4, Page 4-The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, April 23, 1991 Gbe Sibigati iailg r ; .- t ,', - 1 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Edited and Managed by Students at the University of Michigan ANDREW K. GOTTESMAN Editor in Chief STEPHEN HENDERSON DANIEL POUX Opinion Editors 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 the Daily. 172 r 2 ~~ - r % . n os " P a Cs 1 - I flUTto QY0 Y.VhlW'JV.'t4A1 ',h~hY.' Y4t .W:f . . "OpJ J. .t.J. ". Cashless campus Restaurants, shops should jump T wo businesses in the Michigan Union have recently added their names to an elite but quickly growing club. In the last two weeks, both the Bangkok III restaurant and the Michigan Union Bobkstore have gone on line with their own Entree Plus terminals, and students can now pay for their purchases with their ID cards. Theirefforts to make students' purchases easier should be commended, and other businesses and Uni- versity services should be encouraged to get on the Entree Plus bandwagon. Bangkok III and the bookstore have obviously taken their cues from the enormous preliminary success of the MUG's Little *x. Ceasar's restaurant. Lines y constantly snake around the corner at the fast-food pizzaE place, and much of the . newfound business can be attributed to the ease of paying on Entree Plus. Other businesses should Businesses and shops ai take notice ofthe additional heed the lesson of Littlet sales brought in by the En- and invest in Entree Plus tree Plus computer. Stu- dents should show their appreciation for the new service by paying for their books with the same plastic they use for their lunch and dinner. Busi- nesses in the surrounding areas should seriously consider installing the needed technology as well. The University Housing office recently installed a machine in the West Quad laundry room that allows students to pay for their clean boxer shorts on Entree Plus bandwagon with theirEntree Plus as well. Housing officials are monitoring the success and cost-effectiveness of this convenient machine, and similar machines could go campus-wide by next year. This will only make another annoying task easier for students, and residents on the Hill and in the other quads ~1should push to have these machines installed in their dorms. These developments may seem insignificant, but they represent the first steps in the transformation to a "cashless campus." Eventu- ally, students could use their cards to get up-to-date in- formation on their tuition bills, library fines, and fi- nancial aid status. The pros- pect of shorter lines in front of the cashier's and finan- cial aid office and the UGLi should appeal to both stu- dents and staff. The technology needed for a cashless campus- al- ready exists, and the only barrier to its installation is the cost- each Entree Plus Rea ders speak out on Bush's visit round campus should Ceasar's in the MUG, s. computer costs approxi- mately $3,500 a year to lease. However, the in- creased convenience immediately translates to bigger profits from student consumers, as has been shown by the long lines at the Entree Plus registers in the MUG. Restaurants and shops around cam- pus should make the effort and the investment in Entree Plus - it really pays off, for themselves and for the students. Unwanted arsenal Detroit Police Department should not sell off old handguns T he Detroit Police Department, in the process of re-equiping police officers with 9mm. hand- guns, has announced it will sell 8,482 .38-caliber revolvers to CPM Distributors, to be sold without restriction or supervision. As the first 3,000 revolvers become available forsale, CPM Distributors denies any responsibility for where the firearms might end up. Surely, the chief of police cannot be so stupid so as to believe releasing more than 8,000 handguns into the shops and streets of Detroit is a good thing. Many officers already complain about the number of guns sitting around in homes or the hundreds of firearms used to commit felonies. In fact, many police officers are ardent supporters of the Brady Bill - limiting access to handguns - pending consideration in Congress. The Detroit Police Department is facing serious funding difficulties, but liquidating its unused ar- maments is not the answer to their financial woes. Selling the surplus weaponry will bring the de- partment $600,000 - including the bonus $5 holster which accompanies each order- that they would not have, were they to melt the guns into molten lead. The primary responsibility of the police, however, is ensuring public safety. Molten lead is far more safe for the residents of Detroit than 8,000 additional handguns circulating throughout the city's streets. Even better, depart- ment officials should actively seek out police de- partments around the country that would graciously accept this small arsenal. Not every police depart- ment in the nation is upgrading to 9mm handguns; it's