
or spending time with his Indian
family, Fresina is a psychologist in
Mt. Pleasant, Mich.
Most of the Native Americans
said the Pow Wow was important
for unifying their people. Jose
Marcus, an elderly Pueblo Indian
from New Mexico said, "The reason
we do this is to gain unity and to-
getherness. My father was the same
way because he loved the people-and
that is why I like it. When we are
brought together, our culture is
stronger."
Flower power
Jeff Anderson, from Meier's greenhouse in Brighton, sells daffodils to a
customer Saturday morning at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market
Iraqis clash with rebel Kurds
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -
Kurdish rebels said Iraqi forces
backed by helicopter gunships,
warplanes and artillery pounded
two provincial capitals yesterday
but had not managed to capture
the cities.
Iraq, however, claimed it had
chased the rebels out of the north-
ern cities of Dohuk and Erbil, and
said government troops were wel-
comed by cheering residents.
It was impossible to verify ei-
ther side's claims.
The Kurdish rebellion flared in
northeastern Iraq five weeks ago
when the Persian Gulf War ended
with a rout of Saddam's forces by
the U.S.-led allied coalition. At the
same time, Shiite Moslems re-
volted in the south.
Forces loyal to Saddam
launched a major offensive last
week against the Kurdish insur-
gents, who had captured nearly all
of their historic homeland.
A week ago, Kurdish rebels
talked of setting up a provisional
government in what they called
liberated Kurdistan. Now they
paint a picture of savage bom-
bardment by Iraqi forces, deterio-
rating living conditions and mass
flight by frightened civilians.
Democrat
On affordable housing:
"There's not really money in the city budget to
really make a dent in that problem. The most
funds for housing have traditionally come from
the federal government and in the last decade,
under the Reagan-Bush administration, the fed-
eral subsidies for housing have been cut back by
75 percent. It leaves the city in a very bad posi-
tion, and the only thing we can do is try to estab-
lish some alternative revenue streams, such as
trying to set up a housing trust fund."
On the downtown:
"I have been concerned that it's been irresponsi-
ble to add to the existing infrastructure, in other
words, building another parking structure
somewhat premature when we haven't shown
that we can maintain and operate our existing
structures in an efficient manner and a compe-
tent manner. I think that we should get our
house in order before we start adding on to it."
On the Kline's parking structure:
"Well, I think there's several problems with it.
First of all, the economics of the situation have
Republican
On affordable housing:
"We need affordable rental housing and we need
affordable single-family housing. I'm not sure
the downtown is the place to put that because
it's so expensive to build down there and the
land is so expensive. You have to go up vertical
as opposed to going out horizontal. So I think
that those things are better dealt with out a lit-
tle ways, that on the center of the town. We
ought to try to do that in concert with the pri-
vate sector."
On the downtown:
"There was an organization called the mid-town
authority that they tried to put together so that
all of the merchants could work together in a
unified effort. I think that makes sense. I think
we need to increase some of the foot patrols
downtown and we need to work on keeping it a
lot cleaner. And, of course, we definitely need
additional parking."
On the Kline's parking structure:
"We've had at least three studies done that indi-
cate we need an additional 1,500 or 1,600 parking
aaflaua
Libertarian
MAYOR
Continued from page 1
up at the polls.
"If any students are going to
vote, they'll come out for Liz," said
LSA junior Dana Miller, the stu-
dent coordinator of Brater's cam-
paign.
Students not involved with any
campaign are faced with a bigger
dilemma: whether or not to vote.
"If you are informed about each
candidate, it is your obligation to
vote," said Alan Taylor, an LSA se-
nior. "Even though I am graduating
in a month, I should still exercise
the rights I have."
In a few of their debates, Brater
and Jernigan have made personal at-
tacks on each other. Neither one,
however, considers it to be a per-
sonal debate.
"We are professional colleagues.
As leaders of our respective parties,
we are called upon to articulate the
issues," Brater said. "We can't let
personal issues get involved with
politics."
Raaflaub maintains that there are
few if any differences between
Republicans and Democrats.
"The Republicans and Democrats
are reduced to bickering because
there are not many differences be-
tween them," he said. "It is fairly
common in politics, especially when
they are not different on the funda-
mental issues.
"We call them Republicrats -
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee," he
added.
All three candidates are pro-
choice, even though Raaflaub be-
lieves it is important to evaluate the
position of the mother, father, and
unborn child.
"This is the first time where all
the mayoral candidates agree on the
issues," Raaflaub said, for which he
takes much of the credit. "We raise
the issue, define it, and make sure all
candidates are informed."
Brater believes women are un-
derrepresented in national and state
politics.
"With 534 cities and villages in
the state of Michigan, there are 45
women mayors," Brater cited.
"There is only one municipality
with a population over 100,000 that
has a female mayor - there are...
seven cities in Michigan with popu-
lations over 100,000."
Whatever the statistics may be,
the time has come to make a decision
in Ann Arbor - and .today, that's
what the voters will do.
On affordable housing:
"I think we ought to lower the tax rate, reduce
regulations, and make the planning process eas-
ier, so that more housing is built. What happens
when more housing is built is housing increases
and taxes go down."
On the downtown:
"What happens is if we don't do what cities do
best, and that is to develop extensively, people
are going to move outside of the town into the
townships and into the open spaces and start de-
veloping there. But if we can get our taxes
lower, all kinds of people can feel that the city
is an attractive place to live and work... Ideally,
if the cost of living and building were competi-
tive with living and building outside of the city,
you'd have a vital city. The whole planning ap-
proach and high tax approach is really the wrong
place to go."
On the Kline's parking structure:
"The government planning and building of the
parking structure is really wrong. They ought to
leave it to the private sector... I don't think the
city should build that parking lot per se and I
don't think they should subsidize any of that
parking, but leave it to the free market."
On privatization of city services:
"I'm a strong advocate of privatization and I'rr
in favor of implementing the Mackinac Center
report, which strongly suggests that Ann
Arbor, through privatizing several city func-
urater
changed drastically since the structure was first
proposed. The projections for the DDA
(Downtown Development Authority) are de-
clining steadily at this point and it's not clear to
me that it would be a sound economic policy to
put $8 million into another parking structure
right now."
On privatization of city services:
Jernigan
spaces downtown and that that's one of the
prime places to do that. With that kind of evi-
dence in hand, I think it's reasonable to go ahead
1d do it. Once we get that done, we ought to
tu.i our attention maybe to looking at some
sort of housing downtown, provide another sta-
ble base of people to use the downtown area."