an expensive modernization process, and one that few - including Detroit - can afford. The Detroit Police Department needs to make some major changes in its spending priorities. Mayor Coleman Young recently laid off more than 400 officers in an attempt to balance Detroit's troubled budget. During times of climbing crime rates and unbalanced budgets, it is nothing but fiscal idiocy to layoff hundreds of officers in order to finance shiny new pistols for those lucky enough to survive the cut. Detroit's crime problems will only be solved by more police officers; more guns will only add to the city's problems. This logic has evidently evaded those running the police department. Thepeople of Detroit should make sure that the Mayor, Council, and Police Chief are aware of the ridiculousness of this proposal. They need. to let their municipal government know that flooding the local market with revolvers and shotguns isn't the way to reduce violence on the streets of Detroit. To the Daily: In response to the Daily's editorial on graduation ("Presi- dential visit," 4/18/91), I must disagree wholeheartedly. Gradua- tion should not be a forum for people to aid out their political views but rather to celebrate the end of their college careers. Bush's visit is a graduation ceremony, not a political rally. Graduation represents the culmination of four of the best years of our lives and it should not be marred by protest. As students we are fortunate to go to a university where the president will be addressing us. Many students are excited by the prospect of the president coming to speak and his appearance will just add to one the most memo- rable moments in our lives. Graduates deserve to not have Bush's speech interrupted by protest. If people wish to protest they should do so outside of the Michigan Stadium. It would be a travesty if graduation was marred by protest. I hope those who disagree with the president can manifest their objections outside the stadium and respect those students who do want to hear what the president has to say. David Brill LSA senior Protesters should use Diag To the Daily: The April 18 Daily editorial told students who are pro-Bush to not be affronted by protesters at commencement because they "have the right to speak out." However, what they are missing are other's right to listen. They are missing my right to enjoy the commencement I spent five years of tuition to enjoy. They are missing my right to be able to hear a speech from a man I respect and am proud to have at my graduation without any "annoying disruptions." If, indeed, people want to protest, protest outside the commence- ment ceremony. Protest all you want at the Diag. Graduation ceremony is not the appropriate place for annoying disruptions. If graduates feel strongly about not wanting to listen to Bush, just don't attend. Go to the other commencement ceremonies which are taking place. and enjoy the speaker you wish to hear. If your school is not holding separate ceremonies, celebrate on your own or with the "protesters" at the Diag, anywhere outside where Bush is speaking. You have the freedom of speech. But I have the right to LISTEN! Maricelle Casquejo Engineering senior Stadium protests not 'appropriate' To the Daily: Recent Daily editorials have concerned the protests some students began planning as soon as President Bush's visit to the University was confirmed. These editorials have urged students to respect Bush's right to speak and the right of students who wish to listen to do so, while reminding us all that Bush's critics also have the right to express their dissatis- students of the University, most of whom will be there simply to share with their families and friends one of the most important occasions of their lives? Daily editorials in the past week have concluded by excusing in advance any disruptive behavior by students on the grounds that it is the inalienable right of students to celebrate their graduation by shouting, scream- ing, and otherwise acting like children at recess. Interestingly, the 4/18/91 editorial ends with the statement, "This ceremony marks [these students'] entrance into the real world, and is the final affirmation of adulthood; they should be treated accordingly." The same editorial, after embrac- ing the First Amendment rights we justly cherish, directly contradicts them by stating, "if yellingacrimonious remarks ... is what [students at the LSA commencement exercises] choose to do, no one has the right to stop them." Is exercising one's own right to voice an opinion by preventing others from exercising theirs the act of an adult? And should not those who do precisely 'this indeed be treated accordingly To the Daily: This is the time of year when I am always so ashamed to live in Ann Arbor and be a University graduate. I refer to the abysmal way in which University Com- mencement speakers are routinely treated by the students. "Rou- tinely" is a good word to describe.; the seemingly annual rite of "seeing how obnoxious we can be." I was very sorry to see that President Bush is coming this year because a person in his position will no doubt bring all of these anti-everything people out of the woodwork. My suggestion? Since it is perfectly obvious that there is no stopping this destructive tradition - the good names of both the C University and Ann Arbor are diminished a little more each year as this annual event is duly reported in the media across the nation - I suggest that in the future only local or non-famous persons be invited to speak at commencement. Maybe then there will be nothing for the "anti- 's" to get fired up about and the University graduation can again become the proud occasion it is supposed to be. audience. As Kristine LaLonde stated in her letter to the Daily ("Graduates owe Bush at least their ears," 4/16/91), "We may come away more disgusted and more confused, but we can say one thing: we listened." I just hope we are able to hear. Lauri Margolin Business School senior Graduates always mistreat speakers '} t '} + " i 4 ,, , Pam Newhouse - 1967 University graduate COLLEGEB, ROUlNDUJP Banlg on, Muse... A couple of years ago, the Daily was seized by McGill's administration for reproducing a photo of a woman grasping her friend's penis. In the mid-60s, we were nearly closed down for printing a satiric column which alleged that Lyndon Johnson fucked Kennedy's throat wound after the assassination. And last week, the Royal Newfoundland Con- stabulary announced they may charge Memorial University's newspaper with "corruption of morals" for printing erotic safer sex tips for gay men. Corruption of morals? Did you hear that, honey? When the Queen's English is spoken with such classic narrow-mindedness, an ancient and honorable desire stirs: the urge to yell, "Fuck you!" It's apleasure our generation is often denied, because the rebellions of our immediate forebears have been so grossly commercialized and co-opted: Sexual revolu- tion? Old hat. Personal liberation? Done to death. Op- positional communities? Don't be silly... Woodstock television specials, "Keep On Truckin"' bumper stickers and alfalfa-sprout cafes have told us all our lives that nothing is true, everything permitted, and so, get mellow, get encore. They tell us speech is no longer dangerous, freedom is complete, and nobody's at a disadvantage - exactly the lie countercultures have always existed to destroy. And what with all that same-sex smooching on L.A. Law, sometimes we just can't see the costraints. Perhaps it takes a stupid, cliched act of repression like censoring the student press to prove how far we haven't come. It makes you wonder what other boundaries could use some stretching, and who's going to do it. March 29, 1991, The McGill Daily McGill University, Montreal, Canada Student protesters were a pain in the neck when George Bush last visited campus in 1986. - by turning them over our knees for a well-earned spanking? Rhana Jacot LSA graduating senior Protests will sully graduation To the*Daily: In the four years I have spent here at the University of Michigan I have learned to respect the diversity of opinions held by my peers. While I personally have not chosen, over the years, to publicly express my views in the form of. protest, I do encourage those people who choose to exercise their right of free speech. Never- theless, I was disgusted by the Daily's editorial ("Presidential visit," 4/18/91), suggesting to students that "the stadium graduation ceremony represents an appropriate time to let him [Bush] know their feelings through protest." To me, as well as to many other graduates, the planned ceremony in Michigan Stadium is a celebration honoring many years of hard work and dedication at this reputable institution. I am in-,n~tiltPftha~t neohnle wouildeven Bush's visit will not be an honor To the Daily: I argue with the idea that Bush's upcoming graduation visit is an honor. It isn't. The office of President does not change what George Bush really is and always has been. He is a petty, little man. But he's a skillful politician whose life goal has been the power he now owns. As a man, Bush has all the instinct and moral integrity of a jackal. Study his career and you'll see a base, clutching politician with blood in his teeth and a hyena's grin. After eight years of careful VP-ing, he has come out and shown his ass. The truths about Panama and Iraq are slow in coming to light, but we should study them carefully before lauding Bush with words like "honor." He knows nothing of honor. It's appropriate that a murder- ous fiend like George Bush usher University graduates into his New World Order. But it's not an honor. Will Oliver Special Status student School of Music " 3 A .t '' t ;. t. ,..y; Nuts and-Bolts I POEr-rAOF cAv; tfG'ain F by Judd Winick OH4.NOFI1. N MIDs Sticking around this summer? I IWAT'S GOING